Artists I Like: Daniel Strickland

Artists I Like.... Daniel Strickland! I encountered his work on Insta and fell in love. He draws fat girls a lot, and I appreciate that. It's a morally good thing.

This post might be more comfortable over on my Blood Red blog... and I might do a mirror version featuring more of his art over there. But hell's bells, y'all. If you don't know my proclivities by now you ain't never gonna learn. I'm a package deal.

Anyway... Daniel Strickland seems to work mostly in ink with digital color. His website says he's a professional comic book artist. Looks like he also makes adult coloring books*.

I love his delicate lines. Almost an animation style. Of course his forms are fabulous as well, capturing the volume of a body in an elegant way. This is my kind of thing. So check him out.

*"Adult" coloring books sounds dirty, right? But it just means coloring books created for grown ups, not kids. So it can be anything from hot rods to flowers.

 

Random or Focused?

For quite some time I feel like I've been in a "slump". Typically, for the past few years more than ever, I draw a lot, sketching something almost every day. Usually multiple somethings. But maybe a month ago I slowed down and was immersed in RPG thought. I went a full week without touching a pencil.

The past few days or maybe since last weekend the trend has shifted. I'm drawing a lot more, starting to feel like my old self.

This is good. But it also means I need to address one of my biggest hangups: Lack of focus.

Namely... is lack of focus a problem or not? It feels like one, because I badly want to finish projects. But at the same time I'm happiest just doing something - anything - creative. So if I'm drawing my ass off all weekend and none of the drawings are "for a project", is that really a problem?

Something for me to ponder.

Here's some recent work.

Vaughn Bode or Weird Al?

Artists I Like: Rick Geary

I had no idea Rick Geary was born in the 1940s. I guess I assumed he was roughly my age. But that's because I don't do my research and I assume too much.

Geary has a long career spanning back to the early 1970s when he did work for various newspapers. He was in National Lampoon for years. I recall seeing his work for the first time in Heavy Metal when was a teen, so it had to be around 1988 since that is when his first story appeared in the magazine. (Is he in the new Heavy Metal??)

The one book I own of his is Jack the Ripper. Apparently Geary is a bit obsessed with Victorian murder because he did a whole slew of those kinds of books ranging from the Borden murders to the killing of Abraham Lincoln.

His style is iconic. I don't know his tools, but it always felt like he was using technical pens (maybe dip pens) and working with delicate precision over these pages. But I suspect his comic pages are not large scale. I don't know. But the Victorian murder books are digest sized, or around 8.5 x 5.5 inches or something. If I was publishing at that size, I would draw on 8.5 x 11 or something. (Look at me speculating about what I could probably just research.)

Geary does good work. Check it out.

 

Notes on BPPB

And what, you ask, is "BPPB"? Well, it is the Black Pudding Play Book, of course.

Black Pudding issue 4 (2018) featured 15 pages of house rules under the OSR Play Book title. Black Pudding issue 7 (2022) featured a 17 page gazetteer and mythos for the world of Yria.

Black Pudding Play Book includes all those pages (with modifications), plus 32 more. It's a 64 page book.

Now, the plan is to simply release it as a PDF and POD on DTRPG. I am not planning a big crowd funding campaign or anything. The world is not good right now, prices are already high, I just don't feel it. I want to put this out there because I love it and I want to share it. The PDF will probably be Pay What You Want, just like the issues of BP have always been. The POD will cost money, naturally.

POD note: DTRPG requires a blank page at the end for their internal use. So the book will actually be 63 pages of content. But there's a random table on the back cover, which was meant to be on the interior. So that is your 64th page.

DESIGN NOTES

I have a lot of design notes, so I'll just keep this one a bit short and to the point, hitting on a few important ones I want to mention before I forget.

• I find that I use both GM and Judge. I won't change that. They are interchangeable.

• These are house rules for B/X. Hacks. I've developed them over a god damn decade now, playing here and there, and noodling about them all the time. They are the kinds of house rules I enjoy using. You might not like them all, and that's fine. You can pick and choose. But be aware that some of them are interdependent.

For example, Thief skills are based on making a Saving Throw plus ability score mod. If you abandon the single Save method, you need to consider which category of Saves to use for these skills, or default to a DC system like modern D&D. It's fine either way.

• Speaking of Thieves. I kept the XP requirements for the core classes unchanged. So Thieves have the lowest requirements. But in BPPB, Thieves are useful. They can DO THINGS. Their skills are good. I gave a balancing nod to this fact by making them a bit less combat-effective. Their to hit bonus is not as good as B/X. But that's ok. If you wanted to be a great fighter, be a god damn Fighter.

• Speaking of shitty fighting... I did not give Wizards much of a combat bonus at all. And I think that's appropriate. But I did give them SOMETHING. I don't see how you could work beside warriors for 5 levels, being in many fights, and not get a little better at fighting. So they do eventually get a bonus.

• I did away with spell levels. I don't need them. I retooled most of the 1st and 2nd level spells (and others) to be level-less. For both Wizards and Clerics.

• Speaking of Clerics... I have never been a fan of D&D Clerics. They are generic. Later editions did a better job making them cool, but still. I honestly favor a game without them. But I did include them in this one and gave them a lot of random tables for customization. They do have to make a Prayer Roll, just in case their gods decline their petition for a miracle. It's only fair. Oh, and Clerics can't heal very much. They can a bit, but not much. I increased the amount you heal by sleeping, which I much prefer.

• Speaking of classes... You can use any BP class you want, or any other class. It's fine. But the classes actually defined within this book are, in order of appearance: Fighter, Thief, Dwarf, Elf, Botten, Cleric, Wizard, Goblin, Lizz, Skeleton Warrior. That kind of represents the most common "adventuring types" found in the setting. There's a table showing the average distribution of classes, and I think "other" (BP classes like Eyeball) are about 5% of the total. But players don't choose based on that. They just choose. Or roll. Whatever.

I'll follow this rambling post up later with more information. The book is 99.9% complete. Everything is done from the cover to the back cover. But I need to give it a few more editorial passes, then put it into the right format and get myself a print copy before I go firing it out into the world. That being said, it will still be at least a few more weeks. Stay tuned if you like this kind of shit. 

Artists I Like: Stan Sakai

This week I'm looking at Stan Sakai... legendary creator of legendary rabbit samurai Usagi Yojimbo!

Usagi the protector... he's just a good guy, you know? He does the right thing most of the time. And his skills are off the charts.

He is brought to life by Stan Sakai's masterful pen. The stories are great. Simple, and direct. But it is the high quality linework that makes them stand out. There's a nifty walkthrough of his process on Stan Sakai's website.

I saw Usagi here and there as a youth but never in the wild, always in a magazine or something. I didn't get my hands on any of the comics until I picked up Fantagraphics' volume one collection. I was probably 30 by then. But since my 30s were extremely formative for me, artistically, it was good timing and I hope something of Sakai's magic rubbed off somewhere in my doodles.

Doomslakers to Black Pudding

In 2016 I was fishing around for a zine. I knew I wanted to make one, just wasn't sure what it was going to be. One of my early ideas was Claw Claw Bite, but that title was already taken by a Pathfinder zine, I think. A few days later I settled on Black Pudding.

But before all of that, there was Doomslakers! After all, I already had the blog. I don't remember why I didn't roll with Doomslakers as the title other than maybe I didn't want it confused with the blog. I'm not sure.

But here is the original cover for the first issue of what would become Black Pudding. Of course I used this art for Black Pudding issue 2... I felt like issue 1 needed to have an actual black pudding on the cover, so I drew one.

 

Artists I Like: Tony Salmons

In 1985, when I was 14, the Savage Sword of Conan issues 113 and 118 were published. The first had Earl Norem's Conan on the cover and the other featured a classic Joe Jusko with a bikini lady and Conan and a monster. You know the one.

In the back of each issue was an 8 page story. The first was called "A Quiet Place" and the other was "Alchemy", each written by Don Kraar and drawn by Tony Salmons*. My only knowledge of Tony Salmons came from those stories in SSoC.

Each story was short, brutal, and to the point. The first was about Conan, tired, wanting a quiet night of rest. But of course thugs had to ruin it and so they died. My favorite part of that story is when they kill all the roosters before they can crow so Conan can sleep.

I know Salmons has done other comic book work, but I'm not familiar with it. I never hear his name mentioned. What is his story? Did he give up on comics or just never make a huge splash? His pacing and choice of framing are incredible. I believe they informed my own instincts about comic book art. For example, the way Salmons makes little short series of silent panels and zooms in on details, such as Conan's horse being nearly dead from exhaustion or his sword being bloody as he rides up to the inn.

We get a lot of detail with very few lines. His forms remind me a little of Herb Trimpe and also Frank Miller. I'm not sure who is influencing who, but Trimpe obviously predates either Miller or Salmons. I would also say Mignola's later work has a touch of Salmons' charm, whether it was a direct influence or not.

*Let's give love to the letters: Jack Morelli on "A Quiet Place" and Diana Albers on "Alchemy".

Artists I Like: Amy Jean

Amy Jean is a funky artist who does a lot of music posters. I found her through falling in love with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Her style meshes perfectly with the band's aesthetic.

I would describe her work as funky, psychedelic, and blacklight poster style. Also... pinball machine backglass! Oh... and tee shirt ready.