THE FACE OF FEAR…

Cover Art: Jeff Austin

Over on his blog, Jeff Austin shared a two-page story called The Face of Fear that he and I put together for an anthology project called Weird South. I believe this was sometime in the 90’s, but I don’t recall the specific date. Story and pencils by me. Inks and edits by Jeff Austin.

Weird South was hosted by Dixie Macabre, a character created and designed by Jeff, who was the brains behind this anthology. It was his baby and he did a great job putting it together. I still have a copy of it myself, which is pretty rare. There were not a lot of these circulated, unfortunately. Dixie appeared at the beginning and end of each story, and sometimes in the middle. For my two-page story, she appeared at the beginning and end of each page and served as the narrator as well. I thought it turned out pretty well. It also allowed me to draw some interesting characters. Funny note: the alien on page 1 wasn't by me. I don't recall what I'd drawn there, but it must not have worked for the tone of the story.

As usual, click on images for a larger view.

The first two pages below are the edited version that ran in the book. My only complaint, in terms of the edits was that the last line, which was the thing that tied it together wasn't used, which makes the final panel seem out of place.

Page 1 - Story/Pencils: Bobby Nash. Inks: Jeff Austin

Page 2 - Story/Pencils: Bobby Nash. Inks: Jeff Austin

The second set below is the unedited version, as I originally wrote it. Yes, I was even a bit wordy way back then, huh?

Page 1 - Story/Pencils: Bobby Nash. Inks: Jeff Austin

Page 2 - Story/Pencils: Bobby Nash. Inks: Jeff Austin

If you’d like to learn more about Weird South, Jeff is posting several pieces from it over at his blog. You should check it out. It’s good stuff.

This was a fun stroll down memory lane. Weird South was a fun experiment. I'm glad I had the opportunity to be part of it.

Bobby