Vintage Halloween Mask Series

 I just completed this series of 20 drawings of vintage (mostly Ben Cooper and Collegeville) Halloween masks. All of these are black light pieces (some more than others, as you can see below), done in ink and marker on bristol. All of these are available for sale (originals), will be posted on the Etsy page shortly... or contact me directly if you're interested. Each is $100 (plus $10 if you want it framed, another $10 for shipping & handling). Happy Howloweeeeeen!!! 

new POOCs!

 

Wrapper Redux: Monster Greeting Cards

 

Prince Street News: Missing Marvel Merch of the Bronze Age!

 The new BACK ISSUE (#152) celebrates MARVELMANIA and its various merchandising offshoots, so I decided to mock up some "Missing Marvel Merch of the Bronze Age!" All of these are based on actual products, no doubt many of you will recognize at least some of them. This is one of those installments that will not work for the non-longbox crowd, so if you stumbled on this by accident, I apologize! 

Below is the strip (a one-pager) as it appears in the mag, and the individual elements on their own. 

Lo-Fi Takes the Streets 2024

 I was asked to do the artwork for the annual LO-FI TAKES THE STREETS festival in the Jersey City Heights this year. It was kind of a bittersweet job, as I was taking over for the late Matt Caputo, who'd done the work in the previous years. Pictured here are just the poster and tee-shirt designs. Click over to Tough Guy II for more including an alternate logo, detail of the pieces, sketches, and process. 

Wonder Woman Out of the Box (two versions)

 Last year, I was commissioned to do a drawing of Wonder Woman busting out of her Mego 12" figure box. I was done with inking it when I thought to ask the person if they wanted it to be the "real" WW or the doll. I'd drawn a comic book Wonder Woman... they wanted the doll. 

So! Here are two different versions of the same piece! Which one do YOU like better? 

Dagwood / Adam

 

Prince Street News: The Great Unseen Batman Artists of the '70s

The new BACK ISSUE Magazine (#150) is a look at the (slightly) lesser-known Batman creators of the Bronze Age (mostly meaning everyone aside from Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams, and Jim Aparo!). It's a must-have for any fan of the Darknight Detective BEFORE Frank Miller (who's also in this issue, albeit focusing on his first Batman story) turned him into the Dark Knight. 

This issue's PRINCE STREET NEWS was super fun to do: "The Great Unseen Batman Artists of the '70s" imagines what the character might've looked like as rendered by some of the few cartoonists and illustrators who DIDN'T ever draw Batman (and believe me, it's not easy to find a lot of them)! So you've got Harvey Comics' Ernie Colón, Gahan Wilson, Jules Feiffer, DOONESBURY's Garry Trudeau, Cathy Guisewite of CATHY, Marvel's John Romita, Arnold Roth, underground cartoonist, Skip Williamson, PEANUTS' Charles M. Schulz, B. Kliban, MAD Magazine's Dave Berg, and graphic designer Milton Glaser. Below the full strip are detail on a few of the pieces. 

It's been a LONG time since I've posted anything here... part of it is a lack of productivity, but also, I gotta say, nobody ever looks at blogs anymore. The Tough Guy Instagram page is primarily where I'm posting stuff these days. This page will remain as basically an online portfolio, but man, it sure feels like a lot of work anymore. 

Prince Street News: Superheroes Are Dumb.

The new BACK ISSUE (#148) is a "DC Super Stars of Space" issue, for which my strip (again) has nothing to do with the theme! "Superheroes Are Dumb" sounds like a trolling title, and maybe it is a little bit, but I hope my thesis comes across... One of the things that I bemoan about modern superhero comic books is how goddamn seriously most of them treat the genre. Not to say that there's not room for mature storytelling in a superhero milieu, but not everything works in a realistic context. For example, I cannot deal with silly characters like Plastic Man shoehorned into something like the Justice League. Similarly, I think the SHAZAM! family works better in its own unique context (or, on its own world in the multiverse) than as a part of the larger whole. 

Having said that, in terms of film and TV adaptations, I've likewise grown tired of the snarky sensibilities of Taika Waititi and James Gunn, who are constantly elbowing the audience and saying, "Hah? Hah? See how silly this stuff is? I'm taking the piss out of it!" It's a conundrum. Fingers crossed Mr. Gunn pulls it back a bit as the Feige of the DCU. We shall see. 

Cover Redux International!

 Some foreign comic book cover recreations, done as a commission for a friend! 

'60s Ditko Mashup!

 This commission was a fun mashup of DC and Marvel, two Steve Ditko characters, the Creeper and the Vulture, battling each other over the skyline of... which city? I guess Gotham City, since the Creeper gets the masthead! 

Spider-Man Cover Redux Again!

More Spidey cover commissions,  AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #72 and #130... I finished these two pieces shortly before the original artist, the great John Romita (Sr.) passed away on June 12 at the age of 93. If you ask me, Romita's name needs to be spoken in the same breath as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko as one of the architects of Marvel Comics. 

 

Barcade Monday Night Multiball

Poster done for Barcade Los Angeles' bi-weekly pinball tournament... for the rejected original version and more, click on over to Tough Guy II... 

 

Prince Street News: Neal Adams 1941-2022

 The new BACK ISSUE (#143) is a special issue paying tribute to comic book artist Neal Adams, who passed in 2022 from complications due to sepsis. To say Adams played an important in my life is putting it mildly. He was my first favorite artist, he fought to get Warner Communications to give credit and compensation to Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he battled for creators' rights, and just made comics a much better medium. Here's my tribute (one of many).... 

New Work Dump

 Rather than do a different post for each of these (especially since some of them are new versions of pieces I've already done), here's a quick dump of some new stuff (most of this slated for an as-yet scheduled show with some friends)....