About Me

There are many places on Earth that are specifically designed to squelch the life from any creature that dares to intrude upon their treacherous domains.One such place is the sweltering heart of the blazing desert aptly named Death Valley. From this scorched , barren landscape strode a man. A man who survived this planet's brutal assault through his sheer force of will and unconquerable determination to keep his name off the list of the dead. This man was NOT Kevin West.

Kevin grew up in Chicago where the temperatures are pretty tolerable and easy to adapt to. He studied art at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, (the temperatures are tolerable there as well). After a couple of advertising layout jobs, he decided to embark on the endless thrills of the freelancer. He has worked on a variety of projects over the years that have included video games, storyboards, designing various Christmas and Halloween products, (ornaments, stockings, door panels and animated figures), illustrating children's books, theater posters and programs, character design, coloring books and comic books. Since 1991, Kevin has drawn comics for Marvel, DC, Wildstorm, Image, Malibu, Acclaim, Disney and several smaller independent publishers.

He is currently being held captive by his two teen-age kids in a western suburb of Chicago.

To see more of Kevin's art, check out Comic Art House, and Comic Art Fans

News

I'm happy to announce I've finished the graphic novel I've been working on for the last year and a half. Published by Zenescope, the book is called Angel Falling. It's written by Jeff Kaufman, (Totem, Terminal Alice, Whore), with inks by Mark McKenna. What's it about you ask? It's a 100 page thriller about Angel, a woman who wakes up on a dumpster with absolutely no memory of who she is. She quickly discovers she has fighting skills that may make her one of the deadliest people on the planet. She's being watched over by an equally dangerous seventeen year old autistic boy who has physical photo memory she names Connor. He knows where they both come from. He has no intention of returning though and seeks to keep Angel safe by shielding her from her past. The two embark on an emotional journey that forces them to confront their pasts while deciding their futures. Oh, and did I mention they have to fend off several teams of assassins while they're at it? The book has lots of action and plenty of twists that make it an enjoyable read. It comes out this month.

It's been a while since I've had some cool projects involving product design and illustration. Over the last few weeks though, the drought has ended and a few have come my way. First up, I've done some statue proposal illustrations for the Bradford Exchange including tightly rendered drawings of Elvis through the years and a couple of eagles. Drawing items like these are a great change of pace that employ different forms of problem solving. I also did some work on a Warner Bros digital office newsletter. "A newsletter, that doesn't sound very exciting." Oh contraire. They were comic style drawings that will be accompanied by text featuring office superheroes fending off various evil doers in the work place. Trust me, it was cooler than it sounds. Samples of this stuff can be found in the Product Art section of my Commercial gallery.

I've also had some nice variety in the sketch card dept. The latest Rittenhouse Archives series released was Marvel's Greatest Battles. These were designed to be two card puzzles that allowed me to draw some of my favorite heroes and villains tangling with each other. As a change up, I worked on the latest Bettie Page series that came out earlier this year. Getting to draw Bettie in all her unbridled glory is always a treat. I have several Artist Proof cards available from some of the different series so check those out in the Store section. Upcoming series will be The Women Of Marvel for Rittenhouse and a Witchblade series for Breygent.

And the commissions keep coming. Some of the latest have featured characters I've never drawn before which is always great.These include Evil Ernie for the Goth crowd, Jill Valentine for the video gamers and Arishem the Celestial for lovers of all things cosmic. Throw in some classic battles between the Hulk and The Thing, Dr Strange and Baron Mordo, Wolverine and Doomsday, Namorita for lovers of Atlantean babes and I've definitely had a little bit of everything. These are all posted in the Recent Commissions section.

Finally, I'd like to give a big shout out to all the great people I saw at last month's Wizard World Chicago Comicon. I got to chat with a bunch of cool fans, draw some fun sketches and just hang with a a lot of really talented people.

And, as usual, be sure to take a gander at my gallery on Comic Art Fans to see some of my latest additions.