Friday Collaboration and Fun, and My Latest TV Episode is Airing Tonight!

Another meet with my friend, R. Gagnon, produced this sketch of our favourite other-dimensional gal, Clea, from the Doctor Strange comics.

Wish I had a picture of Gagnon playing this crazy unrollable flexible keyboard, which is like the paper piano keyboard you had to practice on if you were a poor kid, but this one makes sounds and can accompany you like a Hammond Organ.

I'll settle for this nifty portrait by Gagnon of a Video Lottery Terminal gamer:



Meanwhile, I was drawing bar characters, and the Saint Paddy's Day decorations, which were up. I added the grey in photoshop with a lot of effort. Don't know if it was worth it. Would have rather done it in wash, but that cockles the thin paper in this book:


A programming note, please tune in tonight at 7 pm. to watch the latest of the episodes of What's That About? I wrote, on Discovery Canada. Tonight, it's "Power Quest." Zap, zap!

By the Light of the All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto!

Rover, by myself, and R. Gagnon.

It was fun and games as usual at the Cock N' Bull bar last night. Though we showed up an hour earlier than our usual time. I'm a little leery of being thought of as a 'regular' in a place where the regulars are mainly very grotesque and broken down (the clientele is a combination of these, and a variety of students from nearby Concordia University). Plus, I'm a freelancer, and weekends don't have the same meaning to me that they used to. But Rick gets me out, and I'm usually happy that he does.

We have a table we usually get, next two a couple of groovy, smart old men, who do crosswords and read the "New Yorker," (passing these and other magazines along to their friends in an informal but complicated system). They're kind of bemused by our geek movie and comic talk, enthusiastic drawing, and sharing tunes on our iPod (again, the comics and the iPod were things Gagnon introduced to me. I'm not nearly as passionate a collector as he, and he loves to share). But, I suppose we're entertaining, and fill up the chairs, keeping away worse company.

Anyhow, Richard gave my sketch of Clea, Dr. Strange's squeeze, a fun Ditko-inspired "Dark Dimension" to get lost in. Note the Mindless One (reading Reader's Digest, which is pretty mindless), and the Demon's collection of masks from the Other Side of Nowhere.


Meanwhile on planet Earth, I contented myself with sketching a few of the folk at other tables:

Dr. Strange Days

Dr. Strange's girlfriend.

Reading Volume One (the only volume the Central Library had) of "Marvel Masterworks" Dr. Strange. Amazing the weirdness Steve Ditko was able to pack into very simple drawings in a very tight space.

What now seems a long time ago, R. Gagnon and I collaborated on an homage to the Ditko-inspired Dr. Strange stories, which you can read here. Rick is the big comics fan and collector, who turned me on to this. He also did the delicious colours in the strip. I added my own strangeness (doing the pencilling, layout, and most of the writing).