Dead Project: Dayglo Necros Figure

Here's a look at a project that may have died on the operating table. Some time between the recording of the Calabrese albums Dayglo Necros and Born with a Scorpion's Touch, the band was thinking of creating an action figure based on the character Dayglo Necros who appears in a couple of their videos:
and Jimmy Calabrese and I went back and forth on the design of the figure. Unfortunatelyjust as things were lining up, The Brothers Calabrese started moving into a heavier more serious sound for their most recent album (Lust for Sacrilege) and a couple of the more playful projects we were working on hit a bit of a roadblock. Sadly Dayglo seems to have been put into limbo for the time being.
Since Jim and I are still thinking of maybe collaborating on some art toys in the future we thought we'd let you see what may have been (could still be).  He'd have been about six inches tall, probably molded in glow in the dark resin or something. like a giant M.U.S.C.L.E thing. And I'd like to hear if you would have been interested in buying one of these Dayglo figures, whether you're a fan of the band or not.

My next BIG project: behind the scenes peeks. Calabrese Issue 2, character design stuff.

So over the next few months I'll be working on a new Comical Book project. Is it a new Something-A-Go-Go book? Not yet, I hope to be working on that as too. For now however lets focus on the one that I'm getting payed to do.
Way back in 2010 I had helped the band Calabrese put together a comic book based on their fantastic adventures. the book was written by Eric M. Esquivel (Blackest Terror, Thor: Unkillable Thunder Christ, Legend of Oz, Loki: Ragnarok and Roll) and drawn by Dave Baker, I did a couple pieces for the inside front and back covers. It's a fun book and if you can you should by multiple copies.
Anyway flash forward to now. Eric had written a script for the second issue but Calabrese had been too busy fighting vampires, turning in to werewolves,  fighting ninjas and basically just doing all the cool stuff rock bands do in their spare time. When they realized they still hadn't put out the second issue they asked me if I could do it. I said sure. Now I'm working on the new Calabrese adventure.
Since it's going to take a while and I'll be producing a bunch of preliminary art I figure I'd share some of it here, let you see a bit of my work process. Hopefully it will get you excited to see the final comic when it's available.

Here's a look at my designs for the three brothers.
I'm not really used to doing comic books based on real people so its been a fun challenge trying to get them to look like them selves.
I'm also trying to bridge the look they had in the first issue, which  I believe this was during "They Call Us Death: CALABRESE III",  and their current "Born with a Scorpion's Touch" look mixing in a bit of the "Dayglo Necros" phase of their adventures.
Here's the brothers. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Bobby's face is still giving me trouble but I think I'm getting closer to how I see it.

Davey's my favourite so far but I think he's going to be a pain to draw when I finally get to the actual comic. Hopefully I'll be more comfortable with the characters by then.

I'll post other characters and props and such as I do them. 

I also will be building a size comparison chart as I go so that I can keep a rough estimate in my head about the relative sizes of everyone.

I'll also be doing some random art featuring the guys and monsters and stuff just to get used to drawing them. I hope you guys enjoy seeing this stuff since I'll probably be posting a lot of it. I'll be trying to pos some more finished things too. I hope you'll continue on this adventure with me it should be pretty fun.

Believe in Rock n Roll.

Jimmy Calabrese's Trailer Park Paranormal Investigators: The Sleepwalking Corpse

I was recently commissioned to do the cover art for Jimmy Calabrese of the phenomenal Rock 'n' Roll band Calabrese's short story The Sleepwalking Corpse. It's the first in a series of stories written by Jimmy. Above you can see the original ink drawing I produced for the image. Below is the final coloured version with the text and other important things added. I'm really happy with how it turned out so I figured I'd share it with all of you.
If you are interested in reading the story, and I think you should be it's bad ass, you can pick it up through amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalking-Corpse-Trailer-Paranormal-Investigators-ebook/dp/B00HKL7JTC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388493821&sr=8-1&keywords=jimmy+calabrese

Creepy guys....

Not sure what he wants but I really wish he'd stop following me around.

Hey look! its Dayglow Necros the mortal enemy of Calabrese!

Calabrese t-shirt design: the Dead Don't Rise

I recently was asked by Bobby Calabrese of the amazing band CALABRESE to do a T-shirt to be available at their current tour with Wednesday 13. He wanted one specifically themed on their video for the song The Dead Don't Rise:

The colors on the final shirt are slightly different, and Jimmy's wearing sunglasses. I thought it was a great chance to practice drawing these guys, (yes, I've drawn them before for various bits of art for their albums) especially since I'll be working with Eric M. Esquivel on the new Calabrese comic. Look for that in October, I think.

Now just for fun here's their more recent video Ghostwolves the second DayglowNecros video:

These guys have way too much personality, don't understand why they're not burning up the charts.
Buy their albums! Support a band that's actually awesome!

Unused art: CALABRESE

I'm sure you already own the new Calabrese CD: Dayglo Necros. So you've seen all the amazing art I did for that album. what you see above was my original pitch for the actual Physical CD.
Even though they really dug this art they wisely decided that tentacles are a thing of the past. I completely agreed and did a whole new design. there's still three skulls, but now they're buried in a mountain of evil rats. You should look at the CD right now and see how beautiful that art turned out. You mean you haven't bought Dayglo Necros yet? What's wrong with you. Go buy it NOW!

Calabrese Fans dig my art alot!

So as you know probably know I've done a bunch of art for the band Calabrese I always have fun doing stuff for them and they seem to dig what I do. It looks like their fans dig it even more here's a bunch of tattoos people have gotten based on art I've done for Calabrese. Its always a little strange finding out people have things you've designed permanently emblazoned on their bodies. If you or anyone you know has any tat's based on something I've drawn be it Calabrese related or not let me know I'd like to see it.

Topless version was bound to happen I guess. 

The Bride of Calabrese seems to be the most popular. Anyway, here's some of the original art that these were based on. 

I wish this was a t-shirt, exactly like this except maybe the bat shape was glow in the dark. It was originally part of their business card. Its available as a patch in their store too.

This was under the CD tray on their first album.

Fancy glow in the dark t-shirt. The only one I've seen people wearing up here in Canada

The Famous Bride of Calabrese. I've made sure she's shown up on most of the things I've done for the band. 

You know, I'm not sure what this was done for. I still think its cool.

Oh, and I know I said if you have Calabrese tattoos I want to see them, but if you or anyone you know has a tattoo based on any of my art I wanna know about it. Make sure you swing by Calabrese's store and buy some of their stuff its all high quality and will make you look even more awesome.

Calabrese art.

First bit of art I do in 2012 and its a parody of the last Calabrese album cover I worked on. Recently the band posted a video where one of the members was turned into a puppet. it made me laugh so I did this to the cover for THEY CALL US DEATH: CALABRESE III. VIDEO LINK.  The painting was originally done by the fantastic Eric Powell . I changed Jimmy Calabrese into a pupet on this and did the lettering. hope you enjoyed it.

original cover art

Summoning the Beyond

A little pin-up inspired by my listening to Calabrese while doodling. I'm not sure if I'll ink and color this up like I've done with other pinups I've drawn. We'll see once I'm done with FanExpo next week. Check my previous Blog if you're going to Fan Expo and want to find me there.

A Knock at a Preview...

I'm working on a short horror comic for an anthology comic. Sadly that’s all the info I have for what this comic is for. Its based on a short story by Jimmy Calabrese called “A knock at the door.” I’ve taken a couple of liberties with the story, but it is essentially the same thing. Here’s a sneak peek at the first two pages of the thing in its rough penciled form. I might post these pages inked later but I will not be posting the full story, but I will tell you how to find it ... unless this doesn’t actually see print.  Enjoy!

page 1

page 2

Calabrese, They Call Us Death

Hey looky there on the left. See that Frankenstein girl with the axe and the severed heads? Yeah, that's the one. What you're seeing there is a sneak peek at one of the bits of art I did for Calabrese's most recent album, They Call Us Death. Go check out their website http://www.calabreserock.com I think there's links and stuff so you can hear some of their music and buy some of their merchandise and stuff. Anyway I had a lot of fun drawing this thing. Its one of the first times in a long time I decided to use some real ink wash technique with my art instead of being mostly digital. I did end up colorizing it in photoshop for the final version on the CD packaging. I like how it turned out so I figured I'd post it here (and they gave me permission to let people see it before the album comes out.

THE END