Suffocation Through Illustration!

Posted By Mark on June 28, 2009

New illustration up in the Portfolio Section. This is the style I’ve began to do this series of illustrations in. I’ve leaned more toward brush rendering with a heavy dose of feathering. The last few that I’ve done have moved into the more cartoony realm. Lots of Jack Davis influence in the anatomy. All the Mad Magazine reading as a kid is starting to pay off.
1Here’s my take on Suffocation, a New York brutal death metal band. The idea behind the illustration was that they have been around for 20 years and still going strong, so I just took it to the ridiculous logical level.
suffocation-band-2008Here’s the aging death metal band, Suffocation.

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War Ensemble!

Posted By Mark on June 25, 2009

The WAR story I’m working on has led me to draw some things that I have never drawn (at least not in years). For one, Zombies. The excerpt from a montage page below, features a Nazi Zombie, whom I’m told looks like the Slaytanic Wehrmacht, and upon closer inspection does (I guess all those years of Slayer listening paid off). But the artistic direction of this book is heading in an interesting way. The rendering style and inking I’m doing is pretty divergent from my past couple projects and becoming more similar to my freelance magazine illustration. Mulligan’s Run, has a very clean, opened line style; John Oxbow is entirely done in nib and has minimal changes in line weight, but WAR seems to be a bridging of those styles. It’s always exciting when a project starts to take on an identity of it’s own. More to come as I finish up this beast. Almost halfway done.

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Unused Demons…

Posted By Mark on June 21, 2009

Here’s a piece I did for a magazine illustration that didn’t end up getting used. I ended up changing the direction of the piece, but thought it turned out really well. It was a take on the Suffocation ‘Breeding The Spawn’ cover by the amazing cover artist, Dan Seagrave (seen below).
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This was done approx 8×10″ all inked with a Winsor Newton Series 7 Sable brush #2. Digital colors in Photoshop. The mass of the demon really lent itself to the feathering you can do with a brush.
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Second Printing of Echoes From Asteroid X DONE!

Posted By Mark on June 8, 2009

4The Kids Read Comics Convention is quickly approaching and just in time I did the second printing of Echoes From Asteroid X. This time it’s gray on black, silk screened covers, limited and hand numbered to 45 copies. The interior pages are a light gray on resume paper, so it has a little more weight to it than the first run (which is sold out). If anyone is in the Chelsea, Michigan area this weekend, we’d love to see you there. There is a ton of programming and great assortment of cartoonists to fit any taste. For the young and young at heart.3
For ordering information check out the listing in the store.

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Keelhaul Approved!

Posted By Mark on June 6, 2009

Last week a buddy of mine was at a Keelhaul show (a Cleveland-based rock band, and a darn good one!) in New York and had the clarity of thought to remember that Chris Smith, the guitar player/vocalist was actually in my Closing Doors graphic novel. So she quickly ran home grabbed her copy of Closing Doors and scurried back to the club and promptly gave it to said Mr. Smith. Here’s his review…

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I’m told he was tickled to be in a comic book.
Here’s the panel that he appeared in.
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Yeah, I know– I could get a better likeness now.

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Monkey Mod Through The Eyes of Seko…

Posted By Mark on May 31, 2009

mm_tedAs many have no doubt heard, a bunch of us have been making pieces to be auctioned off to help out pals over at The Big Illustration Party Time recoup their audio set up. For more info check here. Here is an interesting collaboration that Ted Seko and I did together. Ted came up with some super dynamic thumbnail pieces for me to ink. At first blush, I thought “what can I do to these?”. As they stand they are striking pieces and the lines are so minimal, what could I really bring to the table?
ted_mod_flatTed was able to capture the character in so few strokes, would I be sacrificing the dynamic nature by over rendering? You decide. I’m pretty happy how it turned out once I just trusted myself and followed Ted’s structure.

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WAR: A Change in Tactics

Posted By Mark on May 31, 2009

A few weeks ago I posted a page from the new Thrills From Space story I’m working on and after further refinement of the story and plots, I’ve opted to change the format from square to a more traditional size (actually the same size as John Oxbow). This change in format at first had me moving my title around a little bit, but during these revisions I started actually moving panels around a bit (for added effect of course) and discovered that by doing so, it changed the pace of the story to more the flow that I had in mind from the beginning. Let me back up a bit– WAR, the page posted a few weeks ago was meant to just be an inking exercise, but the longer I lived with the page, it actually worked itself into one of my other existing stories. Below are the first 3 pages of WAR, also included is the original version of page 1, which has become pages 1 & 2.

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MARYLAND DEATHFEST!

Posted By Mark on May 20, 2009

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For any metal fans out there, The Requiem Podcast crew will be at The Maryland Deathfest May 22nd-24th. We’d love to meet up with listeners at the event. Look for the guy with long hair and a beard (yeah, I know there will be thousands), but I’ll have a green messenger bag. Hope to see you there. Bolt Thrower will be there on Saturday! This’ll be my first time–super excited!

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CLOSING DOORS DOCUMENTARY ONLINE!

Posted By Mark on May 16, 2009

n89065300699_4496Any longtime listeners of Art & Story have no doubt heard me talking about a documentary I was involved with a few years back that used art from my Closing Doors graphic novel as transitions between scenes. The interesting thing was that both Tim O’Brien and myself were doing commentaries about the record store, in different mediums, without being aware the other’s project until fairly late in the game. So anyone interested can view the documentary here (it’s around a half hour). And if you’d like to see my commentary on the record store closing, check out Closing Doors, here. It’s also available in print in the CV Comics Store.

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WAR. A Preview of the Next Thrills From Space Story!

Posted By Mark on May 12, 2009

tfs_logo1Is a Sci-fi anthology series by Mark Rudolph featuring short-form stories, told in a 60s silver age-style with modern storytelling sensibilities. Each are presented in short run, varied size format with silk screened covers on recycled paper. A mingling of current DIY aesthetics and pulp magazines.

The next story in the series is WAR, a WWII story that explores the act of war through different lenses. Here’s a preview page. Also in Art & Story Extreme!! Continuity, we discuss some of the lettering choices and what the implications of those choices are.

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