"WHAT IF I'M A LITTLE LATE...?"

"S.D. Plissken. American, Lieutenant - Special Forces Unit 'Black Light'. Two Purple Hearts - Leningrad and Siberia. Youngest man to be decorated by the President. Then you robbed the Federal Reserve Depository. Life sentence, New York maximum security penitentiary. I'm about to kick your ass out of the world, war hero." 

For "All Outta Bubblegum", a John Carpenter tribute show at Hyaena Gallery. Opening Sat April 12th.

Rumor has it there'll be some very special guests...

COMMISSIONS, COMMISSIONS, COMMISSIONS...

Been pretty busy with work stuff so been away from the personal work for a while. Luckily for me (and for you!), there's these to tide me over. Two wonderful pieces of art from two trailblazing and highly influential artists, humbly requested by myself and pretty much encompassing everything cool.

First, there's Mick McMahon revisiting an iconic 2000AD cover of old. Look at this thing. No ambiguity in the shading or execution. It's bold and vibrant and thrilling. Loved it so much I asked Mick if he'd ink the piece separately so I could keep the pencils, which are just as fucking beautiful.

And then there's this: 2000AD and Mad Max 2 pretty much melted my head when I first experienced them. There are people who think shit like The Godfather and Citizen Kane are the greatest movies ever made. Here's $10. Go buy a clue. It's not even a debate. MM2 fucking rules. The end.

Then Brendan McCarthy spews this puppy out into the world, just for me. Brendan McCarthy - he of Dredd, Rogan Gosh, Spider-Man: Fever, Zaucer Of Zilk and currently warping my mind with The Deleted in Dark Horse Presents - but by a wonderful coincidence ALSO the co-writer and designer of the upcoming NEW Mad Max movie. Come on, what the fuck else was I going to ask him to draw...? Badass. All it needs is Lemmy and we'll be laughing...

Lookit those mutiemen behind Dredd. Awesome. So happy. If I ever have 200 million dollars burning a hole in my pocket, this is what it'll be getting spent on...

ZARJAZ #20 COVER

Was asked at the last minute if I could provide a cover to the almighty ZARJAZ. Was more than happy to jump in. Kano and BAD Company are WAY too much fun to draw. It's the free gigs that end up being the most rewarding. There's a moral here somewhere. As usual, click the link to enlarge the image.

ZARJAZ traditionally uses wraparound covers so it's tricky coming up with a composition that works. You want something eye-catching for the front cover but don't want to waste the back cover so I took as much imagery from the story inside and made a retelling of it. Dave Johnson's covers for 100 Bullets were great inspiration.

First, some sketches. I knew I wanted Kano's monocle to be the centerpiece so I riffed off that idea...

 ...until I settled on something that might work.

 

Thought I'd try something different with the color instead of the usual flat rendering. Wanted to make it look a little more painterly and rough within the inked lines.

 

ZARJAZ #20 is for sale - both digitally and on good old-fashioned paper and ink - HERE and for the ridiculously low price of 3 English pounds.

CHROMATIC DEATH / MORAL CRUSADE

 If there's one big regret I have, it's that I've never kept artwork from when I was younger. Had tons of stuff and I clearly remember a day when I took it all, crumpled it all into a giant heap and shoved it into a bin. To this day, I'll never know why I did that. I'd give anything to see it all again. (Not like it would have been any good, but just to touch that era of my life again...)

In any case, gives me a warm thrill to find this stuff online. I hope the boys don't mind me posting it up here. I went to school with the almighty Mano, who became a bass player with a band called Chromatic Death...

 

...and Mano asked if I'd help out with some art for flyers. Man, I loved doing this. Still remember drawing it up. Images aren't very good quality but you get the jist. Anyway, Chromatic Death eventually renamed themselves Moral Crusade due to another band using the name. Weirdly enough, one of my good friends here in Los Angeles was in the other Chromatic Death!

 

Ahhh. So much fun. I didn't do the flyers below, they just cut my bit in where appropriate. I bet Billy Brennan's Barndance didn't know what fucking hit it that night...

What got even more exciting was when Moral Crusade decided to record an album and myself and the insanely talented Paul Kelly did it for them. I designed it, Paul painted it up...

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Something in the works. Lot of fun. Hopefully there'll be more to show in the future...