Retro Randy

Rock Camp For Dads

2012-01-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

Rock Camp For Dads, offers opportunity for all musicians of various abilities, to come together and form a band. The camps run 4 weeks at a time and have all different musical themes. Themes have included, the music of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the Eagles, or music representing different eras from, the new wave 80s or the swinging 60s. After rehearsing 8-12 songs over the month, Rock Camp For Dads sets up a venue and the band gets to play their first gig together. After that, the tough decisions happen, do they sign a record deal, or break-up over creative differences? RCFD is a great chance for frustrated rockers to have an outlet to their musical passions.

As part of my participation, in one of the camps, I was given the task of designing the 2nd annual benefit poster. I love the look and feel of the old time Rock and Roll revues that happened during the 50s. I used that, along with the Hatch Show prints, as my influence for the poster. I think the most important thing when doing posters, is to get people to read them. I thought who better to get people's attention then the King of Rock and Roll.

I know you are dying to know, which camp I'm participating in...it's Van Halen. I don't play an instrument, although I wish I could. So believe it or not, I actually am going to attempt to sing, which means I have to do my best effort at channeling David Lee Roth. Good luck, right? I'm about to find out how much I can actually embarrass myself. Oh well, it's all for fun........yikes!

Frazetta Sketchbooks

2011-12-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Cover for the hardcover version of the Frazetta Sketchbook

Cover for the paperback version of the Frazetta Sketchbook

In the next few months, Vanguard Productions, will be releasing the Frazetta Sketchbook. The book contains 128 pages of rare and unpublished drawings, along with painting preliminaries. This is exciting news for all fans of Frank Frazetta's work.

The covers above were actually done as 2 different options for the cover of the book. The publisher, J. David Spurlock, liked both of them, and decided to use one for the paperback cover, and one for the hardcover version of the book. That worked out fine for me, because I liked both versions of the cover for different reasons. I'm hoping that when the books are published, that the hardcover, will have an actual cloth binding, instead of a represented one as seen in the artwork above.

I'm sure having fun, can you tell?

Mars Attacks!

2011-11-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

Proposed cover for Mars Attacks! comic

Back in 1962, the Topps Gum Company put out a set of 55 cards that came packaged 5 to a pack along with a stick of pink bubble gum. The card set was called Mars Attacks! At the time, Topps was the largest seller and manufacturer of gum cards. Collecting and trading gum cards was a national phenomenon. Primarily, known for their baseball cards, they also created several other odd assortments of exciting collectibles. Previous to producing, Mars Attacks!, Topps had great success with their Battle line of gum cards. Battle showcased scenes taken from events in WWII. Most of the scenes were either exaggerated or flat out fabricated. The cards were bloody, violent and brilliantly depicted by pulp artist, Norman Saunders. Even though they weren't historically accurate, none of that seemed to matter to the kids who enthusiastically snatched up the packs. After the success of Battle, Topps was looking for a way to continue their momentum.

Inspired by the B-grade monster movies of the time, and tapping into the uncertainty and fear brought on by the Cold War, Mars Attacks! was born. The series revolved around a Martian invasion of Earth, where all kinds of destruction and mayhem occurred. Topps again turned to Norman Saunders to paint the images for the card set. Saunders was assisted by lay-out artist Bob Powell to create these miniature masterpieces. Because of the questionable imagery, Topps decided to publish these cards under an alias name, Bubbles Inc. The cards had limited distribution, and it wasn't long before parent's made their disapproving voices heard. Topps ended up pulling the cards, but not before their impact had been felt. Today the cards remain very popular, and are hard to find in complete sets, and when they are available, they are extremely high priced.

Recently IDW acquired the license to do a comic book series based on the card set. When I heard that, my heart started racing. I've always loved those luscious, lurid little paintings printed on cardboard. I always looked at them as being "fine art." I was too young to experience them the first time around, but was introduced to Saunders paintings through his work on the Batman card series. Those definitely imprinted my very porous mind at the time. As I got older, I realized all of the different things Saunders had produced. Mars Attacks! was a card set I had to own. I have a couple of re-printed sets, and a few of the original cards. I treasure them. I love that I never really have to grow up!

Because of my enthusiasm for IDW's announcement, I took it upon myself to mock up a cover for the comic book. I sent it off to them, hoping that they might see my desire to be part of the project, and grant me my lifelong desire. We'll see...

On the cover, I wanted incorporate the old with the new. Since I love the paintings so much, I thought it would be fun to include part of that image, with a new inset illustration by me. I contrasted the enlarged card image showing the dot patterns and modeling effects with my flat color and heavy black outlines. I tried to be clever with my imagery, using influences from the old B-grade invasion movie posters. I like the idea, I think it would stand out on a shelf next to the other comic books.

I don't usually pitch ideas, but I was so thrilled to hear that IDW was going to be involved with this property, so I thought I would give it a shot. Are you listening IDW? Please...

John Romita's The Amazing Spider-Man Artist's Edition

2011-11-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

Cover for the Artist's Edition

Title page

About This Edition page

Chapter divider

This book to me, created one of my most unique design challenges. I understood the direction I needed to go with the Rocketeer (Art Deco). With the Wally Wood book, it made sense to create extensions of EC comics logos and type styles. But, what do you do with 60s era Spider-Man? First of all you eliminate things it's not, it certainly isn't the psychedelic 60s. Paisley print and Woodstock posters weren't going to be the inspiration. Pop art and Andy Warhol didn't feel right either. I started thinking more Mid-Century design, Charles and Ray Eames, Alvin Lustig, Robert McGinnis paperback book covers, Mad Men TV show. That seemed like the right direction. I can just about image Jazzy Johnny Romita relaxing in his "Egg Chair." I love the research part of the job. Actually, I should clarify, I HATE it until I figure out what's going to work. I really had lots of anxiety over the direction to go, and Scott kept asking me if I had anything to show him. You really don't want to tell someone you don't have any idea what you're doing and that you are getting frustrated. But, here's the part I do love, after crawling through the desert for days, when you finally come to that design oasis, that you've been looking for, nothing is more exciting. Nothing.

That's where the fun begins. And it is fun, part of the process of design is problem solving, it's not all about making pretty pictures. Does the design direction you are going make sense, does it fit and enhance the project? It takes research time and inspiration to connect all the dots. That's why there was a real sense of satisfaction completing this book. It presented one of the largest challenges to me, but there is a sense of accomplishment when you are able to overcome the obstacles.

Each of the stories starts out with a design page that is unique. So, I had to create a design that worked with the other pages but was distinct in it's own way. Each story ends with another design page which shows a slightly different version of Spider-Man swinging through the city. I want each book I design to have it's own distinct personality. I love the idea of creating a book of art, that is also an artbook. It's hard to know if there is an appreciation by others, for some of the details that I try to put into the book design, but I would be extremely disappointed with myself, if I didn't put in my best effort.

Self-Promotion

2011-11-17T12:55:00.000-08:00

You know, it really isn't within my comfort zone to promote myself, but I do realize there is a benefit to it. With that being said, on August 21 of this year, I found out that I had won a Harvey award. This, along with the Eisner, are considered the top honors in the comic book industry. Here's an excerpt from an article written about the awards ceremony, "For those not familiar, the Harveys (named after comics legend Harvey Kurtzman, founder of MAD Magazine) are the Tony Awards to the Eisner’s Oscars. Given to comic creators and professionals, the Harvey Awards are important because winners are determined by peer ballot. It is a great honor to win a Harvey, as it is an honor to even be nominated."

The book that won the award, was The Rocketeer Artist's Edition, which won for, "Special Award for Excellence in Presentation." My editor, Scott Dunbier was also honored as editor of the book. The Washington Post had a nice article on the event dated August 21, 2011.

It certainly is nice to receive acknowledgement and awards, and I really do appreciate it. It is humbling, in the sense that you are surrounded by people who have so much talent. I really believe anyone that was nominated in the same category could have just as easily won. I am grateful and realize that I have to continue to work hard to keep up with the competition around me.

One more promo piece, and I promise I'm done... There was a piece that was written in the August 18th edition of the New York Times in their entertainment section on comics. One of the images they chose to show was of Walter Simonson's Thor Artist's Edition. That was cool to see.

Rocketeer Adventures Collection

2011-11-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

Cover for the Rocketeer Adventures book collection

Title page

Credits spread

Story divider page

My involvement with the Rocketeer continues, thanks to IDW editor, Scott Dunbier. This time, I had the opportunity to design the book collection of the 4 comics, that had come out this past summer. This allows me, in my nerdy and geeky way, to be associated with, Alex Ross, Michael Kaluta, Darwyn Cooke, Geof Darrow, Chris Weston, Ryan Sook, Brendan McCarthy, Scott Hampton, Tony Harris and everyone else who contributed to the comic. How does it possibly get any better than that? It puts a little more pressure on, because I want the design of the book, to be a positive representation of the artist's whose work I admire!

When I heard the comics were first going to be published I set an email to Scott with a new Rocketeer logo design, hoping it would be considered for the comic book. For reasons, I understand, Scott chose to use the one that Dave Steven's had originally designed. When Scott asked me if I would be interested in designing the book collection, I asked about resurrecting the logo I had created. Scott gave his approval, so there it now sits on the cover of the book! That remains something that is on my list of things I would like to do...create a logo/masthead for a comic book. So, even though this came close, it doesn't really count.

Once again, I got to use some of Dave Steven's original Rocketeer images, and use them in a fresh new context. This really is fulfilling for me. It's a challenge to take something you may be very familiar with, put a slight spin on it, and create something that looks new. Throughout the design process, I'm still trying to maintain the look and energy of 1930s streamline/art deco. Hopefully, there will be an appreciation for how all the Rocketeer books I've worked on, have a cohesion through their design, aesthetic (they go together).

Wally Wood's Artists Edition

2011-11-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

First cover concept, not used

Title Page

First contents page

Second contents page

Third contents page

The first image at the top, shows my first cover concept for the "Wally Wood's EC Stories Artists edition." This was based on not having complete information, such as title, and what image was going to be used. I wanted to try to stay ahead of the deadline, and anticipate what possibly might work for a cover. I did end up using part of the design elements, as you can see on the cover in the previous entry.

The other pages shown are my design pages. There are 3 different sections in the book and that is why there are 3 different contents pages. My goal with these, was to try and stay true to the look of EC comics. The title lettering is based on how Wally would create the title lettering for stories he worked on. As a sidebar, isn't that kind of interesting that he was responsible for doing his own title treatments. I'm not sure if that was something he wanted to do, or was part of what was expected. Anyway I think that is really cool, because it certainly identified his stories and made them feel more complete as designs. The body copy or text part is based on EC's Leroy style of lettering word balloons.

What's always so fun about these assignments is, not only that Scott Dunbier is willing to see what my personal design solutions are, but I get to play with other artists images and create new ones. Obviously, the images on each of the contents pages, didn't exist as you see them pictured here. I was able to take different elements, do a little Photoshop work, and blend them all together to create a totally different image. I hope each of them tells their own individual story.

More Comic-Con Stuff

2011-08-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

During the San Diego Comic-Con, I was pleasantly surprised to see these beautiful slipcased hardcover versions of Frank Frazetta's White Indian and Johnny Comet at the Vanguard booth. I was delighted to see how they had turned out. I think the special treatment is appropriate to the contents of these books. I'm very excited to receive my copies. I believe they will reach Vanguard's warehouse sometime next week, and then, maybe another week before they reach retailers. Wow, these look fabulous...

Here's a picture of artist Walter Simonson holding the special very limited edition of his Thor Artist's Edition. This edition is limited to ten copies. Each book will have an original drawing by Walter which is glued onto the debossed area on the cover. The cover is also printed with metallic ink. The book also comes in a special slipcase with a wrap around image of Thor and Beta Ray Bill. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be comped one of these versions, and I certainly don't have enough money to be able to afford one. All inquiries about purchasing one of these books, can be directed to IDW.

During Comic-Con, an announcement was made about the newest IDW Artist's Edition book. The latest book will be on Wally Wood's EC stories. This book, is even bigger than the previous Artist's Editions, this behemoth measures 15" x 22". Through editor Scott Dunbier's hard work, there have been 16 stories that have been collected for this edition. When you realize that these stories are over 55 years old, that is an amazing accomplishment, to gather all of the original art in one place. Each page looks like a collage of different techniques and layers. I think it really takes looking at this artwork, this way, to appreciate the drive and determination, that Wally Wood had to be the best at his craft. Each page looks so laborious and intense, there is so much detail in each panel that he drew. This is really so amazing to see, I think this will really blow people's minds.

I'm so grateful to be able to work on so many amazing projects.

San Diego Comic-Con 2011

2011-08-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

The hardware

Feeling like I'm being watched during my acceptance speech

Blair Butler from G4 TV talking about the Rocketeer Artist's Edition

I'm still in recovery mode from the San Diego Comic-Con experience. I really look forward to going, but while I'm there it is just so overwhelming, that it's hard to keep days straight and remember everything that happened. I do remember however, the absolute highlight of the 4 days, that I was there, it was winning the Eisner Award for "Best Publication Design" for the Rocketeer Artist's Edition book. Before going I didn't want to make a big deal about it, because when you have high expectations, it can easily be followed by big disappointments. The experience was certainly surreal. To be in a big ballroom, surrounded by people, who's work you admire, is quite humbling. Even during the ceremony, I didn't feel any sense of anticipation or nervousness. I was just attending a banquet to celebrate other people's achievements. Suddenly, when the big screen flashed up a picture of the Rocketeer book, along with my name for my award category, things changed drastically. I, at that moment, wanted to win...badly! It was very exciting to have my name announced, right along with Dave Stevens. Then panic set in, because, I'd have to walk all the way up to the stage and actually give an acceptance speech. I'm pretty sure I thanked all the people I was supposed to thank, I really can't remember much about it. It's certainly a great honor and privilege to be acknowledged by your peers for doing good work. I realized, this makes me want to work that much harder to continue to do my best work. I'd love to be able to add another Eisner to my shelf someday.

John Fleskes wrote a very nice personal blog about his feelings on my Eisner win, it can be found here... http://fleskpublications.com/blog/2011/07/31/randall-dahlk-wins-2011-best-publication-design-eisner-award/#comments

I don't know if there is any interest in this, but here's an audio version of the entire Eisner Awards ceremony. My award comes at the 1:04:32 point in the evening. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/Audio/11-07-22-SD-WillEisnerAwards.mp3

Flesk Prime Book Cover

2011-06-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a description, from the inside flap of the book,

"Flesk Prime serves as a fresh look into the imagery of five exceptional artists: Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldžija, Mark Schultz and William Stout. The essence of each craftsman is captured here to satisfy their fans as well as individuals who are enjoying their first glimpse. The section on each artist begins with an introduction and a biography written by Flesk publisher John Fleskes. The five were invited to handpick their pieces for inclusion, to showcase the best representation of their works. Furthermore, new quotes have been obtained to capture the artists’ own thoughts. Each chapter shows the dynamic range of styles and illustrations and the unique diversity of these five creators. Almost all of the artwork has been reproduced direct from the originals."

When John Fleskes asked me to design the cover for this book, he had a certain visual style in mind. He wanted a more gritty, urban, edgy look, that would peak people's interest, who might not normally seek out a book of this content. I think it was a very wise marketing decision. What a great way to introduce the artists that Flesk Publications work with to a new audience. I liked loading up the cover with different layers, textures and materials, it has a real density, that is reflected in the contents also. It's nice when it all works and comes full circle and feels complete. The book should be available in time for the San Diego Comic-Con.

Tuna Egg Casserole

2011-06-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

I had a lag in my work schedule, and was looking for some productive way to fill that gap. I came across a website called, "Just Add Ink, A Comic Cookbook." It was an invitation to local (Minnesota) cartoonists and comic book artists to contribute to a book compiling, recipes, cooking tips, or comics "how to." Each artist is given a page 8 1/2 x 11"- 2 sides, to give their recipe, or tell their story. I've always been interested in combining illustration and storytelling, but never had the guts, to really give it a try. This seemed like a good outlet to cross that wish off of my list. This is really, more of a series of individual illustrations put together to create a comic, then true panel to panel continuity. But, you know what, I had fun with it, and even though it's not really my strong suite, it forced me to think differently and try to create something I've never done before.

I usually like the work to speak for itself, but feel this needs a little explanation. I wanted this to look and feel like it was an insert into a woman's magazine from the 50s. Hopefully the "host" doesn't need an introduction. I hope that there is enough reality or believability to off-set the ridiculous. The whole joke is supposed to be summed up in the last panel, when Norma Jeanne is pointing to the name of the tuna as "Purr-fect" and making reference to how much the family cat enjoys this brand of tuna. I'm not sure the subtly came through, that she's actually using cat food to feed her family. Is it perhaps too clever?

Altered Esthetics is one of the sponsors of this project and will have a gallery show and book launch on August 5th, celebrating the release of the "Just Add Ink- a Comic Cookbook." It's all a little out of my comfort zone, but you can't grow if you don't challenge yourself. Purr-fect Tuna, try a can today! (if you can wrestle it away from your family cat)

San Diego Exclusives

2011-06-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

San Diego Comic-Con has become the Shangri-La, Eden, and Nirvana of pop culture events, all rolled into one package. When one hundred thousand people descend upon the San Diego convention center for the four day event, there is great anticipation for getting all their animation, manga, comic book, low brow art, B-grade movies, original art and collectible urban toy, needs met. It never disappoints, to be an adrenaline soaked event.

Publishers look for this time, to make special announcements and also roll out their plans for the upcoming year. Part of all of the fun is, when special limited editions are released only for those attending the San Diego Comic-Con. IDW is producing 2 special edition covers especially for this event. Dave Steven's Sketchbook and Walter Simonson's Thor Artist's Edition both will be represented with very limited edition covers. I believe, you can order both of these ahead of time through IDW's website, and then pick them up at the convention. Of course, you could take your chances, and try to purchase them from IDW's booth while you are there.

Dave Stevens' Sketchbook

2011-04-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the cover I designed to the new IDW sketchbook coming out from IDW. It continues to be a privilege to be associated with work by Dave Stevens. This is a 256 page hardcover book that collects all of the sketchbooks that Dave self-published. Also included in this book, is approximately 80 pages of additional sketchbook material, being printed for the first time. There is a great mix of both black and white images and full color art pieces. With designing this book, I wanting to keep with the Art Deco influences of the previous Dave Stevens books. I thought it would be a great companion piece to "The Rocketeer Artist's Edition" book, and also "The Complete Rocketeer Deluxe" book. The lightning bolts on this cover are a nod to that similar design element in the Deluxe book.

Inside the book, you get to see how versatile Dave's abilities were. Along side of the pin-up drawings, are hollywood portraits, animation drawings, advertising art, figure drawing, movie poster concepts, watercolors, charcoal, pen and ink, commissions, and personal work. Along with the variety, is also a window into his working style and growth as an artist. To me, the book feels really complete and a valuable resource to fans of illustration.

Walter Simonson's Thor Artist's Edition

2011-04-17T12:04:00.001-07:00

Here's the new cover to the latest version of IDW's Artist Edition series. When I say series, keep that in mind, in other words, there will be more announcements soon! This book prints 7 issues from Walter Simonson's run on The Mighty Thor. The art is all printed from the actual art boards at actual size ( a whopping 12" x 17"). Walter provided all of the original artwork himself, which was scanned in at a very hi-resolution and in color. Even though the actual artwork itself was done as black and white, all of the nuances of the original art page appear as if you are looking at an original piece of art. The artboards retain the slightly yellowed appearance of age, along with pencil lines, white out and zip-a-tone. This book is following in the path of last years release of, Dave Steven's The Rocketeer Artist's Edition, (which has been nominated this year, for an Eisner award for book design). The goal on this book, is to have it printed in time for the San Diego Comic-Con.

Bruce Timm Art Book Covers

2011-04-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

One of the latest projects I've been working on, is a hefty art book of Bruce Timm's good girl art for Flesk publications. Once again, this project has been nothing but pure joy! What's posted above, is a selection of designs that were presented for approval, for the cover of his new art book. This was a real process of getting to know each other's style, and trying to execute a cover that met with Bruce's vision.

The original source of inspiration for the designs, were based on the great paperback cover art of Robert McGinnis and Mitchell Hooks. During the mid 50's to mid 60's, thousands of these crime/mystery paperbacks were released to the enthusiastic hands of the general public. Bruce wanted to not only pay homage to the cover artists, but also to the design style of that period. I noticed that a lot of the books had hand-rendered title treatments. I wanted to explore that idea and see if in my own way, I could create something that felt authentic. It was a fun challenge to try to create something new and fresh, without relying on a pre-existing type font.

I tried to incorporate floating shapes and complimentary colors to the cover design, which combined with the painting, would look vintage. The cover design ultimately picked, was the last cover posted, which shows a more elegant and less busy design. This actually puts more emphasis on the figure and less on the title. This is a nice simple solution with a feeling of symmetrical balance.

Mark Schultz Various Drawings Volume 5

2011-01-19T19:36:00.000-08:00

Various Drawings Volume 5: front and back cover and flaps

Here's the new cover to Mark Schultz Various Drawings book. It's hard to believe, that we are on Volume 5 already. Because Mark was so busy with so many projects last year, there wasn't time to do a collection of his artwork. This should be a pleasant sight to the fan's of Mark's work. This, like all of the other volumes, will contain stunning illustrations that Mark has worked on over the last 2 years. Of course, included, will be a beautiful gatefold rendering.

I could go through an explanation of the process of creating this cover, but John Fleskes has already done that for me, so I won't post it here, as that would be redundant. So scoot over to John's blog at Flesk Publications, for a detailed description of the creation of this cover.

Johnny Comet Deluxe

2011-01-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

Front and back cover to the Johnny Comet Deluxe Hardcover

This is the third cover I did for Johnny Comet. I actually started out doing this cover for fun, (I know it sounds weird, as if I don't have enough to do). I wanted to create or explore the idea of using Johnny Comet imagery, and turning it into a movie style poster. For some reason I hadn't had enough of Johnny Comet yet. After a year of working on the book, you would think I would want to move on...sigh. There is just so much great art in the Johnny Comet series, I wanted to see if I could produce one more fresh look on it. The fun part is, I get to play with Frank Frazetta's toys.

Shortly after I got done playing with this, and trying to figure out now what to do with it, I received a call from J. David Spurlock. David is the publisher of Vanguard Productions books. He had decided after we had finished up the soft and hard cover versions of the Johnny Comet book, that he would like to do a third very special version. This third book would be a Deluxe Edition with 16 additional pages containing original Frazetta artwork along with a slipcase. He wanted to convert the original Hardcover artwork into the slipcased version. Do you really think it was a coincidence that just that day, I had finished up my experimental cover? Well, I showed it to David, and it really didn't take too much persuading for him to decide to use the "movie poster" version for the Deluxe Edition. I'm glad it worked out, I have a feeling the movie poster idea might end up being used again...stay tuned!

Frank Frazetta's White Indian

2011-01-14T15:54:00.000-08:00

Front and back cover of the White Indian softcover

Here's another cover, in the ongoing library for Vanguard Productions, of Frank Frazetta's comic work. I just finished up this project along with the 3 versions of the Johnny Comet book. It's nice to finally have all these stories collected in both softcover, hardcover and Deluxe Editions in slipcases. I believe these will be considered the definitive collections. Everyone who knows the history of comic books and storytelling arts, knows the impact that Frank Frazetta has had on that industry. He remains, possibly, the most influential artist of all time.

With this cover, I'm trying to continue on stylistically, with the same template that was created for the Johnny Comet book. I like the idea of having a collection or library of books that have a similar theme or style when sitting on your shelf. It's part of the challenge of design, to create a family of books, that somehow share the same genetic traits. I think people that have a collector's mentality would appreciate that.

Baseball Gala

2011-01-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

Large Sign for bar area

Large Glass Display Case

Large Sign for bar area

Event Program Cover

Here's the first post of 2011! My intentions were always good when attempting to keep an updated blog, I don't know what happened, but time flew by. This is a project that I completed recently, for a company that was having a large gathering at Minute Maid Park in Houston. The theme revolved around the golden age of baseball, and the Boston Red Sox. What an absolute delight this job was. I really had no idea what to expect in the beginning, but when the art director started laying it out for me, I got very excited.

The company was renting out the mezzanine area inside of the Houston Astros stadium. They wanted to transform it into a party atmosphere, with several oversized banners, signs, showcase displays, pennants and cut-outs of players. Wow...seriously? I couldn't wait to begin. A lot of the graphics and colors felt kind of like a "no-brainer." The red, white and blue, went through the aging machine to give the right flavor for the palette. I used reference photos of 40's — 50's era players (Ted Williams!), and tried to use type fonts that would reflect that time period. The glass display case measures 80" x 33" with the center glass panel being 80" x 54". There are 4 separate banners that hang from quite a ways up, that measure 15' x 3'. The cut-outs of players are close to actual size. So, you can see the artwork is really large. I also did 2 different versions of a group of players sitting on 2 different benches. I think in all, there were close to 30 different designed pieces. It was very time consuming and challenging, but extremely enjoyable.

Xenozoic Book

2010-09-20T13:08:00.001-07:00

Chapter Divider

Title Page

Final Cover Design

It's always a pleasure to work on projects with people who's work you admire. Xenozoic is certainly one of those projects. Mark Schultz's art is just plain beautiful to look at. When we started having dialog about how to go about designing this book, we decided the best approach, was to show a lot of white space on the new pages. Because Mark's artwork is so dense, it seemed to make sense to break things up with pages that would give your eye some resting places. So the approach was to simplify. With the chapter dividers, Mark did 20+ new illustrations, each representing an iconic interpretation of that story. The chapter title was discreet and slightly kerned out, giving it a look of sophistication. A small trilobite logo was placed at the bottom of the page to balance everything out.

The title page was set-up much the same way, with lots of white space. It's interesting how using white space becomes very much, a design element. I think too many times there is a desire to jam way too much information onto a page. What becomes the focal point? This way you can take in all the information, and possibly linger on it, longer.

There were a few changes to the final cover, one of them was obviously using Mark's painted version of his artwork. Mark also wanted to go back to the title type that wasn't angled, but still looked distressed. It represented something stronger and bolder. I think this falls into the same philosophy as the inside design, simpler is better. I think it's eye catching and very handsome as a final solution.

Check out John Fleskes blog (Flesk Publications) for a more in depth description of Mark's process of creating the cover illustration.

Menagerie: The Art of Animals

2010-09-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

First design for the invitation

Second design for the invitation

2 t-shirt designs based on design elements from the invitations

Final invitation design

In May I got a call from Joan Adan, curator for the Forest Lawn Museum. She gave me a call based on a recommendation from my good friend William Stout. She was wondering if I'd be interested in designing an invitation and show catalog for an exhibit that was opening up in August. The show was to be titled Menagerie: The Art of Animals, it was going to include original artwork by many very talented artists and illustrators. The list included, Drew Struzan, Ian McCaig, Marc Davis, Charles Russell, and Charles Knight. William Stout was co-curating the show, showing eight of his paintings, lending several pieces from his personal collection of other artists, and doing a new painting that would serve as both the cover to the invitation and the catalog.

What an enjoyable experience this ended up being. Starting out with a brand new beautiful painting by William Stout, it was hard not to be enthused about this project. Based on the painting by Bill, anything I did would end up looking good.

The first 2 invitation designs, I was trying to create an icon to go with the title. I wanted a symbol that could be used to identify and promote the show. I also thought it would be fun to create t-shirts to sell at the show or wear to promote the event. In the first attempt, I was playing off using a simplified version of Bill's beret wearing chimpanzee (think Paul Frank).

The second version, I wanted an elephant interacting with the type, as if it were holding up the word Menagerie. In both of them, I used a background that resembled a pattern that might be found on an animal (giraffe). Joan wanted to simplify the design, and felt with the icons, it was too busy. So the final attempt was to strip it down to it's most important basic elements and tweak the color to follow closer with the palette of Bill's painting.

Check out William Stout's website for a really neat process and explanation of how he did the final painting for the show.

Award Winner

2010-09-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I just found out, that The Rocketeer Complete Adventures Deluxe Edition won 3 Harvey Awards! I think that is quite exciting. Here's an explanation of who he is, and what they represent...

BALTIMORE, MD (July 11, 2010) -- The 2009 Harvey Awards Nominees have been announced with the release of the final ballot, presented by the Executive Committees of the Harvey Awards and the Baltimore Comic-Con. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. They will be presented August 28, 2010 in Baltimore, MD, in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators - those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. They are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.

It won awards for "Best Domestic Reprint Project," and also "Special Award for Excellence in Presentation" and Laura Martin won for best colorist on the project.

More exciting news, back in July, the book also won 2 Eisner awards. Here's an explanation on those awards...

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, commonly shortened to the Eisner Award, is a prize given for creative achievement in American comic books. It is named in honor of the pioneering writer and artist Will Eisner,and includes the comics industry’s Hall of Fame. Each category is nominated by a five-member panel, voted on by comic-book professionals, and presented at the annual Comic-Con International convention held in San Diego, California.

The book won the award for "Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books," and Laura Martin, once again won for colorist on this book.

I'm thrilled and delighted, It really was quite the team effort to put the book together. Thanks to Scott Dunbier for allowing me to do the book as I had envisioned. Also thanks should go to Kelvin Mao, who worked very hard (night and day) on doing whatever was necessary to see the book was done to the highest level of expectations.

How's that for a speech? Since I didn't get a chance to give one for real, I thought I would take the chance and do it here.

As far as the book goes, it sold out pretty quickly, however, the good news is, it is being reprinted. The image above shows the new variation on the slipcase for the book. This will help distinguish this from the first printing. Otherwise, everything else will be the same as the first printing. I think...this is coming out in October.

Midget Racers Quarterly

2010-06-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a cover to Midget Racers Quarterly, featuring Johnny Comet. So, you say you've never seen or heard of this magazine? That's because this is the only issue in existence. I thought it would be fun to put some promotional material for the book together for San Diego Comic-Con. I thought by creating this faux magazine, it would put some smiles on people's faces. I printed out four of these covers, trimmed them out, and then mounted them to 1950s era Hot Rod magazine guts. I added a little more aging to the cover and I think it looks pretty convincing. It sure smells convincing. Of course to preserve the whole illusion, I quickly made sure to insert the magazines into mylar sleeves. These will be on display at the Vanguard booth, along with Johnny Comet pit crew T's and packaged balloon racing cars. It's all for fun!!

Johnny Comet spreads

2010-06-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

The spread intoducing the Sunday strips

The spread introducing the daily strips

A page dividing one of the sections of the book

The title spread to the book

Can I be honest? I'm so loving working on this Johnny Comet book. What a great opportunity to be able to design a book dedicated to one of Frank Frazetta's comic strips. I really love everything about this strip. I'm a big fan of the 50s era. I think the best designed cars came from that period, along with furniture design, and graphic design. It's been a joy, to try to take existing Frazetta art, and give it a whole fresh new approach.

One of the design approaches was to collage his illustrations with actual photographs from that era. It kind of gives the illusion that the situations and cast of Johnny Comet were part of history. I also wanted to throw in car ads and other images to give reference to that time. These represent just a few examples of the design work going into the book.

The Strand Book Store NYC

2010-06-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, I came across a contest to design canvas tote bags for the Strand bookstore in New York City. They had hired several different comic books artists (including Seth and Adrian Tomine) to do a new bag each year in the past. However, this year they had a contest to determine who would provide the art for their new bag. I thought the prizes were pretty cool, (hundreds of dollars worth of books from Fantagraphics, and Drawn and Quarterly, plus the exposure of your artwork on the bag) so I decided to enter. I noticed that Francoise Mouly, who is the art editor for the New Yorker, was one of the judges. I was hoping, to maybe get some opportunity, through some fluke, to possibly do work for her. Anyway, with all these possibilities, I decided to enter the contest.

These things are always a little tricky, because you don't know the personal taste or what might appeal to the judges in a contest like this. It could have something to do with what they ate that day or what kind of mood they were in. I tried to spread out my design style as much as possible, to give me the best chances.

The first design was an attempt to be clever around the idea of a bookworm. I pushed the whole retro feel with colors and iconic images. I thought it would look good as a strong graphic image and advertisement on the side of the bag.

The second one was more of a bouncy, cartoony, contemporary approach. Again I wanted this to be a strong, graphic, highly visible image when printed on the bag. I thought the idea of "What's your story?" was kind of funny with its double meaning.

The third design was meant to be more childlike in its execution. It's big, bold, and simple in it's shapes and form. I wanted it to be cute and heartwarming. I thought it was the most sentimental of all of the designs. I felt it kind of had a European feel to it.

So here's the good/bad news, there were over 800 entries into the contest. Out of that many participants, 2 of my designs were placed in the top 20. The first and second design made the cut. When I was informed that I had "won" they requested I provide them with hi-res versions of the art so they could use it in a slide show sponsored by the School of Visual Arts. They were also going to post the winners on line and some other stuff, which I don't remember. I told them I was going to pass, when I was asked why, I told them I entered the contest to win first place, which I hadn't, so why continue to be part of this. I don't want to sound like a sore loser, but really, what would the point have been? Who remembers runner-ups?

After looking over the designs, I don't think I would have done anything differently. You can never predict what is going to appeal to anyone. I think ultimately, you have to stay true to your own vision, and feel content that you did the best job you could. I'm actually okay with that.

Maybe next year...

The Rocketeer Artist's Edition

2010-05-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

This is the cover to the new Rocketeer Artist's Edition book

This is the endpapers for the front part of the book.

This is the title page for the book

This is the credit page spread for the book

This is a sample page from the book

This was IDW's editor Scott Dunbier's dream project. This book contains the original artwork from the entire Rocketeer story shot at original size. That means the size of the book is 12" x 17." It is spectacular in it's enormity. The book weighs in at about 4 pounds. It is a hefty, beefy, masculine volume.

Even though the artwork is basically black and white, all the pages were scanned in color. Because of this, you can see all the blueline art that was part of the creation process. This is the closest you can come to looking at a Dave Steven's original without owning one. When it comes to illustration work, I'm kind of a process junkie. I love seeing all of the peliminary sketches and design that go into creating a page of art. These pages are certainly an eye opening experience. The detail that Dave puts into each panel can only be appreciated at it's actual size. It was almost like discovering his art for the first time. His ability to create atmosphere and character expression, along with the craftsmanship of inking with a brush really shines on these pages. This takes the idea of "funny books" to a whole new level. The stuff is really beautiful!

The book will be sold directly through IDW, so check out their website. I have a feeling this will sell out rather quickly, remember the Deluxe Edition of the Rocketeer? The price on it is $100.00, not really cheap, but certainly worth it for something as unique and beautiful as this.

Xenozoic Part 1

2010-03-30T19:37:00.001-07:00

Mark's original rough sketch with his type treatment suggestion.

An attempt at adding a dynamic flair to the type.

Another "experiment" with the title font

Another happy day for me! Flesk publications is going to reprint the entire Xenozoic Tales saga in one volume. It's been seven years since these stories were last printed, and this is the first time they will all appear in one fantastic volume. I'm excited because, this is one of my favorite adventure stories of all time, Mark's art is absolutely gorgeous, and I get to design the book.

Mark started the whole process by not only providing the cover sketch, but also possible type treatment for the title. Many years ago, when Mark and I started working together, we wanted to establish an ongoing look that could be carried through from project to project, with the use of a recognizable type font. The font became "Futura," it has such a bold clean masculine look to it, that it seemed like a perfect fit, for all things Xenozoic. The challenge is how to use the font without it becoming repetitive or boring. I experimented with various ways of tweaking it to try to keep it vital and interesting. The first attempt looked too much like the Superman title treatment and the second one just looked too much like crap. Even though they both were failures, Mark was very kind and considerate in his remarks about them. I was hoping he'd give me another chance...

Xenozoic Part 2

2010-03-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

Mark's final black and white art with new type.

Different type variation

Mark's original water colored color guide

First attempt with digital colored art and colored type

Final colored cover for solicitation.

Mark next provided the finished black and white inked artwork. Taking the Futura type font I next went through the process of distressing it, making it look less pristine and more disintegrated. The goal of this cover was to give it a "pulpy" rustic look. I gave Mark a version of the title that was pretty straight forward, close to what he had originally envisioned. I also gave him a version of the title using a condensed version of the font and adding a slight slant to the characters. The second version felt more appropriate to the style of the book and the illustration. Mark and John agreed to using that version.

Mark then printed out a copy of the black and white art and created a water color guideline of how he wanted the cover to look. I used this guideline to create a digitally colored version of the cover. Mark cautioned me that the colors had gotten a little dirty because of painting on top of a photo copy, so he told me to lighten them somewhat. Because of time constraints we had to create a substitute cover, so it could be used for solicitation purposes. Mark's intention is to actually water color the artwork himself for the "real" printed cover. Using his black and white inked art, Mark will make a print out on water color paper and apply the colors to it. A second print out will be made of just the black and white artwork that will be registered on top of the color and then used for printing. I think this is the first time that he has actually hand colored any of his cover images. I am very excited to see the results of his version of the painted cover.

After getting it digitally colored, I put in the black banner with Mark's name at the top and applied the title. I started second guessing myself and thought the banner at the top should appear more clean, and less busted up for better legibility of Mark's name. I matched the color of Jack's shirt to the title, thinking it would be a good balance of reds, I also added the drop shadow to give it more weight and punch.

Mark suggested eliminating the drop shadow and returning the banner at the top to the distressed version. He also wanted the red to be a darker more blood red version, (he thought my version was too feminine, I get that a lot). After a few more attempts at getting the red the right color, the cover was given the final nod of approval.

Frazetta's Johnny Comet

2010-03-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Cover for the softcover version of the book.

Cover for the hardcover version of the book.

Well, based on the idea, that there was an ad printed in the latest issue of Comic-Con magazine announcing this book, I guess it's safe to reveal my newest designs.

Sometimes projects come along that get me giddy and scratch my itch. This was one of them. Based on the title of this blog, it's safe to assume, I kind of like retro themed things. This assignment put into one package so many different things that I'm passionate about. First we have the 1950s... great fashion, interior design, color palettes, and car designs. Then we add the excitement and danger of rollicking midget car racing. Next we throw in a glorious black and white newspaper strip. Finally, to top it all off, we have Frank Frazetta! How can it get any better than that?

All the art in this book, are new scans from Frank's personal copies of proofs and tear sheets. The detail is spectacular. There have been other collections of this comic strip, but never has the art been this sharp and crisp. All the delicate inking lines that Frank originally applied to his drawings can finally now be seen as he had intended. It's really an eye opening experience. Having the chance to work on Dave Steven's Rocketeer book gave me lots of time to savor his artwork, but working on this book showed me how much Frank's work on this strip influenced Dave.

When designing the cover, I wanted to take all of my influences from the 50's (hot rod magazines, service station logos and products, and midget car races), and add some contemporary treatments, and roll them together to create something both old and new. Since Frank was not suppling new art for this cover, I got a chance to dig through his existing art and try to come up with an appropriate cover image. This was great fun, studying and dissecting each panel from the strips. I like how this cover turned out a lot, (I hope that doesn't come across as pompous). It to me, has qualities of a retro-flavored racing program or hot rod magazine, but I think it still retains it's new car feel.

For the slipcase, I used exploitive movie posters from the 50's for inspiration. There are some great hot rod and juvenile delinquent movies from that era. The only thing I would have liked to add, would have been tears and creases. I think that would have been cool (the publisher didn't go for that idea).

This is one of the few times I've actually created a logo for the title of the book. I would like to take the mastheads or logotypes and print them on black-t's. I think that would be a great merchandising tool. I would wear one! Better yet, what if they were turned into patches, and sewn on the back of jackets?

This is another "dream come true" project. I'm sure most comic book artists would agree that Frank's work has been hugely influential to them. I'm thrilled to be part of this. This will be the first, of a four book library, reprinting Frank's comic book work. I want to add other fun elements to this book to try to make it a complete historical record, of not only the strip but, of that unique period of time.

Climb on board and buckle your seat belt, we are going for a fast ride!

Hannah Hoodie

2010-02-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

This was the header card design that went with the poly bag

packaged tank top

This was my attempt, along with Mark Schultz to do something fashionable. We wanted to create something using Mark's characters that fit in with current fashion trends. Mark provided the copy, and the image of Hannah with the serpent, and I built the design off of that. We both wanted this to have a tattoo vibe, but maintain a feminine quality. It has a sleeve print along with faux jewels attached around the logo design.

We sold these at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, along with tank tops with the same design. I think the influence of the design is rather obvious, but we felt with a softer palette, we might be able to do something a little more attractive. This might be worth pursuing more in the future. Maybe next time we will include the male audience.

Frazetta Classics Logo

2010-02-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

This is the last logo posting for a while. This is a logo that was completed a couple of weeks ago. This may or may not be part of a project I'm currently working on...???!!!

Flesk Publications Logos

2010-02-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

I thought since I was on a logo kick, I would show you some proposed logos that didn't make the cut. John Fleskes was looking to brand his publishing company. He asked if I could put some logo ideas together for consideration. He was open to anything that I wanted to come up with. I wanted something that could be reduced in size, placed on the spine of a book, and still be recognizable. There are the obvious ideas... a man with a book (duh). I also wanted to do something that would be more personal to John. John lives on the West coast and is a very accomplished surfer, so I thought trying ideas that related to ocean life might seem appealing. In the end, John thought it was best to just stay with the Flesk type treatment. Umm...I guess it's safe to say, I failed in this particular assignment. I still think they are fun explorations in black and white imagery and iconic clarity.

Al Williamson Archive

2010-02-23T14:20:00.000-08:00

This is a progression of cover designs for the new Al Williamson Archive book from Flesk Publications. This book will be the first in a series of books printing Al's preliminary sketches and visual brainstorms. John Fleskes and Mark Schultz spent several days at Al's house going through the stacks and stacks of original drawings and scanning them for this book. This will be the first time these images appear in print. This book and future volumes will be an amazing historical record of Al's work over a 55+ year period.

I have to admit this was a bit of a struggle for me. I wasn't sure what to do with the cover. I didn't want this to look like a traditional sketchbook that is seen in the comic book industry. It's always a challenge for me to design books for people who's work I cherish. It's a great honor and privilege to design packages that contain such inspiring work... I don't want to screw up.

After going through the hundreds of images, John and Mark had decided on the image they wanted for the cover, now came my turn. John told me I could do what I wanted with the image, I could crop it anyway I saw fit, or I could run the image full-bleed off the edges.

The first cover at the top, I tried re-using the "tag" idea from the Bama book. I thought it had the look of how you might label some kind of important document. I thought it fit with the archive idea. I added transparent colors to give the illusion the art was done on tracing paper. I also thought it would help lighten up all of the black areas. I wanted this to feel airy and sketch-like.

The second cover, I decided to frame the art, and not allow it to float. I tried adding a vertical title box to give the cover more sensation of height. I added the thin rules in the black area to give the feeling of movement to re-enforce the action in the drawing. I also created an asymmetrical balance to add to the dynamic tension.

The third cover, followed the initial direction of the second cover. Instead of a vertical title box I used the more traditional horizontal approach. I wanted this to have more of a 50's vibe, since that is when the majority of Al's work was done, so I used that refrigerator looking font. I used the diagonal color blocks to again, create movement.

John liked the first and second cover designs. He was concerned however, that with the second design, that Al's name didn't appear large enough. He then left it up to me to figure out which cover to go forward with, and how to solve some of the problems. The fourth cover, is taking into account all the suggestions, and mashing together the ideas that worked from the 3 designs, and creating a hybrid. And that folks, is how it works.

James Bama Sketchbook Covers

2010-02-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a progression of cover designs for the James Bama Sketchbook, done for Flesk Publications. When John asked me if I wanted to design the cover for this collection, I was thrilled. I've been a big fan of James Bama's work for decades. My first exposure, like most people, were through his painted covers of the "Doc Savage" series of paperbacks. There was certainly something very unique and exciting about his paintings. Flesk Publications has a beautiful book devoted to the history of James Bama and his work, I recommend it to anyone who seeks to get more information on this artist and to see reproductions of his work.

The cover at the very top, was my first attempt at putting a cover together. Because this sketchbook represented drawings he had done as he visited different parts of the world, I wanted it to look like a travelogue. I thought the title portion of the book could look similar to a passport, with stamps and a certain 3 dimensional quality to it. I also wanted to focus on just one image to make it both simple and strong. John Fleskes felt because the painting I used, was actually one of a series, that I should include the other three images. In my second attempt, I still wanted this to feel like a working sketchbook, so I thought placing the images on the cover somewhat randomly, had a feeling of them being tossed on top of the cover as they were completed. I wanted the cover to feel energetic, and spontaneous, just like the sketches on the inside.

Unfortunately, Bama didn't agree. So, on the third attempt I made the cover more formal. I also created a faux bandwrap that contains the title. I think this gives it a look of more sophistication and a certain preciousness.

I still haven't given up on using that "passport" idea, I'm thinking of re-using it for another cover I'm working on now. Maybe it wasn't appropriate for the Bama sketchbook, but I think there might be more applications for it. Always remember..."re-cycle, re-use." I like to do my part for the environment!?

The Rocketeer Review in Entertainment Weekly

2010-01-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

BOOK REVIEW

The Rocketeer (2010)

Dave Stevens

Reviewed by Ken Tucker | Jan 20, 2010

EW's GRADE

DETAILSRelease Date: Jan 13, 2010; Writer: Dave Stevens; Genres: Comic Books/Graphic Novels, Fiction; Publisher: IDW Publishing

The Rocketeer: The Complete Collection by Dave Stevens

Dave Stevens, who died of leukemia at 52 in 2008, was a craftsman, a comics legend. His 1980s Rocketeer comics — a throwback to 1930s pulp adventure tales — weren't big sellers, but they were an extraordinary evocation of a bygone era, full of erotica and élan. He also drew storyboards for everything from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' video, and was single-handedly responsible for the rediscovery of '50s pinup model Bettie Page, the inspiration for Rocketeer Cliff Secord's curvy crush Betty. These gorgeous color reproductions of Stevens' meticulous work serve as a fine testament to his artistry. A

2 New Stout Titles

2010-01-17T14:35:00.001-08:00

This is the cover for the book of female images

This is the cover for the book on dragons, monsters, witches, etc

This is a story book illustration painting from the book

This is from a series of prints done for the Wizard of Oz

Here's a dragon painting from the book

Okay, good news. I'm currently working on two more books with William Stout. Each of these two books will be 48 pages and feature a wide variety of paintings Bill has done over the last few years. Posted above, you can see the two different covers of the books. They kind of represent a male and female perspective of Bill's paintings. These will be done the same size and format as the popular "Various Drawings" books by Mark Schultz. Once again these will be published by Flesk Publications. It sure gives me a lot of pleasure to work on these books. It's always such a delight to work with Bill and John to do something in a collaborative way. It's always a challenge to bring several highly creative people together and to create something that everyone finds pleasing. I think if you are able to accomplish that, it is greatly satisfying.

The inspiration for the design on these books was the great graphic designer Will Bradley. He was very influential during the last part of the 1800's and into the early 1900's. Bill's paintings for the cover have a very organic art nouveau feel to them, so I felt the rest of the cover should follow that sensibilty. To me, that's where I get the greatest enjoyment out of design, to try to match the personality and character of the art and then design around that. The covers were meant to have a similar "feel," yet look different enough, as to not be confused with each other.

I have five other books in the beginning stages of the design process. I hope to be able to post images soon, however the publishers have not made the formal announcements yet. I'm very excited about these books, they are from very high profile iconic (legends) artists. Okay I can't wait, here's a couple of the names....nah I better not.

The Rocketeer Deluxe Slipcase Designs

2009-11-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

The original design for the slipcase of the deluxe edition of "The Rocketeer," had die-cuts in the case, so you could see part of the image of the actual book inside (see earlier entry). I was trying to be clever and use some of the same design elements, except flop the colors. I wanted the slipcase to feel like an extension of the cover. After it was designed and approved, the vendor suddenly decided they could no longer do die-cuts. Huh???

Well, it was back to the beginning. Since the slipcase no longer had the die-cuts, I felt it wasn't as necessary to create a design that repeated the book cover aesthetic. This was an opportunity to create a whole new design. I headed into two different directions, one was to maintain some of the elements of the book cover (color palette, lightning bolts, and type treatment), the other was to try a new approach but continue to stay true to Deco/Streamline influence.

The designs have to go through an approval process, and by showing several different versions, it helps everyone to narrow things down to their first and second choices. The danger is, sometimes other people pick something different from your own personal favorite. Design is such a personal taste issue, that it's good to get specific feed back. What do you like, and what don't you like, and why? It's also good not to have a big ego.

In this particular case, I had no problem accepting the choice that was made. I think it works well with the book cover, it's consistent with the design vision, and it's a logical extension. It's the last image posted that was decided upon (the Rocketeer flying at an angle to the corner).

To make the slipcase feel a little more "special," the lightning bolts will be de-bossed and the title, lightning bolts and image of the Rocketeer will have a spot varnish applied.

Both versions of the book should be available in early December.

Cowboy Culture Paintings

2009-10-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

Cowboy Green

Cowboy Red

Cowboy Blue

Pulp Cowboy 1

Pulp Cowboy 2

Here's five painting that I did for my Cowboy Culture show in April. Please forgive me for the crudeness in the execution, I don't really consider myself a painter. When I got the opportunity to have a gallery show, I felt like I had to add some paintings to fill up the wall space. These canvases are actually pretty large, I think the smallest dimension is around 36". It was a great exercise to force me to put out some artwork in a very short amount of time. I did these five, and an additional painting, in three weeks time. These were all done with that cheap craft paint that comes in the cylindrical bottles, that cost about 97 cents a bottle. Believe me, I don't know any better.

The top three paintings, so cleverly titled as "Green," "Red," and "Blue" were meant to be very graphic and contemporary, as if they were silk-screened. I liked the idea of creating a series, and working relatively fast. These are meant to look like "real" working cowboys.

The bottom two paintings, equally cleverly titled, as "Pulp Cowboy 1," and "Pulp Cowboy 2," (maybe I should work harder on those titles!!??), were basically me copying pulp magazine covers from the '40s. I did want to make them more dynamic and artsy by cropping them dynamically. I like that, part of the titles from the magazines, are still in the painting. I always believe that type is really an added design element. These two paintings are a contrast to the other three, in that these are a perceived idea of the old west. The colors aren't flat, they are modeled, to give the illusion of depth. This was a great learning tool for me, to paint by looking at a painting. These paints really don't blend very well, so I had to paint wet. With this kind of water based paint, it usually lends itself to looking very flat as it is applied. It worked well in the top three paintings, but not so great with the bottom two.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results, but then again, I'm not a painter. I really have a new found respect for those artists that can paint well. I tried something that I had previously been afraid to do, because of the fear of failure, and found out that I not only learned something but enjoyed the process immensely. Giddy-yup! Oh yeah... the paintings are for sale.

Scion XA

2009-10-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to take my car and paint it in a unique way. It's such a temptation to look at it as a blank canvas. Why aren't there more interesting paint jobs on cars, why aren't people personalizing them more? Cars and houses and furniture have become so "safe" and bland, what happened to style and creativity? Look in neighborhoods and count how many houses are painted gray, brown, beige, or combinations of those colors. Everything looks the same, doesn't it? It seems nobody is willing to do anything that their neighbor isn't doing. What's the fear? The same applies to colors on cars. Open up a car sales catalog from the '50s and check out the great colors and color combinations. Have you seen any turquoise or salmon or peach colored cars lately? How about two-toned? What is the most popular color of cars these days, silver or blah? Of course, my car is silver, but I wish it wasn't. I took a photo of my car, and applied a color combination and style from a '50s era car, and created my "what if." Maybe someday I'll have the opportunity to paint something fun on my car. But, then again, what would the neighbors think?

Dinosaur Discoveries

2009-10-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

Cover to Dinosaur Discoveries

Spread from Dinosaur Discoveries

Cover to New Dinosaur Discoveries A-Z

Spread from New Dinosaur Discoveries A-Z

After completing the William Stout Prehistoric Life Murals book, Bill immediately had ideas to put together another book. He had approximately fifty paintings he had done of newly discovered dinosaurs, and he thought it would make a great follow up book. John Fleskes of Flesk Publications agreed. After a discussion, it was decided to take the information along with the paintings and create two books. One would be aimed at a juvenile audience, and A-Z was added to the title. The book would approximate the size and feel of a Little Golden Book. The design, bright colors, and writing are all more playful. This is a new direction that Flesk Publications has never gone before. It seems to make perfect sense, dinosaurs, education, and entertainment, what a perfect combination to attract the attention of young readers (and their parents).

The second book is aimed more at an adult audience. The approach to this is, to create a timeless look, to base the design on the style of the old Scribner books, to turn it into a contemporary classic. I wanted the cover to feel old, as if this was a lost document from an unidentifiable period of time. This is a book you might find in the basement or attic of your grandparent's home. It's a very formal design, using classic Garamond type fonts.

The design styles of both books go in complete opposite directions, one is formal and rigid, while the other is playful and loose. After it was decided what direction these books would take, Bill also decided he should complete approximately sixty more paintings, to really make these books complete! He actually re-did several earlier images, to relay new information that had been discovered since he had executed his initial designs.

The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

2009-10-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

Spread for The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

Spread from the deluxe version of The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

Slipcase for the deluxe version of The Rocketeer

Cover for the deluxe version of The Rocketeer

Dust jacket to The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I should take some time to update things. I've been extremely busy putting all the contents and design work into four new books. Two of them were for Flesk Publications. They are two new dinosaur books based on William Stout's artwork. The titles are, Dinosaur Discoveries and The New Dinosaurs A-Z. For these books, Bill has created well over one hundred new paintings of new species of dinosaurs which have been discovered in the last decade. John Fleskes writes about the process of development of these two books, on the blog portion of the Flesk Publications website.

The other two books were done for IDW publishing. The first is, the complete collection of the Rocketeer stories. These have never before been published as one collection. The Rocketeer was first published in 1982 as a back up feature in Starslayer #2, it became an immediate hit. Taking the time period of 1938, and adding elements of Saturday Matinee Serials, Dave Stevens created adventure stories inspired by the streamline era and the golden age of aviation. The publication of the stories was an adventure in itself, going through four publishers, it took nearly thirteen years to finally complete the story of the Rocketeer. So attractive was this property, that Walt Disney Studios created a film based on the Rocketeer which was released in the summer of 1991.

When designing this book, I wanted to approach it the same way that Dave approached creating his stories. I wanted to incorporate design elements that were reflective of that particular period of time. I love the Deco/Streamline era of design, and I wanted this book to feel as if the stories, characters, set designs, fonts, color palettes, and book design all came from the same source. I certainly wanted to do justice to what Dave had created and I tried my best to channel his thought process. I want the end result to be elegant, sophisticated, and tastefully executed.

The second book I designed was a real "behind the scenes" look into the creation of the Rocketeer. This is a limited edition over-sized slipcased book. Not only does it contain the original story, but also Dave's notes, sketches, layouts, preliminary designs and an explanation of his design process. This book is 274 pages with two gatefolds and plenty of never before seen material. The attempt was to create the definitive Rocketeer art book. I'm very excited at the results.

Cowboy Culture Art Show

2009-04-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the announcement and some of the art pieces that will be at my first ever gallery art show. I've been working day and night trying to get as much done as possible before the opening. Right now I have close to 50(!) individual pieces. The work consists of paintings, collage, sculptures, furniture, journals, magnets, wooden boxes and tank tops. It's a real mish mash of items. This is not a vision of the true "old west," but my vision based on sugary coated cereal and Saturday morning cartoons. It's kind of a cross between Roy Rogers and Quick Draw McGraw. This show is meant to be fun and entertaining. After all, what's better than running around not taking a bath, wearing a cowboy hat, brightly colored cowboy boots and firing off a six-shooter? Please come and participate in the opening night celebration, at 7:00 pm Friday, April 17th. Everyone who comes on the first evening, receives a free limited edition Cowboy Culture play set (no kidding!).

GameWorks, what it should have been...

2009-02-14T10:10:00.001-08:00

One of ten logo designs I presented to DreamWorks SKG.

This was one of my designs, that the design team took, and had embroidered on the back of jackets and gave out to everyone involved in the project.

In 1997? I got a call from Bill Stout, asking me if I would be interested in doing some design work for DreamWorks SKG. He was part of the concept and design group creating video arcades for the team of Universal Studio, Sega and DreamWorks SKG. The original idea was to create a game arcade that had a futuristic retro feel, along with the idea that children had taken over a giant warehouse and created this play space. It was, in a sense, an indoor amusement park, with a Disney inspired feel, for creating artificial imaginative environments.

The lead designer was John Snoddy, who was one of the imagineers for the Disney theme parks. John wanted me to design some retro styled logos that would give the arcade an identity. I also worked on some graphic images that were to be scattered around the inside of the building. I got a chance to visit stage #35 at Universal Studio, and to see some of the concepts, artwork and scale models of the plans they had. It was pretty exciting. They had actually created miniature poster versions of some of my artwork, and included them on the inside walls of the model of the arcade. It was truly humbling to be amongst these incredibly talented designers, and to have them accept me as one of the team.

Bill was so generous with his time with me that day, he had stacks and stacks of watercolored illustration boards showing designs for kiosks and proposed interactive themed games. One of the ideas he had, was to create a kiosk called "the filling station," this is where you could get your favorite beverage. The great thing about this was, the servers were all dressed in vintage style gas station attire, including hats and bowties, and would dispense your drinks via a gas pump. It was very clever and witty. This was just the beginning of the all the incredible ideas he had.

Unfortunately, GameWorks in reality, became just a shell of what the original proposal was. DreamWorks SKG actually pulled out, and GameWorks ended up pretty much like any run-of-the-mill arcade. They kept none of the unique feel or the atmosphere that would have made this stand out amongst all of the other cookie cutter ideas. It's a shame, it was such a waste of all those brilliant ideas and incredible talent.

One other story of note during that day. When I was hanging out at Bill's desk eagerly going through all his stacks and stacks of fantastic ideas, he received a phone call. After he hung up, he told me that on the phone, were people representing "Steve," they had asked Bill to do some design work of a bug creature, that would "scare the heck out of Steve." This was for a movie that was in the works, based on a comic book property, that I had never heard of. At dinner that night, I got to watch Bill sketch out his ideas with a Sharpie on some napkins. It was fun to see his wheels turn as he drew some nasty looking insects. It was several months later, when I actually got to see the movie that Bill had created that creepy bug for, it was called "Men in Black." There up on the screen, at the end of the film, was that big bug creature, that I'm pretty sure did, scare the heck out of Steve. Oh by the way, the reference to Steve in the story, was actually Steven Spielberg. I wish I had those napkins...

Scenes from the Xenozoic Age portfolio

2009-02-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

Outside of portfolio box, with silk screened image
Corrugate folder that held the prints
Vellum envelope and chapbook found inside of folder

When I first became familiar with Mark Schultz's artwork, I knew that I would some day have to do a project with him. In 1997 I got my chance. After five years of begging, pestering, and presenting concepts and mock-ups, Mark's publisher at the time, Denis Kitchen finally gave in. After discussions with Mark and Denis, it was decided to create a portfolio of prints of Mark's cover art. Now Denis, who is a true visionary, wanted to create the most lavish portfolio ever produced for the comics market. He basically told me to pull out all the stops. That really is a dream come true to any designer.

It took a lot of research and networking to pull together all of the different vendors to make this portfolio happen. I knew I wanted the basis of the design to be a wooden box, where the top would slide off to reveal the contents. I wanted to create a portfolio that was built in layers, each thing that you opened, would in turn, unveil a new thing to explore. I also wanted to create an aesthetic similar to Mark's approach to storytelling, where nature and machines work together in harmony. The graphics on the top of the box are a combination of schematic plans along with organic imagery. The folder and band wrap on the inside of the box is a natural e-flute corrugate with metal grommets and corners. The two envelopes inside the folders are a translucent vellum, with a one color image printed on the outside. Each of the ten 11" x 17" prints is embossed with the gear/trilobite logo. The portfolio was created in an edition of 99 and retailed for $299.00. I think they all disappeared pretty fast. Which, I believe, was a great relief to Mr. Kitchen.

It was quite a project. I was happy with the results, it was a good start to my collaborations with Mark. Denis was a fantastic publisher to work with, he greenlit the project and let me run with it. As an artist himself, he knows what it takes to get the best work out of creative people.

Ladislav Sutnar

2009-01-29T09:33:00.000-08:00

One of my absolute favorite designers is Ladislav Sutnar. Born in Czechoslovakia, he was the pioneer of information design. Overshadowed by his contemporaries, the Constructivist and Bauhaus typemasters El Lissitsky and Moholy-Nagy respectively, Sutnar is a relatively unsung leader of Modern objective typography. He worked in America in the years after the war and made Constructivism both functional and playful in it's application to catalog design. In the early 1960s he was hired by Bell systems to develop a variety of design programs. One of the things he was responsible for creating was the area code parentheses.

The thing that has always impressed me the most, was how he was able to take what appeared to be very uninteresting, mundane items and create interesting organized catalogs. Sutnar was the art director for the F. W. Dodge's Sweet's Catalog Service from 1941 to 1960. This was America's leading producer and distributor of trade and manufacturing catalogs. I can't imagine what a daunting task that would have been, to take all of that uninspired product and form some user friendly, graphically pleasing informational pamphlets. The images above are some samples I have of Sutnar's skill at doing what he did best. I think his use of typography, his creative way of getting the best use out of a limited palette, and his way of organizing his information are all very inspirational. As far as I'm concerned, nobody does it better.

Poster Designs

2009-01-25T13:20:00.001-08:00

These are a couple of poster designs I did a few years ago. I had always wanted to do posters for myself, creating the subject matter, doing the illustrations, and writing the copy. Both posters are done with tongue firmly planted in cheek. The idea of the first one was, what if they had created a monorail system that crossed through the entire United States. Instead of flying or taking a train or bus, the family would climb on the Flying Tortise monorail, and relax and enjoy a luxurious sightseeing adventure across this great country of ours. It looks like it would be perfectly safe and very comfortable. I know for a couple of years between 1953 and 1955, they ran this monorail very successfully from St. Paul to Milwaukee. The only problem was, it took longer, and was more expensive than if you just drove your car. Of course, it's totally ridiculous, but it's still fun to imagine what the advertisement might look like.

The second poster, was meant to promote a non existent school. The school was to help young men develop careers in aviation design. It was a non traditional school, in the sense that, the boys were encouraged to "think outside the box". Unfortunately most of the designs that came out of the school were totally impractical and never had any commercial application. The only student to ever actually achieve employment, within the aviation industry, was Chubby McNeal. He went on to be successfully employed with TWA, he stayed with the company for three years as a baggage handler. It was never made clear what Mrs. Sinclair's exact role in the school was.

I ran an ad in Juxtapoz magazine in an effort to sell my large inventory of posters. Much to my delight, the response was great, and I actually sold five posters. I never came close to making my money back on the posters, or even the cost of running the ad, for that matter. If anyone is interested, I think I have a very limited supply of around 200 for each of those posters. The size is 18" x 24" and they are printed on high quality (expensive) paper. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm not a very good businessman.

Xenozoic Tales Playset

2009-01-23T12:07:00.001-08:00

I've been lucky enough, over the last several years, to work on several projects with an artist, whose work I really admire. Mark Schultz brings such a quality and craftsmanship to everything he does. By working with Mark, it challenges me to raise the level of my game. Using sports as an analogy, the best way to get better at your position, is by playing against people who are better than you. I like to think that Mark makes me better at what I do.

Each year for the San Diego Comic-con, with Mark's blessing, I've tried to create special limited edition products related to Xenozoic Tales. Each item is created in extremely small quantities, and is signed and numbered by Mark. Two years ago we presented this Xenozoic Tales Playset.

Marx toy company created fabulous playsets from the 1950's through the 1960's. They usually contained hundreds of figures, along with buildings, vehicles, terrain, and creatures. They were quite likely to be the highlight of any Christmas during that period of time. Even though, Xenozoic Tales didn't exist then, it seemed like if it did, it would have been a good prospect to become a playset. So instead of a Marx Playset, we created a Mark's Playset. This was a tribute to that era, and an attempt to recapture the excitement of Christmas morning. This was fun to try to approximate the feel and style of the packaging of those Marx Playsets. This was designed in an edition of ten, it came with 4 people, 4 dinosaurs, a palm tree, and a rocky wall. I know, that I can speak for myself when I say, that this has given me hours and hours of quality play time.

Frances Tipton Hunter

2009-01-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

Dover Publications, Alden Family Paper Dolls in Full Color, 1989
The Frances Tipton Hunter Picture Book, Whitman Publishing Company, 1935
Boo, Who used to be afraid of the dark, Random House, 1948

I was digging through children's books at a local antique store, when I came across Boo, who used to be afraid of the dark, from 1948. The book immediately captivated me. The illustrations were so alive and the colors were so bright and fresh. What caught my attention was, even though these looked like there was photo reference involved, there wasn't a sense of stiffness to them. Instead of appearing posed, they seemed more like they were captured in "the moment." There was such a sense of naturalism to them. The lighting effects were expertly executed, creating contrasts of light and dark, that helped model the characters. Everything had a natural glow, which warmed up the picture and gave it personality.

I discovered the illustrators name was Frances Tipton Hunter. I was intrigued enough to seek out more information. She was an illustrator who worked from the early 1920's to the late 1950's. She was particularly known for her charming portrayals of children. She worked on popular magazines at the time, including, Collier's, Liberty, Saturday Evening Post, and Ladies' Home Journal. It's frustrating to me that there doesn't seem to be more information on her. I don't believe there are any book collections of her work. I actually found two more books that she did, one is called The Frances Tipton Hunter Picture Book, dated 1935 and the other is a Dover reprint book of her paper dolls, called, Alden Family Paper Dolls in Full Color. I've included scans from both books above. It's amazing to me how, much character is shown in the paintings she did of just the clothing. Can you imagine if Norman Rockwell had done a book on paper dolls? I know that Rockwell is considered America's most beloved artist, but where is Frances Tipton Hunter on that list? I hope some day, that a book publisher feels the work that she did, is important enough, to publish a collection of her artwork.

Cowboy Pull Toy

2009-01-22T09:19:00.001-08:00

Here's something a little different. This is a wooden pull toy that I made. For a real long time I've been interested in the Fisher Price pull toys from the 1940's through the 1960's. In fact, I kind of collected them. The paintings of the characters always reminded me of the artwork from children's books of that same era. It seemed like there was a lot of pride taken in the art that was executed. Unfortunately, most of those artists were never given the recognition that they deserved. Those toys were a great combination of motion, sound and illustration. Because of their construction they would hold up to most anything that the youngsters could dish out. The idea that they can still be found pretty easily, suggests that, people had a fondness for them beyond their childhood uses. This is my attempt to capture the feeling and motion of those toys. As you pull this across the floor, the two cowboys arms go up and down, as if they are shooting at each other. Of course, to make it seem like it had just been pulled out of the toy box, it has to look like it has had years and years of playtime. Adding the aging, with staining and sanding felt like the right finishing touch. I think it would be fun to take some contemporary cartoonists and turn their characters into pull toys, it could become the newest designer toy collectible.

Zero Man

2009-01-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

These are a couple of pages out of a recently acquired book on Zero Man. The art was done by Osamu Tezuka, who is known as the Japanese equivalent, of Walt Disney. He is probably better known for his work on Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and Phoenix. I'm not a real big fan of manga, but I find this stuff very charming and stylistically appealing. Even though this was created from 1959-1960, it has the feel of classic Disney animation from the 1930's. What I really like, aside from the style of the characters, is the coloring. In the first page, the color is so warm and sophisticated feeling. It's amazing to me, with all of the modern technology that we have today, that the comic book coloring I usually see, is overly rendered Photoshop effects. Here's something that was done 45 years ago, and it is so attractive and appealing. The matte paper stock also works well to allow the colors to blend in with the paper, as opposed to the color sitting on top. The second page was colored with only two colors, red and black, and again the technique makes it look almost like full color. It's interesting how with a limited palette, that the colors make that page feel so organic. There isn't a sense that the colors overpower the line art, they seem to work together in harmony to create some really beautiful artwork. Maybe, in this case, less is more.

Flash Gordon Poster Rough

2009-01-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

Here's an incomplete poster illustration from the Flash Gordon book. I enjoy seeing both the pencils and inking that go into a finished illustration. Al has such a gift for figure work and composition. There is so much detail in this piece. I find it curious, Al's approach to inking, each of the figures is only partially inked. He seemed to just jump from one part to another rather randomly. I wonder why this was never finished, and what it's original intent was. Did Al just abandon this at some point and start completely over on something else?

Al Williamson's Flash Gordon

2009-01-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a book I'm currently working on. This project has been in the works for several years. After Alex Raymond, the artist most associated with Flash Gordon would be Al Williamson. This book collects all of the artwork Al did related to that character. When possible all of the art was shot from the originals. This book is an overview of how the character impacted Al's life from the time of being a very young child up until he drew his last newspaper strip of him a few years ago. This book includes all of the stories, from the early King Comics through the mini-series done for Marvel. It's an insightful and personal journey of a man and his passion. It's been a thrill for me to be able to visit with the Williamson family and to be able to hear the stories first hand. There is nothing like seeing the original art, and realizing that this is a man of unique and rare skill. It's not far fetched to suggest, that the quality of the work, certainly deserves a place in our modern art museums.

William Stout Prehistoric Life Murals

2009-01-20T13:17:00.000-08:00

Here's another book I designed for my good friends at Flesk Publications. This book details the creation of the murals by William Stout, that appear at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Bill gives a first hand account from creating the sketches, to the color studies, and finally to the finished paintings. I always wished that I could have seen preliminary sketches and heard the thoughts that Charles R. Knight had gone through, when he created his dinosaur paintings. Bill certainly is carrying on the tradition of Mr. Knights, and it is very exciting to be able to read what he went through to execute his timeless masterpieces. This book is currently at the printer and should be available from the publisher within the next 30 days.

Cover for Various Drawings #4

2009-01-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the recently completed cover for Various Drawings Volume 4. This is an ongoing series of sketchbooks by Mark Schultz. This cover design, is a real collaborative effort between Mark and myself. We've made a real effort to give a design consistency to all the covers of the sketchbook series. Being influenced by the design style of Russian Constructivism, we want the covers to portray both fluid illustration, along with dynamic presentation. Mark's illustration work is breathtaking, and it's important to keep that, the focal point of the cover. His style and technique are nothing short of spectacular. Any student, or lover of the golden age of illustration, would do themselves a great service by picking up all 4 volumes of this series. Various Drawings Volume 4 is expected to be available in time for the 2009 Comic-Con International in San Diego. Check out this book and other great art books from Flesk Publications.

2009-01-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the Deal

2009-01-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

I've been in the design industry for over 20 years, it's my passion. The goal with this Blog, is to show my design and illustration work along with things that inspire me. I hope I can educate, and entertain at the same time. I look forward to going on this journey with you. Let's get started...