Tuesday, March 29, 2011

BLACK AND WHITE PRELIM LINE ART FOR "ABE AND THE ALIEN" - Part 1



I am currently selling poster prints of my cover art of "ABE AND THE ALIEN"...
The only way you can see it in it's full-size, full color glory is to click on the link in the sidebar and buy it, or just email me at
to order your set of two poster prints (one 11" x 17" color and one 8" x 10" B & W).

The small sizes shown online don't do it justice, but I can give you an idea of what it looks like up close by posting some of the black and white preliminary detailed line art before the gorgeous color and other fine details were added. Click on the image above to reveal the detail lavished more clearly.

Today I'm posting my version of our 16th president, ol' honest Abe, depicted in his last happy moments as he watched the play "Our American Cousin" from his private box in the balcony of Ford's Theatre. He is smiling rather uncharacteristically, and I chose to render him thus for the following reasons:

1) the civil war which had begun at the very outset of his presidency was finally over, and the country was beginning to heal
and
2) the play he and his wife were watching was, after all, a comedy

so that is why he is smiling. Even though most of the photos we have of him show a rather grim face, it is well known that the man actually had a wonderful sense of humor, so, yes, he did smile on occasion. This was one such occasion. He had no way of knowing that perhaps an angry actor, or in this case, an angry alien lizard, was sneaking up from the shadows behind him.

Even though it is a stylized comic book representation, I tried to be faithful to reality by including his trademark facial moles, his odd shaped lower lip, and his rather bizarre ears (take a look at his photos...they are strange looking). My original layout included Mrs. Lincoln, but after several redesigns I concluded that I wanted to focus on Abe and that space constraints determined that my revision had no need for her in the shot.

For the next post, we'll take a closer look at the alien lizard out to assassinate him.
See ya then!

Abe as seen in color on SLAM BANG #3 cover

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