Random Comic Strip

I did this many years ago, so I don't remember if this was something I did in a class, or if I just set myself the goal of roughing out a comic strip as quickly as possible. I think it turned out very well, maybe because the rough pencils keeps it from looking as stiff as my inked work sometimes does. And also I think it's pretty funny.

Old Doodles

An unrealized project I apparently once planned to make happen, sometime around '91-'94, was a comic strip called The BIG Network, which was going to lampoon television with fake pitches for TV shows. All that exists of it is this page with a sample logo and the next page, with a first panel.

Besides my impeccable handwriting, these old notes were worth saving for the margin doodles I often did in class. This one was on the rough draft for an essay I wrote for art appreciation class and the rest were all notes from that class or a literature class I was taking at the time.

Avengers of the Dinner Table #2

From the Dominican Star, 4/22/1998

One of the few comic strips I had printed during my last stint in college. 

Peanut Avengers #5

I finally feel like I've nailed drawing the Wasp in the Peanuts style.  But her legs kept changing length on me!  Oh well...

Peanut Avengers #4

I completely messed up on the Wasp in that last panel, inking in a belt and short boots on her when she doesn't wear either in panel 2! *sigh* This is why I let Mike Bridges do most of my art chores these days!

Peanut Avengers #3

For those who only know the Avengers from the movie -- that's Iron Man and Ant-Man.  I somehow didn't notice that my panels were crooked until it was already inked.  And Iron Man should be about to fall over backwards in the last panel.  But other than those quibbles, I liked how this turned out and enjoyed drawing Ant-Man.

Peanut Avengers #2

The last panel and Hulk's incongruous body language now bothers me, but I like how the rest of this turned out.

Peanut Avengers #1

I made a few of these as Christmas gifts to my coworkers this year.  Here is the first one.

New Castle Greyhawk: the Comic Strip blog!

Rather than continue to share the Castle Greyhawk comic strip here and see it buried in with the rest of my stuff, Mort and I have decided it best to feature it on its own blog, which you can now find here!

Castle Greyhawk : the Graphic Novel - pg. 2

[I love how Mike improved on my script for this page, particularly panel 2. Enjoy!]

Castle Greyhawk: the Graphic Novel - page 1

The focus of this blog has always been all about me and my writing. But today, that all changes.

No, I take that back. It's still about my writing. But this time, for the first time, it's about a new and exciting collaboration! "Mortellan", famous for his W.O.G. comic strip and Greyhawkery blog, has agreed to a daring experiment -- to try and adapt my "Castle Greyhawk" novella (found here) to comic book form, one page at a time.

And, to start the project off, we began with a brand new bridging scene between "Castle Greyhawk" and its prequel, "Ehlissa's Story". Enjoy!

[Update: New version has backgrounds!]

The Undead Pages - pt. 2

[Although it was technically called "The Undead Pages", the strip has always been known by my friends as "Marcy the Lich" after the main character. The origin of Marcy the Lich came from a before-school discussion one day amongst my acquaintances when we debated who was most like which Peanuts characters. Of course, all of us thought we were most like Charlie Brown, but we couldn't all be Charlie Brown so some people just had characters assigned to them. Somebody, possibly me, suggested Chris should be Marcy. The more Chris protested this assignment, the funnier it seemed to me.

[Soon thereafter I drew a picture of Marcy as a skeleton, a midget skeleton with big glasses, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and with just a few hairs left on her head. As I drew more of Marcy, Marcy shifted from being a female to a male, like Chris. And so Marcy the Lich was born...]

The Undead Pages - pt. 1

[My friend Ron requested I find this old high school comic strip and show it to him again. Sadly, only six pages of it were ever inked, the rest done in pencil too lightly (or is now too light) to scan well. Oddly, the six pages are only from Year 2 of the strip, right in the middle of its three year run.]

[This strip never appeared in the school newspaper; indeed, it would probably have been rejected on the spot for being too weird. Its origin lies in the fact that several of us, in my circle of high school acquaintances, who could draw tried their hand at comic strips just to show around to the group. The only other one I remember was Erik's Tick-homage, "The Marlin", but I'm pretty sure Joe tried making one too. We all worked in pencil on lined paper, since that's what we had in school. The main difference with mine was its longevity.]

Another Far Side-Like Comic

[From the same page as the last one.]

The Far Side-Like Cartoon

[Circa 1998, I was briefly obsessed with the cartoon The Far Side. On my breaks at work, I sketched some one panel cartoons. Here's a sample.]

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 13

[From May 11, 1993 -- the end! Yes, JoC ended on a cliffhanger 16 years ago, 6 days before my 22nd birthday, and I never worked on it since. I don't think I ever had worked out how the courtroom scene would play out, but I did have ambitious plans for after that, including a "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" sequel, inspired by Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency. Again, thanks to Megan for wanting to add color to all my old strips.]

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 12

[From the April 13, 1993 Aurora Borealis. I can't tell you why this installment was labeled as no. 13 when, by my current count, it's no. 12. I was either off then or I'm missing another one now. Colors by Megan.]

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 11

[From the Feb. 5, 1993 Aurora Borealis. Colors by Megan.]

Journey into College, Vol. 2, No. 10

[From the Aurora Borealis, Oct. 30, 1992. Colors by Megan.]