Judge A Comic Book ...

Speeg covers featured at Cincinnati Fringe Festival pt. 1

Hope you’ll join us at the 2021 Cincinnati Fringe Festival where MeSseD Comics illustrator Dylan Speeg will be featured. Judge A Comic Book By Its Cover: MeSseD Comics Cover Art by Dylan Speeg will be part of this year’s Visual Fringe.

We invite you to experience the artwork of MeSseD Comics without the accoutrements of the publication branding such as titles, creator credits, taglines, etc. Main illustrator Dylan Speeg’s cover artwork has been featured for over five years in the indie comic book. This exhibit highlights the art and process behind creating a MeSseD comic book cover.

Here, we’ll be featuring two covers with commentary by Dylan:

Choke Season 1 Chapter 1 (2016)

“The first cover! I really based this on some of the inspirational photos Jay sent me. I matched the pose to a photo of somebody actually exploring a sewer. I used the color palette of 1960s Marvel Comics and had the model V (Xu V. Chau) strike the pose in disposable painters coveralls. We built the costume for the model with stuff from the hardware store and the army surplus outlet,” says Speeg.

Scrape Season 1 Chapter 3 (2016)

“The Purple tentacles took forever to draw. Picking the right color was a challenge as well. I love how calm Lilliput looks on this. I can tell this is an earlier cover. It is all about the filaments,” says Speeg.

Here are the covers with the accoutrements of the publication branding such as titles, creator credits, taglines, chapter title, etc.

Meet the Artist:

Dylan Speeg (MeSseD illustrator) was born in 1971 in Cincinnati , wherehe has lived his entire life. He attended The Art Academy of Cincinnati in the early 90s and has worked as a portrait painter and illustrator ever since. He is also a musician in the band Heavy Hinges. His major influences are lurid pulp novel covers and Robert Williams, R. Crumb and other comic book artists. His spray paint stenciled illustrations for The CityBeat “Best Of Cincinnati” issue received the Best Illustrated Series Award from the Cleveland Press Club. He likes to use his hometown Cincinnati and the people he knows as subject matter. He works nights as a bartender and performs stand-up comedy on occasion.

Artwork by Dylan Speeg

Curator: Jay B. Kalagayan

Graphic Designer: Geoff Raker

Editor: Emily Cottingham

Artwork production: Seemless Printing

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