Author Archives: skook

Coloring Oz – Ozma 2

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This illustration of Ozma was done back in March as I was putting the finishing touches on the cover layout for Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers. I hadn’t intended to use this piece on the cover. The back cover (only available on the print edition) has four circular portraits of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion as part of the design. The ones that are on the cover now are actually the second set of portraits. The first set was too complex and clashed with the cover design.

While I was working on the first set of portraits I sketched up an additional four portraits of other important Oz personages. As with the main four each additional portrait was to have a scene from the character’s history in the background. For Ozma it’s a scene of her approaching the Emerald City on her first adventure. Of course, on her first adventure, Ozma was a young boy and didn’t remember having once been a princess.

This portrait of Ozma is the only one of the additional illustrations that I finished. I started portraits of Ozzy, the Wizard and the Woggle-Bug but they didn’t get beyond the basic inking stage. I’ll post those later in the week.

Coloring Oz – Ozma 1

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I’m done with my summer quarter. I finished my last final a week ago. I’m still working an internship until the middle of September so I’m not suddenly blessed with a lot of free time. I’m just now able to think about things other than school, work and chores. Now it’s just work and chores. Yay!

One of the first things I want to get together is an actual website for Oz Squad. The current one is just a quick placeholder. I’d started work on a site before school started and then lost what little I’d managed to do when my laptop died.

Speaking of Oz Squad, the sketch above is my version of Ozma. I figured no one is going to keep the same look for a hundred years, so no poppies for this princess!

A Modest Proposal

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By 1990 I’d written and drawn 18 minicomics on my own and contributed to quite a few minicomic anthologies published by other folks and I was feeling deluded enough to think I was ready to do a “real” comic. In my case a “real” comic was something printed rather than photocopied, that had a color cover and that would get distributed in comic book stores. I had two ways of going about it – I could self-publish (something quite a few artists were doing at the time) or I could find a publisher. I figured I’d see if I could find a publisher first and go the self publishing route if that didn’t work out.

I’d done eight issues of The Highly Unlikely Adventures of Moe and Detritus minicomic and had gotten fond of the characters. So I put together a proposal – a cover, two pages of a cast of characters, 4 pages of sample story and a back cover. I found that proposal recently while sorting boxes so I’m presenting it here.









Lord, that lettering is tiny. If you click on the above images you can see larger versions but the writing will still be almost illegible. And those images have been enlarged from the original proposal.

I don’t remember how many publishers I sent the proposal to. I know I sent one to Piranha Press, DC Comic’s alternative comics imprint. I’m sure I’ve got the rejection letter from Piranha somewhere in my files. It was a personal note suggesting that I try for something a bit less ambitious than a 30 issue limited series.

If I sent the proposal to anyone other than Brave New Words I no longer remember who they were. I definitely didn’t get any other replies. BNW picked up the series and we managed a run of five issues in a little over a year before we mutually agreed to cancel it. The four pages of sample story saw print as the first four pages in the first issue of Misspent Youths.

Don’t Get Sick!

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I might not be able to draw much (at all) these days but some of the work I did earlier this year is seeing release now. Acute Care is available now at DriveThruMedia from 3Hombres Games. Dave Schuey wrote it and I did the illustrations. Imagine your worst doctor’s visit ever. Add in angry spirits and alien horrors and start running! (Too bad you’re strapped down. Good luck!)

Spirit Medicine

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Ten-Ghost by Adam J. Thaxton

Lucy Alraune Greeble, Ten-Ghost Who Finishes the Test Satisfactorily.

Child of mandrake, earth and blood. Doctor. Shaman. Non-person. Oath keeper. Wanderer in this world and many others.

Lucy is a nomad spiritual physician. Her travels take her wherever her skills are needed. That could be a hermit’s hut in the far wilderness, the home of the scheming wealthy, the land of the dead, a town on the edge of a wounded dream or a hospital in a throbbing metropolis.

Ten-Ghost tells the story of about a year of Lucy’s travels. It’s been a long time since I’ve read any science fiction or fantasy and this book reminded me why I don’t do that much anymore. A good SF story requires some work from the reader. You need to put yourself into an alien world and figure out what’s going on based on the clues that the author gives you. Without a lot of time to read these days I haven’t felt like I’ve had the time to work with a story. Nonfiction books or mystery novels are easy to slip in and out of during the few minutes I’ve got available for reading.

Ten-Ghost is Weird Fiction. Thraxton drops you into Lucy’s world, a place of spirit life, multiple gods and cultures and beings and expects you to keep up. The chapters are basically short stories, each one building on the previous. I didn’t read the back cover blurb until I’d gotten about a third of the way through the book. I can’t say it does the story justice. The story is a quieter one than the blurb implies.

When I read SF stories my imagination conjures up the world I’m reading about. It helps me center myself in the story. Often times I do by using the cover art as a starting point and the world I visualize gets built from there. I couldn’t really do it with the cover here. It’s not a bad piece of art, it just doesn’t match the world I built. The book had a lot of great visuals. I wish I had time to illustrate this review with a sketch.

And, for the sake of transparency, Adam sent me a copy of this book. He did not actually ask me to review it. If I hadn’t like it I probably wouldn’t be writing this post. Since I did, a positive review seems like the best way to say thank you.

Ow, My Sanity is Adam’s long running, crudely but effectively drawn Lovecraftian manga. It’s on hold now while he finishes other projects but there’s plenty to read.

And apparently there is a sequel on the way. Yay!

The Highly Unlikely Adventures of Moe and Detritus #2

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Here’s the second issue of The Highly Unlikely Adventures of Moe and Detritus. I also stole this one from my friend’s Facebook gallery. And many thanks to him for posting these pages so I could!

This issue introduces Buffy Crawfield, who would go to have a reoccurring role in Misspent Youths and Chickenhead, who would have a reappear in later issues of Moe and Detritus. The back cover ad is for an album by Ruptured Internal Organs, a band that Moe opens for in the first issue of Misspent Youths. Not that I knew any of this when I drew this story. I was making it up as I went along.











The Highly Unlikely Adventures of Moe and Detritus #1

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Way back in 1988 I drew and published (via a copy machine at this new 24 hour copy chain called Kinkos) the first issue of The Highly Unlikely Adventures of Moe and Detritus. I really had no idea what I’d do with the characters and I certainly didn’t plan on making The Pile one of the regular case. But there you go.

And here you go. A friend of mine recently posted these scans online at his Facebook account. Now I’ve swiped them and sharing them with the rest of you.

If you have a hard time reading the lettering just click on the page for a larger image.











This minicomic was 8 pages plus a cardstock cover. If you count you can see that there are only 11 pages here. I used the back cover to advertise Cheap Thrills, my first minicomic series. My friend didn’t include a scan of that so it’s not included here either. You’re not missing much.

Frankenstein on the Bus

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So I’m commuting again and so I’ve got time to read. I’m expecting to be reading textbooks when school starts again next week but in the meantime I’m trying to make it through a stack of recently borrowed library books.

The Secret Laboratory Journals of Victor Frankenstein by Jeremy Kay

This one is a breezy cliff notes adaptation of the original Frankenstein. It’s a “reproduction” of Victor’s journals, handwriting, sketches, bills to tradesmen and all. As with most adaptations of the story, the account of the creation of the monster is greatly expanded. Kay also adds in the characters of Franz and Praetorius as Frankenstein’s partners in monster building. Frankenstein comes off as less self centered and the Monster more evil in this version.


The Bride of Frankenstein by Elizabeth Hand.

The copy I’ve got is subtitled Pandora’s Bride but that text is missing on the image I swiped from Amazon. This sequel to The Bride of Frankenstein film is never boring. The Bride saves Dr. Praetorius from the destruction of Frankenstein’s laboratory and off they journey into a movie fairy tale version of 1920’s Germany. It’s pure pulp. Henry Frankenstein and his Monster are both in hot pursuit. Pandora (as the Bride names herself) encounters an array of real historic figures and characters from M, Metropolis, The Blue Angel, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and probably other films I don’t recognize. I’d read another story with these characters if Hand were to write one.