Visions of Lorelei: Bill Ward

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Steven

Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces the soul-stealing succubus.

A bit of an odd story to go with this one.

In 1991, I’d just published my second Lorelei digest-sized comic, this one with a cover by Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, and first Vampirella artist Tom Sutton (from whom I’d bought original Ghost Rider pages and a commissioned Vampi sketch). I was so thrilled to see a real, professional artist interpret Lorelei that I wanted to see what others might do (this was before Dave Simons drew my first-ever Lori convention sketch).

(Note: That Sutton drawing now appears as the frontispiece of Lorelei: Sects and the City.)

Well, one day I go into a local newspaper vendor and as I’m paying for the latest Fangoria, my eye drifts down to the wooden board stretched along the bottom of the sales counter, where the owner stacked the daily newspapers—as well as the cheap, newsprint porn mags. I don’t remember the name of the rag, but what had caught my eye was the bondage art on the front page, featuring women with overly glossy lips and huge boobs. I know that style, I thought, and picked it up. The artist’s signature at the bottom of the piece clued me in.

Bill Ward.

Wait—the same Bill Ward who created the forties “good girl” comic character Torchy? The one who drew the Nanny Dickering comic strips for Cracked magazine? He was doing porn comics, now? Holy crap. That seemed . . . unusual for somebody with his talent.

(Then again, maybe not so unusual. By the time I got around to approaching Sutton about working on the relaunched Lorelei series, he’d spent years doing porn titles for Eros Comix, under the name Dementia. When I asked him for recent art samples . . . well, that was sure an eye-opener!)

Just as surprising was that, right below the editorial information on page 2, there was an ad offering Ward’s services for commissions—with his home address listed! So of course I contacted him.  😀

I think he was surprised I was requesting a non-porn image—I mean, look at where I found his contact info—but once I showed him Sutton’s cover for the Lorelei mini he said he’d be happy to do a drawing for my collection. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and found a fantastic painting on 11×17 art paper—done for the same price you’d have to pay a lot of mainstream artists for a convention sketch.

And of course, it being a Ward piece, Lori became the recipient of a generous grant from the Chest Fairy Endowment Fund.  😀  Well, what would you expect from Torchy’s creator?

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Visions of Lorelei: Gray Morrow

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Steven

Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces the soul-stealing succubus.

This is a very special piece.  And yes, there’s a story to go with it.

During my talks with Frank Thorne about his cover art for Lorelei, Vol. 2 #2 (see yesterday’s Vision for that illustration), I mentioned my dissatisfaction with current artists whose styles were all flash and no substance, and who’d apparently never taken an anatomy lesson. I preferred old-school artists like Thorne and Tom Sutton and Ernie Colon—artists whose work I’d grown up idolizing. I wanted to feature them in the new Lorelei, to remind comic fans of what good art was. Then Thorne asked:

“Have you spoken to Gray Morrow?”

Spoken to him? I hadn’t even considered him! (Not to mention I had no idea how to get ahold of him.)

“Well, here’s his number,” Thorne said. “Give him a call. I think this is something he’d be interested in.”

So I called. And Morrow was interested. Mainstream publishers had turned their backs on artists of his generation, but here was some small-press guy telling him he was exactly what he was looking for. That couldn’t be right, could it?

“Do you mind if I ask you something?” He wanted to know why I’d be interested in hiring someone like him. He wasn’t one of those flashy artists.

I told him the same thing I’d told Thorne: about my dislike of flashy styles, of wanting to remind people what good comics art looked like, of wanting to show my appreciation to the people whose work I’d admired.

There was absolute silence on the other end. Then:

“Thank you.” It was humble and heartfelt, and I could almost see him smiling.

What followed were a half-dozen sketches; when I suggested combining elements of them, Gray got right to work and provided the finished art in no time at all—hating the design of Lori every step of the way.  😀  (“There’s too much hair! That blouse is ridiculous—and so is that collar! It’s all too busy!”)

The most amazing part? He was suffering through the late stages of Parkinson’s Disease, his drawing hand shaking so badly some days that he had to use both hands to do his work. You’d never know it from this illustration.

Although we discussed the possibility of further projects, I never got to work with Gray again—he died in November 2001—but I’ll always appreciate the time and effort he put in to making Lori look her best.

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Visions of Lorelei: Frank Thorne

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Steven

Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces the soul-stealing succubus. Today we feature an artist who knows a thing or two about drawing sexy women…

“Draw ’em like you wanna f— ‘em!”

That was the advice a bunch of fledgling artists and I were given during a one-day class titled “How to Draw Women the Frank Thorne Way,” held at the 1988 Great Eastern Convention. And who better to dispense such a pearl of wisdom than the man who’d made a name for himself as the premier artist of Marvel Comics’ Red Sonja? Although, honestly, hearing it come from a guy who looked like a kindly old grandfather was a major shock to everyone in the room. Still, anyone familiar with my own drawings of Lorelei can’t be too surprised that Thorne’s words have always stuck with me…  😀

When I made plans in 2001 to revive the Lorelei comic series, Thorne was one of the first artists I tracked down in my desire to gather together as many old-school horror artists as I could. (The new series was designed to look like 1970s horror comics.) Having a fondness for redheaded sexpots, he was more than willing to provide an illustration for the second issue’s cover—and thus made a small-press publisher (and big-time fan) very happy.

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Visions of Lorelei: Holly Golightly

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Steven

Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces the soul-stealing succubus. Yesterday we featured a convention sketch from Catwoman and Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose artist Jim Balent, so what better time than today to feature a Lori illustration by his wife, Holly Golightly?

I first met Holly in 1994, back when she was drawing adult-film-star biographies under the name “Fauve” and I was pushing the original Lorelei comic series. She was looking to get into more mainstream-oriented work, and it just so happened that I needed an artist for a project already under way. Uriel Caton (co-creator of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback) had had to give up his commitment to a full-color miniseries called Heartstopper that he and I were working on for indie house Millennium Publications. We’d delivered the first issue before he left, but without a replacement artist issue two had been stuck in limbo. Holly quickly stepped in to complete it.

(Note: This was the comic that introduced Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, who now works as monster-hunting mentor to teen Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback. You can download the first issue of that miniseries, retitled Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa, for free from this very Web site.)

She was well on her way to fully penciling the third issue when Millennium’s publisher told me about a feature article the company was about to get from The Comics Buyer’s Guide, one of the industry’s leading news magazines. Could we provide CBG with some cover art that promoted Heartstopper?

What you see here is the completed cover art; Lori was included because I was negotiating with Millennium to pick up her series as well (also because Holly had been wanting to draw her). However, the cover was deemed too bloody by CBG’s editors’ (wussies!), and the article never happened, but that was all right—not too long after, Millennium and I parted company just after Holly had finished issue three’s pencils and cover (read the afterword in Heartstopper #1 for why that happened).

Still, that’s a pretty sweet drawing.

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Visions of Lorelei: Jim Balent

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Steven

Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces the soul-stealing succubus. Today we’ve got a sketch from one of the 1990s’ top “bad-girl comics” artists.

In 1991, before his work on DC Comics’ Catwoman was even on the horizon, Jim Balent and writer Ed Polgardy were the creators of an indie horror miniseries, From the Darkness. The story was okay—a half-naked vampire queen on a rampage—but the real, er, draw was Balent’s great black and white artwork. So when I wandered past Balent’s table at an NY comic con and realized there was no line in front of him, I went back and asked him for his take on Lori.

Pretty impressive, wouldn’t you say? No wonder DC hired that guy!

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Visions of Lorelei: Mike Mignola

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Steven

Welcome to day six of Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces the soul-stealing succubus.

Sure, today he’s known for his creation Hellboy—the star of various comic book minsieries and a pair of movies directed by Guillermo Del Toro—but back in the day Mike Mignola was a mainstream artist who’d been wowing comic book fans with his work on DC’s Cosmic Odyssey and Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, and Marvel’s Rocket Raccoon and Alpha Flight. And when I stumbled across his table at an NY convention in the early ’90s, Mignola was immediately added to the list of artists I wanted to draw Lori. Thank goodness he agreed to do it!

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Visions of Lorelei: Tim Vigil

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Steven

Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces the soul-stealing succubus. Today we’ve got a pencil masterpiece by the artist of one of horror’s creepiest comics!

When it came to horror comics in the 1990s, no series was more of a psychological attack on all that’s good and decent in the world than the ode to unrepentant sex and violence called Faust: Love of the Damned (which is making its return this fall). And no artist could ratchet up the gore and sexual deviations to squirm-inducing levels more than Faust co-creator and artist Tim Vigil.

So when I came across his table at a New York convention in 1992, of course I had to request a sketch of Lori from him.  😀

Now, don’t get the wrong impression—despite the lightshow around her hands, Lori’s a succubus, not the Scarlet Witch. If I remember correctly, Vigil got the idea after I showed him a Lori commission that seventies horror artist Tom Sutton had done for me, in which Sutton had drawn Lori using magic to reanimate a corpse. (You’ll find that incredible art reproduced as the frontispiece in Sects and the City.)

Nevertheless, it’s quite a drawing, wouldn’t you say?

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Visions of Lorelei: Billy Tucci

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Steven

Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces The ’Warp’s first horror heroine.

“Hey, congratulations, man!” a friend of mine said back in 1994. “How’d you get Billy Tucci to put Lorelei in that comic?”

I looked at him like he was nuts. “What’re you talking about?”

“That Shi comic of his that just came out—Lorelei’s in it!”

I had absolutely no idea how that could have happened. I knew what Shi was—Tucci’s self-published, top-selling bad-girl comic about a modern-day female Japanese warrior—but as far as I could remember I’d never crossed paths with the guy. So I was pretty sure my buddy was mistaken; no way could Lori be popping up in a Shi comic, certainly not without a heads-up from Tucci. Still, I figured it wouldn’t kill me to drop by Forbidden Planet and look into it.

Turned out “that Shi comic” was Shi/Cyblade: The Battle for Independents, the second half of a crossover with Top Cow Comics in which Tucci and Top Cow president/artist Mark Silvestri were making a major push to promote indie publishers to mainstream comics fans (part 1 was titled Cyblade/Shi).  Seemed like an admirable idea, but as I thumbed through the issue I didn’t see any evidence of my girl making her full-color debut. Then I hit the two-page center spread:

Yup. There was Lori, in the middle of a charge by indie characters against the big, bad mainstream corporations. Looking at it now, that spread’s like a gigantic “where are they now?” of indie comics. The only characters I still recognize, other than Shi and Cyblade, are: my friend Richard C. White’s Troubleshooters Inc. werewolf, Nightstalker, in the upper-left corner; Greg Hyland’s Lethargic Lad riding Stephen R. Bissette’s T. rex from Tyrant; Jim Lee’s Grifter in front of them; David Mack’s Kabuki (standing to the right of the motorcycle); and Jeff Smith’s Fone Bone.

Well, my immediate impression was that it was kinda neat, but I was puzzled why no one had ever contacted me. I guess in their enthusiasm to spread the word about indie comics, Tucci and Silvestri just went ahead and put in characters they liked. (I have a feeling I wasn’t the only creator surprised by their character’s appearance in the comic.) Didn’t really matter to me—I appreciated the nod, and it was nice seeing Lori in a full-color comic for the first time.

So now all these years later, I have just one question left to ask:

“Hey, Tucci, where are my royalties?”  😀

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Visions of Lorelei: Joseph Linsner

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Steven

It’s day three of Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces The ’Warp’s first horror heroine. Today we have my all-time favorite convention sketch, done by an artist whom you may have heard has some familiarity with drawing spooky, redheaded femme fatales…

Flashback to 1989. About five minutes after I’d picked up my first-ever Lori sketch from artist Dave Simons (see yesterday’s post for that drawing), I wandered into one of the other convention areas and saw two guys sitting behind a table, promoting Cry For Dawn, a horror comic series they were about to publish.

One guy identified himself as the comic’s writer, Joe Monks; the other was the series’ artist, Joseph Linsner. What got my attention, though, was the painted art they had on display showcasing Dawn, the star of their comic. I asked Linsner if he wouldn’t mind doing a sketch of my redheaded femme fatale. He said sure, asked to borrow the Simons sketch for reference, and said come back in an hour. One hour later, I had this.

Absolutely stunning, wouldn’t you say? And most of it’s rendered in colored pencil! Linsner said he had to stop himself—he was enjoying the sketch so much he realized he was putting too much work into it. Hey, I didn’t mind.  😀

Of course, Dawn became Linsner’s seminal character—eventually becoming a cottage industry of prints and T-shirts and statues and cosplay contests and, yes, even more comics—and he became a pretty big name in the industry. Deservedly so, in my opinion.

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Visions of Lorelei: Dave Simons

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Steven

Welcome back to Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces The ’Warp’s soul-stealing succubus. For day two, we have the first-ever Lorelei convention sketch that I commissioned.

In 1989, Dave Simons was the inker of Marvel Comics’ Ghost Rider, bringing—with penciler Bob Budiansky—a Bernie Wrightson–like look to a series that had started out as a 1970s horror title but had eventually devolved into just another superhero comic. At last the motorcycle-riding hero was returning to his horror roots, which meant that when I learned he was attending a comic book convention in New York City (one of the early Great Eastern Cons, I think), I put him on my list of artists I wanted to approach for a sketch.

See, 1989 was also the year that I introduced Lorelei in a digest-sized comic that I’d spent months drawing—my very first comic project—so I was curious to see how professional artists would interpret her. Simons was the first I talked to—and man, was I happy with the result!

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