This year’s concept for the summer St Louis Filmmakers Showcase and the Int’l Film Fest this fall is a play on B-movie science fiction movies from the 1950’s – specifically 1958’s “The Blob”, starring Steve McQueen. Above is the cover for the showcase bulletin.
Here’s a recent illustration I did for BusinessWeek – always a fun client to work with. Below is the original concept I submitted, which I’m including because, personally, I think it’s superior to the image that was finally agreed upon. The art director apparently prefered the original, as well, but the editors found it too spooky. Spooky or not, I felt it hit the mark more powerfully, and that spookiness simply gave it more teeth (no pun intended). Nevertheless, I was pretty happy with the results, despite the awareness that watering down a concept can often lead to a less interesting final product. Slightly evident here, stylistically speaking, is the recent influence on my commercial illustration work of the great comic artist, Fletcher Hanks, who, thanks to Paul Karasik’s beautiful anthology, “I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!”, is now easy to find in print.
Here’s my most recent OP-ED piece for the New York Times. Below is a scan of how it ran on the page.
The New York Times is one of my favorite clients to work for, and the OP-ED page is always very creatively challenging and rewarding. I was particularly happy with this illustration because it was the first in which I was able to make a suggestion regarding the way the image appeared on the page and interacted with the text (notice the rope extending upwards through the column breaks). Leanne Shapton’s (the art director) wrap-around text turned out beautifully, too.
Below are a couple of other recent New York Times illustrations.
The Book Review
OP-ED letters illustration about the uncontrollable worldwide proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Above is the cover image for the paperback version of ABANDONED CARS, which will hopefully be available either in the fall or next spring. It is one of what I anticipate to be a couple cover versions for the paperback edition. The influence for this cover is pretty obviously the great comic cover art of the 1940’s and 50’s. Below I’ve included samples of the kind of Golden Age Crime comics that influenced the style and design of this image.
The most recent page from “The Passenger”.
Another page from THE PASSENGER. This page appears about midway through the story…
Above is an original cover meant for the Spanish translation of Abandoned Cars, “Coches Abandonados”, being published by Ediciones La Cupula this year. The French translation will also be published this year by Delcourt Comics in France, under the title”Noir C’est Noir”.
Below is a scan of the most recent YOU ARE HERE column, as it appeared in print this week. I thought I’d post a sample of one of the columns in order to display how the texts and illustrations are displayed in hard copy, for those of you who have only seen samples of the column online.
SECRET HEADQUARTERS is a comic book shop in Los Angeles, CA (check out there website at secretheadquarters.com). The owners, Dave & David, apparently liked the cut-out collectibles I produced for ABANDONED CARS, and asked me to create a limited edition collectible of themselves (and their mascot raccoon), in conjunction with Fantagraphics, for the promotion of thier store. The collectible “advertisement” will be printed on their sales bags, and also apparently included in a group of collectible stickers they’re producing, as well. This was a fun project: I’ve always been interested in doing one of the cut-outs as portraiture upon request, and so here I got my chance. I also love to get the chance to produce the design work, and here I was shooting for a 1960’s Big Daddy Roth inspired over-the-top toy packaging kind of look. Dave and David are a couple of very cool guys…if you’re in the LA area, go give them some business! I’m trying to talk them into producing the cut-out as a life-size, full color lawn ornament. So, if you happen to go to there shop, please suggest to them how cool it’d be if they had one in their shop.
(This week’s YOU ARE HERE column)
OUTSIDE THE HOMELESS SHELTER
(New Life Evangelical Center, Downtown, January 14)
Extremely cold night. The streets, barren and gray, look harder than usual, like everything does when the weather’s this bitter. Outside the New Life Evangelical Center homeless shelter, a man in ragged clothes leans backward over the concrete banister, his face pointing skyward. The position looks uncomfortable and precarious, as does his apparent situation. His breathing is heavy and labored: When he inhales, he nearly tips over backward onto the street below; when he exhales, he slips slightly forward — a human teeter-totter without an anchor. He isn’t quite asleep, but he isn’t quite awake either. A plume of steam rises from his mouth when he exhales, then gets swept away by the wind.
A young guy leans against the wall near the entrance to the shelter, smoking a cigarette and watching attentively. What’s the story with the man on the banister? I ask. He’s too far gone, the guy says, too incoherent; he might be dead drunk or high on aerosol. He might be insane. Pathological. Who knows? The young doesn’t take his eyes off the man. You can tell he’s concerned, not sure what to do, but still compelled to keep watch as the man teeter-totters gently back and forth.
For a while we watch him together. Eventually I move closer to the man draped over the banister, poke his shoulder, ask if he’s OK. His eyes are closed and he’s smiling, apparently unaware of his predicament. He mutters something incomprehensible, then, finally, slides forward completely and remains hunched like a sack of old clothes in front of the shelter while we wonder, this other guy and I, what to do.
