Superheroes.

"avengers assemble".

"any criminal anywhere".

"frank does ralph"---The Mighty Heroes,Ralph Bakshi's comical superheroes of the late '60's,done Frank Miller-style.

"belles from beyond venus"---I found inspiration in the work of Dave Stevens.

"belles"...a re-do of the above piece,created for a contest on DeviantArt.

"pronounced mist-THREE-kay-ah".

"the war on children"---a commentary on one of this past century's most infamous and,unfortunately,successful blows against artistic freedom.

"melvin and emil"

In the late 70's,Marvel Comics published "How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way"...I believe it's still available today...an informative and entertaining collection of hints on how to create superhero comics using the many time-tested methods used by the company and its artists.

Midway through the book is two rough sketches of a page of panels depicting the Avengers going up against a massive beast,showing the reader the wrong and right ways to illustrate such a situation.Sometime in '84,I made a copy of the "right" page,colored it and added dialogue.I recently discovered it in a scrapbook,and used it to create this...although many,many enhancements were made,I left the dialogue as is,much of it inspired by what I read in comics at the time.

"the killing joke"

In 1975,DC Comics decided to give the Joker his own comic.Intended as an ongoing series,

it was unceremoniously cancelled after its ninth issue...which included a teaser for the next

issue,which promised a clash between the Clown Prince Of Crime and the Justice League.

It occurred to me that the artwork for this unpublished issue may have been finished,so I

checked the internet,and found several pages...according to the blog I found it on,it had been

auctioned off several years ago...so I finished the opening page,which is what you see above.

This,as you can see,is the original artwork,with the artists credited in the 

lower left-hand corner.Because of its rough nature,I had to do a fair amount 

of improvising,such as the inclusion of the Joker's logo.

This version is an experiment,to make it 

look like an actual comic book page.

"75 years of Batman"

A slightly irreverent look at the Caped Crusader,created for his 75th anniversary.

In this piece,it should be noted that I also pay tribute to the works of Bob Kane,Bill

Finger,Jerry Siegel,Joe Schuster,Gil Kane,C.C. Beck,Carmine Infantino,William

Moulton Marston,Dave Gibbons,Steve Ditko,Wally Wood,Bruce Timm,Tim

Burton and Frank Miller.

Captain Action was created by the Ideal Toy Company in 1966;he was meant 

to be their answer to Hasbro's G.I. Joe,known for the many different uniforms 

he wore.By contrast,Captain Action could be dressed as famous superheroes 

and adventurers...among his available costumes were that of Superman,Batman,

Spiderman,Captain America,Aquaman,The Phantom,The Lone Ranger,Flash 

Gordon,Buck Rogers,Sgt. Fury,Steve Canyon and The Green Hornet.

For whatever reason,he never caught on,and was discontinued in 1968.

The piece above, "the captain modernizes",is my answer to the question...

What if he were still operating today?

"trinity"

"the fickle finger of fate"

"the freedom four"

NOBODY'S ''topping the bill''

A re-imagining of a pivotal event from 

Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's 

Batman:The Killing Joke.

Trivia: During the 1966-68 run of the Batman TV show,his nemesis Two-Face 

was considered for an appearance...and Clint Eastwood was a choice for the role!!!

Hence,this imagining,titled "dirty harvey"

Had they done it,the character was to be,instead of a district attorney whose face is 

splashed with acid by a vengeful criminal,a TV newsman who is the victim of a TV 

camera exploding in his face. Unfortunately,the idea was ultimately considered 

inappropriate for the campy tone of the show,and was dropped.

"no,YOU shut up!!!"

"atomic batteries to power"

"once more into the spiderverse!"

"sentinels of the night"

"liberty guard"

"terror above the midway"

"clobberin' time"

"retro batman family"

"retro justice society"