Audience Participation

Ok, if it isn't overly obvious from my last post I'm a little pissed off with Apple products, but I'm not gonna go to into a whole "how do I hate thee, let me count the ways" spiel.  Instead, I'm going to rely upon a little audience participation.  Little, old Stevie here needs a caption and I can't decide which one to use....so, look over in the upper right corner and you'll see a new poll...or feel free to comment with your own ideas.

...and again, my apologies to Pat Kassab.

Chocolate Cake, Gameboy, and Me

Just when I thought I was the sole surviving admirer of Picket Fences it would seem....well, to quote Yoda, "There is another."  Honestly, I haven't watched it in a long time, nearly a decade in fact.  The one episode that comes to mind is from the first season where Maxine (Lauren Holly) appears in Mathew's (Justin Shenkarow) bedroom in little more than a black bra and panties.  While bearing gifts she exclaims, "Chocolate cake, Gameboy, and me.  Which would you like first?" 

Pretty racy stuff for prime time network television in 1993...even for Fox.  Granted, Edna from The Simpsons isn't quite what I envisioned upon recalling that scene...so I had track it down:

 

On a completely unrelated topic, I was looking at random Rule 34 people and objects instead of the usual toon-related stuff.  Would you believe it, there was not a single one of Steve Jobs?  The fact that there are well over a hundred relating to Bill Gates and Microsoft didn't come as much of a surprise.

As for a lack of Rule 34, let's just say been there and done that.....and my apologies to Pat Kassab.

Spoof

Lately I've been seeing a lot of men's magazine spoofs across the likes of Paheal and WWOEC.  Naturally, we're talking about Playboy, Maxim, Hustler, the ever popular Playtoon, and the like.  To be quite honest, they are amusing, but it gets a little stale once you start seeing Playtoon versions of every other anime chick or someones otherwise unrecognizable original character.  When the "sexy" versions of non-human Pokémon characters begin to appear on the covers...it's dead...dig a hole, chunk'em in, and kick some dirt in it's face.

I did have an urge to do a Playtoon cover when they were first appearing several years ago, but as time progressed the idea of doing one....well, it just seemed down right stupid.  Then I thought to myself, "Self, why don't you do a couple of everyday, run-of-the-mill magazine covers?"  Well, it was either that or sit around and decide to whom  I should re-gift a novelty Christmas sweater featuring Rudolph and his red, blinking LED nose. 

 Hopefully, turbolover175, donvito62, fabionei, and Gagala will find these amusing.

Metalhead Christmas

Just to clarify, I do not condone nor endorse music piracy.  I'm actually a fan of the Scottish metal band Alestorm...with all of their pirate themed music.  Yeah, you heard me right....Pirate Metal....as in "Arrrgh matey, I'll keel haul the lot of yuh" kind of pirates.  There's also the thrash metal Swashbuckle out of New Jersey and the folk metal Blackguard from Montreal. This is actually an edited t-shirt design from Alestorm.

While I'm thinking about it, everyone has seen that Christmas light strewn house set to music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but while we're on the subject....

 Have a Merry Metal Christmas everyone !!

Dee Dees

A little toon'd version of Sergio Curiel's Dee Dee twins I've been working on for far too long.  Naturally, I seemed to have misplaced some of their attire....don't yuh just hate it when that happens?

Original Sketch by Sergio Curiel

Inks and Colors by Phillipthe2

 Alt Version

One of Three Kings?

The King says, "Thank yuh, thank yuh very much.  Have a blue, blue Christmas ever-body.  Now go gimme uh fried peanut butter and banana sandwich."

Last Man Standing

Right around midnight I was craving a 7-11 quarter-pound hotdog and a Slurpee.  What, you don't get that midnight craving from time to time?  On the way home I realized I hadn't checked the mail...I usually don't even bother on Wednesdays since all that ever comes is junk mail and supermarket fliers...but something told me I should do it anyway.

Just like that, my intuition was rewarded....I nice big box from Heavy Metal Magazine containing the long-awaited (and long overdue) Signed Limited Edition version of "Last Man Standing: Killbook of a Bounty Hunter" created by the ever-talented Dan Luvisi.  I've been following his work for a little over two years, about the time he started on LMS, and to call him a talented artist would be....a slap in the face.  He is WAY beyond that.

In a nut shell, Last Man Standing follows the story of Gabrial, the last of a group of 500 genetically enhanced 'Paladin' soldiers who is framed and sent to prison.  He escapes and goes into the future world of New Amerika to find out why he was set-up.  The book isn't so much a graphic novel where it's just an extended, over-sized comic book, but rather a bible-sized scrap book containing everything a bounty hunter might collect along the way....yeah, we're not talkin' baby pictures and pressed flowers here.

So, here I am, flipping through the book...and it's a big ass book, like coffee table sized....when I began reading through the acknowledgments.  I had to stop and do a double-take, "Is that.....me?  Damn, that is me!"  I think I've talked to him maybe once in past six months...he's been pretty damned busy with the book, publication SNAFUs, movie deals, etc, etc...but I must've caught him on an off day.  A few words of encouragement went a long way I guess.

Poll Results

Back in November I started a poll asking if I should change the look of this blog.  Not necessarily a complete slash, burn, pillage, and disembowelment of the entire thing...just a fresher and less cookie cutter appearance.  So, after leaving the decision up to you good-ish people, the results were a little...ummm...under-whelming and certainly no landslide.

30% of you said that I shouldn't change a thing.
30% said that they'd leave the decision(s) up to me.
16% said I should rent a wrecking ball and go to town.
13% said I should just shut my yap and draw something.
3% couldn't make up their mind.

All said and done the ball bounces back to me, so I WILL BE CHANGING the overall look of this blog in the near future.  I wouldn't expect to see anything dramatic until the new year....you know, gotta get that whole family and holidays shit outta the way first.

Hermione Granger

Just a little Con sketch of Hermione by Josh Howard I picked up somewhere.  You may know Josh's work via the Image Comics mini-series Dead at 17...not be confused with the Lifetime Channel movie of the same name.

Original Sketch by Josh Howard

Inks and Colors by Phillipthe2