A long time ago there was a thing called “Myspace” and for some reason, Dark Horse Comics was producing comic book anthologies in partnership with the now-antiquated social media platform.
I was commissioned to illustrate the cover of “Myspace Dark Horse Presents #6: The Year We Make Contact,” which you can see below, but the thing that really got me excited about the job was the chance to write and illustrate my own 2-page comic for the anthology.
I came up with a story called “Rick Shambles is Forever Adrift,” based on a painting I did at Art Center, about an unconfident space hero who uses visualization and other self-help techniques to achieve his self-serving goals (one of my illustration students accurately described him as a “loser”).
I took the liberty of chopping up the comic into chunks so that you can read it right here, but the way it appeared in the published layout is up above.
Here’s the cover where the story appear.
The cover illustration for Myspace Dark Horse Presents Volume 6: The Year We Make Contact
Process
Below, you’ll see the pencils, inks, and finished colors for the comic.
The student painting that inspired the Forever Adrift. story.
Read Comics Online
I recently began reformatting some of my comics to be easier-to-read online.
I was inspired by the Marvel Comics app to reformat the comic for web viewing. Although experience on the app is better than what I was able to achieve here, but I think this a decent alternative.
John Buscema’s cover of Silver Surfer #1
If you have the app, I recommend purchasing Fantastic Four #1 and my favorite, Silver Surfer #1. Those books look incredible in that format. It appears that the original art was rescanned and adapted for a tablet. They stayed true to the original flat colors that are so mesmerizing.
I didn’t plan on this post becoming a commercial for the Marvel app, but there you go.
Have a read of Rick Shambles is Forever Adrift and let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Frank