This was the illustration I used for the cover of last week’s church bulletin.

This was the first Christmas themed illustration I did. I put it on the cover of the bulletin on Thanksgiving weekend.

This was the cover of the church bulletin three weeks ago.

I’m not a religious person. All religions make as much (or as little) sense to me as any religion I’d make up myself. It does seem to me that there’s something (?)Spiritual(?) in the universe, something connecting it all together. I’m also willing to consider that that perception is a comforting delusion. It’s certainly not worth arguing about.

Nizzibet is a church goer. Occasionally I join her. Usually when someone I know is speaking or singing. Or on holidays that are important to her.

I’ve offered to be available when the church needs cleaning or there’s some community service that needs doing (I’ve helped a couple of older people move). I also put together the church bulletin each week. Most weeks I chose the image for the cover from public domain art or photos I find on the internet. This month I’ve been doing original art on these weeks leading up to Christmas. This piece was from two Sundays ago.

The thing on the right is one of the main villains from Slime God Summer: an extradimensional fiend who is attempting to escape exile in a pocket universe. The beefy types on the page are sketches for soldiers. King Roach ends up dealing with soldiers a lot. He’s a big monster who fights big monsters. Who does society usually send to fight big monsters? Soldiers of course! So King Roach is often on the receiving end of soldiers’ bullets.

This is the page that reminds me that I’d been thinking of including Slime God Summer into the King Roach series. Most of the character on the page are from King Roach. The four disreputable dudes along the right and bottom (ducktail, buzzcut and the two long hairs) are from SGS. They make the mistake of picking on Kid K’tu H’lu while he is in human guise. Given that the Kid’s human guise is an ugly fat kid I’m sure the bullies assumed he was their natural prey. Big mistake.

Kid K’thu H’lu is from the (of course, unfinished and, obviously, unpublished) story Slime God Summmer. Three adolescent boys summon up the infant godling and, as they say, hilarity ensues. I’m pretty sure that this sketch ended up in this sketchbook (1999) because I was considering making SGS an episode in the King Roach series. The Kid is the squirmy figure at the top of the page. The head below it is its mother.

This was the black and white art for our Christmas card design for 1999. The final design was in color. If I get a chance I’ll see if I can locate the final artwork somewhere in my backups.

A sketch of one of the (at least) seven illegent species on the planet Babble. This species is generally nomadic making yearly circuits across the great plains of Babble’s main northern continent.

Babble is so named because it’s a noisy planet. Much of the plant life has hollow parts that catch the planet’s constant wind and so rattle, whistle and moan.

In the top left corner is an evolve lemur.

In the top right is a rough sketch of an intelligent zero g crustacean.

At the bottom is a size comparison sketch of a six foot tall human and a /male and /female Burrabb. I haven’t altered the Burrabb body design much since I drew this sketch back in 1999. Most of the changes have been to the design of the head. The Burrabb are a two sexed species with one sex being substantially larger than the other. The Burrabb sexes don’t directly translate to human male and human female. The breeding process is rather different than ours. The social structure resembles what might develop if lions became civilized, a society in which group marriages are the biological norm. It’s not polygamy if everybody does it.