This drawing got used to illustrate an essay by Fred Burke in the first issue of Glyph Magazine but I don’t think that I originally drew it for that purpose. I could be remembering wrong.

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Real world update –

Enough. I’d like some time to get some artwork done please? I’m managing to get some work done here and there and some of the interruptions have been pleasant (the Ellen Forney reading on Wednesday for instance) but last night’s addition to the mess was just annoying. I got rear ended at a stop light. The back end of our Corolla is totalled, tail lights smashed, trunk pushed in. No damage to the other vehicle, a Ford truck from 1978. Its bumper went right over mine to do the squishing.

The driver seems like a good guy. The car should get fixed, whether by his insurance or by him directly I don’t know yet. I just don’t want to spend the time dealing with it, y’know? After a multitude of family ailments, the ongoing IRS saga, earlier car repairs and my own plain tiredness I’m ready to win the lottery now. What? No I don’t play. Another distraction.

Okay. Done with the whining for now.

Today’s Oz character sketches are not Oz Squad related. Back in 1995 when this page was sketched the only Oz project I was working on was Wild Nights in Oz with my brother, Glenn. These sketches aren’t related to that either. Some days I just feel like drawing Oz characters.

There’s a “rule” in writing children’s stories that girls will read (and enjoy) stories with boys as the hero, but boys won’t read (or even consider) stories with girls as the hero. Please. That rule was made up by weeny men that find tough independent women scary. Because they’re weenies they find tough independent females of any age scary. Dorothy Gale is one of my fictional heroes. She’s smart, she’s rational and she never says die. That’s a good role model for either sex.

This has been your uncaffeinated babble for the day.

On the bottom left is a sketch of Black Molly from the back. On the top and bottom right are portraits of Octobriana. My main exposure to the character is through her appearance in Bryan Talbot’s brilliant Adventures of Luther Arkwright. The portrait in the middle? Don’t know.

Still not a very complete sketch of Black Molly. Molly is one of the multitude of characters that makes repeat appearances in my sketchbooks but has never made it into print anywhere. Not that I’m exactly pushing my way onto newstands and bookseller shelves around the world. For those unfamiliar with the characters, Molly is the wirey figure here, Lili is the massive one. The wirey girl with the buzzcut is the same as the wirey one with shoulder length hair. Clear as crystal, right?

And the figure in the bottom right? Where Molly has her legs wrapped around some schmoe’s shoulders? She’s running her swords through his chest. Molly is not a nice person. The schmoe probably isn’t a nice person either.

Ooops. Too late now. Don’t worry. It’s art.

Last angel sketch, this one without any collateral damage.

Ah “collateral damage”. You just know there’s a circle of Hell for the assholes who spend their time thinking up neutral euphemisms for evil deeds.

I’m pretty sure that this sketch was done the same day as the one I posted yesterday. Another version of the angel of all things ouchy.

Somedays I’m in bad mood and then I do sketches like this. Some days I’m in a great mood. And I do sketches like this. Basically this sketch doesn’t tell us a thing about how I was feeling the day I drew it back in 1995.

Uptop we have Cthuhu. This version is an attempt to combine Matt Howarth’s version with the H.P. Lovecraft winged and tentacled original. Both Howarth and Lovecraft have been big influences on my art. Howarth, being an artist, has been a more direct one than Lovecraft but they’ve both done their share of damage. Howarth generally writes his own stories (usually quirky scifi and horror featuring psychos and musicians) and draws in a style like no one else. Lovecraft, well, Lovecraft writes about hideous indescribable horrors that are just asking for someone to try depicting. The challenge is keeping the illustrations (and the creatures in them) strange and alien. Only a few artists do that well. I’ll leave it to others to decide if I get close to succeeding.

Downbelow we have the Pile from Misspent Youths. The Pile is a … pile … of sewer debris that came to life one day. He’s pretty good natured for such a creature. He’s got no grudge against humanity. He plays a pretty good harmonica.

Here we have the Weirdsmith, 1995 version. Probably the earliest version. The Weirdsmith is one of many characters who came to me as images before I had any sort of story to tell about them. In W’s case the image is of a guy in a suit wearing gloves and a strange inhuman mask. The suit is featureless. That is, when drawn, only the edges have definition, it’s a single color or shade.

The really rough sketch in the corner is the Weirdsmith sans mask, long haired and burnt out looking. Or at least he’d look that way if I’d finished the sketch.