Robert E. Howard Illustration

Years ago there was a half-assed publisher supposedly dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard, Cross Plains Comics. They only published a handful of books with some good talent but really weak design and production choices. Like any Howard fan, I immediately had high hopes for the company upon hearing about it, but saw them dashed pretty quickly despite a few really good projects sporadically coming out before the company started publishing weird super-hero things.

I did contribute to one of the books they published, Robert E. Howard HORROR, illustrating a Howard poem. Never saw the printed book, either at the store or received a complimentary copy from the company, so I have no idea if the black and white book was worth the 5.95 cover price back in 2000. I had completely forgot I drew the piece until I stumbled across a print-size copy in a drawer today. Might have the original art somewhere around -- no idea. The above image is a scan of the slightly battered copy.

CPC faded away -- no idea what happened to the guy running it -- I think he was a former Marvel editor. Hope they landed on their feet somewhere.

Sketch Card for May 11 - Star Trek 2/5

Yeoman Rand may have been one of my first childhood TV crushes, despite the strange hair! It was either her or the Orion dancer, and I mentioned how pointless doing a green skinned girl in B&W marker would be.

For the record, I would have done the Yvonne Craig Orion, because I think Batgirl made a pretty damn hot Orion girl!

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Just a not, the eBay auctions I put up last week are ending within 18 hours as of this writing -- only one set has been bid on, so these might go really cheap!

See them here: cards

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I was pretty crushed after learning Frank Frazetta passed away yesterday. Several other people, mostly artists, have already written some very beautiful tributes to this legendary artist. I still haven't wrapped my head around the loss.

~R

Sketch Card for May 7 - Vampirella 5/5

And with that Vampirella week ends. I really, really enjoyed drawing these and, based on the hits my blog received this week I think it's safe to say a number of people enjoyed looking at them.

All of these cards were created on 2.5x3.5" on Strathmore bristol plate with Copic markers.

Since I started these sketch cards I've had a number of requests to sell them, either individually or as a group. Deciding on a price is always somewhat stressful for me, so I've decided to let the cards determine their own value at eBay. I've listed three of the more popular sets today and I hope they find fine new places to live. You can click on the set names to go directly to the auctions

Batman set:

Buffy

And this week's Vampirella cards

See you all next week.

~Richard

Vampirella Pin-Up Pencils

I keep forgetting that I drew this.

A couple of years back I just wanted to draw Vampi again and I started this for the hell of it. I got really busy teaching and never got around to finishing the pencils (more dead ivy on the ground as well as some metal studs and bolts in the doors) or inked it.

I might go back and finish it, colour it and make a print of it for the Toronto cons this summer.

~R

Sketch Card for May 6 - Vampirella 4/5

Tried for a pin-up style pose, and managed to flip the armband and forearm bands she wears -- oops! Good thing this isn't in panel to panel continuity.

Did a quick search through my blog history and found that I have talked about the cancelled Vampirella mini series I worked on.

Sketch Card for May 5 - Vampirella 3/5

Only two more days to go.

I could do a Vampirella month, I'm enjoying this so much.

Sketch Card for May 4- Vampirella 2/5

I like the idea of Vampirella being more mysterious and a little alien rather than many of the alternate takes on her that've been floating around over the years. My visual touchstone is still that first Frazetta painting.

Love to hear everyone's favourite version of her.

Sketch Card for May 3 - Vampirella 1/5

Back after an unexpected and unwanted week off.

We're having a pretty severe allergy season up here and it literally put me on my back at the beginning of last week. I made attempts to do the sketch cards, but was pretty disappointed with the results and I was barely able to meet the schedule for my other assignments.

So, I decided to put aside my theme for last week for some other time and go to something a little easier on my still-itchy eyes! Vampirella. Love the character and I'd love to do something with her at some point in the future. I developed an interest beyond drawing her back in the 90s when Harris Comics tapped me to write and draw a 4-issue mini series. I think I might have described what happened on the blog before.