I'm still without a proper scanner at the moment so these are cell phone photos but I'd thought I'd share images from one of the earliest books I remember having around the house that inspired me.This was from a series of Tarzan books published in Zagreb in the sixties and illustrated by Julio Radilovic.
When my parents moved to Canada these were some of the few books they took with them and boy I'm glad they did. As a kid I remember loving looking at these, tho I couldn't read them, as they hit the same nerve as the original King Kong and the old Tarzan movies did, long before I heard of Frazetta or Hal Foster.

A little bit of fun for Strange Kids Club but showing the whole page is a bit down the road.

Rats!
My scanner is still not working, these corrupting updates!
Very unimpressed with Microtek for messing this up and their lousy technical supports especially
since its a expensive piece of equipment. Won't be using them anymore.

I illustrated the banner for The House of Spooks the place to shop for your horrifically fun goodies.

Life drawing in Montreal.





At the studio of the awesome Regis Loisel ( with my buddy Pat)

Visited friends but my main motivation for this trip was seeing the amazing Otto Dix retrospective Rouge Cabaret at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The biggest of its kind ever in North America and terrifying and beautiful work indeed!




Before leaving I got to meet Elizabeth Miller (and get a facsimile edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula notes and her Bram Stoker's Dracula books signed) author of several amazing Dracula related books.

A spread from DON"T CALL ME PRUNEFACE!

Here is the line up for KRAMPUSNACHT 2010 at Resistor Gallery here in Toronto tonight.
If you've been bad this year I suggest you stay as far away as possible but if you've been a good citizen and shined his shoes every day like me you should come on down. And I hope you RSVP'd.

Krampus Committee 2010 presents
‘Krampusnacht Art Show’
Dec 2, 2010 – Jan 10, 2011 at RESISTOR GALLERY
284 College Street 2nd Floor, Toronto (Map)
OPENING: Thursday, December 2 at 7:30pm – December 3 at 1:00am

ARTISTS

• Andrew Heffron • Aaron Costain • Aaron Leighton • Attila Szanyi
• Brian McLachlan •Brandon Steen • Clayton Hanmer • Crankbunny
• Craig Marshall • Chris Stone • Carey Sookocheff • Drazen Kozjan
• Dan Turner • Diego Bergia • Diana McNally • Faez Alidousti
• Hyein Lee • Jessica Fortner • Jesse Jacobs • Jeremy Kai • Janice Kun
• Jason Bone • Julia Breckenreid • Karen Justl • Katy Dockrill
• Luke Ramsey • Mike McDougall • Marek Colek • Matthew Forsythe
• Maylynn Quan • Michael Comeau • Michael Wandelmaier • Pat Shewchuk
• Prashant Miranda • Hayley Morris • Ryan Feely • Randy Knott • Ron Gervais
• Ro Rao • Steve Manale• Steve Wilson • Sarah Lazarovic • Tomori Nagamoto •

What is Krampus? (from Wikipedia)

“Krampus is a mythical creature. In various regions of the world – especially Austria and Hungary – it is believed that Krampus accompanies St.Nicholas during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children, in contrast to St. Nicholas, who gives gifts to good children. Due to German and Austrian influence, the myth of Krampus is also prevalent in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and northern Italy.
The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen). In the Alpine regions, Krampus is represented by an incubus-like creature. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly on the evening of 5th, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains and bells. In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching – corporal punishment with a birch rod – by Krampus, especially of young girls. Images of Krampus usually show him with a basket on his back used to carry away bad children and dump them into the pits of Hell.”

Early stage of a section of a now finished painting for the Krampus themed show in Toronto this weekend that
I'm participating in. I kinda prefer this to the finished which I'll post later.

Visiting my Grandma sketch.


And a life drawing from this week,

My quick invite for my nieces Birthday/chocolate making/home made thin crust pizza party.

Wife Alison Kent is a fabulous chef (check out her new veggie cook with Canadian Living) and she was judging a competition at The Royal WInter Fair, a event we both enjoy. So here are some sketches as I wandered sipping coffee and munching on a almond croissant.

sketches

Some life drawing/

A interview with me at
Fuel Your Illustration

A spread from Don't Call Me Pruneface!.

I thought I would share this small image of the cover of Oh, How Sylvester Can Pester! by Robert Kinerk and me coming out in the spring from Simon and Schuster. I'll post more
about it later but this was a lot of fun to work on.

Don't let the grumpy expressions fool you its a happy day at Hypnotik Eye as the winners of Don't Call Me Pruneface! have been picked and the copies will be in the mail this week! Congratulations and thank you's too Ellen, Jana and Ron! Hope you enjoy the book!

I'm getting my Pruneface copies this week so Friday will be the last day of the Pruneface contest.
I have a nice stack of names so if you want to be added to the hat just send me a email at drazenart@rogers.com with the heading Pruneface!.. I'll pick three names on the weekend and
send out the books some time the following week.


Don't Call Me Pruneface! at Chapters!

The Happy Undertaker makes its weekly debut for a smaller stroll around the Graveyard every Friday at the ghoulishly fun Strange Kids Club blog today.

The breakfast didn't come out slimy and wormy enough in this sketch but hey.

Don't Call Me Pruneface!, written by Janet Reed Ahearn and published by Disney- Hyperion will be
released the first week of August. I thought I would post the cover and a interior image
along with some isolated ones.
I had a great time illustrating this book and I think in it Janet cleverly deals with two interesting personalities and the rocky road to friendship.
Prudence is the inelegant new arrival to a conventional neighbourhood and is not eager to make friends with Paul who is rebuffed with a escalating symphony of insults as he tries to break through
to her and her troublesome cat, throwing his life out of whack and not finding much comfort in
his Grandmothers short missives of advice.

What I loved about the book is how Paul is tenacious in his attempts at friendship with a girl who doesn't share his sensibilities but obviously feels he has a connection with, wants to hang out with, resulting in a crisis point.

Parents (or Grandparents) are not always around to help or give you a obvious solution, sometimes you can't help getting angry and it can open a door to a solution, its ok to mess up are interesting ( but not politically incorrect,at least not to me) ideas this book tackles with what can happen on the road to friendship.



Rather than pointing out some of the troubling personality of Prudence by overly brooding images, I hoped that
by juxtaposing the troubling inner conflict going on within the characters with images of a brighter,ordinary world around them that kids would be able to find jumping off points of discussion with what is going on in the book and how they would resolve such situations on their own.



I think Janet wrote a funny, multilayered story as well as a simple, fun to read, slice of life adventure.
Hope you like it.






I'l also be doing a giveaway of three signed copies of the book.
All you have to do is email me drazenart@rogers.com with Pruneface! as the subject and I will
put the names in a hat and on the second week of August I'll put my hand in this hat and randomly select 3 winners. First prize gets a sketch incuded.