Monsters & Nekkid Ladies

Locus Issue 18, Page 12

2011-11-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Dreamhost's SQL servers are down and/or the hackers have finally gotten in.

Whatever the reason, here's the page that is scheduled to be published November 4, 2011:

Close-up!

2011-04-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

If you've been following Locus lately (and I'm sure you have), you know that each and every page is now available for sale. I decided to do this because I've had some private collectors approach me in the last couple of months, asking if they can buy original art from the comic. I'm working on a system where anyone can buy their favorite page or First Appearance and have artwork in their hands within a week or two. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm about a week or two away! Here's the deal:

Every page of Locus is hand-drawn on acid-free 2-ply bristol board with a brand of permanent ink I'm buying from China that's blacker than shit. I love it. Sometimes I use 11"x14"; other times I use 11"x17". It all depends on page layout, subject matter, and time at hand. I then scan the art into Photoshop and color & letter it.

Every collector who gets a page from me gets the following:

1. The original black & white artwork,

2. A full-color, full-bleed glossy 11"x17" print,

3. And some other goodies. Sometimes I include pages from my sketchbook, if I sketched out thumbnails for the page in question. For the Kiss fans, I throw in some Kiss 4K Lithographs I still have in the studio. If I'm in a goofy mood, I'll throw in something weird.

Total price: $150 plus shipping. I will be streamlining the shipping in the next month or two, too.

If that's too expensive, you can buy a print of your favorite page. This is the print mentioned in point 2 above. That will be $25 plus shipping.

I won't have this in place until next week or maybe even the week after. I will announce it here (and everywhere I can) once it's ready to go.

Until then, keep in mind that the page you see on LocusComics.com is a very low-res JPG (or PNG) that doesn't show much detail at all. The original and full-size print are much better looking. For example:

Today's Comic Page lost some detail. I've zoomed in the first two panels here:

Panel 1 in color:

and in black & white:

Panel 2 in color:

and in black & white:

I hope that shows the brushwork and coloring a little better. Any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to comment!

Stryper!

2011-01-25T01:03:00.000-08:00

It's Stryper's fault. All these monsters and tits I draw...they're because of Stryper.

Look, it was the 80s. None of us in our teens had any real taste in music. You had to be there.

And you had to be there in the PMRC days. The "D&D will send you to hell" days. Back when W.A.S.P. was singing about "Tie you down-down, I come steal your love...like an Animal!" Between the long-haired rockstars and the Goddamned Communists, if you were a parent in the 80s, you were scared. Because there was a lot of evil shit going around, and your teenaged kids were right in the middle of it!

My parents were scared. I drove my Dad nuts. All I wanted to do was look at pictures in the Monster Manual and listen to heavy metal. I got into D&D, but spent more time drawing the things in the game than actually playing the game. And in my version, there were lots of monsters and tits, because I was also sneaking peeks at neighbors' Heavy Metal magazines and my Dad's Playboy/Penthouse/Hustler collection. Those were the years of Barbi Benton's return, and they were good years. Barbi Benton was dreamy. That was also the magical time between 1979 and 1986-ish, when Heavy Metal magazine was the most amazing comic book on the planet. These were wonderful things to expose yourself to when you were between 14 and 16.

(Pre-internet, kids. Pre-internet...in rural North Idaho. Imagine the 1950s...except someone in the neighborhood had HBO.)

My Dad was all about John Wayne and the Beach Boys and Old Glory and things like that. And why not? Those are fine people and things to be a fan of. So (despite the fact that they were HIS titty magazines), I was taught to not let any filth in the house. The D&D was tolerated, but the heavy metal music was absolutely-no-way-over-my-dead-body-son. And that really sucked. But my Mom talked him into allowing Stryper, because that was Christian metal.

This was not the Christian metal you kids have nowadays. This was all "Jesus is the way" and "rockin' for The Rock" shit. The kind of shit that got your ass kicked at school--or at least the schools I attended. And, because of that, I fucking hated it.

I have nothing against the band or its members, or its fans. I have nothing against the message in the music. Oz Fox plays some ass-kickin' guitar solos, and Michael Sweet hits some seriously high notes. But the fact remained: Stryper wasn't cool in my school, but that's all I was allowed to listen to at home. I'd go over to friends' houses and listen to the metal I wanted to hear (W.A.S.P. and Motorhead and Twisted Sister and Priest and all that shit), but when I was alone in that magical attic I turned into my first studio, I listened only to Stryper.

And I hated Stryper so badly that the things that came out of my pencil were terrible, horrible things. My Mom told me a couple years ago that she'd found all that artwork--all the gory battles and naked women and monsters and pretty much all the shit I draw nowadays--and made damn sure my Dad never set foot in the attic. Thanks, Mom!

We're all older now, and I give my Dad hell because he listened to more drugged-out musicians than I did--Linda Ronstadt and Rick Nelson and the aforementioned Beach Boys did waaaaay more drugs than Kiss or most of the bands in my tape deck back then. We laugh about the whole experience, and Dad admits the real reason he didn't like the music was the way it sounded, and that's just fine. I can't stand some of the "Cookie Monster chases a drum kit down the stairs" shit my kids call metal. But I let them listen to it anyway. It's just music.

26 years later, and I have this weird love/hate relationship with Stryper. Because there are days when I get severe Artist's Block, and only Stryper kills it. Stryper and the old red light from that attic studio. I've put it in a dozen different lamps, and the bulb's still working. It's my Muse.

The above was very, very rambling, and I hope it made sense. It's way too late at night to go up and edit, and I shouldn't be telling you these things anyway. But you had to understand where pages like this came from. And this and this and this and this. And pretty much every single page of Locus.

Cool thing is: I've got an upstairs studio again. The red light bulb was the first thing I set up. Year Three of Locus should turn out very well.

Update, and some artwork!

2010-11-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

Locus Year Three is in full swing, and I've never been busier in my life. Not because of Locus Year Three, unfortunately, but because real-life things have all decided to come to a head in my life. Many things going on right now. Most of them good; all of them time-consuming. It barely leaves me time to get Locus pages done on time, let alone actually sit down and give all these commissions the attention they deserve.

A couple days ago, I actually woke up and decided I'd take a day off. I'd just sit around and read comics all day or something. I like to research comics of the 50s, the Comics Code Authority, Seduction of the Innocent...all that crap. I came across the iconic Phantom Lady #17 cover:

And I decided to remake this cover with Silk in it instead:

I hope you like it!

In fact, I hope you like it enough to buy it. For $150, I will give you the original artwork (brush and ink on 100 lb. vellum, 11"x17"), a nice glossy full-color 11"x17" print (like you see above), and a surprise. Or two or three.

I will ship to anywhere on the North American continent for five bucks. For other continents, we'll have to talk, but it's mostly so I don't cause you any import troubles.

Here is a scan of the inks:

Good for dorm rooms, bachelor pads, Man Caves, Basements With Bars and Pool Tables...whatever. Can be hung from ceiling over crib of baby boy to insure proper testosterone development.

It really has a thousand and one uses. Get ahold of me!

Send an email to indigoshift at gmail dot com if you love Silk and want her in your house forever.

And you know you do.

UPDATE: This image is sold! Thanks to everyone for checking it out.

Locus, Year Three

2010-10-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

At the end of October, Locus Year Two will draw to a close. The end of Issue 12 is the end of a lot of things, and the beginning of a lot more. To understand this fully, you need to understand Locus from Day One. If you've been a fan since the beginning, this is all review to you--although I will be telling you behind-the-scenes stuff I've never told you before.

If you're a new fan, take a moment to look busy at your Day Job and give the following a read:

LOCUS YEAR ONE

The mantra from the beginning of this project has been "Locus Is An Experiment". Any scientist will tell you that the early experiments always end in failure and/or disappointment. Experimentation is, essentially, the process of fucking up until you can't fuck up anymore. I know that everyone likes a success story, and I know that everyone loves an instant success story full of triumphs and devoid of failures.

But that's not the way the world works, and you know it.

Locus Year One began because I was the first person in history to write, draw, color and letter an official Kiss comic all by myself. I may hold that record for a long time, although I'm sure I won't hold it forever.

Kiss 4K was a good gig. It was a fun gig. I didn't do as good a job on it as someone else would have, but I will always be grateful for the learning experience. K4K was an experiment, too. An experiment in reader interaction. And it was fun to work on a comic promoted by Gene Simmons. It was also fun to walk right up to Paul Stanley and shake his hand. That man is Living Cool. He is The Breeze.

When the Kiss gig dried up, I found myself with a hole in my life. A M/W/F schedule with nothing to update! So I relaunched an old title called "Locus". My friend DJ Coffman put in a good word with me over on Keenspot, and his friend Chris Crosby agreed to host Locus for her first year.

Locus Year One ended both in mild success and mild failure. That wasn't Chris Crosby's fault. Wasn't Keenspot's fault. Wasn't Locus' fault, either. It was the fault of the ad networks.

I live in a country run by loud, belligerent, lily-livered assclowns who think it's their right to tell everyone what is acceptable and what is not. Some of these assholes run ad networks, and they want nothing to do with Boobs, Blood and Bad Language (tm). There is a line you quite simply Do Not Cross, and that line is called "PG-13".

And if you're in agreement with that mindset, fuck you. You're wrong. Here's why:

These morons will tell you that nudity is evil. Breasts should be taboo and hidden. Ladies, what do you really think about someone you've never met insisting that a natural and life-giving part of your body is dirty and evil? Your breasts have been taboo-ed to the point where you are treated like sexual objects every single time your breasts are even slightly noticeable. I think it's fuckin' retarded.

These are the same idiots that tell you stoners are more dangerous than alcoholics. It's the same fear-mongering and the same flawed logic. For fuck's sake, people! One of the first things you ever saw in your life was a tit. And not just any tit...this was your momma's tit. And what did you do with this tit? You put your mouth over it and sucked for all you were worth.

Tits aren't evil. Humans are mammals and mammals are amazing because mammals give nutrients from their own bodies to feed their young. It's a miracle of life and a crown of evolutionary achievement.

And that (believe it or not) was Locus Year One: The Crusade for Understanding. The fans got it. The Crosbys got it, too. But the ad network ass-wipes were too afraid. Anything that robs those penny-pinching dickheads of even a dime scares the hell out of them.

They took it out on Keenspot, and Keenspot was forced to push Locus to the back of the room. I couldn't live back there, so I left.

LOCUS YEAR TWO

Locus Year Two is when I moved over to my friend Matt Jacobs' comic site, Needcomics--which later became Wevolt.

Matt's a bright guy. He and I met in the Platinum/Kiss 4K days, and he's still a good friend. Matt said he wanted to make Locus a success, and he busted his ass night and day--every day--for a whole year.

I know a lot of you guys didn't like Wevolt, but Wevolt's problems were also Keenspot's problems. Namely: Locus vs the Ad Network Assholes. Believe it or not, everything unfortunate that happened at Wevolt was (directly or indirectly) the fallout from Ad Network Assholes balking at Locus.

I only found this out two days ago, otherwise I would've told you sooner!

Matt had a lot of sweet ad revenue lined up for Wevolt, but every time those ad dicks saw that Locus was the flagship title, they all got wide-eyed and scared and rubbing their hands together all sweaty and shit. They backed out, like the chickenshit idiots they are. I have no respect for people like that. Fuck them all.

I have nothing but love and respect for Matt. In fact, Matt wanted to redesign the whole Wevolt business model to accommodate Locus! Can you believe that? A hell of a guy, Matt Jacobs.

But that's not something I thought was a good idea for him or his project. There are plenty of great comics on Wevolt that would benefit from standard ad revenue options. Why piss in everyone's punch just to keep Locus around? That's no good.

So, as Locus Year Two draws to a close, I would like to announce that Locus will be moving again. And I don't wanna hear no griping this time! Here's why:

LOCUS YEAR THREE

Starting November 1, 2010, Locus will be on her own site. I will have total and direct control over everything, and the things I have planned will be the things Locus fans have been asking for throughout Year Two.

There will be pinups. There will be a fan club. There will be cool little extras and sneak-peeks into my studio, my working process, and my previous attempts at Locus--some of which date back to the mid-90s.

Lots of this will be free. Some of it you will have to pay for. But every penny you spend will be worth it, because I'm not going to go with some generic Webcomic Fan Boy template. The only way for Locus to succeed is for me to pick and choose everything carefully. I will be building a custom experience here. You will get this treatment nowhere else. Your time spent on Locus will be unique.

Ads, for instance. There are people and businesses that would love to advertise on Locus. I know that's true. I've seen like-minded people and kindred spirits all over the internet! They're other artists, musicians, writers, tattoo artists...people like you and me are everywhere. We're all sitting around wishing that the world wasn't dominated by Disney and McDonald's and family-friendly and all-ages and all that kiddie bullshit. We're fuckin' adults! We want monsters and tits and blood and suspense and violence and sex and action!

I will be searching for these kindred souls as potential sponsors and/or supporters of Locus. So even the ads will be part of the Awesome.

You can help me, too...the way you've always helped. Bring more like-minded people to Locus. Spread the word! Not to everyone; just those who Get It.

Speaking of like-minded kindred spirits...

I won't be doing this alone. There are other webcomic-makin' people that I will be in cahoots with. Others who don't fit the standard "fat, bickering nerd" (FBN) stereotype of webcomic creator. Let's leave the Scott Kurtzes of the world to their own little corner of the intertron. That shit is working great for those guys, and more power to them. Good for you guys! You Made It.

But fuck that scene. Locus is all about tits and blood and beer and flame jobs on hot rods and extra jalapenos on EVERYTHING. And I will be in cahoots with other webcomic artists who are also sick of that sad old FBN scene. That shit is ten years out of date, at the least. None of that old shit for Locus! I'll be working with DJ Coffman and Raven Perez to make Locus Year Three the ass-kickinest year ever.

Now, I'm not going to be collaborating with them on shared projects here. When I say "working with", I'm not talking about what you think I'm talking about. This is all behind-the-scenes stuff that will make all our comics standalone successes. Raven has a great property in Raven's Dojo, which I feel is the sister comic to Locus. And DJ is launching something big very soon--as with everything related to DJ, it will be exciting. You will be hearing a lot from me about Raven's and DJ's projects, and they will be talking about Locus as well.

IN CONCLUSION (FINALLY)

Wow. That was a lot of talk. What does it all mean for you, the Locus Fan?

It means that I'm at a point in my experimentation where the test tubes don't blow up the whole lab anymore. Those of you who have been around since the beginning will be happy, because this is the year all your waiting for me to get my shit together finally pays off. Haaa!

I have big things planned for Year Three. I have a new and interesting way I'll be doing things, and much of it will be new to webcomics in general. I will be introducing these ideas slowly, and I will be giving credit where credit is due, because a lot of these ideas aren't mine. I didn't sit down and magically dream up the Be-All and End-All of Locus Success by myself. I've been fortunate enough to have friends in this field who are willing to share ideas behind the scenes with their friends, and I will be taking the ideas that are the best way to give you guys the Locus stuff you've been asking for all last year.

But I'm just telling you this. Stick around and let me show you. It'll be fun, I promise.

Whether or not you stick around is up to you. I'm glad you were here as long as you were. When I said my fans are my friends, I meant it. The Locusts, The Locultists, and the Howlin' Monkeys.

You are all my friends, and I love you all. Thanks for sticking around up till now, and I hope you dig Year Three.

Locus Issue 12, Page 19

2010-10-17T21:03:00.001-07:00

Wevolt's down again, so here's Page 19. Sorry, guys.

Locus: Issue 12, Page 13

2010-10-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Wevolt.com is experiencing technical difficulties today, so here is today's page:

And the accompanying Author's Notes--stripped of links, since they're all links that are on Wevolt as well:

It's our friend, Dr Wells! This is the last we'll be seeing of the good doctor for awhile--his part of this story is nearly done for now.

I hope that this dialogue helps out those of you who feel like you're missing some plot points. If you have questions, leave me a comment!

I skimped a bit in that top panel, but I originally was going to color it a different way. That way turned out way too dark so I did a hasty and last-minute repaint up there, and it still isn't right.

I'm busy right now. Soooo busy. I'm writing three comics for you guys at this point! And I realize this is the first you've heard of this, so let me explain:

I'm working on a crossover with James Riot and Barry Linck, both of whom have awesome comics of their own. The Path and Phineus: Magician for Hire are both on Wevolt, and they're a lot of fun to read.

This crossover is called Wevolt Trinity, or just "Trinity" to its friends. It will have Locus, Phineus Beam and Chance McGavin flying down to Antarctica to visit the Mountains of Madness. Now, I've already shown you the Mountains of Madness in Locus--that's where Isaac was just recently. So the Trinity comic is definitely a canonical Locus story. Trinity, in fact, takes place before Locus Issue 1. She will look a little different and act a little different. Oh, and Spook will be there.

That's the second comic I'm doing. It will update daily for awhile. We're fiddling with a new format that makes it easier to update more often. If you guys like the look of Trinity, let me know and I'll do Locus the same way. I'll even update it 5 days a week--I can do it at that format.

So go check out that comic and let me know what you think of it.

The third comic I'm writing for you is something I've been kicking around forever. It's the story of how Spook and Silk first met in the Wild West. It's also the story of how Spook's gun came to be made.

I grew up on spaghetti westerns and old issues of Jonah Hex, Weird War and EC reprints. This comic will have a little of all of those things in it.

I'm making it as an incentive to join the fan club I haven't set up yet. So you might not see it for awhile, but I'm working on it.

And finally, my friend Murch has decided to make his own Wevolt site, and will be publishing prose there. So you guys go give Murch Writes a look and keep your eye on him. He's writing a while novel over there!

Jack Kirby was amazing

2010-08-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

Read this:

If that's not the most epic thing you've read this year, you're lyin!

I'm moving!

2010-05-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

For the few of you who follow this, I should tell you that I'm moving this week, and won't be online for at least the rest of this month. Today is, in fact, my last day of internet access for awhile.

It's a long move and I'm an old man, so I really want to just get this move done with and then relax at Hambone's house for a couple of days. I will be taking a few days off to celebrate finally getting out of the goddamned desert. I've been wanting to move since I got here almost five years ago, so I will be doing a lot of celebrating. :)

If you don't hear from me for awhile, that's why. See you on the other side!

Frank Frazetta passed away today

2010-05-10T13:32:00.001-07:00

Frazetta was easily one of the greatest artists of all time. Unlike other fantasy painters, he managed to capture a raw brutality and savage movement in everything he did.

Unfortunately, Mr Frazetta passed away today after a stroke. He lived a long and full 82 years.

I never met him, but I'm gonna miss the hell out of him.

Morality and Censorship

2010-04-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Let's talk a minute about morality, censorship, and the Brave Souls who constantly fight "The Good Fight" to keep our young-un's wholesome and on the path of Righteousness. I will do this by talking about a new video game!

Below are some screenshots taken from the game's website. Most of them come from the teaser movies on the site. Let's take a look at a girl who keeps popping up in these scenes.

Hell of an outfit, girl! She's rockin' some serious stripper boots, a very short skirt, a corset and a choker. Let's get a close-up:

Daaaaamn! Nice cleavage. Wanna see more? Of course you do!

Another shot of those sexy stripper boots:

This girl has some serious DSL:

If you don't know what "DSL" means, ask around! I learned the phrase from a drag queen about 10 years ago. Hint: The "L" stands for "Lips". ;)

And I've saved the best for last:

WOW. I'm not one for falling in love with video game characters (especially video game characters that look like they were made with Poser), but you gotta admit...that's pretty sexalicious.

Now I have a question for you: Would you let your pre-teen son play a game with this girl in it? How about your daughter? What would seeing this character do to your little girl's self-esteem?

Think about that a minute. Done? Good. Now let's talk about this game...

This is an all-ages, family-friendly video game called Heaven. That's right. Heaven!

In this game, you play a guy named Joshua. Joshua dies, but because he's a good boy, he goes to heaven. While in heaven, he meets this girl. She's his grandmother.

HIS GRANDMOTHER.

Here's a direct quote from the website:

Q: Is this Biblical?

A: YES! All the ideas came directly from the Bible.

Okay...I've read the Bible cover-to-cover three (almost four) times in my life, and I don't recall any passage that says your dear ol'Granny will spend eternity in Heaven as Angelic Stripper Barbie. Someone point it out to me. I must have missed it.

"Okay, Adam," you're asking, "what's your fucking point?" This is my fucking point:

I see a difference here, but I don't see that much difference.

Parents are gonna buy this game for their kids, too. Because it's wholesome and wonderful and full of religiousy goodness. The Moms who buy this for their kids are gonna be the same Moms who complain about Rated R moves, but take their kids to see Pirates of the Carribean so they can drool over Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.

Hey, Mom! When you catch your son touching himself inappropriately while sitting in front of the computer, make sure he's looking at internet porn, and not Heaven: The Game before you beat his ass in the Name Of The Lord. ;)

Moral of the story: You're no better than I am. I'm just honest about what I like.

Locus now a part of Outland Entertainment!

2010-04-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Press release can be found here.

Nothing I can talk about in detail just yet, but it's all good news. I'm stoked!

Stay tuned! Awesome stuff coming later this summer-ish.

Good News, Bad News, and Rock & Roll!

2010-03-23T00:50:00.000-07:00

I have good news and bad news. Everyone wants to hear bad news first, so here you go:

I'm not taking any more commissions until after June. I'm embarrassingly behind on everyone's artwork as it is, and now I have a lot of Real-Life stuff to deal with as well. Namely, the Big Move. I'll be moving out of Arizona in a couple months, and the preparations have been murder. A 1300-mile move is difficult in the best of times, and in these Crappy Economy Times, it's even more hectic. Whee!

For everyone who is currently waiting for artwork, thanks for your patience. I'm working on your art, I swear! It's just been slow going lately.

Of course, Locus will still update M/W/F. Nothing short of my death or near-death will stop that.

And now, the Good News:

I will indeed be printing up 11"x17" posters of the cover to Locus, Issue Nine. However, these will be limited edition posters. I'm only making 50 of them, and they will be signed and numbered. Cost will be $10 each, plus $2 for shipping (in North America) or $5 anywhere else. I haven't announced this formally until now, and there's already a list of people waiting for me to print these things up. So get on the list now! They're first-come, first-served.

Send me an email (indigoshift@gmail.com) with "Locus #9 Poster" in the subject line so I can add you to the list.

I should have these printed up and ready to ship in the next couple of weeks.

Finally:

An old project that got shelved two years ago has been moved from the back burner. I met Cockpit at Wizard World LA in 2008, and we decided to work together on something cool and fun which I can't talk about just yet. The project got shelved because we all got way too busy, but we're kicking it into gear again. So stay tuned! It's an exciting project.

Hampstead and Xel'Duum

2010-02-27T16:51:00.001-08:00

I really got into Crack the Skye by Mastodon after seeing them in concert back in November. One of my favorite parts about this album is that Rasputin is in it.

Rasputin is also in my comic, Locus, under the name of Wilfred Hampstead. So, of course, I got thinking about Hampstead while I was listening to the album, and came up with this:

Colored version looks like this:

Such is the art that comes out of my hand when I'm listening to awesome southern rock/metal/whatever on endless repeat for a month or two.

Locus Issue 8, Page 22

2010-02-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

Woke up to an unpleasant surprise this morning: Needcomics.com--the domain that hosts Locus--is down. Argh!

For the forseeable future (hopefully not too long) I'll be putting new Locus pages up here. So be sure to check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Here's today's page:

You'll need an account at Blogger to post comments, unfortunately, but if you have said account, feel free to comment and talk my ear off!

All this has me worried about Matt, who owns Needcomics and Panelflow. I haven't heard from him in a couple weeks, and I'm a little worried about him.

EDIT:

She's back online at her regular haunt. Total downtime was less than four hours or so, which doesn't bug me at all. And I'm glad Matt didn't die in a fiery car crash or something! :)

Locus Trade Paperback #1!

2010-01-26T07:41:00.001-08:00

It took me a long time to get the first three issues of Locus collected in one book--a lot longer than I'd planned. But it's finally done! And it's an impressive book, if I do say so myself.

TPB01 collects the first three issues, all 12 pages of bonus artwork (which are available in the individual issues), 16 pages of the original Locus comic (which was online briefly in 2001), three all-new covers, and one future cover you've never seen before (because I needed something for the back cover). It's 104 pages and a quarter-inch thick!

Even better: you can order it online yourself (by visiting this site) or you can get it from your friendly local comic shop (by giving this link to your comic shop owner). I make a little more on the "order it online yourself" version, but feel free to grab it any way you like!

I'll have news on the second trade paperback in a month or two.

Issue Six of Locus now in print

2010-01-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

Finally! Issue Six is now available in print form. Grab your copy here.

I'm also working furiously to get caught up on private commissions and free comics for those who are kind enough to donate. You can read about this free comic deal here.

Finally, I created one of those movie-style trailers for Locus. It took me about a half hour, so it's nothing too special. Just me learning the ropes. I'll be making a better one as time permits. You can see my very first comic trailer on YouTube.

My very special thanks to Cockpit for the use of their song, "Shot in Hell". I'm told that the cowbell used in that song is the very same one used by Tommy Lee when Motley Crue recorded Shout At The Devil. I have no reason to disbelieve this, so click that YouTube link (and that Cockpit link) and bask in the rock & roll history!

End of year update

2009-12-22T13:58:00.001-08:00

This year has been crazy. Locus has gotten away from me--it's like a bucking bronco and I'm hanging on for dear life, I swear. I'm still behind on a few commissions, and I still haven't sent off free copies of issues Four and Five to the people who won them through donating to the comic. Hell, I haven't even checked my Paypal account to see who's won a free copy of Issue Five yet!

I'm sorry about that. Busy busy busy. Locus is more work than I've ever dealt with at once, and that includes the days when I was doing M/W/F updates for Kiss 4K while simultaneously holding down a 50-hour per week Day Job! I've turned down three other comic/graphic novel gigs this year, including one that I really was looking forward to. There just wasn't time! Locus is becoming my full-time job.

Anyway, Issue Six has just been submitted to Ka-Blam, and should be available on Indyplanet.com soon. I'll be spending the week after Christmas getting my shit in one sock (as my father-in-law likes to say) so I can make 2010 a great year for Locus fans.

One of the things I'm working on is cutting a whole issue out of the "Unveiled" storyline. It was originally going to run six issues, but it turns out I'm not the only one who has been missing Locus while this story's been running. So I'm considering rewriting the end so that issues Eight and Nine are compressed into one big finish. If I do it right, we'll get to see Locus two months earlier than previously planned, which is good. I've been sketching out new bad guys and new plot twists for months now, and it'll be good to get them out of my head and in front of your eyes sooner than expected.

The new story (which starts with Issue Nine) will have much more action and ass-kicking than Unveiled had, and that's because I've laid down most of the groundwork with Unveiled, which leaves me more room to write some action and horror. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

This is my last blog post before January (probably) so I wanna wish you guys a great holiday season. Whatever you're celebrating this time of year, I hope you have a great time.

And thanks for making this year so fucking awesome. It's been a lot of fun, despite all the bucking and hanging-on. Let's meet up and do it again next year, okay?

As Pinhead likes to say, "I have such sights to show you," and it all starts in March of 2010, once Unveiled is finished.

Locus & Spook Private Commission

2009-12-09T19:57:00.000-08:00

Ralph V from Belgium (one of many Belgian Locus fans) asked for a private commission featuring Locus and Spook. This is what I came up with.

Nothin' fancy. Just a little attitude from our girl and her crazy uncle.

If you would like a private commission as well, drop me a line! My email is indigoshift at gmail dot com, and I've got some slots free this month.

So treat yourself or someone you love to some original artwork! Doesn't have to be Locus-related, either. I'll draw just about anything. :)

Bat Loaf!

2009-11-06T14:26:00.001-08:00

He's the Bard out of Hell. The only D&D character to own a Flying V lute and pray to Sammy Hagar.

I didn't make him up, but I sure wish I did. No, Bat Loaf is a character I first read about over on Stupid Ranger almost a year ago, and asked Matt (who blogs there) if I could draw this awesome character.

The lady with the Lita Ford chaps is his wife, Niann; the baby is their son, Tarrasque Loaf--so named because he was conceived on the back of the Tarrasque.

Is that awesome or what? I'm going to try and find some time to do a few more Bat Loaf pieces, but I make no guarantees at present.

In any case, throw up the Horns!

Locus is moving!

2009-10-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

My thanks to the Crosbys for hosting my Crazy Titty Comic on Keenspot for a whole year.

However, I'm moving Locus over to my buddy Matt's comic hosting site. You can find Locus here.

All pages are up, and there are character bios, forums, an RSS feed, and all that other stuff I couldn't get working right on Keenspot, because I'm an idiot. ;)

So update your bookmarks! And tell all your friends.

I killed a bunch of (imaginary) people today...

2009-09-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

Going through a lot of old art folders and sketchbooks, and came upon an old, old folder full of weird characters from a strange Heavy Metal-ish story I used to tinker with about fifteen years ago. Lots of science-fiction and super-hero type stuff...the kind of stuff I'm completely disinterested in at this point.

It wasn't anything published, mind you--just some stuff I used to doodle and daydream about.

The artwork itself was awful, and the concepts and ideas were pretty much ripped off from anything and anyone. You know...the kind of crap you do when you're in your early 20s. ;)

I've been toting this stuff around for almost 20 years, because I threw a bunch of art away when I was 22, and regretted doing so. Told myself I'd never do it again.

However, looking through some of this crap...well, it's just embarrassing. So I took out some pieces I was still fond of, and ran the rest through the shredder.

It felt odd, but not bad. Like I was closing a door I never planned on opening again.

All told, there were about nine or ten characters from this old folder who I'll never see again. That sounds very melancholy, but it's not. All the good ones survived, and I may end up sticking them in a Locus comic a few years down the road.

It's good, every now and then, to trim the fat from your life. Helps you focus on the things you want to develop some more.

I feel 10 years younger and 10 pounds lighter somehow. :)

RockIt Queen

2009-08-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

Here's another commission, from Stacey during the latest Facebook Comic Con. It's her character, the RockIt Queen. It pretty much has everything I like to draw in it, and was lots of fun. Thanks, Stacey!

Commission!

2009-08-18T22:16:00.001-07:00

It's always fun to take a break once in awhile and do some OPA*. Case in point:

The cool thing about this one is that I ended up adjusting my inking and coloring style to something a little better-looking that what I've been doing for Locus Issue Five. And that's always a good thing!

Stay tuned! I have another commission I'll be putting up in a day or two.

*OPA=Other People's Art. ;)

Locus #4 now in print!

2009-08-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

You can grab a copy here.

Also (in case you didn't know already), issue 5 is online, free to read, and already half-over! Start reading it here.

I'm also currently putting together the first Locus Trade Paperback, which will collect the first three issues of the comic. It will have a lot of extra artwork in it, including all new covers for the three issues, all the gallery artwork in the back of the individual print issues, and 16 pages of rare art from the first Locus webcomic I did, way back in 2001.

Currently, it's weighing in at about 106 pages. It's gonna be grand.

Stay tuned! I'll let you know once it's up for sale.

S/Lay W/Me

2009-07-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

It's nice to take a break from comic-makin' and get back to RPG illustration every now and then.

My good friend, Ed Heil, pointed me to Ron Edwards' "S/Lay W/Me", which is an awesome game. He'll be selling this game at GenCon next month, so if you're going, grab a copy! It's lots of fun.

I did six pieces for this game, two of which are below. You'll have to look at the game to see the other four.

Ed did some art for the game, too. I love his style. He's like the 21st century Vaughn Bode.

Vacation sketches, Part 1

2009-07-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my yearly "Get the Hell out of Arizona" trip--up to my friend Hambone's place.

We ate a lot of good food, played a lot of Rock Band (I'm the drummer), and every single time I went out back for a smoke, I walked barefoot in the grass. It felt great.

Also during this time, I drew some sketches in my trusty travel sketchbook. I'll be sharing the better sketches with you as I find the time to scan them in.

First up is our heroine, Locus:

And here she is again, in color:

I really like the way this one turned out.

Some Tal artwork

2009-06-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

So, I was wondering the other day how some Tal art would look in the art style I'm currently using, and this is the result:

Here it is in black and white:

If you'd like to use it for personal use--like a character sheet or something--knock yourself out!

I'f you'd like to put it on a website, I'd appreciate a shoutout and a link to Locus (which is NSFW!).

Thanks for checking it out! It was a lot of fun to do.

Locus #3 now in print!

2009-05-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Looks like Issue Three is now up for sale over at Indyplanet. Click here to get your own copy!

Also: JP Morgan, the creator of Fission Chicken, has created a real-life t-shirt based upon the one I drew Spook wearing during Isaac's funeral in Issue Four. You can get your own FC shirt here. It's so awesome. I'm gonna get one as soon as I'm able.

Quick Locus updates

2009-05-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone's getting their Locus news from this neglected blog, here are a couple of updates:

Locus #3 (which you can read online starting here) has been sent to the printers as of five minutes ago. Sorry for the wait!

Also, my first Locus-related t-shirt design has been created and mailed and is on its way to me. Once I get it, I'll put up some photos of it. I'm really excited about it, as is my wife--it's her shirt. She insisted.

Finally: Locus #4 is in full swing over on Keenspot! Head on over there and read it for free! Issue four starts here.

New t-shirt design for Cockpit

2009-05-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Cockpit! I love this band. A shit-ton of talent and real nice people to boot. They're the kind of friends you brag about to your other friends, because they're so goddamned cool.

They needed a new t-shirt design. Unfortunately, I didn't get it to them before their month-long tour started in April. I had this miserable molar in my mouth and I was barely keeping up on Locus. Sorry, Cockpit. :(

I got it done, though:

It was lots of fun.

I'm working on something else with Cockpit right now, but they asked me not to tell you what it is.

And that's killing me right now.

This project is so cool...oh, man. Stay tuned! I'm gonna blab all about it the microsecond they tell me it's okay.

Locus #4: It's Early!

2009-04-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

Issue Four of Locus is going online a little early. Check it out!

Album artwork--interior

2009-04-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm working with Necropharmacon right now, creating art for their new CD, the upcoming "Prisoner of Experience". This is the art that will go on the inside:

Difficult to draw (especially without using any references whatsoever) but a lot of fun to ink, and a breeze to color. I'm still trying to work out coloring in a subtle, more realistic manner...I just have so much fun with the more in-your-face style of coloring.

Classical Painter I ain't. :)

Locus Issue Two now in print!

2009-03-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

That's right! You can now grab a hard copy of Issue Two by clicking here!

Why would you want to do that, if you can just read it for free online? I'm glad you asked!

Each print version comes with four extra pages of sketches and notes. Issue One, for example, had a number of sketches showing the evolution of Locus from her early days up to the pinup I drew when I decided to start the comic.

For Issue Two, however, I've included four pages of artwork featuring everyone's favorite uncle, Spook! You'll get to see the earliest surviving sketch of Shen'to Bana'i, drawn way back in summer of 1991. You'll also get to see the "Batman: The Animated Series" version of Spook, as well as the infamous "Disney Spook".

But the best part of the print version of Issue Two is this: I've included a full page from the original comic (done back in the mid-90s) featuring Spook's very first (visible) appearance. Note that this issue never saw print, and so this will be the first time anyone's ever seen this page.

You know you want it! Everyone loves Spook, and you do, too. :)

Bloodrayne

2009-03-29T14:42:00.001-07:00

This is my second-to-last commission from the Facebook Comic Con a couple of weekends ago. I was given a choice between Bloodrayne and someone I'd never heard of before, so I chose Bloodrayne. :)

Thanks to Stacey for the commission, and especially for her patience while I get over this tooth stuff.

No more toothache!

2009-03-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

I got my tooth pulled yesterday and woke up this morning without any pain whatsoever for the first time in about six months. It's great!

It's also nice to be off the codeine. That stuff was seriously messing with my head. I didn't even know what day it was.

As a result, I have a lot of work to catch up on.

Toothache!

2009-03-18T16:29:00.001-07:00

This is one of those stereotypical blog entries, where I post something mundane about my personal life. I normally don't like that sort of thing, but this ties in directly to the artwork, so I feel it's warranted.

I have a bad molar--top one on the right side, all the way in the back. It fucking HURTS, too. Oh, man. I finally went in to see the new dentist today, and it looks like it needs to be yanked. Which will be good. I'm sick of this tooth.

I waited about six months to get it looked at because my old dentist...ugh. I'm never going back there again. I never even met the dentist. I had to deal with this girl who scraped my teeth while talking down to me like I was five years old. She was a bitchy little thing. Drove me nuts.

Hell, the first time I went in, she started up on me for stupid shit. Then they took x-rays and all that, then told me to come back for cleaning and maintenance and whatever. So, I went back, and they took x-rays AGAIN. Way to game the system, kids. Charging me twice for redundant shit. I swear.

So, I said "fuck it" and decided to stay away from the dentist altogether. When it got to the point where I couldn't even eat, sleep or walk around, I buckled down and found a new dentist.

This new guy is great. He's a crotchety old man, like Doc Cottle from Galactica. It's hilarious.

"Well, we can try to save that tooth, but you can see how it's all loose and has all that empty space around it. I could send you to a periodontist, but he'll just charge you for a root canal and probably pull that tooth anyway. I'd rather just pull it next week and be done with it."

(read that to yourself in Doc Cottle's voice, and you'll get a good idea of where I was an hour ago)

I've been taking too much aspirin over the last week or two, so he can't pull the tooth till next week. In the interim, I have a prescription for codeine to tide me over until Yanking Day.

Ah, codeine. I love codeine. It's wonderful stuff. The last time I was on codeine was when I had my ingrown toenails operated on waaaay back around 1992-ish. I was so delerious from pain afterwards that I mixed up my dosages for codeine and the antibiotics I was taking. Ended up accidentally doubling my codeine dosage, and spent the next 14 hours (or so) in a strange, strange world of my own. I spent the whole time sitting in the recliner, drawing one picture.

It completely changed my art style, too. For the better. I haven't drawn the same since that day.

So...here I sit with a codeine prescription in my pocket, which I will be filling tonight. I doubt I'll double the dosage, but it'll be nice to not hurt so bad for a change. Six months of this shit is enough.

Eden

2009-03-15T18:21:00.003-07:00

I've been meaning to finish this one for ages now. So here you go! Locus' mother, Eden.

15-Minute Masterpiece: Spook City

2009-02-26T19:45:00.001-08:00

This took me 15 minutes to pencil and ink. Just goofing off while taking a break from designing the cover to Issue Three of Locus.

I do so many of these little 15-minute goof-off pictures that my wife said I should start putting them online. So here you go!

Eden on Bed

2009-02-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

Here's a little sneak-peek at a side project I'm working on. This is a picture of Locus' mother, Eden.

Enjoy!

Fooling around with face-recognition software

2009-02-19T12:24:00.001-08:00

I should be working today, but I had to play around with this "which celebrity do you look like" application.

I uploaded some pictures of myself and got some very strange results. Then I uploaded a couple pictures of my wife (she wanted to play, too) and it only recognized two of the four pictures of her. I guess it doesn't like profiles.

Then, my wife suggested I try it with a picture of Emily the Strange (this picture, in fact), but it didn't recognize a face at all.

Which isn't surprising--that's a very basic representation of a human face.

Well, this got me to thinking...what would my very own comic-book heroine Locus look like?

I submitted this picture:

And again, it didn't recognize a face at all.

So I started thinking about colors and such, but especially file size. I did a quick, 10-minute sketch of Locus in a straight-on, boring face shot. The kind of thing she'd have on her driver's license:

(note that these drawings are all scanned in at full color and 300dpi, in order to give the recognition software more data to work with)

I wasn't expecting it to recognize a thing, but it did! It gave some interesting matches, too:

Now I was getting interested in how this thing worked. It actually picked up some quick and sloppy pencil work. What would it do with old-school black & white inks?

Here's what it gave back to me after thinking about it for a minute or so:

At this point, I was having a lot of fun. The next logical step was color. Nothing fancy--I should be working, after all. So I stuck some quick flats behind the inks.

(If you've never heard the term, "flats" means a flat base color which a colorist uses to block off major shapes for coloring later)

Note that these are the base flats I use to color Locus in the comic.

And here's what the software spit back out:

Very interesting.

I decided to do a quick coloring job--just modeling the forms as quickly as I could. I really didn't spend more than five or six minutes on this. Used a lot of Color Dodge (brush set at 19%). It's nasty-looking, but this is what I ended up with:

The software couldn't recognize a face anymore. It must've been the awful job I did on the left side of the face (her right side, if that makes more sense to you). I really didn't do that cheekbone right.

It also might've been the inks, I thought. All that weird cross-hatching might've made sense to the program when it was just black and white or flatly-colored. So I touched it up a bit and removed the inks altogether. I also added a very basic gradient background to sort of half-ass show where the light was coming from. I figured I'd help the software out a little that way.

And again: this isn't a very good piece of art. I'm experimenting here--trying to see how this thing thinks--not trying to make an actual portrait.

Besides, I really should be working right now. :)

I uploaded the inkless Locus and...it recognized her face again! Here's what it gave back to me:

At that point, I realized it was getting late in the day and I should knock it off and get back to work.

This was a fun experiment. Educational, too. Note the duplicates:

Jessica Simpson showed up in the pencil and ink results, with 66% match for the pencils and 66% (again) for the inks.

Aishwariya Rai shows up with a 70% match with the pencils, but disappears from the results until I put flat colors behind the inks. Then she returns at a 68% match.

Alicia Silverstone matches the inks at 67%, and the flat-colored inks at 73%.

The final image (as terrible as it looks) manages to match with Billie Piper and Helena Bonham Carter, which is interesting. I never noticed Locus bearing a resemblance to either of those two ladies, but now that I look at it...

Then again, that final image "matches" some very weird photos--like that black & white almost-profile of Oscar Wilde.

At some point, I think I'll try this again--but not till I have more time to do a better job. Something painterly, maybe. Who knows?

Also: I really want to try this with Spook now. Really bad. :)

Locus Issue One now in print!

2009-02-13T15:19:00.001-08:00

Hopefully, you've been following the webcomic I've been putting my heart and soul into since November of 2008--that little ditty called "Locus", whose tagline is "Boobs, Blood and Bad Language". If not, click here!

Issue One is now up on Indyplanet.com, and includes all 24 pages, plus 4 more pages of never-before-seen Locus concept art, some of it going back years.

Click here to get your own copy, and to help keep your favorite starving artist up to his armpits in ramen and mac & cheese. :)

Old Talislanta art

2009-01-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

So, I was digging through the stacks and bins and boxes of old art in my studio this weekend, in order to find some old Locus art, and I stumbled upon some old Tal art instead.

Well, technically, it's Midnight Realm art, but you get the idea.

I honestly don't remember why I didn't send this off to ShootingIron. It might've been because Rich Wallace was doing the Zoab, and had already done up versions of his own. Who can say anymore? It was six years ago, and I have trouble remembering last month.

Anyway, here you go:

2009

2009-01-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

Jeez, what a year last year, eh? I think everyone had a lousy time in one way or another. My wife's a pesonal banker, and I got to hear all sorts of horror stories about her clients. All my comic-makin' friends went through hell, too. What a mess 2008 turned out to be.

2009 is already shaping up to be a better year, though. I'll be finally getting to work on the graphic novelization of A Prophecy Forgotten, which will be fun. One or two other secret projects should be seeing the light of day this year as well. I also quit one of my projects--the graphic novelization for Yesterday Was A Lie. It just wasn't a good fit. I bowed out so they could find themselves a better artist. ;)

And then, of course, there's Locus, the personal project I've been dying to re-start since 2001 or so. It's already up to issue two, and the response has been great so far! Much better than I expected for a webcomic that only updates 3 days a week with the tagline "Boobs, Blood and Bad Language".

I'll be getting a print version ready in the next couple of weeks, as well as some merchandise like mini-posters, t-shirts...stuff like that.

As for conventions, I don't think I'll be spending much time at cons this year, but we'll see. I'll be back home for the Fourth of July (as always), and up in Halifax for another Kiss convention--although I'm going back more to show my wife how great Halifax is, as well as introduce her to all the new friends I made up there. I love Halifax. I wouldn't mind moving up there and living out the rest of my days.

I'm also considering hitting WW Texas this fall. My bud Mr Riot offered to let me crash at his hotel room, and he's such a crazy fun dude that it's gonna be hard to resist. But we'll see. Money and all that. You know how it is.

At any rate: big things are coming this year! I know everyone says that in their blogs around this time of the year, but it's true. I have a lot of weird and cool things in the pipe--videos, a live model dressed up as Locus...big things.

I'll be building them up slowly and carefully, though. Slow and steady and all that.

Now I gotta get back to work.

The Holy Crusade against the female breast

2008-12-30T16:28:00.000-08:00

I was raised by very conservative parents who happened to have a very European attitude towards nudity. I know that makes no sense, but such was my childhood. None of it made any godamned sense. I'll bet yours really didn't, either. Be honest.

Anyway, I was taught that a woman's breast was just another body part, and not something to be ashamed or afraid of. The same for genitals and everything else which can be summed up as "human anatomy". Now, this doesn't mean we all ran around the house buck-naked all day. But when one of us would accidentally walk into the bathroom to use the toilet, and catch Mom just coming out of the shower, there was no freaking out or shouting or religious penance or anything like that. It was just, "oops! Sorry, Mom!" and the door got shut and we stood outside the bathroom door doing the pee-pee dance till she was all done in there.

I was taught to never be ashamed of my body or its various parts, and I was taught to never be embarassed by the body parts of someone else. It was actually quite relaxing.

However, I live in a country run by and populated primarily with childish retards. To prove it, all I have to say to you are two words: "Wardrobe Malfunction".

This is why I can't post my artwork on Myspace or Facebook, for example. Facebook has even gone so far as to ban photos of breastfeeding.

Why, Facebook? Why?

Yes, the same retarded social networking site that gave us all those fun and exciting apps and games which send us those lovely "Hey! Someone vampired your vampire's werewolf! Bite that chump and give them a beer!" emails EVERY FUCKING DAY have now decided that pictures of mothers feeding children is now the same as porn.

OH NOEZ NOT TEH PRON!!!!! OMG!!!

This is the point where the usual blogger calmly explains the error in this decision. I'm not even gonna bother. It's like trying to explain to someone that you shouldn't drive 80-penny nails through your nutsack or run over little children in the school zone.

It's just something you should be smart enough not to do already. Breastfeeding isn't porn, you dumb fucks!

Christ.

Okay, so maybe I'll use this site some more

2008-12-22T12:14:00.000-08:00

My website skills aren't what they should be. As such, my website never really gets updated. It occurred to me the other day that I should just slap a link on the site to lead you here, and just update this thing instead. Of course, I'm doing all this the week of Christmas, which means I won't really be doing all this till next week or the week after. Such is the way of things when you're me.

I have way too many sites to keep track of and keep updated. Way too many. Here's a partial list:

Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, ComicSpace, the Locus Forums, the Yirmumah Forums, the KissFanSite Forums, the Secret Identity Podcast forums, my deviantArt page, and probably about ten others I'm forgetting at the moment. Why do I do this to myself? Who knows.

At any rate, I think this is going to be my main page for awhile. Just long enough to see how it works out. I'll start by posting a picture:

That's right! This blog is gonna be full of monster girls with their boobs hangin' out. So don't read it from work.

Finally:

I'm in need of assistance. I have a number of weird little promotional projects for Locus that I'm trying to get done, but just don't have the time to learn to do. One of these projects is to make a fake movie trailer featuring art from the comic, set (in time) to music. If you know how to do something like that, let me know!

And, if you haven't read Locus, why the hell not? It's full of Boobs, Blood and Bad Language. Hell, she fights a trio of werewolves wearing nothing but jeans, boots and a pair of sunglasses. And just wait till we get full-swing into issue two! Locus' boobs aren't the only boobs we'll be seeing.

No, not really...

2007-07-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

This looks like the official blog of Monsters and Nekkid Ladies, doesn't it?

Well, it's not. Not really. I just figured I finally needed a blogger account, seeing as how I have some friends with blogs at this site, and I'm tired of posting replies to their stuff anonymously.

So, you won't be hearing about my daily thoughts here. Not that my daily thoughts are too terribly interesting. Because they're not.

Do, however, check out the links below. That's where all the real stuff's happening.

Monsters & Nekkid Ladies

KISS 4K: The Webcomic

MySpace site

Monsters & Nekkid Ladies Store