Spring Heeled Jack

Matthew Brassfield, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Sparkle Comics, wanted to release, under the Sparkle Comics banner, old pre-Sparkle comic books (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) created by members of the Sparkle family. "Spring Heeled Jack," a comic book I did many and many a year ago, was selected as the inaugural issue of the Sparkle Comics Classics line. I'm very proud of that. I'm also very proud of Juliet Fromholt's print formatting. Although the original book was created with no concern for standard comic book size she's managed to get each page to fit perfectly in the margins. She even imbued each panel with a professional sharpness and clarity that didn't exist in the original artwork. I'm also very proud of Jason Gilmore's magnificent and eye-arresting coloring of the cover. I cannot say enough about both Juliet's and Jason's abilities and expertise. Oh, and should you be interested in this book, you can order a copy at www.sparklecomics.com.

Sarah in a Rare Moment

To go with yesterday's image, here's a view of an older Sarah originally posted on an obsolete site. It's proof that she did sleep when she was young, if only for five seconds out of the day.

The End of Civilization

It was twenty-three years ago this month that Sarah descended upon an unsuspecting world. As a doting father, what can I do to embarrass her on this special occasion? I know! I'll dig out a drawing I did of her twenty-two years ago, showing her in all her glory! Please  ignore that awful right eye and other fiascos. Although Sarah has changed a great deal over the years, I've yet to see much of me in her, physically or in personality; but I can certainly tell she inherited her mother's cheekiness.

And Poe Again

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was another site where I would post my little doodles. Since that site no longer exists, I thought I might occasionally and randomly post some of those old images to this new site. Since I posted a pretty bad parody of Mr. Poe without his mustache yesterday, I thought, to accompany that piece, I'd disinter this pretty bad drawing of a mustachioed Mr. Poe drawn way back in 2004. Alas, neither image bears much of a resemblance to the poet. As for this image, since I had more energy way back when and since Poe only lived to be forty, I surrounded him with references to forty of his works. However, being lazy even back then, I have some of the images referring to more than one tale or poem or essay. And in case you're wondering: no, Poe's nose is not an intentional reference to his comic tale, "Lionizing." It's just my humble way of showing I can't draw noses.

Apocryphal Portrait

Michael J. Deas wrote a delightful book titled The Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe. The title fully describes the book's subject. One chapter is titled "Apocryphal Portraits." Some of the images in this chapter are clearly based on Poe's features, some are questionable and some obviously are not of him, such as a photograph of a man who bears only the slightest resemblance to Poe, but enough so that, in the 1960s, some who wanted to see the poet in it seriously considered it an authentic image. The fact that the man's style of clothes were from the 1860s (Poe died in 1849) and the photographic process used wasn't invented until 1851 were overlooked. So, inspired by the story of that photograph, here is my poor attempt at an ersatz Poe portrait minus his famous mustache which, after all, he only sported near the end of his life. It's loosely based on an 1843 woodcut and two watercolors, one by A.C. Smith and the other (which might not be of Poe at all) by John A. McDougall. This was just a fun piece. It's not Poe, which is painfully obvious, but I hope it bears enough similarities that an imaginary someone who longs for another image of the poet would willfully overlook the glaring discrepancies. The image is a hoax, and Poe loved hoaxes. Thus, although I sincerely doubt Poe would approve of the undeniably ugly image itself, I hope he would approve of the practical joke behind it.

Merry Christmas!

From the whole gang at Potter's Sketchbook (all one of us) to you, here's hoping you indeed have a most merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Respite

This is a piece loosely based on an image by Andrea del Castagno. You know his story from Vasari. He hypocritically courted the friendship of his fellow artist (and thus, rival), Domenico Veneziano, with the heinous intention of murdering him; an ambition he achieved one fine day by attacking Domenico from behind on a street corner, beating him to death with pieces of lead and then, undetected, flying back to their shared abode. When a crowd appeared at his door to tell him his friend was discovered dying in the street, Andrea rushed to the scene, and, cradling Domenico in his arms, listened to his victim's pathetic dying lament of "Alas, my brother!" Domenico died never suspecting his friend was his murderer. Per Vasari, no one would have ever known if Andrea had not confessed to the deed on his deathbed. A truly shocking tale of cold-blooded cruelty, is it not? The only thing even more shocking is that the alleged victim outlived his alleged murderer by a good four years. Ah well! I guess that just goes to show you can't believe everything you read, not in Vasari and perhaps not even here.