Category: Art


Monsters vs Madness Auction to Benefit Planned Parenthood

My charity auction for Planned Parenthood starts tonight at midnight, EST. Many items have Buy It Now options, so bid early or miss out! Please help me raise money to support sane reproductive rights reform. Register and bid here: www.charityauction.bid/MonsterVSMadnessBenefitAuction

Thanks!!

Scan to go to the Auction
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Darwyn Cook, RIP

Cooke01-814x1028

I’m shaken to hear this, and still processing it. Darwyn Cook has passed away, and I’m having a hard time facing a world in which his pen will never again burst forth with smiling characters being heroic.
It’s been my hope since I first saw his work that he would eventually become the Editor In Chief at DC Comics (he even has the initials for it!) and steer the company back towards some sort of relevancy with readers rather than heaping out fan service to a dying crowd of collectors. The only DC books I’ve bought over the last fifteen years have been Darwyn’s, in fact.
The company has tried over and over to revitalize their line without success because they haven’t the guts to cut loose the tiny crowd of hardcore buyers of their product and try to appeal to a larger crowd. With Darwin in charge, I had hoped the sky over Metropolis, Star City, Gotham, and the rest of the DCverse might be filled again with unambivalent heroes flying towards conflict with unambivalent villains or the forces of nature.
I don’t need to identify with a protagonist in a comic book because he’s as screwed up inside as me, I want him (or her) to be an example that I can try to emulate to make myself better. This is how heroic storytelling has worked for thousands of years, and nobody at DC seemed to understand that as well as Darwyn Cooke.

I wish him peace and offer my thanks.

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1561_10153960904261349_7096086460835065259_nOh Captain, my Captain. My tribute to the chameleon king.

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bernie-wrightson-zombie

My upcoming book, Zombies: The Ultimate Visual History (insight Editions, Oct. 4, 2016) is now available for pre-order on Amazon! Here’s the publisher’s description and specs:

Zombies: The Ultimate Visual History is the indispensable visual tour of all things undead. Filled to the brim with hundreds of photographs, movie posters, and pieces of art, as well as quotes from zombie filmmakers, actors, makeup artists, writers, musicians, and visual artists, Zombies: The Ultimate Visual History constructs a graphic narrative from the origin of the archetype through to today’s current obsession with zombies. A treasure trove featuring removable ephemera and sidebars on how zombies have impacted popular culture, the book not only grants an extensive overview of zombie cinema and television, but also all related media, from video games and comics to toys and collectibles.

  • Hardcover: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Insight Editions (October 4, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1608875156
  • ISBN-13: 978-1608875153
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 11 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds

I can tell you that I’ve personally selected more than 750 images for the book, and the designer may well add many more. Most in full color, many in gorgeous black and white (like the one above!). This will be the most complete visual volume on the history of zombies ever published.

Please pre-order it so the publisher will be impressed with my marketing efforts, and then share this post with all your friends! I’ll owe you a solid.

 

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Wherever you are, whatever you celebrate, I hope the holiday season finds you happy, warm, and content. Thanks for all the words of encouragement and books you bought from me this year. I hope to see or meet even more of you in 2013!

And of course, Click Here if you’d like a copy of any of my books. They make great gifts!

Many thanks again to Steve Kyte for his wonderful cover art for Arctic Adventure!, which I have ham-fistedly butchered above in the spirit of the season.

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This gorgeous NASA model of three Identical Reusable Space Planes is being auctioned in the Bonham’s New York Space History Auction on Thursday, April 26th. Designated lot 1303, I bought it near Huntsville, AL (where it was created at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center) last year on the World’s Longest Yard Sale. I won’t tell you what I paid for it, but I was shocked to get it for so little – the dealer I bought it from had this model, a few other household items, and a whole bunch of replacement lawnmower blades.

The following day, I took it to the Antiques Roadshow when they stopped here in Atlanta, and it was appraised for $1,000.00, but the appraiser told me to check with Matthew Haley at Bonhams as he is the real expert and conducts a yearly space history auction. Matthew’s appraisal was $2,000.00 – $4,000.00.

Matthew convinced me to consign the model, and after a little bit of restoration to one plane’s engine bells and some paint touch ups by Lucas Francis Studios, it was on it’s way to New York where it will be sold on the 26th.

Though I’m very fond of the model, I hope it will find a home with someone who will truly appreciate its uniqueness – as far as I can tell, its a one-of-a-kind prototype that was created when NASA began their reusable space plane program in the early 1970’s.

If you’re interested, I encourage you to bid – if not, please share this post with anyone you think might want a piece of space program history!

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And no jokes about “To BALDLY Go…”, please! Once again, Rich Smith has delivered the goods and made me look heroic as a stalwart starship captain in the vein of the Filmation animated Star Trek TV series. Thanks, Rich!

I’ll be in Memphis for MidSouthCon this weekend, see the link on the right side of this page for more information – hope you’ll join me!

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Spectrum is GREEN!

Just got this gorgeous illustration of me as Captain Scarlet from artist and pal Richard Smith. Rich is going to be doing a whole series of illustrations of me as my favorite characters for this website, which amazes and delights me. Obviously, I’ll be sharing these here as he sends them along.

I love that he did it in the style of Captain Scarlet comic artist Mike Noble!

Make sure to check out his website at http://www.richsmithillustration.com and tell him I sent you!

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