Warning: I say naughty words and talk
about sex in this one.
Haven't posted too much on ole G+ in
recent days. So what have I been up to, besides hitting FB with
political posts? What's the status? What's the scoop?
I haven't dived into Black Pudding #3
yet. I have 7 or 8 finished pages that MIGHT go in there, but they
MIGHT go into their own book. I haven't made up my mind. It's part of
a sandbox setting that would not fit in an issue. Maybe I'll dish it
out one part at a time. I don't know.
I'm doing a bit of commission work and
thinking about slowing down on it so I can focus on my own stuff. I'm
always happier when I'm doing my own thing. Call me selfish. I like
to do what I like to do and I don't like to do what I don't like to
do. And while commissions are fun and I love getting my work out
there to more eyes I sometimes feel hemmed in or dragged down when I
have several on my plate at the same time. I've never been cut out
for that kind of work like so many other great artists seem to be.
My good friend Cyd is running a Penny
Hack for us on Mondays, which is probably wrapping up soon. At that
point I will ask my cohorts to indulge me once again and dive into a
campaign that is largely inspired by mixing up Tanith Lee, Robert E.
Howard, Frank Frazetta, and Richard Corben. Some good ole S&S in
a project I've been calling Dead Wizards (or Kanebok... not sure how
it will appear yet). I ran this once before and it was nice but this
is a totally revamped version. Trying some ideas. Breaking the old
game down and working from its bones to make a new toy. If all goes
well, this will be one of my 2017 publishing projects.
And, while I'm on it, I just gotta say
Tanith Lee is fantastic. And queer as fuck, as my friend put it. I
read Death's Master when I was 14. Have you read Death's Master?
Homosexuality, attraction to cross eyed people, necrophilia, and a
sex-shifting hero. It's no wonder I was so comfortable in my 20s
drawing boobs and bits. Any inhibitions I had about whether or not
sex was an appropriate topic for fantasy were destroyed by Lee's
verbosity.
I'm currently enjoying Night's Master
(the first book of the Flat Earth series) on audio. It's been many
years since I read it. I had forgotten just how twisted it could be.
You get demon-on-mortal sex right there in part one and then a
dwarf-like demon (the Drin...sort of like duerger I think) fucks a
giant spider. Yeah.
I mean, these are not porn books. They
are not titillating. They don't get you off. These are dark, twisted
faerie tales. Lee weaves wondrous, luscious, beautiful tapestries in
her books. Each tale blends into the next, linking characters across
space and time. This is where I got my great love for mythological or
fable-like settings. IN my own broader fantasy setting, for example,
there are a set of core entities. There are 12 of them, more-or-less.
They are the gods and demons of the ancient world and they show up in
nearly all my work. The Worm Witch, mother of 100 Dooms, was in
Pan-Gea and again in a little sci-fi comic I did called Red Path. And
she has been mentioned in numerous Labyrinth Lord games I've ran.
When I run little one-offs I talk about Black Wing, the Bringer of
Death. Or Hunter-Raven, also known as Frimm, God of War and the
North. I talk of Nexus the World Tree and Sun and Moon. All of these
beings linked together in a single narrative but split across many
worlds.
This I owe to Tanith Lee's brilliant
Tales From the Flat Earth series. Dark and delightful they are
indeed.
Lots more to say about Tanith Lee's influence. But not tonight.
