yet another!


from Benny!

Yes!
Another gorgeous eye-popper. And while we're seeing Lasagna in your "sold" column, this is particularly apropos. I love the valentine. Seeing those panels was like a walk down the fragrant lane of yesteryear.

from me:

I forgot about that one! Dang, how much of my artwork does Benny have?

To those who don't know - This sexy shot of Lasagna Lagna was the centerspread of Darerat/Tadpole, the third book in the Gnatrat series. Look at all the love and squid jism I lavished on that thing! Click to embiggen! This is from the first and only comic book I ever self-published (other than mini-comics). Drunk on the lingering fumes of all the copies of Gnatrat: The Dark Knight and Happy Birthday, Gnatrat that were sold, and foolishly sure that I would sell just as many Darerats, I included this full-color centerspread on coated cover stock at NO EXTRA COST to the beloved reader and financial ruin to The Mighty Pumpkin Publishing Empire! The rest is history!

Good times, right, Benny? (clarification: I know it is often hard to tell if I am being sincere or a smartass - I am totally sincere. GOOD TIMES! DYN-O-MITE! These are the trials that make life worth living! Right, Benny???)

Dear jabberous reader: Would YOU like to be like Benny, and own a piece of comic book history? Well, as the World's Greatest Cook says, "Hold onto your doo-dad!" because we're having a
!!! MARCH MADNESS SALE !!!

Hey, THANKS to you folks who actually inquired about the cost of the pages linked in the post below. Here's the deal: I've been selling Gnatrat and TMNT pages at the ridiculously low price of $60 a page, and in my usual practice that is lousy for business but great for my karma, I shave that down even further if you buy several pages! Ha ha! That sounds like what the porn starlet said to her pube stylist! "Shave that down even further!"

That $60 price may not last. If these things keep selling, I'd be crazy not to pump it up a little.

CAVEAT: For now, you'll have to dig out your copies of Gnatrat and TMNT that I created, and tell me what pages you are interested in. I do not have an online store or gallery of all these pages. Which brings me to another important message:

!!!!!! HELP !!!!!!

Is there anybody out there interested in scanning all this crap and creating a store for me? You can share in a percentage of the earnings. Here's a big shock - I don't have a "business plan"! But we could discuss it if you're interested.

AND FINALLY! Thanks for all the kind words about all this old stuff. I LOVE YOU GUYS AND GALS! Even Jed! (But you're wrong about the lettering on those old Gnatrat pages, Jed - it's AWFUL!)

CONTACT: lasagnalagna - at - yahoo - dot - com

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12 comments:

eeTeeD said...

have you ever tried one of these?

http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/

Mark Martin said...

puh-LEEZ! Who do you think I am, Ben Burford? I can't run out and buy every $2500 play-pretty that catches my eye!

eeTeeD said...

it would eliminate the time/trouble of scanning. it would eliminate the cost of paper and ink. here's an interesting blog of a person who uses it.

http://ownerofwendys.blogspot.com/

eeTeeD said...

...besides you famous artists types don't have to pay for anything. companies send y'all tons of free samples in hopes that you will promote them on your blogs.

Anonymous said...

Ok. Second time I tried to post and it didn't take. Let me see if I can reconstitute my previous thingy:

Your lettering on the Gnatrat=pretty slick by my standards, but not as groovy and nuanced as your current lettering style.

If you think the Gnat Rat lettering is bad, my lettering must really be craptacular.

Like the lettering on the cover recreations and so forth, Boob Koon etc.

And what's this about Even Jed? Maybe I'm "Prime Number Jed"? Have you ever thought of that, etc. blah blah wit, blah blah bad puns...

If this doesn't take I give up.

Mark Martin said...

eeTeeD - I like paper and ink. I like actual real art. I even like scanning, believe it or not, when it's part of the one-page-at-a-time process of creating.

I also like having real genuine original art to frame or give away or sell.

I'm sure I'd like that wacom thing too. But only as part of an arsenal of equipment.

JED! Your comment took the first time. You were just in the wrong post. It's in the Little Lulu bookmark comments.

Anonymous said...

On the subject of bargains:

For some reason when you make a picture for the express purpose of hanging it on the wall, you can get more money for it than you can after something you've made to be published, has been published. It becomes a more valuable object not because it's a better picture, but because of the aura of specialness that somehow gets knocked out of it when you publish it. Unless, of course, it's a Collectable, but usually it has to be aged first, and you have to somehow get yourself famous (if you're famous the magic specialness of fame will exude from anything you've rubbed up against long enough, for example: non-famous people), and by then even if you're lucky enough to be alive, you're usually not the one who gets to collect the money. And even then, its value increases not necessarily because it's an especially good picture, but because it has accreted the specialness of nostalgia, at least, as long as it remains in Mint Condition.

Which is why I no longer give a shit about making beautiful unmarred originals when it comes to my commercial work. Their Magic Specialness doesn't even rate a quarter of what somebody paid to publish it once. That just seems sad to me. It's great that these pages will undoubtedly find their way into the hands of those who will appreciate them, but where is the magic specialness Mark? You know, the magic specialness that rates more than minimum wage for the time and effort it takes to make one of these things?

SRBissette said...

Wow, I just like to smear carbon deposits and stains on paper.

Go, Mark, Go! This art sale is invigorating, and inspires me to go for the same soon.

And your suck lettering beats the squealing tar out of my best lettering any day of any week, anywhere.

Anonymous said...

I like art pages which look like they've been made from scratch. The pencils, the white outs, the overlays, the lettering (remember when you read the DIALOGUES on the actual art pages)

BonzoGal said...

I agree, Anonymush! All that stuff lets you know that somebody sweated over the art. I have a couple of Mark's originals and they're swell!

SRBissette said...

But are they sweaty?

Anonymous said...

Hey Steve,

Guess what? They're selling another printing plate of your Swamp Thing #30 at ebay.