13 Days of Pan-demonium: The Pan-tom of the Opera

It’s day 5 of The 13 Days of Pan-demonium, in which we’re celebrating the publication of BLOOD FEUD: THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, Book 1, on sale right now from StarWarp Concepts and all fine online bookstores.

Say hello to artist LOUIS SMALL JR.!

Those of you who follow horror comics and “good girl” art (and combinations of the two) probably remember Louis as the penciller of Harris Comics’ Vampirella comic books during the 1990s, when scantily clad bad girls were all the rage—if a comic back then had Vampirella in the title, odds were good he was drawing it!

I first met Louis at the 1993 Great Eastern Convention in New York, shortly after Harris’ Vampirella #1 (volume 1) had hit comic shops. I was pleased to meet him; he was annoyed that Harris was promoting the artist drawing the story arc after his, instead of the guy currently drawing the series—they didn’t even have copies of Vampirella #1 for sale at the show!

But Harris’ screwup turned out to be a boon for me. Based on the respect I’d shown him at the convention, Louis offered to draw—for free!—the cover to my upcoming Lorelei #0: the first full-size comic starring a succubus character I’d created a few years before. And then he came back to draw the cover for Lorelei #1!

These days Louis is…I guess you could say semiretired from the comics industry, but you can still find him sketching away at conventions and taking on tons of commissions.

And before you ask…”Pan-tom of the Opera”? Yeah, definitely one of my ideas. And that’s probably one of my least lame Pan-related puns!

The 13 Days of Pan-demonium continue! Come back tomorrow to see who our next artistic guest is!