Shameless Self-Promotion: One-Million Views?

Self-Promotion:
One Million-to-John

Before starting with the boring Blog stuff, just to explain the image, I've always been a fan of "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (1984) and was thinking about doing a series for that in the near future.  So, I was primed for something Buckaroo Banzai-related and thought about the infamous Watermelon scene with Reno (Pepe Serna) and New Jersey (Jeff Goldblum).  And, yeah, I know New Jersey isn't wearing his cowboy hat in the scene, but it made it easier to identify him from "Buckaroo Banzai".  Well, I mean, for those of us that are into some of the more weird, cult movies from the 80's.  This is one of those "If you know, you know" type posts.

On to the regularly unscheduled program: OK, this is weird...  While I do check my views semi-regularly, I really don't pay them much attention, aside from "Oh, hey, that one was surprisingly popular" (the word "popular" is doing a lot of lifting), or "Oh, that thing I thought would knock everyone's socks off went nowhere."  C'est la Vie.  But, I am no way a slave to the Algorithm and don't bother too much one way or the other, for better or worse.  I'm accustomed to my current level of mediocrity, I suppose.

But, like watching the calendar on your computer roll over to a new year, or your car's odometer get to 100,000 miles, or some similar numerical milestone, I did the same when it came to this Blog.  I noticed it was probably a few days from 1,000,000 views, so I checked a little more often just to see if I could watch it roll over.  Oddly, it worked out and I watched it tick up throughout the evening from 999,457 to 999,999 to 1,000,000.  Ah, that OCD dopamine reward!

This is the 15th year I've been doing this Blog, and I've been doing my Figure Drawing one for 16 years, and both of them just crossed the 1,000,000 Views within a few weeks of each other, so that's very strange.  Why, it seems like it was only yesterday when I was celebrating 100,000 views (actually, it was about 9 years ago in Feb. 2017).  The thought of 1,000,000 views on either one of my Blogs--let along both--is mind boggling and somewhat humbling.  What can I say, I'm a man of modest needs.

I noticed a large jump on the number of views and visits to this Blog starting in early 2025 about when I dropped the series of "Tron" digital paintings, and things jumped again the past few months in 2026.  While it is nice to think the growth of the Blog is people finally coming around and recognizing my (cough) genius, I'm sure it is mostly due to scraping from A.I. Bots and whatnot.  Nothing has really changed as far as I can tell, just "Number go up".  Shrug.

Random bit of oddness: Of all the stuff I've done the past couple years when things really picked up, while there are many close runners-up, the most popular post so far was for Super-Grover.  Huh.  While I find it amusing and am not entirely displeased about it, I will admit to be somewhat surprised about that.  I mean, it isn't even all that good of a Super-Grover digital painting and probably one I should have done traditionally, IMHO.  Ah, well.

Anyhoo, I'll rub some Preparation H on my head to reduce the swelling from crossing the threshold of 1,000,000 views and get back to trying to figure out what I will be doing next.  Speaking of, I should be dropping the last of the "Dune (1984)" series in a few days, and desperately trying to figure out what I will be doing for "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween".  I've grown a bit bored with painting still frames from various Horror Movies, although they are fun practice to work on some painting skills.  So, we'll see what happens with that.  Something... different, I hope.

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to gawk at my humble Blog--even if it is just in the same manner people rubber-neck at a car wreck.  It is all greatly appreciated!

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 2,250px @ 300dpi.

* * *

STEP TWO: And here are the digital inks.

* * *

STEP THREE:  And here is the final image.  I kept the colors relatively flat, but put a paper texture over top.

* * *

Done digitally with Clip Studio Paint.

.

Did I Accidentally Do a Marvel Comics Cover?

Did I Accidentally Do a
MARVEL COMICS Cover?

OK, in a year full of strange and weird things which have happened, so far this is the strangest and weirdest.  It's a lifelong dream come true in the most bass-akwards, round-about, Rube Goldberg-esque way.

My crude drawing of Arishem the Judge: The Redux

* * *

Arishem the Judge as drawn by Keith Pollard/Gene Day From the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe"

* * *

First, a little back story.  I am a huge fan of the "Eternals", the comic series as created by Jack "The King" Kirby in the early 1970's.  I tracked down the original comics series in my teens, own a couple collected editions, and even bought the "Monster-Size" (or, as I prefer to call it, the "Celestial-Size" collection), which is 14" x 21.5" and collects all 19 Kirby issues of the "Eternals" plus the Annual #1.  I would say it's a coffee table book, but it's practically a coffee table in-and-of-itself.  I could use it to press the accused in Salem Witch Trials.  It's ginormous and super-sized, it shows Jack Kirby's art at its best and I adore it.

In the "Eternals", the Celestials are giant, armored space gods.  Their leader of the Fourth Host, Arishem, has an inscription on his thumb which would destroy worlds which are deemed unworthy, and they have returned to Earth to judge it.  I was immediately captivated by the galaxy brain imagination involved with Kirby and his Celestials.

Jack Kirby's Arishem from "Eternals #7" (1976)

About 10 years ago (!), there was another nerd art Blog I participated with, "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Redux", and they tried to remake the entire "OHotMU"--another book of my youth that I pored over.  I jumped at being able to do the Celestials and grabbed them immediately (and quite a few other characters, too). 

Here's a collection of the Celestials I did which someone (unknown) collected and labelled:

The Celestials are probably the most popular things I've done on my Blog and, ironically, I really don't care too much for my drawings of the Celestials--They were a bit too simplistic and too slavish to the original drawings from the OHofMU, and I've been meaning to update them and do a better version sometime in an indeterminate future.  Yes, yes... someday. 

The original drawing was done with a PITT pen on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock and the line work is wonky and slightly embarrassing--made even more embarrassing when enlarged to the size of a cover.

Anyhoo, I would see the various drawings above show up randomly on every third website and YouTube video that was about the Celestials, so that was both weird and cool.  Some other people took the images and added backgrounds which greatly improved the pictures.  So, thanks to them (whoever they are) for making me look better than I am.  To be honest, I wish I'd thought of it.

And here is an example of other people taking the drawings as an explanation with the "Eternals" movie which was coming out (the movie was... eh, OK).

It was more stuff to add to my "My Art in Weird Places" file.  No permission was asked, but I assume after a picture is saved and re-posted a few times, things get lost in the shuffle and who did what and credit with Internet Art gets fuzzy.  Not that I mind all that much, personally.  (Heck, who am I to talk?  I'm just as guilty as everyone else: I have folders full of cool art from the Internet and no idea who did them for the  most part.)  Interesting, noted, and I will admit thrilling and flattering to see my art turning up at the darnedest times.  They were oddly popular.  "Oh, hey, that's my drawing!  Neat!"

Anyhoo, back to the present... 

A couple weeks ago, I randomly discovered that my drawing of the Celestial, Arishem the Judge, was accidentally used on a Variant Cover for "A.X.E. (Avengers / X-Men / Eternals): Eve of Judgment" by French artist, Mr. Garcin (or, should I say "Mr. Mr. Garcin"?).  Mr. Garcin does really elaborate collages featuring comic book characters done with images of of the same character.  So, Iron Man collage done with "Iron Man" comic book pages and so forth.  I admit I wasn't too familiar with his work, but I had stumbled over it on the Internet as something interesting.

The way I discovered it was a stereotypical scene from a really dumb comedy.  I was looking at the Variant Covers in the back of the collected book, saw the Mr. Garcin cover, immediately started looking at all the images they used for Arishem.  I was trying to test my nerd knowledge and place the issue from which each image came (what can I say, I'm a big fan of the character and the "Eternals" comics by Jack Kirby) and then flipped to the next page.  Then my brain, being somewhat slow on the uptake, suggested I should probably turn the page back and take another look.  So, I flipped back to the previous page and started looking at all the tiny pictures of Arishem again... and after a couple minutes I saw the BIG picture and noticed my drawing on the cover for the first time.

Once again, my brain was a little slow on the uptake and tried to process what I was looking at, not being able to believe what it was looking at: My art on a Marvel Comics Cover?  And then I literally laughed out loud for several minutes at the mistake which was made.

Here's my best guess as to what happened: Mr. Garcin did an image search for "Arishem", came across my drawing assuming it was legit from Marvel.  After all, it shows up in a lot articles and such when talking about Marvel's Celestials from "The Eternals".  So, who wouldn't think it was legit?  It's also very, very similar to the "OHotMU" entry, and if you weren't paying close attention it would be easy to mistake it for the original.  Also, the drawing is simplified, relatively clear, and an easy fit the criteria to use as a frame for the collage.

I do want to thank Mr. Garcin for using my art, even if was unwittingly.

An innocent mistake, but one that leaves me thrilled that my artwork has been accidentally published by Marvel Comics, even though they don't know it (heck, I barely found out about it by pure chance).

Of course, I had to buy a few copies of the Mr. Garcin Edition just to see with my own eyes and tangibly hold them in my own hands.  Cool!  I (kinda) got to do a Marvel Comics Cover and didn't even know it!  I wonder if I can use it to burnish my artistic bonafides and resume?

Hey, I'm (accidentally) famous!  Kinda sorta...

All that said, Marvel, if you're listening, I'd love to have an opportunity to do a **REAL** Marvel Comics Cover!

😜

.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Escape Motions/Rebelle 6

Shameless Self-Promotion:
Escape Motions / Rebelle 6

I have to admit, the past couple months have been filled with a series of oddities--each bigger and more odd than the last (and I have something flat out mind-blowing to report for my next post... I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it).

Case in point: Samuel from Escape Motions/Rebelle reached out and contacted me on May the Fourth from my Blog to see if they could post my 501st Painting on their socials for that day.  Alas, I was out of town and couldn't respond until late in the evening on May the Fourth, so that put a bit of a stick in the spokes for their May the Fourth posting.  However, I mentioned some other Rebelle digital paintings which they were interested in seeing and sent those along, which they have posted here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CseDa2zoVuM/
https://www.facebook.com/escapemotions
https://twitter.com/escapemotions/status/1659941345039974406?s=20

* * *

* * *

It is extremely flattering to be featured on their socials--especially ironic since I am not on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter--my Blogs are about the extent of my Social presence.  Perhaps I should change that in the near future?

* * *

Anyhoo, given my lack of social presence, Samuel must have been trolling the depths of the Internetz amongst the angler fish, goblin sharks, and vampire squids to accidentally find me (and I appreciate it deeply).  Rebelle and Clip Studio Paint are my two default digital art programs.  While Rebelle is integrated with Photoshop, I personally use Clip Studio Paint to round off a few rough edges until I more fully get the hang of the program, instead. 

For myself, Rebelle has replaced Painter and it has a great wet media and blending engine.  I'm still learning my way around Rebelle properly, but I see people putting out amazing works with it, so I can see what it is capable of in better hands than mine (and why do there seem to be **SO MANY** better hands than mine?).  I'm hoping to start doing some serious digital paintings with Rebelle in earnest this Summer to see what I can really do with it.

Here are some of the Rebelle 6 paintings I've done on this Blog (the 501st Post and "May the Fourth", featuring Jaxxon, the 6 foot tall green rabbit from the original Marvel "Star Wars" comics, of course)...

* * *

I've also used Rebelle for some work I do for "Moss Piglet", a small art magazine out of Kenosha, WI, in which I participate regularly.  Each month, they have a prompt they use as a theme for the magazine.

https://www.krazines.com/archives.html  

Obviously, this one was from the prompt for Bob Dylan (with a parody of "Zap Comix #0 cover by Robert Crumb--fitting for my blog... I'm not sure why I didn't post it now that I think about it).  In this case, I used Clip Studio Paint for the line work as a sort of a digital black plate, which I then exported as a transparent .PNG and imported it into Rebelle 6 to paint the color underneath the line work using their excellent Watercolor and Blending engines.

* * *

Here are a couple more I did for "Moss Piglet" but weren't included in the Escape Motions/Rebelle posting.  This particular piece is a digital painting I did for the "Food, Glorious Food" prompt (I was the cover for that month):

* * *

And this is one from the prompt for "Transportation": 

* * *

OK, I'm sure that's more than enough shameless promotion by yours truly.

My thanks again to Samuel from Escape Motions/Rebelle for reaching out to me.  It is every bit as surprising as it is appreciated!

.

Shameless Self-Promotion

 Shameless Self-Promotion

Well, this was something unexpected: A while back, I received an e-mail from Ross with the Death Metal Band, "Vominaut" (good thing I'm not emetophobic).  He found one of my pictures floating around the Internet, wanting to use it for their band's T-Shirt, and was kind enough to do a reverse-image search and find me.  Ross was kind enough to give me one of the T-Shirts to put in my gallery of my art in places I never expected.

I'm pretty omnivorous when it comes to music (I semi-jokingly say I listen to everything from ABBA to Zappa).  I gave their latest album, "Anthro Apologist", a listen and it was a different take, being a more instrumental (or should I say instra-METAL, am I right, folks?  Hello?  Is this thing on?) Death Metal.  It has an underlying, instrumental rhythm, almost like a heavy metal version of King Crimson or other Progressive Rock band sensibilities with a low, sonic growl in the background.  Almost a Death Metal to relax by vibe which I appreciated.

Here's a link to their Bandcamp Page if you're interested to give them a listen or buying their album (which I did):
VOMINAUT | https://vominaut.bandcamp.com/releases

They label themselves as Environ-METAL Death Riffers... I suggested perhaps they should go with "Death Nettle" or even "Death Petal".  I'm sure they are still thinking it through, rather than pretending I didn't make such horrible, horrible puns.

* 

Here's the original piece, both the line art version and the colorized version, which were part of the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux" for an alien race, the Siris.  Hey, wait-a-minute, I think there are still some of those open which I could be working on.  Perhaps I shall revisit those in the near future.

*

Shameless Self-Promotion: Oculus Rot

 Shameless Self-Promotion
"Oculus Rot" by Buried

It's another bit of Shameless Self-Promotion!  As I obliquely mentioned in my MF Doom Memoriam posting, this is a shout out to my friend, Joel, and his bandmates for their new album which dropped on Valentine's Day (yeah, I know, I'm a little slow, sometimes): "Oculus Rot" by Buried.  

When it comes to my taste in music, I'm pretty omnivorous: I listen to everything from Abba to Zappa, if you will, and everything in between.  And while I will admit that Death Metal isn't my go to when I'm chillin' at home, it does find its way into rotation when the mood strikes.  As does Classical Music, Opera, Alternative, Thrash, Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Pop, Metal, Ska, Punk, Rap... Oh, you get the idea.  A little bit of everything.  Stuff that would alternately bore you to death and scare the life outta you.

Anyhoo, it started many years ago when Joel contacted me to see if they could use my Facehugger Valentine drawing for their T-Shirt.  Sure!  As a follow up, he was kind enough to ask me to do the cover for their new Album, Oculus Rot.  It just so happens, doing a cover to a Heavy Metal/Death Metal album/T-Shirts was high up on my Bucket List.  So, that's kinda cool!

I also did a pastiche of a "Tales From the Crypt" cover, which included the caricatures of Joel, Steve, Robbert, and Marc, and it is used on the Mutoid Maniac shirts.  (I did the caricature of Joel as an alien in "They Live" during my first "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" which he got it as a tattoo on his leg--so he has a history of questionable decisions.)  

BTW, the stereotype of Death Metal band members being among the nicest, kindest people out there seems to be true in my experience (all the stories about nihilistic hooliganism are usually associated with Black Metal, which is a different genre altogether).  Many times when I was writing to Joel, he'd mention it was a sunny day and he was out with his family, hiking, rescuing cute woodland critters injured by other careless hikers, picking wildflowers, and reenacting the opening scene to "The Sound of Music" with him in the role of Julie Andrews, to which I'd think "Hmm, that's not very metal..."  (While I am engaged in mild hyperbole to give Joel a bit of a comedic roast, it is shocking how close to reality it is!  Shocking, I tell you!)

So, my best to Joel and his bandmates!  Here's to hoping my meager Blog helps even a little bit.  Thanks for the opportunity letting me do the cover art, gents--much appreciated!

Here's a link to their FACEBOOK Page and a link to a REVIEW from RocknLoadMag, which gave them 8 out of 10 stars!

If you like what you hear, buy 10 copies so they can become world-famous and I can maybe trick them into letting me do another cover or bit of promotional art!  If you hate it, buy 20 copies to remove it from the market and make sure no one else can get a copy!  Oh, and maybe just get a bunch of T-Shirts, too, while your at it for the same reasons listed above. 😁

.

Shameless Self-Promotion: They Live Tattoo

"They Live" Tattoo

And here is the original image...

As a joking shout-out to a friend, Joel, I did up a caricature of of him as an alien from "They Live".  Then Joel no doubt had some sort of break with reality and decided it would be a good idea to have that image tattooed on his leg.  It was the end of 2019 when he did it, so who can blame him, I guess?  And, believe it or don't, it isn't the first time I've had someone put my art on their body as a tattoo.

I am always conflicted when it comes to something like this...  On the one hand (or leg, in this case), it **IS** really cool to have one's art represented as part of a "Permanent Collection", if you will.  On the other hand (er, leg), it is a mostly permanent part of someone's body, so having my art be a part of that seems like a terrible idea--bordering on irresponsible!  Then again, Joel has said he is a fan of my work, so his decision-making ability is already sketchy at best, so what did we all expect?  Tsk, tsk!

Seriously, it is an honor to have someone consider my art as a tattoo.  I will also admit it is somewhat strange and baffling (as well as a boost to the ol' ego) that someone would like my art enough to get it permanently placed on their own body.  So, that's kinda weird and surreal to think about, too.

In closing, if anyone else has a tattoo, or has used my art someplace, lemme know.  I'm enough of an egomaniac to want to see it--and maybe even show it off on my meager Blog!  :-)

THANKS for the pic, Joel!

.

If I Were a Serial Killer...

If I Were a Serial Killer

CLICK TO EMBIGGEN

One of the numerous podcasts I listen to is the "Last Podcast on the Left".  It is a rather darkly humorous podcast about serial killers, conspiracies, UFO's, cryptozoology, and such.  Anyway, they are currently writing a book and a little over a month ago they put out a call for artists who would be doing something in a comic book/Mad Magazine format.  "Well," I thought, "this sounds like something right up my alley!  I'll give it a shot."

I gathered up some links from my Blog showing what they could vaguely expect from my work and sent it along to them.  I also pointed out the irony that I happen to share the name with the FBI agent, John Douglas, who helped to develop forensic profiling for hunting serial killers and co-wrote the book, "Mindhunters" (his name is also in the credits in the Netflix Series of the same name).  Imagine, I noted, the semi-irony of a book about serial killers illustrated by John Douglas (not that one).

Several weeks went by and I hadn't heard anything "yea" or "nay".  So, I thought rather than just sit around waiting, I should do something more personalized and see if I could sway them that way. 

In this case, I decided to write a two-page, semi-autobiographical story--no, not the murdery/serial killery part of the story, just the realization that if I **DID** go on a killing spree and I signed my name at the each murder sites there would be some... confusion.  Also, the hosts of the show are the first group of my victims, so it had that going for it.

I finished it up and sent it off.  Sadly, even though they liked my "If I Were a Serial Killer" submission, they had already decided to go with a different artist.  D'oh!  I guess I was a day late and a dollar short...  Or whatever time frame and denomination are appropriate.

All that said, it was good practice and more stuff I can throw on my Blog.  So, here we are...  Oh, and I presumed it would be in black-and-white, which is why this one isn't in color, using a line tone, instead.

* * *

Done with Clip Studio Paint EX (Formerly Manga Studio)

.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Man-Thing Tattoo

Man-Thing Tattoo

While this doesn't quite fit into my usual shameless self-promotion, I will sorta lump it in with self-promotion nonetheless.

Like most vaguely interesting things in my life, it started with an e-mail out of the blue.  I received an e-mail from someone who stops by my Blog semi-regularly, claiming to be a fan of my work (the name has been withheld to protect the guilty).  I was already suspicious, questioning his judgement.  Then he said he was going to get a tattoo of my Man-Thing Unwanted Valentine and wanted my blessing, so it was pretty much confirmed he had lost his mind.

I was sort of put into an awkward position... on the one hand, a tattoo is (mostly) permanent and my responsible side wanted to say "No way!  Don't do it!"  Then again, seeing a tattoo of my art is really cool.  An angel and devil fighting on my shoulder--which side would win?  Since he claimed to be a fan of my art, he already demonstrated a disturbing lack of perspicacity, so he had my blessing as long as I got to show off his tattoo on my Blog when it was finished and mock him mercilessly for doing so.

And here we are.  Tsk, tsk.  I weep for the future.  :-P

* * *

Here's the first step/black ink for the tattoo.

* * *

And, a couple weeks later, here's the finished tattoo with the color added.

* * *

I keep a folder of my art which has turned up on strange places; this certainly takes the cake in that regard (so far).  Still, I am simultaneously thrilled and horrified to see my art as a tattoo.  Surreal, man.  Surreal.

.

Shameless Self-Promotion: 100,000 Views

100,000 Views

Well, it took about 5-1/2 years, but last week I broke the 100,000 Views mark which, to me, seems like a lot.  At this rate, I should be crossing over the 1,000,000 Views mark sometime in the 2060's.  So, there's that to look forward to.  I'm sure most of the people were tricked into visiting with Google's algorithm accidentally suggesting a posting or picture from my site, or something along those lines.

And, there are even a few of you (very few, of course) who are actually masochistic enough to subscribe to my Blog and, to you, I have a special message:  Have you no sense of shame?  Where is your dignity?  I think it is time you take a long, hard look in the mirror and begin to ponder some of the choices you've made throughout your life...  Get it together, people!

Anyhoo, my sincere thanks to all of you out there -- tricked and otherwise -- who have taken the time to gawk at my modest Blog.  It is all GREATLY appreciated!  :-)

For those of you interested (and even those of you who aren't), below are the Step-By-Steps...

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils on a 1,000px x 1,400 document.  Based on the Jim Steranko "Hulk King-Size Special #1" cover, which I've used before as a parody cover.

* * *

STEP TWO:  Here is the half-hearted, grayscale, digital painting.  I figured I'd be doing most of the actual painting in the color layer, so I didn't bother with getting too much detail.

* * *

STEP THREE:  Over several New Layers, I kept building up the digital painting, adding and subtracting highlights and shadows, and just generally adding a few textures here and there.  I also went with actual fonts, rather than my semi-crummy hand-lettering.

THANKS AGAIN, Everyone!  Your kind attentions are very much appreciated!  :-)

* * *

Done digitally in PhotoShop.

.

Mea Culpa, Brian Bolland

Original vs. Replica 
(or Paxton vs. Pullman)

OK, this is a little strange and could almost qualify as shameless self-promotion if it weren't for the fact that, apparently, I've unknowingly become a minor headache to comic art legend, Brian Bolland... 

While checking stats for this Blog, I noticed there were several links from an article on the La Covacha website:

http://lacovacha.mx/noticias/wtf-la-portada-de-the-killing-joke-que-no-es-de-brian-bolland/

After hitting the "Translate to English" option in my Chrome browser (hey, I barely read and write in English, let alone another language), I read through the article "WTF | THE "COVER" OF THE KILLING JOKE IS NOT OF BRIAN BOLLAND" by Alberto Calvo.  It talked about how, many times, my replica of Brian Bolland's "Killing Joke" cover is used on websites in place of original Bolland's work.

WTF, indeed!

He lays out the basic, obvious reasons for this:

     1. It is not obscured by logos (mostly because I dislike lettering so much)
     2. The images are both online and larger in size than most

I'm also sure a lot of it has to do with some one doing a Google Image Search, seeing my picture, thinking they've found it, and grabbing the wrong one.  Y'know, like how people confuse Bill Paxton and Bill Pullman all the time.  Then, some one else sees that picture labelled as Brian Bolland's on their website, grabs it for their own, and the confusion compounds itself,   (Although, I've seen some examples where my signature is rather obvious in the picture, so that's kinds strange... You'd think they'd ask "Who the heck is this 'John Douglas' guy signing his name to Brian Bolland's cover?)

Here is a section from the article (and I will blame any quirkiness in grammar on the translation software, not Mr. Calvo):

When Brian Bolland came to Mexico a couple of years ago as a guest of La Mole Comic Con, he who made me realize that, apparently very popular, image was not its cover, but a recreation was. Some fans who have made use of services bound for filling their volumes of paperback used that image as cover, which no longer wryly funny, because some of them took to sign a copy on the cover of the original artist was replaced by a copy.

http://lacovacha.mx/noticias/wtf-la-portada-de-the-killing-joke-que-no-es-de-brian-bolland/

First, I find it terrifyingly euphoric that Brian Bolland has even seen any of my artwork.  I mean, I'm just a guy in the middle of nowhere, so the thought that one of my artistic heroes--or any comic creator for that matter--would have seen anything I did is almost too bizarre for me to wrap my mind around.  On the other hand, I am mortified if it has caused him any sort of distress, as mentioned in the article.  So, there is a half-eaten worm in that apple, if you will.  Mea Culpa!

While I understand it, I also find the confusion a little embarrassing in the "My version doesn't match nearly enough" kind of way.  I shot the finished painting with a sub-par camera, so the picture is a little blurry in a couple spots, the color is slightly shifted and washed out, and there is even a spot on the top-left where the light from the lamp reflected into the picture.  Sure, I could go back and color correct everything, but that would even cause more confusion, methinks.

I do have to admit, though, when I do stumble across my artwork out in the wilds of the internet, regardless of the context, I'm one step from clutching an imaginary Oscar and saying "You like me!  You really like me!"

All that said, it's kinda weird to read an article about yourself, especially since I had no idea it was being written.  WEIRD!  The world is a funny place, sometimes...

* * *

Oh, and one correction from an otherwise good article: I do **NOT** do cover replicas on request.  They are **HUGE** (20" x 30" / 50cm x 75cm), they take **FOREVER** to do, and it is generally a pain in the butt to try and match someone's style as closely as you can, line-by-line.  I am doing them as a favor for a friend of mine that runs a local comic book shop (speaking of which, I am currently finishing up the next one in the next couple weeks).  That said, if you are an eccentric billionaire with ridiculous amounts of cash to waste and want to have a giant comic book cover replica, please contact me. :-D

Here's a link to the Original Post featuring the creation of the "Killing Joke" Cover Replica.

.

Shameless Self-Promotion...

A bit of shameless self-promotion...

My Facehugger-Valentine was listed on the Drowning Pool Facebook page on February 14, 2015.   Cool!  :-)

.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I want to give a shout out to Rafael, who is currently stationed in Afghanistan, for having my art grace another T-Shirt overseas.  To pass the time at their base and provide some entertainment, they have created T-Shirts for various days of the week and landed on the idea of a Face-Hugger Friday and asked if they could use my drawing.  Absolutely!

He was kind enough to send me a few T-Shirts, a flag which was from the base, along with a citation for me.  It **ALMOST** makes it worth surely being on some sort of NSA Watch List now that I have received a package from Afghanistan.  :-D

FRONT:  I did not draw the Chest-Burster on the front of the shirt, but it is cool nonetheless!  And, hey, it's a CHEST-BURSTER, so it HAS to be on the Front of the shirt.

* * *

BACK:  My Face-Hugger drawing is on another T-Shirt!  WEIRD!  It is part of my growing pile of swag, and my art finds itself on another shirt overseas.  (See HERE for the tale of the Face-Hugger drawing being used by Buried, a Dutch Death Metal Band.)

Rafael, when you get back stateside, contact me again.  At very least I owe you some sort of original drawing/sketch.  This stuff is COOL!  :-)

.

Shameless Self-Promotion / Cross-Promotion

Please forgive a shameless bit of self-promotion/cross-promotion.  This is still hard for me to get my head around... I was contacted by Joel from the band BURIED, a Dutch death metal band hoping to use my drawing of the Facehugger for their T-Shirts.  That sounded super-cool, so of course I said "YES"!

I'm in Minnesota--about the middest of the Mid-West--so it's weird for me to think about a band from the Netherlands finding my art (part one of the impossible), and then liking it enough to want to put it on their t-shirts (part two of the impossible), and contacting me for permission and putting up a link to my site on their Facebook Page and sending me a few shirts and CD's to boot (part three of the impossible).   The fact there will be people in the Netherlands walking around, wearing shirts with my art on them, is just so weird for me to think about and try to wrap my head around.

So, my secret dream to be on a metal band's t-shirt is something I can cross of my bucket-list.  I would say I can't wait to do more t-shirt art for metal bands, but I don't even know how it happened this time, let alone do it again...  ;-)

Here is one of the band members wearing the shirt (my box of swag is in the mail and should be arriving any day).

You can visit Buried's Facebook page HERE!  If you happen to be at a venue at which they are playing, feel free to purchase one--or more!--of their shirts and CD's!  :-D

Here's the original Facehugger drawing from my series of "Unwanted Valentines".

.