Dorothy and the Lion taking a nap after a rough adventure. Make of it what you will.

In the center is the Lion in his human state.

Around him are various sketches of Nick Chopper’s head. This is Beastie’s Nick from my 1997 sketchbook, not Oz Squad’s Nick (from whenever the hell I finish drawing it). This Nick has been the King (Emperor?) of the Winkies for almost a century and he’s quite contented with that. Every couple of years he has a new body built for himself and has his old one installed in his palace gardens to gracefully rust away.

Let’s see now …

In the upper left is Lili Veracruz. Lili is always fun to draw. She’s familiar. And she’s massive – seven feet tall. Depending on what age I’m drawing her that mass can be sleek or it might have body fat.

To the left are two views of the Lion in his human form. Since this page is from ’97 this Lion is the Lion from Beastie’s Oz. I’d stolen the idea that the Lion could become human while on earth from Steve Ahlquist’s Oz Squad. I figured that if I ever developed Beastie into an actual published comic I’d either figure out a good reason while he was human that had nothing to do with Steve’s reasons or I change that aspect of the story. I also figured that if I developed Beastie into a published comic I call it something other than Beastie. Currently (in 2006) this is what the Lion is likely to look like if he turns human in Oz Squad.

In the bottom right is the Scarecrow from Beastie. He’s the same Scarecrow that Dorothy met when she first arrived in Oz. He’s now living in Europe, playin saxophone in a jazz band. He goes by the name Buster. I figured that since the Tinman’s name was Nick both the Lion and the Scarecrow should have proper names as well. I’ve forgotten what I named the Lion. I know it was something dumb like Leon. I figured I’d think of something better if needed.

Finally, we’ve got Jughead from Archie comics. Just because.

The Wizard (of Oz) is the only character on the page who is someone specific. He’s the gentlemen at the top there. I usually base my sketches of the Wizard on the Neill version. Neill’s Wizard doesn’t match his description in the text. Baum invariably says that the Wizard is as bald as an egg and “little”. Neill invariably drew him with a lively fringe of hair and the proportions of a tall man.

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Last night’s film festival was an interesting contrast to this weekend’s film festival. All of last night’s shorts were technically well done, that is, they were obviously made by people who knew how to record sound properly, light their subjects clearly and (mostly) edit their film in an effective rhythm. Most of the films last night didn’t tell stories. That’s an observation, not a complaint. SJ’s film had the clearest narrative. It was a fun piece. Red Riding Hood is adorable, the Wolf even more so.

Today’s 1997 sketches –

In blue pencil and in the center, Beastie makes her return. At this point the character had acquired a fairly complex backstory. She was Dorothy Gale, post Oz, post marriage and widowhood. In this version Dorothy lived the life you read about in the Oz books, let herself age and finally, sometime in the sixties, came back to America, got married and had a kid. Her husband and kid were killed so Dorothy, in the depths of depression, had herself returned to childhood. She grew up in America this time, though she still had an unusual childhood. She became a child actress and, for a while, starred on the most popular sitcom on TV. When that ended she joined the military, spent time as an MP and, after an honorable discharge, she set herself up as a fixer. Since she was rich from her acting career she didn’t need to work for money and could take any case that interested her. Now that I’m working on Oz Squad, Beastie has become someone else again.

The guy with his tongue sticking out is Archie Andrews, the brunette is Veronica Lodge. When I draw corporate comic strip/book characters I rarely make an attempt to present them in the corporate house style. It’s more fun for me to see if I can make them recognizable in my own style.

The dude with the pompadour and the goatee? No idea.
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Got back from the Lovecraft Film Festival about mid day yesterday. It was a lot of fun. Derek handed out about ninety copies of The Unspeakable and the Inhuman, the comedy audio serial he co-wrote and produced. Ramsey Campbell kindly autographed a copy of one of his books that I’d brought with me. I met Scott Glancy and very briefly discussed doing work for Pagan Publishing.

Derek and I decided to concentrate on watching short films, the sort of material that we’d be unlikely to find at the video store. Most of what we saw was interesting, though not all of it was good. One of my favorite pieces Old Time’s Sake had some of the best acting but suffered from poor sound and no budget special effects. There were three versions of The Music of Erich Zann, a story that I’m not so fond of to begin with. There was a very icky claymation version of From Beyond. And, as they say, many more.

Tonight I’m planning to go to see a block of short films by Seattle area film makers. Specifically I’m going to see Little Red Riding Hood by my friend SJ Chiro. Who knows what other little treasures I’ll see?

Here’s another version of the raggedy man character that haunts my brain. This version was a villainous sort. He was intended to be an enemy for Black Molly. Black Molly isn’t exactly a heroic character herself. This guy was much worse.

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Unless I get lucky and hook up with someone who will let me borrow their computer for a few minutes I won’t be posting on Saturday or Sunday. Derek and I are going down to Portland for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Nizzibet will be stuck no car and the evil, evil cat all weekend so feel free to call her and chat. Or invite her out to do something fun. She may just want to sleep but it’s always nice to have a choice.

I read to Nizzibet at bedtime. We’ve gone through the last few of Caroll O’Connell’s Mallory novels, most of Thomas Perry’s Jane Whitefield novels, quite a bit of Ursula K. Leguin’s fiction and sundry other stories this way. Currently we’re reading Lynn Hightower’s Lena Padgett series. We’re on the second installment Fortunes of the Dead.

Years ago, between me reading to her, Nizz would tell me stories. One of those stories was about a boy named Under and his adventures with a genie named Hajinn. The fellow with the horns in the upper right is Hajinn. One of these days, hopefully, Nizzibet will write the story down and shop it around to publishers. There were quite a few clever bits in the story that I’ve never seen duplicated.

You’ve probably noticed that the body part I draw most often is the head. Presumably the reason is obvious – the face is the most recognizable part of a person. People we’re familiar with we can usually recognize at a distance (providing they are behaving like themselves) but casual acquaintances need to be close enough for us to see the details of their faces.

I was in QFC on Sunday when the man in front of me was greated by the woman in front of him. He commented that he wouldn’t have recognized her if she hadn’t said anything. After she collected her groceries and left he told the clerk that she was an ex-girlfriend that he hadn’t seen in fifteen years, that he didn’t recognize her because she was dressed so conservatively.

I have no idea why the Scarecrow looks so sinister. It’s especially odd since Jack Pumpkinhead is looking as cheerful as ever. When I sketched this page back in (presumably) 1997 I had no thought of working on Oz Squad. Sketching Oz characters was as normal as sketching Dilbert. More normal actually. More fun too. This is obviously one of those pages I sketched to a) kill time, b) work off some drawing fidgets or c) both. Under Jack Pumpkinhead is an unfinished version of Ron Post. Under Ron is Black Molly. The rest of the folks are random inspirations.

Another pass at drawing friends and roommates from the S.K.I.G. Row days. These versions are less simplified but still very cartoony.

The girl with the big mouth was inspired by my dear friend Cindy. I don’t know if Cindy likes to argue or if she just considers arguing an important part of life. Either way, Cindy is a very good arguer. She’s also a very good peacemaker. I’ve seen her talk very drunk dudes at loud parties into behaving themselves. It seemed like either Cindy was at the Row or I was at her place almost every day.

The guy with the soul patch is based on Ryan Kursh, the original K in S.K.I.G. Row. Ryan passed away a few years ago.

The guy with the bowl hair cut is based on John Gerboth, the G in S.K.I.G. The bowl cut is a simplification of the eccentric hair cuts he regularly got. They tended to be odd asymmetrical things that probably would have looked like I was being sloppy if I’d tried to draw them.

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To all who have wandered here from Designers Who Blog this morning, WELCOME! Take a look around. Feel free to leave comments on any of the posts. Stop in again sometime.

And thank you to Cat, mistress of DWB, for deciding to feature me. I submitted this blog on a whim and hadn’t expected to hear back from her much less be included in her roll.