“SPIKE”, PAGE 8

Since this story is almost entirely mood driven, concentrating heavily on dialogue, the trick has been to develop sequential panel arrangements that serve the dialogue while also enhancing it. My concern was that it would become tedious to maintain panel sequences that didn’t change for eight pages (at which point there is finally some physical action); but on the other hand, to overdo the arrangement of panel sequences for the sake of drama could be just as bad, ultimately causing distraction from the psychological tension intended through the dialogue, counteracting it’s impact. I really love these kinds of challenges in comics. It ignites my fantasies of being a film director. In this case, I turned to both film and comics for ideas: In comics, the perrenial Will Eisner and Jack Cole (specifically “Murder, Morphine & Me”); in film, the great Orson Welles.

RECENT NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED ILLUSTRATION

Above is a recent op-ed piece for the New York Times for an article that dealt with a jounralist who had been kidnapped and jailed in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.

RIVERFRONT TIMES “BEST OF” ISSUE COVER

The above image is the cover for the 2009 Riverfront Times Best Of issue. The concept for this year’s issue is pretty clearly based on old circus posters. One of the most tempting aspects attracting me to this job was to be given the opportunity to tackle the entire design, including the hand illustrated text and the central illustration, making for a completely integrated final piece. There will be several insert illustrations for eight seperate sections: So stay tuned…