This artist is apparently a director on Family Guy. That's fine. I don't care about that. I just love his paintings. And looks like I started loving them in 2020.
I mean... I LOVE his paintings. They are weird as hell, wild as the cosmos. Every single painting is inspirational to me. Every one could be a complete RPG adventure (Into the Odd and DCC in particular, I think).
Not much more to say. Joe Vaux art kicks much ass.
This week we're taking a peek at the work of an artist I have known for... oh my... probably 30+ years? Terry Flippo and I used to be in a small press comics co-op called the United Fanzine Organization (UFO). I joined the UFO in the mid-90s and was a member until probably the early 2000s. Terry was in there as well but I cannot remember if he was already there or joined after me. It doesn't matter. Terry is awesome.
His most well-known venture is a comic called Axel n Alex, a comic about a kid (Alex) and his big robot friend (Axel) and their adventures together. He's been doing AnA stuff since the 90s, off and on. I have one of his softcover collections on my shelf somewhere, but primarily I remember his small press digest zines.
One of his current projects is a series of single panel comics called "The Marbels", which are kind of spoofs of Marvel Comics characters. Very fun stuff.
Terry's work is wholesome. He does good work that is good-natured. The world needs what he does. His style is cartoony and precise, leaning into pens more than brushes. He can produce the simplest of pieces or very detailed and complex works as well.
When I drew Hellion Cross issue 1, I decided to have a centerfold type of piece. A two page spread. I usually shy away from doing them because of printing concerns but I went for it. And it looks pretty good, I think.
Except it has a glaring error. I must have been half asleep when I was laying that page out in Photoshop for printing because I repeated a caption twice.
Here's the thing. I drew it without fully considering how the captions would fall within the safe margins. So I had to scoot one caption over to the left quite a bit. The problem is instead of scooting the correct one, I just copied the other one and placed it. Didn't even notice until a friend pointed it out in the actual printed book. Egg on face.
Anyway, that means the first printing of this book (currently the only printing) has an error and will be worth at least $10,000 more. You know it's true.
For the record, here's the corrected page and spread. Sorry about that.
A new discovery for me, artist David Genchi hit me right between the nose with his underground comix vibes. Now... this is basically a horror artist. Body horror, specifically, from what I can tell. Not my usual cup of tea. But I can dig it.
I discovered his work when I saw a link to a book called Analwizards. Yes, you read that correctly. It featured a wizard guy in a yellow jumpsuit and pointy hat. I thought... that art reminds of Wizard of Barge (another artist I need to feature on here). But also reminds me of a lot of Japanese horror art I've seen. Probably thinking of Junji Ito since he's kind of the poster child for that genre.
David Genchi's work is published by Hollow Press, who seem to have a lot of interesting stuff.
So today I'm just posting some of his work and pointing you to him because it is very evocative. But be warned... NOT FOR KIDS! I selected some pieces I could put here that aren't too extreme. If you seek more, you will be find more extreme body horror. If that ain't your vibe, skip it.
Random comic I was compelled to draw this morning. I like firing off a simple 4 panel strip if an idea is burning a hole in my psyche.
As to the content... hope it's obvious. That Overton Window is a fucking bitch. You pride yourself on riding the middle ground but that middle ground just keeps slip slip slidin' into destruction, buddy. Might want to correct your course because whoever is painting that line is on some bad drugs.
A bit of an unusual post this week because here's an artist I found on Bluesky and never heard of. The art was so fun and compelling I assumed they were a well known professional. But I can't seem to find much other than their Bluesky page and an ArtStation page.
This stuff is great. It's got that impromptu cartooning style that reminds me of 60s and 70s cartoons. I can see this being animated for a 1978 special feature. Volpini's profile says they are a "character designer for animation" and it shows. Love it.
I recently discovered artist Jordan Speer. I saw a random post on Bluesky and once I laid eyes on his work I just had to order a copy of his book Umbra.
It is a jaw-dropping work of art, and I have a new favorite artist.
Speer lives in Louisville, Kentucky. I lived in there when I was a kid, roughly between the ages of 2 and 8. I went to school at Lowell Elementary... which no longer exists. In fact my entire old neighborhood is gone because the airport took it decades ago. I still remember my first Halloween memories on those streets.
Much much later I moved back to the city with my new wife and we lived there in our early 20s.
So it is very nice to see a great great artist so close to home whose style is so perfectly suited to my taste!
Whimsical, colorful, bold, cartoony, and FUN. This is the good stuff. So go check him out. And pick up Umbra... holy hell it's affordable and lovely. It's a huge picture book telling a story without words. Very nice.
Another artist I like is Jeff Freels, or J. Freels. I know very little about this creator other than he created Bean! the d2 RPG and he is visually impaired.
Bean is a great little game. The central idea is it's a world of anthropomorphic beans and you use actual beans as dice. See, you get a sack of beans and paint one side of some number of them. When you roll the painted side, it is a 1 and when you roll the unpainted side it is a 0. Or something close to that. It's a coin toss. But unlike lame single coin toss systems (50/50 for everything? Boring.), this is a pool system. More beans = more chances for higher scores.
But that's a digression and unrelated to the meat of the post: the art.
Freels is an artist after my own heart. A great cartoonist! His bean characters are swanky and cool, simple and direct. And I love them.
There isn't a lot to be found about Jeff Freels outside his own website. But he has a nice bio page that explains quite a bit about who he is, what he does, and so forth. I don't care about the Reiki Master stuff, I just like the wonderful cartoon art.
This week, I'm talking about Eric Powell. But I don't have a lot to say, honestly.
This is an artist I really only know from seeing copies of The Goon on the shelf back in the early 2000s... but never picking them up. I loved his vibe, but back then I just wasn't buying comics. Too bad too because The Goon looks fantastic... and I STILL haven't read it. Full confession.
But Powell hits this list because I love the look of his art and he seems like a swell guy. His visual style reminds me heavily of Frank Frazetta, of course. I'm sure that's no accident. And, to be honest, I tend to think all artists in this vein remind me of Frazetta. Probably a problem with my own myopic view and understanding of the comics and fantasy art world.
I'm going to seek out more Powell stuff. I picked up his Buzzard mini series at a small comic con last year and it's great.
