Drawlloween 2017 – Day 1

RETURN FROM THE DEAD

Another year of DRAWLLOWEEN month is here! This time, I’m doing it all digital, instead of the inking in a sketchbook and scanning in to post method I did the previous two years. For that reason, I won’t be doubling this as also taking part in Inktober, but I won’t have to scan any more, or worry about ink from the previous day bleeding through the paper and having to work around it on the reverse page. Also, I now have an Apple Pencil and iPad Pro that makes sitting and drawing as easy and realistic as doing it on real paper with real tools. Another plus (or minus) is that I won’t be tempted to connect two days due to them being next to each other in a spread when the facing pages are open in the sketchbook. That was another challenge to deal with in an already challenging challenge, so now I can concentrate on other things.

So for day one’s “Return From the Dead” prompt last year, I honored two celebs who had sadly passed away during 2016 (David Bowie and Prince) and I wanted to do the same with this year’s same prompt. I decided on the two co-creators of my favorite macabre comic, “Swamp Thing”, writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson. For one thing, returning from the grave was a theme presented many times in their influential comic run in the 70s and seemed appropriate for this use. Secondly, Bernie’s masterful line work and moody inking is something that hit me right away when I saw it and I have loved it ever since, and this is a great reason to try to ape it in honor of both him and Len.

DRAWLLOWEEN Day One: RETURN FROM THE DEAD