CGI

CGI
It's taken so long to get this guy off the ground and on the site because he is just so silly looking. Not that that's a bad thing the object of this is parody after all. Besides, if Ben Edlund could get away with Chairface Chipenale on the Tick, I figure it's all fair game.

He's the Mysterio counterpart in the Hate-Filled Half Dozen. His background is video game design. He helped develop one of the biggest flops in console entertainment. It was the virtual 3DSpere system. Everyone who ever played it got vertigo or some other nauseating symptoms. He was laughed out of the business and would "never work in this town again." He had to take an IT support job to make ends meet. And he hated every minute of that crap. He was so close to fulfilling his dream.

Now all that got in his way were going to experience his nightmare. He refined his gaming technology achieving interactive 3D hologram hard light constructs. And he used it for evil. This led to him crossing paths with the Grasshopper/Cricket. And that meeting ended with his defeat. Now the Cricket/Grasshopper is on his revenge list.
Cal O'Marley has been in contact with CGI since then. And now the Heroic Protagonist is going to pay.

Fried Squid - Cal O'Marley PHD.

Slight Redux.
The mask is a bit different here, just simplifying his look as I will have to draw the thing repeatedly. Also though this is intended to be silly, the original design is a little too silly for my liking. This new look is much more to my liking.

Cricket vs. Grasshopper who will win?

I'm thinking Cricket is simpler, but for some reason I was so very against it when I first came up with the character. It had to be Grasshopper. It just had to be, but I'm really warming to the idea of cricket.
Jiminy even.

Okay So, here's BeeBoy.

Okay, so, this is Beeboy the Stunning Beeboy. He's been in my head and sketch pads since 1997. I even started developing a story with him and an even older character of mine, Captain Small-Fro. I was going for an inner-city feel mixed with the satire of The Tick. My brother thought it was to silly an idea to pursue so I abandoned it for a long while. Beeboy always had a little real estate in the darker corners of my mind though. Beeboy as seen in the collage above was originally going to be very street level with a costume easily assembled with clothes from any sporting goods store. The pants were nylon sweat pants, they were really popular at the time, with one leg rolled up which was also, inexplicably popular at the time. The lesson here is not to design costumes based on trends and short term fads.

Anywho, Beeboy was to be a play on words. He has powers related to the bee, which as we all know is an insect that can sting you and pollinates flowers and produces honey. He also is a B-Boy or break dancer. His fighting style had break dancing moves and is heavily rooted in capoeira.


Below are a few pages I was working on for a fund raiser comic I was trying to get done in April for the MoCCA Arts Festival. I missed the deadline of course and slowed to a crawl in development.


But, after a talk with some friends Memorial Day Weekend at a BBQ, I was rejuvenated and so was Beeboy. How long with this burst of inspiration last? Long enough to continue doing this forever I hope. Stay with me people, I will not leave you for so long again. And Beeboy will be frickin' everywhere.

Now off to work, I have promises to keep.

New Pic, same OLD BUZZARD

Electric Bill

Madame Mudpie - Hate-Filled Half Dozen

Her name is Mud.
Mudpie to be technical about it, Madame Mudpie. She's the Sandman counterpart to the Hate-Filled Half Dozen. She was a regular girl once. Then she got involved in the world of mud wrestling. She hit all the local circuits and became a real contender. Her coaches trained her in Greco-Roman wrestling, even a little Sumo wrestling and some Judo. She was serious about being one of the best, some of the other girls resentedher for this and after Mudpie's championship match they poured her a victory mudbath, with mud from a toxic landfill in New Jersey. This set her body into shock and all the other girld ran away frightened, but not before she got a good look at the perpetrators. Her coach gets her to the hospital and watches over her hoping she would recover. He's called away to fill out the paperwork and when he returns to her room, all he sees left of her is a smear of mud on her bedsheets. So the coach goes home after a while trying to figure out what happened. MM is at his house waiting for him also seeking answers, but when the coach sees her he has a heart attack at the sight of MM. She looks like she's melting before his eyes. So she sets off after her attackers one by one after she learns how to use her toxic mud powers. She also seeks money for a cure to her problems. This is how she first encounters the Bounding Grasshopper. He bests her in a fight and she falls in love with him. But he refuses her love, adding insult to injury. So she still wants him, but is mad he turned her down. So when Cal O'Marley PHD invites her to join in the conspiracy to take down TBG, she knows she can't pass up this opportunity.

I wanted her appearance to be simple and a little understated, but readily identifiable, like the Sandman. I went with the lumberjack plaid pattern for the top, which isn't as simple as I thought it would be, and some black leggins for pants. Finally threw in some red Chuck Taylor's to make it complete. I like the way it came out and think the dynamic of the character gives her strength and a tragic past you can sympathize with.

The next guy on the list is just a jerk though.

Calvin O'Marley, PHD - Hate-Filled Half Dozen

Cal(vin) O'Marley, PHD is the Doctor Octopus of our Hate-Filled crew. A different look all together for this guy, a different approach to a power set too. No metal arms, but he's a hard guy to fight. I also drew inspiration from another Ditko series, the new Blue Beetle. In the first issue of his run BB faced the Squid Gang. I discovered them in a ditko search. I already knew I wanted this character to be squid based, had the mask worked out for a few years, but the squids gave me another power that seemed logical for the character.

He has a gun that shoots "ink," his goggles on his mask can see different frequencies of light and his costume is used for camouflage and can blend into any environment. On top of that he can climb walls with his strategically placed suction cups, that are powered by high velocity vacuums, for surfaces that aren't very smooth. These high power suction cups are very focused when needed and he can selectively attract objects to him from as far as 30 yards away. And when he grabs a victim he uses the suction cups to knock out or poison the victim. His suit is padded and augments his strength. He has an apparatus on his mask that allows him to breathe underwater. He might be more than a grasshopper can handle. But he isn't, he's been beaten many times, that's why he calls together five other villains who have been equally humiliated by a pesky little bug.

He was a former marine biologist working for a major university that had his funding pulled. But he was so passionate about his work he wouldn't let a little thing like a the law get in hi way. In keeping with an aquatic theme he would attack luxury cruise ships, private yachts and transport ships filled with jewels or technology he would find particularly useful. This is how he first encounters the Bounding Grasshopper. Also how he suffers his first defeat.

Next up in the line-up is the Sandman analog.
It's an interesting take on the character, hope you likey.
I'll try to have it up soon.

That Old Buzzard - Hate Filled Half Dozen

This here is the Vulture analog for my project, The Hate-Filled Half Dozen.
He's That Old Buzzard. I'm starting with him in the line-up because the Vulture was the first member of the Sinister Six to appear in Amazing Spider-Man. He's been around since issue 2. So in thinking of Spidey's rogues for my guys I wanted to get as far away from the look and feel as possible, but when I thought of the vulture the name for that old buzzard popped into my head straight away. And I built the idea for him around that. Old guy that's kind of creepy and quite cantankerous. Though with research I discovered that buzzards are actually hawks with very wide wingspans. The Turkey Buzzard was the look I was going for. For the look to come to life I went with a bomber jacket and light red spandex/bodysuit. I also thought flight goggles would fit the character. As the costume came to life so did the back story. He's a war vet that was in the air force and ran a touring airshow, piloting old bi-planes. He based his whole show on old war planes and the modern crowd wanted a lot more pizazz and well, modern planes. So he went out of business, and had nothing to fall back on, a veteran's monthly benefit wasn't enough for him, he was used to the high life of his early days. So to get money and get revenge he sought to rob the more modern airshows ticket and souvenir money. He constructed working wings that he attached to his old bomber jacket and went to town on the competition until he faced the Bounding Grasshopper at an airshow. * he just happened to be in the crowd when That Old Buzzard was robbing the place. After a few bitter defeats at the hands of the Grasshopper he was filled with hate for the hopper, more than modern airshows.
When he gets an invitation to get rid of his problem, he is quick to accept. Where'd the invitation come from. We'll see who next time.

Bright Ideas

So, it begins. This here is the Bounding Grasshopper. The seldom seen heroic antagonist for the upcoming series. I'm toying around with the name Lucas Locasti for his alter ego. But I'm not sure how much of a backstory I intend for him to have. He's the focus of the villainous protagonists, the Hate-Filled Half Dozen. They come up with plans that The Grasshopper easily foils. As The Grasshopper is an analog to spidey, The Half Dozen are analogs to the Sinister Six. Some of the guys have had gender realignment for my stories. And some are interesting takes on the original Ditko characters. I'm toying with the idea of trying to ape Ditko's style for this series. That'll take some work, but it might add to it's charm. Anyway. This is the start.

Little Old Ideas

They may not be BIG NEW IDEAS, but they can grow on you. So I had this little old idea for a comic strip/web comic and it's been growing slowing. Taking shape in my mind. And Now it wants to live. So I've been writing and sketching seeing what works and what is dreadful...keeping some of the dreadful to make it work out in the end.

The basic idea I've been developing revolves around less than competent criminals, super powered criminals discussing their defeats at the hand of a young hero and their plans to unite and destroy this hero. But they end up being pipe dreams, because they don't have the money to follow through with their plans. It's a group of six villains in an homage/parody of the Sinister Six with analogs to the original members if that group. The hero is a Spider-Man analog, but he's not the emphasis of the stories.

I will be posting character sketches and designs first, then I'll move on to the series.
I'm Ironing out the kinks, but some kinks make for interesting patterns.

So, that's my little old idea.

Come Follow Me on this journey.