Shadow Over Innsmouth

Here's a picture I did inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's excellent and super-creepy horror novella Shadow Over Innsmouth, which has to do with a decaying New England fishing village and the cross-breeding bargain the citizens made long ago with a race of horrible fish-man creatures.  It's a great and terrifying story, and gets me all creeped out however many times I read it.  For some reason I was in a scary-stuff mood recently (usually that comes with the lead-up to Halloween, not in April), and I wanted to draw something in that vein, so here it is.  It's not actually depicting an event from the story, but was inspired by it:

(Click on image for full-sized version)

This is one of the most detailed and labor-intensive drawings I've ever done - it's 11x17, black and white ink over blue pencil.  It's also for sale.  Considering the hours put into it and how pleased I was with the final result, I'm asking $250, which includes shipping.

e-mail me if interested - chris at curiousoldlibrary dot com.

John Carter of Mars

I did this drawing yesterday, colored it today. It's one I've been wanting to do for a while, an Edgar Rice Burroughs (You know, the Tarzan guy) science fiction character from 1911 known popularly as John Carter of Mars.

 (Click on the drawing for a bigger view) Now, Carter has generally been illustrated by Frazetta-type guys (including Frazetta) as being this muscular, loincloth-wearing clean shaven guy with a flowing mane - basically Conan the Barbarian with a ray-gun. I've never liked this interpretation - John Carter is strong on mars because he's used to Earth's higher gravity, NOT because he's super ripped. So I made him of average build. He is (or was) a civil war soldier, too, so I wanted him to have those big fancy cavalry 'stache and chops, and he's described as having short cropped hair. He's also described as being naked, which I never see, so I was sure to include that, too. A couple of my preliminary sketches had his wiener for all the other world to see, but I figured that since kids check the blog and come to my table at conventions I'd strategically place a green martian gun holster over his junk. The holster, gun, and sword are all made for fifteen feet tall fellas, so they're intentionally disproportionate to Carter's size - he's using a waist belt as a bandolier as a result. Also, John Carter is going to be Pixar's first live-action movie, which I'm excited about.  Pixar movies are usually great NOT because of their animation (though it IS top-notch) but because of the incredible amount of emphasis placed on story structure, detail, and quality, and I expect this will be no different.  Here's hoping! The original drawing is 9"x13.25" on an 11"x 15.5" piece of 80# stock, ink over blue pencil. The stars were made by flicking white ink from toothbrush bristles after covering the linework with painter's tape.