My best friend, Jamie King, is also known in some circles as the "Zombie Queen." She's been organizing Zombie Walks in the Kansas City area for a couple of years now...with the goal of gathering food for needy folks and having a lot of fun at the same time. To participate you need to bring 5 non-perishable items (canned food, etc.)
Basically, you come up with a Zombie look for yourself, by tearing up some old clothes from a thriftstore or your own closet. Then you use some make-up and blood (or someone will help you put on makeup at the event, if you're in a pinch), and then the participants walk around and act like zombies. Its a little embarrassing at first, but after a bit its a great deal of fun.
If you'd like to print off a high-resolution copy of the Zombie Walk poster...or you'd like to print off a 100 of them to hang up or hand out to friends, use the links below. The first one is a full-color version, and the second is a b&w version that's perfect for copy-machines.
http://www.ghostvigil.com/zombiewalk/poster3color.pdf
http://www.ghostvigil.com/zombiewalk/poster3bw.pdf
See you there!
Mark
Well, its been a year and a half since I finished page 5 of this story! And its been years and years since I initially pencilled this. But I finished page 6 today.
CLICK "READ MORE" TO SEE HOW THE PAGE DEVELOPED.
Read more!O.K. I haven't drawn anything new in quite awhile. Too busy with ghosts, and such. But for a CCN Message Board Sketch Challenge...I drew two images of Thor. Not the Marvel Thor...the mythological Thor...
Mark
I drew this train robber and murderer named Hugh D'Autremont for a Sketch Challenge over at the CCN Message Board. It has a lot of shading in it...making it a difficult drawing to ink. But I thought I'd give her a try.
CLICK "READ MORE" BELOW TO VIEW STEP-BY-STEP INKING.
I have always loved the Shadow. What a great character...and one of the greatest pulp heroes....
I drew this at January's CCN Sketchbook Party, here in Kansas City. Then I scanned it and colored it in Photoshop.
-Mark Stinson
This was done (surprise, surprise) entirely in Photoshop. I drew the phoenix back in 2000...but I added the stars and the earth today...just for Illustration Friday! It only took about 10 minutes...
-Mark Stinson
And he's done. Click on the image above to go to my Killers Gallery...
I broke from my self-set guidelines of pure B&W over at the Killers Gallery, and went with two tones of grey as well. I was messing around with it, and once I saw the greys worked into the picture...I just couldn't find any other look that pleased me as much...
-Mark Stinson
Well page 5 is scripted and done...only 6 more pages to go!
This page probably had the most digital finishing of all the pages so far. The Buildings were digitally added to my original artwork...as was the background behind the Secret in the top panel. I probably spent more time finishing this page than I did originally drawing it and inking it conventionally.
I remember when I was drawing this at the Wizard Convention in Chicago in 2004, a comic book professional that I know came up to me and asked to look at what I was working on. I showed him...and he said, "Why don't you get some decent pens...this Sharpie stuff looks like crap."
Now granted, "Sharpie-inked" work is not ready for Marvel or D.C. publication. I fully realize that. I also realize that this story was not for Marvel or D.C. publication. I also realize that I already have a full-time career with a salary and a retirement and three kids. A career that is my dream-career. So I realize that I draw these stories for fun...and I realize that if I want to ink my self-published indy-art with a F*cking Sharpie...I'll do it...and I'll do it all day long.
:-)
-Mark Stinson
O.K...big gap between finished pages there! During that gap I've been working on ghost-stuff, built and web-published a 152-page 24-Hour-Comic anthology, and the normal work and family stuff!
This was a difficult page to script. Easy to draw...difficult to script. Conceptually, I knew what I wanted here, but making the words fit the concept was easier said than done.
Another complication developed. When I initially drew this, the top panel did not have a guy snorting coke. Instead, it had a guy wearing women's underware. Now that is definitely funny stuff (and it was rather well-drawn, if I say so myself). But it really turned the tone of the story on its head...and it made the reader stop and just stare. That's just not the right place in the story for a reader to stop and just stare! So I removed the guy in chick's underware and worked in the coke snorting.
The idea with this page was to show that the Secret knows everyone's secrets...whether he's met you or not. As soon as you tuck away a secret in that big mess of a brain of yours, the Secret knows what you've done...and why you've done it. Later, this page supports psychologically, why the Secret would recruit one of these men for his organization.
Until next time!
-Mark Stinson
This was designed for the KCMO Police Department GIS (mapping) Unit. Darin Lee helped me with input. I think it turned out pretty nice. Most of the time it will be "stamp-sized" in the legend at the bottom of a map.
What do you think?
-Mark Stinson
P.S. Facing rejection, I added mapping grid lines to make this more "mapping oriented," and I think this might just get approved...
In the bottom corner of a map it might look like this:
For my "Kinks in the Chain" storyline in Void Pulp Comics #1 and #2, I needed a cast of supporting characters with "super-powers." They had to be worthy of the main character, Tarn Maylock. I stuck with creating my own version of super-hero arch-types. For instance, American's Champion is clearly a "Superman" type...but with a disillusioned corporate spin. And the character called the Secret certainly developed from my love of the pulp hero called The Shadow.
I wanted a film-noir character, with a mysterious pulp feel to it. He had to have strange mystical powers...a cult of followers that served him loyally...and he had to talk in near-riddles. And what resulted is reflected in this story....more behind-the-scenes stuff with Page 4!
-Mark Stinson
I worked on this story at Chicago Wizard World 2004...and brought it home and finished the pencilling and inking. But I never cleaned up the artwork or finished adding the grays.
As a writing exercise, I put the rough B&W pages up on the internet and let anyone who was willing, to write a script that fit the artwork and basic outline of the story that I provided. Both Mike Sullivan and Michelle Arcand actually lettered the artwork, and provided me with fully scripted stories, word balloons and everything. Rob Armstrong and Greg Gildersleeve sent me document scripts, fully typed out. At least one person posted script materials on our old message board...but when the message board blew up (Damn you HostOnce!), that material was lost (and I have forgotten the name of the contributor.
For this final version, I am picking over the 4 script-proposals I still have, picking and choosing the best lines where I can...and adding my own flavor where it seems appropriate. More details with the next page!
-Mark Stinson
Flavor Flav Everybody...
This was sketched with a ball point pen in about 4 minutes..then cleaned up with a Sharpie in around 8 minutes...the scanned and cleaned up further in Photoshop for about 10 minutes...and its done.
What do you think?
...and that's all folks!
-Mark Stinson
...and that's the last page of the story. There's one more page to share...the back cover. I'll post that final page in the next day or two, and post the whole story over at www.comixfree.com.
-Mark Stinson
