Welcome to Creepsville

I'm still at work on the Collected Creepsville book, but while that happens, I had also always intended to show bits and pieces of work along the way. It also occurred to me that a great deal of you who are reading this probably never saw the comic series.

Given that, I have decided to post at least a page a week (life permitting) of the Creepsville comic series that will be presented in its entirety in the book collection. That will also include 2 stories that have never been published.

Please allow me to provide some notes on the 3 pieces posted here.

The first piece, in color, was not done by me. On what was the cover for the first issue of the original Creepsville series was a gorgeous piece of art by Dave Dorman. Dave is a very good friend who is probably best known as the most popular Star Wars artist on the planet. His work on that cultural phenomenon has been on loads of comic books, novels, and prints. George Lucas likes Dave's work so much that he has bought many of the original paintings for himself through the years. I wouldn't be surprised if some of Dave's paintings appear in Lucas' coming museum of commercial art in Chicago.

To say the least, I was thrilled that Dave did this for me! I really love his take on Paul Blaisedell's Saucer Men.

This issue featured a parody of the classic AIP drive-in movie, Invasion of the Saucer-Men, but before that I did a short take on the cult classic Robot Monster. The title creature, whose name is Ro-Man, was played by a man in a gorilla suit wearing a space helmet. This particular story is the only time I used the actual title of the film I was taking loving jabs at in one of my Creepsville stories.

The reader is also introduced to the Malone family, who live in a town called Creepsville where all those goofy monsters from the movies actually existed.

Looking at this first issue, I noticed that Specs Malone is very prominent in introducing the family. I had created Specs before any of the other characters years ago while living in Los Angeles. The Collected Creepsville book will print some of the Specs solo stuff I did.

It becomes very obvious that the stand out stars of the series were the unlikely pair of Rat Malone and his buddy Percy... who is an homage to Ro-Man. As an artist looking at this for the first time in years, these first few pages feel primitive. With the Saucer-Men story in this same issue, I could see that I had quickly relaxed and was becoming quickly comfortable with how to present the characters. You'll see what I mean in the weeks ahead.

So, for those of you who wonder what I had been working on through the years in comics or what that Creepsville thing I'm always talking about is, here is the beginning. Much more to come in the weeks ahead.

Click on the images below to see larger versions.