Motor Toxic Avenger Head

It's a busy period so far.

The Motorhead project is complete! You can pre-order at Z2 Comics. They make some beautifully printed luxury books and I’m happy to be part of them! Instagram.

Lemmy from the Motorhead comic book anthology I participated in. I had such high hopes to do some awesome art but I didn’t have enough time to put in to the story. I had a transcript from a Zoom video of Kim McAuliffe from the band Girl School. No panel breakdowns, just cram it in to 4 pages. I crammed.

Writing is hard for me. I want my words to be this wonderful dynamic composition of cleverness and drama with maybe a little whimsey for spice. I’ve mastered a lot of different mediums: pencils, macaroni and gold spray paint, I can use all the Crayola colors,…I have made images with so many different materials but words are a struggle. I had to break down a transcript for this Motorhead anthology called “No Remorse” so I could fit this rambling story in to four pages. I was very excited to rise to this challenge but… mostly it was my technique. I seem unable to simplify my painting technique. I pared it down, for me anyway, but it looks unfinished in a lot of places.

A panel from the 4th page of my Lemmy story. This is the part when Lemmy answers the door. I’m so fuck’n good at teasing a story!

Why didn’t I have time to devote to this? Because I said “yes” to two projects in November. This one and the Toxic Avenger. Freelancer hell came in January when the script for Toxic Avenger came in the day before the Motorhead material showed up. I struggled to start the Motorhead project since I almost always work with a full script from a professional writer. I got the transcript with all the “ums”, and “I don’t knows”, etc. left in and a note from the editor requesting not to change the words. I turned it in about 5 days late.

This is a panel in the first issue when Melvin is seeing what he’s turned in to for the first time. I’ve seen what the colorist has done on the first few pages and am looking forward to seeing what he does with the last batch I sent in!

Toxy! I am rushing a little on this project but I am slowing down to dig in to the parts that need digging. The last few pages of the first issue are some of my favorites. I am totally enjoying working with Matt Bors the writer, and Tom Peyer the editor. Matt is cool because he’s also an artist and is pretty good at describing visuals and understanding what I am trying to add to what he’s done. Tom is great because I only hear from him when he needs to step in, and that is almost as often as the upcoming eclipse! heh.

The pencil stage. I switched to the kind of mechanical pencils that are the .3mm and .5mm 2B or just B leads. I have almost always used the 2.0 leads for over 30 years because I like to use the side of the lead so they have more line width range. BUT, I’m a sucker for packaging. I saw this little green .5mm pencil that was the length of my middle finger looking at me like a desperate kitten in a rescue shelter and I had to buy it. It already knew how to use the litter box and everything!

I have some plans in the works, or rather, some ideas for plans that I hope will work. I will attempt to be as regular as I can at these word compositions every Friday but I say that to myself all the time and occasionally here. Deadlines have a way of screwing that up and then there’s the eclipse mania and toxic kittens all pulling up on their Harley and saying “Get on!” So I get on the train… what, you think I’m getting on the back of a motor cycle with some catnip-crazed eclipse observing kitten that can’t reach the handle bars???

This is the scene that Toxy realizes that art degree he spent ten years to achieve is worthless!

I love to hear from anyone who has made it this far. Please leave a “hello” or something in the comments. I try to respond to everything and if anyone else responds to you I’m sure they will be cool. I don’t think anyone who reads/looks at my Substack is mean and they are probably a really nice person such as yourself. So why not make a new friend?