Friday, June 4, 2010

The First Time I Drew Professor Garbanzo and the 23 Realities!



I recently came across this curiosity in the Beanworld Archives.
As far as I can reckon, it's the cover that I sent to Eclipse Comics for the solicitation of Tales of the Beanworld #21.

It's a relatively finished piece with all the PMTs in place as if I had intended for this to be the actual art I would color later by hand cutting adhesive screen tone with an X-acto knife on clear acetate overlays. One acetate layer for each color of the four colors of the printing process (black, cyan, magenta, yellow) to be turned into film negatives and then made into plates ready for printing. Having started my career in a film stripping room at a printer, I knew I wasn't particularly skilled at angling screens to prevent moire patterns. But I was knowledgeable enough to compensate for that by always using only one screen pattern over a solid color. Doing so greatly limited my palate but it worked most of the time--excluding the awful pink cover of TOTB #9 which makes me cringe to this day!

Comparing the cover above to the one below, I can see why I redrew it. I simplified the composition by eliminating the other "shards," remembered the "dream pattern" shading I used in earlier issues and changed Proffy's expression to one of more puzzlement.

I get a kick out of discovering these lost pieces.
Hope you do too.


5 comments:

Brian Jacoby from Secret Headquarters in Tallahassee Florida said...

I love this stuff. If you ever do a Beanworld Companion HC I'd love to see posts like this included with all of the back matter" from the old TPBs.

I also noticed that you added a twink to the final version...

Unknown said...

Wonderful work friend!

Dave-id Dunlosky said...

Hey Larry,

I have a piece that you drew dated 1989, titled "Nightmare." I believe I bought it from you at the Chicago Comic Con that year. If you're interested in this "Lost Piece" I'd love to send you a scan of it, just let me know how!,

dave_id.dunlosky@mac.com

MrSeanLane said...

A Beanworld companion book sounds amazing!

ZenMondo Wormser said...

I have a soft spot for TOTB #9 as it was my first issue that I owned, given to me by you at Wondercon in the late 80s. Even with a signature and sketch on page 1. Who cares if its PINK? Its great!