Gorgo

Happy Halloween! And in anticipation of the Holidays approaching, I wanted to reveal some great news concerning one Monster model from the past. I was contacted a few years ago by Monarch Models to paint an illustration of Gorgo for an upcoming release. I was treated to a prototype of the Gorgo model to work from, I knew of the movie (but never saw it) and being a former Aurora model builder myself, Monarch agreed that I had all of the requirements to be a part of the legacy of being a model box artist! A detail of the pencil sketch can be found inside my sketchbook, A Fistful Of Lead. My only direction was that the illustration should resemble a companion box for Aurora's Godzilla. I remember those glorious years building models as a young boy with. My favorites were, of course, Aurora's line of Famous Monsters with wonderful James Bama paintings that were just mesmerizing to me and all my friends and remain classics today. I'm sure those don't need any introduction. But, Monarch might. So, the news that I received is that Monarch will release Gorgo in time for Christmas this year! Check online or your favorite hobby dealer. My painting was originally commissioned and completed over 3 years ago. So, I have been just as anxious as any model collector to grab this off of the shelf. I'll be building mine with my sons!

From New Album 1/21/08 10:23 PM

Watch out! Zombie!

Here's a recent cover painting for a very enjoyable read from American Fantasy Press. It's the first collection of short stories featuring detective John Justin Mallory, the hero by Mike Resnick. The brand new hard cover publication will be available in time for Mike Resnick's Guest of Honor appearance at the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention. There's eight stories featuring a hard boiled detective from our world unhappily stranded in a Manhattan filled with trolls, pink elephants, blue nosed reindeer, powerful demons, and Mallory's office cat / sidekick Felina. You can read more about the book at the website: www.americanfantasypress.com Thanks to Robert Garcia for another incredible project and subject matter for me to work with. Bob and I sat down at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention and roughed out a cover concept. From there I developed the drawing for approval and moved forward on the finish painting. The cover is directly inspired from a scene in the story, "Stalking The Zombie" which appears in this collection for the first time. I also did two black and white spot illustrations for the interior.

The Howard Wolowitz Wall of Fame

Hey! Can you spot my Stella 7 painting gracing the wall in Wolowitz's bedroom? As a fan of the hit television Big Bang Theory, my family and I were thrilled to learn that there was a poster of her nicely displayed among Howard's Space Girl bedroom decor. There's a lot of really great artwork hanging on all of the sets. So, I am incredibly flattered that someone thought to include a poster that was promoting the comic book Space Doubles from Third World Studios a few years back. The painting was originally commissioned for the Chicago Fantastic Film Festival commemorative poster, featured in a Spectrum art annual and then as the cover for my first Sketchbook. But as my friend Steve Boyd commented: "You know you've made it big when your artwork makes the hallowed Walls of Howard Wolowitz." Thanks to Eric LeFaber for telling me about it before I saw it for myself.

The Adventures of Philip Marlowe

Recently, I had an opportunity to paint one of the all time great detectives and one of my personal favorites in full blazing pulp tradition. My intention was that you hear the "crack" of the gun shots and put you in the middle of pulse pounding thrills. You can also hear all the gun shots and thrills on the Marlowe OTR radio programs. "The Adventures of Philip Marlowe" is now available from Radio Archives. If you are a fan of the Raymond Chandler's classic detective, you'll enjoy the restored old time radio programs that Radio Archives has available - with my illustration on the collections packaging. They are also offering 12 x 18 prints in their Pulp Book Store for those who must own one for their wall or collection. Visit www.RadioArchives.com and tell'em Klauba sent you!

Old Time Radio

I recently completed the promotional poster for the Wild Claw Theater's "Deathscribe" 2011. The "one night only" performance is right around the corner on December 5th. Deathscribe is an extraordinary evening of live performances of original short radio plays, written by horror enthusiasts and professionals from all around the globe. The thrill of watching skilled foley artists creating sound effects live, right in front of you, is truly like no other. With live musical accompaniment, exclusive radio commercials, special guest directors and a celebrity panel to judge the best in the fest, the festival is magical. Imagine "Prairie Home Companion" with horror. Website: http://www.wildclawtheatre.com/index.html
Designer/Artist/Art Director, Charlie Athanas of Wild Claw, asked me to illustrate this years poster. I sketched 6 rough thumbnails for Charlie to look at and then he picked one for me to develop into a tight pencil drawing. I'm skipping some of the process here because the thumbnail looked like the drawing and the drawing resembles the finished painting very closely. The creative process went very smoothly and what you see here is pretty much what Charlie and I discussed. The only addition that I made was dripping red paint along the top of the image.
Detail of pencil study:

Finished art:

Posters will be available at the Mayne Stage Theater in Chicago on the day of the show.

On the board right now is a cover for "Adventures of Philip Marlowe" and I'm listening to "Nightbeat" while I work. The stories keep me entertained and in the mood well into the night. The Marlowe cover is for an upcoming Radio Archives collection. I'm enjoying their superb audio quality. If you need an introduction to Old Time Radio jump over to the Radio Archives website. If you don't know where to begin, try "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" or "Box 13" which was recently released with a brand new cover illustration from me.

ERB Thrillogy

I've been a big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs for almost forever. Like a lot of comic book readers in the 1970's I discovered Tarzan and John Carter from reading their DC and Marvel comics and then later on buried myself in some paperbacks. Much later I found out about Billy Byrne, The Mucker, equally entertaining... But, I am really attached to the ERB universe of John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Tharks, White Apes, Mars... I think you get the idea. Painting and drawing the ERB John Carter/Mars characters have always been on my mind but I've always questioned, "where do I even begin"? There's a rich history of amazing illustrations bringing those stories to life by the likes of masters: Krenkel, Frazetta, Kaluta, Kubert, Buscema and Nebres. For many years I have been pretty content with just admiring those images. I'm not even going to begin discussing the upcoming Disney JOHN CARTER film... What you see here are my preliminaries and the finished painting for the ERB Thrillogy cover from Pulp 2.0 Press. The challenge was to showcase the three books: A Princess of Mars, Tarzan of the Apes and The Mucker. Classic characters all on one painting.
Pencil sketch:

On the board with pencils and acrylics:

Finished:

Orpheus

Earlier this week I saw a color proof for my new piece from The Dialogue Project, which is a series of poems illustrated sequentially by a variety of artists and published as limited edition prints. I made a visit to the Transmission Atelier studio to check out the production and I have to say that I was incredibly impressed (again) at the quality that James Kay captures when capturing and printing artwork. At first glance I couldn't tell the original from the copy.

I've been excited about being a part of The Dialogue Project ever since the publisher, Cory Glaberson commissioned me to do "any poem" that I wanted! And I was equally thrilled that Robert Garcia was going to handle the design of the series as well as lettering the piece. "Orpheus" was finished in time for San Diego Comic-Con but the prints are just getting set to roll off the press. They are available now from the publisher or from the Reel Art booth at any major comic book/entertainment convention.

It all started with the poem from the play, "Henry VIII":

Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves, when he did sing.
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.

Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or hearing, die.

-William Shakespeare


My rough sketch as I had originally envisioned.
And while I ended up reworking this rough sketch, it really shows elements of what I wanted it to be and where I eventually ended up.

Blocking in the drawing on the board.
More sketching and influences of Pre-Raphaelite imagery and art nouveau emerged as I began gathering my reference.

And then on to Bob Garcia to be lettered:

(Not Final Version)
Other artist's in the series so far: Michael Zulli, Rick Geary, Mark Nelson and Howard Chaykin. I may be missing somebody...
So, for updates and ordering information please go to their website:
www.thedialogueproject.co