EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 13 © 2015 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

5 FACING PAGE: Surfin' girl with one of Mitch’s trademarks, the beehive hairdo, done for Guitar Player magazine. LEFT: Mitch has been fascinated by Margaret Keane’s “Big eyes” art, though back in the day many thought the paintings were done by her husband. BELOW: Poster art for the West World Music Showcase of 2001. BOTTOM: Fan dancer tattoo design, inspired by a Chicago strip-tease act. isn’t because it happens to be a modern fad now known as “pop surrealism”; in Mitch’s case it’s because he literally loves it. But how serious can he be about that form of lowbrow art? Hadn’t the surrealist painter Dali claimed that the only difference between him and a madman was that he wasn’t mad? Is this the case with Mitch? Like most children, Mitch loved to draw, but unlike most children it wasn’t the world around him but rather the world beyond; the world of monsters and dinosaurs. And unlike most boys who dream of becoming firemen or policemen when they grow up, Mitch knew he wanted to be an artist (read it with a capital “A”). He grew up in the ‘60s reading comic books (especially of the monster variety such as Creepy , Eerie and Vampirella ) and monster magazines such as the ever popular Famous Monsters (in glorious black and white and leaving your fingers black from the cheap ink used in