No sooner had I hung my shingle in the Killeen Geekfest Artists' Alley than a man stopped by asking if I did sketches, and if so, what would one cost.
Sketches? Sketches where? Like on a piece of paper?
The man helpfully elaborated: Would I draw him a picture of the Hulk for his sketchbook? He handed me the large volume, and as I flipped through, I realized it was not a sketchbook of his OWN drawings, but rather the drawings of many different artists whom he would ask for Hulk art.
"It doesn't have to be the Hulk himself! It can be any of his villains, or cast. Whatever YOU want! How much would you charge for that?"
"Gosh..." I was more worried about messing up his sketchbook. "Let's just say $10."
"That's not enough. I'll give you $20."
"Okay, but that's my final offer!"
"No rush! I'll come by around the end of the night, and see if you've had time to work on it."
Flipping through his sketchbook, this is what I saw:
What a jolly lot of fun!
Intimidated by some of these, I went ahead anyway, and came up with this for my contribution:
It's Hulk archvillain the Leader, driven to distraction by the glorious giant brain of the very first Hulk bad guy, the Gargoyle!
Well, maybe only a so-so drawing, really.... But, my customer was delighted, and gave me a rousing, "Perfect! Perfect!" when he returned.
He assured me that the drawings in the book that had been more technically executed were generally the ones he had obtained via mailing the book around the country to cartoonists willing to take the job on at their studios. He brought four or five such sketchbooks to every convention he attended (the other three had been worked on by other artists present at Geekfest that day), and already had at least four completely filled up and sitting on his shelves at home. And he began the whole project back in 1992!
Hats off, Hulk-o-Maniac! Thanks for letting me be a small part of it all!
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