Irma, that great gal from Sweden/New Jersey and the creator of the webcomic “Imy”, asked me to come up with a drawing of her character Imy for an upcoming book she’s producing for the New York Comic Con. I thought I’d share the end results with you!
I figured since I’m a classic rock comic artist, why not do a classic album cover? For those of you who do not know of Supertramp (go look them up on iTunes) Gym Class Heroes “Cupid’s Chokehold” song released in 2006 used the famous spoken “ba ba da da” line from Supertramp’s hit song “Breakfast in America”. Oh, that song… Yep. Anyway, the album “Breakfast in America” was a big seller in 1979 and was on my turntable frequently.
Here’s a comparison of the original album and the artwork I did for Irma. Was a lot of fun to do and is inspiring me to do more classic album cover spin-offs. We’ll see what comes up next!
Click for Larger View!
Wow! Great piece, and good memories of a favorite album from then. That gave a lot of competition on my turntable to RUST NEVER SLEEPS and LONDON CALLING.
Speaking of NYCC, any chance you’ll make it there this year? You do, I’ll stand you a couple of rounds…
Yeah, I still listen to that album.. great stuff.
If I make it to NYCC, it will be as a visitor not a vendor, but I’ll take whatever comes my way!
If you make it to NYCC that would be SO GREAT!!!!!
Gonna do the best I can to get there. So many folks out there I want to meet, including YOU!
I’ve recently decided that 1979 was the best year ever for music. This assumes that you count London Calling as 1979. It actually was released very late in the year and was discovered by most in 1980.
As for Breakfast in America, it took me the longest time before I realized that that skyline was not what it seemed. I guess I was too busy listening to give the cover a good going over.
1979 did indeed rock. Floyd’s the Wall, Breakfast in America, Jefferson Starship’s “Freedom at Point Zero”, the last Journey album with Greg Rollie as a singer and on and on…
I’m a nut on rock trivia so when I got this album, I spent hours looking at all of the pieces that made up the background. Then as a budding photographer I tried to work out how they assembled the photograph. Today, this would be an easy Photoshop job, but in 1979, they would have had to physically cut and paste in anything they wanted superimposed (a painstaking job at best). You got the plane window, then the model, then all the crap in the background including the water and sky THEN the lettering. Man…
I about played the groove through on that album. Wonderful work-up of it!
I recorded it off the radio onto 8-track in 1979, then bought the vinyl, along with Tull’s Stormwatch & Zepplin’s In Through The Out Door just about the same week when I got some work in early 1980. Think I got Who Are You then, too.
If you’re looking to re-do classic albums from that era, there will be no shortage of suggestions …
Y’know … I’ve been tracking back through Legend of Bill recently, and I noticed your comments in the archives, as well as your guest work. You’d said something about working Bill into 1977 somehow. A send-off using Molly Hatchet’s Flirtin’ with Disaster, somehow, might work … including a tribute to Frazetta at the same time.
Just a thought.
Yes, I want to do a Legend of Bill reference somehow, but I’ve not come up with a good way of having the two casts meet up. I’ll come up with something for sure.
I love Molly Hatchet album covers. Their music was damn good too, but having something to stare at while listening made it even better. There’s so much going on in those Frazetta paintings.
Well, if you haven’t done it already, Flirtin’ With Disaster is certainly a song title for a 1977 strip at … ah. I see it now from 2008-11-19.
As far as LoB goes, I was also gamemaster for D&D and other fantasy role-play games at the time. It’s a big part of why I enjoy David’s Billverse so much. The 1977 cast, or part of it, could have some sort of run-in with some gaming nerds. Not sure if live-action cons did cosplay so seriously then (in the D&D world; Trekkies certainly did by then!), but the lines between Reality and other “Wondrous Stories” are already pretty blurry for the 1977 universe.
I see ,,,a pack of d8+11 Gaming Nerds, they get an eyefull of Robyn, FAIL to save against Bewitched Charm, the chase ensues, Robyn makes a mad dash for back-up …. Plan 9 gains a Following of Annoying Fanboys …. who show up at the Gong Show to cheer them on …
D& D and the Gong Show are all topics I want to parody in 1977. D&D, as I study it’s history, was well on it’s way by 1977. And the Gong Show needs no introduction. That show fits into the zany reality/fantasy world I’ve created for the 1977 gang.
I have no idea what you lot are talking about with your Legend of Bill and D&D stuff, but I do like the idea of a pack of devoted nerdboy stalkers following Plan 9 around
the Legend of Bill, webcomic by the rather talented David Reddick:
– http://www.legendofbill.com/
Based in large part upon fantasy role-playing games. Dungeons & Dragons being the grandfather of them all. Two other webcomics in that genre:
Looking for Group:
– http://www.lfgcomic.com/
Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic
– http://www.yafgc.net/
And, mention must be made of the Foglios, who jump-started the fantasy gamer comic genre back when D&D was just taking off. They’ve had several comics over the years, but their steampunk version that has been running, hysterically, on-line is:
Girl Genius
– http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php
While the humor often has a fantasy gamer’s insider’s edge to it, it’s usually accessible to all comers; it generally addresses many bizarre life-issues & contradictions through a role-players/geeks lens. And the artwork on these is top-notch.
Obvuiously, I recommend them …
Ah. Since you went out of your way to provide info, I clicked on all the links. Lessee…most of the artwork is nowhere near as revolting and incompetent as that of many webcomics I’ve had inflicted on me (including some of Byron’s own recommendations, bless ‘im), but that Girl Genius one is unbelievably vile! It’s a nutshell demonstration of all the worst of bed unsensual ‘art’ and eye-melting computer colouring. Oh, the horror…
I don’t understand RPG. And by ‘don’t understand’ I mean ‘don’t understand how it can be of interest to anyone over the emotional age of eight’. FWIW I’ve watched all three seasons of The Guild (with my husband – who’s done a small amount of D&D and seminal Apple Mac gaming stuff in the distant past – explaining what he could aboutthe gaming stuff to me), but strictly because Felicia Day is strangely hawt
I think we occupy different worlds. Best if we keep it that way
BTW that was meant to be ‘bad unsensual art’, not ‘bed…’. I should really look before pressing Send…
Byron: Guest, visitor, whatever, the offer for a few rounds still stands…
Dude. Pure gold. And yes, that song – and the entire album it came from – were fine, fine music that still stands today. Supertramp may have been a seminal bedsit-rock band, but I’ll take their bedsit-rock over anything the more recent Radioheads and Coldplays and such have had to offer…