My 2013 “Inspiration / Aspiration” board. Each image serves double-duty:
John Severin (times two).
Bill Watterson (also, newspaper comic strips).
Greg Couch (also, children’s books).
Howard Chaykin (also, dieselpunk).
Jack Cole (also, surreal inventiveness).
Mark Schultz (also, pulp fiction).
Bruce Timm (also, animated styles).
Mike Mignola (also, alternate history fiction).
James Robinson (also, reluctant heroes).
Fantastic Four (also, Alan Davis).
Alan Moore (also, science heroes).
Dave Stevens (also, monster hunters).
More Alan Moore (also, crime fiction).
Let’s call this one “Master Monster”! Last week, I reread a bunch of Doc Stearn…Mr. Monster! comics AND discovered the “Little Heroes World” art of Alberto Varanda—two influences that collided in my creative space and inspired this little tyke.
Me, on a Mars of my own making.
This image is the mostly highly favored of my art on my deviantArt account, even though I drew the ball “wrong” and the exaggerated foreshortening is wonky.
Ulysses S. Grant.
Abraham Lincoln.
The instructor’s plot: “The hero hears a call for help. Using some power or device, the hero surveys the situation. The hero hastens to the rescue … only to discover that it’s just a cat stuck in a tree.” We students chose the genre, characters, style. I added a twist at the end.
A Watchmen tribute: The MinuteMen! (And a homage to Kevin Maquire and Terry Austin’s classic cover of Justice League.)






