Barbarello

Cover for Crooked Sabre Volume 1

I finally have enough pages for a comic sized issue of Crooked Sabre so I thought I should do a cover.  I haven't decided yet whether I am going to print, and that would mean finding a printer who will do adult stuff, but I thought a cover would be a bit of a milestone.

I have yet to design a logo, I have pages of designs but none that I like.  <sigh>

Red v Blue 2

Because you* asked for it, some more of these guys.  Guess I should figure out some names for them.


* Well, a couple of you did.  First time ever so I figured I should oblige.

Red v Blue

Some Feygrimm lads for your inspection.  Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, been at a bit of a low ebb after finishing the CS prologue.  Hopefully a bit of a break, recharge and I'll be back into it.

Crooked Sabre Prologue - 300 dpi Versions

Here are more detailled versions of the prologue pages

Crooked Sabre Prologue

And, my badge design....

Melbourne gets a Yaoi Con!

Check out conSENSUAL.net.au for a new Yaoi themed con in my home town of Melbourne.  Its on 4-6 November. Lots of other events including a pool party (not if Melbourne's weather keeps going this way!) and, um, Mass Twister...

Bent Con 2011

Oh, how I'd love to attend.  If you do find yourself in the vicinity, it looks great, http://bent-con.org/ .

Scones

Lo how capricious the human heart! How weak the foundations of moral fibre!

That night I dreamt of England's mild and pleasant shores, of blues skies and country hedges that do not seek to suck out your blood. I dreamt of Elizabeth, the vicar's daughter and of afternoon tea on the Downs. She poured cream upon my scones but then the phantasmagoria changed complexion. The cream jug grew long and possessed of an elegant curve. Somehow the jug became part of my body. Then I felt the chin whiskers upon my scrotum and I realised that cheeky fellow had stolen upon me in my sleep once again.

From Professor Mancheeks' Alamanac of the Astonishing.

Dr Yan and Companion

"He never let me forget the precarious circumstances of our first meeting. I had misheard the introduction as “Dr Jan and his manservant” and had presumed that the Swede was the gentleman of letters and the oriental his man. His sneer could be measured on the metric scale.

How they arrived on Venus' shores I did not know but the pair had done their level best to thwart my ambitions ever since.

If the Swede did indeed have a name, perhaps it was only one that the doctor whispered to him in the dead of night."

From Professor Mancheeks' Alamanac of the Amazing

Professor Hugo Mancheeks

"I tire of this diabolical world. It's oppressive humidity weighs heavily upon one's morale. But it is a chap's wardrobe that suffers the most iniquity. Only the silk of my tie resists the acrid mists and rotting heat. Even the stalwart tweed yielded in the end, suffering torments of weather and the deprecations of wild beasts. Not to mention a certain fellow who delights in purloining my clothing when I bathe. If a fellow cannot preserve his modesty he can at least bolster his dignity with thoughts of the scientific progress being made here with the assistance of my calculation engine. I will forward some cylinders of native customs to the Royal Society's exotic nudity committee."

From Professor Mancheeks Almanac of the Impossible.

Shibboleth Lover

If you don't already know it, I have a problem about the way fantasy tends to use 'race' when it talks about culture.   Primativism, tribalism etc are conflated into a set of stereotypes which would be clearly racist if applied to a real world group of people.

But are there limits to this?  Are all fantasy races just people in funny costumes?  Are there times where a truly alien part of your biology makes you act and think differently to human beings?

Enter the Shibboleth, my beast men whose biological drive to mate and produce progeny drives their culture and their actions.  While not truly evil, they are dangerous and humans have a good reason to be afraid of them.

Through the Shibboleth I'm trying to test the limits of race where you have something we don't have in our world - sentient beings that are biologically different from us.  They are the selfish gene gone wild, nature bloody in tooth and claw.  But, do they are have potential to overcome?  Can nurture win over nature?  These are, I think, really interesting questions.

This is a taboo?

On Y! Gallery they are debating whether toddler porn should be allowed, and yet this image can't be uploaded.

Gotta wonder about priorities sometimes.

Still, it's nice to be controversial with so little effort, but what is the problem with bisexuality anyway? 

Lord Gildanesq

Another piece of character design, this is the young version of Gildanesq when he was the dashing bronze age hero, before the crazy, the genocide and the enslaving began.   He's Raul's father btw.

Crafter designs

I've dug out some of my sketches done in the development of the Crafter folk.  These guys fit in my Dwarf niche - element earth based people who are good at making stuff and primal magic.  Trying to move away from the Tolkien/fantasy/Disney dwarf archetype which I know some people love (beard daddies!) but don't really do a thing for me.

The Crafters are shapeshifters who build bodies out of primal elemental matter as they need them.  Gender is arbitrary and they can make all kinds of wonderful new organs on the fly.  Still thinking through what this means for a porn comic!  Of course I won't be able to post any of this on Y! Gallery.  They are debating whether toddler porn should be allowed and yet bisexual porn is forbidden - what is up with that?

Also trying to get away from the whole Wagner thing too. 

Rainbow Connection

Just like Kermit told us.

Orcs in jocks

It seems that some of my costume design choices have confused a couple of readers, especially the mixing of modern bits and pieces, especially with the Ix.   Now, apart from the fact that I think Orc boys in undies are much cuter than Orc boys in loincloths, there is some method here.  

I really like the One Piece Manga and  I especially like the way Oda san mixes modern streetwear with the pirate stuff, it gives the whole setting a great feeling of familiarity and displacement at the same time.  Some I'm trying something similar, to break out of the traditional fantasy rut a bit.  

Also, Tolkien & co were allways pissing and moaning about the advanced technology of the dark ones, well along with medicine and proper sanitation, wouldn't comfortable underwear be a major breakthrough for a medieval society?

The Boys on the way to the gym

I'm taking a little break to recharge before I start plotting out chapter 4, which is going to be a doozy, 24 pages, lots of exposition and background but hopefully not dull and too talky.  I also get to introduce Raul who has been   on my mind for a while now.

So, in the meantime, something which I liked in my sketchbook and have finished up here.

Writing Porn is Hard

Just in, more on my redesign of Raul the missionary, our new friend for chapter 4.

One thing that has surprised me about working on Crooked Sabre is how difficult the writing has been. I'm not complaining mind you, it has been interesting and challenging and has meant that I've really had to think about porn as a medium. I recommend the process if you are at all interested in thinking about what porn is, where it has coming from and where its going.

I wanted to move beyond wondering if the plumbing would ever get done or whether the pizza would get eaten before it went cold. I wanted to write about sex in a way that was, well realistic is not the word (especially with orcs and elves!) but I guess … natural … might be closer? Character-driven is a term bandied about a lot, but I think it applies here as well.

Crooked Sabre Chapter 3 - The Generals

Raul, Take 2

I had originally designed Raul as a generic blond twink. The Men of Weare were formulaic fantasy bigot humans and I went for the easy aryan look for them, but this faces a couple of problems. First its kind of trite and second it means I have a blond haired white boy as a major character in a series about racial diversity.

So I was thinking, what if I changed his look a bit? I just fiddled with the colour values, just to see. I still might make him blond, maybe he can bleach his hair later.

Jungle Boy Venus

"He answered to the name Venus.  It seemed that the name of the planet on which he was marooned was the only word of English that he knew.   How he got to that faraway jungle, I shall probably never know.  He took to our devices and gadgets with great relish but I never did convince him of the merits of a pair of breeches."

From Professor Mancheeks' Alamanac of the Astonishing.

Raoul

Well, I have done both censored  and uncenosred versions of the new character design for Raoul, the missionary who comes into chapter 4, in a big way.  Actually chapter 4 looks like growing into a 'full length' 22 page story if I'm going to be able to include all the background stuff as well as the sex. 

As you will see Raoul is of noble birth, but was brought up as a monk because his physical imperfection (relatively speaking) makes him an outcast in Weare society.   He's been brought up with all the moral repression, and locked into a 'purity shield' but as you will see he isn't really cut out for a life of celibacy.

He's going to develop a relationship with Sabre which will put some interesting spins on the Nax/Sabre relationship and lets me explore what jealousy, intimacy, etc mean for the Ix.

Playing with digital paint

I'm pretty new to the whole digital painting thing.  Well, to painting full stop.  Last time I tried to paint was with nasty cheap arse paints at school and kind of convinced myself was that I couldn't paint.  I'm prepared to give it another go, but -ggrrrrrrr- not got much patience.

UPDATE:
I've been reading a book on Yaoi and apparently the colour green is synonymous with homosexuality in Japan!  LOL.

Barns and windmills

OK, this might not be the single most exciting image I've ever posted here, but hear me out.  Google sketchup is the best tool for artists with perspective retardation like me.  I'm slow enough with the comics as it is, this is going to really help with some backgrounds.

To twink or not to twink

I've been keeping up with Victor's Men of Color Blog for a long time now and I'm fully aware of the racial biases of the porn industry, which means it is with some wariness that I'm working on introducing a character who, if you had to use a label, would be a whitebread twink.

In chapter 4 'The Missionary' I'm introducing Raoul, a naive young missionary who is going to be quite challenged by the Ix lifestyle and world view.  It's going to be a full 22 pages and its going to include a bit of backstory as the Ix nation is explained to poor perplexed Raoul.  Oh yeah, and there's an orgy in the Stately Pleasure Dome so don't worry that will be all talk, you can look at the pictures.

So when designing Raoul I wanted someone young (not too young, I live in Australia and have to be so damn careful, he'll have to have a drivers license!!!!) kind of naive but also able to turn around all the racist moral bullshit that he has been taught.

I hope you can forgive me, I've also indulged in a bit of melodrama and he's the twin brother of the scheming crown prince of Weare who has been shunted off to the monastery to get him out of the way.  Yeah, yeah, it's an oldie...

Anyway because the Men of Weare represent Tolkien's Aryan ideals I made him blond, also a nod to those kind of lanky young guys who are just growing into their bodies and have a puppy dog sweetness. (Shannon Boh, take a bow).   So there is a process to all this, but at the end of the day I'm back in twink territory.  And I've already had an elf boy in part 2.  I don't have much time to draw this and I don't want to waste my time doing more of the same.

One thing that has occurred to me in the process of writing is that I don't have any disabled characters.  Not wanting to go down any creepy fetish alleys, but disabled folks are left out of everything, especially porn, so why not?

I'll have to have a think about this and figure out what exactly could be the cause (polio maybe?) and whether this would be a turnoff for people.  I don't want to be PC or anything, but I'd like this series to explore some different body shapes and sizes.

It could also be a good way to talk about the fantasy body fascism issue again.  So, do I do it to poor Raoul?

Who ever said writing porn was easy?

I shouldn't complain, but I've been agonising over revisions to the third Crooked Sabre chapter, The Generals.   When I started this caper I thought great, lots of sex minimal amounts of talking.  Instead within 3 chapters I have a great big talk fest.

I can't quite bear to write the 'I'm here to clean your pool" kind of dialogue.  I know my stuff isn't brilliant, but I hope it has some sense of realism, and says something about the relationship between the characters.   It may sound pretentious, but I seriously think porn is hotter if I believe that there is some kind of real spark happening.  Girly, I know.

I have to hold back the urge to keep jamming exposition in, about the world, history etc.  Yeah, I know, not very sexy pillow talk.  I'm laying out the dialogue over the next few days and then I can get onto the more fun task of pencilling.

Unfinished valentine

It's hideously late and I only got as far as laying down the flat colours, but here you go anyway.

Hiya

Hey there, how's it going?

Notes on Chapters 1 and 2

Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback so far, it's a slow process to get these comics out and every bit of encouragement helps me get over the next hurdle.

In chapter 1 I wanted to achieve a few things. First set up the characters of Nax and Sabre, their somewhat conflicted past and the foundation of their new relationship. I wanted to get across the conflict between old and new that is the heart of Ix society and the process of modernisation and liberation that Nax is doing, in the course of conquering the known world.

Fantasy and Racism

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Taking it easy...

It has taken a couple of months of slog to get chapter 2 done so I won't be launching straight into chapter 3.  In the meantime  I'm going to recharge a bit and post some of the design works and notes on the series that I have been half heartedly jotting down.

Golgomogg

Well, that's his name for the moment,  I haven't settled completely but I wanted something pretentious and fantasy.  As things play out we'll find out he's not what he seems to be.

Haven't done a giant cock character yet, so he'll be interesting to play with.  Not my kind of thing usually (just looks too painful) but lots of guys seem to like it so I'll see what I can do with him.

Slave Boy Nax

At some point I have to tell the whole backstory, but here's a young Nax

Redesigning Hector

 Finally got The Broken Knight bedded down, so now the long process of chapter 3, The Generals.  First order of business, re-design Hector to make him sexier.  Not sure about short hair or shaved head yet, in any case first time we see him is going to be in the middle of a battle so he might be a bit shaggy around the edges, in need of a shave.

The armour is going to have to be simplified for the final comic, but I thought I'd play around with the design. Designing armour for a comic is a tough process. You want it to be detailed so it looks cool, but they you are going to have to draw the bastard over and over again, so you want it to be as simple as possible as well. At the start I had a kind of generic WoW feel to the Men of Weare but it was a bit boring. So, given they are religious nuts, I went for a kind of roundhead/conquistador vibe, with a bit of leather fetish corsetery and straps thrown in. It ended up looking pretty Judge Dredd but that's not a problem, old Joe has the fascist fetish thing down.

Crooked Sabre Chapter 2 - The Broken Knight

Naxela

This is one of the first sketches I did of Naxela, the central dude in the story.  Crooked Sabre is the narrator and he will appear fairly regularly as he and Nax are a couple (with pretty relaxed boundaries).  Anyway, Nax is one of those generals who are either a great leader or a mass murderer depending on whose side you are on (and yes his name is an unsubtle cue to a historical inspiration).