Dan Henk's Blog, page 5

The real truth about Wachington, D.C.

I lived for a few years near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. When D.C. was the murder capital of the US and Marrion Barry was the major (the same guy caught smoking crack with a hooker in a hotel by the FBI).
Most people living there were hipsters and always seemed slightly on edge. They didn’t make enough to live in Georgetown or Capitol Hill, which had their own police.
I always thought that if anything serious went down, they’d run around and scatter like chickens, which is exactly what happens in my heavily illustrated novel The End of the World.
The U.S. falls apart, and local militias roll in to seize power.|

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As the US falls apart, local militias sweep in to take control.

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Christmas is Cancelled

Christmas is Cancelled.
I always viewed the character of Santa as being highly questionable.
For my short story “Christmas is Cancelled”, I imagined him as this solitary, archaic figure who just does what he is always required come Christmas season. As he takes off in his sleigh, a brush with what might be a UFO panics the reindeer, and the sleigh crashes in the wilderness. Santa purposefully leaves hungry, so he can consume all the milk and cookies left for him, and struggling in the snowy wilds for hours, he becomes starving. So famished in fact, he ends up noshing on the remains of a reindeer that died in the crash.
These are not normal reindeer; they can fly and are almost immortal. The flesh erodes his faculties and turns him into a ravenous monster.
The illustration is for my tale of the same name and is in my collected work of short stories, Down Highways in the Dark…by Demons Driven.

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The illustration is for a tale of the same name and is in my collected work of short stories, Down Highways in the Dark…by Demons Driven.

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The horrors of forsaken land.

The horrors of forsaken land. When I was in elementary school, my Dad was attending West Point, and we lived in a rural military neighborhood, occupying an old, two-story Victorian-style house. It was atop a hill, next to a large wooded expanse. I’d explore those woods as a kid, endlessly fascinated by the giant, exploding mushrooms, the large hanging clusters of woody vines, and the sprawl of thick groves of trees broken up by placid, grassy meadows. Something always seemed fascinating, yet it resonated with an evil presence.
I tried to capture that feel, mixed with a Lovecraftian flair, in my short story The Beauty of Ignorance, collected in my book Down Highways in the Dark…by Demons Driven, available here on Amazon.

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Evil lurks in the depths of the woods

 

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The Key Bridge.

The Key Bridge.
As a teenage punk rocker, I crossed the Key Bridge from the affluent buildings of Virginia into the downtown Georgetown of Washington, DC.
The dichotomy between the two could not be clearer. Virginia was ordered, civilized, and very working class. DC was (in those days) the murder capital of the nation.
In my novel The Black Seas of Infinity, I mixed that invisible boundary with my love for horror classics like Frankenstein, where the monster is the real good guy.
You can get the novel on Amazon

As the world falls apart and martial law takes over, a strange alien creature lurks under the Key bridge.

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Alien Invasion!

Alien Invasion!

The suburbs get rocked with an alien invasion

Those monotonous rows of townhouses in the suburbs always unnerved me and seemed to harbour some hidden evil. Maybe it’s a psychological thing, tied into the attitudes of most of their occupants (who tormented me in my punk rock years).
Their destruction seemed all too inevitable as a cornerstone of my alien invasion in my short story “By Demons Driven”, Available in my collection “Down Highways in the Dark…by Demons Driven”, available on Amazon here.

This is the illustration I did for my book of short stories, “Down Highways In The Dark…By Demons Driven,” first released in 2015 by Permuted Press.
Brush and India ink on Bristol Board, 11″ by 17″

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Cowboys versus Aliens!

Cowboys versus Aliens! I finished the illustration that will accompany my story for Merrill David’s upcoming anthology of western horror, “Tumble Bleed.”
The October horror/writer/artist/monster makeup convention, Dead Man’s Hand, will also be using the image. Dicey Grenor and Tommy Clark, authors in my upcoming anthology “The Joke is on Mankind,” will be in attendance.
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Aliens in the Old West

 

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Meat, for the beast.

Meat, for the beast.
There have been some movies, Predator being one of them, in which alien visitors view humans as just livestock.
Growing up, we always had a skinned deer carcass hanging in the garage. A bucket was strategically placed below to collect the blood.
I wanted to capture this feeling of irrelevance in an illustration for my book The End of the World.

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Humans are just fodder for alien visitors.

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The Destructive Power of the Wormhole

The Destructive Power of the Wormhole. The scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where the Klingons try to interact with a phenomenon they don’t understand and get destroyed, always stuck with me. The movie isn’t that good, but I liked the idea of the scene and used it as inspiration for this drawing in my third book, The End of the World.

The Wormhole. India ink on Bristol Board, 11″ by 17″
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Investigating ships get destroyed by the wormhole.

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My novel “The End of the World”

In my novel “The End of the World” (available here on Amazon), an oligarchy of old men brings back an ancient evil, hoping it will give them immortality.

I have always loved the work of illustrators like Wally Wood and Al Williamson, and often try to capture some of that steampunk, pulp era vibe.

India Ink on Bristol Board, 11″ by 17″

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Old mensuspended in ancient technology cylinders

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Escape through the Stargate!

Escape through the Stargate! Wormholes have always fascinated me. I took advanced Calculus and physics in school, and read up on string theory and relativity. Reading about the concept of wormhole interdimensional travel, and seeing the movie Stargate in the ’90s further spurred my interest. I kept the idea in mind and brought it to life in my third book, ”

Amid a chase by heavily armed forces, a teenager escapes through a stargate.

“.
With a dark, cosmic twist, of course. I am a huge Lovecraft fan.
India Ink on Bristol board, 11″ by 17”

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