The Penguin

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, ...

Voila: a cockroach. "Dat don't MAKE money, boy..."

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 d...

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.

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.

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.

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 ...