I’m happy to announce that Zombie Boy recently made a guest appearance in Don Mathias’ excellent comic strip, Peanizles. You’ll notice ZB is in great company, along with Chuck B and Wallace the Brave! You can see the strip here. Don is the creator par excellence of this on-going weekly strip which recently celebrated it’s 10th year online! Thanks, Don!
Hey kids! I just read a fantastic graphic novel written by Sid Jacobson and illustrated by one of my favorite artists, Ernie Colón (1931 – 2019). This 115 page bloodfest was published by Hudson Street Press, and it follows the life story of Prince Vlad Dracula the fifteenth century ruler of Wallachia whose bloody antics were the inspiration years later for Bram Stoker’s blood-sucking ghoul, Dracula.
It’s no secret that Ernie Colón is one of my greatest artistic inspirations. I love his work for Harvey Comics on Richie Rich, and Casper (in a 2007 interview with The Comics Journal, Colón estimated that he had drawn around 15,000 pages for Harvey), and he was quite an influence on me in my burgeoning interest in comic books with his work for Atlas Comics (Grim Ghost, Tiger-Man). He created the warrior princess, Amethyst, at DC Comics, working with the writers Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin. He also collaborated with Roy Thomas on the native American character Arak, Son of Thunder.
While at Harvey, he met Mr. Jacobson, a Harvey staff editor who would become a collaborator and a lifelong friend. They have created several nonfiction books together, including biographies of Che Guevara and Anne Frank and The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, an illustrated adaptation of the official report of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Over the past few months, I’ve drawn strips featuring a long-eared basset hound puppy. My neighbor adopted a basset puppy and he’s about the most adorable thing on the planet! I’m naming him Spud, after my brother’s beloved mutt. If you’d like to see Spud’s strips you can find them here:
Hey folks, just a note to let you know I’m on Instagram! I’ve got lots of Zombie Boy comic strips on there, and the swipe format is great for reading panels! If you want, you can follow me here. See y’all over there!
Mark Stokes by Dan McMahan
My pal, Dan McMahan drew me recently and I wanted to share it with you guys. Dan is a caricature artist’s caricature artist, his work is instantly recognizable and he’s one of the fastest drawers on the planet! You can follow Dan on Twitter. Thanks, Dan!