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.
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.
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.
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…..
Robot 6 just posted a preview of the newest issue of Marvel’s Strange Tales, which will be flouncing on well toned legs into stores this December 8th. I’ve got a four page Silver Surfer short in there, along with many other wonderful people, including my boy Michael Deforge. Check out page X-men page in the preview above… that boy has got the music inside him. Anytime you see something sweating/dripping profusely in Orc Stain, it’s just because I’m valiantly trying to rip him off.
This happened on to my lap the other day and made me all misty eyed…
That’s the Orc Tzar permanently etched unto Nicolas Rossert by Dennis Halbritter of High Voltage Tattoo. Infinitely flattering! Those don’t rub off!
Hello world.
I’ve decided the planets have aligned correctly to break radio silence from the wilds of the internet and try to maintain a regular blog. You’ll find mostly Orc Stain related giblets here, I would wager, but I imagine other things will pop up from time to time.
Since I am in tinker mode trying to make this blog less obtrusively ugly, I’ll keep it brief and show off the new cover for the first Orc Stain collected trade, along with an earth shattering expose on the creation of orcish money!
