Kinky, nasty perverted art for Exquisite Corpses
Posted: February 28, 2010 Filed under: art, creativity, exquisite corpses, project, publishing 2 CommentsI hope I got your attention with that headline. I’ve been doing a bit of work on my upcoming ‘Exquisite Corpses’ book, specifically interior illustration, and have decided to take the art in a hard R rather than a PG 13 direction… simply because this project is something I am doing for ME… and I want the book to look the way I think it ought to, rather than the way I think many game related stuff has started to look over the past years. Slick, colorful and safe for all audiences just isn’t me… and as I worked on this, more and more subversive elements began creeping in. Around the time that I drew a happy headless crabman mutant with an erect penis that featured an eyeball on the tip grabbing a woman I started to think that I was beginning to find the aesthetic for the book that I wanted.
So, here are some samples. Enjoy.
You definitely have an underground comix vibe going on, and the pervy-pics are going to make it a tough sell in the current climate. Your technique is wonderful, reminds me of several comix guys, in a good way. From the sounds of things you want to use this as a sample/portfolio piece, which is very cool. What publishers are you trying to get connected with via this piece? Just curious. Maybe there are enough OSR weirdos out there to start-up a version of Heavy Metal all over again…
Thanks for the nice comments… I guess I want to avoid the trap of attempting to be 'outrageous' just to get attention… but I enjoy stuff that has some edge to it; if “all is happy down in Smurfyville” I tend to get a little bored.
I guess when I got started in this stuff I was more inspired by John Carter of Mars comics, Conan comics and the more lowbrow stuff like 'Heavy Metal' when I could get my hands on it (as I recall, you had to be 18 to buy Heavy Metal, is that right?). Perhaps it was inevitable that TSR had to 'clean up' any references to nudity, etc., but I enjoyed the earlier art of Otus, Wham, Trampier, etc., more than the later Elmore, etc. While the later stuff looks more professional (i.e.: more like the covers of mainstream fantasy novels from the big presses), there was just more 'weirdness' and rawness in the older stuff. Plus I loved that so many of the older drawings showed adventurers about to get eaten or killed. That goofy dude in the Monster Manual with the mustache and rotgrubs in his arms always makes me chuckle… despite the crudeness of the drawing, that pic illustrates why you shouldn't dig around in big piles of dead bodies in the dungeon. I wince every time I see the words that 2e used instead of demon or devil.
I know, I know… they “had to get more family friendly” to stay in business… but when I first started playing D&D, I really liked all the sex and violence. Still do!