Character sketches

Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit

The Nain Rouge, aka the Red Dwarf, aka the Red Demon, aka The Demon of the Straits

A Red Dwarf Star (duh)

More Nain Rouge

My notes on the last page refer to the symbolism of the two things being held by the Spirit of Detroit statue, seen here with its creator, Marshall Fredericks.

CAUTION! WIP (Work in Progress)

I'm pretty sure that the more I add to this one, the better it will become. That's the working theory, anyways.

Graph Mandala

Sometimes, it's easier on a grid.

NEXT Art Fair 2009/Thomas Roach: Fun, Natural Fun (Take Off Your Shoes)

I was asked, just this morning, to be a part of a collaboration with my friend Thomas Roach in a joint drawing (my part of the collaboration might look familiar) that will be on display on the 7th floor of the Merchandise Mart (222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago) as a part of NEXT Fair 2009, represented by Scott Projects (actually, to be fair, I'm represented by Thomas Roach who is represented by Scott Projects). The show's opening preview is this Thursday, April 30, and then will be on display from Friday May 1 - Monday, May 4. This is awesomely exciting, stop by if you have the time!

And, if you have more time after that, head on over to Scott Projects to see Thomas' solo show entitled Fun, Natural Fun (Take Off Your Shoes), opening Saturday, May 2, 2009 from 6-10 PM. I've always felt that Tom's work has always had a truly sincere quality to it, and he is always pushing the limits of image-making into new territories.

Run, Work in Progress

This is a work in progress, working title "Run." It's mixed media, and I would tell you all of those medias but I am instead not going to until the thing is done. I have been making a whole bunch of these weirdo faces, as evidenced by my previous two posts, which is where this collage/drawing began. Before I knew it he had a body and was running in the hills. The next step, I think, is to add some kind of explosion in the distance, inspired by an explosion symbol I have been seeing a lot of in my study of the history of Japanese manga. Here are some images I found online and scanned from the books "One Thousand Years of Manga" and the comic book story "Barefoot Gen."

And finally, just to show how amazing the monsters and creatures of Japanese art (always a huge inspiration for me) have been since basically the beginning:

Over the Shoulder 5

Over-the-Shoulder Numbers

Single Facescape

Single Facescape

15" length x 11" height

Graphite and colored pencil on paper

Untitled (Wooden Mandala)

Untitled (Wooden Mandala), 2008

17.5" diameter x 1" thick

Guash, ink, graphite, and marker

on plywood (2 pieces laminated together)

Batman #156 - "Robin Dies At Dawn"

God I love this drawing. I don't understand it, but I kind of wish this Japanese-esque style of drawing was used a lot more in older comics. In this story, published in June 1963, Batman and Robin find themselves on an alien world, and the inhospitable environment ends up killing the Boy Wonder. Then Batman wakes up and it's revealed that there never was an outer space adventure - the Bat was hallucinating the whole time, having volunteered for some kind of government-military experiment designed to "test the effect abject loneliness would have on potential astronauts on upcoming spaceflights." I haven't read the story yet (it's in the process of d o w n l o a d i n g right now), but it plays a key role in the most recent run on Batman.

If you are interested at all by my nerdy fascination and look to expand your nerdiness yourself, this page does a great job of critiquing Batman #156:

http://www.hembeck.com/Covers/Batman156.htm

The Detroit News: Friday August 11, 1967: A Time of Tragedy, A Special Report

Watch Pt. 1

These are the rough beginnings of my stories centered around the 1967 Detroit Riots. A better (and more complete) version of this will be ready in a few weeks, look out for it at Quimby's and Chicago Comics!

S'more computations (Page 120)

That bird guy has got to have a major role in an upcoming story. Just look at 'im!

1967 Detroit Riot Map

Gypsy King

Why do I always want to write "gypsey" instead of "gypsy?"

(A Short While Later, After Google):

Oh, it's spelled both ways.