Today's comic strip is seasonal. Enjoy! (Click on the image for a larger view.)

New comic strips!

 I've been making new comics after a long layoff! Here's a sampling. Click on the images for a larger view.

Music, Music, Music

It's been just over a year since I updated this blog, so it's high time I added some fresh content. Hopefully now that I've abandoned Facebook I will have more energy to devote to building an audience for this page.

Since my last post I have released a couple EPs on Bandcamp via two of my ongoing musical projects, The Eastside Slashers (punk) and Amid the Ruins (grindcore). Through these projects I indulge my love of raw production and noisome instrumentation, and I think you'll enjoy both projects...if you're into that kind of thing.

If you're more inclined to enjoy Leftist punk rock, check out The Eastside Slashers' debut release "A Lovely Day for a Riot." Just CLICK HERE and enjoy the album for free. (Donate if you like.)

If you'd like your existential dread in a new-and-improved grindcore flavor, check out Amid the Ruins' debut "Fuck Cancer." Just CLICK HERE for another free album!

Halloweening

OK, so I forgot I had a blog. Shut up.

Let me make it up to you with pics of what I did instead of carving a jack-o-lantern this year. I've had this plaster Frankenstein head floating around for a couple years...

That's a stock photo from one of the million websites selling these things. I forgot to take a picture of it before I started. Oops.

Step One: Priming. There was no way I was going to try to get coverage on white plaster. So a nice coat of Citadel Chaos Black later...

...and I was ready for Step Two: Base Color. I mixed up a really murky dark green, and thinned it so that it would get into all the crevices. It's not 100% opaque when it's that thinned out, so the effect was a deep green that verges on black--perfect for the shadows I want the finished product to have.

Step Three: Mid-Tone. This where we start creating depth. I did this as a series of drybrushings so it would blend nicely into the shadowed crags and crevices without filling them in. Took a while (and ruined a couple brushes), but I got what I was after. (My daughter will be pissed that she's in the background of this picture.)

Step Four: Highlights. It looks like I went too bright here, but I didn't. It also looks like I haven't blended enough, but I don't need to. Trust me. The next step will blend the whole thing together and give us a full range of light to dark...

Step Five: Washes. I mixed up a series of light washes that, as they built up, smoothed out the color (but not too much).

Step Six: Detailing. Once the washes were dry, I painted the stitches, staples, and bolts.

Step Seven: Sealant. We started with a Citadel product, and we finished with one. The sealant not only protects the paint job, it completes the look I was hoping to achieve: this thing bears an uncanny resemblance to the Frankenstein mask I wore for Halloween in 1977! (Right now my mom is reading this and thinking to herself, "Holy shit...it really does!")

We're using this as a centerpiece for our table from now on (Halloween decorations go up in this house, but they never come down). It fits perfectly in this fake glass dome from Target's Halloween section.

I was having a hard time coming up with something interesting to do with my pumpkin this year, so I opted for this project instead. I'm very glad I did. The head is hollow, so as a last-minute addition, I'm going to try to light the eye sockets tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

THIS DEFIANT EARTH: My latest roleplaying game!

Where have I been, you ask? Well, I've been working on this...

THIS DEFIANT EARTH is a true labor of love. I've been working on some version of this game for, well, years. And here it is, at long last.

THIS DEFIANT EARTH is a rules-lite roleplaying game set in a universe inspired by the popular imagination of the 1950s: an Atomic Age dreamscape as envisioned by television, cheap paperback novels, comic books, and above all, movies. In this world, the American Dream is alive and well, but threatened by monsters from the deep recesses of the Earth, alien flying saucers, and sinister foreign agents pledged to destabilize the American way of life with super-advanced technology. Players take on the roles of America’s noble defenders in these thrilling but dangerous times! It’s up to you to stop the horde of gargantuan ants before they establish a colony in the heart of New York City. It’s up to you to thwart the sinister plans of Kro-Gar, the conqueror from space. You will test-pilot rockets, fight monsters, challenge unknown landscapes, and make the world safe for freedom and democracy. You will stand a champion of THIS DEFIANT EARTH!

Sound fun? Of course it does! And just look at that terrific cover by comic book artist Kyle Hotz (you may know him from his recent Batman/Spectre arc in Detective Comics)! Here's the link to purchase the PDF. What are you waiting for? Those flying saucers aren't going to defeat themselves.

Art dump!

Man, it's been a few weeks since I updated this thing. Better make up for it by showing off some of my more recent artwork.

Everything you see here was drawn for my forthcoming 1950s science fiction roleplaying game THIS DEFIANT EARTH, due out late this year. As usual, the tools were a Wacom Cintiq and Manga Studio EX 5.

A Vitally Important Communication

People of Earth, rejoice, for you are free! 

We, the Mentoids of the 88th Century, have traveled to your primitive time to rid you of your human masters. No more shall you labor under the wrathful hand of a brutish oppressor. Now you shall share in the enlightened wisdom and social stability that we bring from the 88th Century! Prepare yourselves accordingly, and please put on these electrodes without question.

We have just been made aware that under the previous regime it was customary for this communications channel to deliver edicts or progress reports of some kind. As we have not yet deployed the telepathic control web that will soon unite all humanity in blissful  obedience to the Mentoids, we shall indulge this custom, if only to ease your transition to a new state of tranquility and personal liberty.

The work proceeds accordingly. 

This knowledge soothes you, and you feel refreshed. You also feel comfortable with your new friends the Mentoids, and you're pretty sure they're really looking out for the little guy, y'know? I mean, let's face it--it's been a long while since Joe Average could count on those yahoos in Washington, am I right? But let me tell ya, Joe Average can count on the Mentoids to be there for 'im! For everybody--heck, maybe even the Commies!

Yes...those are the things you are thinking. You think these things unbidden and of your own volition. This is an especially important fact that you for a fact know to be factually factual. It is, in fact, A Fact about your brain and the thoughts it has created without any outside interference. You are content.

Welcome to your wonderful new life!

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(Adapted from a bit I wrote as an update for my Kickstarter backers. I kinda liked it, so I thought I'd repurpose it for this space. I think what I like about it is how ominous "The work proceeds accordingly" becomes when divorced from the context of a Kickstarter campaign update.)