Dorks Issue 3

After reworking Dorks issue 5, the question became, which way should I continue?  Should I move forward and continue the saga with Dorks issue 6 or should I go backwards and rework the first four issues and restructure the story so that future issues make sense.

I decided to go backwards.  Instead of going in order, I started where ever I felt like.  Which caused the entire project to stop.  I never got to introduce the Idiots gang.  I never got to the return of Magnitude.  Longitudes quest for the truth.  Instead I wanted to redraw the dream sequence from issue 3 where Attitude meets an inverted Tude that condemns him for wanting to be accepted by those that have rejected him.  In the new version, I thought it would be better to have a negative version of him condemning him and speaking the harsh truths to Attitude.  Also, instead of a generic mushroom companion I substituted him with Happy the Stick, the comic book character that Attitude loves to read.  This way, the negative version of himself and his favorite fictional character are both against him, thus leaving him alone in his quest to fit in.

Razura Issue 3

"Razura issue 3?  Was there ever an issue 1 or 2 that I wasn't aware of?"

During the summer of 95 I had done two issues for GrubbMaster Graphics.  When the project had stopped, I reprinted my stories as individual issues of Razura that I would give out to my friends.  Before GrubbMaster Graphics was officially canceled I was already hard at work on the third issue of Razura.

My idea for the third issue was to introduce The Black Hole, a character that originally fought Imp in my first notebook comic series.  In this version, Imp would be fighting The Black Hole in the sewers where he was hiding from Mr. Kill and his law enforcements.  I don't know what the staff was for that Imp is finding but it seemed to be guarded by The Black Hole in the sacred sewers underneath.

Yeah, not much of a story teller there.

I had the worst time doing things to proportion or even laying out a scene.  I would draw the arms and wings from edge to edge of a paper and at times I would even run out of space.  These characters are only three feet in height not counting their wings.  It was always trivial to me that I could never fit such tiny characters on one page.  You can see how I got very lazy in this layout and I had pushed the badguy all the way into the shadows so that I wouldn't have to deal with proportions.  Sadly, I didn't hide that horrendous hand of his.

After having laid out the cover and again, being quick to ink things while I was still in the penciling process, I neglected the logo being at the top.  This forced me to put it at the bottom of the cover instead.  This time around, you can see that I added another "mystery" element to this one dimensional story by putting weird markings on top of the doorway.  The Black Hole's hand still sucks majorly as well.

In this updated version, I decided to play around a bit with the scene.  I took away the door and the dumb writing above it for one.  The second thing was that I actually had Imp holding the staff and examining it.  I thought this gave it a bit more depth because the other versions seemed to me like he was not allowed to touch it or he was not able to pull it out of the stone.  Without him touching the staff it seems odd that The Black Hole would come out to protect it.  It seems more likely that if it were removed from its resting place that would cause the chaos that awaits Imp.

Imp #1

Back in 1992 or 1993, I can't remember, I had created the character known as Imp.  Originally a good guy (then bad then good again) he would fight the evil known only as Satanic Cat.  Satanic Cat was some type of acronym that I can't remember but that must've been one hell of an acronym with such a long name like that.  Satanic Cat was sorta like Mumbra, an old person that would transform into a younger, evil being.  Imp would fight him and such but really they were only one page comics that really, really sucked ass.

Then Imp became the star of his own comic book.  The only page I have a copy of is this one here that I tried to color by hand:

This was the classic fight between The Black Hole and Imp.  Witty dialogue as you can see and lots of action.  There was no real point to them fighting.  It was just the style at the time.  I tried to recreate this scene for the Grubbmaster Pieces book but it was canceled before the third story arc was to debut featuring the updated recreation of this battle.

Razura Sketches

While sitting around trying to get warmed up to draw Wolfman, I've been doodling some Razura stuff. It's always fun to revisit these guys and hope to one day bring them back to life in print. For now here's just some of the drawings I've done. Trying to tweak them and changing them around a bit. Seeing what works.

Razura Reboot: Almost

From the vaults of Idiot Press comes yet another ambitious project that only got as far as a cover and a first page. This is the long awaited (by me, I don't think I really had any Razura fans) return of Imp, Karloff and Razor in their first 22 page full sized comic book. One day I hope to revisit these guys. It's not a long enough story to warrant an ongoing series so it may come back in the form of a mini series. I hope sometime soon. Until then, here's a look at what could have been.

Wizard World 2011

This past weekend was Wizard World 2011 and of course I can't go through a con without getting one guest Dorks drawing. This year it comes from Eric Martin whom, strangely enough draw similar to the old Dorks style and his character The Cosmic Dot also resembles them. Eric was very fun to talk to and his are was very awesome. He's got tons of little Cosmic Dot's and there seems to be a very cool idea behind it all. Hopefully he'll have a book done soon.

Dorks Collected

Gearing up for Wizard World 2011 here at the Idiot Press house. As per customer request, I've put together a collected book with the first four issues of Dorks. Many people voiced their concerns on buying the fifth issue without the other books to read. Instead of putting issue five on hold until I can redraw the first four issues, I'm doing a special collection of the first original issues which will lead directly into the new fifth issue. It's all totally relettered for an easier read and I've also included the seldom seen short stories. There was a FCBD ashcan given out in 2010 of the two stories but now you can get them if you didn't attend our FCBD 2010 signing. Here's a look at the cover:

The cover is of course based on the first cover that was done from the original version of the series and the relaunch (pictured in the background of the new cover). The back cover is a redrawing of the second issue with Latitude on the box. There are new spot drawings inside the book so there will be new material to look for in this book.