Kilroy Was Here (pin-up from Negative Burn)

Craig Gilmore seems to be one of the only artists from the early Negative Burn era at Calibre Comics who didn't become a comic art legend in the years that followed. His contemporaries -many of whose worked appeared side by side with his, include Mike Allred, Brian Michael Bendis, Guy Davis, Vincent Locke, James O'Barr, and Ed Brubaker. Gilmore left comic books for a lucrative career as a storyboard specialist on TV shows like One Tree Hill.
His scratchy yet detailed style is reminiscent of P.Craig Russell's Elric artwork and Mignola's Hellboy, but with a little Howard Chaykin thrown in for good measure. His ability to let empty space figure prominently in his layout predates the Vertigo "house style" that followed.
This piece is a pin-up that he did for a planned Kilroy Was Here special, but ran instead in the back pages of an issue of Negative Burn. I bought this from the artist at the San Diego Comicon in the artist alley back in 95. I was blown away that nobody was paying any attention to this guy. My friends and I had a long conversation with him, and invited him out for beers. If I remember correctly, I either traded a few rounds of drinks for this piece, paid him twenty dollars, or he just gave it to me. I seem to remember some money changing hands though.