Happy Halloween from Fuseli and Dreyer

First, the original piece, entitled the Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli, circi 1781:

And now the painting's influence in the silent film by Theodor Dreyer (one of my favorite vampire films) titled Vampyr:

Yes, the old lady's a vampire!

Happy Halloween!

Some unintentional but still very scary old halloween photos

My favorite Monster movies (some of them anyway)

The Thing (1982)

Alien (1979)

Predator (1987)

Aliens (1986)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1979) remake

An American Werwolf in London (1981)

Sam Specter- Cover in progress

Notice how the scanned roughs are in their respective places, and how I am starting to digitally ink the characters, though on individual layers so I can reposition as needed.

Ancient Egyptians, issue 2, page 7

I'm not crazy about the perspective on the Carcharodontasaurus' tail in the bottom panel.

Sam Specter's floating haunted house

I imagine the plumbing would require some imagination as well!

Ancient Egyptians, issue four, page 20

Thought some of you might want to see how the inked pages look before the color process sets in.

Sam Specter Villains

The werewolf should have a bowler hat, lol.

Sam and Gina and two eyes in the dark!

The top drawing is the first drawing I did for the cover, which was to put Sam and Gina in Shakespeare, the giant flying bat.

And there's nothing scarier than two glowing eyes in the dark, if you ask me:)

Sam Specter and the Book of Spells

"It's true. All of it."

:)

A few Sam Specter Odds and Ends

A couple of chapter illustrations and the first attempt at a logo.

Cool Test

if you do not know who this is and why he's so cool and we are not, you're on the wrong blog:)

Marty arrives in Hill Valley 2015

:)

Los Mariachis- the greatest '70's classic rock band EVER~!

My favorite characters in Sam Specter and the Book of Spells are Los Mariachis, an enormously popular rock band comprised of skeletons that wear sombreros and panchos yet play fierce '70's classic rock.

Find out more HERE!


Los Mariachis would play stuff like this:

This is Sam Specter!

Meet him HERE!

EVERYBODY GET OUT OF MY WAY!

I'm all over this like cheese on a pizza!

Yep, it's another Ancient Egyptians review!

HERE'S  a link to another Ancient Egyptians review!
This is actually one of my favorite pages in the entire series.

Sam Specter: W,X, Y, Z and an eyeball burger

BOO!

Sam Specter- The Book of Spells

I like the little skull on the belt!

Sam Specter- A little bit about my process

This final drawing of the Ghost Gent from the Sam Specter cover is done in three layers in Photoshop.
The first layer is the final 'inked' line, done in photoshop, the second layer is the coloring of the gent's head and hand, then made translucent by bringing the opacity level down, and the last layer is the solid color of the clothes, which are not transparent.

It's colored like an old-fashioned animation cell, if that makes sense :)

SAM SPECTER AND THE BOOK OF SPELLS

Yesssssss~!

My Dodgers avoid elimination and force a game 5!

The scariest movies I have ever seen!

In no particular order, my top five, and these moves are NFK (not for kids!):

Se7en, which is twenty years old this year!

Silence of the Lambs!

Blair Witch Project!

The Exorcist!

The Omen!


I would not watch any of these movies alone if I were you.

:)

Ancient Egyptians individual issue reviews

A nice find, each issue reviewed individually:

Ancient Egyptians reviews!

'Tis the Season…

…for autumn leaves and bats---and giant rat taxis!

More chapter drawings from Sam Specter.

You can find it all here~!

Black Magic Woman

Probably my favorite song ever!

Sam Specter cover- image building technique

So, working in layers and using my experience in animation, I begin to build the image, and this is the tombstone marker cobblestone street piece I needed for the foreground piece, which would end up on the back cover.

Here's two of the vehicles from the cover, and yes, the cat taxi is a complete homage to the cat bus in Totoro :)

You can order Sam Specter HERE, makes for great family reading for the holiday season!

You can't get any cooler than a Jack-O-Lantern police car!

More Sam Specter stuff today. I began exploring my own typeface for this property as well, though I did not use this one in the book, if I remember correctly.

And here's a scene from the book, where the kids, riding on the back of their gigantic pet bat named Shakespeare, chase the bad guys, who are on the big rat in the distance.
A car chase with no cars :)

A few people have asked, so I will post the link to the book on Amazon HERE daily until Halloween!

Some more Sam Specter cover character roughs

There was a pseudo-Victorian Era feeling I wanted to get from the clothing and style of the characters.

Sam Specter and the Book of Spells- Chapter 4 Illustration

I really enjoy old, crumbling ruins, and thought it would be fun/interesting if Sam lived in a town of haunted houses.

Yours Truly invades San Diego Comic Fest 2016! The world crumbles!

I'd like to announce to all five of you that I will be appearing at the San Diego Comic Fest the weekend of Feb 12-15, 2016!

Click HERE for my profile and HERE for the Fest's website.

Please feel free to come by and tell me I do not know how to draw dinosaurs, but be warned, I will absolutely agree with you:)

Why wouldn't Death paint flowers?

More character roughs from my first novel, Sam Specter and the Book of Spells.
I like how death is chained and MUST paint!
The little coffin is his palette :)

BOOOO!!!!!!