I’m at present finishing up the final inking on “The Terrible Axe-Man of New Orleans,” but it’s never too late to make small adjustments and corrections.  I just returned from a long-overdue visit to New Orleans, where I immersed myself in the atmosphere of the place.  Below is a comparison of a penciled page (before my visit) and the final inked page, in which I more accurately represented the local architecture.

Here is a small preview of my latest book from NBM, “Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor.”  It’s the convoluted tale of a still-unsolved 1922 murder in Hollywood, involving several film stars and other “famous players” of the day.  The two finished pages reproduced here recount the discovery of the body, always the best starting point for a good mystery.

By the way, I’m proud and thrilled to be nominated for two Eisner awards this year, especially so because they both recognize my work for NBM, on last year’s book “The Lindbergh Child.”

Below are three preliminary sketches for my new book for NBM “The Terrible Axe-Man of New Orleans.”  I had been reading for years, in various sources, about the bloodthirsty killer (or killers) who dispatched six people, grievously wounded six more,  held the city in a state of fear during the years 1918 and 1919, but was never caught or identified.  Research was daunting since the information exists piecemeal in different articles and anthologies and is often hazy or contradictory. In many respects, the story has passed into the realm of folklore.  No one has yet written a book recounting the entire case.  My script, consequently, is cobbled together from a multitude of sources both in print and online.

Here is a shot of  my studio, where I spend many hours per day, not unlike the average office worker, except that I can get up and leave whenever I want.  Note the television (always on) and the bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper.

I am currently finishing the inked pages for my eleventh graphic novel for NBM, the second in the new series “A Treasury of XXth Century Murder.”  It’s the story of the still-unsolved 1922 murder of the Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor, a convoluted case that involved many of the motion picture celebrities of the day.  I am posting below those of the penciled pages that depict the discovery of Taylor’s body in the living room of his apartment on Alvarado Street in Los Angeles

My next volume in the series, now in the research stage, will be the bloody tale of the Axe-Man of New Orleans, who terrorized the city, killing a half-dozen people, in the years 1918 and 1919.