Friday, April 18, 2014

Famous Monsters Magazine







These are the first four covers I've done for Famous Monsters. I can remember reading this mag as a kid- or should I say I remember my older brother scaring the crap out of me with them as a little kid ;) So it was a great honor that the Editor-in-Chief tapped me to take a shot at doing some covers for them.

The first was El Santo and was a lot of fun. Got to go crazy with the wolfman and the vampire ladies.

The second was for horror enthusiast and collector Kirk Hammett (lead guitarist for Metallica) as his alter ego, Kirk Von Hammett. This was done as a special comic con edition that year and I was supposed to go down there and sign some magazines with Kirk, but it was also a couple weeks after my son was born so I had to pass. I did hear that all the magazine sold out :)

The most special cover I've done thus far has to be the Ray Harryhausen tribute cover. I grew up watching and loving his films- the Sinbad series being my favs.  I really wanted this one to be emotional and put all my heart into it. Can't wait to show my son all his movies.

The last one was for the Supernatural tv show. The editor wanted it to be a parody of the famous painting, "American Gothic" except with the house burning in the background. As I was blocking in my base colors I thought, "what if just everything was in flames?!" I submitted my first pass which was mostly just reds and oranges- everything just consumed by fire- and the editor said, "Well this isn't what I was expecting... But I love it! Keep going!" I think I had the most fun with this one, partly because it was such a departure from what I usually do. And creating these faces in the flames was just so fun and I got to keep it sketchy and loose. Really just dig the energy of this one :)

The Bride and The Creature


The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Finished this one just in time for the recent Monsterpalooza convention, where I also had the prestigious honor to have it included in the Museum Gallery at the show. Was very please how he turned out. Have made a limited edition canvas giclee print run of 50 and have already sold quite a few. Email me if interested.

And finally painted the Bride of Frankenstein. She is such a cool, iconic character and was really fun to paint. From the get-go I wanted to paint her with electric blue accents and I think she came out really well. Prints available of her as well.