Sketchy Characters

When I was still actively updating my webomic, "The Journals of Simon Pariah", I was toying with the idea of doing a sister site called "Doodulz", just because I have folders full of odd little sketches and character drawings that I really can't use anywhere else, but I can't bring myself to throw away. That idea didn't really fly, but it seems that this sketchblog is just as good a place to show off these little oddities.
Starting off, we have a trio of comic book characters that have interested me at one point or another.
First up is Morpheus himself, aka Sandman. This is an easy character to draw, what with chalk white skin, messy hair and a voluminous robe. Like a dream, the character gets amorphous, which conceptual drawings like this one.


Next is that ol' webslinger, Spider-Man. This is one character I can honestly say I hate drawing. I've always suspected that the reason the black costume was developed was because whoever drew the character at the time got sick and tired of trying to figure out all those weblines. Nevertheless, I wanted to play with a Frank Miller-esque effect on the bricks behind him, and so came this....

Finally for now, one of my old favorites, Lobo. I love Giffen's work on this character; it's always cathartic and fun to read, especially when Bisley is on his game, as he was in the original miniseries. I recall one rather Douglas Adams-esque line from that series that states the Czarnian meaning for "Lobo" is "one who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it." Here, the Main Man seems intent on living up to his name...
I've got a lot more of this sort of this...some of it very rough, some of it very weird. I'll be sharing it all, for better or for worse, over the next few weeks.

It's Official!

Well...as official as it can be, anyway.
This coming Saturday is 24 Hour Comics Day, a time set aside to celebrate one of Scott McCloud's brainchildren, the 24 Hour Comic. The idea is to create a full 24 page comic in 24 hours. It's supposed to be a great creativity booster and an opportunity to have some great fun doing comics.
This year, I was hoping that local comics haven Strange Adventures was going to be hosting a gathering for the event, but they're only doing it at their Fredericton store, which involves too much travel and expense for me. Still, I'm going to be taking the challenge. From Saturday noon to Sunday noon, I will be working tirelessly (?) in my studio, creating my 24 hour comic. My own twist on the event is that I'll be posting every page on this blog as it is finished, so you will get a chance to see the work in progress, and be there for every nail biting moment as we find out whether I'm up to the challenge or, like Icarus, will fall from the heights with my ass in flames.
Those who roomed with me in university will remember my marathon all-night to all-week study sessions subsisting only on Wake-Ups and Tim Horton's donuts. This will be my chance to see if the old gipper still has the stuff, and I'm hoping to create a good comic as part of the bargain.
I'll be spreading the word online, and would be grateful if you'd all pass the link to this blog around to a few friends as well, just so I know I've got a little support out there.
I'll be sporadically online via IM throughout the day as well, so if anyone wants to drop me a quick line and applaud my efforts or tell me please, for the love of sweet baby Jesus, just go take a nap, I'll enjoy hearing from you.

I should add that I have thrown down the gauntlet to another artist to take the challenge with me. While he's pretty sure he's going to join me, he hasn't definitely committed, so I can't mention his name yet (you know who you are, you scoundrel!). So throw a few comments up to maybe shame this relentless slacker into pulling out his own stops and going for comic gold.

My own output has been dreadful the last couple of years, both in terms of quality and quantity, and I hope that part of the result of this exercise will be to open up the sluices a bit and get me to bring a few more projects to completion. We shall see what we shall see. If nothing else, I'll be able to say I did it.

Meantime, since this is a sketch blog after all, here's a sketch. I'm not a big fan of Spidey, but every now and then, as with 24 Hour Comics Day, I like to do something a little different.