|
|
|
July 8th, 2009
06:53 am - Conquering Kids!
My latest commission -- a super fun portrait of my friend's kids in their fave outfits, surrounded by a few of their fave characters. Ready to take over the world!
|
July 6th, 2009
10:12 am - High School Seniors + Tainted Beer + Mexico = Weekend
Here we are at the 2nd installment in the Christopher Pike Summer Book Club -- Weekend, written by Christopher Pike in 1986.
This fascinating tale is all about snakes, birds, poison, Mexican holy men, and digestive ailments.
Immediately, I noticed that Weekend held a lot of the same traits as Slumber Party – a weekend away from home in an exotic, foreign locale; a group of teens who share a participation in a Past Incident; and naturally, not far into the weekend, hilarity ensues. I'm just kidding. MURDER ENSUES!
This time, the rag-tag group of high school seniors features: Shani, the skinny, well meaning main character with long curly hair and nonstop stomach ailments. Her "friends" Kerry, the jealous, neurotic one who still can't get over the fact the whole school has seen her bare tush; Angie, the boyfriend-stealer; Park, Shani's childhood friend and boyfriend of Angie (but FORMER boyfriend of Robin -- dun dun DUNNNN!); Sol, the hot, dangerous Latino boyfriend of Lena; Flynn, the exchange student from England who Shani drools over, and Bert, the lovable oaf/giant with amazing reflexes. They're all bouncing down the hot desert roads of Mexico to a secluded mansion, owned by the family of Lena and Robin. Lena is the babe-a-licious redhead who not only stole Sol from Kerry, but also may be responsible for Kerry's public bare tush. Robin is Lena’s sister and our tragic character, who is slowly deteriorating from kidney disease.
The motley group is gathering for, of course, a Weekend of supposed fun and sun and sand. But even before we get to the Mexican Mansion, foreboding pops up. The van carrying the boys gets a flat and they're confronted by a Mexican holy man and snake #1. When they all arrive at the house, they discover that Flynn has been secretly hanging out with Robin for several weeks and is very protective of her. There are several awkward conversations when the group is together, revealing what happened in the Past Incident. Apparently, they were all trashed at a party and someone put insect repellant into Robin's beer, ruining her kidneys forever. Nice, right? Now, even though Robin's family is uber-rich, she can't find a suitable donor. Both her and Lena were adopted, so blood relatives are out of the question. Robin tries to nobly deal with her illness, but thoughts of revenge are getting to her, and inspire her to write a fable about a dove, a snake, a raven, and an eagle.
The group plays a form of Charades that ends up insulting Kerry. Robin starts to feel sicker. Shani overhears a phone conversation that makes her think Flynn is up to no good. Bert gets BLOW'D UP in the garage. The phone lines are cut. Shani wanders off to find the Mexican Holy Man and runs into snake #2. The whole gang gets drugged and put in the basement recording studio, where a disembodied voice forces them to relive the night of the poisoning. And yes, there are more snakes.
I have to warn you that the end gets very, very cheesy.
One drink ... it won't kill you. The moral of this story is stay away from peer pressure, kids! And if the beer smells weird, for god's sakes, put it down!
Up next ... one of my faves, Chain Letter!
|
July 3rd, 2009
06:03 pm - Bored Wondergirl
Forgot I took a picture of this sketch I did of a bored, teen Wonder Woman at MoCCA ...
|
June 30th, 2009
09:43 pm - Gods & Undergrads update!
Click here to read! Yes, it's still snowing.
|
June 26th, 2009
02:17 pm - Bonnie N. Collide update!
Double Comic Update Friday! Click here for the latest Bonnie!
|
June 23rd, 2009
09:41 pm - Slumber Party: Girls + Ski Resort + Revenge = Christopher Pike Goodness
Slumber Party, written in 1985, is Christopher Pike's first foray into teen horror.
All I remembered about this book from when I first read it was that the main character peed on her hands in order to keep warm. She was stuck outside in a blizzard and close to freezing to death. At the time, I was so disgusted by the peeing that I really couldn't decide if I would do the same in her situation.
In Slumber Party, six girls are getting together for a weekend in the mountains. Five of them have been friends since middle school, and one is a new member to the fold. Each girl has her own unique quirks/description that defines her role in the story. Lara, the main character, is short and has a big nose, but she's popular with the guys. Dana, Lara's best friend, mentions often that she's overweight, but also mentions that she's funny. Rachael is the hot bitch. Mindy is dumb in every possible way. Celeste is the virgin, the new member who none of the girls know all too well. And Nell, the resident of the mountain house where they're staying, is guarded and sensitive.
It's not long into the story before we're given clues that this same group of girls, eight years earlier, was involved in a MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT together - with one exception. The original sixth member of the group was a girl named Nicole, who has since died. The new sixth member is sophomore Celeste. It should also be mentioned that Nell usually wears a lot of makeup to cover up her serious burn scars. Spoiler alert!
The girls start their weekend with catty comments at one another. Lara and Rachael are competing Homecoming Queens. Before hitting the slopes, MYSTERIOUS OCCURENCE #1 happens - they discover that the snowman that Rachael and Mindy had built has melted into a pile of ice, as if someone hit it with a fireball. Lara's the only one who really notices and cares. As most of the girls take off to the ski lodge, Nell, who has bouts of illness and Celeste, who has a bad back, stay behind at the house. Suspicious? The skiiers immediately meet suave hunk Percy and his date-rapist friend Cal. They flirt and fight for most of the day, Lara and Rachael fueling their Queen Rage into arguments over who Percy fancies, while Cal molests Dana and makes Mindy jealous. As the day wears on, Rachael cuts Lara off while skiing, causing her to injure her knee and bash her head, but also gaining her some attention from Percy. Even though injured, she's in heaven, and invites he AND date-rapist Cal over to Nell's place for a party that night. Here, it's horrifying to see that Lara tells Percy Dana was just laying hard to get when Cal molested her earlier. Lara is THAT desperate to get laid, that she tells a boy she barely knows that her friend enjoys almost being raped. Nice.
Eventually, Lara gets separated from everyone, including Percy, and decides to make the four-mile trip back to the house by herself. Along the way she runs into Mindy and Rachael, but never finds Dana. All she discovers is MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE #2 - Dana has only left behind a single ski and ... a melted patch of snow. Similar to the melted snowman patch? Oh, you betcha.
What follows is suspicious incident followed by big flaming clues that the friends are reunited for less than favorable reasons. Nell is still upset that no one seems to miss her sister, aka Dead Girl Nicole. The girls clamor for the boys' attention and almost set each other on fire. Luckily, Lara partially redeems herself in the friend department by being distracted by the fact that her BFF, fat Dana, is still missing. She makes honest efforts to find her, including calling the ski lodge multiple times. She even goes so far as trekking out after dark to search the scene where she disappeared.
This is just one example of why Christopher Pike books appeal to me so much -- sure there are stereotypical characters, but they can still surprise you. Lara pushes long past pain and physical injury to find out what happened to her friend. Cal, the date-rapist, saves several lives. And Rachael, the hot bitch, proves herself to be the only one worth being around in a crisis. The only question I had is -- why did these girls all decide to reunite for a weekend steeped in bad memories of the MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT? Are they really that dumb that they don't see the parallels? It almost seems as if the characters are so guilty about the past incident that they willingly put themselves into harm's way. That they know that, deep down, they deserve what's coming to them at the Slumber Party. Still, that being said, they sure do put up a good fight.
Slumber Party is teen melty goodness. It's all about ice cold revenge and heated passions. Suffocating memories and chilling fear! Reconstructive surgery and peeing on your hands in a blizzard!!
I highly recommend it.
Up next ... Weekend!
|
June 22nd, 2009
07:30 am - Rollergirl Pinup
Thought this Monday morning could use a little Rollergirl Action -- voila, my pin-up of Jilli Idol, famed rookie Jammer on the Night Terrors!
|
June 19th, 2009
June 18th, 2009
05:53 pm - The Christopher Pike Book Club!
Lately I've been getting kind of sad about the fact that since I'm no longer in school, I no longer get a summer vacation. AND I don't get a summer reading list, to boot! No more endless, boring summer hours with which to fill with required reading. Just work. Endless, 9 to 5 work. Sigh.
But now -- no longer! Even though I barely have time to read as it is (I read over breakfast and right before bed and ... that's pretty much it), I've decided it might make me feel a little more like those wistful reading summers of old if I just make up my OWN Summer Reading List! And stick to it! This epiphany just so happened to perfectly coincide with my resurgence of love for one of my all-time favorite authors -- Christopher Pike! Sure his books might seem a little cheesy, a little out-dated, but what better way to celebrate the hot days of summer than with 80's teen horror??
Everyone's invited! Grab a copy of the current book I'm tearing through and join me in philosophical discussion on the way! (They can be found at probably any library. I got my copies at Amazon for a penny each!) I'll be hitting up the classics in chronological order -- first up: Slumber Party!
|
June 14th, 2009
10:47 am - Bout Poster & a new Hire page!
Woot, my poster for the July Charm City Roller Girls Bout is out! If you're not familiar with CCRG, they consist of four teams - the Night Terrors, the Junkyard Dolls, Speed Regime, and the Mobtown Mods. So this is what, in essence, I think all the teams do to get ready. ;)
And in other news, I finally got some info up on my Hire page, check it out! It features a smattering of my work with a dab of contact info.
|
June 12th, 2009
11:28 pm - What's that comic?
Yes, it's finally time for a Gods & Undergrads update, woooo! And you thought I forgot!
|
03:53 pm - Bonnie's Back!
New Bonnie N. Collide at last! You knew I could never quit her ...
Also, a new Bio page for me!
|
June 8th, 2009
01:17 pm - Lipstick & Malice #3 is officially for sale!
Now that I'm back from the hotbox heaven that was MoCCA 2009, I've setup Lipstick & Malice #3 for purchase, woo!
Click here to preview, here to buy!
|
June 5th, 2009
08:39 am - MoCCA Table 213 - 214, woo!
I'll be at MoCCA this weekend, chilling at tables 213 - 214, along with fellow fab creators Tim Piotrowski, Mike DiMotta, and Kate Williamson. Come on by and see us!
I'll have copies of my BRAND SPANKIN' NEW Lipstick & Malice #3 for sale!!
|
June 3rd, 2009
May 30th, 2009
01:45 pm - progress, progress
Stayed up late for the first time in a loooooong time just working on comics last night. Felt surprisingly good to return to nerdom on a Friday night!
Here's how the inks turned out on those pencil pages -- now to fix & add text! And here's the pencils for page 4, to boot.
|
May 29th, 2009
05:00 pm - I ain't 'fraid of no ghost
Still chuggin' away on this comic. But as I was half-listening to Ghost Hunters in the background as I was inking (as is my custom, if I have re-runs handy), I got to thinking about the Dead. Not the Grateful Dead, the DEAD dead. The average dead that sometimes people claim to see. Now I LOVE ghost stories, creepy tales, and cheesy paranormal reality shows. I eat up anyone's personal experience with ghosts or otherworldly things. I relish in going on ghost walks and haunted tours. I listen to paranormal podcasts and instantly believe anyone who tells me they saw an apparition. I can't get enough of any of that crap.
HOWEVER. I do draw the line at actually experiencing anything for myself firsthand. I have no desire to see an actual ghost or hear an odd noise I can't attribute to neighbors or cats. Why? Because it's creepy. Like the little girl in The Sixth Sense who first grabs Cole's ankle from under the bed rather than just talking to him, I don't understand why ghosts just can't just interact with us like reasonable people. Why grab ankles, or write messages (in scary handwriting!) on mirrors, or jump out at people around corners? Why not just slowly saunter up to the living with a "Hey, what's up"? I mean, I'm all for occasional drama, but I think the act of seeing a non-living person is dramatic enough without further theatrics. I'm just sayin'.
So tons of people I've met have had one experience or another. My brother even had a "horrible feeling" once when I dragged him with me to house-sit, and I felt nothing. My mom claims she can sense when bad things have happened in a place. Therefore I've always considered this to be MY gift -- my sixth sense is as finely tuned as a blunt object. It could be CHOCKFULL of ghosts and ghoulies and I will not see or hear or sense a damn thing. Which suits me perfectly.
Then last weekend, I went on a Ghost Tour in New Orleans. It was awesome, getting a walking history tour and checking out all the creepy buildings. Snapping pictures "just in case". We get to the most haunted house in New Orleans, the La Laurie House, and hear on and on all the horrible, gruesome things that took place. That's cool. We walk around to the side to get a view of a balcony where a slave girl was thrown off, that's fine. More tales of badness. Then I get lightheaded, feel like I'm going to vomit, and things start to go black. Of course, I've passed out before in my life, so I knew what was going on and could immediately sit and put my head between my knees until I felt better. Eventually I felt normal, my hearing returned, everything was cool. I felt stupid and didn't want anyone thinking I was a typical drunk tourist. Our tour guide told me someone else had once fainted at that part of the tour.
WTF.
|
May 27th, 2009
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
artemna's journal
