Innnnvesssst...Innnnvesst..

Stare into the eyes of...The Wall Street Oracle!!

Happy Father's Day!!

ROCK'N'ZOLA

Armin Zola. Nothing more need be said.

Work-in-progress: Kamandi Fake

With the upcoming DC reboot (52 titles??) I thought I'd throw my two cents in: Kamandi. Kamandi, Kamandi, Kamandi, damn it. DC could get a hell of a run out of Kamandi. MY Kamandi would be set about fifteen years after the original Kirby series. kamandi is scarred, haggard, and has finally embraced his distant Kryptonian blood ties (he's, like, Superman's great great great great great great great great grandson)...hence, the Superman scar on his chest. On top of everything, he has OMAC's (Kamandi's Grandfather) Brother Eye on his side. The story: Kamandi has discovered that his future IS the future of the main DC universe -- but it is a corrupted, abnormal outcome. It is NOT how things were supposed to go, and it is up to Kamandi to somehow make things right. He needs to fix things, which means destroying his timeline forever, and everyone that exists in it. He's like Booster Gold, except his quest is to destroy. And HELL YES there would be time travel. But don't worry, things won't get complicated, because, if they do, Kamandi just starts poppin' caps and blowin' shit up. He's wreckless.

In this particular issue, Kamandi finds the SECOND strain of Morticoccus, a vicious bacterial strain developed by Kirby in the original series. A little misguided to his true quest, Kamandi considers destroying his PRESENT timeline, not the past...will he? Maybe. But since this is a fake, we'll never know. But it would be pretty cool to see him destroy the entire planet. Morticoccus kicks ass.

Note: I attempted to go all-out Kirby on this one, and I may have gone too far. Kamandi's head looks a little too big and weird, but then again, Jack Kirby pulled that shit all the time. I AM, however, very pleased with Morticoccus. I'm digitally inking this, and it's taking forever. I just finished a large, hand-inked version, and I think it looks MUCH better and took half the time. I'll post it, once I can get a scan of it.

Kamandi succeeded in uniting man and manimal...
...back before he got all genocidal and shit.

Like, so fake.

I love making 'fake' covers. I figure a good fake will fool the casual viewer (who just looks at it and thinks 'comic book') but gets a double-take from the comic book enthusiast. The 'Heeeyyy, that doesn't exist' -look. That's what I'm going for. It's tough. The art has to hold up, and mine often doesn't. It has to have a touch of obscurity to it, something beyond 'What if J. Jonah Jameson had Wolverine's claws?' -- ok, scratch that, that might make a great cover. What I mean is, if you're going to appeal to geeks, you have to do it right. You have to make a cover of a fictional book somebody might actually want to read, not just a one-shot gag cover. Though if you scroll down through this blog you'll find I'm guilty of that, too (I'm speaking of 'Frank White Castle', not my finest work) -- but those covers are just for a laugh, a giggle -- I want to make books that should exist, if I may be so bold. Because, you know, every geek thinks he could write the best goddamn Spidey story -- and I just can't stomach fan-fiction. So I'll just keep churning out what-coulda-been covers, and hope somebody occasionally agrees with me.

First up, The Power Complex. Blue Marvel leads a team consisting of Molecule Man, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Hyperion, and The Sentry. Yes, The Sentry. Every month Marvel's most insanely-powerful B-listers would take part in huge, galaxy-crumbling battles with the biggest and baddest. These guys would chew up The Green Lantern Corps, shit 'em up, and eat 'em again. On their own, they're uniquely dysfunctional -- but instead of another dysfunction superteam, these guys find solace in hanging with their own ilk -- finally, someone to relate to.

Artistically, I'm somewhat pleased. My primitive coloring abilities usually kill my art, but this once gets by on charm. Hyperion and The Sentry look a little weird, though.

Any excuse to draw Ultron...

Comeback Kid

OK, maybe I'm being a little presumptuous -- it's been about three months since the kidneys folded on me but let me tell you, after hitting rock bottom, I'm feeling better than I have in years. Whatever they're taking out (or putting in) to me in dialysis is giving me something I thought I'd lost forever: energy. And now I'm prepping for a complete kidney-pancreas transplant -- if this goes through, it would mean no more diabetes, no more dialysis -- essentially, the proverbial 'new lease on life'. I'd virtually given up -- now, everything is different. And my artistic output is through the roof! Time to start churning out the artwork.
Every day is a gift, bi-atches.

P.S. I appreciate the comments, Steve. Thanks, man.

P.P.S. Also, I started a blog about all the kidney-stuff. It's just a stark, raw retelling of what one can expect when going through kidney failure and just how to handle it: http://kid-knees.blogspot.com/

A piece I did for the Toronto Fan Expo ('11). Cable: what a big baby..

Tigerbalm heals everything...

It's been a while, hasn't it? Not that I haven't been keeping busy. Artistically, I mean.

I've betrayed this site for another -- a scan of art, my art, is posted everyday on my facebook account, part of my self-explanatory '365 Days of Art' project. Folks seem to like it, it's generated me a little work. It goes well. Well, it was going well, until, well, you know..

...kidney failure.

Cruel Tigerbalm says: "Hah! EPIC kidney FAIL!!"

Hmm, what's an appropriate emoticon for that?

Yeah, after 23 years of type 1 diabetes (since I was 11), my kidney's told me to toss off. I wish it was the other way around. Adjusting to the new lifestyle has been invigorating, to tell the truth -- I feel better than I ever have, I'm eating right, exercising, and my spirits are up.

The adjusting (mainly to the new diet and three 4-hour sessions of dialysis per week) has eaten up my time -- there's plenty of reading and charting and tests to do -- so, artistically speaking, I've been distracted. But as my health improves, so does my output. When I say output, I am referring to the cherished past time of doodling comic book characters. I mean, really, what else is there? Other than attending weekly dialysis appointments, I mean.

The gent above-left is known only as Tigerbalm ("He Craaa-zy!!") so far. He started out as a revamped Tiger-Man, a forgotten character from Atlas-Seaboard comics that only six people on the entire planet appreciate. Me, and five other guys (that's an estimation). They share a color scheme and an affinity for all things 'tiger-y', but other than that, they're different dudes. I think.