Comic Book Art

Art & Graphic Design by Joe Orsak

My comic strip career began in 1978 with a Sword & Sorcery style strip in a magazine called A Week's Worth of Comics. The strip was titled The Adventures of Tarskon & Ursag.

Captain 'Cuse started its run in February of 1982 in the Syracuse New Times. After 90 episodes I moved the weekly strip to the Syracuse Herald American, the city's Sunday newspaper. Captain 'Cuse ran weekly until July of 1990. In March, 1993 I did an eight-page comic, The Return of Captain 'Cuse, written by Roger Stern and Carmela Merlo.

Ordinary Heroes is a two page story written by Roger Stern. Roger asked me to illustrate this for the Dark Horse comic tribute 9-11 Artists Respond.

I did another weekly comic strip for The Syracuse New Times. This time it featured a female character, Shirra the She Wolf. Written by Doug Brode, Salt City was found in the pages of the Syracuse New Times from September 2008 thru January 2009.

I am also offering comic cover recreations. Shown here is my recreation of the Amazing Spider-Man # 129, introducing the Punisher. Ask me about prices for my recreating your favorite cover.

Comics designed for Museums - These comic books were created for a variety of museums to coincide with an exhibit at each museum. The Rochester Museum and Science Center in Rochester, New York, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the New York State Museum in Albany, New York were the museums that featured my comics.

Comics about sports - These comics were produced by Magnum Comics and Stellar Comics. I wrote and pencilled comic biographies of Brooks Robinson, Duke Snider and Shaquille O'Neal. I also pencilled stories about Mickey Mantle, Sibby Sisty, Sal Maglie, Josh Gibson and Frank Thomas. Most of my pencils were inked by the greatest comic book inker in the industry, Joe Sinnott.