Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Vokes & Zuzelo together again...for the 1st time!

COMING SOON!


"The Tastiest Snack...About to Kick Some Zombie Ass!"


OK-in point of fact the above image (on a promotional teaser postcard you'll be seeing soon at my upcoming shows) isn't SPECIFICALLY from my new project with Mr. David Zuzelo-it's actually a commission i did for a fan at the Pittsburgh Comic Con this year (it's based on an old pulp novel's contents page illo) and i added the little blurb at the bottom for the cards.

However, it DOES represent a certain tone-atmosphere-style-that WILL be in our book-and i promise you that a variation of the scene itself will most certainly be used in some capacity within the stories we're working on-I just dig the vibe,man...;o)


The young lady above is one of our main characters- I don't wish to get into any specifics yet-i wanna keep some mystery-but I WILL be showcasing various character designs,layouts,etc in here as we progress-such as this:



What's this book about?

Good question!

It's kinda hard to describe in one of those Hollywood high concept ways that are so common nowadays-we wanted it to have a mix of elements we both enjoy in films and comics.

How about an adventure/fantasy/horror...and other stuff series that has bits and pieces of ROAD WARRIOR, YOR, HERCULES UNCHAINED, PLANET OF THE APES, THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, THE NEW GODS (among other Jack Kirby influences) and-we hope-enough original stuff of our own as well.

Who's publishing this tome?

Good question!

We don't know for sure yet-We're of the mind to self publish-which in this day and age is a little easier than it used to be-but having a company logo on the cover is not out of the realm of possibility,either-we'll see...;o)

When will this book be out?

Great question!

Our best guess is the summer of '09.

We are still in the early stages of design,story and so on-We CAN tell you that we are having a lot of fun with this.

We want to put out an entertaining "adventure/fantasy/horror/and other stuff" series that knocks your socks off (who really needs socks on while reading a comic?) and if you can catch just a little of the passion we have for this from reading it,then we've succeeded.

To Be Continued...

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Seattle/ETP trip: Emerald City Con



The other reason i was in Seattle was for the annual Emerald City Comic Convention- it was my 1st time there as a guest of the show and i had a wonderful time.



I got to spend a few precious moments with old friends like writer Kurt Busiek whom I see far too little of...



The bonus for me was that my birthday also fell on that weekend-this meant i got to spend it with both my ETP friends and my comic book buddies.

My lil bro, Mike Oeming (see Mikey with his cuter half, Taki below) even threw me a surprise birthday party at a local public house.



As you can see I was pleasantly surprised.




I got to hang with a roomful of writers and artists who were all young enough to be my kids-lol-but it was a great night filled with drinking,laughter and more drinking...yeesh...I ain't as young as I used to be...;o)

I hope to return someday to the show-and Seattle-it was a gas!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Seattle/ETP trip: Dante style...

Here are a few more pix of the various adventures of our motley crew in the great Northwest:

























Below is our "last supper" in Seattle.

for purposes of identification,starting on the left and moving clockwise:

yours truly (I'm either asleep or laughing at something witty someone said)
Mark
Dan
Rick
a friend of John's whose name i forget but he did recommend the Thai restaurant we're eating in so he's A-OK with us
John
Bob (Wolfy-our fearless leader)
Bruce
and our host with the most in Seattle, Bryan




Hope you enjoyed the pix!

Monday, May 12, 2008

OSS 117-see this movie!


Hilarious!

Seattle/ETP trip...

The view here is from above-several thousand feet above the ground-in flight to Seattle.

I traveled late in the day and as i was flying west-from Jersey to Washington state-i followed the sun on it's decent-beautiful sights, such as the snow capped mountain ranges and rivers of the northwest-I am uneasy with flying, yet love to watch the images from the window...




Here's a view from my room on the 15th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Seattle-the ETP crew and I (for the uninitiated the ETP stands for the EuroTrash Paradise talk group-we're film geeks, the lot of us-but 1stly were all good friends) were all bundled into a group of rooms on the tenth floor...that is until I arrived Thursday evening and tried to check in.

It seems that two of my ETP brethren had some air conditioning troubles with their room and wanted to get a room with one that worked-the thing is, they got MY ROOM- the slight awkwardness of the situation didn't much matter to me after I saw the priceless look on the young lady's face who was waiting on us-when she then asked my name and she realized she had just given my room to my friends her "deer in the headlights" look made it all worthwhile...;o)


Below we are looking downhill (lotsa hills in Seattle-reminded me of the streets of San Francisco-the place not the tv show) past a few of my buddies at the famous Pike Place Fish Market.



We had a very aromatic stroll thru the place,enjoying the smells,the tastes (they give out lotsa free samples) and the sights (HUGE frikking Alaskan King Crab legs, salmon the size of a St. Bernard and a distinctly ugly and prehistoric looking creature called the Monk fish) and at the end of it we ate at a great little place called the Pike Brewing Co.
a brewery/restaurant where we had a fine meal and many brews (including a sampler of six small glasses of ale-light to dark- including my two faves the Naughty Nellie-now renamed the Naughty Neily-and the Kilt Lifter-fill in your own comments...;o)



Afterwards our resident Beer Snob,Bryan,proceeded to spill a mug of ale all over our fearless leader, Wolfy (perhaps in response to Wolfy's and my blasphemous ale sampler drinking style: we downed each glass like a whiskey shot) and then we moved on to our next destination...

...the infamous Seattle Underground!



Yes, we descended into the selfsame darkness that TV's intrepid reporter and part time monster hunter, Carl Kolchak did when he sought out the mysterious Dr. Richard Malcolm-otherwise known as the Night Strangler.

I'm sorry to say we never got to see the great old building Malcolm hid away in all those years as our tour guides insisted no such place existed...

...yeah...

...right.

But the tour itself is a joy to experience (even on this, my second trip to the place) thanks certainly to the sights of bits of historic old Seattle and the very entertaining tour guides, but mainly to the consumption by we ETPers of even more brews which are served in a bar attached to the sight of the tour's starting place...;o)


After our exhausting jaunt thru the dark,cobwebby corridors of Seattle's past we had worked up quite a thirst so on our way back to the hotel we stopped for a well deserved brew or two at a little Irish Pub called Fado.

Therein we were served several tall glasses of various ales (and a round of shots of Jamison's) by a buxom lass whose name escapes me (tho her ample form does not) which,considering the amount of brews we consumed over the course of that day, I'm surprised i recall as much as I do...;o)


Bryan took a picture of the aforementioned lassie and meself which I have yet to see-methinks it shall not please me wifey...ahem...;o)

Naughty Neily...


Below is a pic of our pleasant evening at the Casa del Senn- Bryan and his lovely wifey helped make this an enjoyable time by serving up BBQ, brews (he IS the Beer Snob after all) and baked goodies-all capped off with film viewings (a Santo flick and TARGET EARTH) on his LARGE TV screen (someday i too will own such a device!)




The photo below is of the ETPers enjoying a couple fantastic burgers and shakes at the famous Dick's Burgers (and yes,the various rude puns one immediately thinks of were traded amongst us all weekend ;o) we had stopped at Dick's on our way to see a film called OSS 117 (see above blog entry for details on this funny movie) which we saw at a small "arthouse" kind of theater-very enjoyable night and I wish I could go see films with this group of guys more often...;o)


The below shot is of Wolfy and Brucie enjoying the good food served at a Thai restaurant called Ayutthaya. (I had the accurately named Heavenly Beef-yummm) Many Singhas were consumed.

I had never had Thai food before and I look forward to the next time (but I'm taking a cab there as it was about 14 blocks on foot-all UPHILL! but the walk back-DOWNHILL- was much more relaxing-lol) especially if we are in Seattle again...;o)



Well, that was but a small fraction of the doings by the ETP last weekend and i wish i took more pix (I missed a few sights as I was also appearing at the Emerald City Con in my duties as comic artist-a great show run by great people-thanks to both friends and fans alike-someday i shall return) and i hope to add a few more that were taken by my brethren soon-until next we chat...

That's All,Vokes!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Commissions...

First we have a romantic tryst between the Green Goblin who has a little love potion for his honey and Harley Quinn-The Joker ain't gonna be happy about this:


Then we have a montage of images from the classic KING KONG as seen thru my eyes:




and lastly the most recent piece is based on an old-1936- pulp novel's contents page (see attached original) perhaps a touch racier than most of the art on this blog but i don't think it'll hurt anyone's sensibilities...;o)