Most of you on the web know me best as “that guy who draws the ADDANAC CITY comic strip series“. Although I totally love Hank and his pre-adolescent gang of dysfunctional misfits, I’m an artist at heart and there are other things that I do in the visual realm.

A few years ago, I became involved with my local theater group, Halifax County Little Theatre. These nice people gave me an opportunity to act for the first time (I’ll have to blog about that on another occasion). I played Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin In The Sun”. Anyway, being that I am a well-rounded artist, I enjoyed my time as a thespian (no, I don’t have a lisp). Also, being that I am a controlling megalomaniac, I had to design the playbill, too.

I began a wonderful relationship with the directors and producers of these plays and they started requesting my artistic skills to promote their performances. One recent project that I worked on was designing something eye-catching for “Escanaba In Da Moonlight”. This was a play originally written, produced, and directed by Jeff Daniels (yeah, that Jeff Daniels). “Escanaba” is a play about a man and his three sons who journey to their camp for the opening day of hunting season in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. Strange things happen during their excursion. I came up with a pretty nifty design that they loved. This is it.

I stopped by the rehearsals with my trusty digital camera and took photographs of all the actors in the production. I wanted to create something that was true to HCLT’s unique performances, so I made each character resemble the respective actor. I think I did a competent job. Most of the organization’s play posters are printed in black and white, so I had sorta limited creative freedom. It was different without having all of the magnificent, vibrant colors that I get to play with while creating my ADDANAC CITY comics.

The local theatre group that I do a lot of graphic work for recently held a production of the 50′s-style musical Forever Plaid.

I attended a performance this past Sunday, and I’ve gotta say, the Halifax County Little Theatre did a bang-up job. I really enjoyed the music, and the acting was superb.

This is the playbill I designed for the production.

I’ll be posting some more samples of the work I do for them in the near future. I’ve completed three other posters for the organization, and hopefully, there will be another coming soon.

I’m thoroughly excited about this all-new comic story! It’s almost finished, just a few more pages to ink and color.

The comic book is all about two days in Hank’s life as he tries to make the most of his suspension. All of the major characters are in this story, along with a few cameos by supporting ones.

The story’s 32 pages long and will be in full-color! I’m in negotiations with a publisher but, more than likely, I’ll be self-publishing like I used to do with the previous AC comic books.

I hope you enjoy this 2-page preview. Let me know what’cha think!