In the future, everyday life on an Earth colony planet is quiet and routine...until the day an unexpected and devastating attack from space disrupts it forever. Suddenly, people who lived normal, predictable lives are caught between two brutal forces intent on mutual destruction. One of those forces is from Earth. But which of them is the enemy?
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It's always nice for an artist, especially one with a long resume, to surprise themselves on an assignment. This project did that for me. It was my second time illustrating a TORG sourcebook for West End Games, and the job was HUGE. Over 40 illustrations from a genre-bending scenario of Earth beset by inter-dimensional invaders. The setting was future Tokyo, and though it would be another 14 years before I started visiting Tokyo in person, my head was already there via the worlds of anime and manga.
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I've been an anime fan since 1980, so you can imagine what a thrill it was to actually get to work on an anime series, drawing storyboards that would be animated in Japan. This series took a long, winding road to my door and was in heaps of trouble when it finally arrived. What was it like to help rescue a medium that I'd always revered? Find out in this article!
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Super people? Aliens? Sonic the Hedgehog? Buckaroo Banzai? Here's another round of projects that went nowhere, at least in terms of them panning out into real gigs. They were certainly not dead ends in terms of creativity.
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Few "live-action anime" movies succeed in doing justice to their source material. Speed Racer (2008), Space Battleship Yamato (2010) and Battle Angel (2019) are rare exceptions that capture both tone and spirit. But if you want one that embodies the flavor and texture of 80s mecha anime, Gunhed is where it's at.
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From the exploits of Han Solo: Han and Chewie are stalked through a big city by the toughest, meanest bounty hunter this side of Boba Fett! This was one of the earliest Star Wars comics I drew for a fanzine, and it predated a lot of later Bossk appearances that seemed to be cut from the same cloth.
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The story of how fate landed me with the plum assignment of drawing Captain Harlock comics, starting with issue #12. How can drawing a comic book change your life? Usually in unexpected ways you never saw coming.
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Arsenal was a sourcebook for Shatterzone dedicated to "guns, goods, and gadgets." It included a playable mini-adventure that put some of them to immediate use. I was one of five illustrators who contributed, so I didn't do a lot. But any time I glance back at these drawings, I'm surprised by how much I still like how them.
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Avengers Assemble was simultaneously the hardest and most rewarding series I've yet worked on. I directed all the even-numbered episodes in this season of 26, which set me up to do the grand finale. After seasons 1 and 2, I knew I was in for something big, and I was not wrong.
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Robots, fascists, Mandalorians, puppets, and who knows what else come springing forth when the dead-end art archive is opened up for a fourth time. See all of these and find out why you didn't see them before now.
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This was one of my first comics to be published in a fanzine, a comedic story set in an open-source world created by my first friend in SF fandom, Cathy Ford. The stakes were low and no heavy lifting was required. All it had to be was entertaining.
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Most days, I forget that I spent months of my life drawing a 4-issue Alien Nation miniseries for Adventure Comics, an imprint of Malibu (which also published Eternity comics). I also tend to forget the Alien Nation movie and TV series that I watched back then. But every project you undertake has something new to teach you, whether you remember them or not.
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Supers was a game published by Steve Jackson Games in 1989, and it was a catchall term for characters with super powers. Supers Adventures was a spinoff involving space heroes (my favorite kind). The book contained four scenarios, and I was hired to illustrate the first one, titled Jupiter Blues.
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If asked, I'd have to say that one of my favorite things is being contacted out of the blue with a job offer. Even if I have to decline the offer, it's always affirming to get some proof that I haven't been forgotten. Getting that proof was even sweeter in Covid world when daily human contact shrank to the size of a Zoom window. And that's how I ended up working on two episodes of Samurai Rabbit.
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This was my third assignment from Chris Hart, author of how-to-draw book for artists-in-training to draw in "Japanese manga style." Chris asked me to cover one chapter with 11 environmental drawings of a fantasy castle, which ended up being quite detailed and satisfying.
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The story of how I found my people in the world of SF fandom AND found a way to finally get my Star Wars comics to an audience, both of which happened on the same day in the same place! (Plus a complete comic story as a lucky special bonus.)
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I've had the honor of transforming some of my favorite anime into comic books for American readers, including the Captain Harlock series created by the great Leiji Matsumoto. My entry point into that world was this 4-issue miniseries from Eternity Comics about the mysterious pirate queen who wanders the infinite eternity of space...
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This looks like a comic book, and it is, but it was also a game from Dark Tower Enterprises, an Illinois-based company that wanted to fuse comics and games into a single experience. 1991 was my first full year as an inker and this was my first opportunity apply those skills to a superhero project. The results: not great.
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It's hard to describe what a rush it was to make this series during the ascendency of the MCU. I've worked on plenty of shows that were tied to well-known IP, but nothing compared to this. This was the season of the Squadron Supreme, Thanos, the infinity stones, AND Ultron, in addition to other villains destined for the big screen, not to mention a complete shift in digital storyboarding techniques, so we had a LOT to chew on.
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This was my second project for "how-to-draw" author Christopher Hart. It was a chance to peel off the surface stuff and look underneath. I'd been drawing comics for over ten years, and it gave me a rare peek under my own hood. Always a healthy exercise for an artist.
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