Batman 156 Cover Redux

Here's a fun commission from my old chief (don't call him that!), Michael Eury, editor emeritus of BACK ISSUE MAGAZINE... Michael asked me to do a version of Shelly Moldoff's cover to BATMAN #156 (recently given a facsimile edition by DC Comics) in which instead of Robin "dying at dawn," it's the Caped Crusader who kicks the bucket (forcing the Boy Wonder to struggle to carry his heavy corpse across the alien planet). I did it (as I do most things these days) using a lot of fluorescent inks, which are always tricky to convey in photography. 

 

Betty and Veronica Fashion Pages Variant Cover

My friend Steve Leach commissioned me to work with him on doing a variant cover for one of Archie Comics' 85th Anniversary one-shots, this one being BETTY AND VERONICA FASHION PAGES. For the cover (conceived by Steve), I adapted something I've riffed on before: DC's ADVENTURE COMICS #397 from 1970 by Mike Sekowsky, in which Supergirl tries to choose a new outfit from selections sent in by readers (Katy Keene-style!). I decided to have Betty and Ronnie dig through the closets of a bunch of old Archie Comics characters (popular and obscure). While the layout is based on Sekowsky's, the images are mostly swipes of works by the great Dan DeCarlo (steal from the best), with (hopefully) some of my own touches making them unique. 

You can order the book from Steve directly via the SteveLikesComics Instagram page. I will be setting up a way to get them from me shortly, at which point I'll update this post. But here's the cover, details of the individual drawings, the inspiration, the page from my sketchbook, and the last time I adapted this cover (with the help of some cartoonist chums of mine). 

More PEANUTS POOCs

 More recreations of PEANUTS panels (with augmented backgrounds). After the great Charles M. Schulz. 

Betty Phones (panel redux)

After my fave, Dan DeCarlo (with a little nod to Robert Crumb). 

 

Chiclets.

 

LO-FI TAKES THE STREETS 2026

For this year's LO-FI TAKES THE STREETS festival artwork, I used a vintage sci-fi pulp inspiration (along with a few other geeky elements). Here's the print poster and the tee-shirt design. If you want to read / see more, click over to Tough Guy II! 

Prince Street News: Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon (or Maybe Not)

 The new BACK ISSUE (#167) highlights "Girls, Woman, and Ladies," which sounds a bit wide-ranging, but it actually refers to characters who have those gender descriptors in their name. So this episode of Prince Street News discusses both the dichotomy between a female character's age and their appellation as well as other aspects of naming female heroes and villains (I mean... Mongal? C'mon)... 

I'm also posting an all-hand drawn version of the SHE-BAT faux movie poster used in the strip, which is available at the Tough Guy Etsy Shop! Or maybe it will be... I may not have put it up there yet. I guess I should check. 

Heh. 

Mr. Inferno's Girls, Betty and Veronica

 I did this for my pal, Steve, who periodically sends me amazing care packages of Archie Comics doubles he's accrued (he buys lots of lots). He mocked up a cover for an issue of BETTY AND VERONICA (#75) that highlights a story with a character named Mr. Inferno (ahem). Archie published a facsimile edition of that infamous comic book, but the cover doesn't feature this one-time character. What, Jingles can come back every year, but Satan can't? Sorry, sorry, Mr. Inferno! 

Prince Street News: The Logo!

 The new BACK ISSUE Magazine (#166, April 2026) is thematically about comic book partners and couples, but the Prince Street News is another off-topic one, a sequel to the piece about lettering that ran in #162 (scroll down a wee bit for that one). There's not a huge amount of drawing in this one, something I felt guilty enough about to draw small characters to add to montages for many of the panels, something which in retrospect is mostly distracting. 

This episode also allowed me to place an old piece, a redux of BATMAN #42 into which I placed a groovy Batman design I did as a small child (augmented with my attempts to replicate that esthetic onto Robin and Catwoman). The original version of this piece had Catwoman drawn a bit... larger... than she should've been (prompting a comment of "Catwoman thicc" by one online observer), so I did some Photoshop shrinking for this version (see below). 

Super Juice Cartons!

 I redrew these two 1960s Batman and Superman juice cartons in fluorescent inks because that's the kinda crap I do now! 

Hey! Animals!

 Some holiday pet portrait commissions for 2025. Want one? Message me! $100, unframed, 5x5."

It's an INSULT!

 A Wonder Woman panel recreation originally by H.G. Peter (of course). 

Swing, Gate!

 A Golden Age Batman and Robin #POOC (panel out of context) originally by Charles Paris from BATMAN #42 in 1940. Man, I love that lingo. 

Batgirls

Prince Street News: Let's Make a Trade!

It's another off-topic installment of PRINCE STREET NEWS, from BACK ISSUE's "Monkeying Around" issue #163. This month I'm yapping about (mostly) Silver and Bronze Age trade collections of comics (and comics-related material) that I wish would be published, including Superman Christmas stories, Dan DeCarlo pinups, Best-Of collections for Charlton and Atlas, stories from Harvey Comics featuring hippies (yes, there's enough for a book), and more. 

Now, here's the irony... between the time that I completed and sent in the strip and its publication, almost a full year had passed, and a lot can happen in a year! Such as not one, but TWO of these books becoming actual things... well, sort of. THE BEST OF DC'S HOUSES OF MYSTERY was sort of realized as DC FINEST: HORROR: THE DEVIL'S DOORWAY, which reprinted consecutive issues in full of some DC Silver / Bronze Age mystery books. It's not an editorially-selected "Best of," which would've been far preferable, as those books contained more chaff than wheat, but it's still a step in the right direction. Still forthcoming is a book collecting Alex Toth's DC work, but whether or not that'll be what I call for herein remains to be seen. 

Regardless, it's fun to put together wish lists like this, and makes me wish I could get the job of putting them together! I'm posting the strip along with the full covers that I mocked up for each one. Hey, DC! Marvel! Archie! IDW! Fantagraphics! Whoever! Let's do these! 

A humorous footnote: Initially, I laid out, drew, and lettered the strip with a redundancy: I'd put the DC ON SALE NOW book on both pages! It wasn't until I went to scan the artwork that I'd realized my mistake, so I had to go back and come up with another book (it was the SPIRE collection). Here's both panels as originally drawn. Eep.