Yikes!

The latest issue of teen-embarrassing-story magazine Yikes is on the stand right now. As is the norm  recently I scribbled out a trio of illustrative type- illustrations for this issue - here are couple of them...

3, 2, 1... Contacts!

It's been a while since I've done any editorial illustration, or even much aimed for the adult crowd at all. So it was nice to work on a couple projects recently not targeted directly at kids. I'll share the other soon but pictured above is a toned-down (colour-wise, that is) version of an illustration I recently did for the fine folks at Optometric Management, a magazine for the optometry crowd.

The gist of the feature article this went with was all about how to keep your patients purchasing their contacts from you and not from big box stores, retailers (like LensCrafters) and from online sellers. It was a real quick turn-around on this, but I had a bit of fun with it!

Hero Up!

I've just received my copy of "Hero Up!", a great non-profit community outreach / charity fund-raising project Rodale Books put together earlier this year that I had the pleasure to be involved with as the illustrator. It's basically a hardcover book- comic book style storybook written by Zachi Telesha, a brave 5th grade student from Pennsylvannia who's fighting cancer for the fourth time. His wish to be an author came true with this awesome book.

Ace Rodale art director /designer Chris Rhoads, who I worked with on the Joey Green Pet Care book, brought me in on this and I had a lot of fun channeling (okay - ripping off) Jack Kirby and Bruce Timm for it. My childhood / teenage wish was to be a comic book artist (as told here), so it was a lot of fun to help out. Chris did a bang-up job on the design - love those inner covers!

At this point the book isn't available to the public, but if that ever changes I'll let you know!

Swelleriffic New Prints!

Head on over to Etsy for a couple new prints swinging yer way via GlenMullaly.com and the GlenMullaly.com Consolidated Group of Limited Partners Industries Conglomerate Incorporated folks!

Toy Show Fun / Globe and Mail

Had a great time at the toy show today! Happy to see see everyone stopping by to say hi, and peruse the prints and original art (new print out today - up on Etsy!)

During the show a swell photographer from the Globe and Mail (one of two national papers - for you non-Canadians out there), hung out for a bit to get a shot for a piece on me that will be in Monday morning's B.C. edition. You can read it online right now though - here!

Wham! Pow! Sploosh!

I've been reliving my childhood and adolescence recently working on some illustrations for a comic-book themed kid's book. The images are full-on comic book heroes and villains (like this fishy fellow above) done on comic-book size pages in a slightly retro style.

I'm channeling my inner (and outer, and sideways) Jack Kirby for this job and it's been both fun and a learning process going back to the mindset of my 9 to 16 year-old self who wanted nothing more than to move to New York and draw comics for Marvel (although in a pinch DC would have sufficed). By the time I graduated high school I had stopped collecting comics for a year or two, and soon realized that comic book artist wasn't my path in life - but I have been lucky to work on a number of Star Wars comic-book projects with my pal Ken Steacy in the late 1990's and early 2000s. I've also done some super-hero themed magazine covers and advertising work in the past, but the job I'm finishing up now has been the closest to pure superhero comic work I've done professionally - and it's been fun.

Speaking of fun...

The upcoming Victoria's Ultimate Hobby & Toy Fair is less than two weeks away! Once again I'm invited back as a featured artist - along with the aforementioned Ken Steacy, and Perogy Cat creator and Legends Comics co-owner (voted best comic book store in Canada!) Gareth Gaudin. Despite the name, this show covers a large range of pulp culture interests including toys (vintage and new) comics, movies, video games, fantasy role playing, hobbies, music and tons more. Be sure to stop by and say "hi" if you're in the Victoria area April 1st (no foolin'!) I'll have my prints (hopefully my new ones, and maybe even some large format prints that I've had requests for) and original art (including some of the super heroes and villains from the above project) to show and sell. See you there!

No More Know (or, "Yes Mag 1996-2012")

 

This is the saddest post I've had to write on Glen Mullaly Illustration. I've known about it for a couple weeks now but had to wait until all the behind-the-scenes details were tidied up before I could mourn the passing of two of my favourite magazines, Yes Mag & Know, The Science Magazine for Curious Kids. 

Since the launch of Yes Mag in 1996, followed by sister publication Know in 2005 kids from 6 and up have had a fun, factual source for science news, articles, puzzles and more. For 16 years the publishers have worked tirelessly to create magazines that would engage, inspire, inform and entertain children and young people with science-based content.

Sadly the current owners of the magazine, who bought the two west coast based publications a couple years ago, announced suddenly in late January that they were ceasing production and printing of the magazine immediately.  One issue of each of Yes and Know had been completed and were awaiting printing, but will never now make it to newsstands and mailboxes across North America. 

Below are a couple of cropped details from the two unpublished pieces I had just completed  - one only minutes before finding out about the closures.

 Know Mag "CATS" -themed puzzle page puzzle.

 

  Yes Mag "Outrageous Human Displays" two page spread detail.

I wanted to take the time here to publicly thank the publishers and founders of Yes, and Know, Dave Garrison and Shannon Hunt. This couple put their life blood into these two magazines, starting from very humble beginnings, slowing building the two ventures into multi-award winning magazines. More importantly their work became much loved parts of thousands of children's lives across North America who looked forward to buying, or receiving in the mail the latest issue of these wonderful titles.

 

I had the pleasure of working on Yes Mag starting in late 2001, becoming one of the first illustrators in what had been a primarily photo-based publication, and on every issue of Know (with the exception of three last year) since it had been in the planning stages in 2005. Through over 60 illustrations, two-page spreads, puzzle features (that I wrote as well) and covers I was lucky enough to create some of my favourite pieces for these two magazines. 

Along the way I picked up an AEP (association of Educational Publishers) award for my "Virus" Yes Mag cover (see the left image at the top of this post), had a lot of fun creating the "Know Fun" puzzle and game feature that appeared in every Know Mag, and enjoyed working with some of the top writers and other creative folks in children's educational publishing. Since first working with Yes Mag, I've worked with many other educational publishing companies large and small - and the commitment to quality exemplified by the creators of Yes and Know were surpassed by none. 

Thank you for all your great work, Yes and Know Magazines.

A couple of my Know Mag covers live on as prints from my Etsy shop, and I'm working on putting together a project that might lead to my puzzle contributions from  Know living on in a more permanent form.  But until that time, I'll leave you with a few more glimpses of some of my favourite pieces from Yes and Know over the years.