Written in spit - or - 9th Street

Many years ago, I found myself waiting for the train at the 9^th Street PATH station. I think I was returning home to Jersey City from a day spent bumming around Manhattan. Idly looking about I noticed a dust covered box containing a closed-circuit security camera hanging from the ceiling. I stuck my finger in my mouth, swirled it around and reached up wrote ZONE on the side of the box, and did a quick head sketch. And then…

I sort of forgot about it.

Once in a while, I’d remember while passing through that station and look up to see if it was still there and for a very long time it was, I’m talking years. It got dustier and dustier but ZONE was still certainly discernible for anybody who looked up. Some times I’d wonder how long it had been since I’d created it and how long would these markings made with spit last?

Memory fades but I’m sure I pointed it out to one traveling companion or another through the years it was there.

Eventually, the 9^th Street PATH station got modernized and the box containing the camera with ZONE written on the side was removed.

How it comes together

This originally appeared as a stand alone page in issue #6 of THREAT! circa 1986.

It was meant to represent a notebook page, maybe something Henry or Ultra were putting together. At the time I had a notebook made of grid paper that I really enjoyed sketching in, it gave the work sort of a scientific feel.

This didn't work out so well when printed, I wanted the grid lines to bleed off the page but I was unsure of Fantagraphics printing process and the grid lines ended in a white margin. However, this page does illustrate how my sketches and ideas were being put together and turned into something else altogether. The running ZONE figure was from a sketchbook and you'll recognize it if you scroll down to the January 24, 2011 entry. The duo-shade "photo" was from another sketchbook page and is part of the February 20, 2011 entry.

IT'S A ZONE WORLD.

It's a ZONE world after all. This post features ZONE as interpreted by several artist friends. Setting the Way-Back Machine to sometime in the 80's, the first photo features my good friends Ed Farbarik and Carol Paulo. Carol is wearing a custom ZONE tee designed and drawn by Ed.

I met Ed in the tenth grade and he is more than partially responsible for me choosing cartooning as a career path. In high school he was know as Comic, because he always carried a few comic books with him along with a stack of typewriter paper upon which he was always sketching superheroes. (A quick aside) Ed worked in a local drugstore and also always carried several varieties of chewing gum with him. Some of the finest young ladies in our school knew him and I would be flabbergasted when they would approach us and say, "Comic, do you have any gum?"

Polaroid photo circa: the mid-80's
Ed created the ZONE tee with markers.

Next up from the mid-90's, ZONE as sculpted by that mad-scientist, Darren Auck. Darren and I have been friends since I met him in 1980, soon after I arrived in New Jersey to attend The Kubert School. Darren and I became fast friends with a shared madness for the unusual and bizarre, Darren promised me I could have his skull when he's done using it.

He is a toy collector and also a custom toy builder. I'll have to try and get a better photo of this some time but the ZONE in the foreground is a custom figure created from a plastic cowboy. It stands about 3 1/2" tall and was presented to me as a birthday present one morning in the Marvel Bullpen where we both worked in the mid-90's.

I created the ZONE head in the background out of an empty oatmeal container.

The figure in the foreground is one of my most favorite birthday presents ever.

The next piece is a recent addition to my collection, ZONE as drawn by the talented Chris Mooneyham. Chris is a 2010 graduate of The Kubert School, check out his recent work at: http://mooneyham.deviantart.com/

Ink on Bristol, 2011


Hey Kids, send me your version of the toxic mutant-monster ZONE
and you can be featured on this very blog.

New comic book creations set artist on road to fame

Maybe I should have waited until August to post this one from the August 21, 1986 edition of the Parma Sun Post.

The Parma Sun Post was my hometown paper, it was delivered every Thursday. My dad knew one of the reporters and suggested that he do a story about me.

I was interviewed and photographed while I was visiting my parents. And, the sunglasses were not mine, nor was being photographed in them my idea, the photographer had brought them along for the shoot. This was my parents basement where I had set up a desk to work at while I was home.

That road to fame, I guess I took a wrong turn somewhere.

Somewhere in Jersey

Years later I see the problem of doing a black and white character in a world of color, too many of these posts are black and white or gray.

This drawing is from the back of sketchbook number eight.

marker and pastel - 1989

And now, a short rant...

If you are making art, DO NOT USE SHARPIE® MARKERS!

Sharpie® markers are wonderful black markers that will write on just about any surface and they are great for labeling all sorts of things that would be normally hard to write on but they are not conducive to keeping art in archival quality. There is some chemical property that will leach into adjacent paper and leave a ghost impression. Sure, the black is nice and dark and the fat tip of the marker will allow you to cover large areas quickly but be warned, after a few years you will see the leaching occur.

Never ever use them in a sketchbook that contains drawings that you treasure. I used a Sharpie® on the above drawing and the ghostly chemical leaching corrupted five adjacent sketchbook pages in both directions.

Friends

The value of a the black bound sketchbook to me as an artist is immeasurable. The sketchbooks collect my thoughts, ideas and dreams, they allow me to capture moments in time with just a pencil. I've kept one since I was a senior in high school and made a special trip to downtown Cleveland to buy one.

The bound volume of blank pages gave the drawings within a certain validity, a sense of permanence that no spiral-bound sketchbook ever could. I've got 15 or more sitting on my shelf, and the current one usually resides within reach on the coffee table.

Along with collecting your drawings in one neatly bound package, it's also good for passing around to your artist friends and collecting drawings from them.

From sketchbook five 1984 - 1985

ZONE-O by Darren Auck

THE TWILIGHT ZONE, I believe this is by Jay Geldhof

ZIPAZONE and LIL' JIZONE are by Jay Geldhof, the latter being a self portrait as ZONE.
THE EMPEROR ZONIUS is by the wonderful Anna-Maria B. Cool

28th Anniversary

I just spent a couple of hours searching through art files and sketchbooks looking for what might be the first drawing of ZONE. I remember it looked nothing like the ZONE of today, or even the ZONE of 28 years ago. I couldn't find it but a few interesting items turned up, I'll share them all in due time.

The sketch below is dated 2•21•22•84 and was drawn one year after I had created the first ZONE strip (see the first entry of this blog).

From sketchbook four, 1983 - 1984

I had to mess with the levels in Photoshop to get my pencil sketch dark enough for you to see. Not ideal, but that's my curse for working with 2H pencils.

Yeah, that's what I looked like in 1984, I used a straight-backed wooden chair at my drawing table, I wore slightly tinted lenses in my glasses and used to wear a bandanna around my neck all the time. I was working part-time as a security guard for Wells Fargo and wore my hair as long as I could get away with.

ZONE, THIS ONE'S FER YOU. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUB!