It was only a matter of time...

When I was a pre-teen, we visited the home of my dad's cousin and her husband. I had not yet become a believer at that time, but I was struck by a black light poster depicting Jesus on the wall of the couple's college age son. I was intrigued by the meshing of the counter culture via a blacklight poster with traditional religious imagery.

Now this was the same son who had a few years before displayed a shelf full of Aurora monster model kits at the end of the home's main hallway. That made a big impression on me as well and most likely led to my fascination with Universal Studios horror films and their related model kits. By age 12, I had built and painted all the re-issues of those same kits I saw on that hallway book shelf.

But, I digress...

Much like that first peek at monster models, my later peek at the black light Jesus poster left a lasting impression. It planted the seed that Christian faith need not be something mired in cultural tradition, but that truth could step outside of culture and find its place in myriad representations. I realized that Christian art need not be only from the Renaissance for example. And that, Christian music need not be only hymns or southern gospel. My mind began to open to the idea that Christian faith might be more diverse in its expressions than I had imagined.

A few years later, I made the leap of faith and made a commitment in my heart to trust Jesus. Now, after all these long years, I find myself playing with faux black light imagery and it occurred to me in church yesterday that I could bring the iconic Christian imagery together with the black light comic art look of the Third Eye posters that I now collect. I could connect with that treasured black light memory right on my own desktop.

Wow, what fun! I found a generic painting of the Resurrection of Jesus online and laid into it with photoshop. This image is not based on the same one that I saw as a poster during my tweens, but it had a quality I liked and depicted a powerful moment in the Christian story. You might even say the event depicted was a little "cosmic", so I added a little "Kirby-Crackle", to capture the comic book feel and added a caption in the pinup style of the Marvel comics of the 60s.

I realize I've backed myself into a tiny niche of enjoyment that might only be occupied by just me, but I had to share anyway.

I thank you for your indulgence and hope you at least find my obsessions amusing.

Mo ichi do!

That's Japanese for "one more time" and here is yet another retro poster style image I edited. This blog entry offers the faux blacklight re-color of a recent Dave Gibbons drawing of Rorschach from WATCHMEN. It took a bit of thought on how to use the limited blacklight palette effectively, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I got the image online and thought it would be fun to bring the florescent look even further into the modern era by adding it to a very recent piece of comic art. The original piece (with the original colors) appears in the new book "The Art of Watchmen". Buy it pal!