And, if you liked that.  Here’s some stuff from college.

YOU’VE SEEN IT, YOU CAN’T UN-SEE IT!

Okay, it should be said that I love, LOVE, Osamu Tezuka’s work. Okay, I love it like I love Jack Kirby, maybe more in some ways. I like to think that if Tezuka and Kirby ever met in real life and touched one another, Elisha and Moses would have returned just to check out the second greatest thing to ever happen on earth. Haha. Yeah, I love comic, and I don’t care where they were made.

DORORO hits on some common themes that Tezuka can’t seem to stay away from. Again, it reminds me of Kirby, and how he plays with Life VS Antilife throughout his career, but never articulates it to his satisfaction. Tezuka has a fixation on artificial beings and rebirth after rejection. ASTRO BOY was a double of his inventor’s son. Pinnoco, from BLACK JACK, was a parasitic twin who was supposed to be thrown away with the rest of the bio waste. And then there is Hyakkimaru. The comic ran in a weekly magazine for THREE YEARS, so don’t pat yourselves on the back too much, DC.

DORORO is about a exiled prince whose body parts were sold by his father to the 48 Satans while he was still unborn. When he is born, the eyeless, armless, hopeless baby is floated down the river in a a basket by his mother to save him from having his head stomped in by the king. A kindly doctor finds the child and raises it to use his own soul to “feel” the world without his natural senses. When the boy is a teenager, his father crafts him wooden arms and legs so he can run from the Satans who have come for the rest of his body. Inside both of his arms are two legendary swords, which he uses to defend himself. He is exiled from his home again and given the name Hyakkimaru (which means 100 demons boy).

I get goose bumps just typing that! I just want to scream about how wonderful and profound this comic is. Nobody is born whole, and it’s only through loving one another than any of us can survive. Humanity exists as a society because it is the only way to fight the darkness within and without.

Do yourselves a service, Tino Titans, pick up DORORO vol. 1. You won’t regret it.

Started and finished my first page of SERGEANT ZERO yesterday. Wonderful experience. Lots of textures to play with, I just hope it reads well.

Official announcement is here.

So, yeah, I’m working on that Character I was playing with the previous post. I’ve known it since then, but we wanted to wait until we had a cover to make the post.

Working with Anthony Schiavino is a new and wonderful experience. I’ve really only ever collaborated with my brother up to this point. Our experiences have been so similar that there wasn’t that much back-and-forth once the preproduction outlining was done. As a result, I was pretty much given a license to be lazy. That is not the case with Anthony, the guy has such a clear vision, it’s a much different type of working relationship. I can’t be lazy, and this is a good thing.

I really love the project and can’t wait to see people reading it. But the artist in me is really more exited about how much I’ll have learned and grown after I’ve finished the first 22 pages. I’ve never done a 22 page story, which is why I’ve never been a serious contender for a professional position. In the next few months, it’s a whole new ball game for me, artistically and professionally. Anthony and I are really venturing forth together on a maiden journey, as this is his first project as well.

I’m looking forward to a long and fruitful tenure on SERGEANT ZERO. Hope you’re along for the ride, Tino Titans.