Habari Gani!

Kuumba, that is the correct response. last day of the year, one more day of Kwanzaa left. As one my new years resolutions to do more art and show more of that i do and i'm capable of, I'm going to post a few free series here. Keisha underground, Ishmiel Lyght: The way and the F.U. Fighters Universe, as well as a link to the new series for the model whose site I'll be posting comic work on. There will still be the books I'm currently working on(captain Kacela Universal Ranger) and planning in the near future(the roach, name may change). With those books in mind I can't commit to a serious schedule for the online works but I will try to find something consistent. every 50 pages I will try to compile for print with the exception of the F.U. since it will use copyrighted characters it likely won't print, in fact i'll be lucky if that doesn't get shut down ^_^ In the mean time enjoy the first few pages of Keisha Underground.

Keisha Underground is the story of Keisha and underground fighter born off grid raised off grid and living off grid. She relies on her wits and fight skills to eat. She has long since abandoned the dogmatic thinking that raised her and gave her the skills when it suddenly comes back  in the form of a small child claiming to have been sent to be her charge. there are only about 10 pages of this series so far I plan on releasing 3 a month till I catch up and then ongoing as they are finished. Please excuse any typos, the first  few pages are a few years old my sense of detail as grown much since then. Enjoy the first three.
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Keisha Underground

hey all so it appears the model really loved the character. So hopefully within a few weeks or months we should have some lovely pictures of Elisha Jade as Roach. She hails from England so it's unlikely she'll be at any conventions. Then again you never know, buy roach books when they go on sale and maybe we'll be able to get Elisha to the states.

In other news been working with some other models namely Malayasia Carter. Shes been doing her thing for a min. Hopefully I should be able to do a small comic strip on her site to raise viewership help her create more buzz and make a little money. here are some development sketches hoping to have a poster available by the 19th when she does a signing at black and nobel Phillys major black book store. Check out more of her at her site http://malayasiacarter.com/  and see whats going on at the bookstore here http://www.blackandnobel.blogspot.com/

So as promised some art.
This is s sketch done for a model i'd asked to cosplay as Roach. Should be creating the new Roach book next year for release in late 2013 to early 2014. Be really great if i can get his model to do more work.

first the art

now the model

See her on model mayhem hereElisha Jade

Whats good?

So I'm going to post some back dated art. I realized I have a ton of stuff on Deviant art. I like that people check it out there, but I think that it would be nice to continually update this blog and show some things I've worked on. You might see something you missed first time I posted.

To start my trip down memory lane off I'm gonna post some of my previous workstations.
This is the oldest work station I could find. It's from my college days. I was still at my moms house. I was actually working on two independent comics at the time. Earth Guard and Roach.

At the same time I had a job. I brought my equipment with me in backpack everyday cause of the two books I was doing.

skipping one place, this was at my first place. shared this work area with my wife.

and there you have it folks. I'll post some art work in a couple of days.

Great news! Indy planet has finally made Captain Kacela issue 1 available via IndyDigital!

That means that for about one dollar you can have a digital copy of Captain Kacela Universal Ranger issue#1
the Digital copy has far more vibrant color. Digital Copies never wear and are very easy to replace of they are deleted for any reason. save space makes a great holiday gift for tablet comic readers or fans of comics in general.
It took a pretty long time. If you haven't read it or lost your original this is a great way to enjoy the story at a low price.
On sale here at IndyDigital

Thats just nasssty.

Crabs pt.2

So here is the promised second half. Named crabs because of the crab like behavior of some individuals. The truth is the subculture comic genre I love the best is full of small people many who don't even get national coverage or any real money (not more then a 1,000 a month most times less, much less) from what we do. Its about the love. the love of comics, the love of creation the love of art. It's about the thought and the chance to get the proper notoriety and then be able to support your lifestyle while doing what you love. Thats what we are all working for. Some are closer then others. Their day job is drawing, sometimes even drawing comics, but they still have their own characters waiting in the wings. I don't think any one involved should stop doing what they are doing. I just think they should keep pushing their work and stop acting like another persons success is their  demise. In this situation, it's just not the case.

So anyway the second half of the arguement is about influences.  The original suggestion is that the older work was the influence on the newer work in question. I suggest differnet. that the older and newer work, both by artist close in age(less then 10 years I believe) is influenced by the same pop sub culture. Most of whats being mentioned in terms of similarities is based on one picture and has to do with boots. So first lets examine the characters as they are

 This is the whole picture the comparison was taken from. you can see more on Chuck Collins blog. dreadsocietyx.blogspot.com
 you can see from a turn around, there are lots of differences,
•she has baggy pants, with large openings on the side
•she wears no mask
• her colors are primarily black and grey
•she has facial markings
•she also has what looks like an over-garment space suit

In its creation Shawn shared a lot of art with his permission I'm sharing some of it.

As you can see from the actual turn around there are lots of differences. also in the color selection process there were lots of looks. I still think he should have kept the white boots or went with the tan, but hey what do I know.  you can see though the differences but I'll list some.
•Baggy pants  that stop at the knee and have no holes.
•Solid boots that look armor plated.
•has black full body costume undergarments and armored arm bands.
•she also has gas tanks on her arms
•face mask and goggles
•log scarf.

There is an image on chucks blog with his character in a scarf. Apparently she has had many different looks in the last 6 years or so. The scarf is  black and I guess not as much apart of the character.

Here's the thing and the meat of this argument  neither of these characters have a super original look both look borrowed from anime, manga, video games and comics. I'll talk about my friend first. The character Shawn has created is original, but you can see elements that have been used before. most easily the scarf. here are some characters with scarfs.

and yet Shawns character is still different. you can see the similarities in appearance, but thats where it ends much like his character compared with chucks.and chucks suffers from the same issue, here are some ninjas with holes in pants.

again from the little I've seen and understand the similarities end with clothing.
on color, it's really crazy if Shawn had picked the tan(like i suggested) there probably wouldn't be any discussion about color schemes, unless it was about Ibuki.

I don't think chuck really borrowed from these characters. but imagine if some one placed one of these images on facebook with the caption copy under chucks work suggesting it wasn't original. wouldn't he be upset? Defensive? And the picture would be wrong.

SO in conclusion. Good Luck Chuck. I herd he was doing some big things with his characters. Know that nobody thinks that Aje, is anything like Aizan and that if anything Aje has gotten a lot more exposure then she would normally. I hope your future fun raising goes well. And I think you should back off and maybe do a project with Shawn instead of blocking his ability to succeed. Successful people can't be blocked. We just won't let it happen. Later I'll talk about my beef with black female characters. Get ready Miranda Mercury!

Crabs!

A Barrel of Crabs pt.1

Hey folks hope everyone is well today. I'm writing this post after witnessing one artist accuse another of stealing his character design. Among artist, specially us indy comic folk, that is a terrible crime, TERRIBLE.
The question- is it true.
I say no and I over here some evidence.
first personal

The artist in question is Shawn Alleyne  his blog is here: http://shawnah-lean.blogspot.com/
Who is being accused of stealing by Chuck Collins his blog here: http://dreadsocietyx.blogspot.com

Both artist are talented. I don't think either needs to steal and I think this particular incident is more hype from third parties then anything else. The original pic was posted on face book with the caption "original" and "copy" very inflammatory. Wait how is calling a copy inflammatory  well it assumes that one is a copy and my evidence will prove that's not true. here is the original picture

What the picture clearly shows is that the two drawings are very much a like. but that speaks to a lack of orignality in the comic/anime/videogame market, not to thievery.  Here is why.

There are two reasons one would claim that one of these works is stolen based on this picture. 

1.the similar stances or poses of the pictures. 

2. the likeness of the character.

One is very obvious but isn't about stealing.  Here are some pictures to help explain.

I outlined the pose of the characters and imposed the outline over some other pictures.

 blue mary from snk

Wonderwoman and Catwoman from Batman Rising

 Mystique from marvel comics

 monica rambuea also from marvel

unknown character

 tron design

So as you can see firstly the pose isn't original or something unique to Chuck Collins as a creator infact....

These are some of shawns normal sketches it's a defualt stance for him unrelated to Chuck Collins or his work

There are more Shawn has been drawing alot and doing sketches and character designs for a good while now.

I only put these up as an example. so hopefully you now understand why the picture looks so similar. Its a common comic book/anime/videogame pose. I didn't even post all the pictures of the pose I found.

Going back to the second question... I think that takes another blog. Basicly I think they have both been influenced by the same things and it just happens that some one pointed it out. I have again lots of evidence. Next time.