Here’s the second page I’ve donated to the Diamond charity auction (see previous post for information on where, when and which charities). This is from SUPREME #47 and features SUPREME and PROFESSOR NIGHT. Script, Alan Moore. Pencils and inks, Rick Veitch. Lettering by Todd Klein. Sorry about the wonky scan; the original looks much nicer.

Meanwhile, the market for original comic book art is exploding according to this article in today’s New York Times.

Diamond Comics Distributors and Alliance Games Distributors are organizing two charity auctions at their 2008 Retailer Summits this year. I’ve donated two signed pieces of SUPREME original retro art that will go on the block at Bally’s Las Vegas, September 7-9. Here’s the first, page 15 from SUPREME, THE RETURN #3, in which DIANA DANE gives the evil BAXTER FRONT a kick to the family jewels. There are appearances by SUPREME, his great-great grandson, SUPREMAX and FIGHTING AMERICAN IV and SPEEDGIRL, all in my best faux-Kirby style. Script by Alan Moore, pencils and inks by Rick Veitch and lettering (on the board) by Todd Klein.

The auctions are for some good causes, such as the CBLDF, ProLiteracy and the Hero Initiative, so bid early and often!

Not my home, but a cabin we were staying in at Crystal Lake, Vermont. Marker in sketchbook, 1996.

Looks like I made the legs a little too long on this Challengers Of The Unknown knock-off for Alan Moore’s reinvention of the Awesome universe. Pen and ink, 1998.

Another giant of European comics I was lucky enough to meet when I visited Lucca in 1980 was Hugo Pratt, author of CORTO MALTESE. Here’s my watercolor and pencil portrait of Hugo for HEAVY METAL.

Marker in sketchbook, 1996.

More pencils from ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR. Gary Erskine has been turning in the inks and they are dy-no-mite! Don’t forget to get your order in for issue #1 this month!

In 1980 I traveled to Lucca, Italy to attend the city’s annual Comics Festival; reporting back to HEAVY METAL in an article titled “The Tip of The Iceberg at Lucca 14”. I illustrated the piece with some color sketches of things I saw, hot political issues I heard about and people I met. Here’s Jean Giraud, who’s Moebius work was then revolutionizing American readers’ perception of what comics could be. Jean was about 42 at the time of this watercolor and pencil portrait.

Before I launched ROARIN’ RICK’S RARE BIT FIENDS as a regular monthly book, there were three 24 HOUR COMIC collections of my dream art. I did these early comics in a small sketchbook; giving myself fifteen minutes a day to record my dreams in panel form, then printed short runs of them on a copier to give away as Christmas gifts to my friends and fellow travelers. Here’s the cover to the first 24 HOUR RARE BIT FIENDS, based on a dream, of course. Pen and ink with zipatone. 1991.