Friday, July 15, 2011

Yes, I am available for commissions.

A great artist was lost to the world when I chose to become a writer....


That's a portrait of Bigfoet, the Tyrolian Yeti, as will be seen in the upcoming NUELOW Games release "Icing Oetzi: A ROLF! Historical Recreation".

Thursday, July 14, 2011

I got a little more elaborate than usual...

... with my cover design for the NUELOW Games edition of John Kendrick Bangs' "Alice in Blunderland".


I keep the cover images for the NUELOW releases very, very simple so they'll shrink down for display on sales listings on websites, and I think I may have outsmarted myself with this one. It doesn't shrink nearly as nicely as others. Still, I like the look.

If you follow politics at all, this book might actually be of interest to you. Although it was written in 1907, the jokes seem disturbingly relevant as Alice travels to a place where dimwitted politicos govern by whim and they view everyone and everything as their personal property. And that includes the teeth in people's heads and whatever they think of as their "private lives." Check it out. Plus, the $0.99 you'll spend goes to a great cause: Keeping me in house and home!


RPGNow.com


(BTW, I use the term "design" loosely when referring to the covers I make for the NUELOW Games products. All I do is make a logo, select art or photos from my archive [but limiting myself to the things I am certain I have clear rights to], and then put them together with a couple of graphics editing programs. As a graphic designer, I make a great movie and comics reviewer. Speaking of which... I'll have a new review up on this blog soon. It's been too long!)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Picture Perfect Wednesday:
Cross-genre Weirdness on the Planet of the Apes

When I was a kid, among the first comics I owned and read were issues of Marvel's black-and-white "Planet of the Apes Magazine." One of the stories I loved the most, and bits of which I remember to this very day, was an epic tale of a time-traveler who sets out to rescue Taylor and the other astronauts stuck in the future... only to find himself stuck there, but in a place far weirder than any one they visited. And, like Camelot, perhaps even somewhat silly... as this title page shows.


Click on the image to see a larger version of that glorious Rico Rival splash page.

Joe Bloke at his wonderful Grantbridge Street & Other Misadventures recently posted clear, legible scans of the entire tale and gave me the opportunity to read "Kingdom on an Island of the Apes" again for the first time since 1976 or so. And the jaded grognard that I am now loved it every bit as the tiny tyke I was then.

Click here to read this story by Doug Moench and Rico Rival that mixes sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book weirdness. It is one of the greatest tales to ever emerge from the House of Ideas. (Oh... and don't be frightened by the "adult content" warning. There are no naked boobies in this story.)

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Picture Perfect Special: A Matter of Quality


These pictures of actress Patty Shepard show that you can get an interesting effect if you make a high-quality scan of low-quality images. In this case, pictures from printed page in a magazine. Click on the pictures to see the full-sized versions.

The pictures were originally spotted on this Spanish horror blog. For more on Patty Shepard and her movies, visit the Terror Titans blog.

(And my thanks to Ms. Shepard for summing up the unifying theme of this blog.)

Friday, July 1, 2011

Oh swish! Candies for Cuties!

Fashions of the 2000s, as envisioned by designers in the 1930s.



Wait until you see the male fashion; I believe that designer must have truly had the gift of prophecy. And that his or her Third Eye was gazing upon Seattle.