How Two Classic Comic Artists Influenced My Horror Illustrations for The Pit

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Don Heck and Richard Corben are two giants in the world of horror illustration. Inspired by the imagination of Heck and an early technique of Corben’s, I rcently wrote and illustrated “The Pit,” which you can learn more about below.

The Heck Influence:
First, Don Heck. When I’m looking for story inspiration, there is no better means to shock my creative juices than classic horror comic covers from the 1950s. Heck did a lot of them! His drawing style is not like mine – I come from a painting background – but his twisted creativity; his dynamic, in your face composition; and his beautifully balanced layouts are worth study for anyone who appreciates horror art.

When I came across Heck’s 1952 cover for Weird Terror showing a doomed man dragged into a hellish pit by a monster, something clicked. Without knowing the story in the Weird Terror issue, I formulated my own story and called it “The Pit.”

Before even knowing where the story was going, I started the first page splash illustration. In the typical comic book method, I sketched a “thumbnail,” a small idea of what I was doing. Since I hadn’t been in an actual hell-pit for a long time, I then gathered some photo references to aid the actual drawing.

The first step: an inked line art piece. Now the fun part!

The Corben Influence:
I’ve been enjoying Richard Corben’s painted work for years, since I first discovered him in early ’70s indie comics – they were called “underground” then. His art in Slow Death and Fantagor, and his subsequent work in Creepy and Eerie, influenced generations of artists.

Especially Corben’s colors. Wonderfully crazy, painterly, and over-saturated, Corben’s early color work was amazingly different than anything else at the time. Recently I found out why…

Richard Corben put color on his beautiful Warren magazine work himself by masking off negatives and burning his own printing press plates. I won’t go into detail about negatives and plates in this world of computers. Just believe me when I say Corben’s technique must have been crazy difficult. There would have been no way to check his color until pages were on the press. The color mix was all in his head!

It had been rumbling around in my own head that I might be able to achieve that rich, oversaturated look if I thought about Corben’s technique.

He began with black and white art, like most comic book art, but his boards are a wonder to see, inked, painted, ink washes, painted white highlights.

So I tried something new. This is the first time I’ve grayscaled shadows in a separate Photoshop layer, then used those grays to color. I then separated color blocks in Photoshop to work with them.

Pulling from my painting background, I unified much of this with a red “wash.” The result was an underpainting I used to enhance with more paint on top. I’m pleased with the results: a deep shadowed, painterly look.

“The Pit” worked out to be the story of a young woman and her companion in an underground cavern, trying to piece together how they got there. As usually happens in my horror stories, bloodshed ensues!

“The Pit” is a story I’m giving away during my Zombies’ End graphic novel Kickstarter beginning January 16, 2018. I’m excited to share my projects, art, video and other updates. If you want me to share with you, visit StrangeHorror.com and join the Aazurn Fan List!

Gary Scott Beatty is a writer and illustrator of strange horror stories who shares art, story, video and progress updates with those on the Aazurn Fan List. If you’re interested, sign up at StrangeHorror.com.

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