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.