DCC 4th Printing!

This morning, Harley Stroh pointed out that Joe Goodman shared some of the sketches he and I have been passing back and forth about the new interior illustrations for the 4th Printing DCC book kickstarter. The sketches in there are just pencils, but they hint at what is to come. I can’t reveal too much, but there is more to come; stay tuned!

Here is an illustration I completed a few years ago of a snake lady about to seduce (or eat) a Flash-Gordon type guy. It appeared in print somewhere but I am damned if I can remember where.

FREAK of NATURE

Trying to draw more often, find inspiration by just putting the pen down on paper and seeing where it goes. Did this one tonight.

Obvious Things Department

After years of struggling with drawing symmetrical things and failing, I finally figured out how to do it. Draw half of the thing, scan it, duplicate the half and flip the duplicate and place it adjoining the original. Seems obvious now but I have been struggling with this nonsense for YEARS.

This is a design for a private commission for the back of a motorcycle vest:

Plastic Soldier Parts

This is from a few months back (6/27/2015). Sometimes life throws barricades in your way.

In search of Henry Darger

“Statues Strangling Children” by H. Darger

Henry Darger, the artist and eccentric, came to my attention a few years ago. These days his work is going under the gavel at places like Christies and getting shown in Paris. In his lifetime, Darger lived as a recluse, barely surviving on poverty level wages, living alone in rented rooms. The people who knew him (his landlords and fellow tenants) only discovered his artistry when Darger was on his death bed. Luckily, his landlord, Nathan Lerner, recognized that the heaps of drawings, books, collages and other items were not ‘junk’ and didn’t simply toss it all to make room for another tenant. These days, it seems that most of the rest of the word agrees with Lerner. People who wouldn’t have looked twice at a dirty, shabby old Darger while he was alive are buying his works, visiting his exhibitions, etc. I’m not claiming to be smarter than anyone else — I doubt I would have recognized Darger for what he was if I had met him in his lifetime. And given his reclusive nature, I doubt Darger would have been able to psychologically bear the public scrutiny involved in becoming a famous artist in his lifetime.

Stories like this make me wonder how much fascinating stuff, produced by weirdos, outcasts and recluses, ends up in dumpsters after they die.