ISSUE RELEASE: Washed In the Blood #1 (shocking imagery within)

A conversation with writer Kevin Roditeli about Weed Jesus, monster suits, and the brutal, grotesque setting of our wonderful comic series, Washed in the Blood.

My first in a series of three connecting covers for the series.

A book that I did artwork for a while ago now is finally getting the release it deserves in a 3-part series. Hail! It’s called WASHED IN THE BLOOD and I bring to you this 90 minutes of creative talk with series creator Kevin Roditeli, a long time collaborator and friend of mine who is known for his bizarre and dangerous works.

Warning, my loud, obnoxious voice was apparently too hot for my $75 conference mic to handle, will be working on that for the next issue.

We talk a lot about our creative processes, inspirations, and reflections on the state of creativity in the modern world. And, of course, about this book, whose content and conception are absurdist nightmares the likes of which I’m pretty certain you have never seen. It features the work of three fabulous artists in addition to myself: Vivi Eckhart, Kostas Pantoulas, and Alex Riegel, who have all contributed mighty work to this issue.

Pick up a copy on Massive Publishing’s website or at your local comic book retailer, and look forward to more next month!

A Little More Juice

Where to start with this one. It was Kevin’s idea, he says it’s what would happen if Deadpool wrote Dune in the snow, and I honestly can’t argue with that. It deals with themes of the supernatural, human nature, depravity, survival, greed, and absolute power.

The cover above is one of many variants, all done with spectacular panache by a variety of artists.

In order: Jorge Corona, BRAO, Vlad Legostaev, Preston Asevedo, Nicola Izzo, Josh Perez

It’s an incredible experience to go from “Yeah yeah, what a weird idea but it probably won’t go anywhere“ to seeing my now ancient concept art and Kostas’s unparalleled character design being adapted gorgeously by artists from around the world.

Said ancient concept art from as early as Fall 2017. Yes sir, we've all come a long way.

The attention to detail of every little piece of Pixan’s alien features and the color scheme of Kralex’s family, including his bloody left eye, great great great stuff from these artists. The variants for the next two issues are already up on the previews, but if you want to wait to see them, just sit tight for another month!

Here are just a few pages from the interiors that I did for issue 1, using a mixture of ink drawing techniques, digital coloring, and watercolor backgrounds. Very tedious.

Lettering WiP of one of my favorite spreads that I did.

This spread on pages 30/31 was pretty distressing to draw, but the original plan was to have this be the opening pages. Can you imagine?! I’m a little bummed out that’s not what happened. That’d’ve been a real ripcord opener.

Weed Jesus, if you’re out there, hit me up for a sequel!!

Yes, there really is a Weed Jesus, and to my knowledge, he walks among us.

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