Since I’ve been doing a lot of posts on Silverwolf and Greater Mercury Comics lately, I thought it would be nice to share a really, really nice piece of Grips original art with you. This one is by artist Pete Ayala, artist for Grips V2 #3-5 and #7-12.
Click on the picture for a slightly bigger version
It’s easy to see from this piece why Pete worked on the book for so long, and it’s easily one of my favorite originals from that period in my (small) collection. In the larger version you can see quite a bit of the pencil work that went into the drawing as well.
To me, this one is interesting for what it is, and what it is not. There’s not a lot of different line weights at work, but still a good use of just enough black where it needs to be. It feels light in that sense. And the face is a bit more realistic than some of the ‘crazed’ faces you see Grips portrayed with. Mad/Angry, but not necessarily Mad/Insane Lunatic Crazy.
I also really like the hooded skull-faced figure used as a gargoyle. Just a great piece overall. As far as I can tell this one was probably a pin-up, not a cover, but I could be wrong. If you know anything about this page (like if it was ever published) or would like a much larger scan of this, please feel free to contact Moby.
Pete Ayala also did the art for the first story in GMC Action #9, and would go on to work on several issues of Ogre for Black Diamond after GMC went under.
Pen & ink on 11×17 on comic art board (Bristol). Not for sale.
Pete Ayala also did art for Raw Media Mags (published by Avatar) on a story written by Glen Hammonds (he owns Raw Comics and goes by the name ‘Vigilfan’) and several alternate covers for that series. Just an incredible artist!