Comic Book Fans Read their Treasures

When I lived in Cambridge, Mass., I hung out with a lot of comic book fans, illustrators, and comic book dealers. Some of them published not only sales catalogs but fan magazines about comics and the comic book lifestyle. They commissioned me to do spot illustrations for their zine pages. This little panel illustrates the fun (?) fans have when they buy a whole lot of stuff at a convention, bring it home, and read it. Believe it or not, back issues of comics like Marvel and DC were not available for buyers before about the mid-60s. This group of fans is typical of the era I was in: overwhelmingly male, young, and reading-obsessed. Note the central figure's "Harvard" sweatshirt. I wonder what he's doing these days. 

Ink on illustration board, 4" x 6", spring 1981. Klik to read what they're reading.

Another Darkover Title Page

I enjoyed making the fan art title pages because I could use decorative typefaces. In those days before easy computer type selection and printing, I had to copy the title by hand onto the page. This worked surprisingly well as long as I planned it out carefully.

According to Marion Zimmer Bradley, Darkover had numerous sentient species well before humans arrived. They were all basically humanoid but some had characteristics of animal species as well. The oldest and most elusive were the "chieri," a tall, delicate-looking species of humanoid reminiscent of elves. They were all endowed with psychic powers, and even in the frozen winters of Darkover they were immune to the cold and went naked or wore just a thin wrap. Most interestingly, chieri were physically androgynous. They could turn into either male or female, depending on the desires of their partners. (Bradley borrowed this idea from Ursula Le Guin, who in turn borrowed it from Balzac's "Seraphita.")

Chieri could interbreed with humans, which happened a lot, so the human Darkovans were actually psychically powered hybrids.

This story, in my dim recollection, involved a youth who had the psychic talent of communicating with animals. Living in a primitive medieval society, he was constantly assaulted by the pain and distress of brutalized animals. He ran away into the forest intending to kill himself but instead the wandering chieri found him and took him in among them, where he learned to control his powers. Then, instead of sending him back to the village, they set him in a place where he could be a protector for the animals of forest, farm, and road. 

If this wasn't the way the story went, I apologize to W. Marshall Kyle the author, it was rather a while ago on planet Darkover let alone here on Earth. The magazine with the story is somewhere in my collection but I'm not getting it out.

Black ink on heavy illustration board, 8" x 11", April 1987.

Flying with the Vultures

Just before the Internet exploded into our world, some fans who knew other fans in other countries asked me to do a cover for a science fiction fan magazine they were starting up: 

"International SF/Media Review." I could do anything I wanted for the cover, so I did a science-fictional adventure theme involving flying people with anti-grav packs, surprising vultures in the air. The zine was to be shared among a circle including Canadian, British, and possibly French and German readers. I did the cover, pictured here, but only a few issues of the magazine were ever published. Within a year, maybe two, the Internet would globalize our lives far more than any paper mag taking two weeks to get to England. 

Black ink on heavy "Stonehenge" illustration paper, 8" x 10", August 1991. Click for a larger view. (Click what? What is this thing you call a "mouse?" Is Windows really the future?) 

Industrial Tikis

I get catalogues of industrial and farm equipment. The only things I buy from them, and rarely, are equipment for my indoor garden, which never grows weed and is now out on the balcony. At the end of October I take my plants indoors and turn on the big light. Meanwhile I love the catalogs because they show machinery and greenhouse buildings, things I like to look at. The machines in the "Grower's Supply" catalog are especially attractive, but instead of buying them, I use them as fantasy inspiration. Here are three industrial Tikis from some metallic Hawaii. They are actually water pump fastenings and one sprinkler head on the right. I have always wanted a greenhouse but it doesn't do well with apartment living.

Black tech pen ink on sketchbook page and Photoshop, 4" x 3 1/2", September 27, 2016.

Darkover Rescue from Drowning

Here's another illustration from the Darkover fan story I posted a few days ago, "In the Mists of Hali." I don't remember the details but in the story a young man has to protect his little brother, who is disabled, from kidnappers who want his psychic powers. At one point the boy falls into the water and can't swim, so his brother must dive in to rescue him. This story appeared in a Darkover fan magazine which I still have in my collection. I have shelves full of fan and semi-pro magazines which have my illustrations. Maybe someday I will pull them out and look at them again. I don't want to throw them out.

Black ink on illustration board, 8" x 10", April 1987.

Hills of Rappahannock

"Wine Saturday" for September was at Rappahannock Cellars, one of Northern Virginia's best wineries. The Wine Team sipped excellent vintages and sampled a cheese platter which is always welcome. I have been to Rappahannock many times and its view is always beautiful no matter what time of year it is. I am told by the wine server that Autumn is glorious there with all the bright colored leaves. But it is rather a long way to drive from my residence. The logistics of winery visiting have become more difficult these days for me, for various reasons, and I'm glad that I can hitch a ride with my wine-loving friends.

Rappahannock Cellars is blessed with a number of religious images including this statue of Jesus showing his Sacred Heart. It was Jesus who said that he was "the true vine" and at Rappahannock, so he is.

Drawing is colored pencils and ink on sketchbook page, finished in the studio, 8" x 11", September 24, 2016.

Giant Gears

Another adaptation from the Ferit Kuyas collection: engines, gears, and pulleys from a Swiss sawmill. I enjoy copying and adapting these industrial images because drawing each one is like solving a math problem. I don't have a lot of time to do math these days though I think about it a lot. This image is full of circles, tangents, and projections. The turning gears that Kuyas photographed are gigantic and fill a whole industrial hall.

Black tech pen ink on sketchbook page with photoshop touch-up, 3 1/2" x 4", September 24, 2016.