"A bough in the shade of your laurels..."

The last few weeks have been an utter whirlwind for me...
From frantic last minute page renderings, to the maelstrom of convention-floor madness,... I've had my hands fairly full.

Things are just starting to settle down now, so I will now attempt to properly update this site with the appropriate content that was previously absent before my trip. This might take a bit of time with all the catch-up freelance crap I have to contend with... but I will endeavor to make the transition brief if I can.

In the meantime, here is a little 3 hour oil study I threw together before my trip to prove to myself that if I were ever again pushed into a corner by a demented Art Director,... I could still come up with a fairly representational figure painting on a crackpot deadline. Making the image file size small enough to read on the web totally killed the piece's luminosity and vibrancy as far as color goes... but the overall visual is still fairly represented...
What think you?

(For the mythologically challenged... it's a slight visual variation on the Greek legend of Daphne and Apollo...)

More to come soon...

"Out of the frying pan..."

Rumbling along nicely now... another page in the can.
Just 4 more to go before I can start thinking about the "extras"...

Here are some transitional panels leading up to the final pages... I thought it might be nice to show some of the panels within their layout positions to give a better impression of what the finished pages might look like.

My private life has taken a sudden turn for the best recently... but I'm much too suspicious of my good fortune to speak of it at any length yet for fear that I will jinx myself...
How sad that I've been reduced to such a cynical curmudgeon by my past missteps... afraid to wholeheartedly embrace a possible opportunity for fear of failure....

Just keep your nose to the grindstone, old man...

"STOMPYCAT!"

Moving along now at a fairly regular pace now...
This sequence ends page 32 and I'm already nearly finished with 33 as I type this (I will post panels from the new page in the days to follow).

This little "headstomp" POV passage brings up another one of those decisions regarding gratuitous violence for the sake of drama in the story...
I have a panel prepared along the top of the following page that will either simply remain solid black with blood spatter... or it will brutally depict the Director's head shattering like an overripe melon beneath the Pugilist's boot. So far, I'm opting for the more subtle approach... even though that bastard certainly deserves to suffer such visual indignity for what he's done...
Then again, I was sure to show the crippling agony leading up to his ultimate demise... so perhaps that will have to suffice.

Getting closer all the time now... and I'm really beginning to feel the pressure...

Wish me luck...

"It's all in the hands..."

This set includes the sister panel to the earlier June 13th 2006 entry image depicting the Director stashing the film canister in his asian-inspired cloth body armor. I hope that the procuring shot is clear enough to be read properly...

Moving along now... at a fairly consistant click.
Had some unexpected Calligraphy work pop up this weekend so I had a bit of a set-back progress-wise.
Nonetheless, the page is nearing completion...

Met an interesting person recently... someone who came completely out of right field and fairly knocked my socks off.
I'd almost forgotten what it felt like...

I feel galvanized into artistic action once again.
Just a bit more to go...

Borderless...

Here's a bit of transitional progress that I think came out fairly well...
Maybe I'm just pleased that it opens up the narrative sequence on this page with it's unframed imagery.
Just a spot for the eye to rest among all those crammed intense panels...

Still chugging along...

On a side note... I have finally passed my Life-guard training course! All that's left is to get myself registered, fingerprinted, and
officially certified. I can't wait to get my bright orange day-glo swim trunks and my trusty whistle!!!

I'm so proud...

Oh... and sore... I'm goddamned sore as well.

"And capping off this year's new Olympic Track and Field events,... the Cripple Jump!"

The panels rumble on...
Here are a couple of transition shots that set up the mini "chase scene" I have planned for our two protagonists...
The gal's path leads her straight into the final confrontation and the eventual wind-down. I've just got to get her and our burly hero into proper position for the final scenes with the other arriving characters.

Gotta love those Raggedy-Ann stockings...!!!

The Pugilist pulls a "Little Jack Horner"...

Poor fella...
All he ever really wanted was a bit of co-dependant affection... and a daily supply of pre-pubescent teenage girls to crush manually...

Well,... they say that "what goes around, comes around"... and I'd venture to say that no one will be losing any sleep over this brute's fate (even in MY creepy comic book world)!

Exactly 6 more pages to go in the main story proper (barring any unforseen accidents) and perhaps a pin-up or two before I'm finally finished with this installment. I just want the pencils done or close to finished before the July Convention in San Diego... but my expectations are becoming more and more realistic as the pages clunk along.

The ending of this story is a bit complex, so the pencils are starting to crawl as I labor carefully to fit every detail in each successive panel. I'm beginning to hate myself for starting this tale "in medias res" now... it takes careful pacing to connect the flashbacks to the present storyline, and I now think that the story would have flowed just as well had I simply told it in a straight sequential fashion.

Feh...

"Is THAT all you've got..?"

Just a bit more progress to report...
Kinda a fun little sequence that takes place after the hirsute giant's last-ditch effort to finish off our hero.
He looks up from the floor where he is slumped from injury and exhaustion, hoping to see the protagonist reeling into unconsciousness... only to catch a glimpse of his downcast grin!

Just two more panels to go on this page... and the last one is the grisly end of the Eisenvater... AT LAST!

"Velocifist..."

Just a quick update to make me feel like I'm actually making real progress...

This is the Eisenvater's "last gasp" panels... by the end of the page, his doing days are over... he's done.
I just wanted him to take one last shot at our hero before completely losing heart and falling to his knees in exhaustion.
The next set of panels shows the result of his last desperate headshot... and our boy grinning and looking down at him menacingly to show how unhurt he is.

I hope it looks as effective on paper as it does in my head...

I'm still debating putting some sort of textured element in the background of panel 3... maybe just some hatching. Is it really necessary.. I dunno...

POW!

Hmm... I wonder how those teeth taste?
Do the bicuspids pack quite the same delectable zing as the molars?

Hey.., I'm sure that there MUST be several marked advantages to having a double-jointed jaw....

It ain't over yet though, folks... the big finish comes next, and then the wind-up.
Let's hope it all works out for our heroes!

"Ploit!"

Just a quick post...
This last panel is giving me fits... but so far I'm liking the direction that it's going.
I'm just trying to get past this page so that I can finalize the wind-up sequence. I can't really be sure of how well the ending will fit until I actually start thumbnailing out the page... and that can't happen until this page gets finished.

Structure, baby... STRUCTURE.

I'll post the final panel in a day or so once it's finished completely and photocopied for delivery to my Inker.

I found these last few panels to be kinda fun... I hope that it shows in the work itself.
Here is the "drip sequence" I was talking about that immediately preceeds the big simultaneous punch panel.

Enjoy.

"Resetting..."

Lost a bit of "creative baggage" this evening... and good riddance!
They say no good deed goes unpunished, and man,... were they right. That's what I get for trying to help out a buddy by allowing him to "contribute" to my project for a published credit to add to his portfolio...
Hell... he caused me more aggravation than real positive input, so I suppose that I should just be grateful.
No real hard feelings, you understand... but let me just say that he'd be better served sticking to his prospective day job... plenty of work for a good accountant out there....

The panels are moving a bit more smoothly now... so I'm quite pleased.
I just needed to get over the dreaded "new page" hump that can stymie even the most ambitious artist when faced with a sheet of blank bristol. I've just got to keep going and keep the goal in sight...
This last panel will eventually feature a blurring effect as our protagonist snaps his broken arm back into place... but I think that it serves it's purpose fairly well without it. Maybe I've just looked at the damned thing for so long that it just SEEMS to make sense now...

The next couple of panels are going to be interesting... I'll actually have to consult some photo reference for a few "dropping liquid" shots. We'll be following a drooled rivulet of blood from the Eisenvater's torn lips as it drops to the studio floor. This sequence immediately preceeds the big simultaneous punch-out panel... so it really has to be both quiet AND a suitable build-up towards the two climaxing blows. An ambitious transitional scene for such a pulpy and graphic fight scene... but the challenge alone makes it a worthwhile endeavor....

"Little Fin" Sighting!!!

"This evening, as I was practicing my "cross-chest carry" skills in Life-Guard class, I catch sight of a small bobbing cadmium orange swimcap in my peripheral poolside vision...
Risking dousing my eyes in the over-chlorinated water, I strain to look over my submerged shoulder...
Upon reaching the far end, I breathlessly looked to the main deck... and there she was.

Back slightly bowed, eyes cast downwards, vastus medialus and supratellar bulge peeking out shyly from over her slightly flexed kneecaps. I have to grit my teeth to keep from staring. The barked commands of my Instructor snap my focus to the Guard Locker room entrance and arrest my chlorine strained eyes on his formaldahyde-wisened face. I periodically sneak quick desperate glances waterward as he speaks, hoping to catch a glance of her slick, sinuous body beneath the water. Class eventually ends... and then I have no real reason to stay poolside. With painful reticence, I slowly take the long walk along the pool to the men's locker room... stealing fiery glances at her naked trapezius, deltoids, and infraspinatus knotting just above the water's surface as her shoulders raise to take in oxygen as she swims. I almost face-plant into the stairwell door as I try to keep pace with her...

After perhaps the longest cold shower ever endured in a public place, I make my way downstairs as slowly as possible in the fleeting hope that I might catch her as she leaves before the next scheduled Life-Guard class...

Gone... and my eyes are still stinging from the chlorine in her wake...




Progress is rumbling along at a steady pace... nothing to be particularly excited about though. I'm still not going at top speed yet, and I'm disappointed that the pages aren't moving forward at the click I established on the earlier work.
Oh well,... I suppose that all my post thumbnail changes haven't exactly set a fire underneath the project any...
Still roughly on schedule though...

And I have one new surprise to pull off before this fight scene ends...

"Here... let me scratch that thing for you..."

Finally... on to the finish of this slugfest!
A couple more big shots, and this baby moves into denouement mode.
This unfortunately requires me to indulge a bit more in my peculiar ocular injury obsession... for the last time.
I'll be trying out a few experimental panels (a la Yu Kinutani) on the following pages... here's hoping that they work out.

This is the lower section of panels that illustrate how "Our Hero" (sorta) breaks free of the armlock the Eisenvater sunk successfully in the previous sequence.


Now I get to indulge in one last bit of pugilism before the ugly finale... a simultaneous hook exchange. I'm looking forward to finding a solid visual solution for how to clearly show the two concurrent punches/counter-punches while still giving an impression of dramatic velocity. It should be quite a challenge...

Life is fairly pedestrian these days... not much new to report. My next Drawing Class started up nicely without a hitch and has the distinction of being perhaps the largest group of students I have ever taught! It's sure going to make that Bronx Zoo field trip I've planned a bit of a production!

"Snap... Crackle... POP!"

So... the deed is done.

I opted to show the radius and ulna in full fracture in order to communicate the unusual nature of the break... the common breaking point would be at the elbow, but the character's unique reinforced bone structure makes this almost impossible.
So, parts of his forearm bones shatter from the lock's destructive force.

You have to really look close to see the bone snapping gore... and I'm actually pleased that it turned out that way. Although it may be difficult in this scan to see the tiny metal bands around the bones and the flying broken metal clasps, they will become more apparent once the panel is cleaned up and inked properly. Color will, of course, accent the violence of the panel as will lighting... but for now, the panel communicates what it must.

Taught my last Sculpture Class at the Museum of Natural History yesterday... man, did the kids really impress this session!
I hope to post some shots of their work soon once I have access to the photos we took during class.
Here are some shots from last session:









Another Valentine's Day passes uneventfully... what a shame.
I surely hope to remedy this situation (at least temporarily) soon... but only time will tell, I suppose.
I'm just glad to be free of my recent excursion into the strange and anxiously await the next voyage when it leaves port...

For now... it's simply back to work....

"Alea Iacta Est"...

Ok... the Eisenvater (the big hairy brute) has has fully sunk the armlock and I'm face to face with the very panel that I've been worried about. Story-wise, the arm-break is relevant because of the foreshadowing it provides concerning one of the protagonists and his true nature... however, it WILL be a particularly unpleasant bit of business to illustrate.

I've even planned a little double-take action reflected in the villain's face at the sight of the arm's interior...

I was initially planning to show a bit of fractured bone jutting out through the torn skin, bound tightly with coils of wire and engraved metallic clamps binding the joints together... but can I show it all without it being simply mistaken for chunky gore?
The bones need to appear to be almost knitted together with Hebrew-enscribed reinforcement bands and other peculiar mechanical enhancements. Blood will be minimal..., but that actually works in my favor. Just a bit of congealed gook to splash out the open tear in the skin....

Another problem is the fact that I will have to do some retrofitting additions to some of the already finished pages that were resolved earlier. I hadn't planned this particular injury when I first started the story (the tale actually starts "in medias res")... it just sort of evolved in this direction. I just thought this was an excellent opportunity to hint at one of the main character's true form in a subtle fashion.
So much for insight upon reflection...

Drawn myself into a corner again.......

"Sink That Lock..."

Another bit of progress... slow and steady now.
For some reason, these panels that were supposed to come all "hot and heavy" are s-l-o-w-l-y eeking out progress at a snail's pace. Very frustrating... but at least I'm still going forward.

Anyone know what's going to happen in the next panel to our grasping protagonist?
C'mon all you Martial Artist experts out there... what's the grotesque hirsute giant setting up with his hand position?

I'm coming up on a potentially potent panel that I'm unsure how to illustrate...

In my thumbnails, it reads very well as a dramatic close up,... but I'm afraid that the graphic nature of the panel may be a bit too extreme to warrant such a detailed rendition. My instinct tells me that the more over the top the image is, the better the following reaction panel will be... however, I'm wondering if I am starting to skirt the limits of taste with this approach.
The battle NEEDS to be viciously violent to be convincing... but do I have to show EVERYTHING?

More weirdness on the dating front... but I think it best to refrain from comment until I've thought it through a bit more clearly and have a better sense of insight on the matter.

On another front... February already?
Another birthday looms dark and inevitable upon the horizon...

Still so much left undone...

Another proponent for "naked hands"...

More progress... albeit slow and cumbersome.
This current fight scene is in it's finishing stages and all the players are in position for the finale. The next 3 or so pages will be fast and furious, with little or no transition to break up the brutality... so I just wanted to establish character positions one last time before just zooming in on the two main combatants. The young Girl is trapped between her fear of the nearby violence and her revulsion towards the crippled and dying Director, who in turn is now in the right position for the coming denuemont.
These sort of "set-up" panels are the hardest to pull off because they require a great deal of information about the environment as well as the characters involved. The final panel shows the figures in relative positions... and this becomes a bit important later on in order for the story to flow well. We'll just have to see how it all turns out...

Life in general is in a stall right now as I battle my bank over a balance discrepancy and I lack extra funds to simply run around and enjoy myself. I suppose that it helps to motivate me to work on the pages, out of default... but it doesn't exactly put me in the sweetest of moods to know that I haven't any choice in the matter.

Well... it's back to the grind now...
Damn,.. I just wish that I'd refrained from putting friggin' gloves on the Director's hands now. The hands in the panel where he's on his back looking up at the Girl came out very well... and I am no longer as pleased with the rendering now that I had to put those goofy-assed gloves over them for continuity.

Crap.

The Solar Plexus is NOT a Celestial Object... Here... Let me show 'ya!!!

Just a bit of progress from the ongoing saga as it rumbles closer to it's finale...
The pages are coming a bit easier now as the end is in sight. Perhaps it is just the thought of the prodigious task of coloring and formatting that has to get done before the big San Diego Comic Con this year that has galvanized me into action... we shall see.

Around 30 pages are in the can now pencil-wise, with about 26 or so inked already... not too shabby.
I have a long way to go though...

To be honest, as long as the pencils are completely finished and a few pages are color sampled, I'll have plenty to show at the Con... but I'd rather have the whole danmed thing finished and pitched to Heavy Metal before the show hits.
Wish me luck...

"Why, yes... yes it IS a surgical cap!"

Just a quick flashback to the October madness that brought smiles to the faces of the local Brooklyn kids that flocked to our home-made spookhouse on the 31st last year...

Every year, my buddy Robert and I have a big costume blow-out for the local kids in his neighborhood. These are kids from a rough lower income area that don't usually get out to see the big parade in Manhattan... they also can't really safely trick-or-treat on their own... so they (and even their parents) flock in droves to our little open house every Halloween.
We go through POUNDS of candy every year, and each successive season promises even bigger crowds!

Last year, we put on the big "Godzilla vs King Ghidorah" blow-out...



After our big tussle... both costumes had pretty much given up the ghost... we REALLY went at it too!
Goddamned King Ghidorah's three heads had wire-framed paper-mache and chicken wire horns... all 6 of which went right through my Godzilla foam costume and left multiple welts and contusions all over my upper body when Robert gleefully pounded me with them in triplicate during the climax of our battle...
I simply resorted to punching him in the giblets with my claws in retaliation...

Here was my "default" costume... a home-made number I painted and cobbled together from various sources myself...



This was my "candy peddling" get-up... I actually got a little flak from a kid's impatient Mother who told me, "You'd be able to hand out candy faster if you weren't wearing those big scary hands..."
Unbelievable... free candy and show for her kid, and she still couldn't squeeze a simple "Thank you" out of her ungrateful cake-hole!

This year, we opted for the more classical approach... Universal style!
We had a whole mad scientist lab set-up... complete with operating table for the "Monster" to re-animate on.
I had about 4 hours to come up with a flyer for the show... from finished sketch to colored and lettered image.
I did the best I could with the little time I had... and still tried to get that old retro movie poster feel out of a rush job.
Here's hoping I was at least mildly successful...





My buddy Eric did the "Dr. Frankenstein" honors... and he aquitted himself famously... well... except for the moment when he forget his line about the the fiery torch prop and had to be prompted from the semi-articulate Monster himself! ("Eric... it's frikkin' RIGHT BEHIND YOU, man!")


Robert played the hirsute Wolfman and I was the infamous Frankenstein Monster. We had TONS of fake blood to toss around and a pair of fake hearts to tear out of one another's chests at the shows climax... it was a blast.



Messy and barely rehearsed, we did our best. The kids roared for more...
Maybe we'll do even better next year!



See? You hardly miss the perfectly fitted wig we wasted $30 and 4 hours searching for downtown the day before...


It probably looked better on Robert's upstairs coffee table anyway...