Comics and Art

Close readings of comics, from the Silver Surfer to Superman on Apokolips, plus essays on drawing, pixel art, exhibitions, and the history of art made with computers. For my own comics, see the Comics page.

20 articles, newest first.

November 2026

An Evil Kryptonian in a Pleated Skirt

Superman's Brainwashed Stint as a Warrior of Apokolips

In March 1987, John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, and Jerry Ordway ran one story straight through all three Superman titles: Darkseid abducts the Man of Steel, burns away his memory, and remakes him as the loyal son of Apokolips. A close reading of the three issues, the philosophy they smuggle in about identity and free will, and the ripples they left in the Superman mythos.

August 2026

The Freest Being in the Universe

Part 6

Back from Black: The Second Kree–Skrull War

Part six, the finale, free to read online: the second Kree-Skrull war in full flame, a fool crowned emperor, the Living Tribunal's hard lesson, and one perfect moment of infinity to close out the run.

August 2026

The Freest Being in the Universe

Part 5

Garbage In, Garbage Out: The Surfer in Shackles

Part five, free to read online: the Surfer in shackles. A heartbreak engineered by Titan, a love affair exiled off-panel, three fables written under protest, and the backstage war with Marvel that Englehart waged in the credits box.

August 2026

The Freest Being in the Universe

Part 4

Into the Black Hole: Malice, the In-Betweener, and the War of the Third Forces

Part four, free to read online, and the run's summit: Ron Lim comes aboard for good, a rescue party crosses a black hole into the Magick Realm, Sue Richards is twisted into Malice, and the In-Betweener sets out to kill a dying Galactus.

August 2026

The Freest Being in the Universe

Part 3

Pirates, Accusers, and the Other Silver Surfer

Part three of my book, free to read online: a changing of the artistic guard, Captain Reptyl's space pirates, Ronan the Accuser's frame-up, an impostor Silver Surfer, and the act of mercy that hands the Skrulls their salvation.

August 2026

The Freest Being in the Universe

Part 2

Free! The False Start, the New Norrin, and the Elders' Plot Against Galactus

Part two of my book, free to read online: the barrier finally falls. A complete first issue drawn by John Buscema and buried in a drawer, a thawed-out Norrin Radd who sulks, rages and falls in love, and ten issues of Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers in which the deathless Elders of the Universe set out to murder Galactus.

July 2026

The Freest Being in the Universe

Part 1

Read the Whole Book: Steve Englehart's Silver Surfer, Serialised

The opening part of my book, free to read online and richly illustrated — with more to come. Part one steps back to 1966 for the Surfer's first twenty years — his debut in Fantastic Four, his own two early series, and the long exile that set up Steve Englehart's cosmic run.

July 2026

From Blog Posts to a Book on Amazon

How I Wrote and Self-Published The Freest Being in the Universe

My book-length appreciation of Steve Englehart's cosmic Silver Surfer run is live on Amazon as a Kindle eBook and a paperback. Here is what the book is, why I wrote it, and everything I learned taking it through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, from the tax interview to trim sizes, spine widths, and the AI-content question.

April 2026

KAWS Art & Comix

A Rainy Day Exhibition at Albertina Modern

On a rain-slicked April day in Vienna, I sought refuge inside the Albertina Modern, only to find a high-voltage jolt of creative energy. "KAWS: Art & Comix" is an autopsy of the collapsing wall between high art and pop culture. As both a Viennese and a comics fan, it felt to me nostalgic and jarring to see the rebellious, ink-stained spirit of underground comix immortalized within such a grand museum. While our digital world has essentially become a living cartoon, this exhibition uses the "disposable" icons of the past to hold a diagnostic mirror to our modern cultural soul.

March 2026

Chunky Little Squares

The Fabulous Appeal of Pixel Art

I have a great affection for pixel art. Yes, it's also nostalgic! But it's more than just warm fuzzy feelings about the good old days of video games and home computers: it is actually a visual language that was born from limitation and somehow got refined into a timeless aesthetic. Let me share with you what I love about these chunky little squares.

December 2025

Drawing as Meditation

The Ritual of Lines That Calm the Mind

I like drawing. I'm not particularly good at it, but it makes me happy. It slows me down, sharpens my attention, and teaches me to accept imperfection. This is not an article about getting better at drawing, it's about what happens while you draw. Join me as I work through four different graphics and share what I learned about the quiet power of making something slowly, with my hands.

September 2025

The Unrestrained Energy of Rob Liefeld

Why I Still Love These Wild 1990s Comics

Rob Liefeld may never have been the most polished or technically precise artist, but in the late '80s and early '90s, his comics were pure energy on the page. Explosive, chaotic, and gloriously excessive, they captured the imagination of a generation of readers. For me, his five-year run of unrestrained creativity remains unforgettable.

September 2025

From Pigments to Pixels

Why Art and Technology Have Always Belonged Together

We often imagine art and technology as opposites. I think the story is different: from Renaissance painters grinding rare minerals into pigments to today's artists coding immersive digital worlds, creativity has always relied on technical skill. The divide is less a truth than a myth we've inherited.

January 2025

The Psychological Tree

The Tree Drawing Test and Its Limitations

During a psychological evaluation decades ago, I was asked to draw a tree. I later learned this seemingly innocent exercise was a gateway into the labyrinth of someone's personality. Recently, I decided to revisit that moment and draw another tree, this time with an iPad and decades of life experience in hand. Let's see how the Tree Drawing Test holds up.

December 2024 Mildly NSFW

How Hippie Met Nessie

Turning Two Boring Drawings Into A Cr*ppy Big One

Have you ever felt stuck with two incomplete ideas, only to realize they might come together into something greater? That's exactly what happened to me while working on two very different drawings in Procreate on my iPad Pro. What's more, I captured the entire process on video. Here's how these two projects evolved into one unified artwork.

November 2024

Coding Counter Culture

Attempting to Draw Determination in a Coder

In this drawing tutorial, I'll guide you through creating a powerful and resolute female programmer, drawn in a style inspired by the bold, iconic imagery of socialist realism. And I only use six colors for it! Let me show you in a step-by-step video how I draw determination in the face of a coder!

October 2024 Mildly NSFW

Boris Vallejo and the Pixel Art of the Demoscene

As an epic fantasy painter, Boris Vallejo had a great influence on 1980s and 90s fantasy book covers, computer game box art, and the demoscene. Through the decades, his works have been replicated by pixel artists. This article features fantasy art history, demoscene drama, and a lot of pixel art fun creating a Boris Vallejo imitation graphic using only four colors.

May 2020

Telidon Meets Instagram

The Telidon Art Collection at Inter/Access

This is the story of the Canadian Telidon system from the early 1980s, the artists who worked with it, the unlikely story of how their work was rediscovered by the Toronto-based Inter/Access gallery in 2015, and how to conserve digital artwork created with Telidon.

December 2019

Pixeling in the Retrosphere

Creating a Comic on 1980s Hardware

In this project I created a five page comic story using 1980s computer hardware. I refurbished a thirty year old Atari computer, upgraded it and then pixel-painted a comic using the art package NEOChrome Master and only 16 colors.

May 2018

Dots By Any Other Name

The Story of the first Digitally Produced Comic Book

This is an essay about Shatter, a comic book created by Mike Saenz, Peter B. Gillis and Charles Athanas in the mid-1980s on an Apple Macintosh (though with traditional, analog coloring). This milestone of the comics industry paved the way for other digital comics like Das Robot Imperium by Michael Götze.

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