A very short story.

 

drypoint etching on Rives BFK paper. 3" x 3"

New Work

A few new paintings for part one of Johanna Stein's short story, The Iron Cross, to be published in Cricket Magazine.

Oil on paper, various sizes.

Young love, the Iron Curtain, and Zelyonka.

Perhaps this will require a Wikipedia link.

Some new paintings, appearing in an upcoming issue of Cricket Magazine.

Oil on paper, various sizes. 2013.

What do Pete Mitchell, Bryan Ballinger, Doug Bell, Adam Gustavson, Roger Cruz, Karen Jones Lee, Jeremy Vanhoozer, Josh Addessi, Janee Trasler, Paul Conrad, Chuck Vollmer, Cole Phillips, Wout Schildermans, Lilian Carmine, Sarah Bodnar, Micah Lanier and Andi Butler all have in common?

I'm glad you asked. Why, they're all featured in the comic anthology Dead Anyway, a charming and virtually bottomless assortment of zombie stories.

And it's available for pre-order HERE.

Cute zombies! Fairy zombies! Carny zombies! Child zombies! Culinary reality show zombies! Zombie stories of love, loss, redemption and even the occasional western.

And, of course, existentialist zombies. Here's page one of my contribution the pantheon.

 13 x 19 inches. Pencil and gouache on paper, 2012.

A sketch.

pencil and gouache on toned paper, 2007

One of my constant fears as an illustrator is for the livelihood of a sketch that just won't go through.

As far as occupational hazards go, I could really do worse. Still, it's not rare that the one I've been looking forward to painting is the one left by the wayside. And when you're an illustrator, doing the piece anyway as one of those proverbial "good portfolio pieces" still just lands it in the flat file. Even a good one rarely transcends its intended function to become, well, plain ol' art.

So in celebration of these scribbled little seeds dreaming of fruition, here's a recent sketch for an educational job I'm working on, just in case I don't get a chance to finish it out. The scene finds us in a pet grooming parlor, two private detectives snooping about.

I have to say, I'm kinda fond of the preposterously poodle-haired proprietress...