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.
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