The three characters here are re-imagining of Atlas comics characters. I’ve helpfully labeled each sketch so if you’re interested in finding out more about the original version of each character just go to the who’s who section on the other side of that link.
Betsy Bobbin
Betsy Bobbin is second in the earthly girlie trio of Oz. First comes Dorothy, then comes Betsy, then comes Trot. They’re all girls who came from the outside work, specifically America, and were invited to settle in Oz by Princess Ozma. This version of Betsy is for Oz Squad. The image here is a scan of the base artwork used to the color version here.
Father’s Day
I did this illustration for the Father’s Day edition of the church bulletin back in 2006.
Variety
This page was random practice sketches. In the top left is probably a portrait based on a photo. I don’t recognize her otherwise. In the top right is good ol’ Detritus.
In the middle left, Trouble Coyote. In the middle right is probably the Mayor from Finnegan’s Brink, the graphic novel that Nizzibet and I may finish before we drop dead. At the bottom are sketches for King Roach adversaries.
The Thunder and Lightning Show
After revisiting the priests I decided that I wanted to sketch some other characters I hadn’t done in a long time. Out came Johnny Petrol, Jack Lightning, Davey Thunder and Rabbit Ears the Elf.
Evolution
The thing at the top is one of the Suessaliens.
The three creatures at the bottom of this image are the same three from my 1988 sketchbook. Only the way I depict them has changed in the passing eighteen years. The human and burrabb priests still compete to save the souls of the natives. The natives still blissfully ignore them.
Suessaliens
More aliens from the Dr. Suess planet.
Dunak
In seventh grade English class we had 15 minutes of free reading each period. Since I read all the time on my own anyway I wanted to do something different. I asked if I could spend those 15 minutes writing a science fiction novel. I got down 167 pages before the end of the year. I’m sure I’ve got the manuscript in a box somewhere. I’m pretty sure that there’s little salvageable in it except for Dunak and his intelligent ship.
Dunak was a blue furred creature out exploring the galaxy. I’ve redesigned him a few times since seventh grade but he always looks basically cute.
The goofy looking thing on the left is not related to Dunak. He/she/it is an inhabitant of a world that looks like it was designed by Dr. Suess. As interpreted by me since no one draws like Dr. Suess.
The Black Destroyer
I did this sketch right after reading the first quarter of A.E. Van Vogt’s Voyage of the Space Beagle. The book is divided into four parts; each part featuring an encounter with a different, dangerous alien species. The creature here, the Coeurl, infiltrates the ship and kills a few members of the crew before the humans manage to trick it back off the ship. Voyage is one of the classics of the space exploration genre of science fiction and, unfortunately, like many old science fiction novels it’s a bit hard to read now. I’ve already encountered many of its more interesting ideas in more recent SF novels (or comics or movies or TV). Without the novelty of new aliens and weird concepts we’re left with flat characters and outmoded science. That can be fun to read as an exploration of 1950s nerd culture but it’s not so engrossing that I want to do it very often.
Serious Women
Most women are beautiful and their beauty comes in a wide variety. These sketches are examples of me trying to represent some of that variety with pencil and paper.
And, hey, a date. It only took me a few decades to think that dating my sketches might be a good idea.
