Sketches & Things

The image below, came as a surprise to me because I had never asked a simple question : where did Larry Mahlstedt

suddenly appear from, when he became Keith Giffen's

favourite inker?

The short answer is, that he was a student at the short lived John Buscema Art School.

It is interesting to see that while Bob Hall also got a showcase moment, on the page (from an issue of FOOM)

another name is missing...

Tim Sale!

Arguably, Tim Sale is probably the highest profile, comic book artist, to have attended the John Buscema Art School

and yet, he wasn't one of the selected few, for this page.

I am now going to indulge myself and add a couple of pages of my own doodles.

These are pretty typical of the type of thing that I do and I have covered a lot of paper in this way.

Just exactly what I am accomplishing, is a moot point and while there are a number of ideas and characters, that I return to, time and again, there is nothing remotely complete.

"Dead Guy", the one with a hole right through him, was an attempt at zombie humour and he has cropped up in my sketches, many times, as has the robotic nutcase "539",

who is seen here, teasing him.

On a different topic, a long time ago but not very far away, there was a comic shop, Beaver Comics, in Barrie, Ontario and it was run by a man who had a passion for Gene Day's art. 

I remember his display, at a convention in the early Eighties, where he was selling a lot of Gene Day originals, not long after Gene had died.

Anyway, I had looked for information about him and his old store because he too, had died, in the early Nineties.

I never had any luck and then, on an unrelated search, I found this:

and it made my day!

Finally, here is an unusual item from the mid-Seventies.

A Barry Smith, predating his addition of the "Windsor", 

and an unused cover for Marvel Comics, The Tomb of Dracula.