Eternal Nightmare

Growing up I was a comic book fan, but lost interest in them once I grew out of the whole 'super hero' idea.  A year or so ago I started getting into graphic novels or collections of alternative comics.  In particular Kirkman's work, ie The Walking Dead.  There are a few others that have caught my  interest as well, mainly in the Horror genres.  Not only are the storylines mature and interesting, but the Art is done in a way that's more appealing.  I'd never been one to draw in the DC/Marvel/Image style. 

Awhile back I started an online comic, but lost interest in it.  Lately however I've been thinking of revisiting that idea on a larger scale.  Rather then doing a serial, a n actual graphic novel.  This time however I'm gonna do some research about the whole formatting and writing of it.  Developing character sketches and etc.  That way I'll have the story and characters done before I even start doing rough sketches of the layout and onward to the final verision.

I found a book that seems pretty good as far as doing all that, how to set up a script, layout, developing characters that are easy for redrawing etc.  Unfortuantely I may have to order it online, since I may not be able to find it at a brick and mortar shop.  But, I think it'll be worth it in the long run, since it has good info including how to go about getting published or at least subbing to pubs.  I did some reasearch into graphic novel publishers and found a suprirsingly good assortment. 

I have inklings of some good story/character ideas that I'll gradually be working on.

PS I did find a copy of the book I was looking for at a neighborhood store tonight.

Just a quick note to let you know that I've done an update to my website.  I've put up 3 new illustrations, and 3 new drawings/paintings. 
www.eternalnightmare.com

Smoothies For Cannibals
Coming in Feb. 2007
Static Movement Online's Invite Only Issue

“Did you recognize her?”
“Kinda hard to tell who she was.”
“Yeah, I bet considering her face was found in one of your frying pans.”


Edgar Thompson is Nocturnus City's most notorious serial killer in decades.  With over a dozen deaths and disapperances attributed to him during a two month reign of terror, everyone thinks the horrors are over when he's captured. 

But what happens when the primary suspect claims to have no memories of commiting such heinous acts?  Is he a liar, insane, or the pawn for some greater evil? 

Detectives Mark Richards and James Andrews are sent into question him as to the identity of his victims in an attempt to resolve unsolved cases.  But can they handle the revelations that their inquires will bring forth?

Current Location: Mile High
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite artist. Defintely had an influence on me as an artist. If you don't like Munch then you sir are an ass!

Check 'em out here:
Edvard Munch

International Order of Horror Professionals Monthly Chat
Sunday, December 10, 2006 - IOHP chat guest - Kevin Hurtack

To get into the chat room, visit this URL:
http://scribequill.com/IOHPchat.html

Join us as we welcome IOHP member Kevin Hurtack for a guest chat on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 6 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Mountain, 8 p.m. Central and 9 p.m. Eastern time. The chat will last an hour.

About Kevin Hurtack:

Over the past year, the artwork of Kevin James Hurtack has appeared in various small press horror publications. He is a staff artist for RAZAR and Withersin. He has done work for Issues #3 and #4 for Theatre of Decay, and possibly more in the future. His work has also appeared or will be appearing soon in the pages of Night To Dawn, Static Movement Online, and Black Pedals. Kevin's artwork has also appeared on the cover of the UK Horror magazine, Midnight Street. In 2007 Kevin will be doing the cover artwork for the Macabre Productions' Macabre Underground Anthology #2. Withersin will be debuting in January of 2007 and will feature Kevin's cover art, as well as two interior short-story illustrations.

Kevin is also a published writer of short horror fiction and poetry. His stories have appeared in Static Movement and his poetry has appeared in Whispers of Wickedness, Wicked Karnival, DeCompositions, and other small press publications. His short story, Mother of Heresy, will be appearing online in Static Movement in January of 2007. His short fiction, The Samaritan and The Sinner, is scheduled to be published in spring or summer of 2007 in Night To Dawn.

He also plans on self-publishing a collection of his poetry and art in early 2007.

Kevin works almost exclusively in pen & ink with ink washes, but will be adding airbrushing to his repertoire this coming year. Examples of his art and links to some of his stories can be found at his site: http://www.eternalnightmare.com

***

If you have difficulties entering the chat room, e-mail Tenebrous1 at horrorprofessionals@gmail.com or tenebrous1@horrorprofessionals.org

The chat room will open 15 minutes before the scheduled chat.

Please remember that while the chat is open to both IOHP members as well as the public, we DO NOT TOLERATE trolls or chat crashers whose sole intention is to disrupt this online event. Such persons will be BANNED immediately!

Hope to see all of you there!

Dark wishes & bloody dreams,

Bev & Paul

Reading: Theatre of Decay #4

Playing: Indigo Prophecy

Listening: Pandora Radio

My short story entitled The Sinner and Samaratin will be published in Night To Dawn, either their summer or spring issue in 2007.

This weekend you can purchase a 2007 Art of Kevin James Hurtack calendar through my Zazzle shop for 50 percent off. Plus, if you have it shipped to a USA address you will get Free ground shipping.

You can get more info via this link ...

http://www.zazzle.com/Kevin_Hurtack/product/158327770847913492?CMP=EMC-BV2983370235

My Horror short story entitled, Mother of Heresy has been accepted for publication in the January 2007 issue of Static Movement Online.

Synopsis: All Molly wants is a new start for herself and her daughter. When the opportunity of a high paying job in Nocturnus City presents itself Molly doesn't hesitate to make the drive through the Colorado Rockies with her infant daughter. But when her car breaks down on a remote mountain road, it is only the start of her troubles.

Just wanted to let you know that I have two illustrations in the Winter issue of the online mystery/pulp fiction magazine, Mysterical-E. You can get to the stories I illustrated via the links below. In order to see a full sized, high detail verision of said drawings, simply click on the scaled verision that appears above the story.

Enjoy,

Kevin
Illustration #1

Illustration #2

I will be doing TWO illustrations for the Spring 2007 issue of Black Petals Magazine (print)

I will be doing an illustration for Jodi Lee's short story in the Spring 2007 Night To Dawn Magazine (print)

My cover art and interior illustrations will be in Withersin #1 in January 2007. (print)


I will be putting out a 2007 calendar featuring my Arwork which will be available for purchase online. Probably will be out later this month or defintely early next...

~ KvN

I have done an update to my Art website. I've added a couple new illustrations and a couple new drawings, as well as redesigining the front page. You can check it all out HERE

Drawing releastic looking guns isn't something I do a lot of, but I'm currently working on a drawing involving a werewolf and security guard in contemporary times. I had the vast majority of the drawing done, but had been holding off on drawing the gun. I knew he had to have a gun in hand given the situation portrayed in the drawing, ie a werewolf behind him reaching through a window and reaching for his head. Google is a blessing when it comes to find references for images. I never make exact copies of the source material but use it for references. I tried finding some military pistols, but nothing worked/looked right. It was rather frustrating at first, because no matter what I did looked awkward or half-assed. Like someone would look at it and say WTF is that supposed to be? Even I thought that.

Then it came to me, a sawed-off shotgun. Being a former video game junkie I always preferred this type of gun in games, basically cause you don't have to aim well and it doles out mucho carnage. After drawing one roughly from memory I checked with Google and found a nice one that wasn't far off from the one in my head. After a few minute adjustments I finally had a sweet looking sawed-off in the guard's hands. At this point it was pretty late, and it just kinda came out onto the paper automatically without much effort. Kinda like my subconcious taking over and saying, "For fuck's sake - just draw the damn gun and go to bed." LOL

Current Location: My Desk
Current Mood: happy

I will be doing two illustrations for the e-magazine, Mysterical-E. This magazine is a pulp fiction/mystery themed magazine which may seem a bit of a departure from the normal stuff I do, but it is always good to expand the old portfolio. Plus, one story in particular does have a sci-fi theme involving the Roswell UFO conspiracy. It is a pretty cool publication and can be checked out here. I'll update when my work is online, probably later this month.

In other news my digital photograph collage is now online as the ''cover'' art for this October's Static Movement Online and it can be viewed HERE.

Current Location: Mile High
Current Mood: content

Today I took a walk in my neighborhood and when I was standing at an intersection I glanced to my left and saw a casette tape sitting in the grass. It was a blank TDK tape with a label on the one side. Typed on it was the phrase 'The Reality of Hell' The other side said nothing. At first I was not going to pick it up, because I don't have casette player at home, but then recalled that I had one in my car. After listening to it, it turned out to be a recorded sermon by a pastor about Hell. It wasn't the zealotary you might expect, in fact it was rather low key, but firm. There were some interesting ideas brought up about Hell and Damnation, not the story book 'fire and brimstone' ideas. It wasn't as 'preachy' as most Christians tend to be. I grew up Roman Catholic and then bounced around to various other Christians faiths. Today, I do believe in God but my God isn't that of the Catholic church or any other organized religion. To put it simply it is a merger of Gnostic and Pagan. I find God in the Rocky Mountains and in a jar of ink. Or the keyboard.

The whole idea of finding a casette tape with a message about Hell on it got me to thinking though of story ideas. Interesting how things can inspire or just 'stumble' across. Although I don't believe in random coincidences like that, every thing has a purpose

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: CandleMass

Alright, I'll say it. A lot of these 'small' press markets have died due to a lack of money and I have to wonder how many of these people just jump into a business, which is what a magazine is with absolutely zero business planning. Just because you have some great creative ideas and maybe a good line up isn't enough, and that's what it seems like a lot of people fail to realize. It seems like they're far too quick to jump to a independent printer they have to pay outta pocket without any real revenue generated from advertisiting, and subscribers or single issue sales. I know Lulu may not be the greatest, but if you're just getting off the ground with a magazine then WTF use it - it is free. It's a DIY so you really get out of it what you put in most of the time. Any publisher can mess up on registration of images or whatever, so I don't buy that as an excuse not to use them. It wouldn't kill them to take a small business workshop class before starting up a magazine, and get some fisical planning done before hand. It really irks me when pubs go online and beg for money to keep their project afloat.
Where else does happen in the business world? No where. Especially when they wait until the last minute. Even though there are a lot of creative people with great ideas or even good ideas they suck at running a business. They really need to team up with some business person at the very least. Maybe this post has pissed off some of you, but oh well these are my thoughts so fuck off if you don't like it.

I watched the movie Logan's Run last night. I'd seen it aeons ago and even read the novel, but decided to see it again via NetFlix because its an idea that always interested me. The so called utopian society, that's nefariously flawed somehow.

Although it was made back in 1976 it really stands up to the test of time. Yes, there are certain scenes where the SFX look gawd awful, ie the robot Box, and some sorta landslide, but the acting is suberb and there are some scenes that use minatures sets for the city that still look good. I thought that the 'old' Washington DC looked great, especially the statue of Abe Lincoln and the Library of Congress.

The eye candy was nice too >:)

I think it is still a solid movie because of the acting and defintely the storyline. Even though it was made 30 years ago it still resonates with today's society/government. Perhaps even more so.

I just hope Hollywood doesn't try to butcher it with a remake. CGI would not make this any better - prettier yes, but not better. If they did I could easily see Vigo Mortensen play the lead, odd similarity between him and Michael York's facial structure and physical build.

One thing that really struck me was the sound track. It didn't really sound kitch or cliche 70's music. Somehow beyond time, which was rather impressive. Even if it came out today I wouldn't say it sounds like a typical 21st century soundtrack. The people invovled with that really out did themselves in my opinion.

They have a short featurette about the making of the movie, and its rather amusing/interesting to see how far we've come with cameras, and even the hair styles/clothing styles. Yet there are somethings with the movie making process that are constant. Defintely an interesting trip back in time, especially with the larger then life narrator in the documentary.


Good times...good times.

Oh yeah, if you do see it keep an eye out during the big gun fight after Logan 5 escapes through the sex shoppe. There's a part where this one dude gets shot in the ass in the background, and goes running by with his butt on fire. Funniest thing I've seen in awhile...LOL

Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: MegaDeth

There are writers out there that deal with the Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy genres with the idea that they should be making a commentary on the state of society at the time. Throw a grenade at any bookshelf or dvd collection and you'll hit plenty of tales like that. Personally, I know some folks that do that in the small press realm as well.

There's nothing wrong with it, and it's defintely a valid form of expression. Quite often I am a fan of that type of writing, when done well.

But to me my writing and Art has always been meant as an escape from the everyday. I think all of us have the pressures and responsibilities of school, work, and/or raising a family, or just paying the bills. Not to mention all the bullshit going on in the world today, and/or your local state/hometown. We all need an escape from it, including myself, and that's what I try to do. Entertain. I may preach my socio-political thoughts on other forums/blogs, but when it comes to fiction I want to take people to a place that can only be reached through the use of good old fashioned imagination. A place that doesn't make them think of their overdue bills or what's going on at work. So they can escape everything without the negative effects of drugs nor the mind numbing/soul sucking of the television.

Now you may wonder why I write Horror (with hints of sci-fi) and not some happy go lucky bullshit. Well first off happy little fantasy stories bore the Hell outta me.
Secondly, I've always been fascinated with the supernatural, cults, and fantatics. There's no other genre that will allow me to explore these ideas. Also, I love the tension, suspense, and adrenline rush that comes from GOOD horror. I'm not into excessive gore, rape, or senseless violence. Gore should be used for a specific effect - to arouse emotion. I think other people enjoy being scared or reading a suspenseful/tension filled story because of the rush. I also like the idea of an ordinary reality existing along side the supernatural one. I try to set my stories mainly in the everday, and allow the supernatural to creep in. Like a friend of mine once said, it makes the story scarier because its in the everyday world.

To me, if I can entertain someone and cause them to become lost in the story to the point where they forget about everything around them then I've been successful. I don't feel the need to preach to people about the morale fiber of the everyday. I'm here to entertain, and that's no less valid then a morality tale in guise of Horror/Sci-Fi, or Fantasy.