A variety of concepts designing Mickey Mouse in different styles.

Buck Rogers had his iconic “Atomic Disentegrator” gun, Flash Gordon had his ear piercing “Signal” gun and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet had his “Atomic” rifle, but none of these interstellar, weapons of alien destruction hold a candle…errr.. rocket flare, to Budget Raygun’s “Applesauce Fire-Fighter” by artist/writer Kevin Skinner.

One is instantly captivated by the images of Mr. Skinner’s “Buget Ray-Guns“. They look like props right out of an old ’50s b, Sci-Fi film like “Zombies of the Stratosphere or from a classic Golden Age issue of “Planet Comics”. Yet, they also hold a strange familiarity that can be tough to put your finger on. Something you’ve perhaps seen in your grandfather’s garage filled with relics of early, electric tools and gizmos. Or…some sort of utilitarian object you caught a glimpse of at an estate sale in a kitchen that never left the mid-century, an era when things were still made in the good ‘ol USA and made to last with stainless steel like an old “Waring” blender that if left in the middle of the road would cause a “Smart” car to crumble and flip on impact. Yeah….those were the days when things were made with pride, with heart.
Just like these incredible ray-guns.

The imaginative construction and minimalist, yet stunning photography almost cloaks the notion that these works of art are made from found objects. They all look like they dropped out of a time machine from the past and at the same time the distant future. Explore every facet of Mr. Skinners site and also discover his incredible gift for prose, which will feed your curiosity further and propel you to a universe where you will yearn for the “Applesauce Fire-fighter”, “Wild West Bend” or the “Universal Speedgun” to be in your grasp.

Navigating to Budget Ray-Gun for me is more than a visit and eyecandy, it’s inspiration, it’s entertainment, it’s anticipation… it’s an experience.

I have a huge passion for comics strips old and new, from Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo in
Slumberland” to Joe Matt’s “Peepshow”. And recently, I’ve become very enamoured with the web-comic
“60 Ways To Leave Your Mother (Alone)” by artist Michael Buckley.

The strips are based and influenced by Michael’s young children who try to stay out of Mom’s hair, thus the strips namesake, and their adventures which are beautifully documented and drawn by their dad. What I really enjoy about the strips is, they evoke that magical, childhood innocence that the classic “Gasoline Alley” Sunday pages had but with a wonderful, personal and modern narrative all it’s own.

I just gawk in awe at the wonderful ilustrations, inking, layouts and hand lettering.
Who even does hand lettering anymore?!
One of the most thoroughly enjoyable and clever comic strips out there!
Check it out here.

And…

…what I’m reeeeeally excited about is that Mr. Buckley is trying to self publish the series thru Kickstarter so that folks can have an actual book of these awesome strips collected in one limited edition volume! This is one comic-strip book that’s a must have for my library!

For more info go to the Kickstarter site to see how you can get signed copies, prints, even original art, not to mention how your help can make this talented author/artist’s dream come true!

10.75″ x 5.25″ final

Sketch 3

Sketch 2

Sketch 1

Detail of final

Detail of final

Detail from sketch 2

Detail from sketch 2

I took a break from working on my Wonder Woman book over the weekend to finish a piece for the Kaiju Attack Show in Barcelona, Spain. It’s always an honor to be able to participate in a group show especially one curated by Emilio Garcia & Mark Nagata. What I like even more when I can find the time to do a show is the nice mental break it gives me from what can sometimes be a ” Groundhog Day” monotony. And the freedom to do whatever I like, in most cases draw my favorite subject matter, monsters and heroes.

Ogon Bat, also known as Golden Bat, Fantaman or Phantoma is one of my favorite comic book heroes of all time. He was created by Japanese writer Ichiro Suzuki and artist Takeo Nagamatsu in 1930 so he pre-dates Batman and Superman. Considered Japan’s very first Super-hero, he first appeared in either a pulp style magazine or for the time, a popular one man, traveling show in Japan known as Kamishibai, in which big cards of art (or comic book style panels) are shuffled thru a viewer as the story is told to live audiences. You can read more about Kamishibai in an earlier post here.

Know as the protector of Atlantis and “god of justice and protector of the weak”, Ogon Bat had a maniacal laugh as he thwarted evil and villains, thoroughly enjoyable in the 1960s anime and 1966 Sonny Chiba live action film. The animated series featured a young orphan girl, Marie Yamatone, who discovered Ogon Bat in a tomb. Whenever she or her family were threatened by danger, her tears and cries for help would reawaken Ogon Bat. Weilding his cane and leaping thru the air in his billowing cape, Ogan bat came to the rescue. A scary skull faced fellow laughing like a loon, helping fellow man… doesn’t get any better for me.

For this piece, which I’ve been sketching out sporadically for a few weeks, I choose a simple medium that I’m most comfortable with and can work efficiently in, pencils and markers. I also choose to illustrate it on tracing paper for a few reasons, I love the texture it gives the subtleties of my pencil work and because I can get really interesting effects with a marker on the surface which isn’t porous so the marker stays wet for a short time allowing me to move it around, rework it or get splotchy bleeding effects kind of like watercolors, and I can work super fast in it.

The last image I choose to post above this text was the head detail of one of my initial sketches in pencil and marker. I always end up liking my quick, impulsive and gestural roughs a lot more than my final illustrations. These quick sketches always have a dynamic, kinetic and emotional quality that I can never seem to replicate.
I need to gather all the sketches I have buried in folders and compile a sketch book that’s nothing but the first roughs of my ideas on paper.
The show runs June 17th thru 31st 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

I squeezed in some time to create a piece for Gallery 1988‘s  ”Another Dimension” show.
The exhibit consists of work by several artists inspired by the classic “Twilight  Zone” television series.
My initial thought was to do a piece from the “To Serve Man” episode with  a young, gigantic Richard Keil playing the Kanamit that comes to earth with the “cookbook” Lol! Great episode btw!

But more than the great stories, characters and creatures of the series, the image of Rod Serling narrating is just so synonymous with the Twilight Zone show and one that stuck in my head as I imagine it did with most other folks,  I opted to create my own illustration/caricature of him.

A few months back while rummaging thru the flat files of paper in Hallmark’s art store I came across these enormous sheets of vintage rag paper made in india. I bought up a stack of them not really knowing how I’d use them until the piece for this show needed to be completed. The paper is so incredibly beautiful. My photographs certainly do it no justice. Every square inch is filled with different specs, pieces of reused paper including tiny shreds of newspaper in which you can barely make out letters from some long lost article of a tragedy, a story about politics, love or an ad for a movie from Bollywood, who knows, that’s what I loved about it. I thought the rag paper was perfect for this project so I decided to create an image that would be graphic enough to let the paper become an integral part of the illustration. So as you looked at Rod Serlings face you’d get glimpses of the texture and tiny specs of paper that tempt you to look closer…you try to make out what each shred is or says….
suddenly you find yourself in the fibers and tapestry of …”THE TWILIGHT ZONE!”
Tadddatahtun! Hahaha!

Anyway, Rod Serling was a semi short fellow but I wanted to depict him much taller, bigger like his views and opinions on politics and society were.
Above, starting from the very bottom piece, I thought I’d share the entire piece but from start to finish including my first marker doodle, to the full size drawing on my wall ( the illustration is 40 inches tall ), to the final piece, done in white acrylic and appropriately, in India ink.

Click to enlarge image

Sketch for perhaps a new comic book/proposal. Batman vs Daikaiju! (Japanese for giant strange beasts or monsters).

Sorry Sergio Leone, but I’m creating a new genre of crappy westerns!
Maybe I can animate this character and bring this doodle…errr poodle to life!

MICKEY MOJIRA = Mickey Mouse + Godzilla (Gojira in Japanese)

RODONALD DUCK = Rodan + Donal Duck

GAMOOFY = Gamera + Goofy

These were a series of small paintings I did for a Kaiju ( Japanese for monsters ) show in Japan curated by
Mark Nagata a few years ago. I’m pretty passionate about Japanese monster films and toys along with American characters like Mickey Mouse and thought it would be interesting to create hybrid creatures from some of the most popular characters of the east and west. I think these would make a fun series of vinyl toys if I could get away with it. Then again it is parody so maybe it’s possible.
Click on the images to see more detail.

So here is a little toy gem I was able to purchase for $25. The crappy economy has some perks because years ago, this pint size robot would have cost much more.
He’s about six inches tall and his torso is chrome plated tin, the rest plastic. When you wind him up he walks and his chest sparks. He also shoots two missiles…and they go really, really far so this guy has a wicked spring action built in!

A few reasons why this is a really nice robot toy, for me anyway. Aside from purchasing it cheap and the great box art which in most cases can be better than the toy itself, this particular robot is made from one of my favorite Japanese tin toy manufacturers, T.P.S., which stands for Tokyo Plaything Shokai also known as “Toplay” pronounced “toe-play”. TPS also manufactured a lot of tin toys for US importers such as Linemar, Cragstan and other American toy companiies in the 50s and 60s.

In my research I also discovered that TPS happens to stand for “The Toyota Production System” which was developed by Toyota in 1948. This was a manufacturing philosophy that focused on “lean manufacturing” and  was embodied by a lot of Japanese companies.  I think Toplay embraced the TPS manufacturing  process and wanted that reflected in their logo, not only in the initals but also in the three fingers being held up. The whole Toyota Production System philosophy was initially based on eliminating three things;  overburden (muri),  inconsistency (mura) and waste (muda). Just my observation, I didn’t want to get sidetracked too much but I thought it was interesting enough info to share.

Anyway, TPS the toy company was a favorite of mine 15 years ago or so when I collected tin toys. They weren’t really known for making robots, this one in particular was probably made as the result of the success Horikawa was having at the time making their series of tin robots. TPS was better known for great tin lithography and making really clever, imaginative wind-up toys that involved funny animals skipping rope, golfing, playing billiards, bouncing balls and more. Below are a few examples of their more popular tin toys and my favorite wind-ups, “Comical Clara” and “Pop Eyed Pete.”

I’m really busy working on the pencils for my third Penguin / DC comics super-hero picture book for kids;
“Wonder Woman – The Story of the Amazon Princess”. It wont be released untill next year but I thought I’d take a break and share the cover design which also depicts the retro illustration style I’ll be using. This was probably the toughest of the all the super-hero books to write because Wonder Woman and the Amazons have a pretty complicated history. The rivalry between the Greek gods Ares and Aphrodite pitted men against women resulting in treachery, seduction, slavery…some provocative stuff.  To be able to encapsulate it all in a simplified and toned down manner for young kids was quite a challenge.
Well, poor me…I have to get back to drawing Amazons. ; )