This is a sketch from "These Hills...". This was an idea for the 'creature' that makes an appearance or two in the story. We still need to work out the details. But the story is cool and especially chilling for me. I grew up in West Virginia and the woods were not what they are here in urban areas. I am attempting to capture that eerie feeling of a quiet wooded valley that runs along a meandering stream. The mist settles in the evening and the sound of rustling leaves surround you...or at least you hope that is just the leaves.

In a super condensed nutshell the story is about a man revisiting his childhood home and finding that the "monster" that haunted him as a child has been waiting for his return.

I already see the scenes as a movie in my head.

Also, I realize now that most of my art is not digitized and exists in a drawer in our living room. I have a lot of scanning to do. Meanwhile, I am off to bed. I had a very early wake up call (3:30 am) for a meeting in Baltimore at 8 am.

The Jester

This is one of my favorite images that I have created. There is something I like about the motion in the Jester's body and the look on his face. The king ruthlessly stabbed in the back and the queen and guard removed from power. 10 arrows in one man? I was having a good 'art day' that day.

Color

So here it is, the finished published piece. Looks a little better, right? I remember deciding to hide most of the face because I didn't want to reveal too much of the character since this was a 'teaser'. But mostly I wanted to hide my poor depiction of a face. Ty Gorton gets credit for the words and the entire MC13 concept.

Chipped Ham and Steve's Blog

I'm not sure anyone is looking at my blog other than these two fellas but I need to point out the handy links to their sites on the side...over there---->

Chipped Ham is my brother-in-law Evan Cantrell's kick-flying-buttress blog of all things related to comic books and related media. I have to fess up and say that this is the first blog I go to during my lunch hour. I only wish he would write more as his taste in comics is usually right up my alley too. Sometimes I miss being able to go to the comic shop and plunk down 50 bucks a week like I once did and some of his reviews make me a little 'homesick' for the hobby. Check it out!

Steve's Blog is a site by my good friend Steve Swain. Steve is an incredibly cool guy and a great friend. His blog is all about his passion....retail, malls, shoes...there is no one that you will ever meet that knows more about malls. Trust me. He knew about the once great but now crummy mall in my hometown of Fairmont, WV...and he's never been there!

Meanwhile, I have a ton of stuff I need to scan and piece together and get on this site! The saddest thing of all is that seeing the images on the web makes me feel like the rank amateur artist. Hopefully as time passes by you will notice my work improve as I set out to spend the time developing my skills. Or watch as I plummet into madness.

Inks

Here are the inks to the previous pencil image. Not very happy with this as I look at it all these years later. Turns out I was off a year...I first began this story in January 2002! Time surely flies. I will post the final image soon.

Mechanism: Chromosome 13

These are the pencils for a promo image for MC:13...an online story I worked on for a bit, back in '03.
Stay tuned for the finished image.

Rock on, man!

A few more from "These Hills..."

This began as a submission for a publisher that I worked on with my brother-in-law, Evan Cantrell. The story is complete, but the art never really got going. Finally, I feel like I have the time and am ready to devote it to this worthy project.

The Homestead

A bit of a teaser for "These Hills Will Kill Ya"...