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Richard Sala - Night Drive - cover
Ink
21.7 x 28 cm (8.54 x 11.02 in.)
Added on 10/19/25
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Description
Richard Sala Night Drive Front Cover Original Art (1984). First published in 1985, this image was reused for the 2025 Fantagraphics reprint of this cult classic. Created in ink over graphite on illustration board with an image area of 8.5" x 11". There're two additional pieces that are stat on acetate, used to create the negative acetate overlays, to produce the color holds.
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About the Fantagraphics re-edtion:
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/night-drive?srsltid=AfmBOooQoAHz7flH6wFO3iPRKDsoRR0Gd7MlU9g7qy0Xqhn22dfRwAWI
Richard Sala’s rare, long out-of-print self-published comic took him to the pages of Raw and from there to MTV, where the creation of “Invisible Hands” for MTV’s Liquid Television secured him a place among our finest creators of idiosyncratic comics and art.
When Richard Sala passed away in 2020, he left behind a uniquely eldritch body of graphic novels and illustrations, fueled by macabre whimsy and a love of dark mysteries and vintage monsters. Like David Lynch, Sala was a painter who turned to a storytelling medium that allowed him to create inventive narratives inspired by such disparate influences as French crime fiction, the grim humor of Charles Addams, the surreal poetry of Jorge Luis Borges, and his own penchant for all things gleefully ghoulish and sinister.
Originally self-published in an edition of 500 copies in 1984, Night Drive signaled the creative emergence of a singular talent finding his footing with the surety of an artist equipped with the innate mastery of his craft and vision. Edited by longtime Sala friend Dana Marie Andra (Web of Horror) and designed by Sala’s friend and fellow cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Monica, Ghost World), this graphic novella is rounded out with rare artwork, interviews with Sala about the book, and an essay by Andra.
In the afterword of the Fantagraphics edition Dan Clowes states:
"In the sad process of going through Richard's belongings after he died, I was struck by how unsentimental he'd been about most of his art. He'd sold virtually every single page he'd done in the last 30+ years of his career ("Everything must go!" he'd always say when a tax bill or rent check came due) including work that I knew had great personal meaning to him. However aside from two pages, he still had every single piece of art from Night Drive hidden away in his closet. Either it held great importance for him, as it does for the fortunate few who own one of the 500 (all signed!) copies scattered around the world, or he wanted to make sure it never again saw the light of day."
Richard Sala on his blog:
THIRTY YEARS AGO ~ This month ~ June 1985 ~ my first comic magazine (self-published, 400 copies) got a mention in Heavy Metal magazine (by the great Bhob Stewart), which led to orders from all over the world. The fact that I shared the page with immortal comics geniuses Drew Friedman and Gilbert Hernandez made it all the more flattering and humbling. Night Drive also led to me getting on MTV's Liquid Television and being published by many of the best comics publishers. This kind mention was my first real debut in the public eye and I'm forever grateful to Bhob for making me feel legitimate!
http://hereliesrichardsala.blogspot.com/2015/06/night-drive-30-year-anniversary.html
Some more interesting reads:
https://www.tcj.com/reviews/night-drive/
https://www.tcj.com/richard/
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/sala.htm
https://www.tcj.com/the-richard-sala-interview-by-darcy-sullivan/
Praise for Night Drive
"A sublimely nutty mashup of detective noir and Victorian Gothic, Pinter plays, Universal monster and the hero pulps, all blasted straight from his id to ours." — Tom DeHaven
"Night Drive is a treasure you won't believe! Richard Sala's stylized, personal vision makes for thrilling, masterful work. Poetry in pen and ink, each page is visual pleasure packed with intrigue. So glad to see this work back in print for all to discover and enjoy." — Carol Tyler
"Richard Sala was wonderfully unique. It was all there in everything he did, his love of old monster movies, the pulps, mystery and horror in general — the good stuff and the terrible — wore it all like a badge of honor and did wonderful things with it. I miss him." — Mike Mignola
"Do you like whimsical horror with a touch of the macabre? Well, Fantagraphics has you covered with Night Drive." — CNEWS
"A creepy gem of pulp noir." — Cinema Sentries
Anyway I also have the cover of his final book in my collection:
https://www.2dgalleries.com/art/richard-sala-blue-rose-poison-flowers-and-pandemonium-cover-111312
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/night-drive?srsltid=AfmBOooQoAHz7flH6wFO3iPRKDsoRR0Gd7MlU9g7qy0Xqhn22dfRwAWI
Richard Sala’s rare, long out-of-print self-published comic took him to the pages of Raw and from there to MTV, where the creation of “Invisible Hands” for MTV’s Liquid Television secured him a place among our finest creators of idiosyncratic comics and art.
When Richard Sala passed away in 2020, he left behind a uniquely eldritch body of graphic novels and illustrations, fueled by macabre whimsy and a love of dark mysteries and vintage monsters. Like David Lynch, Sala was a painter who turned to a storytelling medium that allowed him to create inventive narratives inspired by such disparate influences as French crime fiction, the grim humor of Charles Addams, the surreal poetry of Jorge Luis Borges, and his own penchant for all things gleefully ghoulish and sinister.
Originally self-published in an edition of 500 copies in 1984, Night Drive signaled the creative emergence of a singular talent finding his footing with the surety of an artist equipped with the innate mastery of his craft and vision. Edited by longtime Sala friend Dana Marie Andra (Web of Horror) and designed by Sala’s friend and fellow cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Monica, Ghost World), this graphic novella is rounded out with rare artwork, interviews with Sala about the book, and an essay by Andra.
In the afterword of the Fantagraphics edition Dan Clowes states:
"In the sad process of going through Richard's belongings after he died, I was struck by how unsentimental he'd been about most of his art. He'd sold virtually every single page he'd done in the last 30+ years of his career ("Everything must go!" he'd always say when a tax bill or rent check came due) including work that I knew had great personal meaning to him. However aside from two pages, he still had every single piece of art from Night Drive hidden away in his closet. Either it held great importance for him, as it does for the fortunate few who own one of the 500 (all signed!) copies scattered around the world, or he wanted to make sure it never again saw the light of day."
Richard Sala on his blog:
THIRTY YEARS AGO ~ This month ~ June 1985 ~ my first comic magazine (self-published, 400 copies) got a mention in Heavy Metal magazine (by the great Bhob Stewart), which led to orders from all over the world. The fact that I shared the page with immortal comics geniuses Drew Friedman and Gilbert Hernandez made it all the more flattering and humbling. Night Drive also led to me getting on MTV's Liquid Television and being published by many of the best comics publishers. This kind mention was my first real debut in the public eye and I'm forever grateful to Bhob for making me feel legitimate!
http://hereliesrichardsala.blogspot.com/2015/06/night-drive-30-year-anniversary.html
Some more interesting reads:
https://www.tcj.com/reviews/night-drive/
https://www.tcj.com/richard/
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/sala.htm
https://www.tcj.com/the-richard-sala-interview-by-darcy-sullivan/
Praise for Night Drive
"A sublimely nutty mashup of detective noir and Victorian Gothic, Pinter plays, Universal monster and the hero pulps, all blasted straight from his id to ours." — Tom DeHaven
"Night Drive is a treasure you won't believe! Richard Sala's stylized, personal vision makes for thrilling, masterful work. Poetry in pen and ink, each page is visual pleasure packed with intrigue. So glad to see this work back in print for all to discover and enjoy." — Carol Tyler
"Richard Sala was wonderfully unique. It was all there in everything he did, his love of old monster movies, the pulps, mystery and horror in general — the good stuff and the terrible — wore it all like a badge of honor and did wonderful things with it. I miss him." — Mike Mignola
"Do you like whimsical horror with a touch of the macabre? Well, Fantagraphics has you covered with Night Drive." — CNEWS
"A creepy gem of pulp noir." — Cinema Sentries
Anyway I also have the cover of his final book in my collection:
https://www.2dgalleries.com/art/richard-sala-blue-rose-poison-flowers-and-pandemonium-cover-111312
Publication
- Night Drive
- Fantagraphics Books
- 04/2025
- Front cover
-
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About Richard Sala
Richard Sala's work has been appearing in a wide variety of newspapers, books and magazines, as well as on toy packaging, greeting cards and on the internet since the 1980s. After debuting with a self-published magazine, 'Night Drive,' Richard Sala gradually became (as he puts it himself) the "king of the bad anthologies".
Once Sala appeared in Raw magazine, he became a regular feature in many different types of magazines, including Buzz, Twist, Escape, Drawn & Quarterly, and Rip Off Comix. He and Charles Burns even found their way into the mainstream by way of MTV's animation showcase 'Liquid Television'. Sala's animated serial, 'Invisible Hands' appeared on MTV, and his work can also be found on the CD-ROMs 'Freak Show' and 'Bad Day on the Midway'.
But Sala liked his horror-noir material best, so he concentrated on doing comics for magazines. His "magnum opus", 'The Chuckling Whatsit', was serialized over seventeen issues of the Fantagraphics 'Zero Zero' magazine. His comic book series 'Evil Eye' ran for 12 issues between 1998 and 2001. He has since released several horror-noir graphic novels, including 'Peculia' (2002), 'Mad Night' (2005), 'The Grave Robber's Daughter' (2006), 'Cat Burglar Black' (2009) and 'The Hidden ' (2011).
Text (c) Lambiek
