Bathtime

This was a piece I just did for "Seance 2: Mystery, Superstition, & the Occult" a halloween show of student, alumni, and faculty work curated by Daniel Krall currently hanging in the Julian Allen Gallery at MICA. It's up until November 24th, so if you're around MICA any time soon, stop in and check it out!

Star Spangled Spectacular!

This year marked the 200th anniversary of the attack on Ft. McHenry and the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner. There was a huge festival and celebration in Baltimore. As part of it, a number of illustrators were commissioned to create one page comic biographies of some of the figures involved. They were to be blown up and displayed 20 feet high at the Fort during the celebration.  I created a bio for Mary Pickersgill, the woman who sewed the flag now known as the 'Star-Spangled Banner' and Grace Wisher, the young indentured servant working under her.

The banners were created, but due to severe inclement weather were sadly never displayed. You can see still see mine and the others over here at the Atomic Books Blog!

Posters!

 Posters for my friend's birthday show, a street fair, updated MTYG event poster, and a little image done for the Mutant zine sent out during Free Comic Book Day this year. (Zelko vodka is gross, y'all, even in vodka sauce.)

Speak No Evil

         

I was asked to do the cover for Baltimore's City Paper back in late May, but wasn't given the subject of the story until after I'd accepted the job.

The story was on child sexual abuse within the Jewish Orthodoxy in Baltimore and the surrounding area. Heavy, heavy stuff, and an extremely powerful story. The cover had a very quick turnaround, but I wanted to handle the subject as eloquently as I could. Reading the story over multiple times, there were a few things that stuck with me, but what resonated most, was the idea of victim shaming, and the idea that things like this were not talked about, and those who did became outcasts. Sort of like a version of "Stop Snitchin'" The idea for the cover came from there.

The illustration was originally supposed to run as an inset piece under the City Paper title, but when I sent the image, the AD decided it would be better as a full page, and asked me to extend the image up to the top of the page. It was also run as a full page interior mirroring the article.
I was really honored to be the one to illustrate such a powerful and challenging piece. Thanks to AD Athena Towery! If you have a chance, please give it a read: Speak No Evil by Phil Jacobs

Brews and Boardgames Happy Hour

I was commissioned to do a poster for the Brew and Boardgames Happy Hour event that takes place monthly over at the Windup Space. This one was a lot of fun because I was asked to illustrate a scene involving people playing games/cards but was otherwise given almost entirely free reign. I went the Milton Bradley boardgame route, and really enjoyed this one.

I didn't stray too far from the initial sketch other than some of the type and information in the poster. That left panel went through a few variations as the client went through a few iterations of what information should be on the poster.

Colors also went through a few changes. I really liked this version, but was having a hard time making the colors not compete too much , especially once I laid in the logo and whatnot on top. I'll have to play around with this palette again, cuz it was super fun!

Baltimore Powered Bicycles

This was a little logo done for a motorized bike company here in Baltimore. The owner wanted something "steampunk" while still showing essentially what the bikes actually are.

While working on these, I was looking at a lot of vintage auto ads, Russian propagada posters, and various art deco stuff. Initially I had missed the mark by interpreting it as slightly more of a dirt-bike type deal, but eventually got it to where the client wanted.

Overheard

A buncha Overheard comics for Benn at Atomic: