Aug/082
The Path Sketch Dump
So, after the Bendis wall of text left last time, I thought I’d balance it out with a sketch dump. Most of these will be in The Path sketchbook that I’ve been talked into doing.
And that’s that.
-Riot!
Aug/082
Update from the front.
“WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!” Is something I’ve been hearing a lot of lately. Usually in frantic, angry tones on my voicemail from family members, various freelance employers and internet friends who actually have my cell number…since I don’t have internet at my new place as of yet.
Goddamn, time does fly when you’re moving and have no internet with which to avail people of the knowledge that you are, in fact, moving.
So, I’ve moved. It was incredibly inconvenient, and the new neighborhood is less than favorable (despite a Taco Bell across the street), and it is a good hour away from anything I like to do and everyone I like to hang out with. WHY would I move, then, you may be asking? Well, because my roomies wanted to move and the notice they gave me was not sufficient to go find a place of my own with the meager savings I had left after a season of convention-hopping. Sure, they’d been talking about moving for a few months, but each time they spoke of it it was like a chain-smoker saying, “Yeah…this week I’m quitting.” Every possible relocation was spoken like a pipe-dream and disappeared like a whisp of smoke so fast that I got to the point that I didn’t think they were actually going to go through with it. I LIKED my old place. It took me two years to actually feel at home there. To surround myself with a few friends and a few bars that I enjoyed frequenting and settle into a decent pantomime of a productive life. NOW, when my girlfriend comes over, I have to leave my apartment complex to meet her where she parks and walk her in for fear of her being raped or mugged between the gate and my door. My now four hour round trip commute to work isn’t exactly a selling point for this new residence either. Nor are the creepy neighbors or the equally creepy staff of the complex. It’s like I’ve stumbled upon a mexican version of Innsmouth (Go ahead, look it up. I’ll wait.) and, while this prospect would normally be exciting to a Lovecraft fanatic like myself, it is less so when you’re wondering if today is the day your fish-eyed neighbors make a move for your female friends when you’re at work.
I don’t know how long I’ll be dealing with Casa Del Innmouth, though, as the little lady and I are talking about taking a giant leap towards wanting to murder eachother and move in together. Seeing as how between my place and hers we’ve pretty much been living together ANYWAYS, and we’re sort of at the point where neither of us can sleep without the other around we’re both pretty sold on the idea (even though another move may cause me to start hurling small children into the ocean). Plenty of other reasons, but we all know how I dislike talking in terms of hoo-mahn emotions and such.
For those of you waiting with bated breath for news of WWTX ‘08 (I’ma lookin’ at you, Carly) I have no effing clue at the moment. If there are still tables available as of the 7th of September (which is when I’ll have the $$$ to do something about it), then we’re good to go. If not, then I’ve let you all down. There’s just been too much on my plate the last few months and WWTX unfortunately fell by the wayside. Worse comes to worse, I’ll have plenty of time to make sure there’s an MM presence at WWLA.
Jul/081
I Can’t Smile Without You
Easily one of the best parts of Hellboy 2. Hellboy and Abe getting drunk, singing along to “I Can’t Smile Without You” by Barry Manilow. I’ve been doing stupid sketches of them singing since I saw the movie. This is just the only one I took the 15 minutes to color.
For you young’uns who’ve never heard the song, here. Just imagine Ron Perlman and Doug Jones belting it in full Hellboy and Abe gear.
The move goes…albeit slowly. I can’t wait for this bullshit to be over so I can get back to my life.
-Riot!
Jun/083
The Path gets a facelift
So, in preparation of Diamond-ness, I’ve been going back to old pages of The Path and gussying them up a bit. Adding the crosshatching I’ve been using lately, and in some cases, replacing panels that I didn’t like. Then, it hit me:
I don’t really like ANY of my old pages. Like, at ALL.
If I’m not too fond of them, I could only imagine what people in shops nation-wide would think. Don’t get me wrong, The Path’s selling well…but I’ve grown into the style I set out to do it in. The pages from issues 4 and 5 are way better than the pages in issues 1-3.
So I started redrawing them. ALL of them. Below is a “Before and after” example of what I’ve been doing. This is also giving me the chance to tweak some issues I’ve come across in the story now that I have the advantage of hindsight. I think that you’ll agree that the new version is going to kick all kinds of ass. ALL. KINDS. OF. ASS. Yes, even THAT kind.
-Riot!
Jun/083
MANIFEST DESTINY!
This was done by the awesome Micha over at Absurdness and is an accurate representation of how I got things done at A-kon. That cane is awesome and is coming to every con forever now, too.
You should be reading Absurdness. Do so. Now.
-Riot!
Jun/080
Art Stuffs
So…all I do around here lately is blab. I felt I should post some artwork. So, here we go…a bit of an art dump.
A redraw of a commission I did at A-kon. I really liked it, and was sad to part with it. So I redid it:
The sign I had up at the booth during A-Kon, which will now come to every convention:
Finally, drawing for Hawk and today’s filler at The Path:
-Riot!
Jun/086
A-kon…
…was awesome.
Every con I do gets me closer and closer to realizing how to successfully run a booth/tables for MM. Learning from how Juno does cons, seeing what would and what wouldn’t work for our group…it’s going to pay off for us in the long run. I think WWTX is going to be a really good way to end the con season this year, and provide a good spot for us to round-table a plan to promote MM during next year’s con season. Plus, it’ll give me enough time to get tax certs for us to be able to sell shit in the different states we’ll be in.
On a personal note, A-kon went pretty well beause The Path sold a lot better than I thought it would at an anime convention. That was a pleasant suprise. Plus, we just about sold out on my posters, too. I think there were two or three left at the end of sunday. The “Story-driven webcomics” panel I was on went really well, too. I think there was actual useful insight provided…and we were damned entertaining. Thanks to anyone reading this that showed up. Lindsey, who some of you should remember from WWTX last year, came by to hang/help out, too. So did that kid and his dad (Joe and Zac will remember. The kid whose first con it was).The guys who do Applegeeks are pretty fucking cool. You should go read that comic. As is Mookie, who does a comic called Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire. We all went out to dinner with a few other cool peeps and good times were had. Can’t wait to hang with the same group at Otakon in August.
One last thing: how cool does the idea of having your very own sword from The Path sound? Now what if I told you it was going to be made by a company that builds LARP weapons, and you’d be able to beat the crap out of your friends with it without breaking it? Sound cool? You bet your ass it does…and it’s coming.
Anyways, I’m going to go decompress after an inredibly long, busy, and awesome weekend…and get the book layout finished up. Catch you hip cats and kittens later.
-Riot!
May/083
The Rats in the Walls, MM Sample Book, and CONTEST
BEHOLD! An illustration based on an H.P. Lovecraft story! How OUT OF CHARACTER for me!
Next I’ll be telling jokes about your mom. And her FACE.
In other news, the MM Book is looking sexy. Really sexy. It’s going to be a glorious thing to behold once it’s printed up. Though, I’m open to suggestions for the cover. I was just going to draw something up to make it look like a spoof of one of those old EC horror comics, but if you guys hate that idea in the FACE, let me know.
ALSO, I’ve decided MM needs some sort of mascot/logo-y thing. So get crackin’! I’m going to leave it to you guys to come up with one and send it to me. The ones I like the best will be posted in a blog for us all to vote upon! I figure this’ll be fun and also get you lazy bastiches drawing something! Hell, if nothing else, it’ll be like the good old days when we used to bicker at eachother in chat rooms. Which Bran, Acadia, and I have decided we need to get back to. So get to work!
Catch you hip cats and kittens later.
-Riot!

























