CONCEPT ART

This was for a NuImage film.

MORU

Moru was drawn up when CONAN THE ADVENTURER writer Roy Thomas wanted a supporting character to represent a "pict" in our story arc. He really wasn't a fully representational pict as history described them, but more of an amalgam of a savage Filipino tribesman and European picts.

When the Conquistadors first arrived in the Visayan islands of the Pacific they encountered fearsome warriors that were fully tattooed. They called them "Pintados" for the "painted ones".

That's where the idea of Moru came from, a pict that wasn't historically accurate (and some Robert E. Howard fans would probably debate whether his picts were as well) but embodied the same mentality. The one interesting detail was that the picts were also fully tattooed.

Historical Pict




I have been scanning some old originals and will post more of Moru and how he slowly evolved visually throughout the series.

ORIGINALS

A bunch of pages I recently let go of from my Conan run.

IMMORTALS by TARSEM

Behind the scenes clips on Tarsem's Greek God film! Did some concept designs for it the last year or so.

IMMORTALS ENTRY ONE

“I’m trying to define it like… The Gods are like superheroes so we can kind of like Batman does, not Superman, where you jump from up high and not get hurt when landing down. But he can’t fly up. So we have the same definition for Gods.” … “The movie’s got fantastical fighting and it’s got a bit Oldboy meets Caravaggio kind of stuff. And it also has this, which is just brutal and two people in a confined space.”

Read more: First Photos: Tarsem’s Immortals | /Film

FRAZETTA R.I.P.

I first encountered Frank Frazetta's art in the mid seventies. It was an article in AMERICAN ARTIST magazine.

The article introduced me to the DEATH DEALER, SILVER WARRIOR and CONAN - a whole new way of looking at art and illustration.
It was so far removed from my surroundings, Fort Myers, Florida - a small southern town with no great galleries, most of the art were of pastel beach scenes or touristy pink flamingoes.

The article and his art books were a great escape, but I never met the man. He was up north, far away; painting for the big city publishers.

Years passed and I moved to New York and pursued the path that his work introduced me to.

I just read the AP obituary and Frazetta died... in Fort Myers, Florida.

THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS

The real LIons of Tsavo at the Field Museum in Chicago.
These two lions killed 130 people in a span of a few months.




Patterson the real life hunter made these two lions into rugs, so the museum had to reassemble them
back on to the frames of the armature of these lions.
Therefore they appear much smaller than they would have been, had they been whole.

BLACK AND WHITE PAGE

Cleaned up the panel borders, lines and structures, and added all the details that needed to be there.

This is what I ftp'd to Marvel and then colorist Lovern Kindzierski added his expert coloring to the book.
Check out the issue of What If? to see the final color version.