Looking back now, it’s like my head was secretly invaded and conditioned for everything yet to come. Today, I’m a huge anime and manga fan. Back in 1977, I didn’t know they existed. But evidence was closing in around me. I thought it was my plaything. But I was the one being played. And my strings were pulled by an amazing line of toys called The Shogun Warriors
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In this chapter of the story, the heroes (if we can call them that) have just taken their first lumps, and Broid himself is beginning to see what an impossible task it is to upend a system of government. I wanted to demonstrate how arrogant he could be, wielding his intellect like a cudgel against Sef just as the younger man is beginning to invest in their crusade.
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For my third go-round with West End Games, the scenario for the adventure was quite different. Instead of a backwater planet, this one was set on an industrial and cultural center, a busy city planet that we wouldn’t see on film until the prequels and sequels arrived.
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This was the first TV cartoon I ever worked on, and it was a perfect fit in every way. Based on the famous computer game series, it was loaded with high-octane sci-fi space fighter action. The staff took a chance on me, and it turned into a wild ride that went beyond everyone's expectations, including my own. It was a true right time/right place story with exactly the right amount of luck!
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They're weird! They're crazy! They're extremely unhygienic! Here's a bunch of dopey characters I invented during goof-off time at an animation studio. Not for the weak-willed or faint of heart.
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Back in the days of the original trilogy, Star Wars was on my mind pretty much every minute of every day. Star Wars calendars were a regular thing by then; 1978, 79, 80, and 81 were covered, but as 1982 approached no new calendar was on the horizon. So I had no choice but to make my own.
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When anime/manga virtuoso Yoshikazu Yasuhiko began his career as an anime creator, his first project was this 26-episode TV series that occupies a firm middle ground between Jonny Quest and The Iron Giant. Despite an auspicious start, all sorts of external factors dropped obstacles in its path and prevented immediate success. But over the long term, it found its way to classic status. Read all about it here!
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In the years 1978 and 1979, the Star Wars rulebook didn't really exist yet, at least as it is known today. All we had to go on was a 2-hour film and its implications, which were vast. Overlap it with a steady diet of comic books and SF and you could go in practically any direction. I drew 12 homemade Star Wars comics in this time period, ALL of which are presented here.
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BROID #2 was only half the length of #1, but it was a lot denser with more characters and a busy city environment. Drawing the second issue of a series is when you realize that your hobby has become your job, and the calendar now rules your life. So you better REALLY love drawing comics, or you're not gonna last. Fortunately, I did (both).
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I was the sole artist assigned to this book, so I was entrusted with the task of designing the characters and environment: a race of amphibians, an Imperial Swamp Trooper, a method of docking for TIE fighters, and a pair of female mercenaries who I subconsciously thought of as the Star Wars version of Japan’s Dirty Pair.
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When I joined the crew of Batman: The Brave and the Bold in 2008, it was the beginning of a hugely enjoyable run that lasted for three seasons. I made it a point to save a lot of the materials from that production, so there's a ton of it to share. In this article, I’ll focus on my contributions to Season 1.
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To entertain my fellow employees at an ad agency in 1988, I’d crank these out (fast improv freehand style) and pass them around for laughs. I’d never lived anywhere but Michigan at this point, so they all kinda channeled stereotypes of the midwest.
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One day I got a call from someone in the promotional department of Paramount Pictures asking if I could come in and talk about doing the art for a Phantom promo project, which was a pretty good gig for someone like me. Movies come and go, but a job like this comes only once.
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This collection covers the amazing Japanese artists whose work reached out and grabbed me from print media, model boxes, and TV screens. There is information about each book to help anyone who may be filling a shelf of their own.
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It’s hard to believe now, but in the summer of 1977 there was almost nothing to consume beyond the movie itself. Until that Christmas, the only things within reach were a few magazine clippings, the novelization, and the monthly Marvel comics. That wasn’t nearly enough for me. Records and toys and models and other swag arrived in 1978, but that still wasn’t enough. What I learned in 1977 was that if I wanted more Star Wars, I would have to make it myself.
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A lone man awakens in a dark future of dust and smoke that make it very difficult to tell friend from foe. Life is hell at the end of the world. Only the best survive. Here is the first issue of the my first original, for-real comic book series from cover to cover, a post-apocalyptic SF action epic inspired by some of my favorite stories. Every finished page is accompanied by its corresponding rough and pencilled version.
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In 1991, I figured out how to turn my Star Wars fandom into freelance income. Planets of the Galaxy, Volume 1 was my first West End Games assignment, and it was a good one to start with. The books in this 3-volume series presented gamers with new planets on which to plot their adventures, none of which had been established in the original trilogy.
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This 2-season series wasn’t the first Marvel cartoon I worked on (that was the MTV Spider-Man series) but it certainly was the busiest up to that point. It was made during what we now call Phase One of the MCU, prior to the arrival of the first Avengers movie in 2012. This made it the last Marvel series before Disney bought the company - in fact, the buyout happened while EMH was in production - so it operated under a different set of rules about which characters could be used.
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After my first year as a professional comic book artist, I decided to gather up my advice and experience into an essay. Of course, it would be quite a different presentation today after thirty years of added experience, but the basics are still sound and it makes for an interesting time capsule from the pre-internet world.
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The year 1986 was a huge turning point for me, the root of which was a yearly Science-Fiction convention called Babel Con. Here's what happened the year I was put in charge of it.
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