A Friend At Work Is Vacationing In Cape Cod, This Week.. But Before He Left, He Had Asked If I Might

First of a 4-page sampler that I inked over my friend Sam Agro's pencils, in 2005.. It was entitled: "Vampire Of Siam", and intended as a pitch for a longer Graphic Novel, but I don't think any publishers went for it.. Fun job, though!

A page I bought directly from Mignola, at the 2001 SDCC.. I had a few others, but hadda sell 'em on eBay a few years back. This one though, I couldn't part with.. It's going to the grave with me!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN !!

A commission that I did back in 2004, for a Josh S. (from Ottawa).. He wanted me to draw "The Old Witch" from EC Comics' 'HAUNT OF FEAR' title,-- for which I was only too happy to oblige!  I tried to incorporate all of my favorite "Ghastly" Graham Ingels bits, into my own version..

This is the other Daniel Torres artwork, that I purchased at a recent Heritage Auction.. A large mixed media illustration of “Roy Batty” from one of my favorite films: "BLADE RUNNER”! You can see in the 2 large panels across the top, that Torres illustrated: “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion..” (LEFT) As well as: “..C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate” (RIGHT)  This illustration was published in the November 2019 issue of FOTOGRAMAS Magazine, to accompany an article about Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking 1982 film!

I was up ‘til about 3am coloring an OLD pen-and-ink drawing for the upcoming “Summer Art Show”, held at the studio I work at.. Today, I’m physically wiped, as a result. I tried to use a color palette that conjures up the feeling of an old 50′s-era comic-book cover.. Perhaps a nod to the ‘MARS ATTACKS’ cards, too? It still feels rushed, but I do like the way his leather boots turned out!

Li’l Hot Stuff

A lovely 50’s-style Showgirl pin-up, by my favorite artist & dearly-missed friend: Dave Stevens..

A commission that I did back in 2004, for a Gordon K. (from San Diego).. He had a very unique request for a trapped Animé-style Mermaid.. Thankfully, he also provided me with a good deal of reference material..  I tried my best to incorporate everything he'd asked for.. Hopefully, he enjoyed the result?

Back in August of ‘97, I was working at George Elliott’s first animation studio: 'PICTOR Entertainment'. I was likely working as either a Designer or a Layout artist, on one of the many series we did service work for. But one day George asked me if I could also pull Layout duties on a "Denny’s Restaurant” TV spot that local legend animator Chuck Gammage was working on, for ‘Colossal Pictures’? I’d never worked on a TV commercial before, but was certainly game to give it a try!

As memory serves, I got the storyboards from Chuck on a Friday,-- and completed the layouts over a long weekend. There weren’t any designs for the 30-second “Skillet Breakfasts” spot. But Chuck mentioned that he wanted the BG’s to be styled after the classic “Tom & Jerry” cartoons of the 1940′s..

Before I even got started, I got word that 2 of the 6 BG’s were being cut for time. Less work for me.. YAY!!  For the remaining 4, I tried to follw the staging that appeared in the storyboards, as closely as possible.. As you can see from the final ad,-- although many of the design elements were retained, all of my Layouts got changed at the Paint stage. Which if my memory serves, were beautifully painted by: Branislav Perkovic.

The only other initial instruction I recall getting from Chuck, was that he’d wanted the dog to chase the cat repeatedly around the Kitchen, at the start. He’d asked for a few extreme Foreground elements in silhouette, which weren’t in the board panels..  I chose to forego that idea, because I couldn’t think of way to make it work..  Chuck Gammage had worked as an animator on Richard Williams’ 1988 “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” feature. And I think he may have wanted to try and recreate some of the crazy chase elements that appeared in that Kitchen? As you can see by the screengrabs, the pair only run thru it once, without doing any of the elaborate laps in the storyboard..

In the end,-- I think everyone’s contributions helped create a fantastic-looking classic 90′s-era animated commercial, that still holds up to repeated viewing.. You can watch it (and judge for yourself), by clicking here!

'HELLBOY' illo that I did for a charity auction, back in 2004.. Parts of it look wonky to me now. But I liked how the coloring came out. Especially, the swamp scum details..

I had a “Mean Girls Club” kind of TCAF Sunday afternoon!..