Digging around through the Pile.

You magnificent, Bastards. You deserve this.
With the improving weather and the Previews cover, this isn't a half-bad Spring. I had this girlfriend who said that Spring was her favorite season; I instantly redoubled my contempt for it. There's not a thing robust about it; not like Autumn, my favorite season. But, I guess as one grows older and one steps up the medication to 200 mikes a day...Spring ain't so bad.
I am a little irked at Winters' brevity this year; there are people, PEOPLE, fucking everywhere. Normally these feeble beings would be holed-up for another 7 weeks; out of my way. Sigh.
Here's some stuff...

Below is a companion to an earlier entry; from the same story. Check out the other entry and compare the markings; there's a story "there" (in my head).

This is old, maybe about 10 years ago. Expect to see this colored. I'm fairly happy with the piece. It's rare these days that I get to indulge my quasi-scifi side, which is my heart-of-hearts. Look! A space anteater! Just where the phuck is this guy going to fish, I wonder...

From time to time I get a call from Alex (Ross) while he's in the throes of a project. This is a rejected design for "Kingdom Come".

Yet another cast-off from "Kingdom Come"; this is an "articulated" Batmobile. It didn't get used so this bitch is still mine, yo. I see one of you swipe this...I cut you. Dig?...Whoa, maybe I should go up to 250.

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Melee Anyone?

Behold!
Some THINGS!

These are a couple of candidates for a gaming arsenal. I don't recall if the Photon Axe was modelled for the game... I do have the actual weapon itself. I shave with it.

Snipers; the PUSSIES of the gaming world. The Phantom Weasle was modelled for game play...The muzzle flash and highly visible round cancels out all stealth measures taken by the weapons' operator. Sort of the same issues with the new frontline fighter for the Air Force; why have a trans-sonic stealth capable aircraft when the speed of the plane makes it an infrared beacon!?
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Next to the word "danhead" in the dictionary...

As usual, the title of this entry can be demystified by clicking on it.
Anyone who's a fan of the band in question knows the value of subversion. From Beat to Burroughs; through the Birth of Gibsonian CyperPunk and on through the Steamy Conduits that power the Fever Dream Generators of Deja Vu Futurism...there's no intelligent counterculture to the N'er-Do-Well Decades-to-come without an appropriate soundtrack.
If you don't believe me, then you haven't really listened to their music.
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PREVIEWS for May!!! JACK of FABLES!

Coolness; JoF is featured on the cover of PREVIEWS with a nice sample of Issue ONE art inside. Plus what Bill Willingham says about why Jack got his own series is a hoot. Here're a few files before Todd Kleins' lettering was placed.
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Lap This Up, Gaijin Dogs! ( ...you know you love it.)

Link to some Japanese swag, yo.
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AFK...

Now I'm back! The Easter holidays were very nice, thank you for asking. Kosher Passovers ROCK (Sharon, your brisket was out of this world!). So on to more secular pursuits; This will be a quick, ad hoc posting just because it's been a few days since my last and I have so SO much work on my table...This table:

Actually, I'm a big fat liar. This is my desk from about two years ago. Still, not much has changed. I still look into the wise stare of Chief Arca (my, I should get that back to Tom Veitch!), and stoke my smoldering concurrence with Bender's "KILL ALL HUMANS" apron. If you look closely, you can just make out the "Fables" story I was drawing. It's an inventory script that will never EVER see the light of day in the "Fables" storyline, now that Jack is in exile. Hmmm...Wonder how this story will ever see print.
Here's something; I was 16 years old when "Star Wars" hit. It warped my little, hormone addled mind. Obviously, since there was a rebellion against a vast evil empire there must be a world where there are great frontiers that need defending! Guys who ride "horses" of some sort and are sorta like cavalry-guys but with some sci-fi stuff happening. I bet they'd be a pain in the ass or a thorn in the side of the local Imperial Forces because they are such excellent fighters! I'd bet they'd look something like this:

LOL! Note that these guys are "BOARDER RAIDERS"! No Imperial tenant would be safe, I'm sure. What's with the pose? Well, there was going to be some sort of "mount" that the facing rider was going to be getting down from. But I probably had to go mow the lawn or some shit and lost my interest in the piece. The positioning of the cigarette hand is unfortunate (snort).

Let's jump ahead 10 years...still fostering my obsession with the Civil War; the influence of which is clear even in the Boarder Raiders drawing. The dash of the Southern Armies caught my fancy early on, despite the Confederate States clearly amoral and illegal grounds for starting the conflict. That's right, I went there. At any rate, there are several more pages to this sequence, but the horses are so badly drawn! They look like Jeff Goldblum teleported a dog and a moose! At any rate, these Rebs marshall against some Feds across there that field, but they get mowed down. Yay!
Speaking of "mowing down"...One of the GREATEST influences of my career in comics was working with my first publisher, Tony Caputo. Bless this man, Lord. I can't tell you what a guiding light he was to me and other creators at NOW Comics. I know that he shaped many careers and fostered much admiration throughout the industry; and STILL does to this DAY!! Whenever I get the news that there is a respected comic contributor in the hospital and possibly on his last legs, as I've just heard with the news of the incredible Alex Toth, I know that I'm not the only person in this industry who thinks to himself, "Man, I wish that was Tony Caputo."
This is from a title called "E'BNN". I never got to actually draw an issue but I did do some sketches for a possible Viet Nam Flashback Issue, which were the vogue back then.

Here's some reconcepting of the 'bots from "Valor Thunderstar", another NOW title. Again, I never got a chance to draw an issue of this book. Be thankful.
Ok, I have to go do some "real work", so I'll end with this; first is a sketch for an intro page to a gaming manual; you're on the thresholds of a town/level (reflected in the pool of water) you're about to enter; the second sketch is for my friend Officer Garrian Manning of the Chicago Police Department; his class at the Academy wore tees with this sketch on it. I hope that he still uses this on tees that he leaves on the crumpled forms of perps like Vic on "The Shield". That would be awesome.
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Fred, you have no idea...

There's a famous Suffragette, her name escapes me, who penned something eloquent and moving which I can only butcher at present...Basically it's about the nature of the human heart and it's secrets and longings, and how there are things so deep within a hearts' longing not even the angels could ever gain knowlege of it. Well, this isn't quite one of those things. I wish it were. It's close, though. I used to live for this show when I was young(er); many phuct up adults who grew up in Chicago in the 60's and 70's may make the same confession . This TV show may have scarred me (why wasn't ZOOM created earlier!). In fact, my devotion to this show is what may have been staying God's Hand in striking me with some other horrible affliction; His Pity is indeed Infinite. I think about this show more often and involuntarily than I'd like to confess. Thanks, Fred...first the Woodstock Underoos, now this dark brainworm.
Click the post title and recoil.
"Would you use your Powers for Good, or for Awesomeness?"
StrongBad

Awesomeness...hands down.
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Crab Rangoon

I'm posting this in the spirit of the latest post on Tony M's "lonely rice chronicles" (see blog listing at right). I research the shit out of things. This often leads to a diminished view of the world and the things in it that I may have once enjoyed and/or thought was cool. In the furry animal comic (nothing against furry animal comics, I draw more than my share of talking furries in "Fables") Yojimbo, the Samurai rabbit carries the great sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the legendary "Grass-Mower" or "Cloud Cluster Sword". I love the origin mythology of Japan (not that lame-assed version Tom Cruise panted at the start of "The Last Samurai"). Much better than the origin mythology of Kenosha ("magic elf feces. indeed). Anyway, in researching a story I came across the origins of swords in Japan; cultural influences, smithing, etc...Plus the epic story of where the "Grass-Mower" was lost at the Battle of Dan-no-Nura. At any rate, Yojimbo's sword, if it is indeed Kusanagi, should not resemble the standard idea of a samurai sword. It should like this:
The sheath for the sword is covered in what is actually tiger's fur, hunted in Korea. The influence for swords in the Japan of that era was from the mainland; China and Korea. There's supposed to be the reclaimed "Cloud Cluster" in a temple in Japan, proof of the Emperor's Divine Rite to the Throne of Japan. Most likely it's a "replica". Your lesson for the day. If Ninja get me avenge my ass, Tony.
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Westward Ho, Negro!

Thanks to the creative daring of Mr. LaMorris Richmond, I was given the oppotunity to contribute to a project of his way back when it was just a fledgling idea. The comicbook "PURGE", which is in release, is LaMorris's take on the raw end of the West viewed down the sight-notch of a Henry Repeater held by a Brother. There are more pages somewhere. When I find them, you'll see 'em, Pard.
I've just noticed that this page is partially inked; damn, I'm ambitious.
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Who cares if she's not an Amazon Warrior-type in a Leather Bikini...

...I mean, look at those DIMPLES!
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It Never Leaves a Crater...

Something that I see often, but always enjoy noticing.

Is There a Parrallel Universe with Samuel L. Jackson?

Maybe she was mistaken for a Pinata...

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On a lighter note; Armed&Agitated Apes

God! You know they're always just so goddamned funny aren't they? Look at that one near the front; he's about to use a loaded rifle as a club he's so scared! Ha! Chimps and guns, that's comedy. Or IS it? This is a POTA cover I managed some years back. The masterful Paul Mounts colored this. It's an actual blueline and dye piece, with an overlay for the black. Old school, bitheads.
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Fretfully, indeed.

I am in a mood. A moody cuss, I am. For several nights now, my sleep, though restful and long (I'm a nine hour man) has been troubled by dreams. These are nothing more than the anxious stirrings of a highly imaginative mind whose fecundity has been spiked by stress. (What?)
These dreams suck. So here are some more images from dreams had in happier times. Yes, I consider these "happier".
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More of what would have been...

Here's a couple more samples from the "Cauldron" files. This is the first posting of a thumbnail. Big whoop. But the thumbnailing process is SO important for me. It allows me to process the script and wrap my head around what the writer and editor need to see; more importantly, it gives me a chance to place the word balloons and captions, which are the most important part of the layout stage. This scene was one which was one of several selected to showcase how I'd handle each of the three principle characters in the story and the hardware that's associated with them. This chick,Sooky, who's Korean-American has a father that designs high-end performance autos. It's a night scene and I really enjoyed envisioning what the reflected starfield in the body surface of the car and the blur of the reflected trees would have looked like colored. Oh, well. You can get a sense of what coulda been (ah, don't play that way). I think that Sooky is a little uncute in this art. Oh, well, again. HaHA!

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