Q is for Quetzalcoatl

This piece is, in style and substance, kind of out of place in this set. It’s the only page so far with no background at all. Also, it’s more design-y than my other monsters, less representational. It shows a little more outside influence (traditional Aztec patterns, etc.) than most of my other pieces do. Substantially, it stands apart, too. Quetzalcoatl isn’t really a cryptid. No one believes that there are, or ever were, feathered serpents winging their way around Central America (though they do, weirdly, believe that Jesus or one of his apostles might have passed through)*. He’s not a monster out of folklore either. In fact, he’s a full-fledged god. Still, I though that this picture was too cool to compromise. Also, the pickings for Q were pretty slim.

I have been fascinated by Quetzcoatl ever since I listened to an “X-Files” book on tape about him during a childhood road trip to Florida. I’d love to give him the write-up he deserves, but I’m in such a rush to turn work out that I can’t sit still long enough to blog. Looming deadlines, conventions, and the demands of outside projects are driving me to do as much as I can in these next few months. Still, maybe in a quieter moment I’ll come back and write something about the feathered serpent.

* Legend has it that, in his human form, Quetzcoatl was a White man with a beard. This fact, along, I guess, with his promise of a repeat appearance at some unspecified future date, has lead some people (Mormons, particularly) to believe that Quetzlcoatl was actually Christ or one of his disciples. The two may have also had similar philosophies, I’m not sure. I’m also not sure how white Jesus and co. would have really been. However, after what would have been a pretty epic sea voyage, they would have been plenty bearded.

O is for Ogre

So, what do you guys think? I’ve got two versions of this Ogre drawing. One is more vibrant, and one is more subdued and a little bluer/greener. I’m posting my second-ever poll, so weigh in and help me decide which one to use! Elections in the People’s Republic of Paul are a lot like American political contests. You know the drill: pick your favorite from a list of only two candidates separated by a handful of barely discernible differences! May the best man win!

Which color scheme should I use?

(polls)

I is for Imp

This is basically a retread of a drawing I did a couple of years ago, but I think I was able to improve it, if only a little. I don’t have a lot to say about this imp, or any other, I guess. I’m fighting the compulsion to hold forth on every monster I draw, especially when I don’t know or care much about them. I will say, though, that this imp is monster number 15. I’ve got 11 more to draw (and quite a few more to write), but I’m basically on track to get this book done in time for a MoCCA debut!

U is for Unicorn

I’m not sure why I do this, but every time I draw a unicorn, I situate him in this weird cardboard world, where the clouds, sun etc. are suspended from wires and everything is obviously scenery. Maybe I do this because the unicorn seems so whimsical, so manufactured, that I can’t even imagine putting him into my flat, goofy version of the “Real World.” I don’t know.

Sometime, I’d also like to draw the Unicorn in its natural habitat, a little girl’s Trapper Keeper. That was one concept I considered for this page, but ultimately, it seemed too out of step with the overall look of the project. Still, it’d be fun. I could do him in highlighter on notebook paper, galloping around scratch work and games of MASH.

I’m pretty pleased with this picture. The color scheme really came out nicely. I’m also happy I found somewhere in this book to stuff a dragon. I knew I wanted to do “D is for Dybbuk,” so the dragon was not going to get its own page. I’m  glad that it at least gets to play a supporting role here. I’m enjoying the way the dragon and the unicorn are fighting. It reminds me, now that I can take a step back and really look at it, of all those Triceratops vs. T-Rex drawings you see in kids’ dinosaur books.

The only thing I’m not thrilled with in this picture are the mushrooms. I’m not sure why, but they just don’t quite do it for me.  I should have worked a little harder on them.

One finall thought on unicorns: Someone once told me that the whole unicorn myth came out of a mutation that occurs in deer, causing them to grow one stunted antler out of the middle of their foreheads. Apparently, this mutation was pretty common, but these deer, for whatever reason, became a hot commodity and were hunted ruthlessly, which basically led to this mutation being selected out. This might be true, but it’s also concievable that medieval man was capable of imagining a horse with a horn on it. It’s kind of weird the way we never give our ancestors any credit for creativity.

J is for Jersey Devil

Lucky number 13!

This is the halfway point, people. “Meet the Monsters: The Quirks of Creatures A-Z” is 50% finished. My other books are a little behind schedule, but I’m so glad to have one that’s moving along briskly.

Once these monster drawings are all done, I’ll have to re-post them along with their corresponding text. In the final version of the book, each monster will come with a little, all-too-human biography that explores their neuroses, obsessions, fears, etc. It’s funny stuff, if I do say so myself, so stand by for that.

Over all, I really like this page. There are some things about it that bother me — the angle of the falling hat, the asymmetry of the text, my inability to get a couple more trees in there along the horizon — but mostly, I think it’s pretty sharp. It’s a good piece on which to end the first half of the book — a high note! It’s left me feeling rejuvenated, excited to get on with the other half!

C is for Chupacabras

In the same way that it’s hard to believe in a religion founded last week, it’s tough to put a lot of stock in a “mythical beast” that’s ten years younger than you are. For some reason, credibility clings to old stories. As successive layers of myth accumulate, legends get bigger, tougher, and more powerful, just like rubber band balls.

Legends from our own time seem flimsy, though. I’m glad we’re still making them, but it’s kind of embarrassing to watch us do it. You don’t want to be in that kitchen, watching people stir together half remembered “X-Files” episodes and copycat sightings, cooking up their 15 minutes of fame. You’ll really lose your appetite.

That’s kind of how I feel about the Chupacabras.* It just sounds kind of crazy. The name Chupacabras means “goat sucker,” and it’s a pretty fitting moniker. According to legend, the monster kills goats and other livestock by draining their blood through tiny puncture wounds. It’s supposed to be reptilian, or, at least look like a reptile with thick leathery skin. It hops like a kangaroo, has spines down it’s back, and glowing red eyes (which are often described as the eyes of “gray” aliens, totally dating this creature, I think**). It smells nauseatingly bad, is three or four feet tall, and lives all over the world, but no one ever saw one until 1995? It just doesn’t make sense.

The first sighting was reported in Puerto Rico, in 1995, but soon, sightings (and bloodless goat bodies) started appearing across the Spanish-speaking world, especially Texas, which has kind of become the Chupacabras capital of the world. Eventually, reports started surfacing in places as far-flung (not that Texas and Puerto Rico present too compact of a region to begin with) as Maine and Russia. It just seems like hysteria to me, especially since the woman who first described the creature based her description on an alien from the movie Species.

Still, the hard thing to overlook is that someone is sucking goats. Could humans have been poking tiny holes in livestock and sucking out all the animals’ blood (and sometimes organs!) as a means of, I don’t know, securing places in top-tier cults and fraternities? Maybe, but that can’t have happened too often. And the argument doesn’t end there. Surprisingly, there’s actually a lot of hard Chupacabras evidence floating around. There are photos, videos, even specimens — google it sometime for a gross afternoon.

None of the dead Chupacabras people turn up have spikes or glowing red eyes, but they are pretty weird. They all look like dogs, but hairless, with thick, blue-gray skin. They have long snouts, big, vampire-looking fangs, and mismatched legs (the front ones are considerably shorter than the back ones). They pretty much always turn out to be deformed coyotes, suffering additionally from mange and parasites (which cause things like baldness, discoloration, and stench).

Anyway, the reigning theory is that these guys are two weak to hunt, so they attack livestock instead of running stuff down. Maybe the blood-drinking thing is a convenience too, maybe it’s easier than eating an animal the conventional way. Maybe it’s symptomatic of one of the diseases these coyotes have. I don’t know. Surprisingly, I didn’t read anything about it either way. It’s also a little weird that this didn’t become a phenomenon until the 1990s. Were there never sick/mutated coyotes before? Still, the weirdest thing of all is that there may have been a lot of truth to this legend. Sucking out organs, pretty crazy.

I guess all this amounts to the fact that I could have/should have drawn a mangy dog for this one, but the little gremlin was a lot more fun. The goats were great too.

Still, I’m not so into this drawing. The monster design is pretty boring, the words in the sun might be too much (in fact, the sun itself might be unnecessary), and some of the logistics don’t make sense. Why is the Chupacabras outside the fence if he’s just been draining goats? Has he been coming and going, maybe? Drinking one goat a day? The drawing might have been more ominous if he were looming in the foreground, maybe just a head and hands in silhouette. In the middleground could be the one scared goat, surrounded by his dead flock. That would require me to hide the monster, though, but, given his so-so design, that might not be so bad. If I have time to redo this one later, I probably will.

I’m still proud of some digital reworking I did on this one, though. Initially, the Chupacabras was draining the last living goat with the aid of a Crazy Straw. It didn’t really read. Using the track pad, I erased it and added the little bendy straw in his hand, which I hope is at all clear (in what it is and what it means).

Well, if you’re still with me, congratulations. This has definitely been my longest entry. Why I felt compelled to write so much on this I have no idea.

*Yeah, I used to think it was Chupacabra too, but it’s apparently Chupacabras, singular or plural, el or los.

**Are those guys a big ’90s thing, or is it just that that’s when I was a kid and really into aliens?

Mock 3

Here’s another mostly-finished “Mockingbird” page, sans text. It’s my least favorite so far, but it’s come a long way since I first scanned it. Specifically, I’ve had to do a lot of painstaking redrawing with the track pad, reworking facial expressions and keeping Irving’s ‘fro in check.

I’m thinking about adding some sort of emanata or background motif to indicate Jerry’s mounting anger. Maybe some stylized flames, jagged lines, or little darts of rage that radiate from him as he fumes. They could slowly invade the middle tier, finally catching Irving’s attention in panel six, when Jerry interrupts his monologue. I’m not sold on the idea, but I’m considering it. What do you think?

More Mockingbird

Here’s the second page of my new “Mockingbird” book. These colors are a lot closer to what will be appearing in the print version. The page I posted last week looked a little garish, as the CMYK color read weirdly online. I’ve skirted that problem by creating RGB versions of my pages to post here. I’ve even gone back and replaced last week’s page with an RGB update.

The text in this page (and last week’s now) is crisper too, as I went ahead and laid that in with InDesign. I’m still not sure what font I’m going to use for this project, though. I like the one I’ve been using so far, but it has its drawbacks. for instance, it has no capitol “I.” If you look closely, the gangsters’ mark is actually Adam Wentworth 111, the cutting edge, perhaps, in Electro-heirs.

I’m pretty pleased with how these pages are looking so far. They’re a little spare, and heavy on the talking heads, but I’m mostly enjoying the simple style and the designs I’ve come up with. Someday, though, I’m going to have to learn to use Illustrator. This stuff just takes forever to do in Photoshop.

As much as I love putting these pages up,  I realize that if I want to serialize this story properly later, I’ll need to hold something back now. Maybe I should just start blacking out the words, a la redacted FBI memos. I’ll keep posting pages, but I might revoke you guys’ story clearance until I’m ready to release the full issue.

The Bird is Back!

This page is not quite finished. You can expect the final to include some minimal backgrounds (maybe just some texture to situate the characters against walls or something) and make use of a different font. Still, I wanted put this page up to show that, in addition to the monster alphabet and the UFO story, I am hoping to finish the second “Mockingbird” book by the end of the school year. Collectively, these projects are going to comprise my Master’s thesis. …It’s a weird world we live in.

I hadn’t realize how much I’d missed working with Irving Fleischman and the whole “Mockingbird” universe until I had to draw him for this poster, advertising my thesis project(s) for the year:

Now, after months of warily circling the pool, I’m diving back into the “Mockingbird.” It feels great. To mix metaphors a little bit (but still stay in the water) it’s kind of the warm bath of my thesis books, the comfortable one, the relaxing one, the one to unwind with at the end of the day.

Still, as comfortable as the “Mockingbird is for me to work on, I’m shaking it up quite a bit. I’m using my new “no black lines” (I really need a name for that) style in all my thesis books, but, in “The Mockingbird” I’ve dispensed with lines (of any color) almost completely. The world of the Irving Fleischman is one of pure shape and color.

I like this new style, it gives the project the look of having been made with cut paper. On the downside though, it’s just one more thing slowing down my already glacial process. Also, it’s a pretty stark stylistic departure from book one. In any case, I’ll be sticking with it for now and will be posting more pages as I finish them.

K is for Kraken

According to the old Norse legends, the Kraken was really a collateral damage kind of monster. Sure, the giant cephalopod would spitefully strike at ships, but he was likeliest to drown you after he had given up on the idea and decided to go home. Apparently, when the Kraken dove beneath the waves, he caused a whirlpool that sunk ships and sucked sailors to the seafloor. That whirlpool is what I have tried to capture here.

In this drawing, the Kraken sinks back into the deep, dragging with him debris and the corpses of drowned sailors. To portray this moment, I had to “zoom out,” so to speak. Usually, my drawings are fairly “zoomed in,” with their subjects (usually single figures or small groups), taking up lots of space, mostly around the center of the page. In this piece, I used lots of smaller figures to show movement, environment, and scale. This necessitated a more distant vantage than I usually employ.

This drawing is also unique in my monster series in that it obscures its star. So far, the Kraken is the only creature I’ve drawn who is largely absent from his portrait. I like that about him. It adds to his mystery and menace. All we see of him are trailing tentacles and the considerable devastation bobbing in their wake. This somehow  makes him seem both stealthy (we never got a good look at him!) and incomprehensibly huge.

At first, I was not very happy with this page and was afraid I was phoning it in. The simplicity of the drawing, and all the blank space in the picture, seemed like signs of laziness to me. Now that it’s done, though, I’ve really come around. I like this one a lot and I hope that it signals a growing willingness/ability to shake this series up a little bit.