Old Dying Kitty Studio: Project Blog

Crazy 3am Realization

2011-01-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

So, I was just playing Team Fortress 2 on Steam..the "Degroot Keep" map...when a crazy realization hit me.

Team Fortress 2 is DIGITAL VALHALLA.

Think about it: nothing but fighting, and dying, and respawning healed of all wounds only to start the whole thing over and over and over again.

Well...it makes sense to me.

Got a Left 4 Dead or Zombie fan on your Christmas Shopping List?

2010-12-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

So, it's Christmas time. Want to be the cool relative and get your niece/nephew/grandma something cool to hang up on their wall? Well, I need to whore myself out to make some money...so I've got you covered. I've got this 11x17 Bill from L4D print for sale over at my Etsy store:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/60152588/left-4-dead-bill-poster-print

I've also got this Zoey-turning-into-a-Witch print available in a variety of sizes and styles through my DeviantArt account:

http://www.deviantart.com/print/16078129/?utm_source=DA&utm_medium=DP&utm_campaign=DA_DP_BuyThisPrint-Left_121009&utm_content=BuyThisPrint-Left

I've got this Bill-Turning-Into-A-Smoker print available in a variety of styles and sizes through my DeviantArt account as well!

http://www.deviantart.com/print/16078029/

Finally, I've got this print entitles "Zombie Love" which has actually been pretty popular for a while. You can get this one of two ways:

Through my Etsy store at 8.5x11 glossy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60150747/zombie-love-original-art-print?ref=v1_other_2

Or in a variety of sizes and styles through my DeviantArt account: http://www.deviantart.com/print/16078089/

...And it feels like an honest goodbye.

2010-11-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

I've worked on The Path for a long time. It's had it's ups and downs, and it's really big ups. Lately, though, I've realized that the title has gotten away from me due to any number of things...lack of time being the big one. I've been toying with the idea of rebooting The Path since late 2009, and just never did it for fear of alienating the fine people that stuck with it since it's launch in 2006. Well, luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), bringing The Path back to a "community" website did that for me. A lot of people who stuck with The Path while it was floating around on it's own took exception to the fact that it was now grouped in with another community of comics. I can understand that, I really can. But I was offered publishing without giving up ownership and I signed on the dotted line. Coming to Wevolt was part of the contract. I know a lot of my readers didn't like Wevolt at first and abandoned ship because of it. Hell, I didn't either, to be honest...and it's still...well...frustrating at times. But it's a great thing that's still finding it's legs. I wouldn't still be here if I didn't honestly believe in what Matt's trying to do. Yeah, I know there are other people running day-to-day stuff with Wevolt, but it's Matt that keeps me coming back. He has a clear vision for what he wants Wevolt to be, and if we can soldier through the beauracratic nonsense I'm sure he has to deal with, we're all going to come out the other end with something really spectacular. I know people are still only reading The Path on it's mirror sites. That's cool, too. Thank you for your continued support.

So, now I find myself with all but the most hardcore of my reader base off in the wind. I find myself with a title I love more than almost anything in the world that has gotten so off-target that only two things can fix it in my eyes: A reboot or walking away. I can't keep The Path going the way it has been the last six months or so. Trying this out, trying that out, caving to pressure to try and make it this or that...that was making me start to hate what's become my baby.

I'm clearly not going to walk away. I never would. I love The Path and all the professional and personal opportunites and friendships it's brought me. But the old girl, she needs some TLC. So, starting Dec 3rd, it's square one. The Path is rebooting. There are things I thought of and wanted to do after the fact with so many aspects of the story that would have made it tighter and better that I'm now going to bring to the table. This is going to be big, and it's going to be great.

There are three stories from The Path that will make the transition over to the reboot almost completely intact: The Cutty Black Sow, The Haunter of the Dark (with a new ending), and Noche De La Lucha Absolutamente. These stories, now in color, will update daily starting Dec 1st and will provide the buffer needed to get everything else rolling smoothly.

If you are one of the fathful few who have stuck with The Path since day one, all I can ask is that you trust me on this. It'll be worth it. If you feel the need to walk away...hey, no harm no foul.

Thank you for your support, and the many of you I've been lucky enough to meet at conventions...thank you for the beer. 2011 is going to be an amazing year for The Path. There are other things in the works with the boys upstairs that I can't quite go into yet, but you'll see some really cool shit coming your way from The Path in the coming year. Stick around.

And that's that.

-Riot!

2009-10-15T13:30:00.001-07:00

Sell out...with me, oh yeah. Sell out...with me, tonight.

2009-10-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

So...yeah. You can buy volume 1 of The Path as well as the "Left 4 Dead" style The Path t-shirt through the little store thingamajiggy up there. While supplies last, every order gets free stickers, patches, and "Cthulhu F'thagn!" bracelets! EVERY copy of Volume 1 bought through here gets free prints with purchase as well!

Neat, huh? Help me pay my rent!

Long Beach Comic Con, The Path: 1926, and all sorts of other crap.

2009-09-25T03:30:00.000-07:00

Sooooo...how's everyone doin'?

Next weekend (Oct 2-4) is the FIRST Long Beach Comic Con! BOO_YAH!
Myself, and the best of my Mediocre Militia cronies will be in the artist alley, tables 94-95 doing sketches and whoring out our comics! Stop by and say hi! On Saturday, I'll be attempting an 8hr Comic Book Day in honor of 24hr Comic Book Day! Come see how miserably I fail at trying to complete an entire comic book story in 8 hours!

So, 1926 is underway. For reals. It's pretty cool, except now I have twice the workload and half the motivation thanks to the rest of the outside world encroaching upon my time. I'm doing my best, gang. Two titles to update regularly plus getting stuff ready for convention awesome on top of work and personal matters is a lot. If anyone wants to pay my bills for me, I'll do nothing but update the comics. Hell, if my bills are paid for me, I'll update everything M-F.

Anyone else excited about Left 4 Dead 2? I know I am!

That's it for now, I need to pretend I work around here!

-Riot!

8 Hour Comic Book Day

2009-09-02T02:15:00.001-07:00

So, I'm doing Long Beach Comic Con the first weekend of October, and I wanted to try something new.

The second day of the con, Oct. 3rd, just happens to be the same day as "24hr Comic Day", in which small press and indie comic creators get together in one place and each tries to crank out a full comic story in 24 hours. It's a really cool concept that I only ever seem to hear about happening in Pennsylvania through my buddy Barry. If I wasn't so far away, I'd probably wind up taking the trip there to take part. But I am, so I can't.

Well, I'm thinking of honoring the incredibly fun spirit of this venture and doing it myself AT THE CONVENTION. Except, instead of 24 hours, I'll only have about 8. So, I'll be at my table, letting other people sell my wares, and spend the entire day cranking out pages for a comic book story there on the spot. Each completed page will be placed in a portfolio right there on the table and people can come by and read the story in progress.

So, the convention if October 2-4 at the Long Beach Convention Center in...well...Long Beach, CA. I'll be at my table in the artist alley plugging away at pages all day Saturday, so come by and say hi! Or just come by to see if I even come close to finishing! Either way, it'll be interesting!

I may do the same thing the following weekend at Baltimore Comic Con if it goes well/is fun.

It's the end of "the Path" as we know it...

2009-08-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

...and I feel fine.

So, this is it, gang. The end of the road, so to speak.

Those of you who came to Wizard World Philly this June knew that this was coming. I know I was shy on the details, but I figure the "The Path: 1926" exclusive comic was a pretty good hint.

So, yes, Chance is alive. He's just been hurtled through time to 1916. "But Riot, why is it called The Path: 1926 then?" Well, because that's when the story picks up. There'll be flashbacks to times between 1916 and 1926, but the story on a whole picks up in 1926 and that's why the title. "1926" will pretty much revolve around Chance trying to live up to his title of "hero". It was mentioned in an earlier issue of The Path that Chance was never trained, and that he left the paranormal aspect of his life behind in hopes of living a normal life years ago. This, of course, was a huge mistake. Now, when Nyarlathotep came for him, he was totally unprepared and had his ass handed to him. "1926" will be Chance's...well...chance to get his ass in gear and start to learn whatever he can about being a warrior. Mythologically-speaking, there's going to be a pretty big emphasis on Japanese and other Asian mythoses, as the European ones have pretty much told Chance to sod off.
Not to mention a new mythical weapon, since Nyarlathotep has Excalibur, and what's a king without a sword?

The regular "The Path" will continue for a few issues without Chance. Issue 6 will concentrate on Astaroth, Wolf, and Edward/Merlin as they (along with the city of Arkham, Mass.) are dragged across the Atlantic towards the spot where R'lyeh will rise. So, honestly, if you wanted to just skip "1926" completely, it would work. You'd just wonder where the hell some characters came from at the end of the series.

I keep saying "end of the road", but what I should be saying is "end of this cycle". There are going to be three main cycles of The Path. This first one is basically "Return of the King", Chance getting his hero role thrust upon him and making the best of it. The second cycle will be what happens when the myth-world at large becomes aware that Chance is the "real deal" and turns to him to solve all their problems. The third, well, I'm keeping that one under my hat. But I can promise that it'll be HUGE.

Onwards and downwards (because, let's face it, there won't be many happy endings around here)!

-Riot!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chaaanges...

2009-06-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hey gang! Thanks for bearing with me as the site gets redesigned and the comic pages get a complete overhaul courtesy of Panel Flow. For right now, the comics are being hosted over at Panel Flow's "Needcomics" hosting service, until we get Panel Flow installed on the server here. For the time being PLEASE use www.olddyingkitty.com as your link to get here, not the old "nightgig/", as that will be gone until Panel Flow is installed.

Thanks guys!
-Riot!

1926: Kat cosplay!

2009-04-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Check out Sam's cosplay of The Path: 1926's Kat! Go to her Deviant Art page to leave a comment: http://mindfire3927.deviantart.com/art/1926-Kat-115793961

-Riot!

1926 #2 Cover

2009-04-16T19:10:00.001-07:00

Just the cover for the second issue of 1926. Minus the studio logo.

SWAAAAAAAAG

2009-03-13T13:28:00.001-07:00

Check out all that swag for The Path! I'm bringing some cool shit to WWPhilly, and it's not even all here yet!

-Riot!

-Riot!

It's off to the printers...

2009-03-03T07:55:00.001-08:00

Look at that cover. You'd almost think I was a legit comic creator.

They grow up so fast...especially if you're working on them a lot. I just sent the files off to the publisher. Now it's out of my hands and I can stop worrying about if I'll get it done on time. Now I just get to worry that it'll be printed in time. Since that's out of my hands, there's much less stress involved. You might notice two other names on that cover. "Hamilton" is Jeremy Hamilton. He did the colors on the cover and is one cool mofo. "Vasquez" is Samantha Vasquez who, somewhere along the line, sort of became my editor.

The pile of crap to bring to WWPhilly has been growing, too. I have patches, stickers, post cards, loose pins, pin packs, comics, sketchbooks, sketch cards, and prints. I'm kind of counting on the con-exclusive to draw people in so I can try to sell them everything else.

Oh. Here's what the pins look like:

That's it for now. I'm sitting here at work working on more comic pages. I've got pages queued up through mid-April right now, and I'm still cranking more pages out. I'm not sure what kind of screwed-up stride I've hit here, but I really hope it lasts!

Later,
-Riot!

The Path: 1926 and Left4Dead

2009-02-26T22:05:00.000-08:00

This was just fun to draw. Because Left4Dead is fucking awesome.

So...I hope everybody's liking The Haunter of the Dark so far. It's the first issue of The Path: 1926, and was a lot of fun to do.

The Path: 1926 cover preview and the Business End of Things

2009-01-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

Here's the in-progress colors from Jeremy "Sloo" Hamilton for the "The Path:1926" Wizard World Philly exclusive cover. Pretty fucking sweet, right? The story's shaping up pretty damn nicely, too...thanks in no small part to my one-woman focus group (who shall remain nameless for security reasons).

So...yeah, I know. Still no updates.

Well, here's the thing: I run the business end of everything too.
Which, annoyingly, isn't as big an end as it used to be since my publisher isn't...well...publishing anything. I love everybody over there to death, but there's been no word on printing in months. To be honest, BT never actually DID anything for me I couldn't/haven't been doing for myself. In fact, it cost me more $$$ to get my own comics for a con through them than if I had stayed self-publishing.
So lately I've been running around getting promo material made up, designs off to various printers, books off to be published, arguments with companies that owe me money, working on bother versions of The Path and The Rioteer and (late) commissions worked on and sent out. It's a lot for one guy to do on top of a regular job and a relationship. I really appreciate everyone's patience.

So I'm falling back on self-publishing again. Because that way, if the book's not coming out, I only have myself to blame. Plus, I have stores waiting for new issues that are going to start dropping me pretty damn soon. I'm not about to let two years of hard work go down the drain.

That's about it for now. Catch you hip cats and kittens later!
-Riot!

Technology still hates me, The Path: 1926, and Wizard World's dying off.

2009-01-11T03:29:00.000-08:00

How were everyone's respective celebrated holidays? I took the little lady back to NY with me to meet my family. I think they like her better than they like me now. Which is cool. That'll just make things easier when the wedding bells ring down the road.

So, technology and I continue to be the worst of friends. The new monitor for my computer's reolution isn't supported by Windows XP/my graphics card. So, I'm working on getting new drivers to trick it into cooperating with me.

The upside to all this downtime is that I'm working on (wait for it) ANOTHER "PatH" REWRITE!

But why? Well, because I fell asleep on the couch one day watching cartoons and woke up to find that I'd drawn a picture of Chance in 1920's garb and one of Kat as a gypsy. This led to my feverishly transposing The Path into the 1920's and, well...I REALLY like what I came up with. "The Path"'s regular run will continue, but The Path: 1926 (working title) has rapidly become a project I want to subject my ever-diminishing sanity to. Watch this space for updates/preview art.

Those of you in the know have found out that Wizard World LA has been post-ponned until further notice and Wizard World Texas has been CANCELLED! WWTX is a huge loss for me, because that's always my best con of the year. Le SIGH. Hopefully you crazy Texans will put up enough of a fuss to get it on again. If not, well...give me suggestions of other good cons to go to down there! The Path has a disturbingly large following in the Lone Star State, and I wouldn't want to lose you guys!

That's all for now. I'll catch you hip cats and kittens later.
-Riot!

Technology's great...except when it doesn't work.

2008-12-21T02:09:00.000-08:00

So, as some of you know, I've been having all sorts of computer problems...AGAIN. Never fails, as soon as I start being productive, technology goes all "No no NO...we can't have this."

I'm going to use it as an excuse to take a break. The Path will return Jan 2nd. Julianne and I are off to New York to spend the holidays with my family anyways, so it's not like I'd have a whole lot of time for updating anyway.

See you guys when I get back and Merry Christmas!

What Comes Next?

2008-12-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

So, as most of you can probably start to glean, the first volume of "The Path" is rapidly headed towards it's conclusion. Kat's dead, Inanna apparently has no plans to actually SAVE the world or Chance, Ratatosk is blindly following Inanna's lead, and by possessing Kat's dead body Nyarlathotep has succeeded in manipulating Chance into a position where he's damned if he does--damned if he doesn't. God damn, but that guy's life is fucked up.

With the current storyline ending in just a few short issues, what comes next? Will Chance succeed in stopping Nyarlathotep? Will Cthulhu actually answer the call? Will any other mythological beings rally to Chance in hopes of stopping the Outer Gods from returning to our world? Well, I'll ya...whatever happens, it's not going to be pretty.

But back to the question at hand: What comes next? There's going to be a Wizard World Exclusive comic for one of the Wizard World shows in 2009 (I'll be self-publishing that one, as my publisher is...well...let's just say I'll be self-publishing that one), at the close of this storyline there are going to be a few stand-alone issues. Short stories like "The Cutty Black Sow" was. Tie up loose ends and make sure every little corner of The Path's universe is tucked back in place. Then whichever of our intrepid heroes make it to the other side of the current crisis-at-hand (if any even do), they'll have to contend with The Rise of Leng. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.

Some Pin-up Love for Wolf

2008-05-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

I realized today that Wolf really gets shown no love in the pin-up department. I decided to fix that today.

Something that doesn't really ever get addressed in the comic (at least not yet), is that the thing around his neck is a toy Autobot Matrix of Leadership.

Issue Six cover

2008-05-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a peek at the art for the cover to issue 6:

Booth Promo Art Colored

2008-04-11T00:34:00.001-07:00

Here's the colored version of that booth flyer for NYCC.

-Riot!

Some Promo Art, and a Sneak Peek at Chapter Five!

2008-04-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

Well, if you're reading the series, this isn't exactly spoilery. Here's the on-line cover for Chapter Five. I certainly didn't think so many people would be uproaring about the apparently rapidly-approaching death of Kat. Nice to know I can actually make characters people care about.

Here's a piece of promo art that will be given away in print form at New York Coic Con, where The Path is officially debuting in print form! Everyone who buys a copy of the comic will be given this print as a "thank you" for supporting the book!

Here's the line-art for a flyer I did for Bohemian Trash Studios' (the studio that's publishing The Path) booth at NYCC. If you're there, you'd better stop on by. Seriously. Anyone who's been at a Wizard World con with me knows it's good times. Characters featured (other than Chance) are Juno from Juno Blair's Star Crossed Destiny, and Hades from Jojo's Dis: Life is Hell

That's it for right now.
-Riot!

Covers for the print run!

2008-04-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the cover for the 1st issue of The Path! On sale NOW!

Here's the cover for the second issue of The Path, available at New York Comic Con!

-Riot!

Crossover

2007-07-01T05:39:00.001-07:00

So, The Path's first crossover is coming! I feel like I should take a polaroid of it and put it in my "Baby's Book of First's". I'm looking foward to it, because it's with two of my favorite webcomics, "Phineus: Magician For Hire" and "The Errant Apprentice". I've got a script ready, just running it by Barry and Kevin to make sure they're cool with it. The basic story is that Phineus, Delores (the mage from "Errant"), and Kat get abducted by an ancient deity(The Great Mother) who's losing her lustre. In order to stay in the game, she starts abducting magic users to siphon their life-force. Kat, Phin, and Delores are among those abducted. So Terry (The Errant Apprentice), Sara (Phin's gun-toting wife), and Chance wind up joining forces to rescue their respective partners. There's also a decent modern version of Innana's descent into the underworld, which I wanted to use in The Path, but there's just no room. Here's the cover (provided they're cool with the story):

The Path: Animated "The Paija"

2007-06-18T00:55:00.000-07:00

So, I've got a few pages of the "animated" Path comic done and colored. I'm going to wait until I have at least 10 done before I begin posting on DrunkDuck, though. Don't want to get ahead of myself like with "Superhero B-Team, GO!".

The first story is called "The Paija", and is based on a folk tale from the Ihalmiut people of Canada. The Paija is a demon/devil of sorts, that looks like a grotesquely deformed woman. Yeah, we all see grotesque women every day...but this one only has one leg. Oh...and it's growing out of her VAGINA. Yeah, that was what hooked me, too. The Paija hunts men on winter nights and devours them...much like regular women. Just looking at her, though, kills you instantaneously (I KNOW that I read too much. No one needs to remind me.).

The story opens up with Chance and Ratatosk (The two will be the main focus of the "animated" tales, with the rest of the supporting cast showing up occassionally) hunting the Paija down.

The basic premise of The Path: Animated is that it takes place AFTER the events of The Path's current cycle. But, since I have four different endings written for the current cycle, the ending it follows may not be the one you read at the end of The Path. That way, I'm really not spoiling the ending for anyone...AND I get to do all the little side stories I wanted to work on. Everyone wins!

So, here's a peek at the first page:

No CBC! Denied!

2007-06-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so The Path didn't make into the top 50 in the CBC. To be honest, I'm a little shocked and more than a little bummed about that...especially since I had my pitch all planned and it was AWESOME. I was getting calls/IMs from people who had already gotten "the call" and everyone was all, "So, I'll see you there". Yeah...I'll be one of the spectators.

That's cool, who wants to be successful? Certainly not me. This just means I have more time to work on The Path, The Path: Animated, and the crossover with Phineus: Magicial For Hire and The Errant Apprentice. That'll be a lot of fun because it's my first crossover since the "Enerjak" debacle back when I was doing "Antisocial". You can find the pages from that somewhere in my DeviantArt account. Also, Jerry Ahern of Dark Tale Comics took notice of the first few pages of Superhero B-Team, GO! and we're going to team up to do a short 10-page comic called "Still The Greatest American Hero". Which will, obviously, revolve around the cast of The Greatest American Hero...and a cyborg dinosaur. I've always wanted to draw a cyborg dinosaur. I'm rather excited about that.

Well, I'm off. Just in case you haven't started reading it yet, go check out Atlantis Paradise
by my dear (and mildly disturbing at times) friend EvilTwinPixie. This, I command!

The Path "Animated"

2007-06-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

So, in addition to the main storyline of The Path, there are about 80-kagillion other stories that I wanted to use Chance, Kat, and the others for...but they just don't fit in the grand scheme of the story. Side stories that would just be fun to do, fun to draw, and would be easier for brand-new readers to jump on and get interested in The Path's "universe". So, since I'm working nights again and have a little more free time because of that, I've started compiling these stories into a notebook and have labelled them "The Path: Animated".

My plan is to start working on these stories as stand-alone shorts that take place in The Path universe, but outside of continuity. Different art style, a little more action, and little more random. The first one is going to be either something I've wanted to do for a while now, but haven't really had the chance: a crossover. (I'll tell you with whom once I get the final "oks" from the creators I want, but it'll be cool. Think magicians for hire and errant knight apprentices...) Or "The Cutty Black Sow", which is a fun story and would fit in with Chance's lousy luck just perfectly.

Here's a sample of what the art'll look like.

Comic Book Challenge Update

2007-05-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

So, after floundering about whether or not I was going to enter The Path (mostly because of that whole "If you win, Platinum OWNS it" thing), I calculated the odds of me actually WINNING versus the fact that it would just be awesome to enter and have fun with it and threw caution to the win and put together my Path pitch.

I'll send it in tomorrow, so wish me luck!

The Path goes to WAR!

2007-05-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe not war, per se, but a battle, all it's own.

I've decided to enter The Path in the 2007 Comic Book Challenge. I was faltering as to whether of not I would...but two very hyper and headstrong ladies convinced me that I should.

My problem is: How the CRAP do I sum up The Path in 2 minutes without looking like a complete nutcase?

The answer: I don't. So maybe I should just incorporate that into my pitch. Also, Pix believes I should mention the fact that I grew my beard JUST for the comic. It might push me over the edge as far as the judges are concerned. Either way...it'll be fun times...assuming I get that far.

To close, here's a The Path sticker design:

Rewrites and redraws

2007-04-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

So...I rewrote about 120 pages worth of the story for The Path recently. The more I looked at the ending and what led up to it, the more I was dissatisfied. Now it is changed, and I am much happier with how everything goes down. Plus, I realized that it was turning into more of an action comic, and that's not what it is at heart, so things needed to be changed.

The ending is bad-ass. I love it. I've only told one person, and he's not spilling. You'll have to make it all the way through to find out like the rest of the world.

I got interviewed on The Gigcast the other day. You can listen to the interview here.

Freaking Civil War took up so much of my time, updating daily, that I wound up not updating The Path so much...or, like, at all. Thankfully, with Civil War moved to a MWF schedule, I'll be back on The Path like a fat kid on a twinkie.

The Rise of Leng

2007-03-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

So, this week I started writing the second cycle of The Path. Yeah, this whole thing's going to be a three cycle deal. The first cycle is what's going on now: The Cthulhu stuff. This'll be going on for a while yet. The second cycle will be The Path: The Rise of Leng. Whereas the current cycle is revolving around some of the more common Lovecraftian horrors (Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu, etc.) and more easily recognized European mythological and folklore references, "The Rise of Leng" will almost ENTIRELY revolve around Lovecraft's "At the Mountain of Madness" and Asian folklore and mythology(which I know little about and have begun researching like a man possessed). As the title suggests, the Plateau of Leng will play a rather large role, as will the creatures, The Old Ones, from "Mountains".

Chance, our current hero, may or may not make it to the second cycle however. I spent last week re-writing the end of the current cycle to lay the groundwork for "The Rise of Leng" and it made me wonder about Chance's survival. I may pull rank and make a decision...or I may leave it up to you, my dear readers. Kind of like when they killed of that annoying Jason Todd Robin.

Anyways, I have some last-minute stuff to do for Wizard World, and tomorrow's page to post, so I'm out of here. Hope to see some of you at Wizard World tomorrow!

Oberon and Nimue

2007-02-18T18:33:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of getting into the idea of having a blog JUST for The Path. It gives me a place to "talk" about the comic and get stuff off my chest without my friends giving me blank stares when I start yammering on and on about Lovecraft and mythology and folklore and why certain things are getting intertwined and the like.

So let's jump head-long into the fray, shall we?

1. Oberon:
I know, I know. In "Books of Magic", Oberon is this pretty, tall, blue dude who looks like he could seduce the pants off of any chick who'd ever read Lord of the Rings. But that's not what he was meant to look like. Sure, his face is supposed to be beautiful, or handsome, but he's a dwarf in all appearance. He tends to be a mischief maker and will play his games with those of the Fey as well as humans. This makes hima wildcard...and I do so enjoy wildcards. I'm rather enjoying having a lot of different mythos intermingle in this story, that's why I added the friendship with our next contestant...

2. Nimue:
Now, Nimue is the name most commonly given to The Lady of the Lake. It's the name I grew up with and I'm rather fond of it. Like I said on the new page of The Path over at DrunkDuck...Niniane and Vivianne just don't do it for me. Plus, using the name Vivianne means I'd have to tie in Lancelot and all that claptrap, and that's just not happening. The greatest knight in all of Christiandom will not be making an appearance in The Path. Sorry ladies. Nimue's going to be a triple-aspecter...sort of mirroring The Fates from Chapter One, but with more of a personal stake in what's going on.Her first aspect, The Lady of the Lake of course, is a "good guy". Her immediate concern will be aiding our small band of heroes. Her second aspect, being the alter ego of Morgan le Fey, will find herself torn between her hatred of her half-brother, and her need to survive the coming apocalypse. Her third aspect is almost entirely single-minded: keeping Merlin out of the fray. We wouldn't want him popping up and solving everyone's problems with magic now, would we?
Nimue will, much like in original Arthurian lore, be both Chance's would-be savior and doom at the same time.

Why did I choose these two characters to open up the chapter? Well, if you haven't noticed yet, the supernatural characters are being used in a primarily expositorial way. Oberon's news for Nimue will be news for us as well. Since so much information is being witheld from Chance, it's the only way we'll find anything out.

I'm also using them to help show that the mythological world has sort of set their past differences aside in light of the fact that humanity and christianity have pushed them to the brink. Ratatosk talks to Inanna who threatens the Fates with a Sumerian lion (Lugal), who just happens to be the lion from Aesop's fable about the field mouse to get (what we presume to be) Excalibur so they can get it to Chance so he can draw it from a stone and use it against Nyarlathotep whose violent disappearance prompts rumors to spread throughout the hidden corners of the world that the once and future king has returned...

I think the thing that scares me sometimes is that all this makes sense to ME in my head.

Eaters of the Dead and why Borders thinks I'm strange...

2007-02-18T06:38:00.000-08:00

I was talked into this by some readers. I can't imagine that many of you want to read my ramblings, but who am I to ignore a bunch of emails telling me I "NEED" to set something up in the way of a blog?

So, it's about 7 a.m. and I just finished the special "WizardWorld only" Path story entitled "Eaters of the Dead". I like it. I like it so much that I'm annoyed with myself for already announcing it as "WizardWorld only". But, that's life, huh? I'd rather not go back on that announcement until a big "Collected Edition", so...

Anyway, it centers around a younger Chance McGavin back when he was in the military. On a Special Forces mission during Desert Storm, McGavin and a handful of other soldiers get lost in the desert. With limited food and water and enemy forces closing in, it looks like they're done for. That is, until one of the men remembers an old tale he'd heard a long time ago...about the Eaters of the Dead. I'll post some prelim art later on. It was mostly just studies of uniforms and supplies, stuff like that. Maybe I'll slap up the early sketches of the actual Eaters themselves. I dunno.

I'm fairly certain that working on The Path has made me insane in the eyes of the employees of the local Borders, not to mention the little hole-in-the-wall bookstore on the other side of town where I do most of my special ordering. Damn near anything on Arthurian lore, the Goetia, specially ordered books on Demonology, Alchemy, encyclopedias revolving around folklore and fairy tales, illustrated guides to supposedly magical ceremonies, Satanism, mythology, books on Babylonian and Sumerian folklore and rites, multiple copies of books containing the works of Lovecraft as the copies I own are routinely ruined by highlighting and notes in the margins and, finally, a faithful recreation of Lovecraft's blasphenous tome...The Necronomicon, now covered in highlighter ink and notes in the margins. I find that the people who sell me these books give me stranger and stranger looks each time I come in to pick up my books. I'm sure the small black book I carry around like a bible doesn't help. It's where I've done all my brainstorming. Where I've been weaving together this fantastic tale and melding all these different aspects together.

I get frustrated because there are very few people I can talk to and bounce ideas off of. Any time I start to talk about an aspect of The Path...like how I want to weave together the journey of Gilgamesh into the Underworld with Lovecraft's story "The Transition of Juan Romero", I get blank stares, patronizing nods, or flat out "Um...what the fuck are you talking about?" One or two of my friends are nice enough to pretend to care about it when I start talking, but I quickly realize that they're just being nice and change the subject to something more pedestrian. Oh, well. I'll probably wind up hitting Barry Linck or the guy who does Errant Apprentice up and talk a little Lovecraft shop with them. I should probably INTRODUCE myself to the Errant guy first before bombarding him with Lovecraft talk, though.

Anyways, I've babbled on long enough. There have been quite a few requests about where I got the idea for The Path...maybe I'll tackle that later.

Catch you hip cats later.