More “People of the Pit”

I’ve been working on other things… I swear… I’ve also been working nights in the ‘straight world‘ and trying to keep head above water and soul and body together, but here is a still unfinished 2 page spread for “People of the Pit.” The pit seems to be all I post about on this web page these days.

I’m not convinced yet by the city in the lower right hand corner — not weird enough. But if you have ever read Merritt’s original story, translating what he terms the city into an image is hard, so I may have to take another run at it (this is try #2). Think I have to rework that and fix some things but like the overall composition and the way the 4 panels fit together and mirror each other.

It feels strange to say it, but for the first time in my life I feel like I might be an artist. I’m not claiming this work is the apex of artistic achievement (I’m certain it isn’t). I just feel like my own relationship to my work is evolving. I’m more interested in what I will do next and feeling less desperate about my talent and vision.

The Pit (work in progress)

Work continues on “People of the Pit” despite interruptions for other projects and life stuff. According to Merritt’s story, the protagonist discovers a gigantic pit in the wilderness… the bottom of which hides an ancient civilization. My drawing probably doesn’t make the pit big enough — “Imagine the Grand Canyon five times as wide with the bottom dropped out.” In my defense, I wanted to make the narrator visible in the frame (there he is in the lower left hand corner)… if I had made the canyon any bigger, I fear he would have just been a dot when this finally gets printed.

I’ve never done such a text-heavy thing before… my hands are tired from all the lettering.

Recent drawings

Two recent drawings for dungeoneergames.it. The second drawing, in particular, feels like a bit of a stylistic departure for me that I hope to explore further in the near future.

Work in Progress (more)

This is a 2 page spread from ‘People of the Pit,’ a personal project/comic I am working on. One of my innovations for this one is I plan to try to work on it as much in a 2 page format as possible… and try to make the facing pages relate to one another more than I managed in previous projects.

“The People of the Pit” is a short story by Abraham Merritt. As far as I know, it hasn’t been adapted into a comic before. You can read it here. It’s one of my favorite Merritt stories.

Work in Progress

Currently working on a lot of different things, but can’t show anything… so I offer this excerpt of a comic book of some famous bit of literature I am working on…

Forbidden Caverns of Archaia

Here’s something I did a while ago for Greg Gillespie’s “Forbidden Caverns of Archaia” project. I just got the pdf — a pretty sweet looking book. Not sure when the print version is out. This is the only drawing I have in the book, but this one drawing is in good company with work by Cory Hamel, Scott LeMien, Peter Pagano, Mark Pagano, Jim Holloway, Russ Nicholson, Brothers Fraim, Stuart Robertson, Matt Ray, and Carl MacIntyre. Cover is by Erol Otus!

The character drawings are based on characters I drew for Greg’s “Barrowmaze” project. One of my favorites is the guy with the ‘goalpost’ helmet (who was based on the memory of watching the BW movie, ‘Alexsander Nevsky” late one night). The bugbears are modeled on lead figures that Greg had commissioned for Barrowmaze.

DAGON comic

SORRY — ALL SOLD OUT. WILL REPOST WHEN I GET MORE PRINTED.

I found about 20 more copies of my “Dagon” comic in a box — these must be left over from Gencon. Cost is $6.00 US each including shipping in the US (price hike to include postage and, hopefully, to help pay for the next comic). If you live elsewhere, email me at sbpoag@gmail.com and we will work something out. While supplies last.