After nearly a year's abscence from DA, I have returned bringing new comic work with me. The last year has been spent on two original, creator-owned projects: Buffalo Samurai and Sepherus Smith.

"Buffalo Samurai" is an ongoing, historical manga series set in the American Old West about a black Samurai and a female outlaw. Very similar in tone to Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, The Zeta Project and The Fugitive (1963 series).

"Sepherus Smith" is an offbeat detective mystery/comedy set in the early 1940s. A noir throwback, complete with smokey bars, sultry women, malicious mobsters and (of course) mysterios murders. Similar in tone to The Spirit and Dick Tracy.

I'll be adding page scans, character designs and more over the next two weeks. Looking foreward to some feedback!

A POEM:

You're not a real artist if your hands are both clean
If you don't have a spot on your fancy new jeans

If your nails are not grody with black carcoal dust
(Or pencil or pastel -- either's a must)

If your floor is well-swept and order maintained
If the T-shirt you're wearing isn't hopelessly stained

If you could clean out your studio in less than a year
Than perhaps you should think of a different career

Art's not for the preppy, not for the meek
Not for the people who party all week

Art's for the selflessly dedicated fools
Who labor and slave over artistic tools

Art's for the passionate, the people OBSESSED
The people who don't mind if they look like a mess

The people whose make art their one highest care
And think more of their work than their nails or their hair

It might sound closed-minded; might even sound mean
But you're not a real artist if your hands are both clean.

- S. Forester Randlet, 2008

There is a scene in Gladiator where an African slave expresses shock at the sight of the Roman Colluseum, not realizing that something like that existed.

I felt the same way this week when I discovered the modern Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator at the school library (Anne Arundel Community College). I knew some digital bitmap art from my use of Photoshop 5.0 (the 1998 version), but I never knew of brushes besides the airbrush and gradient.

I couldn't believe it. So many BRUSHES. TEXTURES. I swear to God, I felt as though I had just met an amazing woman. It was love at first click.

I had a thumb drive in my pocket and it had a low quality scan of that old Aslan picture I drew back in 2005 (the paws aren't in the picture because the picture was too big for the scanner). I started playing with brushes. I swear, I almost drooled on the keyboard. It was better than porno (and unlike porn, it wouldn't get me kicked out of the school library). LOL!

I also played with a friend's pen tab mouse. I've never drawn in vector before (save for some Adobe Flash I did for a class project). While I like the vector tools, I think I will stick to traditional hair brushes and India Ink to finish my drawings, just because I love the theraputic feeling of smearing the ink on paper.