Tatiana Orpheus

Tatiana Orpheus, ex-wife of Venture Bros' favorite necromancer, Doctor Byron Orpheus.  Just a little revamp of a previous work...fixed her eyes and added a few small details.  No big whoop.

Original Sketch by Roger Bacon 

Inks and Colors by Phillipthe2

Damnit

 It's kinda like a blender....if you try run it on "purée" all of the time, it's gonna take a shit on you sooner than later.  Either that or Kimmie needs to shop in the 'industrial strength' isle of her local adult novelties store and stop buying cheap Chinese knock-offs.

Original Art by BatoTheCyborg

Edits by Phillipthe2

Goo-Free

 Now, don't get me wrong, I love BatoTheCyborg's stuff....but every once in a while I find one of his pieces that (at least in my opinion) would look so much better without all of the love-goo.

....and yes, I've (once again) reused that damned bed background.

Original Art by BatoTheCyborg

Edits by Phillipthe2

BANZAI! I'LL-AH SEE YOU IN-AH HELL!

Long before Yoyodyne became synonymous with high-end motorcycle parts, there was a little cult film from '84 call The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across The 8th Dimension.  Red Lectroids from Planet 10 lead by John Whorfin (John Lithgow) live inside a fictional defense contracting company in Grover's Mill, New Jersey called Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems.  Grover's Mill was made famous by the 1938 Orson Welles narrated War of the Worlds radio broadcast in which aliens had invaded Earth ....the Red Lectroids used the broadcast as a cover, having hypnotized Welles and causing him to pass the broadcast off as a drama.

I did this several years ago as a "What If..." the Lectroid / Yoyodyne ruse had not been discovered by Buckroo Banzai (Peter Weller, of RoboCop fame) and his crime fighting team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, and gone on to produce real items for the defense industry....  In real life it's a Glock 22 OD .40 S&W.

Gun Girl

The costume reminded me of a pair of desert (tan) aviators gloves for some reason....and went from there.  As for why the sketch attracted me.....yeah, that's an obvious one.  For those so inclined, it's also on (violent retching noises) deviantART.

Original Sketch by Chris Sanders

Inks and Colors by Phillipthe2

Palenque Waterfall

Long before the roads were paved, only the hardiest of gringos made the trek into the interior of Chiapas to see the Mayan ruins of Palenque.  Such was the case back in '82 when my father got a job in San Cristóbal de las Casas teaching English at a local college.  Back then, even from San Cristóbal, just to get to Palanque was a day-long trip in a rusty, old retired Bluebird school bus full of locals and various livestock rumbling up and down unpaved, single lane mountain roads with drop offs sometimes exceeding a thousand feet.  Guard rails.....what's a guard rail?  Unlike today, the occasional Zapatista rebel patrol didn't have any real interest in gringos back then, but there was always the fear of common highway bandits...and less-than-honest Mexican police.

Scared?  Shit no!  Three days (five if you count the trip there and back) of climbing ancient pyramids, walking down into the catacombs to see the Tomb of Pacal, playing a slightly less deadly game (of soccer) in the ball court, exploring the jungle, watching real archeological excavations, etc, etc, etc.  It was the adventure of a lifetime for a twelve year old, something straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark....but without the Nazis.

A short hike from the main ruins, along a broken stone and tree root strewn pathway, are the stepped falls of the Otulum River.  The pools are formed when sedimentary limestone is trapped by underlying rocks, eventually forming pools beneath each waterfall.  The falls run for about 5km before coming out of the mountains near the modern town of Palanque.  You could (and I did) spend hours wading from pool to pool stark naked and not see and single soul.  At some point I stopped and snapped this with a little Kodak Instamatic 110 pocket camera...which I still have.

Nowadays, gaggles of shorts-and-sandal-clad tourists clammer off air conditioned buses, having traveled down freshly paved (and guard railed) roads.  Hungover, pasty-faced, fanny-pack-wearing turista on day trips from any given cruise ship (or hippie wannabe eco-tourists) stop at the ruins just long enough to snap a few pictures, stare at the temple complex, stop at the gift shop, and climb back into air conditioned comfort.  You can't climb the pyramids, there's manicured lawns everywhere, and you're not allowed to venture into the water. 

Sad really.