Monday, December 20, 2010

4 Slips of Paper 03

*SIGH* From left to right: Falkor the Luckdragon, Seraphimera (original character), Rorschach, Samus Aran, and Daredevil.

A note on Falkor-
I am not a fan of Neverending Story. The movie scared me. I was too young. Hated lightning. All I understood was the stupid book was connected to the lightning, and that kid kept fucking with the book and I was like, "I'm done." I have NO idea how Falkor wound up on a slip of paper.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Movember 2010

This gif chronicles my mustache growth for the 30 days of November, also known as Movember, where people grow mustaches to raise awareness and donations for prostate and testicular cancer.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Four Slips of Paper 02

From left to right: Madman (Image), Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII), Mario & Shy Guys (Super Mario Bros.), and the sorceress Edea (Final Fantasy VIII). ("Mario & Shy Guy" was on one slip of paper)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Four Slips of Paper


Three years ago when I first moved to CA and was living with my sister in Long Beach I wrote down a bunch of characters' names on slips of paper and put them in a bowl. I would have my sister pull one out and I drew and colored whatever random character she picked. I drew three and stopped. The slips of paper have sat in an ashtray ever since then.

I've been having artist's block(?) lately, so today I grabbed four slips of paper and drew whatever characters I picked into my moleskin with one thing in mind- Don't worry about it. Make it work.

The four characters in this instance actually gel together pretty well. I've already picked the next four, and they're a little more of an eclectic bunch (UNDERSTATEMENT). So yes, I'll be doing more of these.

From left to right: Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII), Glenn (Chrono Cross), Teekl & Klarion (DC) and Kamandi (DC).


Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Lantern Eddie

Was warming up today and drew my character Eddie as a Green Lantern. He is not a very responsible nor heroic individual, so it tickles me to see him striking this pose in GL garb.

The circle discs on his feet are a nod to Mister Miracle, because I LOVE THOSE DISCS. I know GLs don't really need those to fly around. We'll just pretend Eddie doesn't know exactly how the ring works, ok?

I guess this is a 2-day late Halloween-ish thing, now that I think about it.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Frog Scout

This was a drawing I did back in late 2007 for the now abandoned Gonzo Smartfruit blog that my roommate Dan Duncan and I were posting to. We would take turns coming up with assignments that we would both do. The blog didn't last long, as I would fall behind in our assignments because at the time I was unemployed and desperately looking for a job, and I was not drawing much. The drawing started reminding me of an ex-girlfriend, which was distressing, so I stopped wanting to work on it, and did.

Three years later, I found the old sketch I did (the sheet of tracing paper taped on top of it where I was reworking the anatomy and everything), and decided to finish it. I'm on friendly terms with my ex and things are ok on that front, so I fully embraced the resemblance aspect that initially distressed me and decided to go for her likeness 100%. And so I did. The end.

What a great story, right? Very exciting.

No colors yet, but I do plan on coloring it. I'll be doing some digitally painted jungle scenery in the background, and I intended for there to be rain drizzling down (it being a rainforest), which is also why the rider has that expression on her face (she loves the rain and it's cooling her down).

Here are the original pencils from '07 that you can find over on Gonzo Smartfruit—


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

PIN-UP - "The Call Shot"

My pin-up for Mark Andrew Smith's upcoming graphic novel, Sullivan's Sluggers.

I must say, this wasn't the palette/color scheme I planned on AT ALL when I drew it. It was going to be all warm colors of yellow and orange, it wasn't going to be nighttime, there wasn't going to be a super-blue lighting effect, etc, etc, etc. But when it came down to it, I made it nighttime, and everything kind of fell in line behind that choice.

It reminds me of Star Wars, which isn't the feel of the actual book at all... AT ALL.

Bonus! Here are the inks and the breakdown sketch-



Tuesday, October 12, 2010

My First Ever 24 Hour Comic Book







Happy (Belated) 24 Hour Comic Book Day


I just participated in my very first 24 Hour Comic Book Day. I was not able to complete the story I did breakdowns for when the clock started ticking. I ran out of time after page 6. I had to wrap it up with 16 splash pages featuring a stick figure. Yeesh. Drawing 22 pages of narrative with pencils and inks and letters and no nap-breaks is a rough time. It definitely teaches you to prioritize!

I had a lot of fun though, and I definitely want to do it again. I would like to actually finish the breakdowns I did, so maybe I'll do a 16-page comic in 24 hours? Or maybe two 8-page comics in two different blocks of 24 hours. Either way, really. (But really, it should all be done at once).

So this panel here is my favorite bit I pumped out in the last 24 hours. It actually has a stat panel that follows it, but really- I think this panel says it all. I know I've felt like that when an employer has needed me to do something outside of my regularly scheduled working hours. ^_^

Once I scan all my pages I'll be posting them here, so keep your eyes peeled. They'll be up really soon.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sketch Panel Warm-Ups

It's not narrative. They are just a bunch of random images drawn inside some panels.

When I haven't drawn for a while for whatever reason, I rule out a series of panels on a page or two and start to fill them up with whatever. This time around it took me a while to sit back down at the drawing board after I sliced a significant piece of my thumb off while cutting bristol down to comic page size, so I really needed to exorcise the bad drawings and knock the cobwebs loose.

I draw heads, figures, etc. Some get drawn from reference, others not so much. This little exercise just helps me with my brain-to-hand coordination and gets me over the fact that my drawings are going to be sub-par for a little bit and to not worry about it. The panel format helps me get in the mindset of drawing narrative again.

After the last panel is filled I'm usually pretty damn ready to get back to my actual pages.


Friday, August 13, 2010

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I saw Scott Pilgrim today. It was a lot of fun! It seems like it was just yesterday I was checking out Edgar Wright's blog and seeing pics from their first day of shooting or videos of the cast training with fighting sticks for all the awesome action they would be partaking in.

For the record, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was a WHOLE lot of fun. Portions of the book were trimmed considerably, but understandably so. It could have used a bit more love story, but when there are so many exes to deal with it's tricky to nail everything down at an acceptable pace. Certain beats will win out and become the priority, and they did. I feel Ramona got slightly neglected in character development. Knives was developed just fine, and the actress did a great job with the part. One way to look at it is that in the end the film is about Scott's struggles and battles, his motivations and desires, so in a certain way it wasn't important for the viewer to want Ramona, but rather to understand that Scott wanted Ramona, for better or for worse. And even those wants were questionable towards the end, much like Scott's confusion towards the end of the comic.

The best part about what was left out of the film is that people can see it without ever having read the comic, then read the comic and be utterly, completely surprised and delighted by stuff that couldn't make it into the film. There's a lot of story meat that is exclusive to the graphic novels.
Go see it twice, I say!


Monday, August 2, 2010

Captain America: Fighting Styles

This is my entry for Project Rooftop's Captain America: Fighting Styles redesign contest.

From PR:

...Captain America is a symbol as well as a warrior, and should represent America's best ideals, even when others in power fall short of his moral standards... ...It is important to keep in mind that the task is not to re-imagine the characters, but to revise ONLY their costuming, as if it is to be used in current continuity. Always try to create a better costume than the design currently in use, not just a variant.

My original idea was to just do a 'Subdued Flag' version of Cap; just do regular Cap, but color him in army greens, blacks, and whites. But I realized that if I didn't do the red, white and blue, I would probably blow any shot I have at being realistically considered by the judges for the contest.

So then I had to actually design him. UGH. Cap's costume is SO ICONIC— SO many existing superhero staples were so well-established and fine-tuned with this costume, it's really the template for all superhero costumes. Plus, it's the American Flag, of which COUNTLESS heros have been designed around. Here's a sampling- The Shield, Super-Patriot (pre- and post-injuries), U.S. Agent, Fighting American, Patriot (Young Avengers), Uncle Sam, Star Girl, Wonder Woman, Reuben Flagg, Captain Glory, American Son, Star, The Comedian, Patriot (Rising Stars), Ultimate Captain America, Major Glory, The Spirit of '76, Battlestar, American Maid, Iron Patriot, Star Spangled, Reagan's Raiders, Mr. America, Commander Capitalism, Evel Knievel... the list goes on (and on and on. don't even get me started on the Timely Comics' old WWII-era heroes. Throw a rock and you'll hit stars and stripes).

Here's how I went about this endeavor. 


The A on his forehead has always troubled me. I've always thought it was a great spot for snipers to aim. I knew I wanted to rid him of that. The wings came and went multiple times until I finally decided that Cap's silhouette is better served by keeping them. I turned the 'A' from his head into his belt buckle, then made it an Avengers 'A' since he's now being toted as "The First Avenger."

Then to actually add elements to his costume, I threw some stars on his knees because I thought about Cap kneeing nazis or terrorists in the face and them literally seeing stars (hyuk hyuk hyuk). As invincible as he is, I gave him protective eye-wear with night-vision technology. I don't know how well his eyes can resist toxic gasses, but I know FOR A FACT he can't see in the dark. So there.

Then I extended his mask to protect his nose and chin. Pouches on his belt for keeping stuff in. Maybe he carries a copy of Ernie Pyle's "Brave Men" around with him for inspiration. I don't know! I also got rid of the buccaneer boots and gloves and replaced them with more streamlined regular boots and gloves so he can run at you and punch your lights out with less wind resistance.

I knew I didn't want to mess with the shield at all. I have SO much respect for that roundel (I love roundels because I love circles). Plus, the shield's pretty permanent. It's made of VIBRANIUM, fer chrissakes. *pushes up glasses*

THEN. After ALL THAT. I finally made my "Subdued Flag" variant. Like he presses a button or something and SHAZAM! His costume, made of unstable molecules for sure (because MARVEL), turns into a covert, less-easily-to-spot-and-shoot-at color. In case you're not aware of the terminology, our soldiers don't go running around in combat zones with bright red, white and blue flags on their arms. They wear what are called "subdued" patches. Usually two or three colors are used, usually camo-themed to blend in with the rest of their uniform. The American flag patch is usually black in place of blue and red, and green in place of the white stripes and stars.

In the end, I'm so-so on my design. It's more of a variant. But it was a lot of fun!

P.S. I've gone through the pain of designing a patriotic superhero before for the Sidekicked book that never saw print. That design can be found here. I actually borrowed a little bit of his helmet for my Cap redesign. Needless to say, I was happy I didn't have to start from scratch this time around! I drew nearly 50 drawings of the Sidekicked character before I had something that worked for me.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

I Love Mad Men

I made this a little while ago before Mad Men season 4 started, and they had the promotional Mad Men Yourself generator. I made a generic character and then worked some Photoshop magic to turn him into Batman from the "Cheese & Chainsaws: Patrick Bateman's Super-Happy Fun Guide To Dating" mixed cd my friend Maddy and I compiled a couple years ago.

Making the chainsaw was the most arduous part of the process, but it was also the most rewarding!


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

SDCC 2010: A Schmuck In Flux

Well, this year was kind of a bust. Thursday was wasted running around helping my friend out with a very disorganized panel he was only supposed to be speaking on, but instead was unceremoniously christened it's de facto go-to guy. The people in charge were super-busy with other projects and just threw a lot of the responsibility on my friend, whose phone died pretty much out of the gate. So I was christened the surrogate phone guy. It took ALL DAY. Ridiculous.

Friday and Saturday weren't much better. My feet started killing me after Thursday's panicked panel preposterousness, and I was permanently exhausted for the rest of the weekend because I foolishly dared to wake up early each day to see if I could get into any of the movie panels.  I was disheartened to find that the lines formed earlier and were longer than anything I had encountered in the past five years I've gone. So what wound up happening was me up with nothing to do but walk.

I went to a panel with Scott McLeod, which was encouraging. I drew this above sketch while at that panel. That evening I went to the Eisner Awards for the first time, which was also encouraging. Plus, Popgun Vol. 3 won Best Anthology! Yay!

Saturday was the day I was up and in the line for the dreaded Hall H by 6:30am in an attempt to see the Suckerpunch/Green Lantern/Harry Potter panel with new footage. The panel started at 11:45am. I won't go into detail, but it involves every person in line is actually holding a spot for 3+ of their friends who show up later and cut ahead, not being able to go from sitting indian-legged to stretching my legs out in front of me, my friend not showing up to join me in my misery, feeling more and more like human cattle, and finally after an hour and 45 minutes of this deciding it is in no way fun OR worth it, and stepping out of line permanently just in time for my friend to show up with some coffee.

Why do people subject themselves to this? Sneak peeks are NOT that special. The trailer for SuckerPunch is online RIGHT NOW. Why would anyone waste 6+ hours of their time, or worse, CAMP OVERNIGHT in a sleeping bag, to be first to see this shit mere days before everyone else does? It makes no sense. I mistakenly attempted this because of the principle of the crowds and Hall H not DEFEATING ME, but I quickly realized that this was crazy, and I had no qualms with quitting my misguided mission.

Anyway, the end of the day consisted of waiting in yet another HUGE line for the train to come (with a shitload of extra cars attached to it to handle the amount of people waiting to return home) and whisk me back to Irvine to pick up my car and drive home.

I didn't network for shit. I didn't show my portfolio to anybody. I left the con angry with it and myself, but overall I did take away some inspiration to get back to work at my art desk, which is where I'm going as soon as I post this.

I really don't think I'll attend next year unless I actually have business going on beforehand. Walking around not as a professional, and yet not as a costume-clad fanboy— just some schmuck in flux— is getting tiresome.

-K


Thursday, July 22, 2010

SDCC You There!


SDCC is like The Island and I'm Jack Shepherd. "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!"

After planning on not going to San Diego Comic Con and telling myself over and over that I'm flat broke, unemployed, and that this year just wasn't happening, I am now going to SDCC.
My friend is speaking on a panel, and has a 4-Day Guest Pass. His guest backed out at the last minute so he decided to put the screws to me, and demanded I go. The only catch was I can't stay with him due to the fact he's staying at a hostel, and I have no money.
I decided I'd only go three days (Thur-Sat) to make the trek financially feasible. My parents were nice enough to pay for my train ticket and share of the hotel room, which a school friend is allowing me to stay in for Thursday and Friday, and now I'm going.

Today I updated my portfolio with some recent narrative pages I've drawn, then I printed out some new home-made business cards. I've never had money to actually sit down, design, and send off a nice, official-looking card for mass production, so instead I print them off my computer onto bristol board, then I slice them up with a ruler and an x-acto knife. 3 cheers for ghetto bizniz cards.

All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet. What a fool I was to defy it.

So ridiculous.

-K


Monday, July 12, 2010

The Interrobanger Week 4



Went a little more cartoony with this one. Those are some gazelle legs or something.

Monday, July 5, 2010

The Interrobanger Week 3

Went a little overboard with this one, and that's fine by me.

UPDATE. Decided to do a variant with her color scheme from Week 2.

Monday, June 28, 2010

The Interrobanger Week 2


The Interrobanger has quickly become a favorite character for me to draw, especially because over the past year I've had little to no practice drawing women, inking with a brush or computer-coloring.
This sinewy brawler is helping me remedy these things.

I'll be attempting to draw her once a week in between completing my comic book narrative pages.
The plan is to post one every Monday.

I'll be adding gear and bits of wardrobe as I do each one.


Monday, June 21, 2010

The Interrobanger

Something I did while knocking loose some residual, comic-drawing cobwebs.

Pose was done from some reference I have.
The redesigned Interrobang symbol tattoo popped into my head while I was throwing some choice tattoos on her for something else to look at. I debated whether to throw it down in her pubic area or on her right breast, with the nipple serving as the period. The pubic area won out.
The tube sock sleeves were something I did a couple years ago in someone's sketchbook, and I had been thinking about doing it again.
The "10¢" logo on the button on her headband and the "))<>(( FOREVER" tattoo on her shoulder were two of several different things I considered putting on there.
Coloring in tan lines is a first for me, and it is a lot of fun, I must say.


Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Lick-It Man Pin-Up

Here's a pin-up for the graphic novel "Lick-It Man".
I did freelance graphic design work on the sketch gallery and supplemental pages and afterwards the creator told me she didn't have any content for the last page. She offered me the space to advertise or something, and since I have nothing to advertise currently (or ever, so far in my life) I suggested I could do a pin-up of the titular hero.

Lick-It Man was written by Camille Carida and illustrated by Joe Quinones.
You can check out the Lick-It Man comic here.


Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Savages


For my mom's birthday on 4/30 I did this Mignola-inspired portrait of my family and pets from Colorado ca 1999, except set back 100 years to the turn of the 20th century.

I made a photo composite of various old-timey people and placed my family's heads on it (I also referenced a Mignola cover for most of the background elements). I printed it out in blue line. Drew over it in pencil. No inks. Just scanned it in and cleaned it up. I changed the line art to a dark sepia color.

I placed the composite photograph (after I ran it through a filter to blur it up and a sepia photo filter to alter the color) underneath the line art. Then I just eyedropped the tones I wanted and painted over everything. Next I took some paper texture, inverted it, and placed it over everything and set the layer effects to Screen. I flattened all of it. Then I placed another layer of paper texture below the art and set the art layer to multiply.

A quick process (I was rushing), and not at all the way I thought I was going to make this piece.

The pictures are (from L to R) my mom's father Conrad Lynn (deceased), my mother's white Arabian horse Jasmine (deceased), my father and two year-old me on the day he graduated from naval officer candidate training, and three more of our dogs— Kirby(deceased), her dad Blitz (deceased), and the ornery Isadora (aka Izzy, deceased).

The dog front and center is my amazing dog Karloff (RIP), and the cat in my mom's lap is Phil— the only animal out of all of them to die prematurely (she was struck by a car 18 months ago). The Morgan covered in snow outside the window is Comanche, who is doing fine out in Hawaii with my parents.

The Savage family loves us some animals.

Also, my sister has a Masters in Music, and the harp belongs to her.


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Moleskynyrd



Wanted to post something, but nothing I'm working on I can post. Drew this stuff in January.
Loosening up by working off photo reference. The skeletons are from an anatomy book. The women is supposed to be Eva Mendes from her Italian Vogue shoot or whatever. The one where she bared her boobies.


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Make A Wish


I recently developed a very old roll of film that had been in my possession since 2002. Turned out it was pictures of me and my friends celebrating my 21st birthday at Jack Quinn's in Colorado Springs, CO.

While warming up to draw today, I decided I would sketch from a picture of me. The likeness is off as I took liberties with the size of my eyes and the chiseled jaw line. I really like how my sweater turned out though. I used a brush to render it as well as my hair and a few other things. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because I haven't used a brush on a single piece of art in over three years. I immediately remembered why I love brushes, and will be attempting to integrate them a bit more into my drawing routine. (Technically, the brush I used was a super-fancy brush pen I splurged on while at the art store a couple days ago).

Zippa-tone and majesty is courtesy of photoshop.

Flipping through those pictures slightly depressed me, as I am currently 30 lbs heavier than I was at 21. Oh, how I wish I could magically get back down to that weight, and not have to actually work for it.
I'll start working on it soon though.
Go for a run or sumthin'.

.

Friday, February 26, 2010

I Had A Vision...

"I'm Bill Hicks and I'm dead now... cigarettes didn't kill me. A bunch of non-smokers kicked the shit out of me one night."
16 years ago today the last of my 'Dead Heroes of February' and prolific stand-up comedian Bill Hicks died of liver and pancreatic cancer at the age of 32 in his parents' home in Little Rock, AR.

[Copied and pasted from billhicks.com]
"Bill’s comedy (despite his own claims to the contrary) was not about hate or pessimism. Bill was an unabashed optimist. He believed that most people were good at heart but evil forces were deliberately distracting us all from creating a better world using television, lies, tobacco and alcohol as opiates. Bill felt a revolution of thought was coming and that it was his duty, as an emissary of the truth, to bring whatever light he could to anyone who would listen. This blunt, straightforward expression of these ideas could cause clashes with less enlightened, unsuspecting audiences. The result was sometimes dangerous; Bill had his ankle broken and a gun was pointed at him on stage. Despite these experiences, he refused to compromise his material and soldiered on."

I first became aware of Bill Hicks around the same time I became aware of Hunter S. Thompson's work, which was all around the same time I started listening to TOOL. TOOL's 1996 album Ænima was dedicated to "Bill Hicks: Another Dead Hero." It's title track was an homage to Bill's Arizona Bay material, which focused on his humorous hatred of Los Angeles and the desire to see a massive earthquake cause LA to fall into "the Pacific bowl like the turd city it is... leaving nothing but a cool, beautiful serenity called 'Arizona Bay.'"

The final track on Ænima is entitled "Third Eye" and is a reference to Bill's strong opinions on drugs and the drug war, and how mushrooms and other psychotropic substances have the ability to "squeegee my third eye quite cleanly," leading to an awareness of what truly matters in life. One of his most often-cited stand-up bits is played over the beginning of the track, and is about Bill's outrage at the negativity in which drugs are addressed and depicted by the media and his desire to see a positive drug story on the news for once:

"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration — that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death; life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

One more quote is played before the lyrics of "Third Eye" begin:

"It's not a war on drugs. It's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times."

Along with TOOL, bands such as Rage Against the Machine and Radiohead also aggressively praised Bill's comedic message, and Radiohead's album "The Bends" is also dedicated to him.

At the same time I was listening to TOOL but before I had actually picked up what would be the first album of Bill's I ever listened to (Arizona Bay) he popped up on my radar one more time, pushing my interest over the edge into "I must know everything about this artist" territory.

I had quit reading comic books in late '99, for reasons Joe Madureira-related (don't ask). I had moved to CA to attend Art Center College of Design, and after the first year I decided not to go back and opted to stay in CO and attend UCCS, where I decided to try and pursue film because I did not want to draw anymore. My circle of friends had branched out to some new friends who had all pilgrimaged to Colorado Springs from Hastings, NE. Some of them were comic book readers, and I was given WATCHMEN and the entire run of PREACHER to read. 10 years of reading comic books, and all I had to show for it up until that point was a shit-ton of X-Titles and blood-soaked Image books and all the 90's fluff inbetween. Watchmen and Preacher blew my mind, and in the pages of Preacher is where Bill Hicks surfaced again.

The titular preacher Jesse Custer and his Irish vampire friend and eventual antagonist Cassidy bond over drinks in a bar as they both realize they are fans of Bill Hicks.

Cassidy had seen Hicks at some point or another, but Jesse had seen him at a very important point of his life— the night before the beginning of the entire Preacher storyline.


 
If Jesse had not lost his faith, then had not seen Bill Hicks' show the night before, he would have never been motivated to deliver the angry, impassioned sermon to his congregation about the hypocritical practices of certain Christians; Namely, behave as poorly and as immorally as you want to in life + accept Jesus Christ as your savior before you die = Get into Heaven no matter what. It was a sermon from a faithless man at his wit's end; a sermon that irresistibly attracted Genesis— the bastard offspring of a copulating angel and demon— to bond with Jesse's soul. The following explosion killed everyone inside the church, and was the beginning of Jesse's quest to track down God— who fled heaven the moment Genesis was born— and make him answer for his dereliction of duty.

Bill Hicks had been incorporated into the Preacher series' mythology as the main catalyst for Jesse's angry sermon, the result of which was 66 issues of an amazing adventure that reinvigorated my love of comic books.

In the final issue of the Preacher series, Issue 66, a Bill Hicks' quote from his 1991 'Revelations' live show is used in (what I believe is) the first few pages:

"I was told when I grew up I could be anything I wanted: a fireman, a policeman, a doctor – even President, it seemed. And for the first time in the history of mankind, something new, called an astronaut. But like so many kids brought up on a steady diet of Westerns, I always wanted to be the avenging cowboy hero – that lone voice in the wilderness, fighting corruption and evil wherever I found it, and standing for freedom, truth and justice. And in my heart of hearts I still track the remnants of that dream wherever I go, in my endless ride into the setting sun…"

I have tried to introduce and share Bill with everyone I know. He is such a popular figure these days that I am still surprised when people have not heard of him. I've quoted him endlessly over the years (as I have a good memory for quoting stand-up, much to the delight/consternation of friends and family), and have created artwork inspired by Bill's comedy. Several characters I've created are homages to Bill.

I would have loved to have seen Bill Hicks live, but unfortunately I was seven years too late. Even if I had been conscious of him when he was alive, I would have only been 12 or 13 years old and probably would not have been receptive to it (but who knows?).

Bill would end a lot of his shows with this message, and it is one of my favorite bits of his—


"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, 'Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride...' But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus - murdered; Martin Luther King - murdered; Malcolm X - murdered; Gandhi - murdered; John Lennon - murdered; Reagan... wounded. But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one...
...I had a vision of a way we could have no enemies ever again, if you're interested in this. Anybody interested in hearing this? It's kind of an interesting theory, and all we have to do is make one decisive act and we can rid the world of all our enemies at once. Here's what we do. You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense every year? Trillions of dollars— Instead, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world, which it would pay for MANY times over, not ONE human being excluded ... not ONE ... we could as one race explore inner and outer space together in peace, FOR EVER."

Bill's last words to the world were written on February 7th, 1994.

"I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit."

You certainly are, Bill.
Bill Hicks.
Born December 16, 1961.
Died February 26, 1994.
Another dead hero.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Profound Mass Effect


Mass Effect 2 is a video game.
I don't own any of the current gaming platforms.
I've never played Mass Effect 1.
I do, however, read comic books.
The game was just released.
Mass Effect 2's advert campaign for comic books consists of a series of single-character-bust, single-word ads, sprinkled in throughout the comic, usually alternating with the pages of actual comic book.

One of the ads features a big brute of a character with the word "Savage" below.
Naturally, I had to make this.
Pretty self-explanatory!

.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Silver-Aged


I get to do a narrative in a silver age comic book style.
Looking forward to it.
This pose was taken from a Kirby drawing.
15 minute sketch that I then colored for reference.

.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Mission Accomplished.

ISSUE 1 COMPLETE!
I feel like Captain Ahab... Or... A dog who finally caught a car? Do those examples elicit good feelings?
idk whatevs
I've now officially drawn a 22 page, continuous narrative comic book.

ZOMG.

I started my first page of issue 1 in November of 2008. I had just had my orchiectomy surgery (testicular cancer) on October 23rd. After my surgery I immediately got back to work drawing the 5th cover to the series (covers are required first for solicitation purposes). On Nov 12 I started working on the interior pages of Issue 1. It took me 14 months to complete the 22 pages (for many various reasons, not just because of cancer. I'm really good at wasting my own time).

It's been a trip.
It's also been very frustrating.
But I'm working on this stuff full-time now so things will be running faster and smoother. It's my meal ticket.

I've gotten to draw so many fun things over the past year.
It's insane to think I've only completed 20% of the whole assignment.
But I'm getting faster and faster so it's totally cool.
Kirby-kewl.
( > ' _ ' )>

-K

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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Appointed Rounds.

Just finished another page. =)
It was SO much fun!
I had a good time on it.


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