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It’s officially the first day of Halloweekend (woo-hoo!) and here at Fuel Your Illustration we’d like to dedicate today’s posts to kicking things off for all of our readers the only way we know how… sharing some Halloween-related illustrations!

First up we’ve got a brand new ebook from comic artist and freelance illustrator Dave Windett and author John Gatehouse simply called Trick or Treat!. While it actually premiered back in September, as the title suggests, the book was definitely created with Halloween fanatics like myself in mind. Well, okay, the target audience might be a little younger than I am, but I’ve never been one to turn down a book full of fun monsters and adolescent adventure.

Storywise, Trick or Treat! follows a young girl named Neela Nightshade who wants to be a famous reporter. Determined to prove herself, Neela decides to investigate the town legend of the haunted Monster Mansion atop of Gallows Hill and soon finds more than she bargained for when the legends turn out to be true. Before she knows it the monsters of Monster Mansion are running amuck and ready to take over the whole town!

For more information, check out the creative team’s Little Lemming Books website.

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Strange Kids Club is excited to announce its second issue of the Strange Kid Comix Magazine featuring a hauntingly awesome cover by David Hartman— character designer and Emmy Award-nominated director for shows like Transformers: Prime, MTV’s Spider-Man and Extreme Ghostbusters.

This extra special Halloween-themed issue continues SK’s tradition of combining immature, gross out humor with a crazy love for pop culture parody in a spine-chilling new series of stories by creators Aaron Klopp, Brian Fyffe, Christine Larsen, Craig Collins, Glen Brogan, German Orozco, Sean K. Dove, Keith Allen, Neil Camera, Smo, Beans and Bueller and Zach Bellissimo.

Each short stars the club mascot; Strange Kid, a personification of prepubescent deviant behavior with a penchant for monsters, video games and generally causing as much Halloween-themed havoc to those around him as possible and includes an a bonus “treat” for all of the Halloweenies out there: two exclusive cut-out monster mask by David Hartman and Keith Allen!

“Vibrantly illustrated by many of today’s top talents… artist interviews and gooey handfuls of dark humor help round out this release.”

-Gary Pullin (Rue Morgue)

“Strange Kid Comix #2 is, more than anything, a potent shot of hyperactive horror fandom, a candy-fueled headtrip time-warping our brain-damaged psyches to the endless Halloween of Monster Kid childhood.”

-Wilhelm Screem (Bloodsprayer)

“STRANGE KIDS COMIX MAGAZINE is a bloody romp that will take you back to the good old days of gorey (sometimes comically so) movies, up-all-night scarefests with friends, and more fun than a funsized bag of candy corn.”

-Meredith Short (Viper Comics)

To snag yourself a copy, check out the official Strange Kid Shop.

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Not to isolate the male comic book artists out there, but as a geeky girl with an intense attraction to visual storytelling, I absolutely love learning about female artists and how they’ve managed to infiltrate the primarily male-dominated field. I’m going to focus today’s Webcomic Wednesday, not on webcomics (gasp!), but on their printed counterpart, and showcase a phenomenal Kickstarter project that is celebrating the work of 140 talented female comic book artists: Womanthology, a 300 page anthology already in production that is finally giving women recognition for their amazing comics. It’s the first of its kind and I’m already hoping for another one in the future.

The Massive All Female Comic Anthology!

The creator of the project is Renae De Liz, a professional comic book artist and illustrator of the graphic novel version of The Last Unicorn (which I own and love to pieces – her style of drawing suits the emotion of the tale perfectly). She undertook this incredible anthology project when she began to notice a lack of female artists being published and had an idea that quickly took off.

The goal of the Kickstarter project was originally a small $25,000 to publish 1500 books. Now, with 11 days to go, the project has received $67,000 in donations from art lovers the world over, and they’ve raised their goal to $100,000 and are hoping that with this goal, they’ll be able to do a whole lot more. Even with the project deadline approaching, I have a feeling Renae will reach her goal and some. Why not help her out?

More Womanthology Links

• Official Kickstarter Page
• Womanthology Blog
• Full List of Contributing Artists
• Womanthology Twitter
• Womanthology Facebook Page

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I love apps. I love game apps, to-do list apps, time tracking apps, apps to make wireframes, apps to tell me where the stars are, apps that make peeling oranges a snap! Well maybe not so much… BUT. The app I am going to introduce you to today is by far, the most beautiful iPad app I have ever come across. It combines incredibly touching stories with beautiful works of art and interactive play into one breathtaking iPad app for both children and adults. I am extremely happy that this app was sent my way.

Forgotten Colours & Other Illustrated Stories

Forgotten Colours is “112 page ‘book’ containing fifteen stories that deal with universal themes, seen from an optimistic and lively point of view” and was created by Play Creatividad. It contains sketches, interactive pages that allow you a closer look at the artwork, and great moral tales with happy endings. The tagline for the ipad app is “A Surprisingly Unique Version” and let me tell you, it most definitely is surprisingly unique. I fell in love with this book in just the first five pages and I wanted to share this with all you as soon as I could.

Get Forgotten Colours 50% off today!

This is going to be a short post because it is a quick preview of a longer post I will be publishing sometime next week that will contain interview with some of the faces behind the app. It’s a big project and a big post, but I wanted to talk about it sooner BECAUSE today is June 23rd and today you can get Forgotten Colours for 50% off in the iTunes store! How awesome is that?! Not only will buying it mean getting your hands on this beautiful book, but there’s another reason: “10% of the proceeds obtained shall be donated to the DNGO Educación Sin Fronteras (Education without Boundaries).”

The Free Forgotten Colours Wallpaper App

That’s not all. Today is also the release date of the Wallpapers – Forgotten Colours app, a FREE companion app for the iPad and the iPhone that lets you download illustrations from the book to use as wallpapers! You can bet what my current wallpaper is, huh?

So what are you waiting for? Go download the 50% off Forgotten Colours app and its companion Wallpaper app today! And don’t forget to check back next week for an interview with the folks behind this beautiful application. Enjoy!

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Starting this June a new series by creators Aaron Alexovich (Invader Zim, Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Drew Rausch (Sullengrey, Cthulhu Tales) brings the Elder Gods into the digital age with an online comic based on mysteries of Lovecraft’s deep, dark universe.

Entitled ELDRITCH! the series consists of six 24-page installments that will be released over the course of the summer for both desktop and mobile devices so that the madness can follow you wherever you go.

A former DC Comic’s ZUDA award recipient the newly resurrected series finds Anya Sobczek, a “snarling science major with an arm full of Darwin tattoos,” and her brother Owen, a “sensitive young thing in a coven of teenage occultists” battling the tentacled, cosmic forces of terror. You can check out the first three pages below and six more pages are currently available for FREE online- download them as a PDF here.

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There’s nothing quite like a mother’s love… especially when it involves running for your life as she tries to eat your brains!

From author Matt Mogk and illustrator Aja Wells, That’s Not Your Mommy Anymore is a fun read that pokes fun at the horror genre’s most recognizable movie monster; the zombie. Deadpan as they may be, Mogk’s rhythmic pacing sets up a sort of twisted Dr. Suess-like narrative that is further brought to (un)life by Wells’ deceptively innocent illustrations.

Unlike Mogk, who is the Founder & Head Researcher of the Zombie Research Society, Wells admitted to not knowing too much about zombies at the beginning of the project. Nonetheless she took great care to really do her homework and in the process brings some iconic brain-eaters to the mix, albeit in her own unique way. There’s cameos by George Romero, Tarman (Return of the Living Dead), Bub (Day of the Dead), and many more. Wells even came away from the experience as a bonafide fan of Shaun of the Dead.

Overall, That’s Not Your Mommy Anymore is a great gift for any self-respecting horror fan mom or mother-to-be. It’s cute, but with a dark edge to it that combine the best of Mogk and Wells strengths as creative individuals and I hope that they both return for more monster-themed collaborations in the future.

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Thanks for joining us, Charles. Can you provide a little background on who you are and what motivated you to become an illustrator?

Hey, thanks for having me! I am an Illustrator from the South Bronx. I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC (which is not just a fashion school contrary to popular belief). My motivation to become an illustrator was my need for attention. I am one of six children and I was never particularly cute or good at sports, so I used my art as a way to get people to notice me. In high school, where I was one of very few artists, my art got girls to talk to me and helped me build self confidence.

Is there an overall objective to your work- something you hope viewers will get out from it?

Overall when people look at my work I want them to get an idea of who I am. This is why I often incorporate things in my art that represent me in terms of where I grew up and my ethnicity, but I also incorporate things that represent what sets me a part from everyone else with a similar background. This tends to be my whimsical imagination and obsession with crabs, and the Mr. Softee truck.

How has living in the Bronx affected you as an artist? Do you find any inspiration from the community?

I feel being from the South Bronx, a place that everyone associates with such negative connotation, and where art seems to be an outlandish idea aside from the many spray painted murals of deceased friends and graffiti, I have an original perspective. I derive a lot of inspiration from the community, especially the hand painted yellow Bodega signs, the loud Spanish music in the summertime, and the cats that sleep on top of the bread in the Bodega.

What are a few of your other greatest influences?

Recently I have been infatuated with Alejandro Jodorowsky films such as El Topo and Santa Sangre. He has definitely inspired me to want to direct a film eventually. I am also very influenced by artists such as Winsor Mccay, J.C.Leyendecker, and Ashley Wood to name a few. But, of course, I owe much of my artistic inspiration to Akira Toriyama and his genius behind Dragon Ball Z.

I understand that you’ve recently released your latest book, Red, Yellow, Blue (And a Little Bit of White), for free on your blog before it goes on sale. What made you decide on this distribution strategy?

I decided to assimilate what hip hop artists have been doing with mix tapes into an illustrators market model. Basically, to increase your fan base by offering free downloads of your material before a major release, and if people love it they will spread the word or perhaps donate to my cause. Also the world of picture books seems to not have yet taken advantage of the internet like web comics have.

That’s a very interesting perspective. Do you have much experience working with book publishing? What are some of the pros and cons you’ve encountered with self-publishing?

This is my first venture into the world of publishing, though I have assisted in the production of children’s books such as the recently released book about Martin Luther King Jr. entitled My Uncle Martin’s Big Heart written by his niece, Angela Watkins and illustrated by my former professor Eric Velasquez- my likeness was actually drawn in one of the scenes of the book! I feel self-publishing offers a lot of creative liberties, but also requires a lot of initiative. I am however interested in working with a publishing company (if you work for one and you’re interested, contact me).

The book teaches a wonderful lesson that the value of a person/place/thing is only as great as the sum of its parts. Is this something you intended or is there another metaphor at work?

The primary lesson behind the story is that these basic colors are all you need to make most any color in the spectrum, which most non-artistic people I know fail to have learned even into adulthood. I do realize [however] that the story can be interpreted in many more ways, which I think is an important characteristic of any successful work of art.

In a previous conversation you mentioned the inspiration for the book was an “obscure childhood obsession with elephants, frogs and trumpets.” Can you elaborate on this for us?

Most artists I feel have reoccurring themes in their art- for instance; Eric Joyner and his Robots and Donuts, or Henry Darger and his little girls with butterfly wings and penises. I like to think we all have these objects of infatuation that we incorporate into our art that become symbols for us. I made sure to make room for all of these things in my book, except for the crabs, I have a special plan for my crab obsession.

What’s your creative process like for a typical piece of work? Are you a traditional painter or do you use digital painting techniques?

I usually start out with a very abstract composition, then when I find a form I like I build from there. I like to see something unintentional in my lines that I can create something from. I love oils but for this book I worked in primarily gouache with some pastel and digital touch ups.

What’s one of the most time saving tricks you’ve discovered while painting?

While painting I have discovered that starting with the background, then working to the foreground makes you feel like you’ve done way more, and seems to be more time efficient.

In one word, what “fuels” your illustration?

Deprivation.

More about Charles Esperanza:

Visit Charles’ Website | Read Charles’ Blog | Follow Charles on Twitter

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Shamless Plug Alert!

I’ve debated writing about this project here to avoid any sort of conflict of interest, but I ultimately felt that it’s too exciting for me not to share. For those of you who stop here frequently to FUEL your illustration inspiration and have read my bio you’ll know that I also run a site called Strange Kids Club, dedicated more towards 80s nostalgia, video games, animation and movies. Over the course of my time with the site I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet and interview some phenomenally creative individuals, most of whom have kept in touch.

As such, I decided to combine as much of that talent as I could into a comics anthology and much to my surprise I was able to convince over 20 of the most talented people I know the contribute their talent and time to the project. I’m happy to say that they’re hard work is about to pay off as we will be launching the Strange Kid Anthology #1 this April! Woo-hoo! Even better still, we’re currently taking pre-orders for the book- only $7 bucks!

Still not convinced? Check out these teasers:

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It’s not often that I’m asked to review an actual comic book for the FUEL, but when Johnny Zito and Tony Trov (co-founders of SOUTHfellini) approached me about test driving one of their newly launched titles for the Fyillo readers I figured it be worth a shot… then they told me the title, Moon Girl. Now, I’m not typically one to judge a book by its title, but I couldn’t help thinking that I had just agreed to review some Sailor Moon knockoff. Oh, but my preconceptions couldn’t have been more wrong. In short, Moon Girl is more like Batman meets Anastasia… with zombies.

In truth Zito and Trov have actually managed to blend a variety of genres into the title including superheroes, pulp, war, and fantasy- an odd mixture to be sure, but one that works. The book actually harkens back to a comic of the same name originally released by EC Comics back in the late 40s (the characters and title have since become public domain). Having not read the original series its hard to compare the two in terms of story, however, Zito and Trov have put together a pretty interesting package within the span of two issues already.

The story itself, as described by the books site on Comixology, revolves around a woman named Clare Lune- nurse by day, crimefighter by night. She also happens to be an “exiled Russian Princess” who must faces the forces of evil and her past. With villains such as Satana, Sugar Plum Fairy, and Tiki Bob you can count of nothing being off limits. In the first issue alone, Moon Girl defeats her archnemisis Satana, gets attacked by zombies, and takes an undesired page out of Slim Pickens role as Major T. J. “King” Kong in Dr. Strangelove.

Adding to the 50s pulp vibe with some beautifully rendered pages is an artist known only as Rahzzah who manages to channel his best Clayton Crain with his detailed, painterly style. In fact, Rahzzah manages to mix just the right amount of sexiness, horror, and fantasy that really gives Moon Girl its extra appeal. Fans of artists like Ashley Wood, Ben Templesmith, or Clayton Crain will absolutely love it, while those looking for anything remotely close to a more tightened style of illustration might be a little disappointed.

Regardless, Moon Girl #1 and #2 were a blast to read and much like Carnivale de Robotique, the boys of SOUTHfellini have surprised me once again. Given the books history with EC Comics and what the team has done on the book thus far, I’m pretty excited to see where things will go. Having been on Comixology’s roster for the past few months, Moon Girl is acutally making the leap to print for the first time next month courtesy of Red5 Comics and I highly encourage you to give it a shot (Diamond order code: FEB111132).

Check out this 6-page preview:

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As a kid I grew up with plenty of soft-hearted stories full of cats in hats, wild things, fuzzy catepillars, and equally cute and cuddly protagonists. Among those tales, Pat the Bunny was perhaps the first “touch and feel” experience that I can remember. A truly interactive book, Dorothy Kunhardt’s Pat the Bunny is a short journey into the world of Judy, Paul and their pet rabbit Pat that encourages young readers to touch, smell, play and see the world within.

On the flip side Aaron Ximm (Author) and Kaveh Soofi’s (Illustrator) recently released book, Pat the Zombie, is a disturbing journey into a zombie infested wonderland of rubbery zombie flesh, gross anatomy, and smelling corpses. As a spoof on the original Ximm and Soofi brilliantly recreate Kunhardt’s work virtually cover to cover, albeit with a decidedly macabre twist. Soofi’s artwork serves as darkly mirrored version of its source material in its eerie simplicity making Pat the Zombie a surefire party gift or stocking stuffer that will likely appeal to those sentimental horror fans who appreciate the book’s dark humor.

Visit the Official Pat the Zombie website

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Detroit, 1951, is the setting for David Small’s new graphic novel, Stitches. The story traces the author’s dark childhood through a surgery that renders him practically mute, a crazy mother, and the cancer he didn’t know he had. It’s one hell of a story of growing up, making it all the more amazing and satisfying that surviving this, Small has become an award winning children’s book illustrator.

The visual language of this book is rooted in old silent movies, with moody washes and brisk linework giving energy and life to this world. In promoting this book, the author and publisher have created animated vignettes of the work which connect even further this idea of movie. Seeing the pages and drawings dissolve into one another while listening to Small’s raspy narrative gives further insight into this deep and emotional story.

Stitches: book website / animations (vimeo) / W.W. Norton

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