Thursday, May 7, 2009

Break out the sunscreen, boys, we're going on the World Tour!


This is inspired a bit by true events. Steph has an x-box 360 and we have Rock Band 2. I has a compelling need to play late into the night trying to unlock every song that they have. I don't think it's to the point of needing meetings... yet...

So here's Mr. Mojo, in the roughest of rough sketches.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Character Concept Sketch

Jerry the Vampire was a frisky sort, and had the occasional encounter with other supernatural beings (deities)... make that STRANGE encounters. Take the one with Kali, f'r instance... or the one where he tries to get into heaven by sleeping in Jesus' tomb. Jane always had a real flair for unexpected stories.

So, following in her footsteps, we're bringing on some of the Old Gods. Not all of them, but a few favorite ones (and to be Anthropologically Correct, we're using deities from long dead cultures.)

To that end, here's a concept sketch of Set, god of deserts and chaos.

Set's an interesting deity, and one that started out fairly positive, turned ambiguous, and then (after being associated with foreigners during the Hyksos era), identified as a fairly negative being. He's one of the oldest gods in the Egyptian pantheon, which means he had about 3,000 years to develop a lot of history. They didn't have a true "devil" but he certainly ended up as a troublemaker.

Set had red hair and white skin (in spite of the tendency of modern artists to draw him as black on black) and was a god of warriors, desert, storms, thunder, and chaos. In spite of this bad rep, he is also the warrior who stands on the prow of the ship of Ra as it enters the underworld each night and battles the serpent, Apep (along with Bast, or Ra the Tomcat (yes, really) in some versions.) He was the patron of anyone with red hair (hence he's getting appropriated for Jerry the Vampire. Jerry has red hair.) Ramses the Great, who had red hair, had Set as his patron god and named one of his regiments for Set.

Anyway, rough sketch with his outfit based on Ramses' "returning home victorious from the war" scene. The hieroglyphs to the left of Set are one of the official ways of spelling his name. I was feeling too lazy to do the other versions.

-- Mel.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

"Karma be damned -- I'll be back under another identity."

Welcome to the online version of one of the very first "black and white" indie comics -- "Jerry the Vampire." His first appearance was in 1977 in the one-shot indie by Jane J. Oliver, "Baegle's Loony Hearts Band". After a 5 year hiatus, he returned again during the "black and white" indie years which also saw the rise of notable comics such as Groo the Barbarian, Cerebus, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Usagi Yojimbo. Jane produced 10 issues between 1982 and 1992.

She died of cancer on August 27, 1992.

A few weeks before her death, I went to see my friend, Jane. She transferred ownership of Jerry to me so that his story could continue.

Alas, Jane, it's been a long strange trip and I haven't done as much with him as I'd hoped to. But with my daughter's help, we're going to start bringing the comic back to a post-"Twilight" generation. I hope the translation from Hippie Speak of the 1960's to postmodern vampire won't be too painful.

Jerry is, frankly, a FUN character to play with. So what you'll see here over the next few years is stories and character sketches -- some of Jane's material and some of Amy's and some of mine. Don't worry. It won't be THAT confusing.

Maybe.

Jane's epitaph on her tombstone is "Karma be damned -- I'll be back under another identity."

Her beloved Jerry is back from the twilight now, under new management but with the same old saucy attitude.

-- Mel. White