Uploads from The Searcher

King’s Tower, Saint-Émilion, France

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:30:23 -0700

Apparently this region is an extremely big huge deal for wine lovers. For me it was just an adorable ancient village high on a hill, barely a 30 minute train-ride from Bordeaux, where I was living at the time. Beneath the village are thousands of interconnected caves, good for storing wine and hiding out from invaders. The King’s Tower is a big box of a thing, sort of standing away from the village proper. Completely explorable, just a half euro to the bored teen girl minding the desk gives you run of the place.

This sketch was from about halfway up, the tower is basically just a series of large chambers connected by narrow stairs and passageways that wind up along the outer walls. And by narrow I mean narrow, maybe two feet wide in most places. And the doorways were often barely 4 feet tall, I don’t know if that was to slow down invaders or if the men of the 1200s were just really small. Still, the view at the top was totally worth it.

Here’s the photo set from one of my visits.

When Sharks Fly: One Burden Less

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:02:31 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

They think I’m a ghoul but I don’t think of them much at all, walking around on their own muddy graves just waiting to climb down inside. Gravity tugs and traps our souls, if we don’t escape it will bury us in the end. My only judge is the sky, and it doesn’t seem to mind or at least it never asks why.

When these dead beasts lived they danced in the clouds, but even corpsified they never sink, never fall, just drift and sail nowhere and everywhere, feeding the rest and carrying me with. I don’t know why they fly, but their ignorance of the world’s weight seems one burden less for them than us.

It’s too late for me I already know and can’t unlearn the fate of my dead weight into the dark dirt below. But I’ll fight for my sky till I’m a corpse like my ride, then I’ll strap my lap to the saddle and even corpsified drift on, the mud below again defied.

All The Good Bugs Were Taken

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Thu, 30 May 2013 14:24:59 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

It was rough going in the early days, getting established, earning respect. The hero fraternity was unkind, to put it charitably. Hamilton was not helped by basing his abilities on a “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” pulp story that was later proved a hoax. After that the venom injectors and flame thrower made little sense.

Airlock Discipline

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:22:44 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Living on the generational ship required discipline. Discipline with maintenance and especially discipline with safety. Hull breaches were constant, something not unforeseen on a ship constructed thousands of Earth-years ago. When a bulkhead gave out, the siren sounded, and it would be up to whomever could reach the airlock first to close it, no matter who was left behind. To wait for a loved one would only condemn others to die. More to the point, were you to fail, someone else would just be at the next airlock to sacrifice you instead. It was the tragic reality of the hard life of deep space.

That being said, once Abigail ejected her third brother into space, her parents began to suspect she wasn’t all that sorry about it.

My First Monster

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:01:11 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Elijah’s first monster was “The Tadpole”. It was very small compared to his parents’ monsters, barely the size of a small skyscraper. And it couldn't fly, or breath nuclear fire, stuff way too dangerous for a kid’s monster. But it was clever and lithe and could jump pretty high, and Elijah loved playing with it. He could only take it out with his parents, which wasn't much fun because there were so many rules. Even though they told him over and over that his monster was not a toy, he still snuck it out of the paddock to play with sometimes. After all he was just five, and everything was a toy to him.

Elijah’s monster stepped on his little sister, and then ate his parents, before roaming down the hillside into town. He knew he’d be in trouble and would probably be grounded once his parents woke up. After all he was just five, and had no concept of death.

The army came and killed his monster, but not before it ate or stepped on most everyone in town, and left very few buildings standing. Elijah didn’t understand why everyone was so mad. After all he was just five, and he thought this is what monsters were supposed to do.

That Yellow Bartkira

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:21:05 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Here's the complete five page set of my unofficial attempt at the Bartkira Project. Tons of fun, but man I'm not cut out for sequential art, it's exhausting. Since I was already mashing stuff up, I tossed in some Sin City yellow for the pop-manga-comic-cartoon hat trick.

You're gonna want to view this at a larger size to see it all.

Bartkira: Page 252

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:30:21 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Continuing the practice project, this is a side-by-side from page 252 (Akira volume 6.) Two pages left to go!

Bartkira: Pages 249, 253 Comparison

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:05:58 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Continuing the practice project, I chose five pages from Akira Volume 6, here's a comparison of the two pages with the original from Akira. This is really a lot of fun, I highly recommend anyone give this a try for art practice. Doesn't have to be Akira, or Simpsons. But mash something up, you'll be amazed how much you can learn from the freedom and limitations of the task.

Bartkira: Page 249

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:05:58 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Continuing the practice project, I chose five pages from Akira Volume 6, and here's the first result.

Bartkira: Page 253

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:05:57 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Continuing the practice project, I chose five pages from Akira Volume 6, and here's the second page attempted.

Bartkira: Page One

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:55:49 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

So there's this thing the internet spawned, "Bartkira". Basically hundreds of artists were each handed five pages from Akira to redo with Simpsons characters. I missed out on joining in, but decided to give it a go anyway. Here's how page 1 went.

Little Red Riding Hoodie

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:27:43 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

The Wolf circled slowly around her, secret plans whirling behind his eyes. Red stood her ground, unafraid. “What lovely skin you have,” the Wolf said, licking its lips.

“Yeah I kind of need a coat, maybe something with a hood. I like your red fur.”

“What tiny hands you have.” the Wolf continued, sounding a bit confused.

“Oh I know! My hands are so small I had to get this dagger specially made.”

“What, uh, what green eyes you h-”

“Look, can we just get on with this? I’m freezing my ass off out here and Gramma’s wolf stew isn’t going to make itself.”

Double Feature: Kill Bill vs Karate Kid

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:36:42 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Kiddo: C’mon kid, are you serious? I have a sword. You see that right? Sword?

Kid: …...

Kiddo: Look just, just stop doing that. Put your foot down. I’m not here to fight you. Ok seriously, put your foot down, what is that even supposed to be?

Kid: It’s karate!

Kiddo: No, it’s really not.

Kid: So if you’re not here to fight me, what do you want?

Kiddo: I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you. Good news is, I found your long lost father. Bad news is, I need your help to kill him. We have to Kill Bill.

Kid: …...

Kiddo: Wow, up with the leg again.

Just Another [REDACTED] in Vegas

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:41:26 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

Then there was that time in Vegas, preparing for [REDACTED]. We met the [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] for drinks in the penthouse, standing on the furniture for no particular reason. But before [REDACTED] we were in the middle of [REDACTED] again, running from [REDACTED]. We were forced to [REDACTED] an ancient [REDACTED] to buy back our [REDACTED], who was being [REDACTED] by male [REDACTED] in a secret [REDACTED] behind Circus Circus.

it didn’t get really [REDACTED] until we [REDACTED] [REDACTED] the chamber for [REDACTED], releasing [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] upon the world. But then [REDACTED] [REDACTED] dawn approached, we had to catch our flights, and everything [REDACTED] to normal.

Dance like there’s no world of tomorrow

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:42:58 -0700

The Searcher posted a photo:

ART 410 Advanced Bio-Mechanical Figure Drawing

A studio course for students with five or six semesters of drawing experience, including at least two semesters figure drawing experience with an emphasis on human-mechanical interfaces. Stress will be placed on understanding new forms stemming from the last century of cyborg development. Models will vary from full blended enhancile to Under City DIY mech. Emphasis will be placed on underlying conceptual structures of mech/bio relationships, with a focus on examining the humanity within today’s cyber-blended society.

As with all masters-level courses, traditional media only. Enhanced optics, AI/servo musculature permitted on case by case basis. See syllabus for prerequisites.

Double Feature: The Omen vs Jaws

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:37:15 -0800

The Searcher posted a photo:

“You’re going to need a bigger kid,” the Amity sheriff said, watching Damien play with the deputy’s german shepherd.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” the Pentagon suit replied. “You may want to keep him away from the dog, though.”

“So what are you going to do,” the sheriff asked. “We don’t even know how to find this shark.”

“We just drop him in the water,” the suit replied. “He takes care of it.”

“Just like that?”

“Yep. Worked for Syria, “ the suit said, a tremble catching in his voice. “Ok Damien, you’re up. Get your water wings on, you’re going swimming.” The suit guided him to the helicopter, noticeably staying out of reach. Damien smiled.

Back on the dock, the deputy searched for his dog.

Sketchy Vegas Memories

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:18:05 -0800

The Searcher posted a photo:

No story with this one. I mean there is, just not something I can share, or entirely recollect. As it should be.

Former Pig Farmer

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 22:59:44 -0800

The Searcher posted a photo:

The hardest part was directional motivation.

Some guys could afford real lifters. Silas heard they had a pack of elephants at the McCallister ranch, a whole pack. Over at the Triple T they rolled with ostrich and zebras, and there was a rancher Silas saw fly over once, maybe from the next county over, had himself a hippo. With a whole hippo Silas could fly all day, so high people would just be ants.

Silas couldn’t afford all them fancy animals, but that didn’t stop him. Little creativity, lot of zip ties, and he could go just as high as the rest.

Higher sometimes, with the right directional motivation.

Legend of League Legless

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:10:24 -0800

The Searcher posted a photo:

It was a terrible journey to the ancient caves, made inconvenient by their collective lack of limbs. But that is where the journal said to go, so they went. Their mistake of course was trusting the writings of a madman, or more properly expecting that madmen must be mistaken.

The cap stones were there, the massive levers and pulleys, all scratched and etched with ancient warnings in every language, known and unknown. But fortune favours the foolish, or so they told themselves, thus they pushed and pulled and turned and twisted, until they felt the tell-tale tremors.

They unleashed the unknowable upon the world, and knew it was their cataclysm to correct.

And they didn’t have long, since supper was at six.

Magneto Bullet Theory

nobody@flickr.com (The Searcher) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:49:11 -0800

The Searcher posted a photo:

Published in the late 1960s through the mid 1970s, “mutant conspiracy comics” became highly collectible in later decades. At the time, it wasn’t yet mainstream to be distrustful of mutants, they were just groups of kids in tights running around fighting each other. But for some underground artists and writers, mutants had their hands in every significant historical event of the period. Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy assassinations, Watergate, even the cancellation of long running television series were the fault of secret mutant machinations.

With paranoia and distrust of mutants unfortunately at an all-time high, perhaps there are lessons to be learned from the wild conspiracies of the past.

(Collection on loan from the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters)