One of those days

yeah, pretty ****ing much like that.
Or perhaps:

Senseless and insensitive

Some time ago there was Helsinki comic festival and this week-end it was Turku international book fair and being nerdy geek I took part in them.
Both got my creative juices flowing once more and forced me to revise some of my previous ideas.

Including making comics in the first place.

Those outside of Finland will probably not realize exactly how closed the market is and how formulaic they are.
There are few who do publish stuff beyond genres of humor and artsy pieces of slice of life.
Year after year one can count with a single hand of fingers the science fiction, fantasy, crime, adventure, superhero or horror stories in comics.
There is no market in our local comics for any of that.

Any sane person would fold and write some trite about relationships.

Yes, Any sane person.
But then again in these situations I ask myself one question:

Unfortunately I am not bluehaired pierced hottie (I just live with one, no wait...she's never had blue hair so far...well..so far) but otherwise it helps.

Sane people are boring and insignificant.

And once the stars are right, they(sanes) are eaten or trampled.

Sane people don't prepare for zombie apocalypse or devise deathtraps.

Sanity is just a one handicap one must lose in order to have fun.

Just last night I had an apocalyptic nightmare about humanlike bears, ghosts, nymphomaniacs, murder and the occult.

It will make a great script and carve a nervous wreck from some poor illustrator.

A mind is a beautiful thing to lose.

IÄ!

Bad ideas

Yeah they do that.
They just arrive.

I haven't posted anything for awhile.
Loads of paying work and plenty of comics work too.
Re-found the joys of hardboiled detective noir and gruesome horror.
Always needed.

And I am now a part of Comicpunks, blog where everyone else kick my ass graphicly all the way till next wednesday.
Any week, any year...heck, any millennium.
Any interested, especially those wanting to see great art by Sari Sariola or Rama enter here

And lil old me likes the slogan:

On a mission to draw, ink, color and write about big guns, hot females and brilliant characters since 2011

yeah, like the love of my life says: "You are the only man I know who goes to girls &guns sites for guns..."

you see none of these are bad ideas.
No, I have thought of writing and drawing a comic.

As far as Ideas go that's a still born.
Have to try anyways.

Adventures in ConLand

no, not with ex- or current convicts.
That is another blog-entry entirely...

We had Finncon/Animecon here in my hometown of Turku few weekends ago. Scifinerds united with mangateens from Friday to Sunday.
Tremendous fun for me at least.

I even "got" to be a part of the program: first (yes, very first program of the event on Friday) I interviewed my partner in cosmic criminality, the talented graphic artist Sari Sariola who did graphic design for the event.

I am still a bit miffed for the committee organizing the event who wanted her to tone down the Androidess's figure because it had curves.
I sort of got it for the Animecon, I mean who would want to corrupt young minds set on panties and kaiju-creatures with wandering tentacles?

But Finncon? Us (mainly middle-aged SF/F - fans) we might be shocked to the core if we saw picture of a hot android.

That's just my view but hey go see for yourself her work at http://sarisariola.blogspot.com/2011/07/case-finnconanimecon-2011-part-2.html you will not regret it.

We had a blast on the interview (well I did anyways) but then I had to run to the other side of university area to manga vs western comic-panel discussion.
Guess who stood for western side all by his lonesome?
Yeah.
I fitted amongst the mangagirls like a loud un-tamed boar with a sledgehammer fits to a nice Victorian tea party.
Some thought I was funny, though.
then again most people tend to do that as with my eye-patch and biker wear and tattoos I do send certain not-so-subliminal messages.

But again: I liked it.
After that we had missed almost all other workshops and comic art related program. Which sucked.

Thankfully the guest of honor was Richard Morgan.
If the name is unfamiliar go and read his books, Altered carbon is a good start.

Do it.

NOW.

He gave a speech about his stint as comic writer, Black widow to Marvel comics, and used as an example as how horrid superhero stuff can be a scene from a comic where the Thing comes to a bar and starts a fight with Hulk for apparently no reason.

The scotsman (aye, Morgan is a scot) told this in quite amusing fashion and I recognized the story.
I had bought it as a trade cheaply secondhand.

So, come Saturday, after his guest of Honor speech there was a signing by mr. Richard Morgan.
Me and my beloved Sari(with whom, since we are...umm..what's opposite of quiet and reserved?, he had become quite accustomed ) first offered Altered carbon for signing.

And after that we pulled out the aforementioned HULK/THING: Hard Knocks TPB.
He smiled, laughed and signed it.

Got to love the guy.

The reason I like to go to con's is the way you meet people like Richard Morgan and get to hear their ideas.
And on con's there are also all the guys and gals who are brethren nerds.
Who love science fiction, fantasy, horror and comics.

it is a breeding ground for ideas if one is willing to listen and talk, to fuel up one's imagination and ideas.
For me it was such a fertile sounding board that I can't thank enough people making it possible. Especially my significant other whose Androidess is so far the most kick-ass icon of these con's ever.

The Phoenix was groovy but if she ever gives another chance to use the Androidess any way (I know it sounds so good and so wrong at the same time, doesn't it?) I'll gladly take it.

and last, but not least Tero Ykspetäjä took a photo I am really happy.
Me with my tattoo and guys of 501st legion Nordic garrison.
(I am the one on left, no, still not the one with the kimono. I'm the one with truly wickedly cool t-shirt.)
EDIT Yes I still **** up these images, just double click it to view it properly


For the Empire!

News of my demise....

are truly greatly exaggerated.
I just have been typically antisocial and busy self.
Blogs are after all a social media, a diary of sorts where one can put their psycho-pathological views for all to see.
Never been fan of diaries.
I rather leave that to those people who like slice of life stories and believe they are either important or irreplaceable.
They, nor I, are not.

But then I was in car crash recently. A head on collision.
Ford focus sedan lost both headlights and plastic front mask was totalled.
Damn good I was riding bicycle.

My girlfriends(odd thing to say since she is all grown woman) bicycle to be exact. I got bruise and the bike lost a few gears(and back wheel's brakes went a little wonky)

like they say: only the good die young. My archaic butt will apparently suffer to grand old age physically too...

the good part is I have had a vacation and been to a con and had loads of new (to me) ideas. i' ll try to bother you with those ASAP

your pal(hah!) the dodgier cousin of resurrection man,
Curtvile

Coverstuff

Most likely this fall will see first issue of ongoing series of Koneballeriina ( Machineballerine in english, though that direct translation is less cool than in finnish)
the cover and art supplied by talented Katja Louhio.



It has a brave heroine, zombie chimpanzees and some thing fierce and terrifying.

Let's talk about sex...

I have talked about violence in comics a lot and written comics that have violence but let's say something about the fun stuff, right?

for some reason we have one or the other, either no sex at all or just sex and no story.

I am not a hypocrite, no I am a healthy straight man. I have read x-rated comics a-bundle, far less than non-sex comics as I prefer a plot.


No, really. No.


"Isn't it hot in here?" isn't a plot.


I have actually think about sex in comics and the divide. Either there is no sex at all or it goes full-on porn(unfortunately mostly badly drawn and worse written trite bad porn. Yes, there are qualities that too)


It must be the subject matter itself. Most past-adolescent people have experiences in sexual activities.

Sadly not all have any other living humans present...but it explains a lot about many artsy autobiographical comics.

You see most comics are about what their creators know about / are interested of.


And while few of us(thankfully) have first-hand experience about violence, about fights, muggings not to mention war or turning into werewolf while trying to stop advancement of oncoming zombiehorde.


You have to use your imagination, even if the situation is something you wouldn't really want to experience yourself in real life.


And then there are things we think about quite often.

Those are things we would like to experience, yes please thank you very much.

As with violence sex is often just something used instead of actual story. And used solely because of itself.

Another reason is that sex is something very personal, scary and dangerous.

But it is dangerous in whole different way than say fist- or firefights. And while some of us know about the battles that molded the shape of history there is no doubt in my mind that whole another sets of curves have shaped history at least as much.

In the quiet moments, before, during or after.

You see sexuality has it's primal side but it's tender side too. It's a mess of emotions mixed with coarse lust and sensitivity. Not an easy act to convey well.

And for many the chase is better than the catch. Same is seen in many forms of fiction, the stories end when they get each other or end up separated. The end.
So easy compared to real life.

There have been tries, besides Alan Moore's and Melinda Gibbes's Lost Girls , but very few and too seldom. (oh Cthulhu, I sound like the nitwits: "they mix adult with sex and violence, so childish" when that is not the case. Adult is adult, boring is boring.)

Just wondering why it is. I never have seen relationships boring, but 95% of all comics and 99% of "serious" comics about it are utter waste. They have the emotional scale of a soapopera. With worse acting. And the biggest problem I have with the "serious" comics is that especially in those 99% the soapopera is all you get, there is nothing more.

the basis for the rant is that I try to give characters that I have some sort of personal life and therefore have to think about sexual side too. I live with a smart beautiful woman whose mind intrigues me and whose body I lust. That tells something about me.

Mainly that I am luckier than I should be.

But I never have went for the easy way out. I want comics to be rich in the same way life is.



And that requires to deal with these matters too.

And what an intriguing thing it is. Have you guys read classical lit? Homer's Odyssey? All the monsters there in and loads of good old love and lust. Sirens, Circe, Calypso and of course the suitors of Penelope.

And remember this was after the trojan war, the ten year war mostly attributed to elopment of Paris and Helen, mainly to Helen.


Which is a bit unfair, after all it all began because Zeus just couldn't stay faithful and had flings.
He just had better PR.



My main gripe is that like Clemenceau said: war is too serious a matter to be left to the military, sex is important to be left for pornographers.

(thou having done research on the subject that world is quite interesting one. As in filled with stories way interesting)

So it's a warning. I need to add sex and romance in my scripts.

And hell yes this post gave me ample excuse to post sweet pics.


Deal with it.

Marvel's new clothes:Moon knight

I read a lot of comics, european , asian and american ones and so far in this socialmedia construct called blog I have mainly talked about my own stuff.

Marvel comics is biggest comics publisher in US. In order to keep it's lead it tries to keep up with times and hire best possible talent.

that is the theory anyways.

The problem is that big comics is same as big music.

At some point you also reach a point where the guys handling the money come and try to reign in too much creativity in order to keep as many buying customers as possible.

Yes, comics is an art.

But everyone needs to eat and there are no fairies that feed you since what you do is art and should be just accepted in all it's incomprehensibility.

All art has also commercial side. As does 98% of all life.
The payment just isn't always monetary, to some it's acceptance, belonging, achiement etc.

Now Marvel has decided to try once more to relaunch some of it's material with trusted artists.

Like Moon Knight:

Those unaware who (or what) Moon Knight is a short introduction:

Marc Spector was a mercenary that died in the hands of his companions while looting ancient egyptian tomb.

While dead the Egyptian God of vengeance, Khonsu, made a pact to him: Marc spector lives and serves as avatar of Khonsu on earth.

Many people often discredit Moon knight as merely Marvel's rip-off of Batman.

I have no idea what issues of Batman they have read since while Batman obviously has issues he never believed to be the undead fist of dead god.

And actually, that is maybe the sanest way to descibe Moon knight.

Quite unsurprisingly Moon Knight is quite a lunatic. In every incarnation Moon knight has had several personalities and even in tight-wearing crew he is considered to be more than a couple of cards short of a full deck. Not that it has ever stopped him playing. The others just hope that they get at some point what is the game he is playing.

In the seventies Marvel brought the ticket of blaxploitation, kung-fu-madness, street level crime and supernatural horror. Moon Knight falls to most categories , even blaxploitation.

But after his seminal run from Werewolf-by-night's opponent to a anti-hero in his own right something happened. As previous writers quit there still was this very unstable and strange character they had, but no-one seemed to know what to do with him.

And so it went for a LOOOOOONG time.

He was resurrected to former glory by Charlie Huston's and David Finch s Moon Knight comic.

And it still worked.

So after they saw there is life in the old warhorse white-clad streetwarrior got again top level writers and artists.

The latest is Brian Michael Bendis's & Alex Maleev's on-going Moon knight.

This duo had a tredemendous run with Daredevil, bringing the noir essentials that Frank Miller had introduced to that series back. They knew their stuff.

They still do.

And in the first issue they showed that this gamble was golden for Marvel. While they have decided to play down the supernatural horror in this Moon knight dont let spandex fool you.

We are deep in horrortown. But this time they are playing it subtle. Marc Spector is movie/tv-producer, done more credibly than Bruce Wayne ever was.

But the way comic is written you realize it's not a facade of secret identity. Marc Spector is charming, like that nice Patrick Bateman. Or that quiant and polite Norman Bates.

And once he wears the mask you almost await the Rorshachblotches to crawl on to the mask.

Nope, he is not ok. Not in any planet in any universe.

Maleev's art has suitably edgy and angry tone to it. It's not as vibrantly brash and violent as TEX's art was in 90's Ghost rider comics, but it has tension. Every damn frame is loaded. Coiled like a compressed spring-baton, just waiting any excuse to leap in brutality.

Should have known that Maleev's vision of California isn't sunny with chance of beachbunnies. It's sharp and creepy, a bit like when you are half-awake half-asleep. It's real but with hints of unstability.

I for one hope that the team can keep to momentum and promise given by issue 1.

Cause then boys and girls it's gonna be a wild ride. Are you mad enough for it? Well?

ARE YOU?

The house that violence built

Today I met one of young upcoming comic artists of Finland today and we had a long discussion(ok, ok: rambling) about comics overall.
About forum's and scene and all that funky stuff.
In a way I admire his lean towards artsy and personal.
And humor.
And the fact that both of us are solely interested doing comics we would ourselves want to read.

I enjoy horror, scifi, crime, adventure basicly all of those "escapists" stories. If you want to tell me about relationships or how lonely you are I see no reason not to tell it through some hard-assed kick-your-face-in-if-you-look-at-sideways kinda way.

And now after that comment all those with only two live brain cells have stopped reading after categorizing and judging me on their own preconceptions and stereotypes as semi-fascistic violencemonger.
Good riddance to them.

You see I enjoy stuff like The Walking Dead and Locke&Key.
Both are horror, both are gruesome, neither are cheap or pandering. They dont glorify violence.
And while I like old-school adventure films(even though I know the truth about people such as "heroic" Errol Flynn) many of them or the current Disney's violence flicks are way more harmful than the R-rated movies.
Best example is Pirates of the Caribbean. It does good things too, I mean it has introduced zombies to loads of kiddies, but c'mon it has the bloodless swordfights where folks are whacked repeatedly with blades WITHOUT A SINGLE CUT.

That is dangerous.
As our western culture grows more estranged from actual life we also grow ever more unaware what violence is. the repercussions, reasons, repeats...the whole shebang.

Where I live(Finland) local comics are mainly newspaper strips aimed solely to funnybone or artistic "slice of life" comics.
We practically don't have any adventure or crime comics. Take Petri Hiltunen, P.A.Manninen, Anssi Rauhala and Jussi Piironen out of equation and then the realistical, straight-played comics are not even once in a blue moon.
And that is a very sad thing indeed.

You see if you don't talk about something or just refuse to acknowledge it...it still does not go away.
I have heard it a million times: "portrayal of violence just de-sensitizes to it and increases aggression"
Right. Sure.
there is some truth there, I admit. there is also a chance of similar truth that I am reborn god of wine too.

It's a matter of talent.
Yes, it can be violence for violences sake, utterly empty, dehumanizing trite.
If you forget it is about humans.
And it is exactly the reason I grow so bored to most slice of life stories, because they should also be about people, about humans.
because you just dont care a bit about any of them.
You should care about the characters, they should be as real as your friends, as real as you.
Or more so.

But while most of us have more in common with getting bills and going to shop etc we are pulled to acts of mayhem and murder.
Why?



because it is exeptional, vibrant, scary.
And it shows some part of people's true character.
Real self.

Yes, the same abilities come out whenever someone does something altruistic, aiding to fellow man unrequired, without any overt or covert plans of their own.
And lookee how often that happens, huh?

And there are also aestehtics.
There is something very wrong in the beauty of bloodshed, war and death.
But while many can accept grace, awe and purpose in predatory animals, eagles, lions, crocodiles, wolves we find it disturbing to see the same in men.
We know it but still we want and need to watch and not just for our curiosity.


It is a heinous thing to say there is something alluring in death and suffering, but we are social creatures.
We know that while we want to get along with everyone we cant. not with everyone and honestly, we don't want to either.
Frank Miller has lately been put down,his latest batman work was way beyond uneven and there was a movie called Spirit too, but weirdly beneath hookers with hearts of gold, hitmen, ninjas, nazis and gangsters Frank Miller has produced lasting works in comicdom.

His Daredevil, Ronin, Give me Liberty, The Dark Knight Returns are but mere pinnacle.
And his Sin city series nigh singlehandedly brought back crime and noir comics.
Without those David Lapham's Stray bullets or Brian Azzarello's and Eduardo Risso's 100 Bullets would have had no chances.
Or Scalped by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera.
Even Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips owes a debt to that direction.


See crime and horror went away, lurking into dark recesses of comicdom and were almost forgotten. Our fears were packed into spandex dreams and european BD comics or worse: something veiled under funny or "not dangerous".
The comics code sought to protect the kids but in my opinion it did anything but.

Being a male of species I have had my share of scrapes. I know firsthand how it feels to be threatened with violence, to be beaten and kicked and been shot at not to mention blunt trauma or stabs and slices.

There is no glory, just hurt, pain and fear.
None of it made me a better person.
but none of it made me worse either.

And all I have ever seen shows me that most of all that is caused two groups:by those people most loudly judging such behavior and those with low self-esteem.
the other group has "moral high ground" therefore has god-given right to opinion and forcing it to others at any point in their own mind.
And the other group is alienated already and has far more limited means to affect the world around them.
Having money and opportunities is power but as long as you dont have a pool of sharks, pet a white persian and have flunkies and henchmen no one views themselves as an aggressor.



Because violence defines us.
some of us worship it and some demonize it.
If we disavow it we are in effect making a choice between violence and non-violence thus accepting it's importance.

Tales of violence are tales of life and death.
They define also the choices we make, what respect we give to life.
They remind us of our mortality.

And as I work in construction I feel the need to add some of mine to the lot. A few more houses to be built.

Apples & Oranges

At first I thought to talk a bit about comicbook movie Thor but my sweet Wempress already did that in her blog
I quite liked it too even though I expect more from Captain America The First Avenger.
I am not too big on gods, Crom and Cthulhu being exeptations to that rule.

As I am now delving deep into aliens, weapons systems and all other sorts of fun in name of research. Reality always baffles me.
It goes so much further into utter impropability than fiction.

At work today we had a tank. Unarmed but a tank anyways. Just after I had decided to include these armored beasts into several of my storylines.
Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something (besides the usual "Shut the **** UP!")

I found myself being even more intrigued by the machine(the tank).
it must be a male thing, or something on those vague and flimsy lines of thought.

you see I have an accuintance. The sole man in a riding club. Smart guy. I mean in a hobby surrounded by 20 women.
The tanks are continuation of cavalry, but where the ladies find beauty and grace in horses, a touch back to more romantic naturelike days most men I know are equally infatuated by machinery.
Or maybe I just know too many builders.
The builders are an odd, smug group. ever so happy with their machines



But there is a difference. While both, the animal(horse) and the machine(tank) do same functions and have needs(grooming/maintenance) they convey totally different messages.

And that is why I wait Captain America more than I did Thor. It is the same reason why I like Batman more than Superman.
Captain America and Batman are men, humans.
No godlike powers given by lineage.
In several senses they are more abnormal than Thor or Superman. The other is your norse god and other is a typical kryptonian.

The horses are alive and un-domesticated horses run, gallop etc alike. Slabs of metal dont move on their own volition.
They take effort to do so.
They need to have a driving force in them, an ideal, engine, vengeance.

for me that is infinitely more interesting.
More identifiable.(no, I do NOT wear a flag or a batcostume)

soon I will have a word about tough guys, horrors appeal, curvy women and the huge pile of comics my LCS sent over.
Till then:

Man the guns!

After april madness I got back to some of my earlier creations with my co-conspirators.

This here gent is Viapori, the answer to superhuman, alien and paranormal warfare according to the Finnish Defence Force.
Well actually more of a re-envisioning of this comicbook character.

Art and design is by Marko Keränen. Knowing his penchant for perfection and my endless fidgeting with the creations there will be developments.

One of my interests is military history and technology. Viapori gives me all the chances to mix up stuff I am interested in: science fiction, alien invasions, military hardware.

I view Viapori as my baby even though originally he was just a dude in flying armor in a prelude to a giant robot story I wrote. I asked the guys who the flying armored guy is.
They did not know, they just wanted to draw that kind of dude.
So I thought up his identity, backstory, motivation, organization behind the suit, codename etc.

You see while I like Iron man (comics and the movies) I didn't want to copy him or Warmachine.
Why bother? Marvel does those already.
My pitch was :" Armored soldier in MOAT ops in world with paranormal threats. Think Stargate SG-1 meets Mythbusters with Aliens like attitude"

And man was I lucky to have a great artist for the story.

But to those who ask has the ADHD wannabe-writer forgotten the other stuff? The fools april projects?
Nope.

Remember the pitch about World war 2 in the russo-finnish front?
Take real history and all the grit. Add dieselpunk and mad science.
Shake and stir.
And press the pedal all the way down.


Now I have to find artist who is a)talented b)interested in ww2 and c) loves weird tech.
As the story has lots in common with this second pic....

MAYhem DAY!

Had a weird weekend.
As I am very easily slipping to my normal state (=surly, vicious, anti-social and eagerly confrontational)I've experienced quite a season of joy and calm.
Greatest thanks to this are my my sweet offspring of a son and beloved dark queen of hearts and arts.

Me and my son watched X-men, X-men 2 and X-men3:the last stand and had adventures in the nearby woods, cemetaries and shopping malls.
And did brainstorming.

He had some mighty wild ideas that gave inspiration to my fertile mind.
He was also concerned I steal his ideas.
Ok so that is what dads do (and take the credit, too. It's the perk parents get for upkeeping the solemn duty of embarassing you in front of..well anyone, really)

Seriously though his creations got the ball rolling.


Sorry to say it might mean some "concept art" by yours truly, akin to skull there.

the day of reckoning.

It is the last day of april.
In the off chance any lost soul stumbling upon this blog might remember I made a pact.
To create a script in april.
A story with-in one month.
Please dont tell anyone about it as I have quite obviously lost all my marbles.

I have paper booklet, a scrapbook of sorts awaiting translittering to computer. To interpret my hieroglyphs to something resembling any known human language.
It is still bound to have loads of spelling/grammar mistakes.
Yeah, I write scripts and have undiagnosed dyslexia.
Whoever says the universe doesn't have a sense of humor?

anyways...to the results!


yeah I didnt do one story in a month.
I did three.
I may have a attention deficit syndrome too I guess.
Not that there wouldn't have been plenty of stuff unfinished to finish, oh no...

but while I shant post full scripts here (Please,call me Paranoid as I really am and it is one of my favorite songs too) but in short:

A tale of Dieselpunk world in shades of a cold war burning whitehot. Meet Jenny Lane.
She is young, adventurous and in deep trouble.
You see she took over her dad's business when he was shot down over mediterranean sea.
the business? Glad you asked. Pony express for modern times. No horses though, aeroplanes.
But this time our couriergirl is hunted by spies and gangsters, aristocrats and revolutionaries.
Too bad they are up against Jenny.

But thinking up that I came up with another piece of dieselpunk/pulp tale. It's world war 2. Finland is blocked up in the north. The soviets are attacking and surrounding nations are under nazirule (yes, yes dear swedes I know you were unaligned) and left to their own devices.
but what creations they are. But are you really going to risk your nations best and brightest youth by putting them on frontlines with experimental mad science?
Of course not.
It's war now and every man counts. And those enlisting to fight for their country get their prison sentences nullified.
War is hell so who better than sinners inside the Devils machinery.

And the third is a actionhorror piece from current events.
I found it too tempting to use a public domain comic figure (apparently not public domain in US yet, but doubt regocnizion will happen, nor publishing there) in different way.
A bit of postmodern take of classisc "funny" comic creation in quite un-funny civil war in Libya leading to unspoken horros that drive men mad in of so eldritch ways...
(ok so I am HPL fanboy and a war-nerd. Deal with it)


the concepts were fun. Storylines too but now starts the hard parts: typing it down and finding the artists suiting the stories.

As Sherlock said: The Game's afoot!

Blog 2 and I never drink (white) wine

Ladies! gentlemen! Boys and girls!
The old daft luddite tries to be hip.
See the sadness! Witness the witless in sorrowful attempt to follow the times as they pass his fossilic existence!
Amusement values of assured technological failure for all ages!

Yeah. I have a tumblr account.
Very hip, blogish, but immensely more anti-social.
Full of pics and people if not by actual age then at least by their heart who are at least twice younger than me.

Ok.

So at least 27 times younger than me. Hope you are happy now.

any ways...as I am known of my imagination it is: curtvilescomic.tumblr.com

And I have no idea how to use it yet. grand ain't it?

And more fun to follow: remember my rant on werewolf superiority?
I know, for a guy promoting tolerance I am such a speciest hatemonger when it comes to vampires.
and what a surprise something in that venue is coming up by yours truly and scifi/comicartist Marko Keränen

He can suavely go from HCscifi to horror and his black and white art fits the 4 page story of Otava.

Otava is a finnish superhero, or was.
You see in a previous heated battle of finnish superheroes against rogue giant russian superwarmechas he got thrown very high up.
The thing is flight isn't one of his powers.
or landing.
So he is paraplegic these days.
And most of finnish superheroes are AWOL /on a mission while teens and young adults go missing.

There is foul play and wornout, cripple hero.
Teaser page from Otava Musta peili (black mirror)


to the non-finnish speaking audience, yes in panel three in the caption box it says "Corpses. It's a vampire."

This will be out by fall of this I think, with some other stuff

and next time it's either more comics, babes, monsters, dieselpunk or something else.
And I really detest white wine.

Power of girls

I have written about female heroines already quite a bit. And not just in this here blog, but as in comics.
Come saturday 16th april 2011 there is once more a panel on the subject matter too and it goes roughly translated as "Supergals and the guys who wanna get beaten by them"
As I know most of the guys on the panel it's going to be quite entertaining.

yeah. Guys.

And some of you might have noticed that I am also a straight man.

And as I know that Modesty Blaise was created by men,as was Wonderwoman, Power girl, Supergirl, Catwoman, Elektra, Maggie the mechanic, Tara Chace, Promethea, Tank girl and even the women in Strangers in Paradise.

Those lucky enough to manage getting to Tähtivaeltajapäivä will get some...well most likely interesting answers.

I don't think I need to point out my view. Again.

See I stumbled on this picture, copyright by allan.williams24 in flickr



see? that there con picture has already better elements then most that hollywood has to offer.

A hot, strong independent female and cool monsters known as Predators.

Yeah, sure I know :there's "slice of life" stories too.
Oddly I think the characters they portray in that pic there would have much more interesting slices of life.

(the picture in question is also proof that the physique of female heroes is not wishful thinking on their male creators side)

To my opinion there are three maingroups that have a problem with this kind of heroines are the following:
1) the boys in my sons agegroup 7-10 years old.
The girls are icky to most of them. Give them time and this will change

2)people who dont feel that women are as capable as men.
To these there is no help. It takes a special kind of stupidity not to see beyond the gender, to the individual.
Sadly this group is protected by the same laws that apply to sane people.

and 3)false feminists.
These are the people who see repression and male chauvinism when you have a strong woman and when the woman isn't strong.
Unlike those who realize feminism as equality they have as limited view of both real world and fiction then their counterparts male chauvinists and the aforementioned group 2.
To their defense: they can re-evaluate their views given chance and persistance.

there are few reasons for this rant of mine.

one was the cracked-article about the 5 creepiest sex scenes in comics

the opening line and I quote:

If there's anyone who knows how to handle sex in a mature and tasteful way, well, it's not comic book writers

that sort of got me.

To write, to create, I feel I need to know what I am doing and why. Do I have an ulterior motive? A subversive one?

You see the dieselpunk story is advancing but there are two and because I would really like to have a female protagonist.
I dont feel ashamed to be a man. Men have caused loads of problems and while I can help in fixing existing ones the mistakes other men do and have done are theirs. Not mine.

And as I know I am ok with my sexuality. So it's not that either. But the number of bondage one stumbles on a normal search about this is baffling.


Those knowing me and my charmingly blunt bullterrier kind mentality, it cant be trying to pander to the masses.
Never understood why people would like to do something creatively just to appeal to others instead of doing stuff one themselves enjoys but isn't available.
If anyone else gets fun out of it, learns something or so on that's grand.

All these answers seemingly didn't tell me why my brain has decided that now is the time to have women, girls, grrllls and femme fatales as heroes.

One answer is there are now artists capable enough to present the fairer sex too.

And one is that I simply prefer beauty.
If there is no reason to choose a modern car in a story I choose a classic instead, the 1950s 1930's kind.
If there is a flyig machine of any kind in a story and it can be bi-plane or single prop engine or a zeppelin.
I rather use Alphonse Mucha instead of that god awful Jeff Koons.

Remember I said there were reasons, plural, to this post?
It pics like one before and this:


from Brian C Carters Fanboys dream.

Not showing them to more people would be a crime of some sort. A travesty against being geek and proud of it.

For the Empire!

So I am a Star Wars geek.
Who has a stormtrooper tattoo on his left bicep.
So I was over the moon when I heard there was a Jedi training Academy that trains Young preschoolers in the ways of force it made me smile a bit. and then came this:


Is she awesome or what?

That girl right there on the youtube clip is most likely your future dark overlady.

Also, the background study for dieselpunk story came up with her engineer corps: Mike Koehler is working on life-size, working AT-AT walker

These things regenerate my sole trust in the species, at least some of us work on keeping the world wonderfully weird and strange.

one story down, new one up

Wrote a draft of a post-apocalypse scifi story for Finncon 2011.
Not satisfied with the ending, too cheesy and corny but heck: I do despair, the hope part always kinda sucks.
And found this

That is genius.

That has to have a story of it's own too.
After all :if you dont stop toddlers in time they will destroy the world!

Registered Society of Hermits and Recluses

Creating comics is bit like writing: it is very lonely.
Most of it is in my case mostly sitting and writing, or reading background research(fact and fiction alike) or just being in ones thoughts.
For artists it's hours upon hours of finding referencematerial, models, pictures etc and doing sketches and trying out various angles and trying out styles of drawing painting and so on.
And like writers they train and hone their talents endlessly, finetuning and polishing stuff while doing rough drafts, going out of their comfort zone to improve their art.

But damn it's plenty of alonetime.

In worlds of art, whether graphic or writing, it is quite lonely and not just on top.

Dont get me wrong I love collaborating and the times I say the artist saves the script by his/her amazing talents making the story work it is not hype.
I know it works vice versa too, but I have been really lucky.

Yet this kind of creative work is mainly solitary. Musicians have gigs, actors have an audience but us comicsfolk? So far not so.
Our field is more personal and individual, closest I can now come up with is authors. But they have audiobooks that can be(theoreticly) enjoyed as a group too. Audiocomic might come in the future but still...

(this also shows why there is IDOLS but not Comicbook Idols. No, Stan Lee reality "who wants to be a superhero" does NOT count. Creating comics isn't all that good selling point to TV)

And it's not even a matter of fame or popularity. Humans just are social creatures.

Most of my collaborations are done by endless e-mails, phone calls and old school mails of scripts, sketches and finished pages and then we might get it published, by someone, somewhere.
At some point.

And most of the time there's just us and our passion as different con's are relatively few and far between.


So on monday I jumped once I got to Vandercon that is Jeff VanderMeer and Anne VanderMeer on a tour of Finland and europe.

They are continuing the tour and I for one loved it: the lecture, the banter.
So if you ever get a chance to meet up with them, use it.
New weird, old weird, scifi, fantasy...now I have even more ammunition of the mind regarding steampunk and squids.

And stuff.

And do chack out their websites: Jeffvandermeer.com and weird tales

Let slip the Werewolves of war.

Once more I am a day closer to death then I was yesterday.
And happy about it.

I consider myself gladly damned by the old chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."

And to prove it I jump from yesterdays much deserved praise for women to the other end of my inspiration: Horror. those of you expecting Twilight-type trite a) please go away and b) learn to read, I said Horror. As in :something scary.

While as of lately I have been introduced to US band My Chemical Romance (in spades) I can honestly say that Teenagers don't scare the living sh*t out me.
Nor vampires.

To me it's always been a mystery why vampires have been so popular.

Dracula's fine with all it's insidious little snipes at aristocracy, society, religion and of course sex and diseases.
If you are a horror fan (even if you aren't) these are given.
But I never got why settle for secondrate if you can have something better? Monarchy's all nice but while democracies and republics are less pompous we guys actually get stuff done. Empire has a nice ring to it, but then most of those are either ruined or mere shallow shades of their glory days.

Vampires and their fans are telling us that it's because vampires are in deepcore of horror: sex AND death.

Nope, sorry.
Nice sales pitch but I don't bite.

Sure you have the gothic chic, good looking aesthetics I'll give you that.

But see I am a goth too.

No, not in the way how it's seen now.
Not the stylized androgynous thingie of today that swears to Joy division.

The original goths.
The ones that sacked the roman empire.

See those barbarians were scary and had a real grasp of life. They were much closer to the true beast.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...the Werewolf.

See? now THAT is real face of our primal fears. That is raw sexuality and source of nightmares considering one's mortality.

Yes, I heard you in the back row...very quaint and ironic the "*cough* vampires can turn to wolves and smoke*cough*"quip.

Righty.

Sorry to rain on your parade but the dentally challenged guys have more deficiences than advantages, in pop culture and the original folklore:

-sunlight burns, either just bit beyond the carrot tan or far beyond TexMex BBQ rib
-cant cross running water (considering the number of real cities on riverbanks..)
-cant enter buildings unless invited, "no second date for you, mope as much as you want!"
-stopped by garlic. My guess is no-one has (yet) tried plain pizza herb. Probably works too.
-decapitation and a stake though heart. Wow,the first of these that makes any sense

and, oh...

-stopped by religious symbols. This cracks me up on so many levels.

Holy water and crosses are commonly used shenanigans but why stop there?
Just think of David's star-shaped shurikens and since christian faith has common ground not only with judaism but islam too it explains why there are no eco-vampires: if green is a holy color...(and also explains why one of best vampires in comics, Cassidy from Preacher, is so rare: being irish)

So yes, the vampires can turn to wolves or to smoke.
As a defense mechanism under the three F's rule against werewolves.

The smoke gives Flee a chance via intangibility as does wolf-form.
Turning into a wolf makes Fight a bit more of a sane tone, if not utterly desperate one, as far as options go.
The third F ... well being the polar opposite of FIGHT the turning into wolf is the fangy kinds last ditch "pleaseohplease dont hurt me" choice.
(and turning to smoke is a one try in avoiding that exact fate)
Not the dumbest move the vampires can make.

Those in the know might point out that I have actually written about vampires, in comics as well as in the sequal of sort's to Run Monster, run ( a tale I wrote to Comicmonsters.com ,a great site for any fan of horrorcomics or the genre)in it's the Britain set romp Bloody high stakes.

In that as well as in my comics work they are mostly cannonfodder.
To me the vampire isn't an archetype.
It's more of a stock bad guy that is easy to use since everyone knows it and no-one gives a toss if you do something heinous to them.
A bit like the nazis.
They too had awesome clothes design by Hugo Boss, made very little sense and also had their asses handed to them.

But as I lately read Run Monster run again in order to see if I could turn it into a comicscript and in the process I also read the still unfinished Bloody high stakes.
So, I wrote this story with creatures that I don't give a rodents bottom about? But not about the real deal?
Now, let's add that to my list.
A werewolf story.
That is going to be fun.

After all, life is short and one has to make choices: cats or dogs (DOGS), Doors or Mötorhead (Jim Morrison is dead, Lemmy Rocks) prancing glowing jedi-ripoffs with quasireligious BS=Twilight or Horror (ok, so this defies the multiple in multiple choice. as if there was an option..)

Besides, the werewolf is proud sly daddy to the best monsters of them all: the unstoppable Jason Vorhees, the harrowing bogeyman Michael Myers are the modern slasher offspring of the werewolf .
Hailing back from viking berserkers in their bear- and wolfskins.
The duality of werewolf ancestry is seen in the many glorious versions of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

Those of you who thought that Jason and Halloween's main man are sole descentants of the beast... in the lineage of every slasher and serial killer from far too real Jack the Ripper to Dexter or that nice Bates-boy running his motel, there rises the shape of the wolf.
The roar and howl taints even pages of seemingly safe and spandexy atomic age superhero comics. The gamma radiation might have changed the furcoat to green muscles but the reason HULK of Marvel comics is tattooed on my leg is that he is also one of the members in the pack.

We humans are basicly are still (and will be )primitive. We are scared of the dark.

We should be.
Bad Moon is rising.

The wolves are coming.

Babe-a-rama

Being sick means I can't sleep properly and while I would love to write the stories I have decided to use this post to shamelessly put out some pieces of inspiration to me.

at this point you people should not be surprised.

Not really.

I know terribly sexist of me and for some probably degrading to women or some such. You notice me caring about that kind of un-necessary PC trite then congratulations you have just met my changeling.

I love my women as women: curves required but one thing is mandatory. Brains. I know, I know. On the above pic it's not brains you see at first, but I'd like to think so. Otherwise it is just a glorius waste up there.

In women at their best there is both, the inner beauty and strenght and the outer looks. And what wondrous creatures they are. I have no problem delving into mindscape of martian warlords or street tough guys but to write about females... it's scary, challenging and more alien then xenomorphs.

And I find it a bit peculiar why there are so few female heroines out there. I mean women and girls can relate to them better then at the male scarred warveteran down on his luck and for the guys(and more than some girls) it has added bonus of catching their attention better. Once they snap out the drooling phase, that is.

So there are already a couple of irons in fire on my account, since no one else seems to be doing it, i am very lucky to have an partner, both in our artistic disorganized crime and in life, that does things like this: I know that the androidwoman is a fictious character, but see the strenght? The resolve? Beauty and composure and all the immensity and complexity that she possesses? I for one am in love, or the very least swept off my feet in infatuation with the maturity and sensuality the character has.

It's funny to think though. I have been lucky to work with both my dark gothy queen Sari Sariola(who still has a script or two, or three(or more..) to work on) and afore mentioned Julia Riitijoki and dumbfoundingly talented Katja Louhio. All are good, if not great, artists in their own right, but they can breathe life into female characters in subtle ways so simply that it is unfathomable for most male artists. I like my women as smart, strong and sexy on their own terms and rights in real life. And these talented women can make it happen in comics pages too. I don't know if world needs that, but that's what I want.

And that's what I am going to do and if dark gods of comics are on my good side these art goddessess shall come to my rescue and will plow down any and all resistance in their way.

Seize the day back for heroines in comics.

And on an endnote: those of you who stumbled or googled here because of the name and expected too see sexy pics of Rama, one of best female comic artists northern europe has to offer in her own right(no Rama, it really is true )you better check Ms Mandus Oblivion High to see that, then boy are you in trouble because I happen to know her.

She can kick your ass so watch out.

Something new, something blue, something elder...

Been married once and I am one of those who tries to learn from their mistakes instead of repeating them. But I am also among those never got the memo about "giving up" On about anything. Reason I babble incoherently this time is that I had the pleasure of chatting with yet another artist after some unfortunate hiatus. And it made me pumped to hear he might actually be working on a comic in near future. Being an avid fan of comics I rejoiced as Hannu Lipponen is not only smart guy with a sense of humor but as an artist belongs to a class of his own. Like many other honestly good artists he also is far too modest and overtly critical of his work. I have many faults but modesty isn't one of them. He is astounding. to make matter more clear here's something for your consideration. Few years back I wrote piece of Mythos. Yeah a modern day yarn of cosmic horrors beyond euclid timespace, so immense they are beyond good and evil. The beings that will undoubtably crush all mankind as byproduct of their existance. So I belong to HPL fanboy club, your point? But anyways, there was a comicproject that has been on ice for three to four years now but this script lead me to talks with Hannu Lipponen. He made some unfinished sketches. Um yeah. See this is "unfinished sketch of Cthulhu's eye in that comic:

yes. that is Unfinished. Yes that is a sketch. Someday that comic of forbidden knownledge and library set horror will be hopefully published, most likely on the hour the stars are right...IÄ! IÄ!

I await the day I pick any comic sporting his art with excitement.

The (common) Cold war and other miseries

I am at the moment in throes of common cold. Well as common as any cold ever is.
One of those moments when reading news about antibiotic-resistant superbacteria that's just...fitting.

The cold just happens to mess up both. The plan to go to London's Kapow comic con and the contingency plan the finnish Tampere kuplii comic event

how nice.

Now as I have gotten most of tight spandexclad stories out of my system for the moment(undoubtably short moment but still) and pulpy dieselpunk is on it's way for april as well I am finding enjoyment in action fiction.

I just watched The Company miniseries and the buxom goddess with brains that happens to be my GF got me spyactionfest adapted(cough*quiteliberally"adapted"*cough) from comicbook that is RED.
Fun with spies and violencein company of a nerdy female beauty.
Screw you influenza. I win.

This reminded my croggy gray cells (of brain-kind, not terrorists or aliens) that wait didn't I do some silly draft's about the subject?
Why Yes I did.
And apparently I still have them.

Just blow some dust off it, polish a bit and fix the story a bit. Make it more angletonian wilderness of mirrors with hardcore assassins...
and it gives me an excuse to show this picture:

Done by young, immensely talented graphic designer/comic artist that goes in DevArt by sig Penuser just click the link on the name to see more of his art.

You wont regret it.

Taking the above pictures inspiration and my previous notes and despite the flu: I am cooking with gas.

Update on comicprogress

Some time ago I finished script for Koneballeriina(MACHINEBALLERINE in direct translation, the name works way better in Finnish I tell you) And with extreme stroke of luck I got Katja Louhio as the artist for it. I am not known for my luck but in this case what ever dark gods chant their curses at me, now they either missed or decided to give the poor bastisch a break. the evidence is some selected pagesketches from upcoming Koneballeriina #1 page 3 shows off nice composition and both the heroine and of course the villain of the story. here's page seven. these and much, much more at Katja's blog vampkis.blogspot.com and there is even more at her personal blogpage KaBlob She is one of up and coming stars this country has to offer. edit: like with ANY picture I post: just click it to see as it is supposed to be seen. Not really a computer wizard. More like computer orc. If it doesn't work I hit it. That is unfortunately true as GF will most likely tell you all.... I am truly honored to work with her.

April fools month, part deux or bloody something

Been sick. Not fun. I Sound like Darth Vader's apprentice, the one with severe throat cancer. The dieselpunk is advancing nicely, as it should and even as my brain is filled to the brim with apparently sharks made of cottonwool it is still moving ever onwards. As in : new stories. right. I have(once more) 10-20 stories unfinished and there's a new one. Dear reader(s)...ever heard of the town of Roanoke? Blood will flow....

And now for some defreshments

I am cranking scripts left and right and coming up with new ones. And even as statistics are on my side, I mean once one does enough(as in hell of a lot) scripts there is bound to be some that actually are worth a damn. But then I do what all comicwriters do: I hope the artist saves my butt. So far the artists have a heck of a track record in that. So instead of talking stuff I intend to do here is some coming out within a week or so. First a preview from a piece of sentimentalism and warmth that shows that yes men have feelings too: sakkearts is pretty talented guy whose DApage ought to be viewed more. In the same issue there is also a silent story about a feral boy raised by ravens and hooded crows. And a girl. Art by Julia Riitijoki. so the cranky hermit get's something done too every once in a while. There are some awesome tasters to add but let's leave that for later. See? It is amazing what good artists can do. Now back to dieselpunk with a vengeance. edit. those experiencing problems with pics, why yes I am a luddite whose computer skills are limited to temper and use of hammer. How did you guess?

Shoutout

As it is comicrelated too: go see preview art of Finncon Animecon 2011. see more of android beauty at sarisariola.blogspot.com you wont regret it.

Mightier than sword

actually doing background research can be harmful. Sort of anyways. See the biggest problem isn't it's arduousness, no I am not sweating my brow and spending sleepless nights due to lack of information. Ideas are very virulent. And unlike many other diseases you don't develope an immunity once you have had one. No. It gets worse. Progressively worse. I was indulging myself to land of enginegrease and zeppelins for dieselpunk and went through writers friends, characters in public domain. "Oh the hack can't cut it himself? Can't think of your own characters then?" Nope, I just don't need to invent the wheel if I want to design a car. And also so I know to scrap the idea if my new idea for a carmodel that I have named Ford isn't really all that new of an idea. But the point was I came across Dave Sim's Cerebus. You must know it. It is Conan the barbarian but in it Conan is an aardvark. It's pretty good and get this: Dave Sim has said that once he dies, Cerebus is public domain. The character is usable to any story, no copyright infringement none what-so-ever. No 70 years waiting period after his death. While Cerebus isn't Spiderman or TMNT (My son loved the Turtles few years back, I think he stil does and through his eyes, so do I nowadays) it is still cult/underground hit. And while it ran for 300 issues 1977-2004 by Dave Sim for 6 000 pages there might be still a stories to tell with the aardvark. So was my bright idea to tell a Cerebus tale? Clone a Conan clone? No. My idea was about an artist who has stories to tell about Cerebus. You know the type. He has the drive, feels how this story these visions of his would be his way to comicbook superstardom. All he needs is to use Cerebus as character, he has the pages drawn, the storyarcs plotted written and even might have a publisher for it too. But Dave Sim is alive. So he needs a hitman. Someone to kill Dave Sim so the rights for Cerebus go to public domain. Yeah. I read a piece of info, an artists gesture to fans of his creations, and subsequently went straight into vicious crimestory terrain with it. At some point I got to do it. Write the story, not assasinate Dave Sim. Because that plan is going to hell.

The most dangerous thing in the world.

Yeah an idea.




A library is a wondrous thing. The plethora of knownledge and inspiration comes to my rescue once more.

Found so many new interesting things that practically write themselves.
Now I am leaning more in vein of Dieselpunk.


Back to good old pulp.

Wait...what?

Sweet Cthulhu on a tricycle...what did I say in the previous message? A whole new story? in one month? Just another fine mess I got myself into.... see us writers get asked "where do you get your ideas?". Not very often though. Usually everyone assumes falsely that everything just springs out of the artist's quill/pencil and writers are somewhat glorified letterers, with way worse handwriting. But to the question. Harlan Ellison famously answered that his ideas came from a post office box in Schenenactady, if you send in two dollars and a selfaddressed stamped envelope they send an idea back to you. Well, that's great you say. It would be if did not live in Finland where the national post office is the last refuge of utter and total bureaucratic ineptitude. I made them sound bad when they actually are quite efficient: letters and packages they can't destroy beyond rescue they lose. Therefore, back to square one. (in all honesty, the Finnish post might have send me more than a few of mr.Ellison's ideas by mistake) Now I need to think. That is some dangerous business. Ok, off to library.

What I love

um... well... yes.
I love women and comics and lately I have written about them. There have been actual jobs to do instead, some which to my shame are still hanging for so long they can have birthdays(and no, not in dogyears), but I have tried to come get my game on.

With comics. Yeah with comics that's ALL I meant.(yes, my beloved reads this occasionally and even though she knows me: better safe than sorry).

I have a theory.
The best work comes out when you take things you love, things you are interested in and do that.
Screw esteem or what others think.
Yes there are themes and points that would sell better.
And since I am more than prone to severe bouts of depression it has actually helped me be happier person.

I have succumbed to the fact that oh, yes world needs even more superheroes like Sotanorsu(Warelephant)

here pencilled & inked to flesh by talented Rami Rautkorpi.

Sure that Rautkorpi can draw (he really truly can) but why yet another spandex boy?
Because there wasn't one like him before and I wanted to read a story like that.
Same applies to all creations in genre, I write the kind of stories I would pick up.

And I don't like just superheroes.
I watch and read endless amounts of horror, crime and scifi. No, not forgetting fantasy(the barbarian medieval with dragons kind, not the one with...yeah you get the picture).

but I never liked JRR Tolkiens LoTR as basis. Why not wars of Vietnam or Afganistan as basis for fantasy? Wait I wrote short story like that once...with lizardman helping kings troops..oh right. The point I was making.

So as it is as I know what I like in many varying genres but far too seldom have any luck finding something living up to my expectations: it's better to do it myself.
(yeah, well the writing part as I am not known for my skills in artdept.)

but wait there is more( I promise read the manic rambling to the end, there might be a point to it[well there is a chance for that too...] but I'll post a pic at least. One I have not drawn)
I have a pencahnt of making everything massive and convoluted. It is because I love research. It is a blast to find out stuff of how the world works, how species became extinct, the male german officers who thought they were pregnant or details of forensics etc.

but that's just half of the fun. Ok so I have at the moment I think 8 reviews to be done, 3 horror stories, an alieninvasion tale, drugwar and some others in the making.
Oh and one postapocalypse science fiction piece.

But here is the thing. I try to write, during april, here a story. That's right. a full comic script most likely from 10-20 pages worth of comic.
On basis that it's something I would read but so far it either doesn't exist, or at least I have never heard of it.

And of course find someone to draw it.

So that's the plan.
thankfully I have a backup plan:


It's going to be interesting.

Off to war.

No not me personally as FDF(Finnish Defence Force) has not issued mass consription or anything.

But comicswise.

you see I am a warnerd.

I am and have been interested in the many facets of warfare in both it's terror and beauty. The fact is many of us owe more to warfare than it is PC to think.

Most painkillers, penicillin and majority of modern western medicine were in fact developed to keep the fighting forces fighting longer and in better shape than the advesaries troops (no, not a Fables reference. But if you have not read the Fables go do it. NOW!).

but it's not just advancement in thinking that war brings out. It brings out the absolute worst we are capable as species. And the absolute best.

War creates heroes. No I do not believe that there are the "Good guys" and the "Bad guys" but there are brave people on all sides as there practically never are just two sides to any conflict.

Working slowly on a comic project influenced by DMZ, Unknown soldier (Dysart Ponticelli version) and Blazing combat and naturally gazillion reference books and documentaries.