As part of September's childhood cancer awareness month, the objective was to fill Facebook with pictures of superheroes. If you liked someone's post they assigned you a superhero and you were to make that hero your profile picture. I got Aquaman (sigh) and the marvelous Kevin Somers liked my post and I assigned him Shade The Changing Man. Shade was originally created by Steve Ditko in 1977 and was later revamped in the 1990's by Petter Milligan and Chris Bachalo, it was this later series that I read and enjoyed.

Rather than just find a picture of Shade on the internet Kevin drew this image and gave Shade a ZONE shirt.

ZONE DOG!

This wonderful drawing arrived in the mail yesterday. I first met Gary in September of 1980, I remember clearly, we were standing by the pool at the Kubert School and we were introduced by Mike Chen. Later, Gary became my roommate at the Carriage House and he's been a friend ever since.

Woof!

Henrik draws ZONE

Henrik Jonsson – 2012

Henrik is currently finishing his third year at The Kubert School. You can see more of his work here: Henrik's art

Somebody's been playing with my favorite toy!

 

ZONE'S flashlight illuminates a dimensional opening.

 

While enjoying some ice cream ZONE meets Chase, and wonders...

ZONE and Chase, face to face with Dr. Live a.k.a. Dr. Evil. 

ZONE: First this guy. Now this one? What's going on? 

ZONE and Chase meet the girls.  Wait, WHAT?

It seems my favorite artist has appropriated my favorite character. Done in pencil on loose-leaf paper. These were difficult to scan, I had to mess with the levels.

Digital drawing

Alec Morgan - digital - 2011

Recently received an e-mail from Alec with this drawing attached. Alec is a 2011 graduate of The Kubert School, you can see more of his work here: http://alecmclanemorgan.blogspot.com/

TOXIC GUEST STAR

 Darren Auck - ink on paper - 7 1/2" x 10" - 2003

Okay, so I was walking from the garage to the studio in the Auck house and I looked down and saw ZONE on a piece of paper that was on top of a pile of books, comics, artwork, etc. and I go, "Hey, I can use that for the blog."

I had forgotten about this piece Darren had created for the October 2003  issue of CARTOON LOONACY.

This is supposed to be a blog about the history and Mystery of ZONE so I won't go into details about how Darren and I met in the fall of 1980 as we both started our studies at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art or how we immediately experienced a mind meld that has lasted over thirty years. He's family.

This piece of work features Darren's character PSYCHOTRONO and guest stars the toxic man-monster ZONE. There are several collaborations that the two of us have done over the years that feature our characters together sharing the spotlight and I'll post them as soon as I can dig them out of the vault.

ZONE meets Dracula!

Jessie Desmond – 2011

This entry came from out of the blue from Jessie Desmond. Jessie is a former student with diverse talents (you should see some of the amazing cakes she's made) and interests, who occasionally has moose show up in her back yard.

http://www.jessiedesmond.com

My Favorite Artist

Maeve Kraiger - pencil - 2011

April Fool

It's the last day of the April and I wanted to squeeze in a couple more images of ZONE as draw by other artists.

Both of the guys featured here were students at The Kubert School. I think both of these drawings were informed by their interest in hip hop and graffiti art, and, both have gone on to become very talented artists and designers.

Sean Clauretie - Ink and Dr. Martin's dyes on Bristol - 2001

You can see more of Sean's work here:

http://www.fnaok.com

Jon Wheat - ink on Bristol - 2001

You can see more of Jon's work here:

http://wheatz.blogspot.com/

April Fool

Bjorn Ousland - Ink on 2 ply board - circa 1985-'86

This is a page of original art that was sent to me by my friend Bjorn Ousland, way back when. I met Bjorn in 1981 at The Kubert School, he was in the class following mine. Bjorn came to study at the school from Norway, we shared a lot of similar interests from comics and music to artists and SF authors.

This page has ZONE showing up in the third panel on a poster being applied to the wall in the background. ZONE - UN FILM DE M. KRAIGER I'm not sure what book this appeared in but I believe it was a story written by someone else and illustrated by Bjorn. When he sent me the page he pointed out the coffee stain on right side of the page, courtesy of the books editor, it's not readily visible here.

After graduation, Bjorn went back home to Norway and has been steadily producing humor comics, historical graphic novels and children's books ever since.

To see more of his work, including incredible watercolors from exotic locales go to:

www.bjornousland.com/

(click on the rocket-ship for English)

April Fool

Jeremy Regan - Ink on Bristol - 2002

This striking image is one of my favorites, Jeremy is a former student of mine from The Kubert School. I tried to get him involved with a couple of comic projects that never were realized through no fault of ours, the editor I was pitching ideas to was laid off.

Jeremy's latest mania is custom toys and you can see examples of some of his work here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reganomics813

April Fool

Wow! This turned up in my email today, it's by a young artist you've probably never heard of...

Orion Zangara - traditional/digital - 2011

Actually, Orion is one of the students in my 3rd year Writing and Imaginative Drawing class at The Kubert School. You can see more of his work here: http://orion-is-the-hunter.deviantart.com/. And very soon here: www.orionzangara.com.

April Fool

Paul Chadwick - 1992
Cover to SAN DIEGO COMIC CON COMICS, published by Dark Horse Comics.

Yeah, that's our guy ZONE, making a cameo appearance in the upper left, right behind Concrete's head. This was a goofy jam comic that Dark Horse published for that year's San Diego Comic Con. I didn't attend that year, so unless Dark Horse sent this to me, I'm not even sure where I got my copy of the book. It's not a great rendition of the big guy, but it's cool to see him alongside the creations of some of my favorite comic book artists, then being published by Dark Horse. Can you name all the characters?

Rich Hedden, pencils • Tom McWeeney, inks - 1992
Page four and five of SAN DIEGO COMIC CON COMICS.

April Fool

Rich Hedden and Tom McWeeney - 1989

Hey, who's that standing back there at the bar? From page five of ROACHMILL #8 published by Dark Horse Comics.

Rich and Tom are Kubert school alumni, I believe they were two years behind me but we'd met up at conventions or parties.

I had totally forgotten about this but found it yesterday going through a box of comics.

Roachmill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Hedden

April Fool

George Erling - marker in sketchbook - 1991

I think I first saw George's work in 1979's Animal Bite Comix from Everyman Studio. Sometime in the mid-eighties I got to meet him through Gary Fields and CARTOON LOONACY.

George is hands down, one of my all-time favorite cartoonists, I just love his drawings and stories. He drew this in my sketchbook either at a convention or a picnic at his or Gary Fields' house.

George did the drawing of Max for me because I had written to him and told how much I had liked a story he had done about his dog Max.

You can see some of George's work here:

Good Ol' Joe Tater in "That's Life"

Cap'n Boom & his Burger Boys of Space

Buggerz

Those Cute Li'l Boopers

April Fool

Tyler Chin-Tanner - pencil and charcoal - 2011

Exploring ZONE'S grim environmental aspect.
Tyler is the founder of the comic book company A Wave Blue World.

http://www.awaveblueworld.com

April Fool

Jordan Newton-Gaines - ink on paper - 2011

I really like what Jordan did with the crows emerging from the black. You can see more of Jordan's work here:

http://chewbaccastomper.deviantart.com

April Fool

Ed Watson - Traditional and digital - 2011

Wow, just got this in an e-mail from Ed and it's both frighteningly cool and creepy. Click on it and take a closer look, I dig how you can sort of see the facial structure beneath ZONE'S skin.

It's very different from how I draw the big guy but I really like it. Thanks Ed.

You can see more of Ed Watson's work here:

http://edwatsonart.daportfolio.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ed-Watson/...

April Fool

Sam Mooney - Ink and wash on Bristol - 2001

Sam is a former student of mine from The Kubert School, he's now living in Japan and blogging all about his experiences, from learning Japanese to his addiction to Manga. You can see more of his artwork and read his blogs here:

• http://kashimaseikatsu.blogspot.com
• http://nihonniiru.blogspot.com
• http://amangaaddict.blogspot.com

April Fool

Ed Herrera - pencil on board - 2001

You can see more of the very talented Mr. Herrera's artwork here:

Ed Herrera

artist unknown - circa 2000 - 2002

I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time reading the signature on this image. If you recognize the name by all means contact me and I'll correct this.