Christmas at 45 RPM

Image © 2011 Barta

Line art for good pal Gordon Flagg's annual X-Mas novelty song cd. This year's tracks were culled from his collection of vintage vinyl. Merry Christmas to all from the Surly Hack!

Fuzzy, Wuz he?

This was drawn as a cover for the mini comic Slam-Bang. Big Bill Wray influence in the space dude, along with the usual Wally Wood 50s Chevy stylings.

EC for HB, See?

Image © 2011 Barta

Here's an old, possibly unpublished piece from somewhere or other.  Might have appeared in Sketch magazine.  Happy Halloween!

The Wrath of Con

So I went to Wizard's Chicago Comicon after taking a year off. I wasn't going to go, but my pal Mark Nelson flew in from Houston to attend the show, and Steve Shamus was nice enough to comp me a table, so I relented. Missing Thursaday night, I sat in Artist Alley for three long days. And...and I had a great time. It was a very loong weekend, what with the commute back to the city each evening for Noir City Chicago at the Music Box, but I was glad that I made the effort. I met Ian Boothby and Kyle Hotz and a lot of other talented folks, and Artist Alley seemed to be hopping this year. So I'll be back next year. See you there!

The Yellowed Kid

Here's a page I haven't seen in a looong time. It's the last page from the second issue of my Plastic Man mini-series that someone was selling online. The inks are by John Nyberg. Willie Schubert niftily lettered the script by Phil Foglio, from a plot by Phil, Doug Rice and yours surly. That's The Barker leading the way. Like Plas and his sidekick Woozy Winks, he's another character created in the 1940s by the great Jack Cole. As always, click on the image to enlarge.

Come to Chicago and See Rosemont

Four days of fun and frivolity with an endless array of actors and actresses, professional wrestlers, and me, a lonely comic book artist. Come by artist alley and rescue me!

The Usual Simpsons

© 2011 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons TM & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

These are 8 1/2" X 11" pencil roughs for my latest Simpsons story, "The Big Finish". It stars Grampa Simpson, and it's a riff on a certain cult crime movie that you just might have seen. And it's connected to the issue's cover by Sergio Aragones, who also appears in the story as a 'Simpsonized' character! The story is scheduled to appear in The Simpsons Comics #185, solicited next month, out in December.


© 2011 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons TM & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

Apu on You

© 2011 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons TM & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

Bart Simpson #60 is out today. My Bart vs. Apu and the Kwik-E-Mart story leads off, followed by a Sergio Aragones zombie movie epic. With Evan Dorkin thrown in for good measure. Not too shabby.

SpongeBob ArtJob

© 2011United Plankton Pictures, Inc. SpongeBob SquarePants TM & © Viacom international, inc. All rights reserved.

I'm currently inking my second story for SpongeBob Comics. Once again I'm working from a wonderfully odd script from cartoonist James Kochalka. It's another tale of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, as they tangle with the little green villain named Plankton. The story will run in issue #8. This time I penciled full-size, right on the boards, eschewing the rough stage. Click on the pencils to see them full-size.


© 2011United Plankton Pictures, Inc. SpongeBob SquarePants TM & © Viacom international, inc. All rights reserved.

Free Comic Book Day

This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, and I'll be making an appearance at Dark Tower Comics in Chicago from 1-4, along with artist Chris Burn­ham (Bat­man Inc, Nixon’s Pals, Offi­cer Downe, Ele­phant­men). We'll be signing comics, doing sketches, and making with the putrid patter that passes for snappy repartee at comic book stores. In addition to the free giveaways, there will be plenty of our comics for sale, including my work on Fear Agent, The Simp­sons, Creepy, SpongeBob SquarePants, and maybe even Munden’s Bar and Splash Brannigan--and everything in the store will be on sale as well.

Where: Dark Tower Comics and Collectibles

4835 N West­ern Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 733‑4026

When: Saturday, May 7th, 2011
1 to 4 pm

Treehouse of Hilary

I just learned that I'll be drawing another story for the Simpsons annual Treehouse of Horror. Hooray! The tough part is that it's for Halloween 2012! Now that's planning ahead. At least I'll have a head start on the deadline. Treehouse stories are one of my favorite gigs in comics. The last one I drew was a fun Jaws parody written by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn. There's a link to a review of it along with a few panels of the art, here.

Kwik-E-Art

© 2011 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons TM & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

I just wrapped up the inks on my latest Bart Simpson story, Bart vs. The Kwik-E-Mart, written by Amanda McCann. It features Bart and Apu tangling at the Kwik-E, with Bart--and the readers--learning a bit about Apu's childhood in India. It turns out that Apu was once as much of a prankster as is Bart. These are 8 1/2 x 11" pencil roughs, which I scan, print as blueline onto boards, and ink. The page below shows young Apu and his uncle Ashok at an Indian Kwik-E-Mart. Look for this in Bart Simpson #60.


© 2011 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons TM & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

Convention-al Thinking

On March 18-20 I'll be attending C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo held at McCormick Place in beautiful downtown Chicago. Holed up in artist alley at table E12, I'll have plenty of original art from my recent work on Spongebob Squarepants, Creepy and the Simpsons--plus the usual assortment of older, dust-gathering pages from hither and yon. Stop by and say hi.

Barta Bart Art

© 2011 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons TM & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

This is the 8 1/2 X 11" pencil rough for a page the Simpsons story Metal as Anything. This witty 12-pager by writer Ian Boothby stars Bart as Bartman, along with the entire Simpsons family as a Bongo version of some metallic heroes you might be familiar with. The inks were done by Andrew Pepoy, and the story appears in the Simpsons Super Spectacular #12, out now.

I'm currently working on another story starring Bart and Apu set in the Kwik-E-Mart.

StatiC Creep

Static Creep

Opening: Friday, January 14th 6-10 pm

Original comic book artwork, posters, books, on-the-spot sketches &
live music by Transistor

The show features the art of over twenty local comic book artists, including:

Alex Wald, Andrew Pepoy, Chris Burnham, Corinne Mucha, Doug Klauba, Hilary Barta, Heather McAdams, Jeffrey Brown, Jenny Frisson, Jill Thompson, Tony Akins, Nicole Hollander, Mike Norton, Mitch O'Connell, Sarah Becan, Dave Dorman, Tim Seeley, Lucy Knisley, Gary Gianni, Bill Reinhold, Alyssa Herlocher and Steven Krakow.

I'll have pages up from stories I've drawn for Creepy, Goon Noir and Grateful Dead Comix.

Static Creep runs January 14th through February 6th

Las Manos Gallery

5220 N. Clark St. Chicago Il 60640

Gallery hours: Wed/Thurs/Fri: 12:30-5:30 Sat/Sun 11 am-5pm

www.lasmanosgallery.com