thePenguin12

Kickstarter is Kicking!

2012-02-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

Hey, y'all!

Just to let you know, I've just launched my Kickstarter campaign to finance my newest comic book, The Human Cannonball #1! Check it out here. I'm super-stoked about the project; the donation period opens today, and ends April 1st. Any donations will be greatly appreciated!

Rick Out.

Comic Book Review: Amulet series

2011-11-30T17:13:00.000-08:00

Amulet
Written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi

I picked this one up at the library, in the kid's comic book section (there's some good stuff in there). The story concerns a girl named Emily, and her discovery of a magic amulet. Having lost her father in a car accident, Emily, her mother, and her brother Navin move into their great-grandfather Silas's home. When Emily's mother is kidnapped by a tentacled creature in the basement, Emily and Navin set off in search of her. Their journey takes them to the home of Silas and his robotic assistants; it is his dying wish that Emily take the stone and save the strange parallel earth from the wicked Elf King and his army. Along the way, they are menaced by the Elf Prince, Elf soldiers, various strange creatures, and the seductive power of the Amulet.

Kazu Kibuishi delivers a solid series, illustrated in a loose cartoon style. The story is kid-friendly, but engaging enough that any comics reader will find it satisfying; there are no pretensions here, no high concept, just a diverting adventure. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Begin comic upload sequence...final!

2011-11-27T07:23:00.000-08:00

The back cover:

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Take a break. Grab a beer. Relax.

2011-11-14T08:50:00.001-08:00

Whew - that's a lot of uploading. Here's a picture of me, relaxing:

Ladies, feel free to faint with passion.

That thing on my head, by the way, is the hat I just crocheted - my friend Lauren showed me how to do it. I'm very proud. Here it is, up close:

Unfortunately, I made the crochets on the first round way too tight, so it squeezes my head (I have a friggin' huge noggin), so I'm planning to take it apart somewhat and correct the situation. At least it doesn't fall off my head. The nice thing about making your own clothes - besides the fact that you look so impoverished, no one would dream of mugging you - is that they're all custom-made. I have problems with winter hats: they are either beanies, or way too big and hot. This way I at least have a hat I can stand, and I have no one to blame but myself if it's uncomfortable. Also, yarn is pretty cheap. I'm planning to make some fingerless glove kinda things, too.

Anyway, by next post I'll have returned to uploading comic pages. Stay tuned.

Rick Out.

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2011-11-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

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2011-11-06T14:41:00.000-08:00

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(Note: these images don't represent the pages exactly as they appear in the comic - the gutters and border will be black).

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2011-11-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the first page - let me know if the text is too small to read when you enlarge it.

Begin Comic Upload Sequence...#1

2011-11-02T10:05:00.001-07:00

Dear All:

I'm going to start uploading my comic to this blog, in order for you to see the wonder and glory. I'll upload it one page at a time (except for the covers), and then maybe do a slideshow-type dealio.

All right, here's the cover sequence:

All the things I want to do with this blog, but probably won't

2011-11-01T20:32:00.001-07:00

Here are some things you may or may not ever see coming up on this blog, maybe, if I find the time:

1. Regular posts!
2. Weekly sketches!
3. Comic reviews every month!
4. Regular updates on my comic work!

My problem is, when I find time to work on this blog, I'm either writer's-blocked or too far from a scanner to upload an interesting sketch. I kinda wish I could just upload all my sketches, every day, forever, but then I start to suffer from "polished sketch" syndrome, in which every image has to be Disney-quality before I feel it's okay to upload it.

Anyway, stay tuned.

Rick Out.

THC Finished! Also, on the virtues of selling out...

2011-10-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to announce that The Human Cannonball #1 is just finished, and will be coming out...when I get some money. Seriously, there is no money available to print this thing. I need to set up a PayPal account and start begging.

But who cares! It's done! Pop the cork on the Champagne-in-a-box, and let's party.

I'm thinking of taking THC and offering it to Image or Dark Horse or one of those other comic book publishers, because frankly, I'm sick and tired of having no distribution or marketing. 'Tis true, I do like the whole local-hero DIY aspect of Blind Alley Comics (I'm already halfway to becoming Harvey Pekar...on the inside). But when it comes down to it, who are we kidding? Blind Alley Comics has no budget for marketing, distribution, and (often) printing our comics. Even if we managed to sell a comic to all the people we know, we still wouldn't make enough to finance a production level of any appreciable scale.

With that in mind, I'm going to put together a packet and send it out to several Indie publishers. As far as I know, Image and Darkhorse take independent comics and act as publishers and distributors; as long as you get your work done on time, they do all the grunt work. Here I am counting on what little information I have. To be honest, I'm in the dark here, and more than a little bit nervous, but excited, too. It will be a real learning experience. I'm not thinking of this as my "Big Break" or anything; that's a dangerous line of thought. This is just part of the hard, regular work I have to do in order to make the aspirations of Blind Alley Comics a reality.

If all goes as planned, I'll have sent out THC #1 to at least one comics publisher by my next blog post. Let the great fishing expedition begin...

Rick Out.

DeviantArt rant

2011-08-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

Howdy, all.

I'm not sure if you've noticed, if you've ever been on DeviantArt, but it's kind of...um...pornographic. There's a lot of pretty blatant pornography mixed in with the art. I'm sort of embarrassed to post my art on there, because of the whole shame-by-association thing.

Now don't get me wrong; I don't mind a bit of artistic nudity thrown in here and there, especially where it involves black-and-white photography (I am a fan of Man Ray). And I'm not opposed to erotica, where tastefully done (or, on the opposite side, tackily done, because it can be funny and weird and interesting to look at). The human body can be art. I have no problem with that.

But I do have a problem when I go on an art site, and it seems like every tenth image is blatant commercial pornography. And I do mean commercial - the Deviant ID for these images is very obviously a group of paid photographers, co-opting an open art site to peddle their wares. Often these images are barely aesthetic at all, with little sense of artistic intent, and amount to a monotony of airbrushed flesh. It's difficult for me to upload my work on DeviantArt and see it posted next to one of these images, and still feel as though my art is well-represented.

Now, of course, there's the obvious arguments: "Well, Rick, how do you define pornography?" "If you don't like it, don't look at it", "Why don't you post your work on a different site?" "So you're complaining about images you obviously looked at yourself, you hypocrite", etc. and so on ad nauseum. Valid points, all, but distracting from the actual issue. The point I'm trying to make is that DeviantArt - as far as I can see - is supposed to be for artists who would not otherwise have an opportunity to display their art; it is like an online gallery space. The fact that it is crawling with commercial pornographers is therefore unfair to the actual artists utilizing the site. The sleaze not only steals attention from these artists, but also drags down the reputation of the site; if I say, "I have my work posted on DeviantArt", I don't want someone to think, "Oh yeah, that's that sleazy art website." I am of the mind that if pornographers want to display their work, they should find some other site to do it on. DeviantArt should be for legitimate artists displaying legitimate work.

That's my beef with DeviantArt. I don't suppose there's much anybody can do about it, except maybe flag some of the worst offenders. I'm going to keep utilizing the site as a resource to post my work and all. It's just irritating to have to wade through the slime in order to get to the actual, legitimate work.

Going slightly off-topic, here's some DeviantArt humor from our friends at Penny Arcade.

Rick Out.

My Plants

2011-08-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm developing something of a green thumb, or at least a green pinkie. Two years ago I set up a little garden patch in my back yard, and since then I've been trying out various kinds of fruits and vegetables, with varying degrees of success.

This year I tried some seeds from a Howell melon and a gourd. I tried to start the melon inside the house, in a little Styrofoam cup; unfortunately, I think it makes the plants weak (or something). The gourd seeds, on the other hand, I planted directly into the ground. Here's the result:

BOOM

The photo doesn't really do justice to the infestation that is Gordy the Gourd. He has these hand-like feelers on the ends of his vines, which seem to reach out for something to grab; I've caught him trying repeatedly to crawl across the lawn toward the house. Mostly I just redirect his energies back to the fence. Eventually I may have to prune the beast.

And the melon? Well, Melanie the Melon is not having quite the same success...

Huh.

Melanie sends out her shoots in a half-hearted sort of way..."Oh...I guess I'll just go this way...maybe. Huh. Guess that didn't work. Maybe I'll just lay here..." I'm beginning to wonder if she just needs more sunlight, or something. Then again, from noon to sundown my garden gets plenty of light. I guess Gordy just had a better head-start than Melanie, having been grown outside all his life.

For now, the two plants occupy their separate corners of the garden, eyeing each other. It's an uneasy standoff. Gordy is beginning to stealthily creep around the opposite corners of the fence, and if he keeps growing, I'm pretty sure he'll have Melanie encircled by the end of September...and then it's only a matter of time...

Melanie on the left, Gordy on the right...

Rick Out.

Blind Alley Comics!

2011-08-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends (and nemeses):

Here's the logo for Blind Alley Comics, formerly Dead City Productions:

I sure hope you like it...'cause you're going to be seeing a lot of it. So you'd better get used to it. No whining or complaining. At least, not when I'm around.

Rick Out.

Second Peek at The Human Cannonball!

2011-08-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Here's the completed color cover for The Human Cannonball #1:

Ain't it purdy?

Sketchy...

2011-08-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of sketchbook pages, just to whet your appetite:

Sketchbook welcome page

freeform geometric designs

The second page represents a style I've been working with for five years now; it's a sort of freeform geometric jazz image. Working on these is a very slow, meditative process for me, but the final product is sort of obsessive-looking and slightly mad. I've heard it likened to both Buddhist mandala sand-paintings and some kind of Op-art. The first sketch also contains elements of this patterning; a lot of my art involves this sort of repetitive, highly-detailed, jumpy motion.

I hope it catches on. I plan to crank these out for Cons and galleries, hopefully to earn some extra cash.

Rick Out.

Linkapalooza

2011-08-09T06:47:00.000-07:00

I should probably provide links to all my stuff, like all the other kids are doing these days. Here's some links:

My DeviantArt account

My comic book production group Facebook page (currently)

My website

Fight or Flight webcomic

I hope that satisfies your insatiable lust for Rick Schlaack art products. Most of the stuff will look familiar, but the DeviantArt account will have some never-before-seen work.

First Peek at The Human Cannonball; DCP problems

2011-08-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

Howdy, y'all. After my two-month hiatus (summer jobs tend to interrupt everything), I'm back with a first sneak peek at The Human Cannonball #1 cover:

The Human Cannonball #1

It's a Work in Progress at the moment; as soon as I get my head back together, I'm going to sit down and see what I can do about the color...a tad bit garish, at this point.

You may have noticed the empty circle in the top left corner; this is where our logo is supposed to be. Problem is, we are currently without a company logo. Turns out there is another comic book company called Dead City, hailing from (apropos, non?) Detroit. Myself and the inimitable Joe Haines shall get together and have an intensive powow to figure out a new company name, quick fast and in a hurry. It really sucks; I'm having to change the Facebook page as well - I'll keep up the old page for a while, with a little thing that says, "DCP now has a new name! Go to this link", etc.

I suppose it's a wee bit our fault. We should have done more research. Just a few Google searches probably would have clued us in. On the other hand, who woulda thunk "Dead City" would be taken? It's just one of those things. I wish it were easier, but there ya go.

At any rate, things are going pretty good. Hope y'all had a good summer. Back to the grind...

Rick Out.

Squidgods (also, more musings)...

2011-05-24T19:32:00.001-07:00

You've probably heard me mention Squidgods before. It's a massive comic (124 pages long) that I started in 2005, and finished in 2008. It's one of a class of comics I like to call, "Binder Comics", of which I currently have two. I hope never to have another one.

What makes a Binder Comic, you say? A Binder Comic is...

• contained within a binder, preferably with plastic sleeves
• penciled and inked entirely on printer paper
• begun with no particular plot in mind
• at least on hundred pages long
• takes at least a year to finish
• displays changes in the artist's style over time
• remains only in its original form for at least three years

Squidgods meets all these criteria. It is my second attempt at creating a comic book (after that scintillating classic, Matt Darkk and the Home Alien Control), and my first introduction of several characters I hope to use in the future, collectively called the Longshots universe (The official title is, Longshots #1: Squidgods. I'll probably post a blog about Longshots sometime in the future). After its completion in 2008, the poor thing languished for another three years in its binder, until, on a whim, I decided to dust it off and see what I could make of it.

Even upon a perfunctory inspection, one will notice that the quality is somewhat...well, "inconsistent" would be a polite word. "Scatterbrained" would be more apt. There is evidence of at least three or four different style changes throughout the comic, coinciding with three years of artistic development. And not sequential, either: after all was said and done, I had to go back and fill in all the gaps in the story. Taken all together, it's a pretty impressive piece of work (and artistically interesting); but as to whether it is printworthy, I'd have to say no - not unless I go back in and redo some rather poor drawings and inept layouts. If I was really, really serious about printing it under the DCP label, I might have to treat the binder comic as a visual script; I'd re-work the story to be more concise, carve everything into episodes, and re-draw the comic in a larger format. Even with the fat removed, it would probably run about seventy pages - seven issues of ten pages each.

At any rate, I'm not sure if I'll ever get it into full production; I might print one copy for my own appreciation and enjoyment. Just last week, I created a cover for it, with which I am rather pleased:

Longshots #1: Squidgods front cover

You're probably thinking, "Hey! It's in color! That's not the Rick I remember..." That's right, folks, Rick is moving into the Age of Color - reluctantly, kicking and screaming. This is one of my first experiments with color as graphics (as opposed to painting); it's good practice for the cover of The Human Cannonball #1, which has a similar layout. I'm also heavily into working with gold and silver ink. See the "Squidgods" nameplate? Colored in silver Sharpie. The goldenrod-colored areas are actually gold ink, which of course the scanner couldn't pick up, but that's okay. If I get it printed, I think I'll have them metallic-stamp those areas, to give it that blinged-out effect.

This image came out of a huge inspirational kick I got from reading Jeremy Bastion's Cursed Pirate Girl. After the letdown of an apathetic Con reception, reading this tour-de-force of art and whimsy really re-charged my artistic batteries, breaking me out of a claustrophobic Neil Gaiman- and Alan Moore-infused funk (what is it with British comic book writers? They depress the hell out of me). The Victorian-engraving looseness of Bastian's line drawings, as well as the inherent happy strangeness of his story, opened up a whole new comic world for me - one that wasn't endlessly drenched in gloom. He reminds me more of European comics, with their emphasis on illustration and whimsy.

It also reminded me that comics isn't just about business. I'd forgotten that in recent months. Dealing with DCP's teething problems, frustrated at the lack of recognition, and just plain ornery about the Con, I'd lost the art - for me, it had become all about "Oh God, what are we going to do about X, Y, and Z business aspect?" That's part of the problem of trying to start your own business - you quickly turn into an atavistic little Capitalist, whether you meant to or not. Sometimes I wish I could just hire some kind of manager, who could coordinate all the distribution, advertising, money, gigs, everything. Of course, as soon as you have a manager, you lose a huge chunk of your freedom - you might as well give up and work for an existing production company.

But that's over now. I'm back on the art. Right now, I'm even on a kind of "cover art" kick - I'm working on a cover for The Empty Quarter, and even Redtooth. First, though, I'll have to color the cover for The Human Cannonball #1. I'm looking forward to it.

Rick Out.

The Con, winning formulas, partnerships, other musings

2011-05-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking, even if I haven't written much lately. May has been a busy month: having problems getting a DCP bank account going, getting ready for the Motor City Comic Con, appearing at said Con, and wondering what the hell to do afterward.

The Con was...okay. Attendance was way down for both artists and visitors, and the craptacular weather didn't help much (30 degrees difference between Friday and Saturday! What gives?!) It's always a hassle trying to figure out how to set up the table, too. At first Joe Haines and myself were situated on either side of a large Bone Boy standup, but it seemed to confuse people...depending on which side they were coming from, they would sift through one person's art, stop and stare at Bone Boy with a confused and slightly panicked look, and then wander off to find Star Wars collectibles. Inevitably one side or the other would get neglected. Eventually Joe moved Bone Boy down to his half of the table, and things started to work a little better.

For him, that is. It quickly became apparent who had the more attractive display: there were Bone Boy Comics, Bone Boy original art (for flipping through), and a giant Bone Boy stand-up to gawk at. I, on the other hand, had three comics with black and white covers, an enormous book of unrelated original art, a sketchbook full of entirely different scripts, and a pad of Bristol board. In other words, a mess.

It happened pretty much by accident, too: Joe just had one project to work on and show. But that was all that was needed to create a cohesive display. Adding to this is the fact that Bone Boy is a charismatic character. In all, Joe sold eight copies of Bone Boy #1 - not bad for DCP, a tiny two-man production group with no distribution.

All this made me start thinking: why not make Bone Boy the "subject", as it were, of the convention booth? Instead of being "Dead City Productions", we'll be, "Bone Boy...brought to you by Dead City Productions". I'd have no trouble manning a Bone Boy booth. If I absolutely had to display my work, I could get an adjoining table - no need to clutter up the main attraction.

See, my philosophy is, if you can find a winning formula - a certain comic or character that attracts attention to the production group - why not use it? Bone Boy is such a formula. People are attracted to the character. Hopefully if they buy the comic, they start talking about Dead City Productions. Maybe they visit the Facebook page, or the website (whenever the hell we can get that started...) I'm even getting ready to create a Bone Boy Facebook page for the little critter himself. Why not bet on a winning horse?

Of course the question will come up: "Rick, wouldn't you be shafting yourself?" I have thought about that. I'm no martyr - I want my cake, too. That's why it would be important to emphasize the production group as much as possible. Dead City Productions is not just about two artists separately creating comics under the same label; it's about two artists supporting each other - not just artistically, but in terms of shared revenue. Whoever brings in the bacon, that bacon belongs to the group. If Joe Haines makes a comic, Rick Schlaack supports him; if Rick Schlaack makes a comic, Joe Haines supports him; if either one of their comics makes it big, the funds go to support the company. Obviously this is an idealization, but I hope it will hold true.

I also think that, if one artist really hits the big time, the other artist should have the ability to split off. It's only right. The two artists would still support each other artistically, of course, but the big artist would not overshadow the little one, and the little one wouldn't partake of profits he didn't earn. Resentment and rivalry, as much as we artists like to pretend otherwise, can always crop up - especially when art and ambition are involved; better to not harness the ox and the mule together, as they say.

Of course, all this "Hitting the Big Time" talk is for the future. Dead City Productions is still learning the ropes, and hoping to avoid the pitfalls of other small art production companies. The next big hurdle now is getting our comics in stores; we're going to test the waters with Aeolus this summer, then make a big splash with Bone Boy in October (I think). After that there's The Human Cannonball (the first issue is in the inking stages as we speak), and after that...? Who knows. The sky's the limit.

Rick Out.

DCP is now on Facebook!

2011-03-25T23:18:00.001-07:00

For all of you with a Face, there is a Book. And on that Book will also be a little something called DCP. Be sure to check it out - it contains art and comic covers by myself and Joe Haines. I made a nice little linky-poo there for you, so you can check it out:

Dead City Productions on Facebook

Rick Out.

Aeolus 3 RELEASE!

2011-03-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

All right, you fools!...I mean, lovely, wonderful readers...Aeolus 3 is finally here. Currently it's only available through me, but I hope to have a "re-release" of the whole series in local Lansing comic book stores.

Right now I'm selling individual copies for $3.00, two for $4.00, and all three for $6.00. You can contact me via my email, turtle.richard@gmail.com, or through Facebook.

Rick Out.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent...

2011-03-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not that innocent.

Just an announcement that, due to some issues at the County Clerk in Lansing, Dark Corner Productions has changed its name to Dead City Productions. We're hoping to be able to use "Dark Corner" eventually - at least as soon as something called, "Dark (K)night Productions" gets off the books.

Rick Out.

Keeping you posted...

2011-02-01T14:22:00.001-08:00

Nothing new today. Aeolus 3 is crawling along at a snail's pace. I am currently at work, at the Howell Carnegie District Library circulation desk, and everyone is buzzing about the alleged snow storm ("Snow! Oh my gawd! We've never had snow before in Michigan!)

Yup.

Anywho, I think I should include some sketches from The Human Cannonball, and maybe some pre-pre-production page shots, just to whet your appetite. I'm not sure when the first one is going to come out, but it should be sometime in September. Maybe.

Rick Out.

Aeolus 3 Preview!

2011-01-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

Just to let y'all know - there's a preview for Aeolus 3 up on my website, www.schlaackdesigns.com (it only works for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers right now, unfortunately, but I am attempting to remedy that situation).

I'm also thinking of taking those previews and turning them into downloadable pdfs (with watermarks, natch) so that you crazy kids can view my work in a less-pixellated fashion.

Rick Out.

To keep the villagers from rioting...

2011-01-13T23:08:00.000-08:00

Here is the cover to the last in the Aeolus series:

The cover is very, very minimalist - at least for me; the cover on #1 was a doozy, but that's all the montage I had patience for. To try it for the next two covers would feel like unnecessary repetition.

Just in case you didn't see them, here are the other two covers:

Aeolus #1

Aeolus #2

Speaking of covers, I think you'll know you're at the top of your game when you can get somebody famous to do a cover for you. Hopefully I can get to that point someday...ahh, dreams.

Anywho, I'm glad to be wrapping up Aeolus. Sure, I had fun doing it - and got a lot of sharp images out of it - but then that first series is always a trepidatious thrust into the unknown; you hold back, because you're not all that sure where you're going.

Aeolus was definitely a learning experience. My main problem was fundamental: I was unwilling to take the time to script everything before I started the roughs. I figured, "what the hell, I can fill in the blanks as I go along". That worked for the first comic, but then the storylines started tangling up; by the time I reached the 3rd episode, I was frustrated with the story and completely unsure how to wrap it all up. The last issue ended up being twice as long as the other two. Now, I like spontaneity as much as any other red-blooded American comic book artist, but not when it gets in the way of my enjoyment of the creative process; in this case, I got so frustrated that I didn't work on it for six months. Now that I'm finally back to it (after having hammered the story to death in order to get everything in line), I'm actually enjoying working on this issue even more than the other two.

That, and I now have a Wacom tablet. Everything is better with a Wacom tablet. Trust me.

So what did I learn from the Aeolus story debacle? The answer is: script, script, script. As in, the verb. Scripting will save you an acre of migraines. For my next project, The Human Cannonball, I just sat down and started pouring out scripts: sixteen-page, stapled packets of scrap paper, with the art done in ballpoint pen. So far, I have three issues scripted, and more on the way. This way, I can be as sketchy or as detailed as I want, and I don't have to worry about panels, placement, anything. The only thing that matters at this point is hammering out the visuals.

After the scripting, the layouts: I've come to the realization that my panel layouts are, if anything, uninspired. Every single panel has a horizontal format, divided like windowpanes by standardized gutters. In terms of speed and efficiency, it can't be beat - you just line up the images, stack 'em on top of each other, and boom, you're done. Aesthetically, though, they don't have much going for them. I'll have to do some research, and get some help from my co-conspirator, the inimitable Joe Haines. And maybe a couple of other people.

Rick Out.

Portfolio Open House

2010-12-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

Ugh. My brain hurts. Working on my website and getting ready for my portfolio open house. It's a doozy - I have so much stuff to print and work on and everything.

I'm on schedule, though, so that's a plus. I'll be heading into Lansing tomorrow to get some stuff printed. Which reminds me, I need to get my resume done...and my business cards...but I can do the business cards online through the printer, so that won't be too bad. It's just that resume that needs completing, and I'm extremely nervous about it; I'm trying something really far-out and experimental. Maybe not that experimental, but still.

In case you didn't know, here's the information for the open house. You're all invited (all two of you).

Location:
422 North Washington Square
Lansing Community College Main Campus
Lansing, MI 48933
Gannon Building, rooms 112 and 114

Date:
December 17th

Time:
4-7 pm

Refreshments served!

Be sure to save the date. I'll be featured, along with my classmates from my portfolio class, all of whom are awesome designers. Hope to see you there!

Rick Out.

A rare political foray

2010-11-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

Now, I've never had a knack for political cartoons, but every so often I'll whip one out. Did you hear the thing about North Korea firing on a South Korean island? NK artillery bombarded the island while SK troops were on military maneuvers; several people were killed. There followed an exchange of artillery fire in which 175 shells were used.

Trés exciting, non?

Figure 1.1: "The Damoclean Sword".

(Sorry, I did misspell "Damoclean" on the image).

Just the thought of two small nuclear powers slugging it out, especially with Kim Jong Il being slightly senile, puts one one edge. Then again, India and Pakistan have been doing the same thing off and on for the last twenty years, and nukes never came into play. Still scary, though.

A word of explanation, in case you didn't catch the reference:

Damocles

[Damocles]...was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a fourth century BC tyrant of Syracuse, Italy. Pandering to his king, Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority surrounded by magnificence, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Realizing the folly of this courtier, Dionysius offered to switch places with him, so he could taste first hand that fortune. Damocles could think of no other place he would rather be and quickly accepted the King's proposal. Damocles, sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, and his head, held at the tip only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the tyrant that he be allowed to depart, because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate.

From this story are two morals: First, "Uneasy rests the head that wears the crown." Second, and perhaps more prophetically, "The value of the sword is not that it fall, but rather, that it hangs." The first moral supports the age-old understanding that, while it may appear to be enviable to wear a crown of power, there are threats--at all times--to the one who wears the crown. The second moral is more relevant particularly to the 20th century and beyond; namely, it blends the theory of MAD (mutually assured destruction) as it relates to those with a nuclear potential, and that of terrorism; namely, that the threat of terrorism is greater than the act thereof.^[5]^[6]

- From Wikipedia.

From the looks of it, everything should blow over - North Korea, like most Stalinist-style dictatorships, has a need for set-piece incidences to flex its muscles. There are various factors involved in this one: the succession of Kim Jong Il by is son, Kim Jong-un; the need of North Korea for food due to embargoes; and, as usual, the desire to demonstrate that North Korea will do what it wants, whenever it wants to. Like a small, ill-tempered student in a classroom, North Korea acts out of desperation and sheer arrogant bravado, kicking the teacher, picking fights with other students, and failing his tests. He's the little guy that you can't cheer for, even if you wanted to, because you know he'll take any support he gets and give you a black eye for your trouble. So much for sympathy.

Here's hoping for a peaceful resolution.

Rick Out.

A cockroach

2010-11-10T18:08:00.000-08:00

Voila: a cockroach.

"Dat don't MAKE money, boy..."

Introducing...the HUMAN CANNONBALL!

2010-11-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hello, sportsfans. I'm announcing the beginning of a new Dark Corner Productions project.

Now I know what you're thinking: "But Rick! How can you announce a new project when you haven't even finished the last one?!" Well, because I can. And yes, because right now I'm extremely bored with Aeolus #3, and am trying to avoid working on it (I seriously need to get my butt in gear - maybe after I finish up my portfolio, I'll go back to working on it. I promise). But The Human Cannonball is going to be a series to end all series, or at least make the next series think seriously about its options.

Here's a picture of the eponymous character, just to whet your appetite:

Sidelong Sidely, The Human Cannonball

Yes, he's heroic, dashing, daring, and all that other fun stuff. He's also completely bonkers. They call him "Sidelong" Sidely because he's hit his head so many times his eyes point in two different directions. Wacky stuff.

I've decided to script out three or four episodes before I actually put pen to Bristol board - hopefully this will help avoid the headaches I had with Aeolus, trying to figure out all the plotholes and resolve everything in three issues. Planning ahead! Wow! It's the new thing! Give it a try, Schlaack - do us all a favor.

More images coming. I still haven't figured out a title graphic - "The Human Cannonball" is a typography-defeating title. I'm not sure if there will be a cannonball involved directly. Maybe a silhouette of Sidelong.

Rick Out.

Wimmins

2010-10-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

Just practicing drawing the female form. Generally I'm a pretty pathetic hand at it, but at least I got two good sketches out of it:

faces

belly dancers

A lot of times with me it's more of a confidence thing than anything else - I keep thinking, "Wait - does that look like a dude? Need to make the boobs bigger..." For me, the ideal would be to craft an unmistakably feminine form without relying on exaggeration to make my point. Faces are especially difficult; the "big eyes and button nose" combo will only take you so far.

My new toy!

2010-10-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

Hello, gang. I have just acquired a Wacom Bamboo tablet, and I've been itching to try it out. Here's a couple of sketches I managed to churn out with my new toy:

Sketch #1

Sketch #2

(Neither of these sketches, by the way, have anything to do with anything).

Yes, brave readers, Rick has indeed entered the Information Age. Hell has not just frozen over; it is experiencing a veritable ice age:

Hell mammoths!

So there you have it, kids - my first digital scribbles. Enjoy.

Rick Out.

BTW...starting a new regular feature (hopefully)

2010-09-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hey gang, just real quick -

I'm thinking of posting some sketches regularly, hopefully, um...weekly? Bi-weekly? Maybe Monday-Thursday-Friday.

Or maybe whenever I damn well feel like it.

Anyway, I think regular sketches will help spice up this blog a little bit. Keep an eye out. They will be accompanied by long, rambling explanations; if y'all are good and eat your veggies, I might even color a couple of them for you. No promises, though.

Rick Out.

Monthly Update; also, some ideas.

2010-09-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

Howdy gang. Just another monthly update, to make it look like I keep up on this blog. Maybe someday I'll get back to regular posting. Maybe. Meh.

At any rate, not much to report. I'm busy with my Portfolio class for my graphic design degree, and I'm actually doing some cool stuff. Aeolus #3 is slowly, ever so slowly getting done; just bummed out with the amount of work involved: doing all the penciling, inking, scanning, and computer-editing yourself is a beast. I mean, I did it all for the first two, but this next one is twice as long, and I've got a serious motivation deficit going here.

Let's see, what else...have to do the next page for Fight or Flight; looks like we may have a hard copy in the works at some point (not promising anything, here). Have some other projects I want to start, maybe, kind of. Just ideas bouncing around in the old noggin, things I'll get momentarily excited about. Perhaps it's better just to let them gestate for a while. Do a bunch of drawings, and such. I have an idea I've been kicking around since sixth grade (ain't that phrase the kiss of death?), and I literally have a binder full of drawings for it. Sometimes I feel like Henry Darger. Hopefully less creepy, of course.

Can I share my ideas with you? Really? Promise you won't steal them? Wow, that's real nice of you.

Liar.

Here's some ideas:

"Arabesque". An Ali Baba-style orientalist fantasy one-off. A bandit-type steals a Sultan's intended concubine by accident, and must rescue her and claim his reward (which may turn out to be horrible torture and death). Hilarious Middle Eastern hijinks ensue.

"Eine Kleines Wampirsgeschicte". I'm not sure where the German comes in - it just sounds cool. A social worker is assigned to a sickly young mother, who exhibits what look like needle-tracks on her arm. Double needle tracks. Slightly less hilarious vampire hijinks ensue.

"Die Katze". Again, not sure what's up with the German. A young cat, apprenticed to a priestess of Bast (all the characters are cats in this story) is drawn into an apocalyptic plot to raise the beast Ammit (or something similar...I'm thinking more of a cat-dragon), who will then rally all cats to take over the world from the humans, yada yada. I'm thinking of doing this one cartoon-style - like dark Disney.

"The Mice of Burkenstein Station". I literally dreamed this one up one night. Intelligent mice (think the Secret of NIMH) are living onboard an asteroid research station from which all the humans have mysteriously disappeared; they live under the iron paw of their queen, a cyborg-mouse. Another cartoon-style (and yes - I sometimes dream in cartoons).

"Maddie's Children". A spinster takes a job as secretary to a strange, reclusive old woman who runs a secret orphanage. Of course, there's something sinister going on, yada yada (no ghosts, though). Another one I literally dreamed up...I should get that checked.

"Evolution". A gothic horror/scifi set in the 1900s. An eager young student accompanies his professor in a time machine going 85,000 years into the future, hoping to see where evolution will take the human race. What they find, of course, is more than they bargained for. Aside from the Lovecraftian overtones, I was hoping to inject a little more philosophy into this one.

The Lightweight. A slight twentysomething bookworm has an encounter with RADIATION and suddenly has the ability to feel the effects of any chemical twenty-fold (think of Futurama's Fry and his 100 cups of coffee). He may or may not hook up with a society of similarly-irradiated superheroes, depending upon how I feel at the time.

Turtle Boy. A superhero who operates in a weird pastiche of Babylonian and other mythologies; I'm debating whether the story is actually about him, or his creator, a crippled, burnt-out comic book writer whose life - like the stories he writes - is going nowhere.

Fantasy Story (no title yet). A mythic hero must evil-ify a holy sword in order to save the souls of his family. He is pursued by a warrior who has been cursed by the kiss of an evil sorceress (half his face is a skull).

Chakkattrakka. A scifi-fantasy-mythological epic of epic proportions. A slave on an earthlike planet facing invasion finds out he is the Chosen One. The bad guys (or MAYBE NOT...) are a dragonlike race. The obvious problem of this story is that it combines all of my interests, and therefore is doomed to fail miserably. I'm hoping to save it with artwork.

The Park. A collection of stories about the residents of a trailer park in southern Indiana. This one's all about the characters - how they live, how they interact, their hopes, dreams, and sorrows. For some reason, I'm fascinated by the setting and the people, at once so familiar we hardly notice, and yet so much a world unto itself, a kind of ghetto for small-town America.

Pandemonium. A comic about Punks - not so much about the music, as about the people for whom the music is their whole lives (and no, they generally won't dress in leather and wear mohawks). I'm considering using some weird art styles for this one, sort of caricature-ish; the comic itself will be pretty anarchic. Not sure where I'm setting it. West Lansing seems to have the right run-down, postindustrial look while still keeping a small-town feel.

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Demons. I would LOVE to do a comic based on this book - it is, in my opinion, Dostoevsky's best novel. Just the characters alone are astounding, but F.D. also tells a ripping good yarn. If you have a yen for Russian literature - and the patience to slog through Part I, which is nearly all exposition - this is one book you need to pick up.

Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael Mysteries. More ripping good yarns. Small, compact stories, with a gruff yet lovable and keenly-written protagonist. Something about Peters' writing lends itself to a comic - rich in imagery, without being overly cinematic.

Now keep in mind, none of these exist as anything except concept sketches - and some of them aren't even at that stage. I'm hoping at least some of these comics will get written. Who knows.

Anyway, I've got to get back to work on Aeolus #3...first things first, I suppose. I'm shooting for Thanksgiving or Christmas as a release date on that one, considering the rate at which I'm working on it. I'll keep you posted.

Rick Out.

A slight recess...

2010-08-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, faithful readers, the Schlaack is back. After a slight recess (involving a nervous breakdown - lots of fun, if you've never had one) as well as working at my summer job (no internet access), I guess I'm back in the Blogsphere.

A quick update on things so far:

Aeolus #3 is in the works - slowly - and at 20 pages, it's a doozy. I can't give any dates, because I'm working in fits and starts; but it's coming along.

Fight or Flight is stalled. Hopefully I can squeeze out a couple of sheets this month. The amount of work involved in creating a single sheet (usually four pages) is monumental, and the results are inconsistent. I'm talking with Skippy (the author) about signing on another artist to do the backgrounds at least, and take some of the weight off my back.

There are rumblings in certain Dark Corners about a new project coming out from Dark Corner Productions...I'm not sure how much I can (or should) say about the topic. Just keep your eyes peeled, gentle readers. I'll keep you posted.

Rick Out.

Aeolus #2 out, #3 on the way!

2010-04-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

A DCP Comic Book Release Announcement!

Presented by: Rick Schlaack

Listen up, yokels! Announcing the release of Aeolus #2 from Dark Corner Productions...

Aeolus #2

Copies are $3.00 (US) a piece.

And be sure to check out Aeolus #1, of course; otherwise Aeolus #2 won't make a whole lot of sense. Then again, it might...but it's best to be on the safe side.

Aeolus #1

Also just $3.00 (US).

And remember, if it's quality comics, it's gotta be...

Rick Out.

The Grind

2010-03-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

Rick here. Just working through these grim last days of winter. Classes have been grinding me into the ground - I'm not really sure why; the workload isn't that heavy - and I'm currently plugging away at Aeolus #2. Work is getting tough, too - between the patrons, stressed-out coworkers, and carts full of books and DVDs piling up in the back room, I'm ready to rip somebody's head off and wear it like a hat. Then again, maybe not. A hand puppet would be better.

And if I have to smell another drunk, I swear ta God...

On the other hand (playing the Pollyanna game, I s'pose), I am working more hours. And more hours means more dough. On top of that, I've gotten my comic books on the shelves at the library; I've already had somebody call up and ask when the next one's coming out (mid-March, it looks like). If I can generate enough interest, perhaps I can build up a customer base here in Howell that will help pay for DCP's Lansing efforts.

Provided, of course, I retain my sanity.

Rick Out.

Aeolus #1 out, #2 on the way; musings on sequential art...

2010-02-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

Howdy gang.

Aeolus #1 is out, if you haven't heard (and you probably haven't, because my PR is absolutely lousy). It looks good, if I do say so myself. Not bad, and it cost a hell of a lot less than Ian's Dream. Firstly, it has only sixteen pages, as opposed to ID's twenty-four; secondly, I made the cover material the same as the inside (28 lb copy bond, instead of 60 lb Bristol); and lastly, but definitely not least, I did my own InDesign work, which saved me sixty bucks! All in all, it came out to about $85.00 for sixty-two copies (twelve extra included) as opposed to $107.60 for fifty copies. And let me tell ya, the quality is awesome. Instead of doing the art completely by hand, I swallowed my pride (and every principle I thought I had) and did the hard stuff on the computer - shading and highlights, and mostly photographic backgrounds. Yep, it's cheating all right. And yep, I don't regret it one bit.

Well, maybe a teensy bit...in some dark corner of my soul, I might...

At any rate, things are going pretty well, for what it's worth. Aeolus #2 is currently stalled on page 4, owing to complications with positioning the damn characters. I have this problem where the characters will inexplicably jump twenty feet from panel to panel - they must have walked over there! Novel concept! - but apparently the audience gets "confused", so I have to show the character somehow walking over to the panel to press the button, or taking the remote control out of his pocket before he uses it to activate the thermonuclear device. Right now, the problem is that the bad guy is showing the good guy his new superweapon, which appears through a sliding door; unfortunately, that entire room seems to have appeared out of nowhere, according to the logic of the panels.

You have to remember that in comics, "Panel Logic" is everything. The logic of the author counts for nothing here: I think, "well, he needs a room, so here's a room" - the room is magically injected into the scene, and I think nothing is amiss. But according to the panel logic, however, the room should not exist at all - there is no theoretical space for it, no mention of it in previous panels - and so the audience, whose eyes are completely objective to the source material, thinks, "where the hell did that room come from?!" The only way to introduce a new room or logical space is to a) have the whole page be about movement from room to room, or b) introduce the concept of the new room (via a door, for instance) on one page and then show the room itself on the next. It is all about clear, divisible spaces - mental mansions, so to speak, where each room must fill its own space. This requires you to map out the space inhabited by the characters in advance, just as a thespian must know where everything is on a stage before he can effectively play his part. If there's a trap door, for instance, the actor must know where it is in order to a) disappear down or appear from within it when his part requires, and b) avoid falling through it and breaking his leg. Similarly, a mental map must contain information about all the "trap doors" involved, or else the logical space appears unreal or two-dimensional. You can show a Mona Lisa print behind the head of a character in one angle, but if you show him from a different angle, you'd better be damn sure you know where your Mona Lisa went, because your audience will already have a mental image of that space. Ultimately, if you don't attend to your mental spaces in sequential art, you'll come off as at best lazy and at worst inept, and your audience will lose faith and interest in your story.

That's the long way of saying that I have a job to do - mapping out this mental space for my characters to move through - and I don't have the gumption to do it. Partly because I've already planned out the scene, and abhor fundamental changes of this kind, and partly because I've already got so much to do with classes, and this feels like just another stupid drawing project right now. I know I'll come around; I really don't have a choice, if I'm going to meet my projected February 20th release date (Aeolus #3 should come out on March 20th - keep your fingers crossed). I guess I'd better get to work on that right now. Personally, of course, I'd rather be writing long-winded whiny blogs about it, but duty before pleasure...

Rick Out.

My other new comic: "Aeolus".

2010-01-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

The launch of Fight or Flight also coincides with the release of my new solo effort, Aeolus. This was planned (or just happened to end up as) a three-parter: Part I is due out this month, Part II hopefully by the beginning of February, and Part III is coming out whenever the hell it comes out, so don't rush me.

Yes, I know - your fearless blogger has, in previous posts, made the announcement that "Dark Corner Productions will get a comic out in December, so help us God!!!" And of course that has not happened.

Why?

Well, firstly, we - myself and the inimitable Joe Haines (everyone I know is inimitable) - are a couple of comic book moonlighters with little free capital. There's just no money, and there's just no time. Dark Corner Productions is currently hogtied by its artists' committments. As long as this continues to be the case, we can kiss any definite deadlines goodbye.

Secondly, I've experienced a change in philosophy. I used to be extremely gung-ho about deadlines, considering my previous experiences with comics and comic book artists/editors, but after my failure to produce a comic by December, I have to admit that my outlook has shifted somewhat. It is as if I went from being an idealistic young deadline-Nazi, screaming, "Ve must have ze comic now! Now! NOW!" to playing the grouchy old Irishman, growling, "It'll come out when it comes out, so bugger off" as I swill a giant tankard of beer. Personally, I like the old Irishman better - he gets to drink more - and that deadline-Nazi was a bit of a prick.

Thirdly, I've realized that I'm not Superman - I can't finish a comic in a week and have it look really, really good. I mean, I can finish a ten-pager in a week, but it's more of an ego thing, and anyway my line quality starts to suffer around page six. No - if you want quality, you have to be willing to invest the time. My plots, I think, are definitely starting to improve.

Fourthly, and lastly, I've gotten over my prejudice against producing series. Back when I thought Dark Corner Productions was going to be an anthology comic (much like Comics Obscura, God rest its poor soul), my motto was, "icks-nay on the eries-say", as I thought it would be difficult to follow a multi-issue storyline when there were several stories involved; most readers like one or two artists, and are thus less than enthused when they have to purchase a slew of stories they don't read (A drag-net analogy might be useful here - bringing up the starfish with the sardines, etc). Once I realized that Dark Corner Productions would not be an anthology, however, it became clear that my anti-series hangup was more curmudgeonly than practical; I just didn't want to do the work. A series guarantees sales, as people who like the first part of the story will have to buy the next one and the next one to get the whole thing.

Once I finally admitted that to myself, I stopped trying to cram all of Aeolus into one twenty-page issue. Paring it down to ten pages over three issues is more economical (as the printings should coincide with my paychecks), and the story doesn't suffer from enforced brevity.

At any rate, those are some of my reasons. Yes, I know, things haven't worked out the way they really should have, but believe me - they are working out. I will have Aeolus Part I out this month.

Rick Out.

Fight or Flight is Here!

2010-01-05T15:59:00.000-08:00

Hey, gang! Check out the webcomic Fight or Flight, created by myself and the inimitable Skippy, over at http://fofcomic.com/.

They warned him...

2009-12-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

Source: The HaHa.nu Blog

Follow-up on DCP art show opening

2009-11-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

The DCP art show opening was - for all intents and purposes - a success. Out of the dank, unswept recess that is Basement 414, the intrepid Joe Haines and myself forged a show-space from pure will (and some dividers and black fabric). We have about twenty pieces up so far, with more on the way.

It was a little dicey there at the beginning - they opened the Basement up around 6:30 pm , instead of the requested 5:00, and so we were still setting up when the show was supposed to open. That was okay, though, because nobody showed up until around 9. Needless to say, your favorite blogger was a little bummed. Thankfully Joe was able to provide some encouragement ("Dude, it's the Basement - I wasn't expecting anyone to show up on time anyway"). At any rate, we did manage to lure some poor unfortunates into our web. They were quickly devoured, except for the vital organs, which were kept fresh for later consumption.

A quick update on the show: the Grand Closing will be on Saturday, December 5th, not December 6th. Apparently there was a scheduling conflict with another group having an art show at the Basement (which will in no way be as cool as ours).

In other DCP news: Bone Boy #1 will probably be delayed till next month. This is not ideal; however, starting out as we are, things often get in the way that we have no control over. If this potential delay proves to be the case, your favorite blogger will probably be rushing his own comic into production so we can meet the November deadline. This is in keeping with the Dark Corner Productions philosophy: an individual artist may not meet his deadline, but DCP will always have a comic out on time. And that time is the 20th of the month. No matter what, come hell or high water (or both, which would make a lot of steam), DCP will always get its comic.

At any rate, right now I'll have to get back and finish up that comic. Tonight and Wednesday I'll do more pages; by Thursday afternoon I'll get it off to the printer. It will be out by Friday. Whether or not I can get any promotion done or anything will be debatable - I'm not sure what I'll do with fifty unsold copies - but it will be out. Make sure and let me know if you want one.

Rick Out.

DCP Art Show at Basement 414!

2009-11-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Just to let y'all know (all two of you), the inimitable Joe Haines and myself are having an art show at Basement 414 in Lansing. We're going to style it as a "Dark Corner Productions" art show, which will allow us to shill our products and do promos for Joe's comic, Bone Boy, coming out on November 20th. Here's the info:

Start Date: Friday, November 13
Start Time: 7-ish
End Date: Sunday, December 6, 2009

Location:
Basement 414
414 E Michigan Ave
Lansing, MI 48933

The show will feature comic-related and otherwise artwork, including painting, collage, and dioramas. Be There, or We'll Hunt You Down and Cut Out Your Spleens!

Rick Out.

Dark Corner Productions #1 is here!!!!

2009-10-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

Finally! I just got the DCP #1 test copy back from the printer today; we go into production on the 19th of October, which is this Friday.

DCP #1 is my comic, Ian's Dream, which is based on a dream of my coworker's (his name is Ian, if you haven't already deduced). The narrative concerns the eponymous hero and his sojourn through a zombie-infested city. I think it turned out rather swell. Here's a couple of pages, for your enjoyment:

The Cover.

Page 2.

Page 6.

That's all you're getting. The rest is available for $4.00, wherever Rick is selling them.

Now for a little context: this is my very first self-published comic. In that respect, it's a historic event. From now on - hopefully - I can go ahead and self-publish any time I like, without waiting. Granted, it costs a lot (here's a hint: set up the comic in InDesign first, or they'll charge you extra - a lot extra).

Dark Corner Productions, by the by, is a production group I'm working on with the inimitable Joe Haines (whose comic, Bone Boy, will be debuting in November's issue). Part of the production company will be given over entirely to the production of comics, while the other part will be a "review panel", which will review the work of aspiring comic book creators and, if they are approved, will pay half the printing costs and publish the comic under the DCP label. We're really excited for it. Right now everything is pretty much helter-skelter and out-of-pocket, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, play-it-by-ear, and mixed-metaphor, but soon we're hoping to go legit and help make mid-Michigan an independent comics powerhouse.

At least, that's what the rest of the group is hoping. Me, I'm just going to milk the company for oodles of cash and run off to Bermuda! Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha! No, just kidding, really...

At any rate, right now I'm multitasking: celebrating with a tall beer, and getting everything ready for production. Hopefully alcohol and image manipulation will not prove a fatal combination. I can't wait for Friday; with any luck, I'll have the copies by the time I get out of class on Monday.

I have to go make some phone calls now. Y'all sit tight. This is starting out small, but just you wait - it's gonna be big.

Rick Out.

Art Deco: the Art of the Industrial Age

2009-09-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

From time to time I might be blogging on various art movements I like. I have to warn you, of course, that I am by no means an expert on the subject - most of it will just be my own thoughts and musings on the subject. Hopefully it'll be an interesting read.

One of my favorite art movements is the amalgamation known as "Art Deco". Art Deco wasn't a discreet art movement in and of itself; the term (as usually used) encompasses a number of art movements and styles, including Constructivism, Cubism, Neoclassicalism, Futurism, and Art Nouveau. Its most famous applications, of course, were in architecture and industrial design.

Russian Constructivism.

Polish art exhibition poster.

Everyone has seen examples of Art Deco design, even if they don't know it - the Chrystler and Empire State buildings in New York City are perhaps the largest examples. These two buildings are typified by their soaring vertical lines and complex peaks: the Empire State Building seems to flow downward in a series of steel cataracts, while the Chrystler Building exhibits arches reminiscent of Moorish architecture in its multilayered, patterned peak-arches.

The reason Art Deco is so interesting to me is not merely because of its sleek, bold design, but because of its cultural implications: this is the first truly modern, industrial art movement. Up to this point industrial machines had been featured in art as objects of curiosity or as props for the human characters, but now, at the dawn of the modern era, art and machine became one. Planes, trains, and automobiles (and even toasters) took their sleek, aggressive look from the design, even as the design took its parallel lines and constant motion from the very machines it was supposed to decorate. High-tech became high-style. Art heralded the hard charge of progress, the thrill of empire: Egyptian and Sumerian styles melded with the machine age. Everywhere, buildings and planes were soaring higher, planes and automobiles were moving faster, the pace of industry and day-to-day life were becoming ever more frantic. Even in the thirties, as most of America wallowed in the Great Depression, somehow businesses, cities, and millionaires were scraping together enough dough to erect another sky-raping mountain of concrete and steel. This was an age that began with war and ended with war, an age of towering tycoons and rocket-ship trains, of Superman and Al Capone - of limitless possibilities, not only for America, but for the world.

Fox Theater, Detroit, MI.

And, ultimately, it was a doomed movement. After World War II and the dawn of the Nuclear Age, "progress" could never be viewed in the same light again. Rather than soaring ever-higher on the wings of technological achievement, humanity seemed poised to erase itself from history. Thus, Art Deco died. Art became cynical; architecture, boring; trains, planes, and automobiles slid down the far end of the sine wave into dreary functionality. The Atomic Age, and the Silicon Age which followed, were merely technical footnotes to the over-arching Plastic Age, rising like a muddy cloud of dioxins over civilization.

I'm not trying to be melodramatic here, of course; but Art Deco lends itself to these kinds of musings, as does its sad decline. The main charge against it - especially in terms of industrial design - was that it lent an unwarranted air of quality and sophistication to many cheap, mass-produced products: do you really need a blow-drier to look like a chrome rocket? How about a toaster? Does a decorative design really enhance the quality (and hence the price) of such mundane objects? Secondly, there was the whole murky business of Industrialism (with a capital I) which inspired, and was inspired by, the Art Deco movement. You see, with the hard charge of glorious Progress came a dark side - a story of men serving machines, of desecration of the wilderness, of waste, excess, greed, and human engineering. It may have been that the harsh lines and blocky style of Art Deco proved too reminiscent of Nazi imagery following World War II, evoking the creepy pseudo-classicism and occult flamboyance of these uber-villains. The Soviet preoccupation with similar propagandic imagery did nothing help the movement in Western eyes. By the 1950s, despite the official love affair with SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY, Industrialism had shown its true face, and never again would Art Deco - the Industrial Art - attain such prominence.

Comics Review Series #2

2009-09-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

1. Swallow Me Whole
Nate Powell
Swallow Me Whole is a haunting, nightmarish treatment of suburban adolescence. The story follows the mental journeys of half-siblings Ruth and Perry. They have mental problems to begin with - Perry sees a tiny wizard who tells him to draw things, and Ruth is obsessed with patterns in her insect collection - but as they get older, Ruth sinks steadily deeper into her madness, and Perry finds it more and more difficult to resist the Wizard.

Nate Powell is not content merely to chronicle events as an observer - his art draws the reader in, forcing us to experience the characters' mental states for ourselves. Understandably this makes for a confusing read...but what a confusion. The light, incomplete, nebulous drawings translate into a mental fuzziness, compounded by the alteration of dialogue text; the only really clear moments are those of extreme darkness, when Powell slops on great gouts of shadow.

The cumulative effect is extraordinarily spooky. Mad rushes of ink-spatter bugs clog the page. Slack-jawed larvae float through the panels. A lumpen frog, straight out of an unsettling dream, stares and stares. A scene with "the extra pill" (a common delusion of medicating mental patients) is extraordinarily unnerving. And, as in all good stories of madness, in the end you're not sure if it was real or not.

2. Batman: The Long Halloween
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
This is "Batman Noir" - or shall we say, Batman done right. The story concerns Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent, and Captain Jim Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department trying to track down the mysterious Holiday Killer, who is targeting the Falcone crime family. Suspicions are cast on everyone; the declining Gotham Mob becomes entangled with the rising "Freaks" - the supervillains of the Batman universe - and the body count rises. All hell breaks loose, and we're along for the ride.

This is definitely a noir story. The heavy lights and darks of the Batman universe are even starker here, and the simple flatfoot sleuthing of the original Detective Comics is accentuated over the rough-and-tumble (although there is plenty of roughing and tumbling - the combat here is satisfyingly visceral). Even Batman's brooding inner monologue is chopped into noir-sized chunks. Ultimately this is Batman at its best, free of inane schemes, alternate universes, and - best of all - no Robin. Even the "Freaks" are at their best here: Joker, looking especially demented; a very effective Poison Ivy; and Catwoman, having more fun than she's had in a long time. My favorite character, though, has to be Julian Day, aka "Calendar Man" - here we see him captive at Arkham Asylum, pressing his face against the glass and giving Batman a knowing smirk.

3. Joker
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Illustrator: Lee Bermejo
Another one of those joyless, post-Dark Knight depictions of the Batman universe we love so much - not that that's a bad thing. The book follows a low-life character named Jonny Frost in his journeys with the Joker. The Joker somehow got himself released from Arkham Asylum, and is now back to wreak havoc upon everything and everybody - to "get back what is his". Joining the Joker are a realistic re-visioning of Killer Croc, a slightly-tweaked version of Harlequin, and even the Riddler - sans green suit, of course - along with various other henchmen and gunsels. Be forewarned, this is not your daddy's Joker; not once does he use Joker Gas to give everybody a happy smile - not even the reader. Mostly he shoots, stabs, and slashes with broken glass. Whoopee. I'm kind of divided on this one, especially since the visuals are so gorgeous; unfortunately, I'm more of a wacky-Joker kind of guy.

4. Crisis on Infinite Earths
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrator: George Perez

Yes, sportsfans (and comicsfans), it was only a matter of time before my baleful gaze would swing around, Sauron-like, and come to rest upon the most mind-numbingly overplotted, stultifying, ludicrous pile of uber-dreck ever to peforate the bowels of that lumbering beast known as comics: DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The "plot" concerns the DC "multiverse", which contains infinite earths, and is currently being threatened by a plague of antimatter. The DC superherd must therefore figure out what (or who) is causing this cataclysm and, in true DC fashion, kill it until it is unable to resurrect in the next issue.

The problem with all this is that the writer, Marv Wolfman, saw CIE as an opportunity to clean up DC's massive storyline-continuity problems and cull their superherd (which, we can suppose, was overburdening the super-ecosystem - wouldn't want them all starving to death). Thus, he created a 12-part series which would encompass the whole of the DC universe, and included thousands of characters and storylines.

The result is a real cosmic clusterfuck. New characters appear every other page - sometimes a dozen at a time. The panels are squeezed with as many talking heads, verbose speeches, and ineffective ray-blasts as possible. You'll never keep track of who's who, or which earth you're on, or even what unfortunate series of events caused you to pluck the book off the shelf and start reading it...I have to admit that even I was surprised by the sheer awfulness of this turdburger. I found myself reading it for the sheer perversity of the experience (giggling maniacally the whole time, and weeping).

All snarkiness aside, something must be said for George Perez: whatever you think of his drawing style - I'm not especially enamored with it - the man is a machine. He fills in page after page after page of intricately laid-out, teensy-weensy panels with consistently clear and understandable images, not to mention nailing each and every character's look and posture - no mean feat when some of the characters haven't been seen for decades. Obviously the inkers and colorists had their work cut out for them as well, but GP did all the grunt work. I know what it's like to plow through a dozen panels or more, page after page. The man must have checked himself into a hospital beforehand. I doubt that there was any real hiatus between issues.

At any rate, though, not even GP's superheroic efforts could save this one. Take my advice: unless you're a real awful-comics junkie (as I am), stay away.

Guess who's back...

2009-08-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Yeah, go on, guess.

That's right. It's me. Your favorite lovable blogging internet-type character, back from the veritable comics exile they call Summer Camp. I am sleek, tanned, and ready for action. Poppa's home, boys. Time to get crackin'.

At any rate, I am hard at work on comics and hoping to kick some ass before the general school and winter fugue kicks in, and I am reduced to a sniveling, sniffing pile of wreckage in front of a computer screen, my life-force slowly being drained by Photoshop. Classes start a week before I thought they would - almost two weeks - so I have been scrambling to rearrange my work schedule to fit. In the comics department, I have finished that leviathan of a project, "The Second Coming", and am now working on a bit of an easy piece called "Ian's Dream", based upon the somnic visions of a camp co-worker. I have made up for the relative ease of composition in this piece by making it thirteen pages long (plus title page) - or at least, that's how all the elements fell into place.

Other projects:

Fight or Flight is stalled. Apologies to Skippy (my writer) and Aaron (that other guy I was working with). Hopefully I can get cracking on ish number 3 presently. It's going to take a little time, however, especially with classes leaping on me like a deranged and sexually deviant leopard upon an unsuspecting antelope.

Redtooth is...lost, I suppose? Ever since the nasty break between Dark Corner Productions and Jay Jacot (which inevitably kept getting worse, despite my Pollyanna-ish remonstrances) and my return from camp, I have seen neither hide nor hair of Jay - I need to give him a call sometime. I seriously hope he's out there, somewhere, perhaps looking up at the same moon, and thinking of Comics Past...sigh. Anyway, I still need to get a couple of projects back from the old blighter, so I hope he still takes my calls.

The Empty Quarter, installment 7, and Squidgods are with Jay. I'm hoping to get them back shortly.

Being the ADD-addled twit that I am, I also picked up another project from Skippy. It concerns a rogue angel/vampire/I-don't-know-what-the-hell-he-is who has, well, gone rogue. I'm not sure of all the specifics of the story, but I do have a couple of chapters I need to convert into scripts. I have some killer concept images, too. The project needs a swift kick in the pants if it's ever going to get off the ground; first of all, I need to know where the story's going, and Skippy's not the easiest person to get in contact with. I hope it works out. I should probably focus on Fight or Flight first, though, and then worry about the rest later.

From this list above, I can see I have enough on my plate to keep me fat and happy for a while at least. Dark Corner Productions is inching along splendidly (at least from where I'm standing) - we've started to implement some new policies, including setting weekly production goals, which I hope will give us that steel-toed incentive we need to get things moving. We have a couple of art shows already planned, one in September/October and one in November (nicely spaced, don't you think?) All in all, shaping up slowly but surely.

I'll try to post regularly. Until next time, stay classy.

Rick Out.

I'm not dead...

2009-07-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

Just to let y'all know, The Rick is still alive and kicking. I just haven't had a lot of time to post here recently - as of late, I've been working at a Cub Scout camp down in Gregory, MI, and I only have time off on Saturday nights and Wednesdays. As you can imagine, this puts a bit of a clamp on my blogging time. I have, however, been posting poems on my poetry blog, RixRites, so you can go over there to get your dose of Rickian poetic ramblings.

I am currently working on a rather prickly five-pager, a comic-book treatment of W.B. Yeat's poem, "The Second Coming". It's coming along slowly; I have a problem with a couple of the pages, especially the first one. I figure I just need to slam it out, and damn the consequences. There's also the very small, burr-like copyright issue clinging to my leg - who owns the rights to "The Second Coming"? How can I get permission to use it, and how much will it cost?

At any rate, the summer camp season is winding down, and I've got to get back into the groove. I have to get back in communication with my comic book group, Dark Corner Productions, and see how well they're holding up (and see what's going on with that art show!). After that, I've got to pick up the final installment of TEQ and Squidgods from my editor, Jay Jacot, and see what's going on with our other various projects.

Let's see, what else...I picked up another project from Skippy, in addition to Fight or Flight...a project from one of my co-workers at camp (and will he pay for it?)...sigh. I appear to have at least one finger in multiple pies.

For now, though, just relaxing, in between giving guns to children (I work at the BB gun range at camp). I'm also looking for a small truck. I may have found a good one, but I'll keep my optimism down to a reasonable level until I can test-drive it.

Stay classy, gentle readers.

Rick Out.

New writing blog, by yours truly

2009-07-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

I've started a new blog for my writing. Unlike RixPix, the writing blog - "RixRites" - will be less discussion, and more work. RixPix is where I flap my lips about anything I feel like talking about; RixRites is where I shut up and let the work do the talking. I like to think of it as the public face of Rick versus the private face of Rick: RixRites will have nothing to do with business. I'm not even sure if I'll respond to comments on that blog (unless there's some helpful constructive criticism - always welcome. Even this megalomaniac feels his work needs improvement).

You can check out RixRites at this address:

www.rixrites12.blogspot.com.

Hope you enjoy it.

Rick Out.

Starting Camp

2009-06-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday, the 14th, I began my third year working at Camp Munhacke Cub Scout Resident Camp in Gregory, MI.

This first week is "director's week", which means all the directors come to camp early, before the general staff, and work their asses off. We were setting up tents, setting up the dock at the waterfront, even setting up some battleships (more on that later). I have never set up tents so fast in my life. I spent all of Wednesday tottering around like an old man, burnt to a crisp from the shoulders down, and covered in massive horsefly welts. I have to go back this evening. Should be fun.

I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed the work, all except putting in the dock. You have to understand this monstrosity before you can appreciate how difficult it is to set up. Firstly, the thing is about twenty years old. The metal frames are rusting apart, full of convenient jagged corners and finger-biting hinges, the kind of tetanus nightmare that makes you wish you had boxes of booster shots on hand. Now add to this the fact that you have to set them up in murky water up to your shoulders. Toes, anyone? No thanks, I don't use them anymore - they had to be amputated after two or three dock frames were dropped on them. No biggie. At any rate, there we were, cursing and growling as we tried to jerk the warped, twisted frames into position and sink the feet down into the murky clay on the bottom of Bruin Lake. The worst possible piece of this whole iron maiden assemblage was the infamous NUMBER ELEVEN. NUMBER ELEVEN (painted in sickly yellow on one side) is the point at which the dock turns. Now, this could have been done the logical way: simply having it snap onto the side of Number Ten to form the L-turn, thus necessitating only two metal legs, like so:

Fig. 1-1: The Way It Should Be.

Instead, some ergonomic genius decided to have it clamp to the end of Number Ten. This means it has three metal legs, plus two metal overhangs that clip to the end of Number Ten on the side, thus:

Fig. 1-2: The Way It Is.

So imagine trying to horse this thing into place: three five-foot long legs, two clamps, and you have to try to jam this thing into the bottom of the lake whilst keeping perfect alignment, all as you are scraping your feet to hell on rocks and metal and getting sunburned like pork on the grill. Oh, and did I mention it will be uneven when you're done? You have to level it.

When I get my first $50,000, by God, I am buying that camp a nice plastic floating dock...

That was the worst of it. The second worst (by a long shot) was setting up the Battleships.

Now, here's the background: our camp has a different "Theme" every year. My first year it was Wild West; last year it was Time Travel. This year, it's Naval Base. In keeping with the theme for the year, our esteemed Camp Director, one Daryl Barton, comes up with new and exciting games for the scouts to play. This year she came up with a game wherein the scouts attempted to "sink" a set of "battleships" by batting or golfing various projectiles into goals on the opposite battleship. The battleships are composed of three palettes, two on the ground with one stacked on top to form the poop deck, and outfitted with a climbing platform from which the scouts will "fire" upon the opposing battleship. Doesn't sound too difficult, right?

Problem is, the palettes she had in mind were not your nice, small cargo palettes you can lift with a hi-lo. No indeed. These were wall-tent platforms. Imagine this: twelve feet by sixteen feet. Solid white oak. Twelve years old. These things must have weighed three hundred pounds. I just remember the look on our Quartermaster, Bret's, face when he saw the size of these things. Our Ranger had said it took "eight to ten people" to maneuver these beasts; we'd brought seven. It was like trying to load an aircraft carrier into the bed of the Dodge pickup we were using. And then repeat the operation four times.

Hey, at least it wasn't a dock, right?

Setting up tents wasn't as fun as the battleships, but neither was it as labor-intensive - just a lot of extra straps and stakes to set up and tie down. Myself and Jeff Thompson, our Assistant Waterfront Director, had the tent-setup down to a system, to such an extent that we were doing a tent every three minutes (okay, more like seven minutes). We had a little friendly competition going on with our Quartermaster. He cheated, of course. And, of course, we still set up more tents than he did. Ha. At any rate, we were supposed to leave around noon of Tuesday, but when the tents came by FedEx, it looked like we might be spending the night. Luckily we had the drive to get all those tents up before nightfall - and before it started raining.

So tonight I get to go back and meet all the newly-arrived, general-staff flunkies (did I say that?). Some of them were here last year, some were here two years ago, and most are completely new (Aren't recessions great? We have 'em lined up around the corner waiting to get in). We'll see how it goes. We have some exciting new changes this year, especially at the old BB Gun Range, where Yours Truly is supreme Lord and Rangemaster. Yep, I'm the BB Gun Range Director. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. If you have a pipe, anyway.

Rick Out.

Times, they are a'changin'...

2009-06-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

Author's note: this blog has been reprinted, per Jay Jacot's request, from Sunday, June 7th. All the events recorded here are to the best of my knowledge. I've also made some corrections (again, as per request), so it's a little different, if you've read it before.

Whew! A lot can happen while you're out drinking. I went to a quiet after-party following my church's open house (St. Mary Magdalene's Orthodox Church in Fenton), and missed my weekly meeting with Comics Obscura.

And guess what happened?

They're no longer Comics Obscura!

Yes, friends, the Comics Obscura group and the Comics Obscura publication are now, officially, no longer affiliated. I don't have all the details; but from what I've gathered, the Comics Obscura group no longer exists, and those members formerly of Comics Obscura have now formed their own group, Dark Corner Productions. Comics Obscura, the publication, is still in operation, but the main editor/publisher/shareholder in the operation, one Jay Jacot, has taken full ownership of the Comics Obscura label, which means the members of the group had to take on a different name; hence, Dark Corner Productions. My Vice Presidency of the group (oh, did I mention that? I became Vice President about a week ago! It's actually kind of exciting...) has rolled over to the new group, with one Joe Haines as acting President, and Christy Hans as Treasurer/Head of Merchandise Department.

What are my thoughts on the breakup? Well, neither mad nor glad, just a little relieved. Things had been a little tense as of late: confusion over "ownership" of the group, sudden changes to the submission process for the publication, impatience with the publication process, miscommunication and frustration abounding. Comics Obscura #4 was definitely a turning point for us, highlighting all of our problems; it was uncertain whether the group (by whatever name) could survive. Let's just say I'm breathing a little easier, now that things have come to a head.

I see this turn of events as an opportunity. Our esteemed Editor's contributions to the group cannot be overstated; but the fact is, one man alone could not bear the weight of the group and its sister publication on his shoulders for long, especially with the responsibilities he has taken on at work and at home. The group now has a chance to stand on its own two feet and see what it can do. The group has a long way to go to become a legitimate publisher in its own right, certainly, but from the dramatic improvements I have seen in terms of specific group members deciding to shoulder the burden, I think we can make a go of it. There is a lot of ambition and certainly enough talent in my colleagues; all we need now is a little direction.

But enough. Let us lay aside tomorrow's concerns until tomorrow (or at least until Friday, when the group meets). It is now midnight, and I have a busy day planned tomorrow. It involves Bristol board, ink, and several pairs of navy blue shorts (perhaps it's best not to ask). At any rate, I am plum tuckered out, and, like a college kid with a fistful of foodstamps, feel the need to turn in.

Rick Out.

SQUIDGODS IS FINISHED

2009-06-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

The above title, plus a few expletives, formed the content of my primal shriek of triumph and exhaustion as I put the last godforsaken line in the last godforsaken panel on the last godforsaken page of that 126-page, one-ton albatross that's been hanging around my neck for three years like a millstone, dragging me down into that stinking, fetid mire called, "I'll-Finish-It-Tomorrow", where I would be sucked dry by the Leeches of Procrastination and then cored out by the filthy maggots of Despair-Of-Ever-Finishing. I flipped through each page, giggling maniacally, my worn-to-the-bone fingers unfeeling against the plastic, reliving the agony over every line in ink, marker, and ballpoint pen, feeling the blinding sting of every glaring mistake and oversight, mind shot through with every newly-discovered plot-hole. As "O Fortuna" reached its earthshaking choral crescendo, I found myself staring at a certain point in the story, where there seemed to be - dared I think it? - too broad of a gap, too great a jump in transition...the bottom fell out of my world...I stared in mute horror...my saliva-dripping lip trembled as a moan rose, unbidden, from the depths of my withered belly:

I would need two more pages.

All right, all right - it wasn't that melodramatic. But still, it's finished, and I'm happy and relieved and completely burned-out. I promised Jay Jacot a five-pager before I left for camp, but I don't think I'll be able to deliver.

If you don't know anything about Squidgods, I suppose now would be the time to fill you in. Let me say, first-off, that this is not a conventionally-made comic - Bristol board, and all that - and indeed, could not possibly be made conventionally. At 126 pages, I would go broke just trying to gather all the Bristol board and ink necessary for the job.

Instead, it is what I refer to as a "Binder Comic". A BC is, essentially, a comic in a ring binder, usually written on 8.5" x 11" printer-paper (nothing too expensive) set back-to back in plastic sleeves. The usual medium is technical pen, although Sharpies and Bic ballpoints will work just as well. The materials are cheap, the means are always available, and the comic itself is eminently transportable - you can work on it anywhere, at any time. As you can probably guess, this style of comic is the best for those just starting out in comics. My first comic was a Binder Comic, one Matt Darkk and the Home Alien Control, completed while I was serving time at Howell High School. Binder Comics allow for a great deal of experimental freedom on the part of the artist, due to cost - one can throw out an 8.5" x 11" page much more comfortably than a 14" x 17" piece of Bristol board.

One disadvantage of Binder Comics is that, as a rule, they are never well-planned. This has been my experience through both of Matt Darkk and Squidgods. I'm not sure if it was impatience, hubris, or simply lack of experience (probably all three), but in both cases you'd be hard-pressed to find a single thumbnail panel sketch whatsoever. This was fun at first - sort of a sequential-art improv session - but about twenty pages in, you start to look back over your work, and realize (with a cold shiver up your spine) that you have no idea where you're going with this.

You set it aside. A month later, another part of the story comes to you. You draw it out. You realize you have no transition between your first few pages and this next sequence. You set it aside...wash, rinse, repeat...wash, rinse, repeat. Before you know it, you're three years in, and down to the last twenty pages, desperately trying to reconcile all the plot threads. You'll end up like me, walking around with Squidgods around my neck, even as I worked on other projects, dreading the fact that, sooner or later, I would have to sit my ass down and force myself to finish it.

"So Rick," you ask me. "I'm just starting out in comics - no prior experience. I think I'll make one of these "Binder Comics". Should I sit down and just start planning it out, like you said?"

My answer would be, well...yes and no.

If you have little prior experience making comics (or if you're like me, and hardly even read comics as a kid), sitting down and trying to plan out a comic is a daunting task. Sequential art is something that's hard to pick up from a book; you have to have someone work through the process with you until you develop the "feel" of it. Planning things out page-by-page, therefore, may not be the best first step - you'll get intimidated quickly, and drop the project.

By the same token, if you just start drawing, with no planning, you'll do about five or ten pages, and then boredom will set in. When the story wanders, the creator's attention wanders.

I propose a middle path, neither too much planning, nor too little: first, go through the motions of creating a story: plot, characters, setting, etc. - do a lot of sketches. Second, grab yourself an old DC comic (one with as many panels as possible) and copy the panel layouts. This will give you a template in which to work, where you won't have to worry about making your own panels. The third step is to simply start filling the panels with pictures in pencil, with as little self-editing as possible. This is important, especially if you have no prior experience with comics; second-guessing will only cause you to freeze up. If you run out of panels, by golly, copy yourself another page! It doesn't make a difference. Just fill the panels with pictures and words.

Once you're done with this, take a look at it, make any corrections you see fit, and then hand it off to an articulate sibling. Ask them if it makes sense. Don't try to explain the story - if they can't figure it out from the pictures and words, it's probably the comic's fault, not theirs. Then write down their assessment, go back, and make corrections as necessary. The very, very last step is the inking - use whatever inking material you feel comfortable with (it doesn't have to be fancy or expensive - ballpoint works great). When this is done, add color (color pencils are best, as it won't make the ink bleed and leaves no residue), stick it in perforated plastic sleeves, stick the sleeves in a binder, put a title on the binder, and Presto! - you've just made a binder comic. If you get a big enough binder, you can put in two or more comics in one binder, saving space and money.

So there you have it, folks - advice from the guy who knows. As you finish digesting these tasty morsels of knowledge, I think I'll go get a beer, sit down in front of the television, and zone out. Maybe the full monumental force of the accomplishment will hit me later, but for now I just feel like my brain is swelling up. Comics takes a lot out of you.

Rick Out.

snafu...

2009-06-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I went ahead and deleted that last post...things weren't as "sorted-out" as I thought they were. In fact, one of the parties involved weren't even aware of the events that transpired. If you commented on that post, my sincerest apologies for deleting your words along with it; if you didn't, and are now saying, "What the hell is he talking about?!", don't worry about it. Situation Normal - All F***ed Up.

Rick Out.

MOTOR CITY KHAAAAAN!!!

2009-05-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Forgive the exuberance. Made about $60.00 at the 2009 Motor City Comic Con, so I'm pumped. Sold 4 issues of Comics Obscura, one button, and 10 sketches.

Didn't get very many pictures of the Con - I'm not much of a picture-taker, unfortunately. Did get my ugly mug immortalized with a pair of very lovely (and very accomodating) ladies in costume.

Fig. 1-1: The author, with bemused beauties.

My tablemates Josh and Matt also got in on the action:

Fig. 1-2: Josh is happy.

Fig. 1-3: Matt is also happy. He is also crouching down - the
man is at least six-foot-six.

(Note: the character on the left is the girl from The Fifth Element, one of my favorite movies of all time. If you don't know the character on the right, it's time to crawl out from under that rock of yours).

Carrie Fisher was apparently at the Con, but I didn't go over to see her - from all accounts, she did not want to be there (where's a friendly Mark Hamill when you need him?). Much more friendly were the various creators, including Jason Howard (The Astounding Wolfman), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Eric Lynch (Drafted), Rob Forest (E.G.G.) Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics), Eric Wilmouth (Archetypal Images), and Brian Rood (an airbrush artist out of Toledo, OH).

I finished TEQ at the Con and got the new stuff over to Jay, so that's all squared away. Now I just want to finish up Squidgods and make a five-pager for the next issue of Comics Obscura. Other than that, just kicking around, getting ready for National Camp School on the 22nd (I'm driving to Missouri in someone else's car! Whoopee!). Y'all take care of yourselfs.

Rick Out.

Comics Review Series #1

2009-05-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

At some point, way back in the misty dawn of time [of this blog], I said this was a comics blog. It hasn't really turned out that way, aside from a few sketchbook pictures here and there. I thought it was high time I put in a couple of comic book reviews, just to spice things up.

The following is a series of very short reviews of comics I've read. Most of these come from the library where I work - we have a moderate collection. Because I'm lazy, the reviews will probably be quite short, depending on what I want to say about it. Also, if you've never heard of any of these comics or creators, all's the better - I've become a bit of a connoisseur, I've found, of comics nobody's ever heard of (although this review will include some more commonly-known titles and artists).

(By the way, starting from this point, I might be using the word "comickers" a lot - it simply means, "comic book artists". It's just a bit easier than saying "comic book artists" every single time).

Anyway, here they are.

1. The Acme Novelty Library
Chris Ware
Chris Ware, out of Chicago, is quite possibly my favorite comic book artist of all time. He comes from the strange, murky realm of artists who make comics - that is, they are artists first, and only comickers second. His highly technical machine-like style, together with the ubiquity of the cynical, future-happy Acme Company, contrast sharply with his themes of loneliness, abandonment, and anxiety as he follows a circus of ordinary losers around their heartbreakingly pathetic existences. I guess his characters, who have such unrealistic, unrealizable hopes, struck a cord with my younger self. You'll laugh and cry at the same time. Then the man will crush your soul. Then you will come back for more.

2. Rocco Vargas
Daniel TorresThis was a hardcover collection of Spanish comic book creator Daniel Torres' Rocco Vargas stories I picked up. The titular character is a sharp Spaniard in a zoot-suit who spends his time sitting around the pool of his resort cafe, wooing the ladies, and - sometimes - saving the solar system. The whole story is a piecemeal metaphor for the Cold War, but then it's hard to go wrong with that (see Rocky and Bullwinkle, for cryin' out loud). Torres' strong European "illustrative" approach to comic book work makes for an even more enjoyable read, blending a retro 'thirties feel with a streamlined Euro-comics look. Definitely a solid read, and surprisingly deep after the first couple of issues.

3. Punk Rock and Trailer Parks
Derf

And yes, I am a fan of the punk comics: at first I loathed them for their sheer hideousness and depravity, and then I grew to love them for exactly the same reason. Might make a couple myself. At any rate, here's a sweet little story about a gigantic, Tolkien-quoting, fart-recording, trailer-park-dwelling lunatic from Akron, Ohio, who refers to himself (in the third person!) as "The Baron". The story revolves around his senior year, the friends he makes, and the music he dives into headfirst. Along the way you'll meet his crazy next door neighbor who barks like a dog, his drunk former Communist great-uncle who drives everywhere on a lawn mower, and punk idols few have ever heard of (I certainly hadn't). The whole story vibrates with mad energy, thanks in part to the hideous and yet strangely compelling artwork; but at the same time it has a somber undertone: it's really about a struggling rust-belt town, and the means by which the denizens seek out escape. An awesome comic - if you're into that sort of thing.

4. Hellboy
Mike Mignola

Not a specific book; just Mike Mignola's whole Hellboy universe. Big Red and his team of freaky commandos battle various monsters, demons, and Lovecraftian threats, all in Mignola's distinctive "woodcut" style. Along the way you'll meet freakies like Abraham Sapien, Roger the Homunculus, Liz Sherman, and Johann Krauss. I personally liked the series best when Mignola was at the helm, but Guy Davis is doing quite all right with the spin-off, B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development). Definitely give this one a whirl.

5. Dungeon
Writer: Louis Trondheim
Artist: Joann Sfar

A long, rambling jaunt through the minds of Trondheim and Sfar, this time concerning a certain duck in a quasi-Dungeons-and-Dragons universe. The essence of the story is that a Dungeonmaster needs a new hero, and the duck signs up for the job; he is joined by his overseer/sidekick, an ornery yet sensitive half-dragon. Hijinks ensue. There is plenty of meandering through Sfar's beautiful scenery to take up a day or so, and plenty of weird characters to meet and laugh at along the way. On the whole, a good one.

6. Invincible, vol. 1
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Cory Walker

This one surprised the hell out of me - it has a typical teen superhero fantasy look, but once you get into it, it is way out of the ordinary. The series follows the adventures of Mark Grayson, a high school kid who just happens to be the son of "Omni Man", the most powerful being on earth. Along the way, of course, he has to balance homework and girlfriends and saving the world, etc. The creators of Invincible do a nice job of toning back the soap opera aspect and allowing the drama to play out purely in the superheroic field; I also like that the main character isn't as annoying as Peter Parker has become, and in general the self-conscious superhero-cliche jokes aren't beaten like a dead horse. Added to that, there's also some very, very clever stuff in here (to me, at least): riffs on DC, Marvel, Watchmen, Star Trek, and comic book artists; and a brutal twist worthy of Alan Moore. Really comments on the nature of superheroes, especially Superman and his godlike ilk. (Also, it has one of the most awesome superheroes ever created: Monster Girl). On the whole, a fantastic read - really ranks up there with the best, in my book.

7. Tintin
Hergé
Again, not a specific title, but the whole shebang. A really charming comic - another done in the European "illustrative" style. Follows the adventures of Tintin, the Captain, and Tintin's dog Snowball as they traipse around the world, doing God-knows-what and getting in all sorts of trouble. The cartoony characters integrate nicely into their realistic world; Hergé is not a comic book artist per sé, nor even an artist-who-makes-comics; I guess you could say he is a combination of both in the way only European comickers can be (see Daniel Torres). A really solid set of adventure stories, and though not intended for kids, definitely kid-friendly to boot.

8. Buddy Does Seattle
Peter Bagge
Another one o' them Poorly Drawn Comics (PDC's) that I'm such a sucker for. This time it's set in Seattle, during the grunge epidemic, when seemingly everyone was shiftless, unwashed, and sexually deviant; the eponymous character lives in an apartment with two or three (or four) bizarre roommates. I dug Bagge's weird, apelike humans; "Stinky" Leonard is a favorite. The compilation is at its absolute best during the whole "Leonard and the Love Gods" escapade (there's a point at which the eponymous band screams, "I scream...you scream...we all scream...for HEROIN!!!!" that had me busting a gut laughing); at its worst when Buddy is interacting with the comic's annoying females. A good comic, on the whole.

8. Clan Apis
Jay Hosler
It's basically a textbook about bees told in story form: "Everything You Wanted to Know About Bees (But Were Too Afraid to Ask)". The main character is a bee named Nyuki, who is guided through the stages of growth and perils of the bee world by her mentor and friend, Dvorah. I liked the spare, black-and-white interior art, and the various arthropods are well-rendered. And who knew how much personality could be wrangled out of bee-faces? Kudos to Dr. Hosler on this one. All in all, a good read, and very informative to boot.

9. All-Star Action Classics: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Writer: Michael Mucci
Artists: Ben Caldwell, Bill Halliar
I don't know why I like this one. Maybe I shouldn't. But somehow the highly cartoonified look of the thing, when combined with Bram Stoker's words, make for a damn good comic. The character design for Dracula himself is possibly the most effective I've ever seen - neither the Bela Lugosi type, nor the metrosexual Twilight/Van Helsing/Underworld variety, but the grisly, cultured ghoul Stoker intended to portray. On the whole, surprisingly good - even if it is intended for kids.

And now, a couple that didn't pass muster...

1. Brooklyn Dreams
Writer: J. M. DeMatteis
Illustrator: Glenn Barr

This story centers around the childhood of narrator Vincent Carl Santini, and his odd life in Brooklyn with his crazy Italian stepfather and neurotic Jewish mother; the narrator appears every so often, but mostly you see his reflections upon his past. Reading it, I couldn't help wondering if the main character was a stand-in for the author - it had that kind of quasi-autobiographical feel to it. For the most part a good comic; lots of great characters keep things interesting, and I'm generally up for a "slice of life" comic every now and then. Personally, I wished the narrator wouldn't show up quite so often, especially since he tends to pop in and start another narrative tangental to the first. Essentially you're hopping around between all sorts of different thoughts. I suppose this makes for a more "conversational" experience - as if you're just stopping by for a chat - but mostly it's just irritating. There's also an attempt at mysticism that doesn't work very well: as a child, the narrator is frightened by his "inner demons"; but the adult narrator has an annoying "I've got it all figured out now" attitude that becomes more and more annoying as the book goes on (there's even a dedication to the Meher Baba, the "King of Hearts", if I remember correctly). On the whole, a so-so comic book; a few good stories, but nothing memorable.

2. Tellos: Reluctant Heroes
Writer: Todd Dezago
Artist: Mike Wieringo

This story concerns the adventures of Jarek, a human boy, and his man-tiger sidekick, Koj, along with several ancellary characters, including a beautiful pirate and a pair of luckless thieves; they are menaced by the villain Malesus and his horde. If one word could describe this comic, it is slick - or at least an attempt at it, artwise. Lots of little special effects thrown in (I think even a lens flare or two), and I'm pretty sure the coloring is in Photoshop. Personally I count that as a strike against it - then again, might be personal taste. Somebody else might be annoyed with the giant gloves, a la Kingdom Hearts or Fable, that everybody seems to be wearing in this one. And then there's the general busy-ness of the panels. And the mediocre dialogue. And, to top it all off, one of the lamest uber-villains in the history of storytelling - true, it was an original touch to make Sauron into a blue teenager in a shirt and jeans, but then you should make him really evil to compensate, and the creators of this one...didn't. A couple of good things here, too: the layouts are pretty, the world is kind of cool, and at some point there was a dragon smoking a blunt (but of course the idea didn't go anywhere). The best part of the whole collection, really, was the "Tellos: Prelude" in the back, which had a fairly tight story, and a satisfying twist at the end. On the whole, though, a pretty mediocre effort - a couple of Photoshop effects, an attempt at "cool" character design, and some good ideas that don't really go anywhere.

Improve Your Morel Fiber

2009-04-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here on a beautiful, rainy day at the end of a Michigan April, contemplating the emerald green of the new growth. The grass is impossibly soft; new buds stand out like millions of tiny jewels against the black of wet tree trunks. The crabapples and plum trees are sporting their May blossoms early, pinks and whites and magentas. The gray sky, so oppressive two months ago, now looks soft and warm as velvet. There are garter snakes on the move, even in the middle of the city; fat woodchucks snuffle around on the embankment of the railroad tracks. After the long winter, everything is beautifully, impossibly new.

Fig. 1-1: Maple Street, in the rain.

Fig. 1-2: The plum tree. View of Aberdeen Way, out front.

For anyone who's lived in Michigan for any length of time (at least in the Lower Peninsula), you've most likely heard of that jewel of the northern forests, the elusive morel mushroom. The mere sight of one will cause even the most reserved of us to clap our hands and jump up and down like little kids; then it's all yellow rain-slickers and five-gallon buckets, combing through the backwoods in the drizzle and fog, hoping to find a nice big morel patch somewhere.

Fig. 1-3: Morels (Morchella esculenta).

The first one I'd ever found was on a "Wilderness Survival" camping trip up at a friend's aunt's house down on Coon Lake Road. She had a small grass farm of glacier-scooped rills and hollows, and behind this a small patch of woods where we set up camp. That's where I found the mushroom, on a hillside, standing all alone. Having completed the hand-clapping-and-dancing ritual - my troop must have thought I'd gone nuts - I fried the morel up in margerine and garlic powder. It had the consistency of a wet sock, but oh was it ever good.

The second time I found one was at my (now ex-) girlfriend's house, down in the woods behind her backyard. Then I went out on a 20-mile hike in May, and found a whole mess of them (there must have been twenty, and big ones) far out on the Potowatami Trail. I didn't have a bag, so I put them in the ruined hood of my poncho and tied it up like a bag. Had to soak them in salt water to get the slugs out - they were a couple weeks old by then - but they were still good.

Fast-forward to this year. I get home after a long day at my college classes, thinking wearily that I have to get out in the woods and do some morel hunting before it's too late. The problem is not the "getting out in the woods"-part, or even finding the time to do it. The problem is that morels tend to appear whenever and wherever you're not looking for them. Thus, I might spend two days lost in the Houghton hills and see nary a one, and come back with nothing but a cold. My best hope was to talk with my boss, and see if she'd be willing to let me tag along (she's a big morel hunter too - her whole family is of the snowmobiling, venison-loving, northern-Michigan vein).

I step out of the car and poke around the crater of a tree we'd just had cut down and ground out, thinking about how I should get around to raking up the rest of the wood chips. It was some kind of ash tree, got the bugs inside inside it last summer, and by fall the bark had fallen off. The wood was still solid all the way through. It's a bit like having maggots run around under your skin until it falls off: you die, but you're still relatively intact. Thus, our poor ash tree joined the legions of standing dead, victims of the Emerald Ash Borer.

Fig. 1-4: The ash-tree crater.

At any rate, there I am, standing with my hands in my pockets and absent-mindedly kicking some woodchips, when I notice something odd in the grass. I look closely, and there, to my astonishment, is a covey of tiny gray brains.

Morels! And yes, I did clap my hands and jump up and down. Who the hell cares what the neighbors think. Over the next day or so I would find several more, a whole patch of them feeding off the dead roots of the ash tree. I decided (naively) to let them "grow", thinking they would get bigger (they don't - the size they pop up as is the size they remain). So like a fool I left them there.

The next day, my brother cut the grass. He ran over my morel patch with the lawnmower. Needless to say, I was a tad bit steamed.

It wasn't a total loss, though - not really a loss at all, as it would turn out. I managed to grab up two bowlfuls of scattered morel pieces, and quite a few that the lawnmower blade had missed. With the grass cut, it was much easier to see the squat ones hiding down there. A couple were stepped on, and there were grass clippings all over them, but they were still good.

Fig. 1-5: Examples of morels from my yard.

But herein lies a great mystery: the conditions for morels simply weren't there. Here's a classic morel habitat:

1. deep woods
2. lots of shade
3. on a damp hillside
4. under a living fruit tree.

And here is where they popped up:

1. in my backyard
2. out in the open
3. on a (relatively) dry lawn
4. on a dead ash-tree crater.

Adding to the weirdness is the fact that I was thinking about morels all day, and they suddenly just "appear" in my backyard.

Go figure.

At any rate, with all the rain we've been having, it looks like it's going to be a good, long season for morels. Hopefully more will pop up in the yard. If not, of course, I guess I'll have to head out into the woods in a rain slicker with a five-gallon bucket. So if you see me wandering, lost and alone through the Houghton woods, smile and wave, and keep driving, even if I flag you down. Who wants a rain-drenched, mushroom-picking lunatic in their car, anyway?

Rick Out.

Finishing up.

2009-04-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

Whew...! Just sent off the second installment of the Fight or Flight webcomic. That'll make it a grand total of...two installments.

Lord have mercy.

In a more upbeat vein, the final installment of TEQ has one page left. I'm going to have to sit myself down and just plug away until I finish it. After that, I just have three painted title pages to complete (for installments 4, 5, and 6), and then, voila! - - TEQ is done.

After that, I have to swoop in and finish Squidgods. Twenty pages, or thereabouts. Then all my outstanding (and outstanding!) projects will be finished, and I'll have a couple minutes to breathe.

Finals coming up at LCC. I just have that one paper to do; everything else is projects. Then I have ComiCon on the 15th of May, and then National Camp School on the 22nd (in Knob Lick, Missouri - Knob Lick, folks). And then on June 14th, I'm off for camp staff. Hurray for summer, and all that.

Rick Out.

2009-04-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

A quick image - four heads for ComiCon buttons:

Fig. 1.1: Four heads.

Longshots characters featured, clockwise from top left: Beth Kasty, Ishmael Kuffing, Captain Andrew Logan, Eric Mudrow.

I think I ordered about fifty of these buttons. So far it's about the only preparation I've done for the Con - I guess I'd better get my butt moving on that. Get some posters printed, at least. I'm thinking of doing a banner with my name on it, or something along those lines. I'll see what goes on.

And while we're posting images, here's four concept images for a Flash animation I'm doing. Hopefully, I'll be able to post the full animation for you sometime later.

Fig. 1.2: The aged hippie.

The Animation is for a Web Design project - Project 7, or some-such: "Design a Flash splash-page for a corporate website". Being the happy camper that I am, I decided any Flash splash-page for a corporate website would (and indeed, should have) aging counterculture figures and some type of drug use.

Keep an eye out, I should have the Flashimation posted on this blog at some future date.

Rick Out.

Fight or Flight

2009-03-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

These past couple of weeks have been...interesting.

Comics Obscura is undergoing a bit of a shakeup; the founding members of the group are at odds with our editor-in-chief, the inimitable Jay Jacot. I can't give any specific details, but suffice to say they're at loggerheads right now, and are going to use next Sunday's meeting as a chance to try and resolve the differences. Hopefully everything will work out to peacefully, and we can get back to drawing comics and having a good time.

Not much to report on my end. I just finished the roughs for Redtooth #2, and am moving on to Redtooth #3. Oh, and did you hear about this? I'm also working on a webcomic. When it will come out, I haven't the foggiest. I'm just doing the art and trying to mind my own business.

The webcomic is called (tentatively, and probably finally) Fight or Flight, and we started very early last year. I'm working with a writer, David "Skippy" Crampton, and his co-conspirator, Aaron Mosier. I'm not going to give much away here, but I'll give you a couple concept images, just to tease:

Fig. 1: "Willy, the Origin Robot"

Here is Willy. Willy, meet world. World, meet Willy. And yes, it does sound like "WALL-E", but then again I didn't know about the movie before I named the little guy (at any rate, it's only a working name).

Fig. 2: an "Oracle" robot

Another concept image - we might use it, we might not. It would be cool, though.

Fig. 3: Hunter/Processor Robot.

Fig. 4: Scavenger robot.

There are plans for the webcomic, and then for an MMORPG. At some point. Right now I'm working on the art for FoF #2. Slowly but surely, we're cranking out issues (or installments, or whatever webcomics have).

Rick out.

Just one a those weeks...

2009-02-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

For all you ten million fans of this blog, who wait upon my every life-giving word with bated breath, as if in anticipation of a coming religious experience, these past weeks (or so) must have been a torment to your shriveled souls. Well, be tormented no longer: I am about to post more of my holy, infallible writ.

Nothing much has really been going on this week - at least, artistically. For those of you who know, I have been working on a webcomic as well - called Fight or Flight - and the writers have recently contacted me out of this ephemeral ether we call the "interwebs". So, I'm working on that. It's very slow going. You know how it is: the usual complaints about, "Oh, my classes take a lot out of me", and, "Oh, I just want to come home and relax...and eat a quart of ice cream." (Maybe not the ice cream. There is none in the house at the moment).

Fig. 1: His Holiness, the Author, reclining upon his favorite sofa.

What's really getting to me is this mysterious lack of motivation. Perhaps it's the February Funk, that famous time in Michigan when suddenly winter doesn't seem so funny any more, and that perhaps, through physical and psychological warfare, it really is trying to kill you. Usually there's a teasing, overcast thaw around this time, bearing upon it a whiff of Spring; but even that fleeting pleasure has been revoked. No more dallying. Winter is strictly business this year. Its attempts to snuff out all life and fun from the earth have just attained a new urgency.

Maybe it's not all bad. Maybe it's just today. Maybe tomorrow I will wake up, and suddenly everything is motivational sunshine and roses and fluffy little beaverlets following their mother purposefully across the lawn. But for now, I cast a bleary, irritable eye over All The Stuff I Have To Do, and just sneer, "Why bother?"

At any rate, hopefully these uninspiring words have not disappointed my disciples - all twenty million of you. Hopefully you will continue on with your happy lives, oblivious to the elemental conspiracy to freeze you all out of existence (at least in Michigan). Hopefully you will continue to work, even as I laze about, adrift upon a dull (and yet not entirely unpleasant) wave of Why-Should-I-Care.

Rick Out.

Fig. 2: His Holiness, in polar bear form, relaxing with several buddies.
In this state, he can finally enjoy the long cold of a Michigan February.

"The Empty Quarter" History

2009-01-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

Having just finished the first installment of Redtooth, I'm going to try and get installment 7 of The Empty Quarter started. This will be the final installment of TEQ, and after that I'll just have more Redtooth to work on.

For those of my faithful readers who don't know (and I know there are thousands of you readers out there), The Empty Quarter began as a four-page comic book assignment for my sequential art class, ARTS 275: Comic Book Illustration. In it I used a group of characters I had already conceived for a story of my own, titled Longshots.

Longshots is an expansive story about a crew of four misfits who prowl the galaxy, looking for odd jobs and generally getting into and out of trouble. There is Captain Andrew Logan, a former star-pilot; Second Mate and Engineer Beth Kasty, originally a mercenary fighting other aliens' wars; Communications Officer and Security Officer Ishmael Kuffing, whose past remains a bit of a mystery; and Botswain's Mate Eric Mudrow, a disgraced former Captain in the Space Navy. The first three all fought together (on one side or the other), and were already part of a successful shipping business with their starship, the Widowmaker, by the time Eric Mudrow came along. The story really begins with Eric's arrival, which sets off a whole chain of events that eventually involves them in a struggle to save the universe.

Longshots really began back in high school, although the themes and ideas had been kicking around in my head for nigh unto five years previous. I'd always had a bit of an outer space fetish (along with dinosaurs, bugs, and explosions), but what differentiated me from every other boy on planet earth was the fact that I could draw them, and thus I never outgrew them. In middle school I conceived an idea for a spacefaring ne'er-do-well and his cigar-smoking robot, and even got a few comic pages out of it; but my lack of control of the medium, together with the fact that I was heavily influenced by Calvin and Hobbes' "Spaceman Spiff" at the time, caused me to lose heart about halfway through. At any rate, I managed to get a good action arc out of it, even if it was utterly deranged.

Then ninth grade came. For reasons utterly lost to me now, I began drawing comic book scenes; I think I was influenced by the many who said, "Dude, you should make a comic book!" Which of course meant that I had to. The resulted was a behemoth called, Matt Darkk and the Home Alien Control: A Different Power.

Cover Page: Matt Darkk
of the Home Alien Control.

It was absolutely the most ill-conceived, ill-constructed, and inconsistent bit of sequential art ever produced. In the end, it totaled 121 printer pages, many of which had writing on the other side; it was drawn in Sharpie markers and Micron pens; the panels are off, the dialogue is stilted, the pacing is bad, the editing is nonexistant, and some scenes are obviously cobbled in between scenes. On the whole, it was a mess.

It was also an unmitigated triumph. What follows are some key scenes from the story:

Page 57, showing the gangster Rana and his freakish goon, Chinnegan.

Page 67: a Corrakim warbot.

Page 79: a Corrakim attacks; general mayhem ensues.

Page 93: a fight between two Corrakim.

Admittedly, these are some of the best images; but I still think it was a helluva thing (that I never want to do again). The whole operation took me three years. It was the first time I'd ever done a whole story in images.

Meanwhile, all during the production of Matt Darkk, I kept myself sane by coming up with other ideas. Here's a doodle I came up with that really marks the genesis of Longshots:

Sketch 1: divers and various spaceships; also, a star-pilot.

Believe it or not, that starpilot in the middle there is the very first image of Captain Andrew Logan - or at least his soon-to-be-named prototype.

From this one sketch evolved a vague story about a starfighter pilot and his squadron-mates. As it evolved, I began to think up adversaries for them to fight, as well as different incarnations of my main hero:

Sketch 2: showing a mechanical-armed pilot,
a pompadour-coiffed, gun-brandishing hotshot,
and divers and various villains.

Sketch 3: possible commanders.

Up till this point, I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be a comic book at all - I was still feeling out the edges of the story, and wondering if it was more of a short, written story, a comic book, or even a movie. At this time the story began to change to include a couple of other characters, including a female crewmember and a loudmouthed boy. Captain Andrew Logan has now entered his final incarnation - at least in terms of clothing style:

Sketch 4: showing Captain Andrew Logan, a Kid,
and a possible first incarnation of Beth Kasty
(albeit a definite prototype for Lydia Medyenkov).

I'm not sure if I had a name for the Captain at this point; I know, however, that no names were given either to the kid or the female character. The kid, by the way, was going to be the main character for a while, as we can see by the next sketch:

Sketch 5: featuring a Kid, definite Beth Kasty prototype,
and Captain Andrew Logan. In this scene, the Kid is showing
off the armor he has just purchased; Beth is reading the promotional
product description that came with it, and Captain Logan is looking
generally pissed off.

In the Kid's bland features, one can spot the first, gradual emergence of Eric Mudrow, who would be the last character to be fully fleshed-out.

One character never really had to develop at all - he just popped out of a sketch, fully-formed and already creepy. Here it is, the very first image of Ishmael Kuffing:

Sketch 6: showing a confrontation between Captain Andrew Logan
and Ishmael Kuffing.

Kuffing is the only character to have survived to this present time completely intact, complete with armor. As you will notice from these last few sketches, I was on a bit of an armor kick for a while, producing slick "scene" sketches. Their cartoony polish indicates the direction I was heading with the story: fodder for an eventual feature-length animated movie. Continuing in this vein:

Sketch 7: showing Ishmael Kuffing, standing beside
the Imsiilian despot, Tar-Prince Morgan.

As of the time these sketches were drawn, the Kid had been knocked out of the story completely; the only child left was the incorrigible Tar-Prince Morgan, supreme commander of the tiny-yet-ambitious Imsiilian Empire. Kuffing had already taken on his menacing persona, as attested to by this sketch:

Sketch 8: Showing Kuffing, being treacherous.

As the story evolved, I was torn between two interpretations of the female crewmember. I at first wanted a tough-girl type, with big shoulders and a cocky attitude - more of an Amazon than anything else. But I soon realized that the story didn't need another uber-tough character; instead, it needed a little vulnerability.

Enter the Beth from sketch 5 (see far above). She isn't stone-faced, as in her previous incarnations, and she has a scar on her face - probably a mistake in the rendering I was trying to cover up. But the idea of physical scars struck me; I thought, what makes a woman more vulnerable than disfigurement, especially in her face? Thus Beth Kasty was finally enfleshed: a scarred young woman, whose toughness, while real, is mostly a defense:

Sketch 9: Beth Kasty, next-to-last incarnation.
Her distinctive hair and double-crossed scars
are not yet apparent. Also, she has a freakishly
long arm.

Of course, I could completely get rid of my Amazon - I'd grown attached to her. So instead, I split her off from her previous protagonist incarnation, and retooled her as a villain. In this new context, her dominating personality took on chilling overtones. No longer the cocky war-woman, she became an icy huntress, using her beauty to cover a heart blacker and colder than Quaoar, circling in eternal darkness out beyond Pluto. The following image comes from Sketch 5, and gives an idea of the prototype for Lydia:

Sketch 10: Lydia Medyenkov prototype from
Sketch 5; here, she is still cast as a protagonist.

Lydia was the most difficult of the characters to deal with - not because her design was difficult; she appeared nearly fully-formed, and has stayed that way ever since. Instead, it was because of my ambivalence toward the concept of the character. The idea of an Aryan/Slavic villainess with Nazi/Soviet overtones is so completely overdone as to be practically burned over - nearly every action series (including the latest Indiana Jones movie!) has had some kind of accented dominatrix to [sexually]harass the main character.

Perhaps the difference lies in exactly what Lydia does - her raison d'etre. Firstly, she's not here for comic effect (although she has her darkly funny moments); this is one cold, hard bitch, with hardly any humanity left. Secondly, she's not playing second-fiddle to any male character, as villainesses often do. True, she may enter into contract with one of the despots or cabals running the Longshots universe; but she does so for her own ends, and nobody else's. In other words, she's more like the Joker than Darth Vader, but with a plan for universal domination.

Eric Mudrow was the last character to really join the Longshots crew, and by far the easiest. Essentially, he's me - or a comic version of me - thrown in as an "everyman". Essentially, he has no powers, no special gun, and is utterly socially inept; his only talent is for running his mouth and jumping feet-first into the worst situations. His naivete and simplicity of character provide a sounding board for the other characters, a sort of a calm center to the group.

Sketch 11: showing Eric Mudrow.

At some point in my high school career - in fact, practically all through it - I became involved in their arts program. Being the opportunistic little shit that I am, I took advantage of the time and materials provided by the art classes and produced several color comic book pages, all pertaining to the Longshots universe. Each one represents a pivotal scene in a different story - none of these are in any way connected:

Art page 1 (splash): showing Captain
Andrew Logan, being attacked by
insectlike Zamodians.

Art Page 2: showing scene from a story,
in which Eric Mudrow is admonished by
an Abronz soldier.

I also produced several paintings of characters, done in a comic book style. Here is the best of them:

Painting 1: showing Captain Andrew Logan
in a moment of contemplation.

It was at this time that I began work on Squidgods.

Cover image: Squidgods.

This story concerns the trials and tribulations of our characters on the planet Trillinilliralariarilloran. It was my first attempt at creating a comic book since Matt Darkk, and I have to admit I was feeling a little ambivalent about it. The story was better planned, surely, and was less arduous to create, but once again lack of planning and inconsistent style made it an on-again, off-again project. Just like Matt Darkk, it was mostly conceived as a test of my comic book-making powers - trying to see what I could and couldn't achieve, considering the tools I had at hand (along with printer paper, Sharpie markers and Micron pens, I also added in some ball-point pen and inkwash, for fun and laffs).

Sketch : Captain Andrew Logan,

in alien ruins.

Sketch : showing alien ruins - sculpture in palace square.

Some long-overdue comic reviews

2009-01-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

Comic Book Reviews #1
Some long-overdue comic reviews

At some point, way back in the misty dawn of time [of this blog], I said this was a comics blog. It hasn't really turned out that way, aside from a few sketchbook pictures here and there. I thought it was high time I put in a couple of comic book reviews, just to spice things up.

The following is a series of very short reviews of comics I've read. Most of these come from the library where I work - we have a moderate collection. Because I'm lazy, the reviews will probably be quite short, depending on what I want to say about it. Also, if you've never heard of any of these comics or creators, all's the better - I've become a bit of a connoisseur, I've found, of comics nobody's ever heard of (although this review will include some more commonly-known titles and artists).

(By the way, starting from this point, I might be using the word "comickers" a lot - it simply means, "comic book artists". It's just a bit easier than saying "comic book artists" every single time).

Anyway, here they are.

1. The Acme Novelty Library
Chris Ware
Chris Ware, out of Chicago, is quite possibly my favorite comic book artist of all time. He comes from the strange, murky realm of artists who make comics - that is, they are artists first, and only comickers second. His highly technical machine-like style, together with the ubiquity of the cynical, future-happy Acme Company, contrast sharply with his themes of loneliness, abandonment, and anxiety as he follows a circus of ordinary losers around their heartbreakingly pathetic existences. I guess his characters, who have such unrealistic, unrealizable hopes, struck a cord with my younger self. You'll laugh and cry at the same time. Then the man will crush your soul. Then you will come back for more.

2. Rocco Vargas
Daniel TorresThis was a hardcover collection of Spanish comic book creator Daniel Torres' Rocco Vargas stories I picked up. The titular character is a sharp Spaniard in a zoot-suit who spends his time sitting around the pool of his resort cafe, wooing the ladies, and - sometimes - saving the solar system. The whole story is a piecemeal metaphor for the Cold War, but then it's hard to go wrong with that (see Rocky and Bullwinkle, for cryin' out loud). Torres' strong European "illustrative" approach to comic book work makes for an even more enjoyable read, blending a retro 'thirties feel with a streamlined Euro-comics look. Definitely a solid read, and surprisingly deep after the first couple of issues.

3. Punk Rock and Trailer Parks
Derf

And yes, I am a fan of the punk comics: at first I loathed them for their sheer hideousness and depravity, and then I grew to love them for exactly the same reason. Might make a couple myself. At any rate, here's a sweet little story about a gigantic, Tolkien-quoting, fart-recording, trailer-park-dwelling lunatic from Akron, Ohio, who refers to himself (in the third person!) as "The Baron". The story revolves around his senior year, the friends he makes, and the music he dives into headfirst. Along the way you'll meet his crazy next door neighbor who barks like a dog, his drunk former Communist great-uncle who drives everywhere on a lawn mower, and punk idols few have ever heard of (I certainly hadn't). The whole story vibrates with mad energy, thanks in part to the hideous and yet strangely compelling artwork; but at the same time it has a somber undertone: it's really about a struggling rust-belt town, and the means by which the denizens seek out escape. An awesome comic - if you're into that sort of thing.

4. Hellboy
Mike Mignola

Not a specific book; just Mike Mignola's whole Hellboy universe. Big Red and his team of freaky commandos battle various monsters, demons, and Lovecraftian threats, all in Mignola's distinctive "woodcut" style. Along the way you'll meet freakies like Abraham Sapien, Roger the Homunculus, Liz Sherman, and Johann Krauss. I personally liked the series best when Mignola was at the helm, but Guy Davis is doing quite all right with the spin-off, B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development). Definitely give this one a whirl.

5. Dungeon
Writer: Louis Trondheim
Artist: Joann Sfar

A long, rambling jaunt through the minds of Trondheim and Sfar, this time concerning a certain duck in a quasi-Dungeons-and-Dragons universe. The essence of the story is that a Dungeonmaster needs a new hero, and the duck signs up for the job; he is joined by his overseer/sidekick, an ornery yet sensitive half-dragon. Hijinks ensue. There is plenty of meandering through Sfar's beautiful scenery to take up a day or so, and plenty of weird characters to meet and laugh at along the way. On the whole, a good one.

6. Invincible, vol. 1
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Cory Walker

This one surprised the hell out of me - it has a typical teen superhero fantasy look, but once you get into it, it is way out of the ordinary. The series follows the adventures of Mark Grayson, a high school kid who just happens to be the son of "Omni Man", the most powerful being on earth. Along the way, of course, he has to balance homework and girlfriends and saving the world, etc. The creators of Invincible do a nice job of toning back the soap opera aspect and allowing the drama to play out purely in the superheroic field; I also like that the main character isn't as annoying as Peter Parker has become, and in general the self-conscious superhero-cliche jokes aren't beaten like a dead horse. Added to that, there's also some very, very clever stuff in here (to me, at least): riffs on DC, Marvel, Watchmen, Star Trek, and comic book artists; and a brutal twist worthy of Alan Moore. Really comments on the nature of superheroes, especially Superman and his godlike ilk. (Also, it has one of the most awesome superheroes ever created: Monster Girl). On the whole, a fantastic read - really ranks up there with the best, in my book.

7. Tintin
Hergé
Again, not a specific title, but the whole shebang. A really charming comic - another done in the European "illustrative" style. Follows the adventures of Tintin, the Captain, and Tintin's dog Snowball as they traipse around the world, doing God-knows-what and getting in all sorts of trouble. The cartoony characters integrate nicely into their realistic world; Hergé is not a comic book artist per sé, nor even an artist-who-makes-comics; I guess you could say he is a combination of both in the way only European comickers can be (see Daniel Torres). A really solid set of adventure stories, and though not intended for kids, definitely kid-friendly to boot.

8. Buddy Does Seattle
Peter Bagge
Another one o' them Poorly Drawn Comics (PDC's) that I'm such a sucker for. This time it's set in Seattle, during the grunge epidemic, when seemingly everyone was shiftless, unwashed, and sexually deviant; the eponymous character lives in an apartment with two or three (or four) bizarre roommates. I dug Bagge's weird, apelike humans; "Stinky" Leonard is a favorite. The compilation is at its absolute best during the whole "Leonard and the Love Gods" escapade (there's a point at which the eponymous band screams, "I scream...you scream...we all scream...for HEROIN!!!!" that had me busting a gut laughing); at its worst when Buddy is interacting with the comic's annoying females. A good comic, on the whole.

8. Clan Apis
Jay Hosler

It's basically a textbook about bees told in story form: "Everything You Wanted to Know About Bees (But Were Too Afraid to Ask)". The main character is a bee named Nyuki, who is guided through the stages of growth and perils of the bee world by her mentor and friend, Dvorah. I liked the spare, black-and-white interior art, and the various arthropods are well-rendered. And who knew how much personality could be wrangled out of bee-faces? Kudos to Dr. Hosler on this one. All in all, a good read, and very informative to boot.

9. All-Star Action Classics: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Writer: Michael Mucci
Artists: Ben Caldwell, Bill Halliar
I don't know why I like this one. Maybe I shouldn't. But somehow the highly cartoonified look of the thing, when combined with Bram Stoker's words, make for a damn good comic. The character design for Dracula himself is possibly the most effective I've ever seen - neither the Bela Lugosi type, nor the metrosexual Twilight/Van Helsing/Underworld variety, but the grisly, cultured ghoul Stoker intended to portray. On the whole, surprisingly good - even if it is intended for kids.

And now, a couple that didn't pass muster...

1. Brooklyn Dreams
Writer: J. M. DeMatteis
Illustrator: Glenn Barr

This story centers around the childhood of narrator Vincent Carl Santini, and his odd life in Brooklyn with his crazy Italian stepfather and neurotic Jewish mother; the narrator appears every so often, but mostly you see his reflections upon his past. Reading it, I couldn't help wondering if the main character was a stand-in for the author - it had that kind of quasi-autobiographical feel to it. For the most part a good comic; lots of great characters keep things interesting, and I'm generally up for a "slice of life" comic every now and then. Personally, I wished the narrator wouldn't show up quite so often, especially since he tends to pop in and start another narrative tangental to the first. Essentially you're hopping around between all sorts of different thoughts. I suppose this makes for a more "conversational" experience - as if you're just stopping by for a chat - but mostly it's just irritating. There's also an attempt at mysticism that doesn't work very well: as a child, the narrator is frightened by his "inner demons"; but the adult narrator has an annoying "I've got it all figured out now" attitude that becomes more and more annoying as the book goes on (there's even a dedication to the Meher Baba, the "King of Hearts", if I remember correctly). On the whole, a so-so comic book; a few good stories, but nothing memorable.

2. Tellos: Reluctant Heroes
Writer: Todd Dezago
Artist: Mike Wieringo

This story concerns the adventures of Jarek, a human boy, and his man-tiger sidekick, Koj, along with several ancellary characters, including a beautiful pirate and a pair of luckless thieves; they are menaced by the villain Malesus and his horde. If one word could describe this comic, it is slick - or at least an attempt at it, artwise. Lots of little special effects thrown in (I think even a lens flare or two). Somebody else might be annoyed with the giant gloves, a la Kingdom Hearts or Fable, that everybody seems to be wearing in this one. And then there's the general busy-ness of the panels. And the mediocre dialogue. And, to top it all off, one of the lamest uber-villains in the history of storytelling - true, it was an original touch to make Sauron into a blue teenager in a shirt and jeans, but then you should make him really evil to compensate, and the creators of this one...didn't. A couple of good things here, too: the layouts are pretty, the world is kind of cool, and at some point there was a dragon smoking a blunt (but of course the idea didn't go anywhere). The best part of the whole collection, really, was the "Tellos: Prelude" in the back, which had a fairly tight story, and a satisfying twist at the end. On the whole, though, a pretty mediocre effort - a couple of Photoshop effects, an attempt at "cool" character design, and some good ideas that don't really go anywhere.

Redtooth is in inks!

2009-01-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

All right, after at least a month of pencils and discussions and friggin' bad weather keeping me out of Lansing, Redtooth is finally in inks!

Redtooth (in case you don't know) is a comic project I'm working on with Jay Jacot over at Comics Obscura - Comics Obscura being a group of local artists in the Lansing area who have come together to create an anthology publication of their work, titled - get ready - Comics Obscura. Each issue of the anthology features four or five of our artists, working on issues in rotations, so as to avoid any undue overwork. So far we have three issues out, and the fourth issue is in the works.

Unfortunately, the fourth issue has been having some...deadline problems. Suffice to say we at Comics Obscura are a fairly far-flung group, and thus organization is not one of our strong points (I know Jay will back me up on this). We've been working to remedy this situation. As of this moment, we expect the fourth issue to wrap up by mid-February. Thus, with a little patience, all things shall come to pass.

Jay and myself, however, are not patient people. In fact, we are squirrels-on-amphetamines when it comes to creating comics. Thus we have decided to begin a side project to the main anthology, titled, Comics Obscura: Split Decisions. Not only does it sound cool, but it will look cool, too: you read the story on one side, flip the 'zine over, and read the story on the other side (Unless you're none too bright, at which point you read the issue from cover to cover and wonder why half the story was upside-down).

Enter Redtooth. I'm doing the art, and Jay is doing the dialogue. The story is about a boy who has grown up with a pack of Deinonychus in a primeval valley, and must bring the various conflicting dinosaur factions together to defeat an enemy threatening the valley from the outside. The "Redtooth" refers to the quasi-divine Tyrannosaur who founded the valley thousands of years ago. Along the way, our human hero - named Haiyah - will have to dodge the murderous intent of his 'raptor "Brothers", put up with a shifty-eyed Troodon sidekick, and avoid being eaten or trampled on by the denizens of the valley.

In other words, AWESOME.

So bringing it back around to the beginning, we have just finished the final finagling over the pencils, and now it is time for the inking to commence. I have to admit I'm a little nervous, but I think it will work out just fine.

Expect Comics Obscura: Split Decisions out in April '09. If you can't wait till then, try playing football with a beer your hand and a dripping three-inch steak clenched in your teeth while dodging around exploding land mines while a band plays The Star Spangled Banner in the background. That may at least take the edge off your need for an "awesome"-fix before the first ish comes out.

Rick Out.

Ten Laws of the Universe

2008-12-31T06:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some laws of the universe. I post them here, gentle reader, so that you don't have to find them out for yourself:

1. He who tries to be loved by everyone will have the friendship of no one.

2. Rearrange a brick wall with your head, and then you will know how to change another man.

3. Tyrants change the world; Saints change themselves.

4. Here is the truest test of a wife: paddle a canoe with her for twenty miles.

5. There is nothing more hateful than a forced laugh.

6. Any man who claims to know himself is a liar; any man who tries to explain himself is a bore.

7. The grasshopper did only what he wanted, and died of cold; the ant stored up for the
winter, and died surrounded by seeds. Now find the happier of the two.

8. There is such a thing as being too decisive.

9. The only way to deal with anxieties is to ignore them to death.

10. Live simply, and you'll live free.

Dinosaurs are Awesome

2008-12-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

Woo-hoo! Just finished the first rough images for our (mine and Jay's) new dinosaur comic book, currently called Redtooth. Working with dinosaurs as subject matter is a walk down memory lane for me; I used to be absolutely obsessed with the beasts, before adolescence came along and said "grow up". Well, now I'm back at it, and it's nice to know the skills haven't gone away.

I'm reluctant to show the comic book roughs here; firstly, they're messy (all my roughs are - half the time I'm the only one who can figure them out). Secondly, I'd like Jay to decide whether or not he wants them posted yet; maybe he wants to keep it under wraps. I dunno. I'll ask him.

At any rate, this is less of a "show me" blog and more of a "let's talk about it till our brains explode" blog. And that's exactly what we'll do. We'll talk about dinosaurs.

Firstly, let me clear up something that's been a perpetual headache for a long time: yes, the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park are too big - but there is a valid explanation for this.

Let's go over the basics: the original Velociraptor (Velociraptor mongoliensis, formally speaking) is a small, narrow-jawed predator about the size of a turkey, known for the nasty sickle-shaped claw on its first toe. Velociraptor itself means, "Quick thief", although personally I think "Raptor" has more to do with predatory birds (called "raptors" for their habit of stealing meat from other birds). Velociraptor hailed from central Asia, and one of the most famous fossils from Mongolia features a Velociraptor locked in mortal combat with a Protoceratops; the 'raptor has its claw lodged in the proto's sternum, and the proto has the raptor's arm clenched firmly in its massive beak.

Raptor versus Protoceratops (replica)

Raptor's arm clutched in Protoceratops' beak

So much for the rather small Velociraptor.

Now Velociraptor had a much larger cousin called Deinonychus antirrhopus. Deinonychus means, "Terrible Claw", and it was indeed as well-endowed in this sense as Velociraptor - more so, in fact; the claw in question was six inches long, and would have been longer in life (due to the keratin sheath - like on a buffalo horn). Deinonychus was about the size of a tiger, and came up to a man's shoulder when standing.

Now, here comes the tricky part.

When Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park, he was relying upon the most current dinosaur data, circa 1989. At that time, there was a movement in certain circles to call Deinonychus and Velociraptor by the same name, since the two species were so similar. Thus, Velociraptor mongoliensis (the small one) remained the same, while Deinonychus antirrhopus (the big one) became "Velociraptor antirrhopus".

Confused yet? It gets a little worse. See, in the original book, the two Velociraptors occur at the same time, although the big ones get the most print; in the movie, understandably, the little guys were left out, making the larger predators the sole Velociraptors in the movie. Problem was, by the time the movie came out (at least from what I've seen), "Deinonychus" had again become the sole name of the little Velociraptor's large cousin; thus, as soon as the movie came out, amateur paleontologists, having never read the book version of Jurassic Park and hoping to seem smarter than they were, jumped on the so-called "scientific inaccuracy" with relish. Thus the situation we have today.

Personally, I like Velociraptor antirrhopus better than Deinonychus antirrhopus. "Velociraptor" just has such a...ring to it, you know?

There were, by the way, many kinds of 'Raptors (or Dromaeosaurs, as they are more technically known). Here's a quick rundown, with short description:

Velociraptor mongoliensis - (see above)
Deinonychus (Velociraptor) antirrhopus - (also see above)
Dromaeosaurus sp. ("Running reptile") - The generic "raptor", if you will; about wolf-size, with a smallish head.
Utahraptor ("Utah's raptor") - a very big 'raptor; about the size of a horse. Largest of the Dromaeosaurids.
Achillobator ("Achilles' warrior") - another Mongolian export. Between Utahraptor and Deinonychus in size.
Adasaurus ("Ada [Mongolian evil spirit]'s reptile") - may or may not have been a raptor at all; had a smaller sickle claw and slender hands.
Buitreraptor gonzalezorum ("Vulture raider found by Gonzalez") - a rooster-sized, bizarre-looking 'raptor from Argentina, of all places. Had a long, skinny snout, and long arms with short fingers.
Rahonavis ostromi - no one's sure if it's a bird or a 'raptor; those who are sure, at least, tend to get rather heated in their insistences. Its back legs and hips lean toward Dromaeosaurian, but its arms show "quill nobs" (where large feathers would attach), as in birds. Go figure.
Neuquenraptor argentinus ("Thief of Neuquen, Argentina") - the first 'raptor found in South America. Looks a little like Buitreraptor, and a little like regular Dromaeosaurs; about four feet tall.
Unenlagia ("Half-bird"; Latinized Mapuche) - another weird birdie-'raptor from South America; about six feet long.

Before I go, I have a little something to say about all these bird-dinosaurs flying around these days.

Time was, I had no patience with feathered dinosaurs - the closest thing anyone had found to a "feathered dinosaur" was Archaeopteryx and its relatives, and those were - for all intents and purposes - just weird birds. Now that they've found many real, actual feathered dinosaurs (that is to say, dinosaur fossils with obvious feather imprints), I've come to accept it. So far around thirty species or so have been found, and the list keeps growing; they're coming out of China, Mongolia, and South America in numbers that seem to rule out fakery, unless there is some kind of widespread conspiracy - which I doubt (although here's an interesting anecdote involving a fake fossil and the National Geographic).

Poster, showing 25 species of feathered dinosaur (2007)

That being said, I take issue with the practice of covering every dinosaur with feathers - even those for whom there is no fossil evidence of the fact. Thus far, I have seen compsognathids, dromaeosaurs of all kinds, tyrannosaurs(!), iguanadontids(!), and even prosauropods(!) decked out in gaudy plumage. Only a few select dinosaurs have shown actual fossil feather imprints; the rest of them simply don't seem to have feathers. Maybe it's just a matter of taste, but personally, I don't like my favorite theropods tarted up and paraded around like show-pigeons if their fossils never showed a single bit of fluff. I find it irritating in the extreme. Mostly these artists are (a) ignorant of scientific detail and (b) going for some kind of "cool" effect that will make kids pick up their book (also filled with inaccuracies). I work at a library, so I see the kinds of dinosaur dreck they come out with. I think dinosaurs deserve a little more respect - you couldn't get away with doing the same thing with, say, lions and tigers.

But hey, they're dead! We can make 'em look like whatever we want.

One of the worst Deinonychus interpretations I've ever seen.

That's my major beef with current dinosaur trends.

Of course some renderings are better than others - I'd just like to mention Gregory S. Paul as being one of the best dinosaur artists I've seen; his Predatory Dinosaurs of the World (1988 Simon and Schuster, New York; out of print) is simply awesome. I use it as a reference whenever possible.

To wrap up this wandering, bloated epic of a post, here's some size comparisons of the biggest predatory dinosaurs you probably didn't know about:

Size comparison of the largest theropods.

Yeah, see that guy in the blue? That's T. rex. Go figure.

Rick Out.

Delerium Tremens

2008-12-08T06:56:00.001-08:00

My hands are shaking uncontrollably right now. Spent all last night at Gone Wired Cafe, hashing out the upcoming comic book project with Jay (Dinosaurs!), and then all of this morning finishing up my final project for my Design and Communications class. So no sleep last night. Usually I do pretty well with it - a little loopy, but none the worse for wear (the trick is to say to yourself, "Oh, you just went to bed at 1 am, so that's why you're tuckered out this morning...you did get some sleep." Not especially convincing, but to a sleep-deprived mind it's better than nothing). The problem here is that I have to drive from Howell to Lansing - an hour's drive, on a good morning; ergo, the necessity of a bite of the bitter bean, otherwise I'd spend my morning wrapped lovingly around an unyielding object, like a tree or a concrete median barrier, due to a mid-commute snooze. The problem with one cup of coffee is that it necessitates another to get over the subsequent caffeine crash, and then another, and then another...

Ah, le cycles vicious, or however the hell you say it in French.

So much for sophistication. At any rate, my final project was a success, and - more importantly in my mind - installment 1 of Redtooth (that's the unofficial official title for the comic right now) has been verbalized, and is awaiting the concept treatment. Oh Lord was it an epic struggle...you should have seen me, fighting bravely (read: petulantly) over every last detail of the concept. Jay and Kurt even had to call a half-time for a cigarette break. I suppose that would have happened anyway, but we'll conveniently disregard that fact. The fact is, I held on to the bitter end. And at the bitter end, of course, I collapsed in a broken, weeping heap and agreed to all the changes they suggested.

I jest. It was truly a team effort. I think it's going to turn out fantastic. And you know what? I don't have to worry about dialogue. Jay's going to handle it all. I just have to do the pictures. And that's okay in my book, let me tell you...

Rick out.

The Futility of Ideology

2008-12-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.

-The Boxer, Paul Simon

I'll just ponder as I wander here for a minute.

We as humans - well, perhaps I should keep it local - we as 21st-century Americans seem to love being validated in what we think. What I mean is, we love to hear our own ideas repeated to us, especially by someone with "authority" (read: a PhD), in order that we may again repeat the same idea to someone else who holds the same ideas that we do.

This is understandable. It's not easy to give an opposing worldview a fair shake, especially if that worldview is pumped out with a lot of aggressive rhetoric and propaganda. Each side will only choose to report that data which makes itself look good, and its opponent look bad. Thus, if you are on the same side, you'll cheer and clap; if you're on the other side, you'll fume and change the channel - and hopefully find some rhetoric you can cheer for.

All this seems incredibly obvious (a no-brainer, in fact), but at the same time I find it a little eerie to think about. Imagine that in this open-minded day and age, when quite a few people claim to hold any number of contradictory views in their heads at once, that there exist unbridgeable gulfs between minds - ideologies that have spawned whole industries, whose sole purpose is to validate themselves and to villify the opposing team. These industries produce periodicals, essays, media programs, studies, statistic-mills, and PhD's, all for the consumption of their adherants, all for the confirmation of a single line of thought.

What do you have here? What you have, essentially, is a titanic choir, and the preacher is preaching to it - the same sermon being fed to the same people who already believe it, who then proceed to repeat it amongst themselves. It's a closed circuit: nothing new gets in, nothing old gets out. It's mind-boggling, if you think about it.

"Now Rick," you protest (too much, methinks); "there are always new ideas - ideas are always being exchanged between peoples. Don't you agree?"

Well, yes and no. If you mean technologies, then yes, of course there are new ideas (and by technologies, what is really meant is innovations - these can be physical, technical, or spiritual). There are always innovations. But here's the rub: innovations are essentially new ways of doing the same damn thing. Even cars are just glorified legs. What you have is simply a logical progression, beginning with one basic need (i.e., transportation), going through several stages (i.e., buggies, cars, etc.) and ending with the most direct means (i.e., probably teleportation). The package may change, but what's inside the package remains essentially the same.

And as for the exchange of ideas, well, in order for one to receive a new idea, one must be open to that idea - and this requires a certain ideological framework. Yes, regardless of what one might think, one cannot long remain an open book, upon which any idea can be written - one guiding ideology will always take over. Those "open to new ideas" are simply those with a, shall we say, "hospitable mindset" - they will invite new ideas over, maybe get tips on how to brighten the decor, but when all is said and done the visiting ideologies will go home, and nothing will really change. The Open Mind is already a house, quite complete with all the comforts of home, and aside from a few superficial touches here and there, no changes will be made.

That's the thing that gets me. An Open Mind is really a mind open to open-minded ideas - if a closed-minded idea were to show up, it would be rejected at once. Thus an Open Mind cannot really communicate at all with a Closed Mind (don't you love these terms?), because the difference in ideology is simply to vast to leap across. One has to give way to the other, and usually neither will budge.

The point I'm trying to make here is that ideologies are caught in their own cycles of validation, and thus real discourse (at least of any real intellectual value) is useless. Ideology plugs up people's minds. Real, objective truth - and yes, there is such a thing (hang on, is that an ideological statement? I'm so confused...) - gets shouted down; people don't want to examine things from both sides and find what is true; there's no "reality check" to make people stand back and say, "Hey, wait a minute - this is going too far." Ideology becomes a kind of madness, out of step with reality.

Have there been attempts at bridging the gaps? Yes, but most of these are less than helpful. Usually it occurs between the more moderate/liberal members of the two groups - that is, the members of one group who are most like their group's opponents. Tell me if you've heard this one: they all get together in one room, read off a list of the things they can all agree on (dutifully ignoring their differences), then spend several hours saying nice things about each other, after which a memorandum is drawn up that says everyone is happy and they can all get along now, which then gets back to the prospective groups and is promptly rejected by both.

Why, you may ask?

The reason is, all those moderate/liberals from each party who agreed with each other were, in spirit, simply a third party unto themselves - they represented neither group; all they represented were themselves. That's the problem with this whole damn mess.

And so the hard-liners read their Hard-Line Report, which says how bad the liberal/moderates are with their soft, touchy-feely policies; and the liberal/moderates read their Liberal/Moderate Report, which details how cold and unfeeling the hard-liners are with their stonewalling and unwillingness to change. Appropriate graphs, tables, and histograms are provided, as well as photos of hard-liners enacting hard-line policies, and liberal/moderates enacting liberal/moderate policies. And the industries grind on, and the gaps widen, and people continue to drift ever further apart. And each one continues to hear what he wants to hear - in fact, actively seeks out what he wants to hear - and thus nothing really changes.

Bernini

2008-11-26T07:04:00.001-08:00

Just a few words about my favorite sculptor - possibly my favorite artist.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, folks. Now I know you've all heard that name before, somewhere in the sleepy haze of boredom that was Art History class; and perhaps in your apathetic leafings through the textbook, at 3 AM on a Monday, while cramming for the final exam, you happened upon something like this:

Did you stop to look at it? Did you stop to consider that this could possibly be carved out of solid rock? Did you thrill at the fact that, yes, not only was Daphne morphing into a tree, but that there were individual leaves shooting out of her hands - also solid rock? And that hair...!

No. You didn't. You let the pages slip through your unfeeling fingers, and let your head fall into the book with a thud. When you awoke, the page was shiny with drool.

Shame on you.

But seriously, folks - in the profusion of Renaissance artists (and boring treatises on said artists), Bernini often gets lost in the mix. Or when he is pointed out, it's usually by the bearded, balding, bespectacled bore at the front of the lecture hall, who then proceeds to analyze the Maestro's body of work as if it is...well, an actual body. Interspersed within this autopsy report are the pompous gassings of one who has visited Florence for a weekend and actually (gasp!) seen the sculptures for himself, no doubt dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, his plus-sized wife hanging at his side with an uncertain expression on her face, a purse full of snacks, and a Euro Disney World visor on her head.

Through all of this description, of course, you are asleep. And on that Sunday before the exam, you will at some point scribble down something like, "Baroque, Counter-Reformation: Bernini's sculptures for Vatican." And that will be that.

In that case, here is a quick (and very simplistic) refresher course - starting with some history:

The sixteenth century, Western Europe. The Cardinals, Bishops, and the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church convened the Council of Trent, in order to figure out What To Do About This Darn Reformation. Western Europe is going through a cataclysm of ideology. The Roman Catholic Church, once the most powerful of the only two Christianities in the world (the other being the Orthodox Church in the east), now found its body and its temporal territories divided between several Protestant sects. With whole northern kingdoms becoming officially Lutheran (though they didn't call it that at the time), the Roman Church was bleeding members at a catastrophic rate.

Council of Trent

The Council's problem was that the Reformers' appeal to the intellect (not to mention the individual) left the RCC with little to go on. Now, THE RULES, which had been relied upon so long in mass religion, were no longer sufficient. The Council determined, as one of their Counter-Reformatory initiatives, that they needed something better, perhaps a new artform, perhaps a way to communicate religion on a whole new level. They needed something more - a "Thou Shalt" for all their "Thou Shalt Nots".

Enter the Baroque artists.

Peter Paul Rubens - the Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus

Yes, I know this is a rather interesting choice, but I think it just about sums up Baroque art: hugely dramatic, romanticized, mythic, and just a little bit risque. Maybe even a lot risque. It can be assumed the RCC was leaning more upon the first three qualities, and less upon the fourth - although I think they were willing to take what they could get.

Bernini burst in upon this scene like a male Athena bursting from the head of Zeus - fully formed, and ready to kick some ass. His first patron was Cardinal Scipio Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V. During this period he made several of his most famous sculptures: David, Aeneas with Anchises and Ascanius, Apollo and Daphne, and the Rape of Proserpina.

David

Now some commentary:

Holy shit.

Suddenly, after two previous Davids (Michelangelo's and Donatello's) just standing there, buck-naked, out of the blue comes this dynamic sculpture. He's winding up, getting ready to pop Goliath with a stone; he's David, the shepherd, the warrior, preparing to save the Israelites from the Philistines. This is the epitome of Baroque art (of all Western art, if you ask me): dynamic, dramatic, realistic, drawing the viewer into the action and - more than that - forcing the viewer to mentally complete the action.

Here's another one:

Abduction of Persephone (Proserpina)

That's Persephone (Proserpina), daughter of the goddess Ceres (or Demeter?), being dragged down into Hades by Pluto. (Or is she being dragged down into Hades by Hades? I can't for the life of me keep these names straight...) Now, looking at this picture - not the best picture - you may say, "So what. Another sculpture. Lotsa people did sculptures just like this one."

Look again, at this detail of Pluto's hands:

See how the fingers press into the marble flesh?

Yeah. Enough said.

This next one is perhaps Bernini's most famous sculpture: the Ecstasy of St. Teresa, completed under Innocent X for the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome:

The swirling robes alone make the piece; but then there's the fact that, not only is this a sculpture in marble, but a sculpture in light, too: sunlight comes down through the skylight above, changing the pattern of reflections and shadows across the piece with every hour. One can almost hear a choir of angels booming out from above.

Now, Bernini was a devout man - he followed the ascetic disciplines of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and attended Mass twice a week. He was also a consumate artist, even pompous at times (he got in trouble at King Louis XIV's court for extolling Italian art over French). But his most surprising characteristic was his cheekiness. Take a look at this sculpture for a moment - the elephant upholding the obelisk in St. Peter's square:

Note that the elephant is smiling.

Why is the elephant smiling?

If you draw a line directly behind the elephant, you will find its rear end is pointed directly at the office of Bernini's main opponent in the Vatican, one Father Domenico Paglia. For years Father Domenico had hounded Bernini and his colleages, raising a ruckus whenever Bernini landed a commission. It got so bad that, at one point, Bernini's bell towers for St. Peter's were torn down - officially because of poor construction and structural damage. If not for the timely succession of a new, more sympathetic Pope, Bernini would quickly have passed into obscurity.

Well, Bernini says. No hard feelings. In fact, here's an elephant for your piazza, with a great big obelisk on top. Never mind that its tail is curled up, its haunches squatting slightly, and it's looking over its shoulder as if to draw a bead on your bedroom window...

In effect, the chortling heffalump is taking a shit in his general direction.

Enough said.

Shameless Plug for my stuff

2008-11-25T04:06:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out my gallery every so often; it's at DeviantArt (comicbook1287.deviantart.com). Right now there are only a few pictures up there, but I'll be adding more, and eventually I'll have comic book panels up there, too. So rest assured, even if you get there now and go, "What the hell is this?!" it will get better in time. I even have one print up for sale ("Katana"), so if you want to buy that, go ahead!

Also, whenever I'm out at a Con I'll be selling original sketches. Right now a rough sketch goes for $2.00, and an inked sketch goes for $5.00. Jay has the latest sketches with him right now (they're promos for an upcoming project), but as soon as I get them back I'll let y'all know.

The Con is On; also, conundrums and neurotic meanderings

2008-11-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

Awesome second day at XcapeCON. Sold an inked sketch to Marc Wolfe, so I was pretty stoked. He's a cool guy, pretty down-to-earth; he studied (for a brief period, at least) under Dennis Preston at Lansing Community College, my Humorous Illustration instructor last semester...

Actually, hold on. Let's talk about this for a moment.

Do you realize that I studied under Denny for sixteen weeks without having the foggiest notion what kind of recognition he's had? Or that I'd never heard of Marc Wolfe before I sold a sketch to him?

Come to think of it, though, if you're not much into comics or cartoons (or Lansing, I guess), you probably haven't heard of these guys either. Isn't that strange? Here I've been drawing and generally building toward comic book work for fifteen years (at least), and yet I'm either so isolated or so lazy that I don't know half the people I'm supposed to know.

Or am I supposed to know them as, you know, them? All I know is that these are pretty cool guys. Denny's a great teacher. Marc is pretty laid back. That's about the extent of my experience. It's only in looking at their websites that I realize what kind of talents these people are.

Anyway. Slight diversion there.

The Con was fun, and I made ten bucks; all is right with the world. They even had food down the hall. Awesome.

I have to get going; my class was supposed to meet at Saper Gallery for the Dr. Seuss show. And of course, I forgot. Damn my brain.

Rick Out.

Ricky's First Con! (everybody say awwww...)

2008-11-23T03:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, ladies and gentlemen: believe it or not, Rick is a Con Virgin. (By Con I mean, Comics Con - not, "ripping off old, rich ladies"-kind of con). I have been in front of the booths before, perusing the divers and various wares, but never behind the table, showing off my stuff.

This is actually rather interesting, because I never did get my own space. I sat next to Jay Jacot - good old Jay - and practically squished myself between the stacks of Comics Obscura mags and displays. Somehow even my one-ton portfolio binder managed to find a space in there, and, egads, people were actually stopping to look at it. I tell you there is no better feeling than corralling perfect strangers and shaming them into looking at your stuff.

And guess what? I even sold a drawing! I got a commission for a Robin (as in, Batman and Robin), and I daresay it was a pretty good rendering. As in, you could tell where the arms and legs were. And that he was human.

I jest. It was damn good. Bow before me. No? Well, did you make five dollars on a ten-minute drawing? I thought not. Now, a little abject groveling, if you please.

There were plenty of rather odd characters, of course - this being a Con and all. There were Jedi, Sith, stormtroopers of various types and persuasions, a rather disconcerting monster with a sawblade-skull on one hand, and even a transvestite Wonderwoman (WonderwoMAN, we were calling her...I mean, him). About ten yards that way (imagine me pointing left) was a booth for Made In Michigan horror films from No Budget Productions. Much as I support our local film industry, most of it seemed to consist of strippers, slashers, slasher-strippers, lesbian strippers, and gallons of fake blood - not exactly my cup of tea. To the right of that was something called Captain Jolt, a bizarre little film concern using puppets, dolls, and processed dessert items; by the end of the night the poor guy was swapping his DVDs for comic books and sketches. And to the right of that, quite a ways down, was a witch. Yes, a witch. Go figure. She had a witch costume, a bubbling fake cauldron, a book of spells, and a lineup of Lothlorien Moon wands (so the display said). I'm pretty sure it wasn't a gag, either.

Ah, well. C'est la Con.

Spent my whole Con doing sketches. Did some of my characters; a Robin, of course (five bucks!); an alien; I even did some custom business cards, complete with one-of-a-kind image. I'm thinking I'll do these for the "special" customers - all the rest will get my standard blue business cards. That way I'll have more time to do more cards. See? A perfect system.

I'd like to make a shout out to Christie for picking me up, and to Amanda, Martina, and Monica for (cheerfully) bearing my odor and occassional Turrete's-like outbursts while riding to the Con. Can you believe it? I drove all the way to Lansing, squished several other passengers in a car on the way to Flint, only to realize that not only was there somebody from Howell (area) at the Con, but that it was the same distance from Howell to Flint as it was from Howell to Lansing - maybe even less. The gist is that I could have driven to Flint myself, saved gas, and even made room for somebody else who wanted to go to the Con.

Talk about sheepish. You could make a blanket out of me.

At any rate, thanks to Jay and Ryan Claytor for putting up with me; also thanks to Eric Wilmoth for giving me a ride today. I wasn't planning to come today (figured church was more important, you heathens), but after being at the Con for the day, the Imp of Being Geeked About Stuff has fully inhabited my brain. Church is every Sunday, folks - Con is maybe once a month! God help me...

Rick Out.

Dr. Frankenstein: "It's alive...it's alive...!"

2008-11-18T07:24:00.001-08:00

Well, here we are. This is the first blog site created specifically by and for Rick Schlaack. Never has the world witnessed such an event. There will be a ticker-tape parade, complete with marching band, armored limo, and enormous balloons.

Welcome to RixPix.

This is a blog site dedicated to comic books, animation, cartoons, and pretty pictures in general - hence the "pix". A major portion of this site will also be devoted to a rising star, wunderkind, and all-around good guy - namely, me - who is trying to get his start in the heady world of Sequential Art. Hence: "RixPix".

Now you may ask: "Rick, what sort of comic books, animation, cartoons, and pretty pictures will you be reviewing?" The answer is: whatever I feel like. Whatever strikes my fancy. Whatever inspires, or infuriates, or exasperates, in that big nebulous universe called "art". Hopefully coherence will emerge out of chaos, or at least a general pattern; but don't be surprised if I'm praising Bernini sculptures in one paragraph, and ranting about Disney in the next. I might also throw in some curmudgeonly sociopolitical commentary, just for kicks and giggles.

As of late, this blog is under construction; there's still a lot of work to do, and I can't figure out these darn interwebs.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Comics Obscura, and especially Jay Jacot, our editor/manager/everyman. Many of my activities will be in conjunction with his. Keep a sharp eye out for our upcoming anthology release of Comics Obscura, and for a separate publication we call Comics Obscura: Split Decisions, both featuring moi. I'll be at the upcoming XcapeCON, too, with some of my CO buddies.