Dive Into Monsters and Horror at This First Friday Art Show

Denver artist Joe Rollman has a retirement plan — not for anytime soon, but someday. "I told my wife that when I get old, eventually my hands will stop working, and at that point I want her to use medical tape to fasten a pencil to my hands," he says. "I want to keep doing this until I can't do anything anymore."

It's a wish worthy of a Tim Burton story: part love, part horror, all heart. That describes Rollman's body of work, as well, which runs the gamut from renderings of movie characters (Godzilla, Frankenstein and Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood) to comic book characters such as the Hulk and pop-culture icons like the Mandalorian and Gary Oldman's Dracula. Rollman says he draws and paints what he likes, and "I get lucky because the things I like tend to also resonate with other people. Almost as much fun as drawing Godzilla is standing and talking to somebody for twenty to thirty minutes about how much they love Godzilla."
Rollman's plethora of nerdtastic subjects can be seen at the Ink Comic Art Gallery starting on First Friday, October 4. "The show and the gallery are the brainchild of Tim Bentley," says Rollman. "[His] idea for the Ink gallery is in part to give artists in our local comic community a chance to showcase their work in a gallery setting, while at the same time showcasing national/international talent to a local audience — major players like David Mack, Jae Lee, Jock, David Barron, Kelly Jones, creators like that. And alongside these big names, he wants to give gallery space to local Colorado talent. That's what makes this gallery so special and so unique."

Rollman's season-friendly installation will continue throughout October — an appropriate month, given his love for monsters.

But that's not to say that Rollman is just a horror guy. "I've always admired Jim Henson for his unbridled imagination, kindness and connection to everyone," he says, but adds that on a technical basis, the work of Gustave Doré, H.R Geiger and Richard Corben inspire him. "Those are the guys that humble me," he says.

Rollman has a pedigree of sorts in the world of illustration. His grandfather, also named Joe, worked at Karsh & Hagan in Denver as an illustrator and calligrapher for thirty years. While Rollman honors that legacy, at the same time, he says he appreciates being able to pursue those things that draw him in. "I'm allowed to be more open and free in my creative choices," he says.

Some of those choices have been comic book-related: custom covers for fellow fans, commissioned at local comic cons. And some cover work for Vision Comics' anthology, originally titled Odd Mausoleum. Still, Rollman says he's got no interest in pursuing interior art for the comics. "I prefer large-scale work," he explains. "Portrait work that aims to capture how expressive and beautiful the human face is."

But that partnership with Vision Comics isn't unusual for Rollman, who's grown deep roots in the local comics and arts community. He says his experience with local stores and events has been instrumental in his development and success as an artist. "The greater Denver/Boulder community often surprises me with how supportive it is," effuses Rollman, "whether by invitation from our local comic book shops [Time Warp Comics, Hall of Justice, and All C's to name a few] or the various fan-based cons that provide an avenue for our work to reach various audiences." Among the events he lists is the locally conceived and produced Colorado Festival of Horror, which provides an affordable opportunity for local artists to get their works in front of enthusiastic fans.

Rollman is also a devout voice in the fight against AI in art. "All of my works are 100 percent human-made. Any so-called creative use of AI just saddens me. It's the cheapening of the collective human soul. A machine can never express loss or joy; all it can currently do is steal images and text and then regurgitate these into a kind of cheap pablum," says Rollman. "But it will never change what I do. Art to me is an expressive conversation between me and an audience. A machine has no place in that."

So yes, Joe Rollman wants to keep doing what he's doing: creating art. "Since I was a child, I've wanted to create and share things in a way that would allow other people to somehow feel what I'm feeling at that moment. I think that's what most artists want. Art is about feeling, isn't it? That's why humans make art," Rollman concludes. "Right now, I'm living that dream."

Joe Rollman at Ink Comic Art Gallery, 918 West Sixth Avenue. Opening 6 p.m. Friday, October 4; show runs through October 31. For more information, see the Ink Facebook page.