Hugo’s Blog

Joining in on this whole "draw-a-cover-of-a-cover" meme that I first saw on the page of the fabulous (but all-too-rarely posting) dandydevildog. Here's my remake...

and the original...

Yeah, there's crazier and gorier covers that appeared under the Eerie Publications masthead, as any quick google search will show you, but I chose this one because I a) own this issue, and b)just love how gloriously stupid it is. I always wonder if it sprang fully formed from the mind of the artist or if some demented art director just kept piling on the details
"no, give him a bigger nose--a real schnozz! And some of those eyebrows like Paulie Walnuts! And throw in a bunch of eyeballs!"

Just some sketches from the other day

The one in red on the top is a partial copy of the female figure in the painting "The Deceased Lovers, Death and Lust," attributed to the Master of the Upper Rhine

I first saw this painting as a kid, and it made a real impression on me. I'd had no luck tracking it down in other places over the years, so I was glad to see a full-page reproduction included in Umberto Eco's book ON UGLINESS--highly recommended for lovers of the grotesque, by the way.

Going in the completely opposite direction, thanks to strangelet for posting this great little documentary on a cat sanctuary in California...

I went ahead and signed up to sponsor a cat: Momma Kitty!
Momma Kitty don't ever gotta worry about nothin'. Now dry them peeps.

This was inked in the same fast style described in this post, though I did take more time with the pencils on this one. I forgot to go back and correct a few mistakes (such as the "Hyuk Hyuk" word balloon in the 6th panel, 1st page), but you get the idea.

And here's a dirty sketch

Sketchbook drawings from about 8 or 9 years ago. I was going to print these up as a little booklet, but of course I never got around to it.

Also, I think I want to adopt this kid.

Working on a comic. I need to draw the run-down dwelling of a clan of sickos. Do you prefer Sketch A...

or Sketch B?

"Neither" is always an option, of course. Thanks for taking the time!

I only discovered Georges Pichard (1920-2003) a couple of years ago, so I can't really count him as an influence, but I do admire his work very much. I especially love the way he composes his comic pages

He really makes the panel divisions serve the art in amazing ways. And of course, there's the way he draws women!

From PAULETTE:LE CIRQUE DES FEMMES

Speaking of great artists, dexter_cockburn sent me this

This past weekend, I got around to commemorating in comics form the shitful and embarassing events of the previous weekend, when I was suffering from food poisoning (or perhaps from some awful stomach bug). My friend weeblondhooker, to whom I refer in the comic, is, of course, weeblondhooker, while Jay Marcy is none other than jaymarcy, whose excellent and disgusting story "Spray!" first used a line very similar to the one in question. It seemed familiar to me after I wrote it, but I didn't remember where I'd read it until I was just about done with the comic. Hope you don't mind, Jay!!

I'm using these comics as an exercise. The challenge is to work as quickly as possible, doing as little prep work as I can get away with. I'm constantly screaming "Go! Go! GO!" like a mad beatnik at myself as I work on these, and as much as possible the first drawing I lay down is the one I go with. David Paleo offered a great suggestion to keep the drawing loose but to tighten up the lettering, which I attempted to do here. Ok, enough talk!

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