Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane

About a month back I was contacted to do character designs for a novel by Deanna Raybourn titled Silent in the Grave. The novel featured an amateur sleuth named Lady Julia Grey who was bent on investigating the mysterious death of her husband.

I had a great deal of fun working on the designs and I had created the illustration above as a thank you to the clients who contacted me to work on the project.

The Black Widow Strikes Again (Color Art)

Now available on Bunny and the Badger: THE BLACK WIDOW STRIKES AGAIN!! A color version of an original piece which I did as part of a series of illustrations titled THE BLACK WIDOW MURDERS. The series would inspire me to adapt it into a graphic novel published by Alterna Comics titled DIARY OF THE BLACK WIDOW. The first graphic novel I ever produced.

Which was enjoyed by some. And reviled by Tom Knapp of the Rambles.net.

I'm planning on creating color versions of a couple other illustrations from the series. In a way, these illustrations show a progression of the the characters and scenes which would ultimately appear in the graphic novel.

The image is available in 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20 and printed on high quality cardstock.

To order yours, click on the link below and visit Bunny and the Badger today:

THE BLACK WIDOW STRIKES AGAIN (Color Art)

The Polly and Handgraves blog is now opened!!

I made a decision to create a blog specifically for Polly and Handgraves since I'm strongly considering it to become my first ongoing series. I will continue to write all my other comic projects and random thoughts in this blog. Along with some Polly and Handgraves stuff. But the bulk of my Polly and Handgraves, news, photos, sneek previews will all be in the brand new blog. Which you can check out by clicking the link below:

One more opportunity to bid!!

Available for bidding one more time!! Diary of the Black Widow and it's sequel The Spaghetti Strand Murder. The winning bidder will receive both books signed personally to them as well as some Black Widow artwork.

Diary of the Black Widow
Written and Illustrated by BRET M. HERHOLZ cover coloring by RORI SHAPIRO lettering by JOHN SHAVER

A young woman with a habit of seducing and killing men attracts the attention of an oblivious Detective and his helper. Will they solve the mystery behind these murders, or will the Black Widow strike again? Combining the illustrative style of Edward Gorey and the humor of Monty Python, Bret M. Herholz crafts a tale of mystery, humor, and suspense.

The Spaghetti Strand Murder
Written and Illustrated by BRET M. HERHOLZ

Lord Algernon Sloughshire has been found dead! The only clue to what caused the murder was a single strand of spaghetti found tied around his lordship's neck. Luckily there's only one person oblivious enough to "solve" this case, none other than the DETECTIVE INSPECTOR!

Click on the link below to place your bid today:

Polly and Handgraves design

I just finished up coloring the new Polly and Handgraves image this morning and started putting it on t-shirts. I will probably continue doing that later on today.

I'm planning on starting an image based on The Spaghetti Strand Murder in a couple days in between continuing work on the Sherlock Holmes graphic novel.

Polly and Handgraves available for download

The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves: A Sinister Aura is available for download. Get yours at:

http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=5177

The book itself will be available in the Fall. So, stay tuned!!

More progress on Polly and Handgraves

Here's the first two pages of Polly and Handgraves lettered by Alterna Comics editor and chief Peter Simeti.

As much as I liked the old typewriter text for the lettering, I ultimately decided against it. I wanted to denote that this story is different from my past graphic novels and comic stories. So, I decided to go with the standard comic book lettering as opposed to something somewhat artsy fartsy.

The book itself should be out in the Fall sometime. And this coming after several years of research and gathering reference material for the story. I even used my room at the Bishopsgate Inn out in East Haddam as reference for the inn Polly and Handgraves stay in as well as Ryders Tavern out in Charlton as the exterior for the Inn. Getting the book together itself has been several months in the making. I started penciling and inking the pages last Fall and it's taken quite a while since then for everything to come together.

With all that said, I am so happy with the progress of the book and that Polly and Handgraves will finally see the light of day.

Polly and Handgraves pages

Here's a sneak peek at three of the pages from Polly and Handgraves. I just got the pages back from Rori over the weekend and they've been scanned and sent off to my publisher.

It should be noted that most of the wording in the newspaper article was taken from the true crime this story was based on. I really must thank the Spencer Library for supplying me with old newspaper articles and other printed information on the case.

Progress on Polly and Handgraves

I just got the pages back from Rori yesterday all grayscaled. And they look absolutely fantastic!! It gives my ole pen and ink work a different look that is really suitable for this particular story.

For those of you who have been following my work (or not), unlike a great deal of my previous projects this isn't satire or a comedy. It's a straight-forward murder mystery.

But with that said, there's my usual dry sense of humor in the writing. Humor just feels natural to me. I can be completely dark and serious. How silly is that.

But I wanted to take a brave stab at a proper murder mystery with a pair of amateur sleuths solving a very muddy and muddled case.

I'm keeping the plot pretty much a secret for the time being. Although, I have told a few close friends what's going down and what it's based upon.

But I will say this. If you were born in Spencer, Massachusetts you should be very intrigued by the case. Both Worcester and Spencer are the backdrop for this particular tale.

I'm hoping to have everything scanned and special effects added before I head out to the Pub Scrawl tonight. So, I can send it all out to my publisher bright and squirrely tomorrow night.

So, stay tuned!!

Cover for Polly and Handgraves

I've been getting adventurous with Photoshop of late. After doing the cover for The Spaghetti Strand Murder in browns, I wanted to do the cover for Polly and Handgraves in blues:



The clouds in the background are a first for me as well. I did the using the lasso tool.

I was inspired by the Kino Video rerelease of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari:



The film's director Robert Wiene had originally colored the film itself in different colored sepia tones. Kino and the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv of Germany had taken the original 35mm prints and restored it with the original sepia tones and if you ever get the chance to watch it, the results are amazing!!

But that was the look I was trying to do when I was creating the cover for Polly and Handgraves

A sneak peek at Polly and Handgraves

Here's lettered versions of a couple pages from an upcoming project The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves: A Sinister Aura. I'm planning on having them in the upcoming issue of the Undercoverfish Anthology Detours as an eight page preview. After that it will appear as a graphic novel. Which I'm hoping to have finished before the end of the Summer.

The final version of the pages are being done in grayscale by Rori Shapiro. And should look fantastic!!

Continuing work on the new projects and radio spot!!

Well, if you happen to be up between the hours of 12am to 2am Sunday March 9th, I will be doing an interview on Worcester Community Radio Station WCUW 91.3FM to promote the Boston Comic Con.

I also plan on promoting my own work as well as the UNDERCOVERFISH GROUP. But you can check out the station at:

www.wcuw.org

I've also been continuing my plan to work on two projects simultaniously. I've been working on pages for the book of sequential poems Joshua Michael Stewart and I have been planning as well as reworking the pages for Representation. I decided while I wait for the script to come back from writer/director/performer Ainsley Waller, I would try and start prettying up the original eight pages. And then from there, insert them in between the new scenes Ainsley is writing up.

I am happy to say I am very pleased with the way both projects are shaping up and hopefully I will have a few sneak peeks to post sometime soon.