Honeymooners promo art...

These ads were created for comic book distributors' preview catalogues, usually produced within a day or two. I was responsible for writing the copy, creating the illustrations, hand-lettering and production. They were a lot of fun to work on.

"The Thing" from another flat file--

I was five years old when I first saw "The Thing from Another World". Most of the overlapping and science-heavy dialogue couldn't hold my attention, but when the creature made his appearances my eyes widened. Just the thought of all those people being held hostage in a remote ice station by an alien monster made it seem like a terrifying version of the "I'm gonna get you!" game of hide and seek I'd play with my older cousins. The creature scared the hell out of me, but I couldn't look away.

The most interesting aspect of this film is how little screen time the alien creature was given. And when he is on-screen he's cloaked in shadow. Less was more, much more, as opposed to contemporary horror and sci-fi films wherein all of the gore and details are polished in cgi and thrown at us in each and every scene.

These sketches of the Thing were done while watching a vhs copy and trying to figure out just what this elusive creature actually looked like. In the sixteen years since there have been digitally remastered vhs and dvd releases, along with photos and "making of..." articles in mags like Filmfax, Outre and Cinefantastique, etc... But at the time I made these studies all I had was a vhs player and a pause button.

Looking at these sketches with older, wiser(?) eyes I see plenty of places where I dropped the ball - I didn't notice that he had a chest emblem, five fingers on each hand, his head's too bulbous, etc... but I do remember having fun drawing them.

I hope you've seen this film and appreciate it as much as I do. If you haven't seen it, I envy you- you're in for a real treat.

"Keep watching the skies!--"

We support--

tremors--

The Creature...

It was twenty years ago today...

...give or take a few months.

After working at GEM Studios for eight years, doing storyboards and finished art I decided to pursue some comic book work. I enjoyed superheroes, but I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of drawing them. Norm Abramoff owned a small comic book shop in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and one day while we were talking I mentioned that I was interested in creating comics. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a surprise hit, so doing a small press comic seemed feasible. By chance I had my portfolio in the car, and while looking through it Norm suggested licensing a well known property and turning it into a comic book series. The Honeymooners was a big late night syndication hit on TV, so he thought that property might be a good candidate for publishing.

Norm and I partnered with Triad Publications and produced the Honeymooners for three years. The best part of the job was managing and directing a small group of freelancers- friends and co-workers I'd met and whose work I admired. My buddy Vinny Abbruzzese would help me out on cover art by airbrushing our logo, while Susan Sykes and Ted Camut would assist me in rendering the story pages. I'd do the inks and color the figures to set the lighting and Susan and Ted would take it from there. When they were done I'd make a final pass over it. Some sequences, like the midnight snack and exploding hot dog were solo efforts. Vic Spadoni supplied color tinted covers for a few issues, as well as cover art for issue four. The 48 page Christmas Issue would have been cancelled without the help of Brian Postman, who provided two full page pencils and lots of color work.

A young Jimmy Palmiotti did some retouching for us on a photo of wrestler Lou Albano and a carousel horse for our interior covers of the Coney Island issue. And Evan Dorkin expressed interest in working with us, but he never did for some reason or other.

John Reiner of the comic strip Howard Huge (Parade magazine), helped out with page layouts for the issue in this post, but I don't have any recollection of how he became involved. Maybe our publisher, Ron Merians hired him to help me get ahead of schedule. I almost had the chance to work with Jim Fern, but it never happened.

A big highlight in the run was when the legendary Jack Davis illustrated a wrap-around cover for our "Coney Island Baby" issue. One of the biggest, most beautiful pieces of illustration I've ever seen. I wonder where it is now?

The greatest part of the whole experience was working with breakdown penciler Win Mortimer. Win began his carreer at DC in the late '40s, and was one of their most prolific cover artists. In the early '60s DC began publishing Batman Annuals. Their cover art was usually a large Batman figure and a few reproductions of the covers from stories reprinted in the issue. Win's covers were always my favorite, so you can imagine how happy I was to work with him. He was a consummate professional, always getting his pages in early, and every panel was perfect.
At least until I got in there and mucked it up with my inks.

It was lots of work and lots of fun. I hope you enjoy these images.

Rods and Monsters...

This is another Franky image from the same "80s book as the previous post. I was a big fan of Mr. Monster in the eighties, loved Michael T. Gilbert's art and quirky scripting style. Old MM stayed in print for at least ten years and was always a fun read. Sadly these days MM is only the host of "Mr. Monster's Comic Crypt", a series of articles appearing in Roy Thomas' "Alter Ego" magazine. I think Michael T. is currently writing stories for Disney comic books, I'm hoping he'll script a few more MM adventures. I miss that ol' monster hunter!

Old tricks...

These are out of a sketchbook from '82. In those days NYC was an anything goes place and totally out of control. There were guys selling reefer on every corner, cars being stolen every minute and drug treatment centers filling every square inch of open real estate in the run down sections of the city.

It looked like the kind of place that would scare Frankenstein's Monster, so I did a few gags based on that notion. Over on the "Gum or Mints" blog the subject is Frankenstein's Monster, I'm doing something new for that site but I thought it would be fun to post these here.

Break shot...

Time stood still in some parts of my old neighborhood in Brooklyn. Old bars full of old drunks and Pool Rooms populated by "hitters" who never grew out of the fifties. Most of the tough guys were gofers for the local mob family, low level thugs who would get their hands dirty while the capo's sat in their social clubs sipping espresso and talking about the old days. I'd occassionally see incidents like this one, and then document them in sketches, with varying degrees of success.

(detail, inks & prismacolor pencil, 1976)

a work in progress...

Here's something I'm working on for the "waitress" theme currently being explored at the gum or mints blog. I'll post the progress here and the final piece there.

Old School...

This was a "dummy" of a magazine, created in May of '73 for a school assignment. At the time I was influenced by the art nouveau approach, Peter Max, Andy Warhol and everything else that floated by. And, of course The Beatles.

When I was given the assignment I immediately thought of creating a music magazine and plunged into the layout stage.

In those pre-Mac, dark days everything had to be created by hand and in position. Color prints were too costly, and color copiers didn't exist. So I worked on acetates, inking with rapidographs and painting color behind them for all of the article illustrations.

The cover was created on bond paper with rapidograph pen, color inks and Letraset rub-on type. The masthead was hand lettered.I can't remember how long this took, I'm thinking at least a week.

What I do remember is having a lot of fun producing it.

Something old, something blue...

Editorial sample, 1978. Ink, watercolor, paper & type.

Searching for a character...

There's a waitress at Billy's Deli in Glendale named Evelyn, she's amazingly funny and sweet, and she's from the Bronx. I've been trying to sketch her from memory, but it seems like the only thing I'm getting right is her dialogue.
I'll have to bring my sketchpad to Billy's and order a brisket sandwich.

Art from the Crypt...

These go way back to the early '70s. I was working a lot in pen & ink and color pencils on illustration board. I was also devouring any Will Eisner art I could find. Eisner's still a big influence on my work today.

Happy birthday, Jack "King" Kirby!

This entry was taken from a 1980 NCS Album. Jack Kirby would have been 90 years old today. I'm guessing his influence on storytelling will last for a thousand years. Maybe longer.

Fire in the Big Top...

With or without stars? I can't decide.

Film sketching...

Sometimes I like to watch a film and sketch the characters.

Cops...

This final "cops" sketch is of Sgt. Gannon of the 76th Precinct in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where I grew up. This guy fired a few shots at me and my friends one night in the late '60s. We noticed he was drunk as he tripped out of his squad car in an effort to chase us off a street corner and weren't about to wait until he approached us. So we ran away and he gave chase, firing his revolver and cursing us as we made our escape. If he had better aim that night he would have been the last cop I ever saw, so I think it's appropriate for a memory sketch of his image to close this series.





For John Quinn & Dan Thompson's character concepts club.