This comics anthology explores the playful and poignant aspects of sequential art, crossing genres to produce a through-provoking collection. There have been 3 editions of this book, published in 2012, 2014 and 2023. And each time, I updated the cover. The first edition used my most recent rendering of Super Duper Ham. The second edition featured a self-portrait, and the third a digital collage using graphic elements representing each of the comics in the book.
Flying Solo was first self-published in 2009 and later included in Sketches and Streams. A new cover and logo were created for a 2023 reprinting of the individual comic. Both versions of the cover recreated one of the comic’s panels.
In 2011, I self-published a sketchbook collecting some of the collages I made using original panel art from Momentos, Flying Solo, Super Duper Ham: Day One and Martian Debut. I reprinted the sketchbook in 2021 and took the opportunity to update the cover and logo.
I let the story of Martian Debut drive the design of the Martians. I knew that I wanted them to slip and swim through the air and their primary feature would be an unusual-looking eye.
Early sketches were inspired by H.P. Lovecraft creatures. They were too gross. Too many eyes. I settled into a more geometric eye design, because it gave the Martian a mask-like face that felt alien and unreadable. I also moved away from a tentacle-based anatomy for something that felt more etherial, with wispy tendrils that would flow around a snake-like body.