Midnight Echo #9 is coming!

The crazy crew at the Australian Horror Writers Association have released the cover for the upcoming 9th issue of Midnight Echo Magazine!

This artwork, created by Mel Gannon, is deliciously dark and I think captures the theme of the issue - myths and legends.

I'm very excited about this issue as I'm providing not only the next chapter of the Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom comic, written by Mark Farrugia, but also the interior "corner" art and a stand alone one page illustration to compliment one of the pieces of fiction.

A story I submitted for the issue made it to the short list, but sadly no further. Still I can't wait to get my contributor's copy and behold all my artwork within when it's released in May!

Until then you'll just have to settle for the table of contents:

The details on ME#9 are as follows:

Cover art by Mel Gannon

Interior art by Greg Chapman

The Table of Contents:

Literature

Changeling by Jonathan Maberry

Black Train Blues by James A Moore

Black Peter by Martin Livings

The Road by Amanda J Spedding

Coffee Rings by Kristin Dearborn

The Wee Folk by JG Faherty

From the Forebears by Steven Gepp

Little Boy, Little Girl, Lost in the Woods by Mark Patrick Lynch

The Fathomed Wreck to See by Alan Baxter

Poetry

ganesh by Talie Helene

Comic

Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom - story by Mark Farrugia, illustrations by Greg Chapman

Special Features

The Mythology of Mid-World by Robin Furth (non-fiction)

Russian Field of Mysteries by Tony Vilgotsky (non-fiction)

An Interview with Jonathan Maberry

An Interview with Mel Gannon

Regular Features

A Word from the AHWA President - Geoff Brown

Tartarus - Danny Lovecraft (poetry column)

Pix and Panels - Mark Farrugia (comic column)

Black Roads, Dark Highways #4 - Andrew McKiernan (column)

Sinister Reads (all the latest releases from AHWA members)

Pre-orders for the limited print edition are now being taken. Please visit www.midnightechomagazine.com for full details.

Three Great Authors



Rick Hautala



In the past week the world's horror community has lost three great authors - David B.Silva, James Herbert and Rick Hautala.

 Even though I didn't know these men (I did have several exchanges with David via email when he was running Hellnotes.com and found him to be very cordial and receptive to the promotion of my own work), I respect them as fellow writers of what is a very unique genre.

These men, these writers, will live on in the hearts of their close friends and loved ones, but for those of us who didn't know them, we can can get some idea of their personas through the brilliance of their words.



James Herbert

Here are the links to where you can find their works -

David B. Silva

James Herbert

Rick Hautala

 

David B. Silva



I encourage every reader, horror afficionado or no, to go out and obtain copies of David, James' or Rick's works and pass on your condolences by immersing yourselves in their imaginations. I'm sure these horror legends would look down on us and smile.

Rest in Peace Gentlemen and thank you for your contribution to horror.

darkscrybe's photostream

darkscrybe's photostream on Flickr.

A sample of some of my artwork

Book cover art: Cael

This piece was a job through Cohesion Editing and Proofreading.

The client wanted a dark, brooding, vampire with just a hint of malice. Cael's appearance went through a number of incarnations until I got his expression just right.

  

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After doing the drawing in pencil it was coloured and textured in Photoshop to give it that "painted" finish.

What do you think of the final product? Geoff Brown's cover design complements my artwork just so, don't you think?

If you'd like me to provide artwork for your next cover, contact me through Cohesion.

Darkscrybe gets a facelift!

Originally, this blog was solely supposed to focus on my writing, but given the amount of art-related projects I'm involved in I've decided to finally include them on this page, hence the blog's re-branding.
The art I create, whether it be for book covers, posters, comics or magazines, I'm now going to post on this blog, in conjunction with my writing endeavours.
Creating art is obviously a very different beast to writing and I hope to share the process I use here and hopefully generate a bit more interest in my artwork.

So what am I working on right now?

I just finished five small watercolour paintings which will serve as the "corner art" for the forthcoming issue 9 of Midnight Echo Magazine, which is due out in May from the Australian Horror Writers Association.

Below you'll find a few enticing "windows" into the corner art.

Also for ME9, I'm currently illustrating chapter 3 of the vampire comic series Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom, written by Mark Farrugia.

Below are some in progress photos of the comic and a look at the "Vladslayer", a weapon which will make it's first appearance in the issue.

I'll also be creating a full-page illustration to accompany one of the stories in the issue, so I'm going to be quite busy for the next few weeks! I'd like to thank Midnight Echo 9's editor Geoff Brown for giving me this great opportunity!

Thanks for continuing to check out my blog and please keep eye out for updates as I share my art with you!