This story, on the other hand, is obviously a riff on an old Arabian Nights tale.

—

And thus endeth our flashback to 1988. A new sketchbook begins tomorrow.

Out in the present I’m working on covers for The Complete Annotated Oz Squad. Steve is collecting the series in two trade paperbacks for debut at this year’s San Diego ComiCon. The first volume will have 1-4 of Oz Squad, the Millenium Special and Lil’ Oz Squad. The second will have 5-10 of the series. I’m not sure what the “annotated” part will include.

I have great admiration for short story writers. It ain’t easy telling a story economically. At least, it ain’t easy for me. I have a hard time telling an anecdote from my own life. I’m not very good at summarizing books or novels I’ve just read. So I have no idea how I came up with this little story. It might have been one of those lucky occasions when the story popped full grown into my mind.

Nothing to say about this one. The calendar had to have a cover didn’t it?

When Luvset and I were kids (ten and eleven or maybe eleven and twelve) we guest dj’ed on a friend’s radio show. The show was broadcast by Sonoma State University in Cotati. I don’t remember now how many times we were on – two, three times at the most. The friend dj’ed under the name Johnny Petrol. My bro and I went by the names Jack Lightning and Davey Thunder. It was a lot of fun. Somewhere in the world there might still be a tape or two of the broadcasts.

Years later, when I was getting ambitious about minicomics I asked Luvset to write a series and we revived Lightning, Thunder and our version of Johnny Petrol. And no, we didn’t ask our friend if we could use the character. We were self absorbed, punk kids. Permission is so polite.

Petrol is the guy in shades holding things up. Lightning is the guy with the vest. Thunder is the geek with the hat. I’ve never let anyone call me Davey. I hate the nickname. But for this character it just seemed appropriate.

Merriam is an itinerant jeweler in a Tolkien/Robert Howard inspired world. She travels from town to town with her kids. When in the wildernesses between civilization she looks for the treasures of older, fallen cultures. Sometimes getting these treasures means fighting off their guardian monsters and demons.

If I had a choice of DC superheroes to use in a series Ragman would be at the top of a fairly short list. I think Ragman looks cool. I didn’t think either version of the actual character (during the time I was reading comics anyway) were particularly compelling. The creepy patchwork costume character idea is wonderful. This is an early version (not meant to be Ragman – I think he’s some sort of sorceror-highwayman) but I’m sure many more will show up in later sketches.

Nizzibet’s latest essay is up at Tuppenceworth.

Here we have the Woman with No Name. She wanders a post-apocalyptic landscape rightin’ wrongs and taking care of folks who need killin’. This series concept was inspired by Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns with flavor added from the Mad Max movie trilogy (among other end of the world influences). I’ve never named the main character. She’s tall and androgynous and ruthless in her pursuit of justice for the weak and wronged. The series was to be called Scarecrow. Cause that sounded good. She’s still wandering around my imagination and makes an occasional appearance in later sketchbooks.

From the 1989 calendar –

Here we have Lady Heather Ann Shatter and the Demon, Boralis. At one time I had a whole series of adventures imagined for the two of them. Lady Shatter was an ex-secret agent. Boralis was a demon who’d been stuck on the terrestrial plane for the last five centuries. They’ve continued to appear in my sketchbooks over the years, changing professions and histories but maintaining their basic personalities – Heather basically sweet but capable of great violence, Boralis pragmatic and ruthless with an amused affection for human beings.

My earliest drawing are of dinosaurs. I was drawing dinosaurs and other prehistoric creature long before I got around to drawing human beings. So obviously I had to include some dinosaurs in the 1989 calendar. At the time this was drawn the idea that dinosaurs might be warm-blooded active creatures (rather than sluggish swamp dwellers who dragged their tails) was still new and controversial.