Front cover ("Vampire Hunter D") drawn and colored by Mont Bowser, 1990 Back cover ("Anime Collage") drawn and colored by Pattie Kirscht, 1990
For a time, my friend Pattie and I were involved in an anime appreciation club. At that time, it was difficult to obtain anime in any language other than the original Japanese, and subtitles were also a rarity. The club printed a monthly fanzine (Tristate Megazone)that featured articles, fan art, and scripts to selected anime features. At one point, the chronicler presented us with his ambition of being able to produce a color edition of the fanzine. He asked Pattie and I to collaborate upon the cover.
The proposition placed before me was to do a drawing of the anime character Vampire Hunter D. The editor's opinion was that my art style meshed more closely with that of the older (1980's) anime style. While I did not necessarily agree with his assessment, I accepted the assignment. I soon found myself confronted with a sometimes frustrating limitation in my abilities with artwork. I have difficulty copying the work of others. It is possible for me to mimic aspects of a style, but I have a mental block in regards to actually copying the ideas and patterns of another artist. I will blame my brother Derrick for this as he stressed to me over and over to be original in my artwork, lectures that began when I was in the fifth grade. Needless to say, this idea is deep seeded. The final production of my portion of the project was good, but it definitely smacked of "Mont" and not anime. In all actuality, I do not think it is a good representation of the character "D" but instead more closely resembles Robert E. Howard's "Solomon Kane."
Pattie, on the other hand, excels at reproduction work. While I was laboring for hours over how to master than damn hat on D's head, she promptly and rapidly drew her entire assignment before I had a rough outline completed. She is simply that good. She always has been so, and I willingly take a back seat to her abilities. I have lost enough art competitions to her to know where my ego belongs in this reference.
To end the story, the deal of a color cover did not work out. We had provided the editor with both color and B&W copies of our work in the event that things did not work out with the printer. Unfortunately, he ignored our prompting to use the B&W originals for copying onto a B&W cover. The end result looked horrible, and we were both quite embarrassed to have our work displayed in such shoddy fashion. Via the means of this web page, I can finally present the front and back covers of their full color dynamics.