Back seems to determined to reject the rest of me today. Or perhaps the other way around. Was crossing the street and something went squink. Now I’ve got all the mobility of the living dead. Standard living dead not these hopped up 21st century jobs.
Eyes aren’t focusing too well either.
End weather report.
That miniseries I’m illustrating?
It’s Oz Squad.
No, I didn’t make the page with this in mind. I got offered the job after contacting Chris Reilly. He’d mentioned in an online interview that he was working with Steve Ahlquist on a project (- not Oz Squad). Steve created Oz Squad back in the ’90s. (Founded on and continuing the works of L. Frank Baum, of course.) Chris emailed back saying that he and Steve were planning to relaunch the series – would I be interested in drawing it?
Note: This comic book series has been described by Oz collector Steve Teller as “the most repellent published work with the name Oz in the title I have ever seen,” and features strong scenes of violence and gunplay. Inappropriate for the young and the young at heart.
Ah yes. Nothing like bad taste to get my blood flowing. I’ll post samples of the art to my gallery at Epilogue.net as I finish it. Nothing that will give the story away. Just a glimpse or two to whet your appetite. Or completely turn you off. Tastes vary.
Busy. Of course.
Current creative projects –
Working out plot details with Nizzibet for Finnegan’s Brink. I expect to start drawing that in June. Nizzibet would be writing and coloring.
The Journals of Lado Perapek continues. New page up today.
I’ve got biweekly illustration goals for Mandate of Heaven. Still much to do and I’d like to have as much of it done as possible by June so I can dive in to Finnegan.
LuvSet’s and my Oz collaboration. No goals currently other than to get it done eventually.
A comic and illustrations for one article in The Black Seal #4. This will be the big Viet Nam issue. Both the article and the comic are already written. I’ve just got to draw. I hope to have this done by June as well. TBS #3 can be preordered through the website.
And just added to all that, this four issue miniseries. I don’t think it’s a secret but until I talk to my partners I’ll keep mum on it. The goal is to have that finished in a year.
Just call me Sleepy, Grumpy and Delirious for the immediate future.
Sometime earlier this week it sank in that Aged Mother is unlikely to drop dead anytime soon. Part of me has been waiting for her to do that ever since she got here and it became clear that she was much more frail and worn out than I’d been expecting. Not like I wanted her to but, if the inevitable is coming, I do like to be prepared.
And she kept not dying. We’ve made arrangements so (mostly) she doesn’t need us during the night. We’ve got a routine down for eating and napping. The living room got rearranged so that she could have a napping couch and we could still hang out when we wanted to. We’ve got a person coming in once a week so Nizzibet and I can get out of the house for a few hours.
Finally this week I stopped trying to fit art time in around her schedule and just started drawing whenever I could sit down for a few minutes. Given that I seem to have agreed to draw a four issue comic book miniseries (more details on that as it develops) over the next year I better get used to drawing all the time.
Back to work.
I just looked through every cover in the Spider-Man Cover Archive. Wow. Forty years of the Web Slinger. The images span the gamut from nifty but crude to graphically slick to just plain awful. Countless returns from Doc Ock, Kraven the Hunter, the Lizard, the Kingpin, the Vulture, Electro, the Shocker, the Rhino, the Black Cat and so on and so on and so on. Writers with more time and clarity than I can detail where the series jumped the shark and why it should be put to rest.
And this is just a Spider-Man archive. I’d hate to see what a Superman or Batman archive would look like. Or even Archie. Yikes.
The Mystery Person returns. Once again she/he/its statements are in bold and my replies are in italics
David,
You’re killing me. Of course I’ve got the right David Lee Ingersoll. Why, I’ve even got a signed copy of the first “Cheap Thrills” comic (that cuts it down to 100 – now if you could only remember who you gave them to).
M.P.
Having a copy of “Cheap Thrills” does narrow the field quite a bit both in time and place. You still might be someone I only knew through correspondence. I’d traded a few “Cheap Thrills” with other cartoonists. Not that I think that. I’ve assumed from the beginning that you were someone I knew (perhaps still know) personally. I’m just also being sure to keep open all other possibilities. I try not too assume too much and cut off possible avenues of investigation.
I’m not trying to torment you with this. This is supposed to be fun. Everything I will tell you is true. Personal details would give me away in a second. I will give myself away quickly enough as it is. You’ve probably already figured out my gender.
Rest assured that while I was not your best friend, I was certainly more than a casual acquaintance.
Oh, I am having fun. If I seem terse it’s only from lack of sleep and a narrow window of time to write. That cuts down on my ability to edit and rethink my statements. No upset here. Curious.
Like I said in our previous exchange I’ve assumed that you are male. This being an assumption I’m also not counting on it being true.
More than a casual acquaintance. Hmmm.
I have some questions to ask of you. I am looking for enlightenment. Perhaps our discussion will add something to your blog beyond a simple guessing game.
The questions will be coming.
Ask away. Enlightenment can be found in all sorts of odd places. Maybe even here. I’ll toss a few back your way. Not questions as to who you are, questions to keep the game going.
Such as –
Where did you expect to be by now? Not where emotionally or careerwise. Where physically?
Who did you expect to be?
Would you still with to be that person if you could?
This all may take a while, but you’re a patient guy?
….
Site for the day:
Graphically watch artist Louis Wain slip into the depths of insanity.
-MP
Interesting. Pretty. A good example that doing drugs is artificial insanity. The last cats in the series remind me of what the world sometimes looks like when I’ve been peaking on acid.
Imagine living in this house. I’d so love to have the time and money to be crazy. It doesn’t seem to be any fun for those who can’t help it but I’ve spent most of my life consciously being sane. Gets awfully boring. Still, it’s easier to keep friends if you’re only a little crazy.
Cheers!
DLI
Apparently the Keenspace gang has gotten the bugs out at last. Yay team!!! They had a server crash back at the end of January and, while they managed to get all the current comics back up in a couple of days, all the sites were in read only mode until just today. Or at least my site was. Everything has now updated. The art you see in yesterday’s entry here can be found in it’s proper context over at Sentient 39. Apologies for not providing proper links. Exhaustion and all.
So far so good. Keenspace apparently has the images. It just isn’t able to load them. Or refresh them. Or whatever.
Personal weather report – cranky with a chance of snappishness. Lack of uninterrupted sleep and an excess of caffeine have resulted in a high pressure system that is just waiting to rain on everyone’s parade. There is a possibility of a nap in the late afternoon that could diffuse the situation. Lack of nap is likely to result in much whininess and self-pity.
Now all I have to do is figure out how to add a comment field. Though that may be a Blogger Pro function.
Perhaps I could turn this into a team blog. Or start a new one. Anyone interested? The activity over on the Yahoo group I sort of started seems to have died back. Blogger didn’t exist when we created it.
You don’t have to be able to talk to Skook. There’s a lot improv sign language involved in that. Hell, I barely talk to Skook these days.
