It’s obviously way too early for me to say to be saying anything about these sketches. Early in the morning that is. I’ve got my coffee. I’ve had enough that my brain sort of seems awake. And yet, I’ve nothing to say. Ah well.

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The cover for the first volume of the Oz Squad collection, sans text, is up at Epilogue.net.

The profile and the full figure belong to a woman with the nickname “Beastie”. Her imaginary history has altered quite a bit over the years. The original version was that she was a superhero who had been cursed with a trio of demons (one of whom is in the corner of this page) who followed her wherever she went. Sometimes they helped her, sometimes they screwed things up for her. I created her for one of those companies that was jumping in to publishing back in the nineties. They were starting out with a trading card series and going to move on to publishing actual comics from there. It wasn’t a great experience. They initially didn’t want use Beastie because, as a christian company they weren’t comfortable with the whole consorting with demons thing. Then they decided that they weren’t going to do superheroes after all and they cancelled the trading card line. A sympathetic editor made sure I got paid – very late, with a check that the bank almost refused to cash because there was a 50 cent difference between the digital number and the text version.

Don’t know who the guy in the profile is. The sketch on the bottom right is a human/insect hybrid and the sketch on the bottom left looks like a figure gesture of Beastie.

The sketchy guy in the middle looks like Dave from Bugfuck Palace. Despite the name he’s not meant to be me. I identify with all my characters regardless of how much like or unlike they are to me. I happen to like the name “Dave”. Very few people call me by that name so a character named Dave doesn’t automatically seem like me, to me. When I talk to myself I’m usually David.

The woman in the other sketches is from an entirely different story. It’s a romance. The woman is froggish, hence the webbed fingers and long limbs.

Let’s here. The unfinished sketch at the top is Spider-Man. Spidey is my favorite superhero. That might be because he starred in the first comic book I ever owned – Amazing Spider-Man #103. I would have been seven years old. That’s a good time for heroes to imprint on you. It might also be because his adventures were enough of a mix of reality and fantasy that I could identify with him while I was busy escaping from my own life. He wasn’t rich. He had super powers but they weren’t so awesome that he had to be an idiot to have problems fighting his rogue gallery. Eventually, when I had disposable income, I probably owned and read runs of almost every major superhero but the web-slinger remains my favorite.

The guy on the left … don’t remember. He might be the pilot or mechanic of the really sketchy space ship on the right. I wish I had more affinity for mechanical things. I find cars and robots and engines fascinating but when it comes time to draw them it’s, well, work. Work that would no doubt become easier if I drew many many machines. Yeah, yeah. Practice, practice.

The other two characters are zombies. Zombies are fun to draw. They’re oozy and rotting and probably smell really really bad. I have an affinity for decay.

Tired. Got some cold coffee to keep me moving, but just moving, not moving fast.

I imagine today will be the resumption of the heat wave. The sky looks clear. Today at the job we’re interviewing for a new employee. Just one person will be in today. Hopefully it won’t be so hot that she won’t be able to do her best.

Hmm. Anything to say about today’s sketchbook page? The eviscerated cartoon character might indicate that I was feeling cranky the day I drew it or it might mean I was having a great day. No way to tell.

The sketch page is another from the 1995 book.

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This morning is relatively cool. It’s been annoyingly hot the last couple of days. Hot enough that drawing has been uncomfortable. It’s no fun when you’re sweating on your artwork and the pages are wrinkling. More heat is predicted but I’ve long since learned not to trust the weather reports around here.

I did these sketches while waiting for a friend. I think the location was Renton. I’d taken a bus to wherever it was and we were going to hang out from there. I often carry my sketchbook with me when I leave the house. That and a book to read. Usually I read the book while I’m waiting. Getting out the sketchbook means juggling pencils and balancing the pad.

No post yesterday. It was our (Nizzibet’s and mine) anniversary yesterday. Sort of. We have two wedding anniversaries – July 21 and 22 – but the 21st fell on Friday. So we spent the day driving around the Olympic Pennisula. We missed a couple of turns on highway 101 that would have shortened the trip and then hit a bottleneck on I5 because of middle of the night construction. We finally stumbled in a little after 2 am.

The sketches here are mostly random. The only recognizable characters are Sister D (in sunglasses) and Black Molly (with the stitches around her eyes). I’ll write about Black Molly another time. At the moment I need to run some errands and then do laundry and plan dinner. Maybe get some artwork done. Oh yeah, sleep.

I love monster movies. As a kid my favorite monster movies were the ones with giant monsters. Giant monster could be scary but they usually weren’t too scary. When a monster is gigantic you can hear it coming. It’s unlikely to sneak up on you and eat you while you’re still alive. Most giant monsters were dangerous because they stepped on people, destroyed property and, occasionally, emitted deadly radiation, breathed fire or spit acid. Only a few of them were interested in people as food. Mostly they just seemed to be annoyed because people (and their cities) were in their way.

The big monster here is named Saurrnot. No real story here. He’s big and angry and steps on people.