FAILED-PROJECT FRIDAY: The SPIN magazine spot illustrations (Patreon)

I'm stretching the definition of "failed project" a tad with this one, as my work for this particular job did, in fact, see print. The only "failure" involved was the sad reality that I eventually lost the job.

Anyhoo, for a time in the late 90s, my buddy Joe Rosas and I did a series of illustrations for SPIN  magazine. I drew the line art, and Joe colored 'em (on photocopies) with markers; at the time, he was one of the kings of marker-based color guides at Marvel, in the era before Photoshop took over the coloring of comics and rendered his technique sadly obsolete. As you can see, though, Joe's skill level with Chartpak and Prisma Tri-Tone markers was g-d amazing.

More specifically, I drew pieces for SPIN magazine's tech-related "ICON" column, in which I had to take one of the column's  subjects and crank out a related illo that featured a "cute anime babe." This proved to be somewhat problematic at times, given that some of the  techy topics did not lend themselves especially well to the depiction of "hawt manga-style chicas"; thus, some of my pieces wound up rather puzzling and abstruse.

Fo' example: The following illo was a piece about webcams, so I crammed assorted elements from the article into a single illo, referring to webcam video feeds of toy trains, concerts,  prostitutes, and (go figure) a tin of rotting Spam. This made for a rather cryptic and bizarre illustration, needless to say.  

Arguably the highlight of my stint at SPIN was the time that I forwarded some copies of Brian Michael Bendis's early (and awesome) crime books AKA Goldfish and Jinx to the magazine's comics column (at BMB's canny  suggestion, I hasten to add). As recounted in the fine Bendis autobio  book Fortune and Glory, the magazine's subsequent Jinx  review attracted the attention of a Hollywood player or two, and BMB's wacky experiences in Tinseltown were soon  underway. 

Amusingly enough, the art director at SPIN later recommended that I submit some of my own work to the comics  column. So, I sent in some selections from Dirty Pair and Gen13  Bootleg and Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone. The result?

*Sound FX: crickets chirping*

Not  a big surprise, as I was well aware that my work wasn't indie or artsy enough to appeal to the column's editor. "Not that I am bitter," as Dave  Barry used to say. (Yeah, right.) 

I worked on the column for the better part of a year before SPIN's art director stopped calling, and the work dried up. Maybe the art director left the magazine, for all I know. (Like the old pros say, "You're always one editor away from being unemployed.") Ironically, the very last piece I did was for a segment predicting a grim future for James Cameron's  upcoming, way-overbudget film Titanic. Yep, SPIN really called that one right, didn't they? 

I'm pretty sure I have at least three or four more of these illos somewhere, but can't seem to find 'em right now; I'll post more of 'em in a follow-up Failed-Project Friday if I ever dig 'em up.