Ray Lago - Moon Knight

2019-04-06 New Jersey CollectorsFest 2, Secaucus, NJ

Ray Lago started as a freelance illustrator for clients like Reader's Digest, Scholastic books, Doubleday & Co and many others providing storyboards, logo designs, as well as early computer graphics for several televised news programs

Leaving the commercial side of the business Lago moved into the comics industry, becoming an acclaimed cover illustrator, including work for Marvel  and Dark Horses' Predator and RoboCop titles

He has provided illustrations for the X-Men Ultra collector's card series and Magic the Gathering

Lago chose to draw Moon Knight, while I was drawn in by the detailed ledge position askew of the envelope's edge he noted that he managed to put Moon Knight's Moon Copter in the background, beautiful rendition

Miramar Lopez & Enrique "Quique!" Lopez

2019-04-06 New Jersey CollectorsFest 2, Secaucus, NJ

Quique Lopez had always been fascinated with telling stories. Once his daughter Miramar started to develop an interest in the visual arts, Quique felt the urge to return to comics. Quique is a writer an inker. When I asked if he was taking sketch commissions, he deferred to Miramar, saying she is an artist.

I took the bait and we discussed her style and likes, which run toward anime style. We spoke of creating an anthropomorphic character, of her choice. Miramar provided the above sketch of her own design. To round out the sketch Quique provided the inks, over Miramar's pencils

While I was discussing the sketches I had picked up with Joe St Pierre, a young man who knew Joe came over to say hello. He saw the sketch provided by Miramar, and his reaction was "This is sick!"

Joe St Pierre - Venom Shark

2019-04-06 New Jersey Collectors Fest, Secaucus, NJ

I had gone to this show with the idea of obtaining a sketch from Joe St Pierre related to his recent book, Great White Shark Adventure, written by James O Fraioli, published as part of the Fabian Cousteau Expedition series. Joe had mentioned that recently he had several requests for Venom sharks, so he asked if it was okay to continue with the theme. I thought that was great idea.  My thoughts were leaning toward an steampunk shark, or an octopus with a topcoat, monocle, Edwardian collar, walking stick(s).... Joe's idea was perfect. I did a search when I got home and found a couple of other Venom Sharks Joe had drawn.

The book is a very informative and reminiscent of the animated show on television that teach about the world and nature. Beautifully done and well written. If you were afraid of shark before reading the book, you will have a better understanding of their nature.

However, the Venom shark does not calm my fears of going into the ocean!

Ad Astra

Jean Francois Clervoy - France

Marianne Merchez - Belgium

Pedro Duque - Spain

Christer Fuglesang - Sweden

Thomas Reiter - Germany

To the stars... I have long wished to have my head beyond the clouds (although my wife thinks I am there already). To be able to look at the earth from space and feel what it is like to float with the stars..

I fully support the efforts of the space program and I collect space flight related memorabilia and signatures of those brave and lucky enough to have achieved this reality.

I do not consider myself an artist, but I enjoy creating my own designs. The designs are used to enhance the signatures of members of the European Space Agency. The little astronaut figure I added was in tribute to the opening sequence of the TV series Lost In Space...

2017.04.29 East Coast Comic Con, Secaucus, NJ

Since I had previously used the Lost in Space theme for EAS astronauts, when I had the opportunity to meet the remaining cast, I created the above to obtain their autographs. Bill Mumy, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright

UK Marvel - 2019

March 14, 2019

The Royal Mail (United Kingdom) released a 15-stamp set featuring the most popular Marvel Super Heroes. The main 10-stamps feature Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Captain Britain, Peggy Carter, Iron-Man, Union Jack, Black Panther and Thor.

An additional 5-stamps are part of an exclusive story titled "Avengers UK" contained in a miniature sheet showing the heroes in action against Thanos.

The stamps were designed by Alan Davis, an illustrator who has worked with marvel since the early 1980s, and first illustrated Captain Britain in 1985. Davis was assisted by Mark Farmer on inks and Laura Martin on colors

A booklet of stamps features the Marvel heroes along with the definitive Machin stamps featuring  Queen Elizabeth

2 first day covers are available, one featuring the Hulk postmarked with a pictorial postmarks from either Tallents House, Edinburgh or Shield Row, Stanley

There is a first day cover available with the Prestige Stamp Book, featuring the Comics Code surrounded by the Machins' definitive

various other products are also available from the Royal Mail

Warren Moon Landing

July 20, 1984

Any organization or sponsor can request the use of a pictorial postmark from the USPS. These postmarks (as well as first day cancels) are applied on the day of use or during a grace period. In 1977 the USPS starting using a grace period of 30day for first day postmarks. This meant the collector would purchase the stamps after they were issued, apply them to the envelope and send them to the city of original issuance for the first day postmark. This saved time and costs for the postal staff who used to provide the service. 

Eventually this practice was applied to pictorial postmarks. The stamps used  had to be issued either on the day of the postmark or before. This allowed collectors to create unofficial first day covers.

When the Warren Moon postmark was announced, I noticed the date coincided with the 25th anniversary of the moon landing. I had attended the ceremony at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, so I already had the stamps on hand. I liked the idea of creating a Warren Moon Landing unofficial first day cover.

Warren Moon started his professional football career with the Washington Redskins and then moved to the Houston Oilers. The coincidence of Houston being home to the Oilers football team as well as the Johnson Space Center, was too good to pass up this opportunity.

I am hoping to someday get this signed by Warren Moon, I just have not had the chance to attend any shows he has been at...

Toonerville Trolley

The Toonerville Folks or The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains was created by Fontaine Fox and was published in newspapers from 1908 to 1955. The daily single panel comic was a look at Toonerville, a town in the suburbs. The Toonerville Trolley was driven by the Skipper to meet commuter trains as it brought in people from the big city. The comic strip would be turned into a silent film series in 1927. By 1936 the Trolley became an animated short. It was these cartoons that I fondly remember watching as a child, along with Felix, Crusader Rabbit, Three Stooges and many others...

Even though a stamp had been issued for the Toonerville Folks as part of the Classic Comic Strip stamps, I decided to add the Toonerville Trolley to the trolley first day cover from 1983, simply for my enjoyment

 Orlando Sentinel editorial comic honoring Fontaine Fox

Fox showing his love of baseball

Blackhawks Aviation and Jack Follows

I had an early love of flying from reading comics featuring the Blackhawks and Enemy Ace. I always enjoyed the additional pages that provided technical information about the planes. I never became a pilot, but I still enjoy comics about air and space adventures. There was an cachet artist named Jack Follows, whose cachet I also enjoyed. I thought about creating a series of comic aviation cachets using the style that Jack Follows used. The above cachet features the Grumman (mis-spelled on the cachet) F5F-1 Skyrocket used by DC Comics' Blackhawks from 1941-1949. The cachet is based on the Jack Follows cachet below, right down to the plane being shot down in the background

Jack Follows (1927-1997) was an English cachet artist, who provided hand drawn cachets, which became very popular with collectors. Follows was known for his cartoon like cachets which combined the themes of women, aviation and comic characters. An article was published in the hobby publication First Days March 2009 pigs 57-58.

When his drawing hit the market, they are usually considerable priced and prized

a few internet finds of Jack Follows cachets

Star Trek - what if

I had the thought of using the Washington postal envelope from 1925 and altering the Washington figure on the idea of What if Vulcans had landed on earth and helped lead the US to victory in the Revolutionary War, assisted by a couple of red shirts. After the fact, I thought I could have written NCC-1701 on the bow of the boat.

These envelopes can be found relatively inexpensive, so I had no apprehension about altering the stamp portion of the envelope.

Star Trek

I guess Ive been watching too much of the TV series "Face Off". It is one of the few shows I can watch and truly enjoy, with my wife. We enjoy the artistic competition (no back-stabbing bullshit) that produces quality work. I enjoy the transformation an actor or model can undergo with quality and often subtle make-up

I have often heard actors say, that playing the villain was more interesting than playing the hero. So I looked to some of the Star Trek characters in the recent movies and noticed the designs used on the faces to bring out their characters. My sketches are Taylah from Star Trek Beyond (2016) and Nero from Star Trek (2009)

Richard Laslo "Cel King" - Bugs Bunny

2016.05.14 Lehigh Valley Comic Con, Schenksville, Pa

Richard "Cel King" Laslo began his career in 1973 and has worked for many companies in the animation industry. A traditional animation cel painter and cel restoration, inker, graphic illustrator and photographer, Laslo worked for Warner Brothers, Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Marvel (Spider-Man cartoons) and others

For Warner he animated TV cartoons including "Bug's 50th Birthday", Blooper Bunny", Lunar Tunes, "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers" drawing Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, marvin the Martian, K9, Road Runner, Taz, Tweetie and others..

TV commercials he has worked on include Tony the Tiger, CBS & ABC Sports, National Geographic and  many others...

In 2012 he worked with Disney, creating a 2-minute animated presentation with over 30 Disney character, all hand painted...

Lasso animated 3 famous illustrative books for DMI Productions: "Danny and the Dinosaur", "Baby's Bedtime Stories" and "Baby's Morningtime Stories"

Bun Leung - Ms Marvel

2015.11.07 Superheros for Hospice, Livingston, NJ

Bun Leung is a freelance artist providing stickers, prints, commissions at his booth...

Frank Cassuto - The Mummy

2018.11.04 Long Island Comic Book Expo, Melville, NY

Frank Cassuto is a New York based graduate from the School of Visual Arts. He has been exhibited and sold in the New Yorker's on-site gallery. His specialty is horror illustration, creature design, portraits and comic art.

His curse project is the horror themed graphic novel And The Light Fades

Frank Cassuto Illustrations

Facebook