Monday, October 02, 2006

From the Tomb of Hope

So to anyone who may have thought to themselves, "Ha! I bet Tony Atkins never thought he would be drawing a bunch of storybook characters as part of his professional future! Idiot...*snort*"
Well, to you I say this...
First, it's AKINS, not ATkins.
Second, I had drawn storybook favorites YEARS before I landed JoF, or even the FABLES fill-ins.
I can't recall who the writer was, I do recall being on the phone with Harlan Ellison around the same time. Plus Grant Morrison *clunk* and I just finished a short story for PETA...so there's that. I believe that all this art was for the "ASYLUM" publication or publishers. Can't remember which was which. The story is about a father who falls asleep while reading a bedtime story to his cute daughter; he dreams of nightmarish things spawned from the pages of the fairytale volume in his lap. Fortunately he wakes up and everything is OK.
Anyway... This version of Humpty creeps me a bit. Plus this is one of the first times I was able to ink my own work. The things I was allowed to get away with...
h.e.





LOL, yep. That's his heart in his throat.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Am I a bad person if the weird little girl bothers me more than the blood? :P

What was the plot to this? Something macbre, no doubt...

-Katiria
SERPENT820@Gmail.com

Tony Akins said...

No, GOD! It's SUPPOSED to bother you!
Creepy-little-dead-Jill-smiling-at-daddy-with-smashed-crown.
Tips 10 on the creepo scale.

Tony Akins said...

Wait...did the little girl bother you BEFORE she got gorified or after?

Anonymous said...

She has a very "Come play with us, Danny" expression. At least, that's how I see her pre-getting her head smashed up. With her head smashed it, it because more malicious... I didn't say it was bad that she bothered me...just that she did. :P

-Katiria

Anonymous said...

Definitely creepy - Sadly, it's the clown dresser that creeps me out the most.........

Asylum Humpty would be great on a T-shirt thought, with a slogan like "Cursedry Rhymes" or "This is your Rhyme on Drugs" although preferably something clever (unlike my examples :) )

Anonymous said...

uh,. that was me above

---
Cindy

Anonymous said...

Wow. Blast from the past. Asylum was the name of the horror anthology I published and edited under the New Comics Group banner. I think Fred might have written this story--can't remember. As soon as I saw the art, I remembered the art. I have always loved your artwork so much. Your line is so clean and full of life. The characters breathe for me. I have always regretted not being able to, in my various jobs, give you tons and tons of work.

Maybe soon--as we plan on doing several hundred readers, maybe thousands, for the grades K-5 curriculae I and my team are working on. More on that later. As always, your artwork takes my breath away.

In a good, awestruck way, not a gag reflex way.

Lots of respect and love to you.

Tony Akins said...

VAL!
Thank you SO much!
This is testimony to how Fred and I share a mindlink; I was half certain that I may have written this story.
Thank you, also, for the generous appraisal (though laser accurate) of my feeble scratchings. Sometimes it manages to pull itself together. Praise the Muse!
I'll be happy to be of service to you whenever you have something on the boards.
besos!