Some twenty years ago, I was approached at a comic convention by a skinny teenager with black-rimmed glasses. He said “I’m Luke Crane! I love the Iron Empires! I want to do a role playing game based on your comics!” I don’t remember what I said. I hope I was polite and encouraging. I know I shared his enthusiasm [...]
Continue ReadingThe singers of songs will remember me. I am Most Devout Count Sekaman Comor Udulor, Forged Lord of Valabham, Lion of Lasyé, Blessed of Ahmilahk. My father, cherish his memory, was a great and noble lord, but he was obsessed with the details of governance. Diplomacy, finance, law and policy are necessary to good governance, but are [...]
Continue ReadingTHIS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS – NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER We are the lesser sons of greater fathers. There was a time, ten thousand years ago, when explorers leapt from world to world like wildfire. There was a great age of discovery, when our scientists wrested secret after secret from the cosmos. There were telepaths to look inside [...]
Continue ReadingIn the Iron Empires, space travel is accomplished by way of the Distortion Drive. This technology functions optimally in a vacuum, being extremely sensitive to even the smallest amount of matter in the drive’s active envelope. Thus the “terrain” of space is of crucial importance to any Hammer Lord. The Interstellar Medium [...]
Continue ReadingWhen I was a teenager, growing up in Syracuse NY, I used to spend all of my available money on art books. Not just any art books, not the educational books my parents bought me about “fine” artists, all safely carrying society’s seal of approval. These were books with titles like “The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo”. Books crammed [...]
Continue ReadingThe first Spectrum-sponsored convention! Kansas City, Missouri May 18-20, 2012 From their site: Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! is a natural extension of the eighteen-year success of the award-winning Spectrum art annual. As an international melting pot of talent, Spectrum: The Best In Contemporary Fantastic Art has come to symbolize the vibrancy, [...]
Continue ReadingOver the holidays I painted a commercial assignment in what I call my New Style (improvisational, emotional, painterly, unresolved). The piece was large (~30″x40″), painted in acrylics on illustration board. I’m not at liberty to share the complete image yet, but here are some notes I took at the end of the process: 1. [...]
Continue ReadingThursday-Sunday July 12-15, 2012Preview Night: Wednesday, July 11 San Diego Convention Center 111 W. Harbor Drive San Diego, CA 92101 Look for me in the Artist’s Alley with fellow painters Scott Hampton, John van Fleet and Durwin Talon. http://www.comic-con.org/cci/
Continue ReadingNOVEMBER 8-11, 2012 The fifth annual IlluXCon symposium will take place in Altoona, PA on November 8-11, 2012. ALTOONA HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER 1421 12th Ave., Altoona, PA 16601 (main show location) http://www.illuxcon.com/
Continue ReadingOne of the greatest thrills for me, working on a creator-owned graphic novel, is bringing my universe to life. Exploring it for the first time. Every element I design adds another bit of richness of the story, making it feel more real to me. Because so much needs to be invented in a science fiction story, at the outset it feels very [...]
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