Jan 02 2012

L is for Lizard Man

This week’s “L” choice was an easy one to make. As a kid I drew tons of D&D stuff, but for some reason this little guy was my favorite. As he appears in the 1979 edition of the game, though, he’s a bit of an odd bird. Lizard men appear in two locations of the book, neither of which are consistent with one another (not to mention the Lizard Man entry in the Monster Manual, which is also different). In the  “Monsters” section of the book, they’re described as “aquatic monsters” who are “at least semi-intelligent and use weapons such as spears and clubs,” but on the very first page of the book we get this drawing of a lizard man–the one I was most fixated on:

This guy’s clearly more than “semi-intelligent,” is sporting full armor, and appears to be hanging on dry land. I love how he’s not only a lizard himself, but he’s also got a lizard on his helmet and he’s riding a lizard.

Anyhoo… here’s my “L” entry for this week:

L is for Lizard Man

The original art for this is for sale here.

 

Embarrassing bonus: Some of my childhood drawings of the Lizard Man. The sketchbook these are from isn’t dated, but I’d guess I was maybe ten years old when I did these. Note the “mixed nerd signals” here with the D&D lizard man under the Star Wars Tattoine double-sun.

You can follow the other “L” entries as people post them to Twitter this morning by following the #AlphaBeasts hashtag. View all previous AlphaBeasts entries at the AlphaBeasts Tumblr: http://alphabeasts.tumblr.com/. You can also find some submission guidelines there, as well as links to bestiaries and lists of creatures.

Jan 01 2012

“Alphabet Collective” Table At SPX 2012?

This is something I’ve been ruminating on for a bit, but (typical of me) I’ve waited until the last minute to actually do anything about it. With SPX 2012 now open for registration, I’m wondering if folks might be interested in going in on an “Alphabet Collective” table to sell minicomics by AnimalAlphabet and AlphaBeasts folks who complete full alphabets and make minis of them. For those new to SPX, it’s a great small press show in Maryland and it will be held the weekend of September 15th and 16th at the North Bethesda Marriott. More info here.

Here’re some off-the-top -of -my-head-thoughts on how an Alphabet Collective (or whatever we want to call it) table would work. Please let me know what you think of this plan and–more important–if you want to commit to participate :

  • You wouldn’t need to actually attend SPX to participate. If you mail minis to me in advance, I’ll take them with me to the show and return unsold minis afterwards.
  • A three-foot table is $150. We’d split the fee evenly among participating folks.
  • If you want to do this, you need to commit to it now and Paypal me your part of the fee pretty soon I can send off registration early this week.
  • The table would be for Alpha-project minis (edit: and original Alphabet art) only. If you’ve got other books to sell, you can still do that, but you’ll need to get your own table. (I’ll buying the adjacent three-foot table for my non-Alpha work, for examaple).
  • If you are attending SPX, you’ll be expected to trade off with other Alpha-people in working the table.
  • If you’re getting your own table in addition to the Alpha-table, request to be seated near the Alpha-table.
  • I’ll bring a “bank” of change, but we’ll have to keep tight track of book sales so I can Paypal people’s book sales back to them after the show.
  • A three-foot table only comes with one pass for the show. If you plan on attending, you’ll be responsible for purchasing a pass.

So, thoughts? If you do want to participate for sure, please email me (at the email address up in the top right of my blog banner image) and let me know so I have your email address and can communicate with you directly about logistics, payment info, etc.

Dec 30 2011

Some Star Wars Fan Art

I was recently asked to donate a piece of artwork for a local Star Wars-themed charity benefit auction. I’m a huge Star Wars nut (the movie came out when I was six, so I’m pretty much the perfect age to be a Star Wars junkie) so I knew I had to find time to do something fun. I decided to do a recreation of one of the original Star Wars movie posters:

I love this image, but even as a kid, I knew that there was something odd about this poster. The drawn characters don’t look like the actors, the X-Wings have flames shooting out of them, and what the heck is that “city” about in the background? It’s a piece of art that’s hilariously out of synch with the actual film, but as fellow N.C. cartoonist (who’s also contributing a piece to the auction) Thomas Boatwright pointed out on Twitter, this is what most folks thought SF was about pre-Star Wars: space opera–buff guys with space swords and saucy space damsels. I remember hearing that the original Marvel Star Wars comics had to be done so far in advance of the film that the artist had to work from just a handful of stills; I’m guessing that’s what went on here as well to some degree.

There are a lot of things to love about this image for sure and doing my own version of it only heightened my appreciation of it. I love the gesture of the figures–especially Princess Leah.  The composition is flawless, and the artists (the amazing Hildebrandt Brothers)  have done an amazing job of getting those figures to really “pop” into the foreground via both the high light/dark contrast and the warm tones on the cool background.

Anyway, here’s my version. I’ll post details of the auction if/when I get them. I have no idea if there’s any online component to the bidding, but whatever the case I hope this piece makes some bank for a good cause:

Dec 27 2011

Portrait Night 12/27 (Margaret Thatcher)

As with last week’s #PortraitNight drawing, this one’s kinda lame. The holidays brouhaha is killing me, people! I promise: before I complete my year of weekly portraits, I’ll do at least one more that I can spend some time on and get a decent image from. In the meantime, here’s a quick Margaret Thatcher:

As a child of the 80s, my knowledge of Margaret Thatcher–and pretty much every polititan  from that period–was gained through listening to punk rock… YA HEAR THAT, ALEXANDER HAIG??!!!

If you’d like to suggest a #PortraitNight subject, you can do so either via the comments section here, or via my Twitter.

 

Dec 26 2011

K is for Killmoulis

You can follow the other “k” entries as people post them to Twitter this morning by following the #AlphaBeasts hashtag. View all previous AlphaBeasts entries at the AlphaBeasts Tumblr: http://alphabeasts.tumblr.com/. You can also find some submission guidelines there, as well as links to bestiaries and lists of creatures.

Sorry about the cruddy cell phone pic, but I’m out of town for the holidays and scanner-less. I’ll update with a better image soon. Edit: now with decent scan. Also: original now for sale. From the Fiend Folio…

K is for Killmoulis

The original art for this is for sale here.