The Penguin

Blind Alley Comics has finally entered the Digital Age! I've just finished setting up my Blind Alley Comics online store - pdfs of fan favorites for only $1.99. I've yet to announce it on Facebook (some tweaking yet to do...have to figure out how to make it more appealing), but it'll be big. You can pay with credit card, and PayPal handles the transaction. Hopefully we can take the profits from online sales and plow them back into the dry, nutrient-deprived soil of printing hard copies, in order to produce a more fruitful crop of comics in our various retailers. Talk about yer extended metaphor, sheesh...anyway, I'll keep ya posted. Still working on Louie, Kid Prodigy and a brand-spanking-new comic, Die Katze . Rick Out.

Here's a flyer for my friend Rael Andrews and his one-man band, Giygas: Pictured: Metal. I'm nothing if not subtle - do you think I need to take it up a notch? Perhaps our protagonist should ride a big cat with wings. Maybe next time. Rick Out.

I'm a great believer in the idea that religion and politics have no place in polite discussion. I prefer to avoid the subjects if at all possible, because as a rule the person who brings them up has a very definite Opinion to relate, one which precludes any argument because it is the Alpha and Omega of Opinions, and therefore justifies being bellowed at a nausea-inducing volume. It's not just the polarizing effect of Culture-War duckspeak (thanks, Orwell, for such a wonderful term). It's also the internal conundrum: generally I agree with at least part of any argument, liberal or conservative; or I at least understand where the person is coming from and why they might think that way. Instead of offering a counter-argument, I find myself either nodding and smiling or staring at them blankly. Who am I to Lay Some Truth on this so-and-so? I can't even make up my own mind about things. These people have conviction, or at least confidence, whereas I only have a blizzard of...

Oy vey, what a week. Too much partying. Well, for Rick anyway. Went and saw Man Man play at the Loft on Wednesday night; they were awesome, of course, and Honus Honus is a lunatic genius onstage and a laid-back gentleman in person. What else? Oh, I went to Florida for Christmas break. Drove there. Of all the cockamamie ideas. It was one of those, "We'll figure out what to do when we get there" trips, so of course I damn near run out of money, but it was still awesome in its own way - spent New Year's Eve in Key West, and stayed with a friend of a friend on Islamorada Key. Swam in the ocean for the first time in what, thirteen years? Looked at all the cool sea critters, saw an octopus, had a blast. The trip back wasn't so much fun - me and my travel partner had a bit of a falling out. We'll patch things up, I'm sure of it. So! How bout dem comickal books, you ask? Well, me and the Joe were a-settin there figurin', and we reckoned it was 'bout hi...

I'm currently hard at work on a very special comic. It's nothing major, but it is one of the fastest and best-executed comics I've ever done. The official title is "Louie, Kid Prodigy: The Ferrophages!" The eponymous character is a boy genius inventor, who becomes involved in a ridiculous romp through his hometown in pursuit of two extraterrestrial monsters. It's a two-part story that will be fully colored. I'm going to have it available online as a free download, and you can order a hard copy for an exorbitant price, if you want (hey, shipping ain't cheap). Here's a couple of tasty tidbits to whet your appetite. The first is not the actual first page, just a workup I did in Photoshop. I think it looks great, but the technique I used would be far too time-consuming; I'll probably do the inks by hand, then color it in Photoshop. The second picture is a workup for a promo poster, which will also be available online. I still need to ...

Yes, gentle reader, your friendly neighborhood Rick is indeed still alive and kicking and, every once in a blue moon, putting out a comic or two. There are a couple of reasons why I don't blog as much as I'd like. Number one, I'm lazy. Number two, I hate blogs with no pictures, and I can never figure out what picture to put in my blog posts. Hopefully I'll start doing that "Sketch-a-week" thing I promised to do what, two years ago? Something like that. The point being, of course, to actually make this an interesting art blog. The third reason is probably the biggest one, and will perhaps be remedied by the fact that I've changed jobs recently. I was working as a meter reader for DTE until two weeks ago, not only walking and driving all day, but as of August conducting an hour-long commute from Lansing to Howell. You can imagine that this cut into my writing/creating time. I'm not saying it was the toughest job in the world, but oh brother, by the t...

Yes, we here at Blind Alley Comics are working feverishly through the night to prepare for the Motor City Comic Con! It's been, what...two years? We haven't attended many Cons, mostly due to financial constraints, though more likely because we're (ahem) lazy. But no more! From this con forward, we will attempt to attend at least one a year. Big things happening. The Bone Boy website is inching forward. Bone Boy #3 is due out in May, as is The Human Cannonball #4. We're lean, we're hungry, we're chock-full of ideas, we're beginning to look askance at our day jobs with sulky resentment. Beyond Motor City Con, we're heading to Chicago Con, and...a remote possibility...San Diego Con. There's a feeling of do-or-die around here. Chicago and San Diego especially will be choice areas for schmoozing, if only to find some distributors. We've been trapped in small-time artboy limbo for too long, and it's time to go big or go get some better cliches....