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.

Proud dad of a zombie chimpanzee

Well actually I do have a great son, but as a scriptwriter I just saw in the artist's blog a sketch of a zombiechimpanzee. see:

Even better then I thought. Man am I lucky to have such talent to breathe life into these demented creations.

And you guys thought it is possible to survive a zombie apocalypse...yeah right

My girlfriend calls me retard. I think she's right.

So I started this blog ages ago and then life just once more happened. The woman I share my life with has asked repeteadly why I stopped writing my blog.
I actually had no good reason what so ever.
As I have not stopped reading comics nor writing comics and according to her people do read this...the title stands correct as it is.

I have delved lately into wonderful world of superhero comics and written around 200+ pages of that subject matter.
latest of these is upcoming Koneballeriina (finnish, my native speak, for "machineballerine") that I have high hopes as art is supplied by wonderfully talented Katja Louhio.
And while here I blabber about boring writing stuff (as us egomaniacal writers do) the gorgeous art can be seen at vampkis.blogspot.com , a blog most definately worth checking out.

Well that wasn't so hard. Even for a lazy hermit.