This illustration was for a party invitation for the first Halloween Nizzibet and I lived in Seattle. The inks on this piece were done by Pia Guerra. I’d met Pia back in ’91 at the big San Diego Comic Con. We worked on the first issue of a series called WEIRD Knights (me writing, she penciling) that never made it to the inking (much less publishing) stage. In ’93 we did a couple of stories (me writing, she penciling, me inking) for Millenium Press that saw print in Asylum #1. She has since gone on to fame and fortune as the artist for Y the Last Man.

Continuing our journey through my sketchbook from 1995, we reach another one of those pages with stuff on it. A bug, a face and a hand holding a glass. Is there a profound connection between these images? Does the man’s hounddog expression result from a disease in his water from the bacteria carried by the insect? We’ll never know.

We are now looking for another new (used) car. The body shop told me Friday that it would cost more to fix it than to replace it. And that it might not be legal to drive it in its current condtion. If you know of anyone with a good used car for sale, in the Seattle area, please let me know. We’re ideally looking for another Toyota Corolla but we’re not married to that idea.

This drawing got used to illustrate an essay by Fred Burke in the first issue of Glyph Magazine but I don’t think that I originally drew it for that purpose. I could be remembering wrong.

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Real world update –

Enough. I’d like some time to get some artwork done please? I’m managing to get some work done here and there and some of the interruptions have been pleasant (the Ellen Forney reading on Wednesday for instance) but last night’s addition to the mess was just annoying. I got rear ended at a stop light. The back end of our Corolla is totalled, tail lights smashed, trunk pushed in. No damage to the other vehicle, a Ford truck from 1978. Its bumper went right over mine to do the squishing.

The driver seems like a good guy. The car should get fixed, whether by his insurance or by him directly I don’t know yet. I just don’t want to spend the time dealing with it, y’know? After a multitude of family ailments, the ongoing IRS saga, earlier car repairs and my own plain tiredness I’m ready to win the lottery now. What? No I don’t play. Another distraction.

Okay. Done with the whining for now.

Today’s Oz character sketches are not Oz Squad related. Back in 1995 when this page was sketched the only Oz project I was working on was Wild Nights in Oz with my brother, Glenn. These sketches aren’t related to that either. Some days I just feel like drawing Oz characters.

There’s a “rule” in writing children’s stories that girls will read (and enjoy) stories with boys as the hero, but boys won’t read (or even consider) stories with girls as the hero. Please. That rule was made up by weeny men that find tough independent women scary. Because they’re weenies they find tough independent females of any age scary. Dorothy Gale is one of my fictional heroes. She’s smart, she’s rational and she never says die. That’s a good role model for either sex.

This has been your uncaffeinated babble for the day.

On the bottom left is a sketch of Black Molly from the back. On the top and bottom right are portraits of Octobriana. My main exposure to the character is through her appearance in Bryan Talbot’s brilliant Adventures of Luther Arkwright. The portrait in the middle? Don’t know.

Still not a very complete sketch of Black Molly. Molly is one of the multitude of characters that makes repeat appearances in my sketchbooks but has never made it into print anywhere. Not that I’m exactly pushing my way onto newstands and bookseller shelves around the world. For those unfamiliar with the characters, Molly is the wirey figure here, Lili is the massive one. The wirey girl with the buzzcut is the same as the wirey one with shoulder length hair. Clear as crystal, right?

And the figure in the bottom right? Where Molly has her legs wrapped around some schmoe’s shoulders? She’s running her swords through his chest. Molly is not a nice person. The schmoe probably isn’t a nice person either.

Ooops. Too late now. Don’t worry. It’s art.

Last angel sketch, this one without any collateral damage.

Ah “collateral damage”. You just know there’s a circle of Hell for the assholes who spend their time thinking up neutral euphemisms for evil deeds.

I’m pretty sure that this sketch was done the same day as the one I posted yesterday. Another version of the angel of all things ouchy.