ORC STAIN

Help a Spirit of Vengeance out

James Stokoe — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:13:42 +0000

So, if you’ve been paying attention to comic news lately (and I would not for a moment fault you if you haven’t), then you’ve probably heard about Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich’s legal woes. In a bid to erase the world’s collective memory that people, not the ethereal blob that is Marvel, are the ones that create characters, Gary has been ordered to forget that he created Ghost Rider. Along with the $17,000 he’s being forced to pay out, Gary is in a bit of a pickle.

All things aside, whether you agree with the legal outcome or not, Mr. Friedrich is one of comic’s valued creators and is in need of some financial help. Brandon Graham and I have decided to have 100% of the proceeds for the next ten pages of our original art (ten Orc Stain and ten King City) go to Steve Niles excellent fundraiser for Gary Friedrich.

Click here for more info, and to buy pages.

A big thanks to Robin McConnell for setting all this up.

Anyway, Orc Stain #7 is off at the printers and should be out in the coming weeks. Here’s a collection of things I’ve done since I last updated in the early Ming Dynasty.

Ham ‘N Mutherfuckers

James Stokoe — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:56:15 +0000

Comic stuff, old and new.

Orc Stain #7 preview…

A super melodramatic Spider-Man in ‘Nam fan comic…

Cover for IDW’s Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths miniseries…

Abandoned idea for a short serialized project…

A much better idea for a short serialized project…

Some random pages for an Orc Stain Bowie one shot…

And finally, a poster for the most excellent Norwegian movie, Troll Hunter…

Dongs for Dollars

James Stokoe — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:30:28 +0000

My good friend and Inkstuds comics radio host Robin McConnell has graciously started an estore for a bunch of my original Orc Stain pages, along with some most excellent Brandon Graham pages.

http://www.mcconnellart.com/

If there’s a page you don’t see in the store that tickles your fancy, just drop me a comment or email me ( stokoe.james@gmail.com) and I will rummage through the stacks to see if I still have it.

Spread the good word and help put tasty fried goods in my belly

Drippin’s

James Stokoe — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:43:30 +0000

Hello all,

Been an age since the last update, but I’ve been working my tiny tits off and trying to keep this damnable addictive internet at an arms length.

Orc Stain #6 is out today with #7 close on it’s heels to being done. I’ve been doing a ton of side work lately, most of which I cannot show off yet but all of it incredibly exciting to work on. I leave you now with some various Orc Stains and odds ‘n ends.

Nasty Gubbins

James Stokoe — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:45:29 +0000

Oh hey, some stuff! Short and sweet.

Page from issue 6 of Orc Stain. There will be plenty of goo piles, jelly bellies and orc fueled testosterone.

Some pages from a Wonton Soup spin off that’s been flitting around in limbo for a while. Most of the pages need to be reworked, but hopefully I’ll get the chance to finish it sometime this year.

….aaaand an older comic I had on my previous blog a while back. This was done as a pitch for Heavy Metal if I remember correctly, and I don’t think I ever posted it in it’s entirety, so hear it is.

Bodymore Murdaland

James Stokoe — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:19:04 +0000

I got wrangled for an interview over on CBR for the release of the trade of Orc Stain (which is out NOW, along with the new Strange Tales I’m in along with many other crazy talented people), so here’s the result.

http://bit.ly/e1IbmO

Also, here’s a Bowie pinup for the back of #6.

She’s probably the only main character whose genitals I haven’t drawn yet, so now that’s settled. FUN FACT!: Her name ‘Bowie Yaramund’ is a lazy half-anagram of Bowie (pr: BOO-WEE) Maryland, where I lived for a little while. Fancy that!

Nomad of the Domes

James Stokoe — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 23:33:05 +0000

Hello all. I come bearing comics.

I thought I would share this one because it feels like a prototype to a lot of ideas in Orc Stain. The main character here, Nomad, shares a lot of the qualities of the Shakatuu… a big wispy, robed figure with gross spaghetti noodle arms. The ‘telephone’ towers I cannibalized for issue 4 (though, looking back I wish I had kept the little squid dudes inside of them) and the Gene-mules will be featured in later issues.

I remember starting this when I was staying with my good friend and dire nemesis Sheldon Vella. I was making fun of him for having the physique of Puck and he was making fun of me cus my comics were all full of “Zor Cycles and Zoobilee Shafts”. Of course my immediate reaction was to draw a Zor Cycle (and there may even be a Zoobilee shaft in Wonton 2).

That basically sums up my entire creative process for every comic I’ve ever done.

Murderbullets

James Stokoe — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:13:43 +0000

This week, the ancient terrible star gods saw fit to deem me my annual ‘leaving of the house’, so with gunny sack and 2 weeks C-rations in hand, I made my way over to the Inkstuds/ radio show for their fundraiser thingy. I was joined by the lovely and unforgiving Marley Zarcone , chubby fat rascal Brandon Graham and fine gentleman crooner Brian Fukushima .

Listen as we shit talk Namor’s inexplicable winged ankles and wax poetic on unicorns and such.

Secondly, I thought I’d share this comic I did a couple years back called Murderbullets.

The bulk of this was done sometime between Wonton Soup 2 and Orc Stain, starting out as a entry for an anthology. The theme of the anthology was “The last comic you would ever draw”, so I took it rather literally and did 8 pages of a cracked out character drawing a book in a post apocalyptic wasteland that would grant him entry into the afterlife. Also, for some reason a moose was chained to his toilet. I got wrapped up in figuring out how this situation came to be and developed an elaborate back story involving time travelling, mutants, knife fights and cybernetic dolphin street gangs. Of course none of this would fit into an anthology, so I decided to take a stab at a full length book.

The pages here were to be the prologue of a much longer book. There would be 5 more chapters to the story following the rather unlikable Murderbullets character, but then Orc Stain came along which I decided would be a much better idea to pursue for the next few years. So now it sits idly on my hard drive, gathering e-dust. I don’t think I would be a decent human being if I released this prologue in print without finishing the rest of the book, but the magic of free internet lets me share it with you now.

The Orc Don’t Fit

James Stokoe — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 11:42:48 +0000

Here’s some bits that got cut out of the upcoming Orc Stain trade. About 10 pages in and the end still nowhere near in sight, there was no way I could fit it in/finish it in time.

The story plan started out as a simple orc scavenger idea, then quickly turned into a sweeping western-ish revenge adventure where the main orc gets his body taken over by a rogue ‘marg’ (the fuzzy hat creatures, like what Zazu is). Basically, it gives me the means to expand on what the Nymphs are all about, which I’ve only just glossed over in the main series. I think I’ll eventually turn it into an oversized one-shot at some point… but, y’know, time is a motherbitch.

Unass my AO!

James Stokoe — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:24:41 +0000

I’ve alluded a bunch of times to the Deep Jungle in Orc Stain, but have never had the chance to actually show it. So here’s a younger One-Eye mucking through the deep with a gang of rough n’ ready jungle commandos who will be key players in future issues.

I got quite a bit of inspiration from Vietnam war photography for this, especially from shots of the Kit Carson scouts. Fantasy and ‘Nam are an odd mix, so this first stab didn’t come out quite how I would’ve liked it to but it’s a start. I’m pretty excited to mix that hard edged war aspect into Orc Stain once we hit the jungle issues. Orcish napalm…? Nymph Air Cav? Hmmm…..