Exquisite Corpses V2

 

1 3 5 sample CROP

This is a page from a ‘rough’ proof for Exqusite Corpses v2 that just arrived from Lulu (not on sale to the general public yet). Here we see the head of an angel with the body of an armored fiend and the legs of a space man alien. If you missed it the first time around, EC is a book with pictures of monsters divided into heads, bodies and legs/feet and by flipping the 3 tabs you can mix and match to create the creatures that mythology was always coming up with that stuck the ass of one thing onto the head of another. EC v1 was a crude product, but the idea was sound… this time I’ve teamed up with LOFP publishing to make it better. You can read old posts from this website on it.

How is it going to be better? The above illustrations, even in this crude proof, are much better than the ones from ECv1 and Jim Raggi encouraged me to do the book in COLOR (don’t be fooled by the fact that this preview is in B&W — this version is just a means for me to proof other issues) so in the final product they will be even better. We went from 26 ‘base creatures’ (for 17576 possible combinations) to 40 ‘base creatures’ (for 64000 possible combinations!). The text was moved off the drawing onto the facing page… so when you look at the angel’s head, everything you need to know (how smart he is, alignment, special powers, etc.; all the ‘gamey’ stuff) will be on the tab just to the left of it, etc. Each ‘part’ (head, body, tail/legs) also has a small table with unique qualities that can be determined at random that is unique to each monster… so the fish entry will have ‘fish-like’ super powers or flaws for the head, tail and body… the ‘angel’ entry will have angel powers (or flaws) for the head, tail and body, etc. Instead of being a ‘Lulu’ product, the new book will be a professionally printed book with die-cut tabs… meaning you don’t need to slit the pages along a dotted line yourself before use. And it will be printed much more nicely (in Finland!).

The book is ‘universal’ system and uses general properties, so it can easily be converted to your game system of choice. If you are not a gamer, the book is still fun for just creating strange, funny or bizarre creatures by flipping the tabs.


Exquisite Corpses: Not Dead Yet

Exquisite Corpses - the original edition

Exquisite Corpses – the original edition

A search of this blog will reveal that long ago I released a little book called ‘Exquisite Corpses’ which was my love note to medieval bestiaries, the AD&D Monster Manual and mythology. It will also reveal that LotFP is going to publish a revised edition at some undisclosed date in the future and that the project is YEARS behind schedule. I was talking to a number of people about it recently and wanted to say that it is neither gone nor forgotten — just delayed because I am crap at enforcing my own deadlines on myself.

The original had 26 monsters that could be combined to create something like ~17,000 unique combinations. Each ‘monster’ page had a drawing of a creature (man, woman, dragon, lizard-man, slug, robot, etc.) divided up into legs at the bottom, torso in the middle and head at the top. If the pages were slit into three parts, the user could flip the tabs to put the legs of one creature onto the torso of another and add the head of a third creature. In addition to all of that, there were tables to add additional powers or weaknesses to the creatures, like ESP, a vulnerability to silver weapons, etc.  I thought it was a good idea, but the execution was a little crude and the printing via Lulu left a little to be desired, plus people had to slit the pages themselves before they could use it.

The original edition in action

The original edition in action

Jim from LotFP expressed interest and I began to revise it. Jim has a printer in Finland who can do die-cut tabs and full color printing on better quality paper, so I began to paint the individual creatures with acrylics. We increased the number of ‘base’ creatures from 26 to 40 – a decision influenced by the use of print signatures by Jim’s better quality book maker as opposed to the ‘slap it together coil binding’ of print-on-demand like Lulu. I’m not slamming Lulu — as a creator, I don’t want to be saddled with the necessities of order fulfillment when it comes to shipping books out to all over the world and plan to release other things via Lulu in the future simply because it will allow me to get my work out there without having to make sure everyone who ordered a book gets what they ordered. Most ‘self published’ projects instituted by amateurs and artists seem to flounder on order fulfillment — having LotFP do that part while I concentrate on creating the content seems like the best idea.

The acrylic versions in process

The acrylic versions in process

In addition to delays from me being a really bad procrastinator and decision maker when it comes to my own projects (I’m capable of sometimes literally turning around assignments overnight when it is for someone else, but when it comes to my own projects, I keep changing my fucking mind), some problems arose. I had difficulty making the color versions work and fit together. I wasn’t happy with a lot of the creatures and didn’t think the acrylic paintings fit together, visually, as well as my original crude drawings had simply because the transitions from one creature to another were too abrupt. After finishing 40 paintings and experimenting with them a while by sticking the head from one creature onto the body of another via the magic of photoshop, I determined that acrylic was the wrong medium. I would need to do the creature images all over again.

A version of 'bug man'

A version of ‘bug man’

I began to do them again, this time working in pen and ink and coloring them digitally. I decided that if I wasn’t happy with the digital color, I could do it over again or always color the ink version after inking. My experiments made me happier this time — the bold, black lines united the drawings a bit more when you switched heads, legs or torsos — for a book where the interaction of the user was primarily visual, I wanted to make the visual experience as appropriate as I could for the user/reader. But there were still problems.

In order to work as a book, the tabs all had to be the same size but I had not drawn them that way. In discussions with Jim from LotFP, we had agreed to place details on the creature on the left hand page facing the illustration on the right hand page… and this information would include what the creature was, how tough it might be, how it might defend itself, etc. Because of printing restrictions, the three tabs needed to all be the same size… but I hadn’t drawn them that way. Fortunately, I figured this out BEFORE I did all 40 of the illustrations for a third time, but there are about 20+ illustrations which, in addition to the 40 acrylic paintings, that I cannot use. I’m having to figure this stuff out as I go along.

Left to right, various attempts to get the 'ape' working for E.C. v2

Left to right, various attempts to get the ‘ape’ working for E.C. v2. Click to make bigger.

Unfortunately, humans and other creatures have all sorts of unusual proportions — the legs of an ape are very different than the legs of a human or a horse. I knew I could take liberties with the more fantastical beasts, but if there was too much distortion in the bodies of the more mundane creatures, it might not fly. I had to draw several of them several times to get it right and am still struggling to get this part right — the legs of a given drawing need to look “right” in the original drawing and when added to every single other creature in the portfolio. This, and the text, are the parts I am still struggling with. I’m incorporating collars, belts, etc., to provide “breaks” where one creature type can join up to another without looking too abrupt.

Here are some samples of recent versions which (hopefully) will make it into the final version:

3 creaturesThey will eventually be colored in some fashion and details as to their habits, disposition and abilities will appear on the facing page. The list of creatures is about 90% firm – a few of them might need to be swapped out for alternates unless I can figure out a way to draw them so that they fit with the parts of all of the other creatures. This illustration should show you how I hope to create a book which will allow you to combine a woman, a tree-man and a tentacled creature into a strange mythological creature of strange habits and abilities:

eyeball woman tree formulaI really hope to have this done before 2015 is over… which is (unfortunately) what I also said last year… but in the last two months I have managed to move the baton substantially closer to the goal line so there is hope. In any case, rest assured that I wont ‘kickstart’ or ask anyone for money until my part is 100% done and I am ready to hand it off to LotFP to get ready for the presses.


Expanded Petty Gods, U-Con 2014

I spent most of yesterday at U-Con (in Ypsilanti, Michigan) where I hung out at Roy Snyder’s’ game sales/DCC booth, signed a couple books and made some new friends. I got a chance to see some of Doug Kovac’s art up close (it looks even better in person if you can believe it — the images just GLOW) and played in Adam Muszkiewicz’s DCC game (“Slaves of the Silicon God”), ate too much and then had to come home because a sinus infection has been kicking my ass lately and I knew I had to get up today to clean our gutters before the first snow. “Slaves of the Silicon God” was a real hoot and if you get a chance to play in one of Adam’s con games, do it. My first PC (“Jerkal the Blazing!”) managed to survive a rock thrown to the head and a face plant after a 10 foot fall from a rooftop onto a balcony only to get pecked to pieces by giant evil birds inside a ruined temple — probably not an unexpected result when running around with just 1 hit point. His replacement, a cleric of L. Ron Hubbard, survived the adventure after having incurred great disfavor from his god while blowing spell rolls and heal rolls left and right and will probably spend an eternity stuffed inside a volcano as a result. As a party we managed to more or less accomplish our mission but also probably doomed ourselves and others because of our trusting natures and propensity to fuck around with shit we really probably ought to have left alone.

Today, after gutters were cleaned, I caught up on chores and finished this drawing for the new Expanded Petty Gods book being ushered into existence by Richard LeBlanc / Save vs Dragon. Like I always said, it doesn’t count as full frontal male nudity if you can’t see the tip.

evil snake cult 72dpi


internet + etsy

Updates, set dressing for Maniacs and shut up youSomeone named Jack emailed me recently to ask why I wasn’t a part of the usual haunts and discussions out there on the web. He asked, “Was it something someone said?”
The short answer is, “No.”
The slightly longer answer is: I’m just not spending a lot of time online these days. I don’t know when and if that will change. I didn’t make any conscious choice at any single point and say, “That is the last fucking straw!” or whatever. I just dropped out of the google+ thing and stopped visiting all the forums and what-not because I just didn’t find the rewards equal to the time investment they required. I have not changed; I’m just less interested in having broader conversations with strangers on topics that don’t reflect what I am doing these days.
Some have suggested I create a ‘facebook artist page’ and I still haven’t decided if I need a ‘facebook artist page’ that is distinct from my ‘facebook page’ or not. I think I just use my facebook page for looking at pictures of kittens in sombreros and posting the occasional snarky comment and seeing pictures of other people’s kids or hearing about the marathons they are running or the meals they are eating; the point of a broader ‘strategic multimedia outreach’ has yet to become a reality for me.
I’m doing things (some of which don’t involve the internet) and working on some private commissions as well as some projects that are probably 2 or 3 years late and getting older.
If you have clicked on the etsy shop link on the right, you will find that there is nothing in the store (and there hasn’t been for some time). Etsy has been pretty good to me in the past but isn’t fitting into my current schemes very well — again, because of the time involved. If anyone has suggestions for a good way for an artist like me to sell original artwork that has been previously published in things like Goodman Games DCC adventures, please post or email.
If anyone wants to say hello, the best way is probably to just email me (at sbpoag(at)gmail(dot)com). After the 18th of August 2013 I will be out of the country for 2+ weeks. I will probably not have access to email in that time.


THE PETTY GODS HAVE HEARD YOUR PRAYERS!

A while back, Grognardia was working on collecting a book of fantasy gods made from descriptions and illustrations contributed by the masses which was to be called ‘Petty Gods’— a tribute to the old “Unknown Gods” published back in the day by Judge’s Guild (I still have my copy of ‘Unknown Gods’ squirreled away). At some point, the project stalled and Grognardia retreated from the public scene. Most people thought it was a shame because the contributor work had all been all or mostly done — someone said it just needed layout and editing and the book was just in limbo (which reminds me — I have several things to finish, but that’s another subject for another post).

Greg “Gorgonmilk” has been working on getting the stalled ‘Petty Gods’ book back up and running. To that end, Greg started trying to get in touch with the original contributers and re-assemble the book (or a close facsimile thereof)… and new suggestions for godlings, godlets and other divine beings began pouring in. Which is great because:
a) The ‘Petty Gods’ book was so far along that letting it stall seems a shame,
and,
b) Rather than just pissing and moaning, Greg grabbed the gorgon by the horns and milked it! He got off his ass and did something… which is something we need more of in this world.

Now it seems that the original manuscript for Petty Gods has been discovered and released via free PDF! Get it from GORGONMILK here! The new contributions will apparently be assembled into another volume! It’s an Easter miracle! Thank the Rabbit God! Praise his chocolate eggs! And thanks to Gorgonmilk for lighting the fire that made it happen.

I didn’t get in on Petty Gods 1, but will contribute to the 2nd one. I have some illustrations of some divine beings based on an Arthur Maachen story (written up by Geoffrey McKinney) that I just finished (they need to be scanned) and am trying to contribute my own Petty God… a (very) minor deity named ‘Pafflum’ from my own Aldeboran campaign.

The above picture is a scene from some play about Mormonism. I think those are the ancient ‘Lamanites.’ Looks like something that would happen on Aldeboran. Although on Aldeboran it would probably involve a lot more stabbing and head chopping.


U-Con?

I think I have been to 3 cons in about 40 years… and for one of them, I went to support a friend who was premiering a video at the con (I was in it — I was the guy who got stabbed through the eye socket with a crowbar in one scene and stabbed through the chest in another scene — that was fun). But U-Con will be happening in Ann Arbor on the weekend of October 28th… Ann Arbor is just a short drive away… and someone I have done some illustration work for (Goodman Games) has asked me if I want to go to the con and run a few games as an event to help promote DCC stuff. He’s a good guy and I want to do him a good turn, so I am seriously considering it — but I just never really liked ‘cons’ much like I never really liked going to the local comic book shop.

Maybe I have the wrong idea about them (cons)?

Maybe it will be different if I have a ‘task’ there?


Another shameless bit of self promotion…

I did some art a little while ago for Chaotic Henchmen Productions; the adventure is not out yet but a preview is up here.  Anyway, here is the image: a party of dungeoneers about to get reamed by some morlocks and their pet lizard…

And this is what it looks like on the cover:


“The Evil Underground: Chapter 2” (slightly nsfw)

Longtime followers of the blog may remember when I presented chapter 1 of a biographical comic book I was working on about the life of Richard S. Shaver (artist, conspiracy theorist, author, paleo-archeologist, philologist and philosopher).  If you haven’t yet read it, go back and read chapter 1 before you read chapter 2.

You can click on each page, below, to see a bigger version.

I’m writing the chapters as I go (which may or may not be the best way of going about this; I don’t know).  The story is ‘true’ (at least from the narrator’s point of view; objective truth or whether or not Shaver was psycho are not my interest).  The next chapter will probably involve Raymond Arnold Palmer and the famous “Mantong” letter.

At the current rate of production, I should have the whole thing done sometime around 2020 or so (sigh). Actually, I hope to have it done sooner, but every project I currently have on the workbench is unfinished and I’m getting a bit psycho feeling over not getting any single one done.  Evil Underground/Richard Shaver Comic will come out sometime after I finish ‘Exquisite Corpses’ v2… which should be sometime early next year (I hope).


Shameless Commerce Division: T Shirt sale for Khunmar

I was dinking around with some art for Khunmar and I decided to try to design a t-shirt for Mines of Khunmar.  If I have my math right, I started Khunmar in 1982 — which would make it 30 years old next year.  Come hell or high water, next year Khunmar will be available in some form (I hope).  In the meantime, you can buy a crappy, overpriced shirt from Cafe Press… each sale will put a few pennies in my pocket and hopefully spur me on to finishing the damn thing.

This is the front:

And, on the back, a severed head of yet another luckless PC who has met his end in Khunmar:

It’s actually sort of a self portrait… except my hair is shorter and my head is still attached to my body… and my eyebows are not quite so Gandalfy.  But, yeah, I think if I had a mullet and I got decapitated I might look something like the above.

I ordered one for myself (for the outrageous price of 25.00 plus 5.00 and change for shipping — fucking robbery for a t-shirt that will probably fall apart in a week).  If it looks OK, I’ll open up the store for the public, and, hopefully, these will be flying off the shelves and filling my pockets with dough.  Then I’ll move on to key chains, messenger bags, mugs, ashtrays, note books, tooth brushes, bath mats and other Khunmar crap… and eventually you will get the dungeon after I have milked the ‘accessories’ teat enough.  So save your shekels and get ready to spend!

Finally, here is another drawing for Khunmar:

For those of you keeping track, this is the 4th or 5th drawing for Khnumar I have shown the world.  There are others, but some are not done yet, some have not been scanned and some suck wads and need to be done over again — plus 80% of the work is not done yet anyway.  I plan to have a half page drawing for each map section like the above, and then many little drawings scattered throughout the work.  It will be pretty art heavy, which is what I want, and everything will be by me, so if you hate my work you will want to stay away from the final product.  ‘Rules’ and stuff will be minimal, probably compatible with Swords & Wizardry or something similar,  and there will be notes as to how I have used the dungeon in the past, suggestions and other inappropriate notes and musings.  As you can see in the pic above, one of the many entry ways to the dungeon is through a castle occupied by pig-headed orcs who apparently wear high-top tennis shoes.  What the fuck?  And there will be severed heads.  Lots of them.  And at least one drawing of a guy taking a shit while getting attacked by giant insects because that is how I roll.

OK.  That is all for now.  Carry on.


2 New Beholders

I’ve had some commissions on the drawing board lately; first up is an illustration of a group of dudes about to get wasted by a beholder, in pen and ink:

This is a pencil sketch I did beforehand.  As you can see, there were some changes (click image to make bigger):

I’m also working on some other stuff, including one of a more gonzo take on the same thing.  This one is probably for my own wall.  Work in progress — please excuse the shitty photo.  Sucks to be Mr. Fighter man who has just gotten his torso erased.  Dwarf is stoned and Wizard is getting his chest blown open with a lightning bolt.  R.I.P.

EDIT: To answer someone’s question, I posted back in May that I was thinking about doing my own version of a picture that was done by the official Wizards of the Coast artists.  The ones done by Wizards featured some of their standard ‘iconic’ characters fighting a beholder.  This one (below) is my version of that picture with my own ‘iconic’ characters including Mr. Dwarf who looks like a garden gnome.