Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Happy Birthday, Mike!
Today is my brother Mike's birthday. To commemorate the day, here's another old photo of the two of us, this time taken at the Smithsonian's Star Trek exhibit in Wahington D.C. in the 90's...

--C

4 comments:

Strangewingz said...

Thanks Chris!

Nick said...

Hi Chris

I have a piece of art by you here:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Page=1&Order=Date&Piece=295285&GSub=22780&GCat=0&UCat=0

Do you know if this was ever published, is there a story behind it?

Thanks

Nick

Chris & Xan said...

Hi, Nick. That piece hasn't been published yet, but it will definitely be in my Modern Masters book, and possibly in one of the three coming Tom Strong deluxe hardcovers.

Your drawing was something I drew for fun shortly after finishing the three-part Weird Rider/Space Ant storyline in Tom Strong #'s 16-18, and it's kind of a recreation of events from that storyline.

I was so into the Tom Strong series and the cast of characters that I used to occasionally draw pieces like this for myself for fun. I usually ended up selling these drawings at conventions, but I've always kept photocopies and scans of everything I've drawn. When Wildstorm began collecting Tom Strong, I began passing copies of these pieces along to my editors for use in the gallery sections in the backs of the books. Most of them were published, but for some reason, this one was never chosen. The back cover art for the 3rd and 5th collections were two more such drawings done for myself initially. Incidentally, the back cover art for the 4th collection was an unused cover intended for Tom Strong #23, and the art on the front of the 5th softcover was a commissioned piece. All of the other front and back covers were done specifically for the collections.

--C

Nick said...

Hi Chris, that's really interesting, thanks. I love your Tom Strong work and it's great to see him back. Cheers Nick

PS I've added your quote to the art because I thought it would be of interest to other fans, I figure that would be OK because it's up here. If there is a problem let me know. Cheers (again) Nick