From the Vault - Venom 1992

I know this piece was done sometime in the winter of 1992, after I had graduated college and was living in New Jersey by myself.

Oh, my children, it was hard times back then for your old Uncle Sean. Yes, I had a job in the art field, working as an assistant artist at a studio designing various comic book merchandise, but the previous few months had been rough.

The day I got out of school, back in mid-May, I had a girlfriend, lots of friends from school, and a promising job opportunity as a designer for Hasbro Toys. When school ended every friend I had moved away from New Jersey to live back home. By mid-summer I hadn't gotten the job at Hasbro. By that fall my girlfriend had left me to pursue her romantic dreams with a married, older man. Oh, and I was still stuck in New Jersey. By myself.

But, I did still have a place to work. I had a place to live. I barely had any money to live off of but I had enough to pay rent and eat. I think even at this time I didn't have enough money for cable (I lived for about a year without TV until one Sunday I just got fed up and somehow hacked into the cable line that ran through one of my closets to my upstairs neighbor's TV...desperate times, my friends, desperate times.)

But, during all of those hard times I still had one thing going for me. I could still draw.

Venom used to be one of my favorite Spider-Man villains when I was growing up. I liked the idea of someone being linked to Spider-Man in that way, having a personal reason to hate ol' Spidey, and even had the knowledge that Spider-Man was really Peter Parker. I also loved the way you could play artistically with the alien symbiotic suit, making it twist and turn and LIVE around Eddie Brock.

So, one day, I drew Eddie Brock as Venom. Just for something to do.

Even through those rough times, I kept on drawing. I don't know if I could ever really stop even if I wanted to. It's the one thing I have always been able to do that no one could take away from me, no matter how big and bad the outside world was. So, now, if you'll excuse me.

I have to go draw something...