So last friday I was rushed to the hospital with an apparent heart attack. After lots of tests it was determined it wasn’t a “Heart Attack” in the traditional sense. I was diagnosed with a coronary artery spasm. Which as I (an illustrator) understand it, was like a minor heart attack without the plaque build up in the arteries. So a good news style heart attack I guess.
Either way I am off work and not drawing for about a week. That’s hitting me in the financial department fairly significantly. So I am going to use my heart problem to selfishly not lose my ability to pay my bills by having a sale on prints.
Until the end of march all prints are 50% off. AND STILL FREE SHIPPING!!!!!
So last October, writer Michael (TwoGargs) McAdam and I tried to get a kickstarter going for issue 3 of our horror comic Gloaming. We came very close but sadly didn’t quite make it. We are trying again. We’ve changed up some of our rewards and also didn’t time it at christmas time when everybody is much poor. So here we go again.
Gloaming is the comic series I illustrate with my writer Michael McAdam. We have finished 2 issues so far. They can both be read over at TwoGargs Comics
But now we have decided to get help to get issue 3 off the ground. Sadly self publishing an indy comic is not a cheap endeavor. Both Michael McAdam and I have a deep and driving love of comics and horror stories and we really want to share this love with you guys.
Maybe a little dramatic in the title but with the loss of Tobe Hooper last week, the recent loss of George A Romero also today being 2 years since Wes Craven’s passing, it’s kinda feeling true.
So yesterday i finished this piece.
I loved the idea that three of the world’s greatest horror directors getting together afterwards and hit the theatre.
This really got me thinking about influence and idols. We i was a kid these guys were some of mine. I vividly VIVIDLY remember when I first saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Most of the kids I knew growing up had heroes that played sports, action movie stars and rock singers. I was different. On top of illustrator greats like Bernie Wrightson (this is a whole other post), Richard Corben, Frank Frazetta, Mike Ploog and an assortment of other illustrators, Most of my heroes were horror movie directors and writers. Hooper, Romero and Craven were 3 of my top 5. Clive Barker and John Carpenter are the other two.
Of course before we get into this. I am flat out saying I DO NOT support/condone/believe in Nazi’s, white Supremacy or any of that shit!.
I am a gay man,
a majority of my immediate family are jewish,
and my Granddad was at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Now that’s out of the way, let’s move on.
I’ve been having a crisis of conscious of late. A few years ago I drew this.
It’s a parody mashup of Frozen and the fantastically schlocky 70s exploitation movie Ilsa:She Wolf of the SS. It’s always been a popular print for me but now i’m considering pulling it from my roster. This was designed purely as a silly movie mashup and I have yet have anybody get upset with me about the poster (at least nobody has said anything to me). Everybody seemed to get the joke. Even younger people who didn’t know about the original 70s movie laughed and seemed to get the sillyness that was what the intention.
Now certain world events and certain world leaders have taken what was a historical evil back to an acceptable lifestyle choice. Now I find myself questioning my own views about what’s acceptable and what’s not.
I have always been a big fan of dark and inappropriate humour. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve told more than my fair share of horrible tasteless jokes. As an artist I feel the concept of free speech and freedom of expression is one of the most important and vital parts of life. I’ve always believed that joking about horrible things is the best way of taking away the power that those horrible things have. I actively tried to never insult and or offend a person personally. But I’ve never accepted that there are any subjects that were taboo and/or unacceptable to discuss. I’ve always tried to live my life in the footsteps of a greater man. George Carlin!
Now that belief is in question. Because like most things in life, some person or persons have ruined it for everybody.
So earlier this week my friends over at Two Gargoyles ComicsMike Rieger and Michael McAdam were not going to be able to pull off this weeks web comic of “In The Wings”. Since I draw Gloaming for TwoGargs I took it upon myself in a presumptuous manner to guest write and draw it for them without being asked. It appears that my ego paid off because they used it. The main joke came from an off hand comment Michael McAdam made about me as a character guesting in the strip and that I should be seen in a dark closet hissing at people. I decided that the more Hitchcockian aspect of NOT seeing the horror was funnier.
So following up my initial post of the Best Little Horror Con in the West These are the results of that trial.
I brought Eugene A Clark a copy of my Big Daddy’s Garage sign. He loved it. He asked for extra copies (of which I gracefully agreed to. In fact I’m gonna send him the original printable file, That way he can print out copies of MY ART to sign at shows)
Secondly Ari Lehman loved his prints too.
He even dragged me over to Derek Mears to get him to sign it too!
As always at the show I was joined at my table by Michael Mcadam of Two Gargs comics. It was a great show. 2 days of horror but in the best possible way! Sales, laughs, and copious amounts of caffeine.
