Can You Hear Me NOW?!!!

Another odd search term that's turned up in my SiteMeter reports recently is "sketches of ears". Some part of my subconscious took that as a signal to do a Wolverton-esque figure drawing, and so I give you:

Ears McGillicutty, the world's most successful paranoid. Blessed with Brobdingnagian lobes, Mr. McGillicutty knows for a fact that people are talking about him behind his back, because he can hear every word. He's not worried, though..he's too busy working too jobs (radar technician and dog whistle tester) so he can keep himself in Q-Tips.



Seeing as how my last sketch took me to the number one spot in Google search for "rat dropping illustrations", let's see if I can match that feat by making myself #1 for "sketches of ears".
Yes, here at Paladin Freelance, we're all about ears and rat droppings.

Update: And just like that, I'm #1 in the search listings. I guess the secret to topping Google's rankings is to specialize in categories that no one will ever search.

Return of the Zinja!

Today I'm digging deep into my filing cabinet to bring you some of the oldest artwork of mine that I still own, and one of my first true comic book attempts.
Back sometime in the 1980's, when I was still in high school and living in a small fishing community on the arse end of nowhere, two of the things that kept me within some reasonable bound of sanity were books and comics. I was literally addicted to both, consuming them as fast as I could get my hands on them.
For a brief while at age 15, I studied kung fu with a local instructor, and developed as well a strong fascination with all aspects of martial arts, including Eastern philosophies. For a time, my reading was dedicated to this kind of subject matter, and I discovered many good books and ideas as a result.
One of the books that stood out at the time was "Shike" by Robert Shea (perhaps better known as the co-author of the Illuminatus series with Robert Anton Wilson). In two hefty volumes, this was the story of the "Zinja", a group of Japanese warriors somewhere between ninja and Shaolin monks, and of the Mongol boy Jebu who was raised among them.
Shike stood out for me not only because it played into my fascination for martial arts, but also because it contained elements of high fantasy that engaged my imagination, and more importantly, it was a very well written story. In the years since I left that small community, I have acquired and disposed of thousands of books. Outliving all of them, my first paperbacks of "Shike" still sit amongst the 100 or so books that are displayed on my shelves right now. It's been a while since I read them, but I know that if I were to sit down with them again, I'd find them just as engaging and enjoyable.
At one point just before I left high school, I attempted a comics adaptation of "Shike", partly for the exercise of it, and partly because I considered that if I did a good job, maybe I could use it as a portfolio for approaching the big publishers. For reasons that will shortly become evident, my attempt languished in a drawer for the past 20 years.
However, yesterday, "Shike" was brought to mind once again, thanks to that repository of wonderful things, BoingBoing. In one post yesterday, it was announced that Michael Shea, the son of late author Robert Shea (who died of colon cancer in March, 1994), has made "Shike" available to the internet under a Creative Commons licence. This means it's now free to read, copy and distribute. Michael Shea is doing this in hopes of reviving awareness of his father's work, and his generosity is your gain. If you would like to read "Shike" for yourself...and I heartily recommend that you do...the full text can be found at bobshea.net (direct link to the text here). If you do enjoy it, and I think many people will, do yourself a favor and go find some of Robert Shea's other work. I have to be honest and say that I have not read any of his other novels yet, but I will definitely make a point of doing so soon.
Upon learning of this, I emailed Mike and asked if he would have any objection to my posting some of the pages from my early attempt at adapting this story to comics. He happily agreed, and you'll see the result here.
I'll warn you...these pages are very rough. They're the very definition of "warts and all". They're pencil only, as I didn't have access to proper inks at the time, and done on bond paper...which makes it a miracle that they survived at all. What's more, they're not terribly original. Much of the artwork was shamelessly lifted line for line from issues of "Masters of Kung Fu" and "Savage Sword of Conan". So if you think you recognize something by Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck or Gary Kwapisz, it' because you do.
What it does have going for it is that it is sincere. It was a labor of love at the time to put this together, and I think for all its flaws, it's a pretty good adaptation (if you don't count the lettering...I still can't do hand lettering to save my life). Also, it taught me a lot about the process of putting together a comic book, lessons that are invaluable even now.
Every now and then I think that I'd like to take another crack at this, but so far time has not allowed. Maybe one of these days, I'll get around to it. In the meantime, here's a blast from the past for your amusement. What you have here is the first 1 1/2 chapters of the novel, up to what I thought made a logical breakpoint. For some reason, for chapter two of the comic, I made a jump to chapter 18 of the story. Those pages are not here, but if you would like to see them, I am including a link to a cbz file containing all 16 pages I've drawn. This is perfect for reading in cdisplay or your favorite comic book reader, of you can unzip it and view the images individually.
Enjoy!

I'm Only Human!

Apropos of nearly nothing, and irrelevant to the main subject of this blog, but I saw this at Kottke.org today and thought it was too good to let slip by. This is a quote from Robert A. Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love":

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Damn straight.

Memories of Fleetcon

In 2004, I attended a local science fiction/fantasy/comic book convention called Fleetcon. I've done a couple of these and always had a fun time doing sketches for convention goers and generally showing off about art and comics in general. Unfortunately, when I gave up doing Simon Pariah on a regular basis, I also gave up attending Fleetcon, and I don't think these conventions are still held. Every now and the, I miss it. Like this afternoon, when I thought about the piece I did for auction at the 2004 convention. The original was bought by the owner of Strange Adventures comic shop in Halifax, and my scan of the piece has been missing until now. I had run the drawing on my webcomic site for a short time, but took it down shortly afterwards, and couldn't find my saved file. Now, thanks to the power of the Internet Archive, I've recovered the drawing to share with readers.
This was a large piece, 20" x 30" on illustration board. The characters depicted are heroes of the DC Universe past and present, some of whom have not really been seen in stories in the past 50 years. If you think you've got what it takes, try to name them all...I guarantee you'll miss at least one.

Image is Everything!

Back in the early days of Image Comics, some of the creators ran "fan art" pages in the back of their books. Readers were encouraged to send in their renditions of characters, with the best ones being picked to be printed. As this was in the prehistoric times before email was common, this naturally had to be done via snail mail. Being an ardent buyer of Image at the time, I produced a couple of drawings, but by the time they got where they were going, the books had stopped running those features. Nevertheless, I think the drawings were pretty good, and still hold up now. Here, then, is my take on a couple of favorite Image characters.

First up, Spawn himself. Arguably the most successful Image creation, and certainly Todd McFarlane's best work (while he was still doing it all himself). Spun off to a movie, cartoons and no end of merchandise, the character is proof of the potential that lies in comic books, if there's a good business mind behind the pencils.

Next, naturally, there's Spawn's nemesis, Violator, in Danny DeVito evil clown mode. This guy is just pure fun to draw, as he's somewhere between a leering gargoyle and a bigfoot cartoon. To this day, I have no idea why someone thought John Leguizamo was a good choice to play the character in the movie. Anyone care to enlighten me?



Finally, a couple of WildC.A.T.S. characters, Warblade and Voodoo. This is a series that has been brought to life by some of my favorite creators...creator Jim Lee, artist extraordinaire Travis Charest and so-brillint-I'm-conviced-his-head-is-full-of-stars writer Alan Moore. The 'Cats was the Image series I kept reading long after I had quit all the rest. While it has not reached the marketing potential of Spawn, it seems to have held to a more consistent vision, making it more of an artistic triumph...well, as artistic as you can get with a group of "underwear perverts", anyway.
Here, Warblade rebuts the possibility that his morphing metal claws bear any resemblance to a certain adamantium-laced X-Man:


Maybe one of these days, I'll be fortunate enough to have a book picked up by Image. It would be a fanboy's dream come true to be counted among such a talented group. Meantime, I'm content to mess around in their sandboxes when time allows.

Rat Droppings!

Here's an interesting item that's shown up in my SiteMeter referrals recently...."rat droppng illustrations." I'm not sure if it's of more concern to me that someone took the time to Google that term, or that the term led back to my site. And what kind of universe do I live in where my sketchblog rankis #2 on Google for "rat dropping illustrations". Well here's hoping that after this post, I'll make it to # 1.



And incidentally...why rat dropping "illustrations"? Wouldn't you look for photographs? Prior to today, would anyone really feel the need to turn that into art? And who would want to have such a piece of art, for what purpose?
Ah, internet, you crazy kid, you.

Ink is Ink

Every now and then I'll take a look at the referrals in Sitemeter to find out who's coming here and how they found me. One thing that occasionally strikes me is the unusual search terms that lead people to this blog. There's some that make sense if you look at them sideways and kind of squint a little, but there's some that I have to think MUST leave the reader disappointed.
In an effort to satisfy some of those wayward souls, and to share with regular readers some of the stranger things that show up in my search results, I've decided to make it a recurring theme to illustrate some of the more unusual search terms that show up in my referrals. I can't promise that the results will always be exactly what was on the searcher's mind, but when you search for things like these, I think you kind of have to take what you can get.

First up, here's to the person who found me by searching "Objectivism Tattoo".


And by the way...if you really want an Objectivist tattoo, let me suggest a gold-colored dollar sign. It's very "Atlas Shrugged".
For those of you who are saying a good Objectivist tattoo would be a boot stomping on a human face...forever: you can go away now, you filthy second-handers.

Open Zen

As an update to my earlier post on "Zen to Done", I thought it would be worthwhile to share with you the news that author Leo Baubata has just declared all content on his blog "Zenhabits" to be in the public domain. This includes his ebook, "Zen to Done". In his own words:

"my writing here at Zen Habits and in the Zen To Done ebook are now in the public domain. I hereby waive all claim of copyright in this work; it may be used or altered in any manner without attribution or notice to the me. Attribution, of course, is appreciated."

So, while you can (and should) still buy a copy of "Zen to Done" from Leo's site, I do still have the ebook myself, and would be willing once again to send a copy to anyone who emails me a request for it. Once again, I would ask that if you receive a copy, you "Pay it Forward" to someone else who would appreciate the book. Also, if you blog or otherwise write for the net, it would be a good idea to review the book or otherwise link back to Leo's blog to help spread the word about his work.

More details about Leo's decision to release copyright on his work can be found here.

New to You!

Congratulations to the earth for having made yet another revolution around the sun, with warm wishes for many more.

Some of my favorite things from 2007, in no particular order....
-Tom Waits's 3 CD set, "Orphans". One of those musical things that makes you wish you could grab random people, slap headphones on them, and say, "Listen to this!"
-Warren Ellis's "Crooked Little Vein". Mad as arseholes, with more hate than Ambrose Bierce on a tequila bender, but the second best fun you can have between the covers, and the only book in the last ten years that insisted I finish it in one day.
-"Ratatouille" and "Meet the Robinsons". It's probably a sad statement on movies when the best ones were made for kids, but these were two of the most enjoyable films ever, made even better by being able to share them with the family.
-"League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier". Brilliant lunacy from Moore and O'Neill, two people who apparently remember what comics should and could be.
-Podcasts. Escape Pod. Pseudopod. Keith and the Girl. Spider on the Web. Starship Sofa. Hooting Yard. Soccer Girl. The list grows daily. My god, it's full of content.
-Life, libertine and the pursuit of happiness.

What does 2008 hold? I've got some ideas and plans, but short answer is, I don't know. Tell you what, though...I'm going to try to make it interesting.

By the Sword and the Cross!

Every now and then I'll take a look at the details of my SiteMeter reports and check out the links that refer readers to this site...more out of curiosity than anything, since I'm not one of those people who is trying to "monetize" my blog. One thing that struck me as interesting is that a significant number of people come here after doing a Google search for "paladin sketch" or some derivative of that. This is an interesting bit of irony, as despite the name of this blog, there is no sketch of a paladin on this site. Until now.
I've been using the name "Paladin Freelance" since the late '80's when I first studied commercial art. The name derived partly from the legends of King Charlemagne (France's answer to King Arthur's roundtable), and partly from the old TV series, "Have Gun Will Travel", whose gun-slinging hero, Paladin, remains one of the greatest figures ever to appear on the small screen. The Freelance, of course, came from the fact that I've always wanted to work freelance, to give me greater control over what I draw. I'm aware of the connection to RPG's like "Dungeons & Dragons", but I've never been really into those games, so it's not a strong connection for me, and the Clyde Caldwell / Larry Elmore vision of the paladin never really appealed to me. My idea of the paladin, while no less noble, is a more classical, rougher view of the concept.
So, finally, here's my own vision of a paladin. The figure is based on figures in the statue of Charlemagne and his retainers in Notre Dame Square. The color scheme is made up from whole cloth.
To all who come here from Google looking for a paladin...you're welcome.

Getting Zen Done

Today I bring some readers a freebie courtesy of Leo Baubata, author of "Zen to Done" and the blog "Zen Habits".

It seems that the current incarnation of the self-help books that were so popular in the 80's and 90's is the personal productivity blog. Since some folks have figured out how to make money from blog-writing (mainly through the old business model of selling ad space), and since people always seem to have an interest in learning how to better themselves with as little effort as possible, there are scads of writers out there who are completely missing the irony of having you waste your time reading their blog posts about how not to waste your time.

However, like any idea, there's always a few who stand out. Just as there were some excellent and tremendously useful "self-help" books written by the likes of Dale Carnegie, Mortimer J. Adler and David Allen, there are also some self-help blogs out there that are, in my opinion, worth a visit. So much so, in my case, that I have added their feeds to my Bloglines subscriptions so that I don't miss anything new they might publish.

One of my current favorites is Leo Baubata's Zen Habits, a blog about "simple productivity". The blog describes itself as being about:

"achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits."

In short, it takes a Zen attitude towards achieving life goals, being not about doing more, as much as it is about doing better, and being happier while doing it. For example, recent articles include "A Guide to Living Your Life Consciously", "How Many Hours are in Your Day?" and "Faith in Humanity: How to Bring People Closer and Restore Kindness". For anyone who's looking for a positive view of the world and a few helpful suggestions for personal growth, the blog is definitely worth a read.

Recently, Leo published a post (see "Faith in Humanity, linked above) based around Robert A. Heinlein's idea of "Paying it Forward", in which he gave away copies of his ebook, "Zen to Done"
, to readers who commented on the post. It was done on the condition that each of those readers pay the favor forward by passing on a copy of the book to one other person who would be able to make use of it. As one of the commenters to receive a copy of his book, I thought I could best pay it forward and yet pay back at the same time by getting his permission to pass on copies to a few readers of this blog and help spread the word about his writing.
Thus it is that I have 5 copies of "Zen to Done" in pdf format to distribute to my readers. "Zen to Done" is an application of Occam's Razor to personal productivity systems. In Leo's words:

"Zen To Done takes some of the best aspects of a few popular productivity systems (GTD, Stephen Covey and others) and combines them with the mandate of simplicity. It makes things as simple as possible, and no more."

I have to be honest and say that I have not finished the book yet, but I am enjoying what I've read so far, and am looking forward to finishing it. The thing about a book like this is that I find it best read in chunks that need to be digested for a period rather than in one whole sitting.

If you would like to receive a copy via email, be one of the first five people to either email me (see link at right) or comment on this post (I'm notified of comments by email), and I will send you the book. But be aware...the book comes with the condition that the recipient likewise pay it forward by sending a copy to one other person, to keep the ideas flowing and allow others to benefit from the work.

For everyone else who's interested, there's a link on this page at Zen Habits where you can purchase a copy of the ebook via Paypal. It's not expensive and worth reading, so do yourself and Leo a favor and grab a copy.

Oh...and for anyone who does not know about pay it forward, or might know it only from an episode of Oprah or the Mimi Leder movie, you can find out more about it (and Robert Heinlein) at Wikipedia.

Update: If you want a copy of the book, please make sure you don't comment anonymously, or else send me an email. I need to reply to an address to send you the ebook.

Gettin' Love From KATG!

Just for fun, check out this episode of Keith and the Girl to hear Keith Malley tear me a new one for comments I've made on their forum. Look at me, Ma! I'm pissing off Noo Yahkers!

Knives to the Hilt!

It's amazing what you'll find when you're digging through your old material. Witness the following.
I used to be an avid reader of Blade magazine, a monthly journal of custom knifemaking. I suppose as a fantasy artist, it was inevitable that I take an interest in knives. Even now, I maintain a small blade collection, although it's leaned more towards utility blades in recent years ( I just never found a practical use for that brass lion-head pommel laser etched Toledo blade in the sealskin holster...go figure).
Part of my monthly ritual of reading Blade was to take some time to make reference drawings of the most interesting knives and swords I found in each issue. Recently, I came across a bunch of these drawings, and thought it might be fund to share them. The art is pretty crude, but the beauty of the design of some of these blades still manages to shine through.

Comic Book Follies

Update: Just for fun, I've published this book on Scribd. Now you can download the issue in pdf format from this page.

OK, to make up for my tardiness last week, I've got a full comic book for you this week.
Back in the mid-90's, I developed a character named DeathMask that I fully intended to turn into a limited series of comic books. At the time, in the wake of the launch of Image Comics, there was a glut of characters named "Death--" this and "Blood--" that, but this was meant to be a bit different from the rest. The catch to this character was that he wasn't a superhero, nor even an antihero, but a flat out serial killer who chose the concept of the superhero as a stage and rationale for his behaviour, sort of an ironic counterpoint to the trend that comics was taking at that time.
The concept was born in, of all places, an anthropology class at University. The course was on war, genocide and violent behaviour, and was taught by Elliot Leyton, who remains one of favorite teachers and authors. Dr. Leyton is a world-renowned criminal profiler who has had a huge influence on the way we perceive serial and mass murderers. As part of the course, he taught his book "Hunting Humans" and the excellent "Aesthetics of Murder" by Joel Black. Studying these texts got me to thinking about the possibility of a serial murderer who acted out his fantasies using comic books as his template, and DeathMask was the result.
Despite its apparently simple beginning, seen below, if developed the book would have gone on to explore Dr. Leyton's theories of the formation of the serial murderer's psychology, as well as the cultural impact of violent comics books and other media, and would have attempted to depict a realistic view of this deviant behavior as opposed to the glorified villains seen in films such as "Silence of the Lambs" and "Halloween" (fun they may be...accurate they are not).
I was pretty determined to make this book happen, and ended up submitting it to several publishers, all of whom rushed forward to roundly reject me. I think my biggest mistake was submitting it to Fantagraphics, thinking they might catch up on the literary aspect of it, only to have Gary Groth suggest to me that I might want to actually read a few of their books before submitting to them again. My greatest hope was for Caliber Press, but unfortunately, they folded up soon after I sent this.
Looking back at it now, I can see how amateurish the art was. I haven't exactly taken comics by storm since then, but I can see that I have learned a few things that I should have known before attempting a project of this scale. Even so, the story is still dear to me, and the book remains one of my favorite projects. In addition to this first issue, I've done two ashcan prequels, several pages of book two, and a ton of concept sketches. Maybe one day if I can ever drum up interest, I'll try tackling this again from a more mature point of view. Until then, here's the complete first issue for you to enjoy.

Days of Pork and Snuffles....

I really did mean to have some drawings to post today, but I've been behind the eightball all week, largely as a result of having to spend last weekend dealing with four kids, two cats, a dog, a hurricane and the resulting power outage, some amateur lumberjacking, and a wayward pig. I shit you not. Then of course, there's the cold that came about as a result of it all, which means that not only am I behind on my current project, but I had to miss a day's work at the office as well...which always puts me behind there too.
Anyway, there's a long weekend coming up, which will hopefully let me catch up on some of my art chores and let me find something entertaining to post in the coming week. Meantime, I can only offer this by way of explanation....

I HAZ LOLCAT!

I'm in ur internetz...


...participatin' in ur memes.

Skeletons In My Closet

This piece is a recent design done to be stencilled onto shirts for a pool team. Each of the players on the team had a different "bone" nickname, and the figures are loose caricatures of team members.

The Return of Paladin Freelance!

Just a technical note of interest....I've retaken ownership of my own domain, www.paladinfreelance.com. I had let it lapse when I discontinued "The Journals of Simon Pariah", but now it's mine again. For now, the domain will redirect you here, but I am tossing around website ideas, so who knows? In the meantime, it's an easier domain to remember than my blogspot address.

Welcome...Now Go Away

Today I'm going to send you somewhere else. Specificially, I'm going to send you over to the blog of Manuel Marino. Manuel has an interesting idea for a blog...he's getting people from various creative fields to write him short essays about their art. Each post is by a different author from a different artistic field. Recently, I've accepted his invitation to write a short piece on comics for him, and it's online as of today, along with a little illustration I did to accompany the piece. Go read it, and while you're there, check out some of the other informative and entertaining pieces he's posted.

When you're done there, you might want to check out this site...found via Boing Boing this morning, it's got a lot of rare and early Bill Watterson art. You can see the early elements of Calvin & Hobbes style in his university work, and it's clear that even then, Watterson was an insanely talented cartoonist. There's also a whole lot of C&H sketches for your viewing pleasure.

When you're done with that, you can come back here if you want and tell me if you think my short piece on comics was dead on the money or dead in the water.

For Barrett's Private Ears!

I've just finished the last page in my Bruno the Bandit story, "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer", and it feels good to be done. Not that I didn't enjoy the process, but this seemed to be the project that did not want to be born, as I ran into more problems, technical and otherwise, finishing this story, than any other project I've worked on to date.
Still, it's done and if you've been following, I hope you've enjoyed it. Below are some of the original sketches I did while planning the story; just preliminary roughs to lay done some of the character designs.
First there's Bruno himself...this apocryphal story takes place a lot earlier in his bandit career, so I knew I wanted him looking younger than he's normally drawn, but with features still recognizable compared to the way Ian McDonald draws them...


Next, there's Fiona, Bruno's sidekick. In continuity terms, she shouldn't have been in this story, but I figured if Ian can put her in Brunotots, then I could find a way to squeeze her into my tale...
Oddly, I find her harder to draw than Bruno. I can't quite wrap my head around the way Ian draws her back legs.


Next there's the pirates themselves. A lot of the visuals of the story depended on drawing Barrett's pirates in various activities. While a lot of figures appeard in the story, here's a couple that didn't get in...





And finally, there's Barrett himself. I was looking for the typical pirate look, but just about as mean as the day is long. In the story, he has a wooden leg, a glass eye and a hook for a hand, and if that doesn't make a man ornery, I don't know what would. I think a number of characters in my memory found there way into this one, including the pirate from "Blackbeard's Ghost" and maybe a bit of Hagrid...


And that's a wrap on that story. I'll be hip deep in my next project for a while, but I'm sure I'll be able to dig something fun out of my files to share. Keep an eye out to see what I come up with.

Vvroommm....

Looks like there's a lot of visitors coming here after reading my strips at Bruno the Bandit. Welcome, or welcome back as the case may be. I'm going to be putting up some rough sketches from "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer" later in the week, so be sure to check back. Meantime, here's a piece I'm working on just for fun. It started as a rough sketch after seeing a documentary on Big Daddy Roth, but I'm thinking that with a bit of tweaking, I could turn this into a T-shirt design, or some other sellable product. Suggestions?

Yarrr....

Yes, I know it's too late for Talk Like a Pirate Day, and everyone's done with Pirates of the Carribbean by now. Still, pirates are always fun. That's why my next project to see the light of day will be a pirate story, "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer", over at Ian McDonald's "Bruno the Bandit" webomic. This is a 9 page story that will be starting. as far as I know, on Monday and running over the next two weeks. Here's a small sample of the art:



Don't forget to drop by and read the story.