Drawing sea critters is one of my great joys in life.
Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak took a shot at redesigning Nightcrawler yesterday and I like what he came up with and I wanted to draw it! Coming up with colors for the costume was a challenge, and I have a few different versions, but the top one is my favorite (thank you Magnolia for helping me out).
Nightcrawler’s classic circus costume is actually one of my favorites so I didn’t want to veer too much from the black/red/white color scheme. I also really love that Aaron added in swords to his costume, but after about a half-hour of wrestling with shoulder harnesses and scabbards and foreshortening I said “FORGET THIS” and left them off. Sorry Kurt.
My favorite thing about this redesign is that it brings Nightcrawler back to what made him my favorite X-Man: a devilish swashbuckling Errol Flynn mutant that gets drunk with Wolverine on the weekends. Through the 90s and 00s he turned into this brooding sadsack of a character that just wasn’t fun to be around. The fun of Nightcrawler was that he looked demonic but didn’t let that get in the way of him having a good time.
KURT WAGNER.
Hey! My buddy Dave (creator of Dead Winter and all around rad friend) has an item up in the Steam Workshop and gosh I’d sure be tickled pink if y’all could vote it up! He’s worked super hard on it and I think it is a pretty neat item!
Benign Kingdom Cover. Photoshop.
Hey so, if you’ve ever looked through this blog and thought you’d like an artbook from me, here’s your chance! Becky, KC, Evan, and myself just put up a Kickstarter for a series of art books called Benign Kingdom. Each of us did our cover and poster art with the theme “benign kingdom,” and I had to take the chance to draw Kaia and Dhio.
Watch the video while you’re there, you can see me nervously fidgeting around a bunch and holding a kitten!
The sound I made when I saw the Kickstarter for this was inhuman. Please back this project! It’s got SO MANY RAD PEOPLE in it! I want that hardcover book.
Skin Deep Hiatus
“So Kory, if you finished the Nixie of the Mill-Pond and your Borogove cards haven’t arrived yet, why is Skin Deep still on hiatus?”
Good question, Internet!
My convention season starts off in late February with Furry Fiesta in Dallas, and goes straight through April, which as we all know, is Tax Season! So I am trying to get all my taxes in order before my conventions start. The problem with this is, however that last year was my very first year being a Self-Employed Artist, and I am quickly learning that that makes my taxes WOW SUPER COMPLICATED. I’ve hired a tax person but my records are so unorganized that I am going to spend a long time figuring this all out.
So sorry about the delay with Skin Deep! Reader Questions will go up every day like usual, but I’m not entirely sure when the actual comic is going to start up again! After taxes are over and Borogove is shipped out, which may not be until late February or March.
I hope y’all understand, and thank you for all your patience!
I’ve had a lot of people ask why Michelle’s dad doesn’t look like Michelle and the reason is because he is an Egyptian sphinx and she is a Grecian sphinx!
I’m a little late with today’s reader question because fun fact: I forgot it was Monday.
I still haven’t come up with a name for this guy but he is one of two Nemean Council members and one of 3 Avalon Elders that I have figured out.
I want to do a bunch of facial studies for the TF2 fanzine but that just means I need to freakin’ learn how to draw faces! Here are the results of beating my head against a wall for about two hours trying to figure out how Medic’s face works. I think maybe I figured it out??
My parents tore down that cabin (and the rest of the cabins on the property) because they were one step up from a tent, moldy and warped from years of floods, and pretty gross! I still miss them.
Some day I’ll write a story about Zeke and Stanley.
so many wizards: Why Black March Is a Really Fucking Bad Idea
To the people proposing this:
You dumb bastards. You know who this’ll hurt? Not big media. Not on any significant scale.
No, the people this will really fuck over are the EXACT same people SOPA and PIPA would fuck: Creative professionals; small…
The only thing I disagree with about the original post is the implications that consumers can’t affect corporations through boycott. The last thing we really need is to believe that we can’t influence these guys with our dollars.
That said, I’ve already said my peace on supporting independents and progressive companies.
I believe that consumers can influence corporations through boycott, but I don’t think they can the way that Black March is trying to. Telling everyone to just not buy stuff for a month, but when that month is up then hey, go buy it, isn’t going to do anything but cause a big sales spike in those corporations in April, which is the opposite of what the boycott is trying to do.
Protesting against companies that support things you don’t agree with is like a diet, You can’t just purge and go back to your normal eating habits, you gotta change your habits and keep at it. Stop buying from them wholesale and don’t go back to buying them after an arbitrary number of days is up.
Now I think I’m rambling. It’s not that I think “don’t even try to protest, there’s nothing you can do,” it’s just that I think protesting in the way that the Black March image spells out is very short sighted and will end up hurting more than helping.
1 week ago - 
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4579 - Why Black March Is a Really Fucking Bad Idea
To the people proposing this:
You dumb bastards. You know who this’ll hurt? Not big media. Not on any significant scale.
No, the people this will really fuck over are the EXACT same people SOPA and PIPA would fuck: Creative professionals; small publishers; independent businesses.
If you want to do something that makes a statement, consider shifting your money not only away from corporate media but to independent media. Buy comics published by someone other than DC and Marvel. Buy books from small and independent presses. Support independent production companies who fight to stay independent and fan-focused. Better yet, buy things directly from creators and artisans. Support independent retailers. Don’t just blanket punish media producers and distributors—refocus those resources into supporting the ones who espouse and depend on free exchange of information and ideas.
Because those are the people preserving intellectual freedom.
Those are the people creating work of substance.
And those are the people struggling to make a living, because they aren’t bankrolled by the doucheweasels lobbying for SOPA and PIPA.
So, yeah, boycott whomever you please. But for fuck’s sake, also think.
Thank you Rachel, this is basically what my problem was the moment I saw that image but I couldn’t put into words exactly what was making me so angry. SOPA and PIPA are going to hurt small businesses and independent artists that make a living off of the internet, and refusing to buy ANY media during the month of March will do the exact same thing: hurt small businesses and independent artists.
Not all “big media” is bad. There are plenty of “big names” that have been openly against SOPA and PIPA since the beginning, like Valve, for example. I know research is hard and “Don’t Support Companies That Support Things You Don’t Agree With March” isn’t as snappy as “Black March” but don’t be so hasty that you actively hurt the people that you want to help.
