Rufferto!

A series of drawings based on Sergio Aragones' Groo? Why not. Here's Groo's steadfast and loyal companion, Rufferto.

For the love of the FRAY!

"Now Groo does what Groo does best!"

Comic books had quite an impact on me - despite the fact that I didn't get into them until 7th or 8th grade - and I really didn't collect TONS of comic books at any point. Besides the comic book follow-ups and sequels for sci-fi classic franchises The Terminator, Aliens, and Predator, (and then Hellboy and BPRD later on) the only other comic I was really into was Groo the Wanderer - which, besides being awesome, were plentiful and none too expensive to buy back issues for. And so I ended up with about 60 or 70 Groo comic books before my desire to keep buying comic books fizzled.

They're still really fun to go back and read and, of course, Aragones' artwork is endlessly detailed and masterful. So I thought I'd do my own version of the cheese dip loving marauder as tribute. If you have never seen what Aragones' Groo looks like, pictures are easy to Google - or you can just check this GROO ANIMATION TEST that makes me pine for a hand-drawn Groo movie.

Enjoy!

AGGREGATE Sketch

Finally wrapped up my 2-month stretch of intensive work - lot's of Magic, World of Warcraft, and even a cover for Shadowrun all put behind me - generally pleased with the results. Perhaps now I can get back to adding some good stuff to the Draw-Blog. but first, I need a breather.

To get back in the game, here's a whimsical and simple sketch I did in one of my Limited Edition AGGREGATE copies (only 19 left, by the way!).

ANGRY TROLL LADY KILLS 8 TOURISTS AT ANCIENT RUIN SITE

"There's a really angry blue woman mutilating some tourists!" said Marcus Antanapala to the emergency dispatcher. He made the call after a bluish, tusked woman with ridiculous cleavage erupted from a ruin site and rained terrific clawed blows down upon the idiotic onlookers as they attempted to take pictures with their cell phones.

"Does she have tusks, armor protecting her knees and forearms, a fairly big rack, and is exuding a sense of total 'Grrrrawesomeness'?" asked the dispatcher.

"Um yeah. How'd you know?"

"OK, sir. She's a female troll from World of Warcraft. I'll send a black-n-white to check into it. Have a nice day, sir."

Guy that fights dragons.

Just a heads up to everyone - I'm about to enter a maelstrom of furious work that'll take me into June. The chances that I get some posts up on my Draw-Blog in the next five or six weeks may be as slim as Donald Trump is annoying and douchey. Luckily, I still have a reserve of preliminary drawings I can tap for just such occasions.

That said, here's a portion of a drawing I did for a Magic: The Gathering card called "Silver Knight". Almost all of the cropped out parts were extensively overhauled in photoshop after I scanned it in. I even changed his helmet and a few other details once I started painting it, too.

To see the final piece, you'll have to "friend" me on Facebook or wait another 43 years when I finally relaunch my website.

SUNSHINE and WARM WEATHER ANTHEMS

Ah Spring. Lovin' it. Spring in Central Ohio is usually, day-to-day, either gloriously sunny and summerlike - or gray and cold like November. Knowing that the latter is heading out the door like a stumbling, oafish drunk that has yorked on someone's shoes and generally overstayed his welcome, I choose to focus on the sunshine and the upcoming long, lazy days of Summer - the realm of cookouts, camping, roadtrips, fresh veggies from the garden, and blessed vacations. And as I sit here listening to cheesy (but potently nostalgic) hair-metal of yore on Pandora, I am reminded of the music of the season, songs that became part of the soundtrack of Summer. Even though the days of completely carefree gallivanting are over, I still love songs that remind me of Summer whether they are literally from Summers past - or new songs that just sound like songs that should be played while driving with the windows down on the way to a beach. Summer anthems, baby. Here's just a tiny smattering of songs that, for whatever reason, stir my zeal for the sunshine months:

Peggy Lee - "It's a Good Day"

Steel Dragon - "We All Die Young"

Walt Mink's whole album "Miss Happiness"

Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire"

Hans Zimmer - "You're So Cool" (True Romance soundtrack)

Coldplay - "Clocks"

Delta Spirit - "Trashcan"

U2 - "Beautiful Day"

Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"

Pretty much anything by The Sundays

OneRepublic - "Good Life"

The last one by OneRepublic I just heard on the radio earlier today and is what inspired this post. And laugh all you want at Poison - but how can you sit in a car on a beautiful day and NOT sing along to that?

Share with me your own Warm Weather Anthems and crack a cold one, friendo - those days are comin' up fast.

Btw, the drawing above is another oldie - plucked out of my White Wolf vault - I believe it's from a Mage: The Ascension book. I had to go THAT far back to find an appropriate pencil drawing to accompany this post!

And one last thing for those of you that don't know yet - I has me a little book called AGGREGATE and it has all sorts o' fun pencil drawins in it. Have interest? E-mail me! - steve2@rottface.com

A LI'L CLASSIC D&D FOR YA

I unearthed a fairly old drawing of a scale-mailed halfling trying to look tough in some ancient and perilous cavern. I'm too lazy to go find out which long-forgotten D&D book it was in. Geez, I make it sound like this was from the 80's or something! No, it was probably from around 2007(?) - but it seems like decades ago. Nothing special here - just a little spot illo piece that I thought was worth posting just for fans of really classic D&D subject matter.

Subsequently, the final painting I did for this piece was a big pile of crapola. It was one of those instances where I had something in mind, it didn't work, and I wasn't able to recover. Such results I colloquially refer to as "turds".