A Booty Babe.

Finished Essential Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 — Sha-Shan! Sha-Shan!

Jumped to Afrodisiac by Jim Rugg, which is awesome. Blaxploitation meets Will Eisener meets 70s Marvel. Production of the book is right up there with Super Spy by Matt Kindt.

Currently, I’m reading through…coughcoughessentialdazzlercoughcoughvolumeonecoughcough with the Complete Torpedo Vol. 1 on standby. Gotta love  some Alex Toth and Jordi Bernet.

The latest volume of Rachel Rage is at the printers (finally) and it’s time to get serious about a new “feature length” strip, of which I have a chapter completely colored until I added in some new panels this week. I expect to have the new strip up and running this month.

Only thing left to do is arrange panels and letter ‘em.

Just a heads up, I should be updating the new strip on a more frequent basis instead of massive uploads. Chapter quick links will be included regardless.

I’m almost ready to financially commit to Baltimore Comic Con. And, I’m also looking at a Georgia show sometime in August. May’s schedule is seeing some reworking, too.

A drawing requested by a chap.

A first draft. Definitely a cover or print.

From preliminary sketch to (really, really rough) roughs to inks. Colors soon.

or covers?

Working on a third cover, or maybe a print, for the new Rachel Rage book going to press this week.

I’ll post the rough pencils (maybe the uber-rough preliminary sketch) and hopefully the inked version tonight.

Check back later.

Bedtime reading: Atomic Robo Vol. 2.

and the Ringmaster of the Circus of Crime get a pass?

I’ve been sucked into the first volume of Essential Spectacular Spider-Man for a week – I don’t know why when there is a stack of must-reads ready for my eyeballs.

I did enjoy the “horse paste” a hero cop used by mixing heroin and water to gunk up the Beetle’s suction tentacles and the constant WTF moments following Flash Thompson’s love interest Sha Shan as she becomes a cult leader turned dupe for the Hate Monger who is revealed to be some mutated dog like man-beast.

Anyway, Hypno Hustler appears — same gimmick as the Ringmaster. Instead of visual hypnotism like the Ringmaster, the Hypno Hustler’s disco music does the trick and he makes out with club goers wallets and jewelry.

But, HH is a throwaway villain and the Ringmaster lived on making appearances (in my comic collection) into the early 90s. Now, both aren’t the best baddies, but really, if one were to hypnotize an group of people, where would one make out with more diamonds and cash? A roadside circus or the club?

Yeah.

In one issue, Peter Parker took a bitchin’ front page photo of a hero cop on top of a car lunging off a bridge. I can’t figure out how he managed to do that considering Parker, as Spider-Man, was webbing the car from behind. A car lunging off a bridge into water. Sooooooo, how would Spidey hide a camera suspended in mid-air?

My head hurts now — maybe the end of Superman: The Motion Picture will help my logic needs.

I’m not used to being on the business end of an interview.

And, did it show.

Way back at HeroesCon, RodBuddah at Planet Griffin used recorded notes in an interview — haven’t seen anything posted. Not calling you out, Rod! Seriously. In hindsight, my answers were probably a jumbled mess and with the din of a convention, well, might as well scrap the tape, or mp3.

Last week I received a Q&A interview by e-mail. And, in my defense, I was jumping back from work and interview on the laptop and probably not doing justice to either. Actually, according to the girlfriend, it sucked.

She was right.

The best description of a shotgun shit splatter — answers to question 1 are located in the response to question 2 and the same goes for 3 and 4. By question 7, I had it right. Of course, identifying where one could locate Rachel Rage works, didn’t allow for elaboration thus no opportunity for a winding and twisting narration to nowhere.

Yeesh.

When the interview and review is posted online, it will be linked here without hint or commentary of the reviewer’s reaction allowing anybody to go in flinching as I typically do.

My mind races to squeeze out as much information as possible bottlenecking at the tongue. I know this and, yet, I’ll work on it later. How much damage can I do if nobody knows what I’m talking about right?

To quote myself (oddly, my ego knows no bounds): Being one’s worst critic and a self-promoter is a conflict of interest.

Speaking of Rod, I’ve seen him promote first hand, he’s pretty damn good.

And further south in South Carolina, Jay Potts at World of Hurt is a good interview, as heard on a SiDEBAR podcast.

So, after listening to both, maybe undergoing the interview process takes a few attempts for some.

God forbid somebody records me again and  having to edit the ramblings of somebody who sounds like a 90-year-old nursing home resident.

Still in awe of being nominated for a 2010 Glyph Rising Star as announced throughout comic b00k related web sites. Where did that come from?

Like the annual GhettoManga Awards, I didn’t see those nominations coming either.

I’m very flattered and honored for the nods, creatively they tell me that I may be on the right path.

Just found out about this today. But, I was nominated for a 2010 Rising Star Award as part of the East Coast Black Age of Comics Con (ECBACC) Glyph Awards — go here. Looks like I gotta update the masthead and a banner to-be-printed for comic shows.

Also, Jay Potts of www.worldofhurtonline.com, a fellow South Carolina-based artist, was nominated for quite a few Glyph Awards.

Decisions, decisions.

Which one do you like?