Under the Cover

Woo hoo! I drew the cover for SIMPSONS SUPER SPECTACULAR #15 — on sale June 27th. It features Radioactive Man and Plasmo, and depicts a story drawn by artist Frank Brunner. You can read about the issue on the Bongo Comics website, here.

Get Wild

UPDATE: There will be an online auction of all the The Bats for Cats artwork. It will be run by the good folks at the Wildcat Sanctuary, and it will probably be held in a month or so. When I have the info I will post details of where and when.


A lot of the Bats for Cats art will be raffled off today and tonight at the benefit for the Wildcat Sanctuary,  being held at the Northdown Cafe and Taproom, 3244 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL. I originally thought there would be an art auction, but now I'm not so sure. Here's the Facebook page for the event. It is sponsored and co-hosted by 3 Floyds, Surly, & Mikkeller breweries, and they will be tapping lots of special beers. This is a benefit for the Wildcat Sanctuary, a non-profit, no-kill facility providing sanctuary to wild cats in need & actively involved in ending the private ownership of exotic animals. The goal is to raise at least $5000, which would feed two tigers for a year.

Just the Bats, Ma'am.

This Wednesday at 8:00pm I'll be at BATS FOR CATS, a Drink & Draw at the Northdown Cafe and Taproom, 3244 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. Some of the city's most talented artists (and I) will be doing Batman themed sketches, with all proceeds going to benefit The Wildcat Sanctuary. Come on by and have a drink and watch us draw like trained monkeys. Poster by the talented Tom Kelly.

Texas Toasted

TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN (Joseph H. Lewis, 1958)

Well, it was another great night at the Portage Theater in Chicago, with a beautiful mint 35 mm print of a terrific film. With its storyline of a community crumbling from fear and intimidation, in danger of falling prey to divide-and-conquer tactics, the script by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo makes an obvious reference to the McCarthy hearings. But the plot is shared by many westerns. What's unusual is the slow build and heavy sense of dread, set up in part by the pre-credits flash-forward to the climactic showdown (which I'll return to later).

TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN has a quiet intensity, with a minimalist score and repeated, rhythmic theme, and the stark, underpopulated feel that permeates many low budget films. But the intensity goes further, extending to Hayden's performance as the Swedish whaler, George Hansen. The actor fills the screen with his lumbering physicality, at times seething with repressed emotion. By far the most interesting character is Crayle, the brooding, black-clad gunman played by Nedrick Young. The personification of the pall that hangs over the entire film, Crale carries death and doom in his tired gait and equally black worldview. His perverse relationship with his companion Molly (Carol Kelly) recalls other such sexually twisted and charged couples in director Lewis's GUN CRAZY and THE BIG COMBO.



The pre-credits flash-forward I referred to earlier is effective, but is also a bit odd in a feature. It is likely it was inspired by the technique to hook viewers used in television shows at the time. But its novelty made me wonder if it was planned in pre-production by Lewis, or added later in the editing by the producer.

Reaching the Summit City

This Saturday I'll be at Summit City Comic Con, a comic book show in beautiful downtown Fort Wayne Indiana. Please stop by and say hello and I'll draw you a sketch. I'm arriving Friday night to catch a game of Fort Wayne's minor league baseball team, the TinCaps.

Free Willy-Nilly

This year's Cinco de Mayo is also FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!!  I'll be signing comics and doing sketches at Vigilante Press, a comic book store in Chicago. Other artists attending are Jim Terry, Andrew Kudelka, Don Wood, and John Ashton Golden. The store opens at noon, but please check with them for the exact hours of the event. I'll be there getting there sometime between 1 and 2 PM. Weather permitting they'll be showing movies in the backyard starting at 8PM.

Vigilante Press
1931 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago IL
(between Damen Ave & Winchester Ave)

(312) 423-6774

Pros and Con

This coming weekend, April 13-15, 2012, I'll be at C2E2, which is located on the lakefront in beautiful downtown Chicago, in the North building of McCormick Place. Stop by and say hi.

I'll be sitting at table L21 in Artist Alley, right next to pals Tony Moore and Rick Remender, so I won't have a moment's peace. I'm sharing my table with fellow Chicago artist Juan Arévalo. My comics art will be on display and for sale, and I'll be doing sketches. I'll also be signing comics, both at my table as well as the Chicago Comics booth 250, on Saturday night, from 6 to 7 pm. Several pieces of my art will be in a charity auction being held Saturday night. See my previous post on C2E2 for details.

Jean Giraud, R.I.P.

Jean Giraud, 8 May 1938 -- 10 March 2012

Along with many others I was asked to answer two questions about Jean Giraud for a Spanish comics website, Zona Negativa. It is well worth reading these heartfelt tributes and reminiscences from a wide-ranging list of international comics artists. And my comments were also translated into Spanish.

What are your first recollections related to Moebius work?

I first discovered Jean Giraud in the 1970s, as Gir. His Lt Blueberry was a brilliant addition to the grand tradition of European comics illustration, as well as the greatest "spaghetti western" in the medium. But then came his work as Moebius, which seemed to spring from some new, uncharted place.

How did Moebius work influence your own style, or even your understanding of the medium?

As a young artist I tried to draw like Moebius, and I especially loved the intensely rich colors he used on Arzach. But what has stayed with me the most is the clarity of his visual storytelling. He always chose the perfect angle to view each panel. Sometimes dramatically shifting perspective, sometimes jumping forward in the narrative, yet the reader was never lost, was always grounded.

To my mind, Moebius was the first artist since Jack Kirby to create an entirely new world in comics. Both strange and familiar, it is a place both futuristic and specific, not schematic: it feels worn and lived in, cluttered with background and details that suggest a thousand stores which could head in almost any direction. A true genius. A visionary.

Hilary Barta

Ghost Artists in the Sky

Here's a Ghost Rider piece that I penciled and Jim Terry inked while I was having a beer at a Drink 'n' Draw. Jim is a terrific artist, and added a nice grittiness to the inks. He's Old School, and used a dip brush in real india ink--something you rarely see these days, especially at a bar! I'm looking forward to doing more stuff together. Be sure to look for Jim's comics, The Underneath and Lie Down Low: Bricks and Mortar. His website is woundedbutdangerous.com.

The original art for this piece, brush and ink on Strathmore bristol board, will be auctioned to benefit St. Jude Children's Hospital at C2E2 in Chicago, Saturday, April 14, 7:15PM - 9:15PM. Room S401d.

You can view all the art in the auction on the C2E2 site, here.

Oh say can you C2E2

© 2012 Hilary Barta

I'll be attending the C2E2 comic book convention April 13 -15. The show is held on the lakefront in beautiful downtown Chicago. You'll find all the details at their website, here. I needed a new color piece for the table display, and Jason Millet was kind enough to paint the moody color for this piece. Click to enlarge that sucker.

You Can't Beat Bongo

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

Here's a page from a 3-page Bart Simpson story called "Bart's Short Cut". This is the 8 1/2 X 11" pencil "rough" on typing paper, which was then blue-lined onto a Strathmore board for inking. I still prefer to attack a story in pencil directly on the boards, but this process has made it easier to weather the changes requested from editors and art directors on licensed characters. And it's easier to correct my own mistakes and make adjustments. On this page I had to move the background building in the last panel, and was able to manipulate it on the computer instead of erasing and redrawing. Also, as I've mentioned before, it makes inking a heck of a lot easier with no pencils to erase.

Due here any day is the script for my next Bongo project, a story for this fall's Treehouse of Horror, written by Doug Moench.  This will be my first time working with Doug, and I can't wait to see what he's come up with. In other Barta-Bongo Comics news, my story "The Big Finish" was just published in Simpsons Comics #185. available in comic stores now!

Monster Mag

© 2012 Hilary Barta

This is a cover I drew for Cartoon Loonacy. CL is an "APA-zine", a membership only quarterly zine self-published by and for cartoonists. This was the cover for the "Monster Issue".

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

Feliz Navidada

© 2011 Hilary Barta

"Deck us all with boughs of Dali..." Here's my annual Christmas novelty song cd cover. Merry Christmas to all!

Leo Segedin Show

Reception: Friday, November 19th 6-9 PM

***Art Opening***

Leopold Segedin

A Retrospective

November 1st - December 3rd, 2010

A selection of work spanning 60 years by
renowned painter and NEIU Professor

Emeritus, Leopold Segedin

Be sure to check out http://www.leopoldsegedin.com

http://www.neiu.edu/~gallery/

http://www.byronroche.com

Reign-y Day

Off to the Film Center tonight to see an archival print of Anthony Mann's Reign of Terror, shot by the great John Alton.

Passage to Adventure

Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy and Dana Andrews in Canyon Passage.

The Music Box theater is in the middle of a Jacques Tourneur series in their weekend matinée. This weekend is Tourneur's terrific western Canyon Passage, starring Dana Andrews. That will be followed by The Fearmakers and Night (aka Curse) of the Demon.


Hoagy Carmichael sings "Ole Buttermilk Sky" in Canyon Passage.

The Film Center is in the middle of a weekly Film Noir series. This week they're screening Gilda. I'll be there next week for Otto Preminger's Whirlpool, starring Gene Tierney, Jose Ferrer and Richard Conte. Upcoming films include Crossfire, The Black Book/Reign of Terror, Out of the Past and In a Lonely Place.


Gene Tierney in Whirlpool.

Noir City Chicago 2

Eddie Muller's Noir City film festival returns to Chicago's Music Box Theatre, August 13-19, 2010. This year's line-up includes Cry Danger (in a newly restored print by the Film Noir Foundation), the Chicago based City that Never Sleeps, Gun Crazy, Nightmare Alley, Drive a Crooked Road, He Ran All the Way, Don't Bother to Knock, Sudden Fear, Cry of the City and Fly-By-Night. The entire Music Box summer schedule--including Noir Chicago--can be downloaded here.

San Diego show a no-go

I've had to cancel my plans to attend Comicon this week. Not that anyone will miss me in that madhouse. I'll see you all next year.

Tutti Beauty

Catching up on a few films I've seen recently...at Bank of America Cinema I saw The Enchanted Cottage (John Cromwell, 1945), a fable of romantic fantasy that has not aged terribly well. Budd Boetticher's Decision at Sundown (1957) is another story, one of the oddest of Boetticher and Randolph Scott's chamber Westerns. As is usual with Boetticher, Decision features a very ambiguous take on the driven, revenge-seeking Western hero and villainous bad guy. Though criticized at Only the Cinema for an undercurrent of misogyny, I found that the film's female characters were far more interesting than is typical in Westerns, making many of the important decisions.





Up at Northwestern's Block Cinema in Evanston...Max Ophüls' 1934 film La Signora di Tutti (Everybody's Woman). An impressive early work from the master, La Signora di Tutti has his usual mixture of glamor and tragedy, with a flashback structure similar to that of Lola Montes, recalling the life of an infamous woman. It's amazing how much of the Ophüls style and subject matter was already in place. Also fascinating to see the different moral standards at work in an Italian versus American film from the early thirties, as well as differing acting styles, with much over-the-top emotionalism from La Signora's older male lover.





I'm glad I waited to see Cobra Woman (Robert Siodmak, 1944) on the screen. Due to overbooking, Block was sent an immaculate master 35mm archival print. This has to be what it was like to see technicolor in all its glory in the 1940s. I just sat back at let the tropical camp sear my retinas. Absolutely amazing. Hail King Cobra!


Photo sources: Only the Cinema, Dvd Beaver, and filmfanatic.org

Summit City Rocks

Had a blast at Summit City. Met Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole is haunting, terrific) and boy genius Jim Rugg (you have to read Street Angel, Afrodisiac and Rambo 3.5). Maybe a little too much beer, but hey, what's a con without a hangover? Friday night is a blur, driving around in the rain with Chris Neseman and Jeffrey Brown, trying to find a bar showing the Hawks game...Saturday night started with a few pints of Guinness while sketching at a pub with Amber Love (pictured above) and many other good folks, on to the Rusty Nail for some slamming, then 2 AM gyros. Thanks to Zack and everyone in Fort Wayne for throwing such a nice, comics-centric con.

Summit City

On Saturday, May 22nd I'll be in Fort Wayne Indiana at the Summit City Comic Con. I'll have a table in Artist Alley, doing sketches and hanging out. Drop by and say hello.

Cobra Woman

This month and next there are a few film revivals that I'm looking forward to. This Friday, May 14th, Block Cinema in Evanston is showing Cobra Woman (Robert Siodmak, 1944) in a 35mm. archival print. This piece of over-the-top Technicolor camp is something I've been waiting to see on the big screen for many years. Block is also screening Max Ophul's La Signora di Tutti (Everybody's Woman, 1934) on June 11th.



Unfortunately I will be out of town on May 22nd when Bank of America Cinema is screening a 35 mm. print of the Lon Chaney silent Mr. Wu (William Nigh, 1927), along with live organ accompaniment by Jay Warren. Back in January Jay did a terrific job with with Pandora's Box. But I will be able to attend Decision at Sundown (Bud Boetticher, 1957), which they'll screen in 35 mm. on June 5th.

Pros and Con

Wow. A major Chicago comics convention in Chicago, actually focusing on comics--as opposed to a suburban con with wrestlers and has-been genre actors. A short walk to Chinatown for dinner, a view of the downtown skyline and blue sky streaming in the windows. The perfect location for a show. C2E2 is off to a great start. Everyone I talked with wants the show to succeed and is passing the word for next year. You know I'll be there.

I used the term "major" above because we already have a lovely one-day Chicago show in the fall, Windy City Comicon.

Above: Long time friend and collaborator Doug Rice joined me at my table in Artist Alley. Doug created Dynamo Joe at First Comics, and has written and drawn many other comics including Manhunter for DC, as well as storyboarding cartoons for Warner Brothers. I appear to be toppling over from the excitement. Below: Stopping by for a visit is Chicago illustrator Scott Gustafson, another old friend. Check out Scott's terrific paintings here.
Photos by yet another Chicago pal, Gordon Flagg.

Con Game

There's a new convention coming to town. From April 16-18 I'll be attending the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, aka C2E2. Unlike that other big Chicago comics convention, this one is being held in CHICAGO, at the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place. I'll be sharing a table in Artist Alley with Jason Millet, doing sketches, signing comics, and just hanging out. Stop by and say hello. Here's C2E2's website.

Later this year I'll be at the Summit City Con in Fort Wayne, as well as the mutant monster that is Comicon in San Diego.

The Mask of the Green Death

These are two penciled panels from a new short story I've drawn. "Englouorioues Mask-Tards!!!" was written by the always entertaining Evan Dorkin. It's a crazy, bloody riff on a certain movie director and stars The Mask. It's free to read online at Myspace Dark Horse Presents (Go to back issue 33). And there's a very funny interview with Dorkin about the story here. The story was a blast to work on, and I'm looking forward to Evan writing something else for me. I'd prefer it to be a blank check, but I'll settle for a comics script.

The Mask is © and trademark Dark Horse Comics 2010.

Don't Bank on It

The future of the Bank of America Cinema, a venerable--and fun--Chicago institution, is in jeopardy. The BOAC is a revival house located in a bank, and the bank building is up for sale. Formerly owned by Northwest Federal Savings and Loan, Talman and LaSalle banks, films were first screened in the building's basement in 1972, and then in the theatre, built in 1977.

On a recent visit to there I saw a terrific 35 mm. print of the German silent Pandora's Box, with glorious theatre organ accompaniment by Jay Warren. The Cinema has films scheduled through this June. I'm already planning on attending the January 30th showing of My Name is Julia Ross, the film that put director Joseph H. Lewis on the map. You can view the schedule for their upcoming season--perhaps their last--on their unofficial blog, here. Or, go to their Facebook page, here.

Bank of America Cinema
4901 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago
Use the rear entrance and parking lot behind the bank.
Screenings are at 8:00 PM Saturdays
Admission is a measly $5