ZONE of the Dust

Blue ballpoint pen on newsprint - 5" x 8" - circa 1978 - 1980

Not a very exciting image I'll admit but I found it digging through the archives, still searching for the first and vastly different image of ZONE I ever drew.

See the earlier posts Set the Way-Back Machine and Notes from 1983.

GO **** YOURSELF.

2H pencil in sketchbook - sometime in mid to late 1995

Again, I curse my use of such a light lead. I had to do some work adjusting the levels to get this to be visible.

This was drawn when I lived in a small apartment on Bright Street in Jersey City. It was a great apartment with a big kitchen, a deck and access to a somewhat tamed jungle of a back yard. That apartment was my refuge from the dissolving of a marriage. Clark the cat loved the deck and back yard.

I'm not sure what prompted this sketch but I remember right after I drew it I felt a little shock at my use of the F word in relation to ZONE. I like the idea of him being protective of her and her having the strength to tell someone off knowing she had ZONE as backup.

Entrance Ramp

Pencil and PITT artist pen in 7" x 5 1/2" Moleskine - 2011

This was done while traveling on the train, the lettering added later. I liked it better before I erased all the extra pencil lines.

I intend to turn this image into a 30" x 15" oil painting.

Yer lookin' at the heads...

Ink on paper - Circa 1984

This image was used for the back cover of the stapled together zine I put together in 1984, which I talked about in a previous post.

This image is almost a throwaway, it's nothing special when it comes to images of ZONE but it does illustrate one of the best things about ZONE (in my mind anyway) and that's his shape. This drawing plays (nominally I admit) with negative space.

The dynamics of ZONE'S unique head allows for plenty of latitude when it comes to designing interesting panels, especially in close-ups. One of my goals when I designed the character was to create something that I could draw to look the same, over and over again.