Horror Classics II: The Devil’s Concubine
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
Wrapping up HC2 with my take on the stereotypical witch. A lot of thinking went into this, as I tried to envision evil crones from The Blair Witch Project and Hansel and Gretel. God knows I’d hate to run into this lovely lady at the end of a candy trail. I also realize the word concubine may hint at a less… how can I say this nicely… butt-ugly specimen… but I was also thinking about that one Hellboy story, entitled The Chained Coffin, which tells the story of an old witch who had once consorted with demons in her youth and thus was tainted for the rest of her days.
Tags: halloween, horror classics, witch
Four Cities
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Trash
As much as I wanna lie and be all current and say that this entry is related to Hickman’s work on FF right now, this has nothing to do with that. I just lately fell into a weird Twilight Zone pocket where every medium I’ve been consuming somehow had the word city in it, so I thought I’d share before the multiverse ulcered in on itself. In any case, consider these as recommendations but also a virtual “week in the life of”.
Dark City — I thought this film was brilliant the first time I saw it more than ten years ago, and though the director’s cut might be a scoonch longer than it has to be, I will always give it props for being my first Matrix. From the set design, to the great cast (Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt), to the light direction, the attention to detail in this film is just a thing of beauty. And it’s not every day we get decent “sci-fi noir”.
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Spin City — I’ve always been a huge fan of Michael J. Fox. The guy’s got a natural air of exuberance that just screams optimism, whether he’s playing a time-travelling punk or the deputy mayor of New York City. With this TV series being the last long-term stint he did in showbiz, it’s just great getting to see him creating his own brand of lovable Machiavellian asshole. While the humor and spontaneity of the show wanes a bit in the later seasons, the first two are pure gold.
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Batman: Broken city — Half way through 100 Bullets, Azarello and Risso took a break from their crime epic to play with some tights, and the result was sweet. This arc (issues #620-625) has Batman investigating a woman’s murder, with Killer Croc and Penguin as suspects. It’s a less superhero-ey Dark Knight story than I was used to, but I’ll read anything Risso draws, but just as well… Azarello wrote some real gems in this:
Lonely hearts and Sunday School teachers like to say that rain is the tears of God. . . . This rain? If it comes from Him, it’s not His tears.
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City and Colour — Dallas Green is a Canadian singer/songwriter who primarily played guitar and sang vocals for Alexisonfire (don’t ask me how that name is really pronounced), but also ventured into solo work in 2005. Green’s voice is melodic, contrasting his textured guitar-playing, while his lyrics are haunting. I personally recommend his third Studio Album “Sometimes”.
Tags: alex proyas, batman broken city, city and colour, dallas green, dark city, michael j. fox, spin city
Horror Classics II: Tainted Vessel
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
Expanding on what is turning into an accidental experiment in the use of greens, below is my rendition of a possessed girl. I’m fairly proud of this, mainly coz I refused to browse Google Images for reference… for reasons I will keep to myself. What… I was eleven when I saw The Exorcist, okay? With this piece, I thought it’d be interesting to go all Drew Struzan and apply a backlight effect. I think it came out pretty cool.
Tags: demonic possession, exorcist, horror classics, paranormal activity
Kneel Before Zod
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Trash
Tags: casting, General Zod, Rufus Sewell, Superman, Terence Stamp, Zack Snyder
Horror Classics II: Restless Corpse
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
HC2 continues with my illustration of a zombie. And who doesn’t love zombies? I’m a huge fan of Tony Moore’s work, and The Walking Dead was an absolute favorite of mine when he was still on it. Moore actually applies the completely realistic detail of the lips and tongue being the first couple of things to visibly decompose or be consumed by maggots. This piece can be compared to THE CURSED KING and CHILD OF ALCHEMY, with biggest difference being the blankness of the stare, which the other two pieces didn’t have.
Tags: corpse, horror, monster, Walking Dead, zombie
Ezekiel’s Wheels
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Research
Went to catholic school for ten years, but it was never a strict requirement that we become absolute experts of our bibles. I really ended up only using it to look up specific passages and confirming stories and parables. Sticking to just that, you could say it got a little boring at times. Jad’s a lot better versed in it than me, so she’s more than a little familiar with just how strange the bible can be.
The first chapter of the book of Ezekiel (paraphrased below) right away hits us with verses that almost sound like they’re bordering on science fiction:
I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north– an immense cloud with flashing lighting and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man, but each of them had four faces and four wings.
Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man. All four of them had faces and wings, and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved…
As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not turn about as the creatures went. their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. (1:15-18)
When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels… When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army.
Did some digging, and some people fancy that Ezekiel might have met extraterrestrials (or even ultraterrestrials — inter-dimensional beings, for those of you keeping score) and chronicled it as a divine apparition. And others postulate that Ezekiel might even have seen a vision of modern-day vehicles, with the prophecy having something to do with Iraq and oil. All in all, an interesting little kernel to keep for future reference.
Tags: bible, ezekiel's wheel, prophecy
Horror Classics II: Icthyan Lurker
Posted by johnamor | Filed under Art, Work
Wasn’t really in the mood to work on this rainy Saturday, so I decided I’d revisit a theme that was great fun for me the first time around. And here I kick off HORROR CLASSICS II, with the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Like most people, I do a grayscale version of the artwork to define dimensionality in the piece. This phase used to take me forever to do, and though I haven’t drastically changed anything in my coloring process, the use of a tablet certainly makes it a shit ton faster (and less painful).
Most of you can probably also tell that I drew a lot from Monster Squad, coz I feel the original version of the creature just looks a bit too dopey. I like to think of it as a piranha-frog man, and that fed it into what you guys see above.
Tags: creature design, creature from the black lagoon, fish man, gill man, horror classics, monster
