This sketch was an attempt to create a mascot for the Sentient 39 illustrations series. It didn’t need a mascot but mascots are fun. And evil and disgusting. This one didn’t have quite the mix that I wanted.

I’m taking February off from posting.

I still love you.

I’ll be back with the finished Weirdsmith image on March 1st.

While we wait for me to find the finished Weirdsmith piece let me update you on current projects –

Oz Squad – In progress. Really. 48 pages of layouts. 11 pages of completed pencils.

Oziana 2006 – At the printer presumably. I contributed illustrations to a story and a poem.

Baum Bugle – In progress. I’ve been asked to rewrite the Oz Comics webpage for print in the next issue. I need to flesh out the plot summaries of the different comics and get some good scans of the covers. The trickiest series looks like it will be Peter Pan and the Warlords of Oz. I’ve found very little about it online either as commentary or as issues for sale.

The Black Seal – In progress. Both the 4th issue and Viet Nam number are mostly done. I’m waiting on some specs to finish the illustrations for the 4th issue and I’ve still got a short comic to do for the Viet Nam number.

Worlds of Cthulhu – Finished illustrations for an article in the 5th issue.

Mansions of Madness – Finished illustrations for a reissue of this Chaosium book. To be published sometime this year I believe.

The Spiraling Worm – In progress. I’m providing the cover illustration for this collection of Mythos fiction by David Conyers and John Sunseri. My layouts have been approved and I’m in the process of painting/coloring it.

There’s other things here and there. Possibly a large illustration job for Labor of Love Creative. No deadline on that yet.

No post today and maybe not tomorrow. I want the next one to be the finished version of the Weirdsmith but I’ve run into a snag in getting it off my backup.

Glenn tagged me with this meme last year. I didn’t respond right away and the more time passed the harder it got to respond. Now Schuyler has tagged me. It looks like the rules have changed a bit in the months since Glenn first sent it my way.

Here are the details: Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says “you’re tagged” in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means. So here goes.

1. I take great comfort in the idea that the universe is bigger than I can imagine, that the Earth is a tiny little speck in the midst of it and that a thousand years after I’m dead no one will remember or care that I was ever here.

2. I see things. Dinosaurs walking down the street. Squid climbing trees. The skeleton beneath your skin and the writhing demon in your skull. These aren’t hallucinations. I don’t mistake them for reality.

3. I used to do dangerous things when no one was looking. Explore abandoned buildings. Walk off into the woods at night. Walk through bad neighborhoods. I’ve never needed peer pressure to be stupid. I’m really more likely to be stupid by myself. I do it less now mostly because I just don’t have as much time as I used to.

4. I have a guardian angel. It’s got multiple wings and claws and teeth and just because it love me that doesn’t mean it’s going to make my life easy. Yes, I’m an agnostic. No, I don’t see any contradiction.

5. When I was a kid I noticed that old people had a lot of wrinkles. Old people who frowned a lot and didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves had less attractive wrinkles than those who smiled and had a good time with life. So I’ve spent a lot of time smiling and being cheerful for vanity’s sake. I want good looking wrinkles.

6. It usually takes me forever to decide someone is a friend. Well, not forever, years. I used have a hard time talking to strangers or new acquaintances because I figured they wouldn’t be around long enough to be friends so it didn’t make sense to spend the time with them. Not that I didn’t enjoy myself when some stranger talked to me. It always amazed me that my dad would strike up a conversation with people standing next to him in line.

I’ve tagged Leif, Jenn, Kip, Mad Dog, Nick (though I couldn’t seem to add a comment to any of his entries so he’ll have to find out about it here) and, because maybe having two people pointing at her will make her jump – Ninnah.

Ah zombies. Who doesn’t love these shambling echoes of humanity? Who doesn’t delight in waving their tasting limbs in front of these sad creatures, laughing as they lurch after us. What a merry chase!

The finished version of this piece is in my Epilogue gallery. All the finishing was done in Photoshop.

The finished version of this piece is in my Epilogue gallery. Other than Henry (Frankenstein’s creation) and Archie (the manticore) none of these creatures have names.

The finished version of this illustration is in my Epilogue gallery. Most of the time I ink a piece before I scan it in. Many of the illustrations I did for the Sentient 39 sequence I experimented with inking them in Photoshop using my WACOM tablet. The results aren’t bad but, really, I like using a brush or a pen and making marks on paper. So the WACOM tablet gets used when I color but most of the base of an illustration is finished before I scan it.

This is a Nooknook, one of an intelligent species living on an icy world. The Nooknook are six limbed herbivores. Nizzibet loaned them to me one day and I’ve never given them all the back.

The finished version of this illustration can be found in my Epilogue.net gallery.