Hand-Finished Variants from the "Marvelous Advenutres" Series

These were inspired by the wonderful “original” drawings that comic book pages are duplicated from.

I went to the San Diego Comicon in 1998 and when I referred to one of these pieces hanging in a booth as an “original” the artist handed me a copy of a final printed comic book with that image as the cover and said, ”That’s not the original; this is the original.” His assertion was that the printed comic book is the final piece and thus the original. The hand drawings that go into it are just articles that lead to the original. I’m not sure if all comic artists make this distinction, but I respect it a lot and it stuck with me.

I’m calling them “originals” here (against his wishes) only because I don’t have a better term for them. I sure do love them. When I worked for the animation house in San Francisco, I always loved the pencil tests more than the final polished animation for similar reasons. My versions are obviously not hand drawings, but I want them to be reminiscent of those comic book “originals”. These pieces have all kinds of sketches and notes and little bits of my other prints collaged into the paper. Each one is unique.