I grew up on the classic comic books of what are now known as the medium’s Silver and Bronze Ages, from the late 1960s through to the early 1980s. And from my youngest years I tried to replicate the work I found therein; at about age five I was even confident enough in my skills to bring one of my projects to be retailed in our neighborhood corner store (the owner was kind enough to include it on the magazine racks). Though I never seriously pursued the training required to become a professional illustrator, I’ve continued to try my hand at comic-style art, inspired by the great talents and anonymous journeymen whose craftsmanship has inspired me all my life.

Some of what I’ve done amounts to no more than doodling, the kind of thing I’ll come up with while a TV show or a staff meeting drones in the background, but you can still see some of my influences:

Other of my work is more finished, but mimics the same visual language of the war and horror comics I was raised on – the stock scenarios and exaggerated poses intended to jump out at readers and get them to fork over their dimes or quarters circa 1974. These are homages to towering figures in the comics pantheon like Berni Wrightson, Wally Wood, John Severin, Jose Ortiz, Alex Toth, Joe Kubert, and Russ Heath:

I’ve also tried to re-imagine some of my favorite novels in comic form:

Eventually I discovered Mad and National Lampoon, with contributors like Mort Drucker, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, and Joe Orlando, along with some of the more underground figures like Robert Crumb, to whom the tropes of the comics formula were so obvious that they became ripe for satire or self-examination:

Even a favorite song might be comic-ified:

Really, is there anything that can’t be conveyed as a comic book? Probably:

I never really got into superhero characters, although they’re so recognizable they’re fun to draw:

And the erotically charged fantasy portraits of the brilliant Frank Frazetta, and the late lamented Heavy Metal magazine, also shaped my own style (NSFW!):

I’ve also enjoyed imagining my own comic series, like one set in a low-tech world where bikes are the equivalent of fighter planes. I got as far as a cover, anyway:

Elsewhere I’ve made “sequential art,” using the comic format to tell non-comic stories:

In the end I still come back to re-creating the style of comic illustration that moved me as a kid, contrived and disposable as it may have been. It might not be high art, but sometimes it’s all the art I’ve needed: