Monthly Archives: February 2012

Fear the Raven’s Fist!

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RavenI’ve never been a big fan of the rich man vigilante superhero archetype. I like Batman and Zorro well enough but I can’t think of any other wealthy heroes that do much for me. Partly that’s because I’m not rich and likely never will be. Partly that’s because, it seems to me, there are more effective ways for a rich man to fight crime than to punch muggers. Punching bad guys is what you do when you can’t do much else.

This is the Raven. Yes, the Raven is a very similar name to the Crow. I’m pretty sure that was intentional. I liked the Crow comic. Unlike the Crow, the Raven is a living man. He’s a vigilante who fights crime on the streets.He doesn’t have any super powers. He’s a just a really good martial artist and crazy enough to think punching bad guys is a good way to spend his time.

I’ll probably never do anything with the character. Comics are full of costumed vigilantes. If I did make use of him I’d probably change his name.

Michaelangelo Void

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Michaelangelo VoidAnother piece from my 1993 portfolio. The character is Michaelango Void. He’s a John Constantine style magician – a bit of bastard, in other words. I did plan out a series of stories for him, back in the day, but, like most of the stories I’ve thought of, I didn’t get anywhere with them. I’d mostly forgotten about him until started looking through the portfolio.

Dragonslayer

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DragonslayerI’ve given away a lot of art over the years. If I didn’t give it away I saved it. I’ve got illustrations, sketches and doodles dating back to before I was in kindergarten. I’m probably not going to post anything old. At least not more than a drawing or two. And not anytime soon. For the most part I’ll be sticking to work from after 1991. I started taking figure drawing classes that year and it made a huge difference in the way I drew. It’s only in recent years that I’ve come to appreciate work that I did prior to those classes and been willing share it online.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting images from a portfolio I put together in 1993. I wanted a nice selection of art to show to publishers at comic book conventions to entice them into giving me work.

This is the oldest piece in the portfolio, done shortly after I started taking the figure drawing classes.

The Karl Show! Starring Jason

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Nizzibet and I were recently interviewed by on the The Karl Show! Starring Jason, a radio show out of Portland. It was two hours of music, comics and occasional political discussions. You can get to the official streaming audio of the interview by clicking on the link above. While the interview was happening, Patrick O’Hearn, a film maker and old friend of ours, had some fun illustrating audio feed. Below is the result.

Watch live streaming video from equalitytvstream at livestream.com

Here’s to William Ehmann Jr.

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On July 6th, 1988 I got a large manila envelope in the mail. Inside were 14 minicomics and one full zine. The name in the return address was Bill Ehmann Jr. Bill had seen some fliers I’d put up around town to advertise my services as an illustrator (art mercenary) and was inspired to send me some of his work.

These were the first minicomics I’d ever seen. I’d wanted to draw comics ever since I was a kid but I’d mostly given up on the idea of drawing for a “real” publisher. I was a better artist than most of the people I knew personally but I wasn’t nearly as good as the guys drawing for Marvel, DC, Charlton, Eclipse or … anybody. I couldn’t afford to print my own comics. Or so I thought.

Bill’s little xeroxed masterpieces gave me an example of what kind of comics I could do with the level of skill and the lack of budget I had. Two weeks after getting these in the mail I printed out one hundred copies of the first issue of Cheap Thrills at the Kinkos a few blocks from where I was living.

I never met Bill in person. I sent him some of the minicomics I did and traded a letter or two. I went to a showing of his collage art. He wasn’t doing minicomics by the time he sent me that package. I got lucky and got inspired.

Every so often I google his name. So far I haven’t had any luck at finding him. I’ve found listings of a few of the minis he sent me but nothing that points back to him.

So, Bill, if you’re out there, I want to say thank you again for sending me these minicomics. You turned on a light when I needed it!

Zipperhead #1

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Zipperhead #1Finally, we have Zipperhead, the friendly neighborhood serial killer. Of all the ACC characters, only Zipperhead had any life beyond these submissions. It wasn’t a public life. As far as I can remember he never saw print anywhere else. He just appears in my imagination when I need to consider an over the top psycho. I’ve got random sketches of him in my sketchbooks. I’ve got one specific story that I’d like to use him in but I’ll probably never get around to it. He’s got no origin tale. He doesn’t have any particular motivation for his kills nor does he have a preferred set of victims. He doesn’t have a favorite weapon. I don’t know what his face looks like under his mask. I don’t know how he breathes through that thing.

Zippie just kills people and then makes bad jokes about it. That’s his schtick. It keeps him happy.