When I started this blog two years back, I mentioned Cheerleader Cop, one of many quick-sketch ideas I started on years back and never finished up.
This week I wrapped it up in one page so I can check it off in my brain --- completed! All three pages!
Any illustrator knows the frustration of labouring over a design and having it tossed to the junk pile. For cartoonists / comic illustrators it's the same -- we pour our sweat and creativity into work that sometimes gets shelved, postponed, lost, or displayed in some remote location where the intended audience will never be able to appreciate it.
Everyone has throwaway stories, concepts and characters that never get used. One of mine is BACKSLIDE. Stephen and I hijacked the Halloween party theme in our company's production department and made it Comic-book Characters. So we both went to work and did pretty much EVERYTHING --- the cityscape cut outs, word balloons, outrageous props, newspaper scraps that had outrageous headlines on them, and Stephen made these carnival type posing stands. I drew up templates for people to make up their own heroes and add them to the list I had on a board called the Hall of Heroes or the Vault of Villains. Not too many people signed up...oh, well....at least we got a few brave souls to wear costumes. My costume was BACKSLIDE - a minor villain with the uncanny ability to backslide into time up to 15 minutes!
I had planned to disrupt Stephen's story continuity in THUGS by having BACKSLIDE show up from a side alley and alter events past. I never got around to drawing more than one illo about it. And now your know the backstory.
Apocalyptic Anthology -- I love stories about the end. I love that there is no hope here, but the chick is already thinking about a tryst with a bug-eyed-monster. Bigger, better, deal, you go, girl!
PAC-MAD -- This is a direct rip-off of an old Guardians of the Galaxy cover.
GIJOE Testifies -- Amazing how our foreign policy is based on a ludicrous cartoon from the 80's!!
Zombie Physics -- We know how zombie physics works, but what if you were tested on it?
Drive-Thru Divorce -- Yeah, it's weak.
Pin Pro vs. The Devil -- Got to be one of the weirdest ideas I ever had. I just wanted to see this bowling dude kick the devil's ass without breaking a sweat. He's like Job of the bowling alley -- unflappable like he doesn't even know the stakes. Damn!
Unfathomable Fish Tales -- People vs. fish is always great drama or great comedy!
I mentioned a foxy boxing illustration sequence I started on last fall, and I kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off and well, finally my client ran out of patience and fired me, more or less. I finished all the illustrations (24) in black and white, and I did a number of others to "get the feel" of the content. Towards the end I think I was feelin' it OK, but half the illos I did just didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. 
Okay, so that AND arguing with 15-year olds on bulletin boards...geez...what a waste...
It's always a bear when you've got a great idea and you want to get it on paper, get a layout done, get some finished work and show it off to everyone. You don't want to spoil the impact by showing something that's not finished enough to get the intended response. Hopefully the idea is compelling enough to keep you working on it quickly and finish up. Or...you take a job with a company that's all "hush-hush" and "don't tell" and you can't even show your work off (damn!!) or something like that. Well in September I took the hush-hush job and I've been doing a lot of nothing, but the company has seen my work -- photos from the company Halloween party!
Haven't been up to too much cartooning/comic production in recent years, or even recent months, but I do tend to do a few sketches a month...whatever comes to mind...revisiting old stories and characters...
Dang it, if only my job was to draw pinups all day...I should have MADE IT MY JOB. I should have quit all my jobs and just drawn pin-ups and drawn pin-ups, and well...drawn pin-ups. But I fell into the work trap and started to buy stuff, and well...you know how it goes, but every once in a while, I draw pinups. And I actually got paid for it few times. You might say I have lived all my dreams in small pieces...travel, comics, sex, computers. Here are few pieces of my pinup world:
• Araceli - just some chick I drooled over way back in the day when I was doing some all night parties with Peruvians...strange days. The girl's brother bugged me to trade watches. I still dunno why, mine was a $2 piece of junk. But I did get to dance with his sister.
...yeah, it's weak, but it's THERE! Even though the tag line says "Sex and Violence" this sequence has neither! So I had to do another one, something that got the SDs out in the world to face the music.
Yeah, after seeing a few pages of THUGs, I agree that Ultramaiden easily emerges as THE POWER CHARACTER, while others wither... But what is Ultramaiden like beneath the breastline? Does she use as much deoderant under the breastdroop as under the arms??? Who DARES to ask such questions? Well....since I do, I drew this illo that kinda probes the psyche of Ultramaiden after hearing of Dark Cowl's fate...even if it only lasts about 0.2 seconds. 
Anyhow, this one's not TOO OLD, but the idea for Cheerleader Cop is over 5 old, maybe more I don't recall. I only drew two pages of the actual comic idea, because I didn't really have a story. then again, most of my stories are NOT centered on some conflict that must be resolved, or some emotion that must be expressed. Most of my stories are about a character reaching a certain state of paradox or confusion and realizing he has made a mistake or is powerless to fix or escape from the oddities around him. Hilarity ensues, of course!! Or just senses-shattering violence and adolescent sexual remarks.
The story goes like this...I sketch cartoons for fun. And I've done some comic-book art, too. And some comic-strips, and gag-panels, and short web animations...all that geeky jazz. Yeah, and pin-up illos, and spaceships and robots and the like. So I will be posting a little of everything later, or even later than that.
Yes, Program Error: BATTLEBOT was published in 1987!!! I was sketching cartoons and such long before that, and have continued to do so long afterward. I have added to the BATTLEBOT universe with sketches, notes, and even a few animations over the years. I will post some sketches, of course. I have a number of notes for 3 or 4 more stories, but I simply have not taken time in recent years to draw them. Even the most recently drawn story has sat in near-limbo for over 5 years...so close to completion, yet...so much easier to just pop in a DVD or a video game!!! Who has time to write and create, let alone publish!!! Sigh....but there is always hope... With each new sketch, there is the chance I will not put down my ink pen, I might just pull out those unfinished pages (only one left!) and finish inking and touch-ups. There is always that possibility I will have my fill of ads, resign myself to only watching DVD collections years after shows have died, and sit illuminated in the hours of mid-night, working on new ILLs....yeah, sure!!
(A note concerning BATTLEBOT: The official spelling is ALL-CAPS because BATTLEBOT is a word that emphasises overwhelming POWER, thusly the word must always be shouted or screamed as if it was attacking enemies the very instant you say the word!!!)
