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.
ORC STAIN 
Wow, man. You are a comic book badass. So this has nothing to do with Wonton Soup War or whatever that other project is, right? Either way, can’t wait to sit down and read all of this.
Thank you!
War Wonton Soup is a different project. I worked on them both at the same time, during a weird post-apocalypse kick I was on, so visually they’re pretty similar.
Hopefully I’ll find the time to finish up War Wonton sometime this year, as it been almost done for a while now.
Nice job. Looks great!
It looks freakin’ great! I can’t wait for more. More, more, more, more, more!!! … please.
PS: I can think of a couple cool tattoos to come out of this!
Haha any more of my drawings on your body and I may have to legally adopt you!
That’s the prologue?!? It’s a hundred pages long!
I can’t believe you just posted all of that. Thank you!
yer worlds ain’t static, man. always a pleasure to read. fit for any god worth appeasing. cheers
I read part of that some time ago, and it still looks awesome.
Also, i notice an evolution in your drawings, which is great.
Sorry for double posting, but the evolution i’m stating, is a comparison between this and Orc Stain. From Wonton Soup #1 to #2, there is some evolution. But i notice it more comparing Orc Stain #1 and Orc Stain #4. It shows that your are keeping better and better. And turning into a greater artist.
Can’t wait to see the rest of this and to what comes up next in Orc Stain.
What happened to Sullivan’s Sluggers? Is it out already?
Thanks for the kind words!
Most of the first 3 issues of Orc Stain were all pencilled a few years ago (actually, right when I was midway into Murderbullets). #4 was the first issue with 100% new artwork, so there’s quite a big time gap there.
Sluggers is delayed a bit. There was some scheduling conflicts and the overall size of the book kept growing… with all the extras and everything it’s gonna be over 200 pages now! I think it just got resolicited though, so it should be out relatively soonish.
(I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this, but)
Fantastic. This comic is amazing, inside and out. A++++++++++++ would read again.
-On a personal note, reading this got me very motivated. Thank you!
Thanks! One of the best compliments I can hear is that I help people get to the drawing board.
Well it’s about fuckin time Stokoe! I’ve been wondering where this one’s been, probably somewhere nasty from the looks of it.
This is awesome and you are awesome for putting it up.
AWESOME
This is beyond insane. You’re killing me right there, Mr Stokoe.
So amazing. I can’t believe you’ve spent so many hours creating this and never released it. That’s impressive.
Murderbullets’ character reminds me of Transmetropolitan’s Spider Jerusalem…. What with the gnashing teeth and smokes dangling out.
Well done, good sir! Well done.
Thank you!
There’s definitely a big Transmet vibe going on. That’s one of those books that’s just stuck with me forever. Spider has got to be the most pitch perfect, fully realized ‘gonzo’ character in all of fiction.
”Yer Breakin’ my heart here, sarge!”
that comic was really mental. no boundaries at all… and the ending fully embraced that. excellent!
Draw more comics, little man!! I miss reading them!!!
Great stuff! Thanks for putting it out here. I’m getting my hands on Orc Stain quick.
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Wow. That’s all I got. Wow…
Damn! 102 pages! Daaaaaamn.
Nice Weyland-Yutani nod in the first pic.
This is all amazing. Any interest in making that poster available for purchase? Because I’d take 3.
This is perhaps the coolest fucking thing ever… Basil Wolverton meets Lazarus Churchyard meets Gorillaz. You need to put this in print my brother.
Hey man – terrific.
If I ever need somebody to draw anything, I’ll give you a call.
I hope you push on with this and get it published.
Good luck and Stay Alive
N
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This must have taken you a loong time to make. Beautiful use of colors, great action! Thank you sir!!
This is awesome, I hope you put it out for sale – Murder Bullets is definitely worth it!
This is one of the best comics I’ve ever read. The universe is incredibly awesome and immersive. The artwork is beautiful. The plot is enthralling. It’s really just too awesome for words. I read it twice.
I really hope you make more of it. If you ever publish a Murder Bullets book, I’d definitely buy a copy. I’d love to see that poster for sale as well. For now, I’ll definitely look into getting Orc Stain, now that I know what an awesome author you are.
Man, I just can’t get over how awesome the Murder Bullets universe is. It’s disturbing yet beautiful — in my opinion one of the best combinations for eliciting immersion and emotional response from the reader. The only thing I can think of that comes close is the universe of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (one of my favorite movies).
Great job!! You’re obviously amazingly talented. I really hope you finish this.
Wow, high praise! Thank you!
I’ve yet to see the Nausicaa movie, but recently got my hands on most of the comic series. I wish I had those growing up, goddamn!
Soo many things to love about this but I got to give special props for that Gundam head mutant thing! 😀 I just ordered both Wontons and the Orc Stain tpb and am anxiously waiting for more stuff from you!
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Wow, very creative and crazy…
U know you could have gotten this printed and made some $$$
Hell, you still can.
Nice comic 😀
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Sweet. Thanks for sharing this. Moose!
Excellent! I think I have to lie down for a bit to gather my brain before it dribbles out of my ears….
what the hell did I just read.
that was insane.
Wait, I gotta stuff vital organs back into my ear.
Keep it coming!
OMG This is fucking incredible! Thanks for sharing, and I hope you get to do the rest!
Hey, is it okay if package this into a cbr for you to put up here and/or send to my friends? Maybe make it creative commons (cc by-nc-nd even) http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses
Of course, go ahead! I have no clue how to do any of that myself, so if you wrangle it all together I’ll post it up here.
Here: http://ge.tt/6qn95Zs
The filenames inside aren’t perfect (I turned one double page near the beginning into a single page so I could squeeze the cover in at page 0) and this URL will only work another 25 or so days, but it works!
this was gold. hella gold
Holy $hit, that was awesome!
God, I hate people with talent.
James, this is incredible. I remember seeing some of this on your DevArt thing years ago. I think I found out about you through Brandon Graham’s DA somehow, back before either of you had LJs. Your comix are some of my favorite things, and this is mindblowingly awesome. Keep on rocking!
you probably get this a lot but are you related to matthew stokoe
Cool blog dude! This is Orange from VOID, just wanted to tell you that I think that all this crazy stuff you’ve been doing is really inspiring. I wanna be good enough one of these days to throw out an awesome story into the world of print. Your art is just one of the factors that keep me going man. I’m really loving Orc Stain, one of these days when I actually have some money flowing in I plan to pick up your other works too, but cash is pretty tight heh.
Looking forward to what you’ve got going next.
Sick work man. This was awesome. I really hope you make the full book someday, I will defenitely buy this book. Great start to what I’m sure could be a crazy story. As for the “unlikeable” Murder bullets character, I liked ’em. If you expanded the story I would kind of want an explanation on such a strange name for a person. With it or not, I would still buy a full version.
“I am the world’s first fully functional homicidal artist. I make art until someone dies.”
cool, very cool
dood you need to print this now i wanna own a copy of this so bad, i just got into your art from orc stain a few months ago and ordered the wontons and deff am gettin orc stain trade when thats out, but this needs to be in my hands too, question though what ever happened to that godzilla thing i was seeing pages from online? that looked real dope, you ever gonna do somthing with it?
Absolutely fantastic stuff. I loved it.
Someone has already mentioned it in the comments, but you could put up a comicbook-reader-friendly CBR or CBZ file. That way people can read it more conveniently on their computers / smartphones. It’s simple to do really – just zip up all the images in a ZIP file, rename the file with a .CBZ extension. Or you could RAR them up and rename to .CBR.
I have made a version here: http://hotfile.com/dl/87110528/5e3cfaf/Murderbullets_-_Prologue_-_James_Stokoe.cbz.html (I renamed a couple of the files so that they appear in sequence, and also included the large poster inside). I made it so I could carry it and read it on my phone 🙂
Of course, you will have larger versions of the images, so you can make a better version.
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sweet shit- thanx 4 posting
I’d buy this in a heartbeat when/if you finish it.
This comic is so perfect I can barely even begin to wrap my brain around it!
Blech, accidentally put in the wrong url for my website. Whateverrr…
Dude, this is amazing.
I was instantly hooked..
I’ve been dying to read your “Orc Stain” comic forever now , but could never find all the issues. So, I sadly had to wait in anticipation for the trade and sir..it is one damn good comic. Made me research ya so I could read more of ya stuff. (Just ordered Wonton Soup off of Amazon ^_^)
Any plans on actually finally making this?
You are truly an inspiration to all us twisted-minded kids!
Lastly,
Lastly should be above the last line :p.
how would i go about getting a copy of this here murder bullets? i love your swag and id love to have this as well.
I want to buy this!
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AT LAST! I’ve been trying to track down your work on the net since the days of 41 Stories. I knew about Wonton Soup and Orc Stain, but just from minor press releases.
Murderbullets is kick-ass. Thanks for posting it. And I’m glad I found your blog. I love your work.
Nice work, I like the color choices and the unbridled terror.
Though, some of it reminds me of Tatsuyuki Tanaka’s stuff.
Not sure how much of an influence he is on you.
=s=
Absolutely stunning work James, I really love it, and Orc Stain rocks. Just read your interview too… so you feel you ‘have crab claws when colouring on the computer’…jeez it all looks so naturally done, and unique to you…hats off to you sir!
best wishes for Christmas and have a great 2011.
Dave
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This is amazing, I never really liked comic books until a friend recommended Orcstain #1 now I cant get enough of them, Your comics are by far the most interesting and my favorite that ive read, cant wait to get my hands on this!
Amazing stuff. Reminded me a lot of Akira just in the way the mutations evolved. Really inventive story, the kind that can only really come about from spontaneous impromptu thinking and rigorous backtracking. I’m normally not into gory artwork, but I loved this.
Superb! 🙂 Thanks for putting it up to read, hope to see it in print some day with the rest of Murderbullets’s tale.
Nice read but having it in such low resolution a lot of the speech bubbles are lost as well as the detailing of the drawings and definitely doesn’t do justice to this, also what’s up with the kaff kaff, koff koff and hef hef. I know that it’s onomatopoeia but it definitely not English.
You drew all of those pages and never published it?! That is insane!
How do you do it man? How long do you need for a page (draw + color)? all your stuff is so freaking detailed.
I kneel before you, my comics master.
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Sort of Jamie Hewlett meets Kevin O’Neill. Truly awesome.
Wow, amazing art work. Are you going to be making any printed copies of this? I would love to have a physical copy of this!
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PLEASE get this printed! I need a physical copy! Plus write all of the other installments pleasethankyou. I love this! I’ve heard people recommending Orc Stain but I hadn’t got round to it yet; I’m going out this weekend and buying everything of yours I can get my hands on.
I’ve probably read this about 20 times. I think it may actually be my favorite comic, ever. I don’t know if you plan on ever making more Murder Bullets but if you do I’ll be very happy. This is what made me want to buy your comics (Orc Stain certainly didn’t disappoint, I still gotta buy the others though).
PLEEEEEEASE publish this!!!
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My mind boggles at your ability to crank-out pieces that are so complete in their presentation. Your colouring has an originality and good judgment to it that is sorely lacking in most comics. Ditto, your lettering and composition. It would seem that you only weakness is having a mere two arms, ten digits and two eyes to work with. But hey, if everyone who was blown-away by your stuff pitched-in a couple of bucks, we’d have your extra ten cyber arms, a few new eyes on stalks and (of course) a cage to keep you from getting any ideas about taking a day off from drawing those sweet, sweet comics we crave so much!
Posting this in 2012 but damn that was amazing! I would love to see more murderbullets if and ever possible.
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Definitely enjoy what you’ve got here, grateful you’re getting it around and what
you have to say. Your content was excellently balanced between amusing and educational.
I can’t wait to pick up far more thanks to you. Your website is certainly one of the better blogs available right now.
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of
this website. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s difficult to get that “perfect balance” between usability and
appearance. I must say that you’ve done a amazing job with
this. Also, the blog loads super quick for me
on Chrome. Outstanding Blog!
Best thing I have read in a long time
I know I’m super late to the party but I just discovered Orc Stain and was searching for more on James Stokoe. My mind has been blown to bits and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same after reading this.
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PLZ CAN WE GET A DOWNLOAD LINK ?WOULD LOV TO AD TO MY DIGITAL BOOKS COLLECTION
James. Bravo. Just found this as you are a new find for me. Dead Orbit is where I discovered you and I now own all of your work that is available. This needs to see print. Would love to know what you are working on.