Found this beaut in the bottom of a drawer. It’s a photo of me, age 3, in front of the Veitch family hacienda in Walpole New Hampshire, taken by older brother Tom Veitch on his trusty Brownie. Looks like I’m in my Sunday go-to-church outfit. The date on the back is October, 1954.

I think this was a quickie illustration for an ashcan edition that Tundra would give away at conventions. It’s pen and ink with a liberal larding of white out. No date but I’d peg it for 1991 or thereabouts.

Michael Zulli wrote recently to remind me of the “Koffup” sequence in the TEKNOPHAGE arc I wrote. The bit involved five candidates undergoing a trial-by-bladder competition to see who exhibited the most endurance in holding endless cups of Koffup. The winner received a position as Assistant Partner in Mr. PHAGE’s company.

Script by Rick Veitch, pencils by Bryan Talbot, inks and color by Angus McKie, lettering by Todd Klein, TEKNOPHAGE #5, 1995.

Usually I submit rough idea sketches for proposed comic book covers, not all of which are accepted. Here’s one that didn’t make the grade for an issue of ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR. For this mini-series, the shtick is to parody existing works of art and I was playing around with the famous 30,000 year old fertility goddess sculpture known as the VENUS OF WILLENDORF. I kind of liked the humor of giving her a more modest bikini attire, but it just didn’t seem to work for a war comic.

It’s nice to have a sketchbook with you when you find yourself sitting in yet another parking lot. Marker in sketchbook, 1996.

A few years ago I took some of the nature and dream sketches you’ve been seeing here and made a 3 page poetry comic called “STOLEN MOMENTOS”. The story was originally assembled in black and white from photocopies with newly lettered captions. I brought that into Photoshop with the idea of coloring it but my initial attempts didn’t get off the ground. Then one day I found a little old beat up picture frame that I scanned the back of. Using hard-learned computer skills, I made the pages of the comic look as if they were printed in faded blue on the back of the cardboard. I like the way the effect adds a whole new dimension to the poetry.

You can get a copy of HEARTBURST AND OTHER PLEASURES with an exclusive signed print over at Paneltopanel.net.

A sketch as lovely as a tree. But it’s fun to try. Marker in sketchbook. 1997.

Maybe tomorrow I will show you how I worked some of these dream and nature sketches into STOLEN MOMENTOS, a 3 pager that made it in to HEARTBURST AND OTHER PLEASURES.

Here’s a second portrait I did of Moebius at Lucca in 1980, as it appeared in HEAVY METAL. I liked the way Giraud dressed in super bright colors that bounced off the ancient gray stones of the medieval city.

It looks like I will be making a return trip to Lucca this fall, courtesy of the festival and the nice folks at Comma 22 who are in the process of bringing out Italian editions all the King Hell titles. More info as the trip details come into focus.

Not sure what year I mashed up the ENRON logo with this classic visual illusion, but it must have been when Enron’s whole energy speculation shell game was coming unraveled. While Enron is gone, it’s legacy is still with us. If you are wondering why the prices of oil, food and other essential commodities are rising so fast, I recommend you check out what’s on the net if you search “Enron Loophole“.

The Comics Reporter notes the release of ARMY@LOVE Vol 2: GENERATION PWNED this week. You can get your copy for a little over ten bucks over at Amazon.com. Or order both Volume 1 and 2 for twenty and change.

And I just received my comp copies of the first issue of the mini-series: ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR, so that’ll probably hit the stores next week.