There are a number of Miracle Maxs out there. There’s a Miracle Max in The Princess Bride. There’s some sort of dog detective series. Nizzibet and I have a character who, at least when we talk about him, goes by the name of Miracle Max.
Our Max is the ape character in the left corner. The girl to his right is one of his sidekicks.

In the middle is a dinosaur. No particular species.

At the bottom is the Helltiger. He’s a character similar to the Ghost Rider only with a flaming sabretooth tiger skull instead of a human’s. A very minor character in my universe but fun to draw every now and then.

People who know more than I figure that Jesus was probably born sometime in the spring or early summer. The shepherds were in the fields with their flocks. Winter isn’t a good time for that. December 25th got picked as the Big J’s birthday by the emperor Constantine as part his marketing campaign to convert the pagans. Most of the trappings of Christmas are adopted from non-christians faiths.

Whatever.

Nizzibet and I just finished exchanging presents. She’s napping for a bit before we do some last minute cleaning and cooking before our guest start arriving at noon.

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One person who was actually born today is my brother Tony. We almost never see each other but that’s certainly not his fault. He lives in Alaska, I live in Seattle and I doubt if either one of us have ever much money for travel.

Happy Birthday T!

This was the illustration I used for the cover of last week’s church bulletin.

This was the first Christmas themed illustration I did. I put it on the cover of the bulletin on Thanksgiving weekend.

This was the cover of the church bulletin three weeks ago.

I’m not a religious person. All religions make as much (or as little) sense to me as any religion I’d make up myself. It does seem to me that there’s something (?)Spiritual(?) in the universe, something connecting it all together. I’m also willing to consider that that perception is a comforting delusion. It’s certainly not worth arguing about.

Nizzibet is a church goer. Occasionally I join her. Usually when someone I know is speaking or singing. Or on holidays that are important to her.

I’ve offered to be available when the church needs cleaning or there’s some community service that needs doing (I’ve helped a couple of older people move). I also put together the church bulletin each week. Most weeks I chose the image for the cover from public domain art or photos I find on the internet. This month I’ve been doing original art on these weeks leading up to Christmas. This piece was from two Sundays ago.

The thing on the right is one of the main villains from Slime God Summer: an extradimensional fiend who is attempting to escape exile in a pocket universe. The beefy types on the page are sketches for soldiers. King Roach ends up dealing with soldiers a lot. He’s a big monster who fights big monsters. Who does society usually send to fight big monsters? Soldiers of course! So King Roach is often on the receiving end of soldiers’ bullets.

This is the page that reminds me that I’d been thinking of including Slime God Summer into the King Roach series. Most of the character on the page are from King Roach. The four disreputable dudes along the right and bottom (ducktail, buzzcut and the two long hairs) are from SGS. They make the mistake of picking on Kid K’tu H’lu while he is in human guise. Given that the Kid’s human guise is an ugly fat kid I’m sure the bullies assumed he was their natural prey. Big mistake.

Kid K’thu H’lu is from the (of course, unfinished and, obviously, unpublished) story Slime God Summmer. Three adolescent boys summon up the infant godling and, as they say, hilarity ensues. I’m pretty sure that this sketch ended up in this sketchbook (1999) because I was considering making SGS an episode in the King Roach series. The Kid is the squirmy figure at the top of the page. The head below it is its mother.

This was the black and white art for our Christmas card design for 1999. The final design was in color. If I get a chance I’ll see if I can locate the final artwork somewhere in my backups.