Comic art is my specialty...

Hi, my name is Brad Olrich and I am a college art professor with a passion for comics. I currently divide my time between comic art and being the lead faculty of the Art Department at Mid-Michigan College in the Central Michigan area.
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​Here is a sample of my latest project, simply titled Cassius Carbo.
It started out as an adventure comic strip, but, as sometimes happens with an idea, it quickly grew into a great deal more. Ideas for different plotlines kept popping into my head until I decided it would work better as a collection of short stories. Cassius Carbo and his crew sail the Mediterranean world of 93 A.D.  Here are a few pages from the inaugural tale, Two Fares from Tyre.
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This part of the penciling process. You can see the thumbnail sheet and reference photos around the page.

Latest Illustration Work...

 I guess word on my affinity for working on period pieces, particularly ones from the ancient world, is getting around. I was recently asked by a publisher if I would like to contribute work for their upcoming folio of characters from Greek Mythology.  I was giving my choice of characters to choose from, so I selected Achilles and Bellerophon to illustrate. Beyond that (and some general dimensions) I was given complete creative freedom to do whatever I wanted. For those of you that have forgotten, never read The Iliad or have never seen the movies Helen of Troy (1956) or Troy (2004), Achilles was supposed to be the fiercest warrior of all of Greece. Now, I always envisioned him as a dark, brooding, viscous brute. So I chose to show a savage, but weary, Achilles in his tent in the moments after his epic duel with Hector (who's body you can see slung under a camp table). I also decided to eschew any ink wash or grayscale and go with a very stark black and white rendering. 

I also do Digital Painting and Cover Art

The fun part of being a full-time Professor of Art & Design is using my own work as demonstrations in lectures. Here are a couple of recent comic book cover concepts done using my painting skills, but in Adobe Photoshop rather than acrylic or oils.

Commodore Dinosaur and me...

As a lifelong comic fan, I began creating my own comic as soon as I was able. In the late 1980's I began publishing my own work. Soon after I was contacted by other small press publishers and began producing professional comic art. It was around this time that I created the character of Commodore Dinosaur. Then, around 2003 I created a web strip centered around the character which ran for 3 years and produced over 350 strips. Finally, in 2017 a redesign and reboot of this character was done as my MFA thesis (Yes, I have an MFA in comic book illustration). Here are a few pages from that thesis...

At Galaxy's Core now available in full color at comixology! 

That's right! My space opera comic strip At Galaxy's Core which appeared in Aazurn Publishing's Indie Comics issues #1 and #2 is now available in color for your iPhone or tablet. Now you can read the adventures of Grif and the Drifter on the go wherever you want. Just follow the link below to Comixology where you can find Indie Comics for the low price of only $2.99 per issue. talk about a deal! That's 54 pages of full color comics. Not just At Galaxy's Core, but many other series as well!
​www.comixology.com/Indie-Comics/comics-series

Contact me!

Portraits, paintings, illustrations and comic art. All at reasonable prices. Contact me with project proposals or art commissions.