Gravedigger's Gold Key

I had so much fun mocking up that Gold Key Comics-styled Femme Noir cover yesterday, that last night I dusted off the terrific, painted Gravedigger: The Scavengers variant cover by my friend Fred Harper, and knocked out this retro/faux Gravedigger piece. There's something kinda subversive about seeing the squeaky-clean Gold Key trade dress & logo on this hardboiled title...

Don't forget, Gravedigger is available to read free online every week (new pages on Mondays) at www.gravediggercomic.com!

Noir In The Key Of Gold

My pal Steve Bryant was sharing some faux-retro, Golden Age Athena Voltaire covers on his Facebook page today. It made me want to play around in Photoshop, too, so I whipped up this variant of the second issue of the Femme Noir miniseries from a few years back, in the style of old Gold Key Comics.The art is by Joe Staton and Alfredo Lopez Jr.

Cover Design: THE DEAD BEAR WITNESS by James Chambers

The first volume in my pal James Chambers' Corpse Fauna cycle, The Dead Bear Witness, is now on sale from Dullahan Press, an imprint of Dark Quest Books. As Jim explains:

This is volume one of the four-volume Corpse Fauna series, which will complete a story cycle which I began writing in 1997. Although some of the Corpse Fauna stories were previously published, these new editions will present them in revised and greatly expanded versions with new stories to be published for the first time.

Jim is a terrific horror writer. He and I were both editors and writers for Tekno*Comix back in the 90s, and collaborated together on several projects, including our Shadow House comic book series. The Dead Bear Witness is a fantastic, terrifyingly fresh take on the zombie genre, and highly recommended.

By the way, I designed the cover above, which features an illustration by the great Glen Ostrander. The plan is for me to layout and design the covers for the remaining three volumes as well.

You can order the book from Amazon here: Dead Bear Witness

More Covers For Perfect Crime

I just completed these six cover designs for Perfect Crime's upcoming re-issues of author Robert J. Randisi's "Miles Jacoby" private eye novels. As with the covers I put together for Max Allan Collins' "Nolan" books, the idea was to give them a uniform trade dress, while incorporating visual elements on each cover specific to that novel. These new Perfect Crime trade paperback editions will be available in June.

As with the Collins assignment, this one was a personal as well as professional pleasure. I've been a fan of Randisi's books since the mid-80s, and specifically, I always really enjoyed the "Jacoby" novels. They are steeped in affection for the genre and its history, and include plenty of nods toward other authors and characters from private eye fiction, as well as being terrific mysteries in their own right. Of course, I already own copies of all of the books (three in paperback, three in hardcover), but it will be nice to finally have all six available in uniform editions.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Bob Randisi a couple of times, and it was an honor getting to work on his books. Who knows? Maybe I'll get an opportunity to do so again.

Max Allan Collins' NOLAN Returns from Perfect Crime

Max Allan Collins has been one of my favorite crime fiction authors since I first discovered his work around 1983. I was a fan of his comic book series Ms. Tree (with artist Terry Beatty), and, once I stumbled across a paperback copy of his novel Blood Money in a Dover, New Jersey thrift store, I was a die-hard fan of his novels as well.

Around 1991, I finally had the opportunity to work with him – first when he contributed stories to comics and magazines that I edited for a small company called Alpha Productions, and then again a couple years later, when I went to work for Tekno*Comix in Boca Raton, Florida. It was there that I had the great privilege of working with both Max and Mickey Spillane as editor of their Mickey Spillane’s Mike Danger comic book series.

Over the ensuing years, Max and I have stayed in touch off and on, and about a month or so ago, he contacted me to see if I would be interested in designing some covers for new editions of his out of print “Nolan” crime novels, scheduled to be published by Perfect Crime Books. These books, which chronicle the exploits of an aging professional thief and his youthful, comic-fan sidekick, are among my favorites of Max’s many works, so I was thrilled by the offer.

I’ve just sent off the final print files to publisher John Boland, and, with his kind permission, thought I’d share them here. Presumably, these books will be available for purchase sometime in 2012.

I really enjoy doing this kind of design work, and will be working on some covers for my pal James Chambers next.

HATCHET FORCE JOURNAL

My Internet pal Jack Badelaire digs old Men's Adventure fiction - you know, stuff like The Executioner, The Destroyer, Nick Carter: Killmaster, Ninja Master, Able Team, et al - as much, or more, than I do. But he's not satisfied just reading old paperbacks until they crumble to dust in his hands, he blogs about them. And now, he's launching an e-zine, Hatchet Force Journal, available at Amazon for the Kindle, dedicated to their testosterone-fueled legacy - as well as the genre's present & future.

Early this morning, I came across the cover image that Jack had created for his 'zine, and as a guy who made his living for 25 years as a graphic artist and art director, I thought it could use some improvement.

Brief rant: In general, I think that 90% of the images I see as "covers" for e-books and 'zines are truly horrid, and although I know they don't serve quite the same purpose as covers on hardcopy print volumes, I believe that the authors and publishers of these publications are not doing themselves any favors with - frankly - crap artwork. Generic stock photos, hastily-applied text with ill-chosen fonts, garish color choices... well, I sincerely believe that these "covers" are another reason that this bibliophile has no interest in buying any of these virtual publications. They turn me off.

Honestly, though, Jack's original cover wasn't as bad as all that, just lacking cohesion -- so, as I've been itching to knock out a magazine cover again, and I really dig the concept of Jack's 'zine, it seemed like it would be fun to do. Using the same art and copy from his original layout, I tried to give it an old Soldier of Fortune flavor, with a bit of my old tabloid newspaper "flair" (if you want to call it that). For the logo, I attempted something that evoked the Gold Eagle paperbacks (Able Team, Phoenix Force) design style.

Anyway, I spent about an hour, hour-and-a-half on it, and e-mailed it off to Jack this morning. He liked it, and I've agreed to design the covers for any future issues as well.

Check out Jack's blog, Post-Modern Pulps, and remember, you can buy the first issue of his new e-zine here: Hatchet Force Journal Issue #1