Recent Commissions

All art here was drawn with black ink on Bristol board and then digitally colored. The requester received both.

This first one goes pretty deep into comic book lore. There was a very popular comic in the 40's and 50's called Captain Marvel. The main character was a boy who yelled, "SHAZAM," and turn into a hero. A comics company in the UK created their own rip-off character named Marvelman. In that comic, a boy would yell, "KIMOTA," (which is "atomic" backwards, basically) and turn into a hero. This art switches it around for hilarious results.

In present times, Captain Marvel is merely called Shazam, and Marvelman is called Miracleman. Comics! You have to pay attention.

Below is two golden age heroes in public domain, redesigned by the requester. I thought it was clever of him to put the Moth and the Flame together!

Next up is a Star Trek request. If you know the original series, you will no doubt recognise elements from Mirror, Mirror. The requester asked for the goatee to be on Uhura. I think it's funny that it implies it was fake when Spock wore it.

Golden Age Pin-up

 This was a fun commission I drew for Kevin Garcia. He reimagined a few public domain, comic heroes and asked if I would create a time-period piece. I did! The below image shows the original golden age characters, and his redesigns.

The Captain Triumphs Again!

It's a lazy Sunday and I felt like goofing off. So, I added a cliche joke to an old comic cover. It shouldn't make me laugh, but it does.

Sharp-eyed folks will notice I added bleed-thru to the new yellow areas. Worth the trouble? Ha! Doubtful.

Btw, here's the original. Admittedly, it's a bit odd too.

Black Cat Judo Tricks!

Black Cat was a popular superhero in the golden age of comics. Not only did she keep the kids entertained with her stories, she also taught them Judo! I thought one of these features would make a fun shirt. I reworked it from the original art by Lee Elias. You can get it here at my TeePublic store! You can buy the art on other products too; stickers, bags, etc. Everything in my store is on sale till Sunday!

Hmmm, it would be wrong to leave you with just one Judo Trick. The feature I've based this on ran in Black Cat #7, on and off, through issue #28. Here they are! Click to enlarge--

This one is the basis for the shirt-- 

What Artists Think - Blue Bolt Edition

I'm currently on a streak of turning old, public domain, comic images into T-shirts, and such. My latest can be seen above. Available by clicking here. I'm very happy with the results, but this image was filled with a few challenges. Click on any image to enlarge.

The original cover, from Blue Bolt #105, is below. Here's a few thoughts-- Note the reflection of light on Blue Bolt's helmet. I've noticed in old comics, artists often use this shape to indicate a highlight. The hilarious thing is that it's in four sections, like light coming through a window frame. This works great for apples in a still life, painted inside, but not so much for outdoor scenes. I suppose it merely became a symbol for reflected light at some point.

Also, his left, lower leg is really long! I had to draw his right, lower leg from scratch and decided to make it a similar length. I took liberties with his cape too, just to make it a nice shape overall.

I knew I would need to re-ink this cover to get the maximum clarity out of it. But, as I started to work on it, I realized there was no way such tiny hatch work was going to print well on fabric. That kind of detail would definitely clog up and get blotchy.

I paused and considered not even doing this image. Except, I really liked it! It was draw by the magnificent LB Cole and was a great representation of sci-fi comics from the Golden Age. I ultimately decided to simplify the inking and replace the hatching with shadow colors. Happy it worked out.

And here you thought doing art was all cheese and crackers.

Genius has limitations. Stupidity has none.

I have several new images up at TeePublic! Click here to see my store. I just finished the above art for an Albert Einstein quote, "Genius has its limitations. Stupidly, sadly, has none." I really debated whether or not to add the distress texture. Ultimately I decided to, since I wanted it to feel vintage. This is all my original art, created by looking at a few different photos. Did he really say these words? It's comics, folks!

Hmm, that quote is a bit on the negative side, but society might have gotten me down lately. I also posted my redrawing of an old Fletcher Hanks panel from a Stardust, the Super Wizard story. The comic is in public domain. It's now on a shirt and multiple other products, like masks.

Crazy stuff, huh? Here's the original page, from Big 3 Comics #2, 1941.