Curses! Broiled Again!

This was drawn for Andy Helfer's Big Book of Urban Legends back in the 90's. I also did the lettering.

Even though we don't see much of it, I tried to get a Miami Deco look to the architecture.

I think I was on a bit of a chiaroscuro kick at the time. Why else would I go to all the trouble with the high contrast lighting in panel three? By the way, in conversations I always avoid using the word "chiaroscuro" because I can spell it but I can't pronounce it.

The narrator is Jan Harold Brunvand, the real life author of the Urban Legend books. They sent me a photo for reference. I like the bit of business with him plugging in the tanning bed. I think it was in the script but I don't remember for sure. Not that it's particularly interesting or funny... it's just better to have people doing something, especially if the alternative is having them just stand there and talk with their arms at their side.

I don't know what the little shmuts is on the floor below the outlet in panel one. I guess I didn't want the floor too clean for some reason.

Jack B. Quick (and Batman) cover art for Comic Book Artist magazine

Update: Here are some thumbnails and a larger layout for the cover. I forgot I had these!

My buddy Robert Jewell suggested the flying contraption that Jack cobbled together. Sorry I don't have a larger scan of the pencils.

Museum of Oddities, page one

The discussion of hand-lettering got me thinking about this one.

The first notion was to do a Haunted House story but it evolved into something a bit more cheerful than that.

I had a lot of fun drawing it, mainly because Jeff Parker is one of those generous writers who tries to play to an artist's strengths.

The house is based on a real building, located a couple of blocks from here. I changed it a little but the basic shape is the same.

Working out the details on the title/poster images was the biggest challenge here, but I think they add a lot to the splash so it was worth the trouble.

The Marvel office not only let me do my own hand lettering, right on the board, but they let me do the colors and seps too. I kept it mostly flat but put in a few graduations/airbrushing here and there. My model for coloring is still the Silver Age comic covers at DC. With Photoshop, it's hard to know when to stop, but I still want the coloring to look like old comics, without the big dots.

Don't try this at home

You know, this is putting an awful burden on someone who just draws stuff with little thought of who – if anyone – might see it or even if it's worth being looked at more than once.

My first reaction was, "No, if I'd known you were going to do that I'd have done a better drawing!"

The artist did a nice job though... I like the addition of the Bat Signal. If anything, I think he improved the drawing.