Space People!

It's space people! Yes! People what fly around in space!

Um, yes, quick sketches of some sort of dysfunctional spaceship crew, along the lines of a blatant "Red Dwarf" rip-off. I probably won't do anything with them, but they were fun to draw!

 She's got a space-martini!

 What would space-people be without an inelegant spaceship and space-dreadlocks?

 This space-drawing got a little space-smudge on it, but I'm too space-lazy to clean it up properly.

Space-hair is fun to draw!

Space People.

You're welcome.

War Stories

More dispatches from my years working at the front desk at a fancy gym (we weren't supposed to use the word "gym". We had to call it a "fitness center")

For the record, I recorded this conversation pretty much word-for-word...

...because god knows that a male who lives in a mansion in Hollywood would know so much more about war than a female who lives in a mansion in Hollywood.


...and female soldiers? Pretty sure that's just a myth.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Have some pictures of

A demon-girl:


A half-mechanical lady:

I'll probably take the time to color that one, since it's already lineart and all...

A disgruntled waitress:

("Bad tipper, always fresh, never frozen.")

Actually, working in the service industry hasn't made me bitter at all, why do you ask?

Aaaand, a 18th-century ghost hunter on the job:

Quick Summer Throwback

What... what's THIS?! TWO blog posts in one month? Have I gone mad?

Weeeeell, this little bit of holly-bitches-about-dumb-clothes has been sitting on my desktop for a little while and it's cold enough that people are going to forget what I'm talking about if I wait any longer to post it.

 

These are just feelings I had to get onto paper so it didn't bother me anymore. 

MICE 2012

Oooooooh damn, how long has it been since my last blog post? A long time. I don't even want to look. Oh god. Too long.

Here's another Star Trek: Voyager comic to prove I haven't been slacking:

The Borg Queen has SUCH a villain-crush on Janeway!

Well, I'm still alive. Since my last blog post I've finished Unpleasant People #4 ($3 plus shipping), put together Brain Parts #3 ($1 plus shipping), moved to a new apartment, attended the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (aka MICE) for the first time and been off-and-on scripting this webcomic idea of mine mentioned in my last post. So, it's not like I haven't been doing anything. I just haven't been sharing it with the internet.

Well, here's the fruit of my labors:

 

 If you'd like to order either of these books, or any of my other zines or comics, or get a full price list of what I'm selling, email me at holly_foltz@yahoo.com

The zombie-waiter cover of Brain Parts #3 is my favorite Brain Parts cover I've done so far. I'm also proud of the Unpleasant People cover. It's a transparency printed with the title and cover image, over a wallpaper sample, so each issue is different. 

 

And here's some of the great stuff I scored at MICE (which represents only a fraction of the kickass art and comics available there. I had to limit myself as, after this last move, I realized I just have no room for more comics).

 

Row 1: "Thrift Store Batman", can't find the info for the hilarious person who traded this with me, "The Plot" numbers 1 and 2 by Neil Brideau 

Row 2: "Strange New Worlds", a Star Trek fanzine edited by the talented Denis St. John, featuring two one-pagers by yours truly, thenkyouvurrymuch, "Klown from the Moon: A Killer Klown Survival Guide" by S.R. Bissette, Denis St. John and Mike Crosier, "The Alfa Bravo Charlies" by Anna Jo Beck, "The Littlest Elder God" by Nathan Kitler

Row 3: "Today is a Good Day to Dine" by Joey Peters, "Darkfull" by Roho and Jamie Hibdon, "Space for Rent in Latveria" by Swamp Thing and Maggie Siegel-Berele

Chad Sell had a wide range of work at his table. The standout work was his digital portraits of the queens from "RuPaul's Drag Race", which he was selling as large and small prints and in booklets ("Chad Sell does 30 Queens"). He also had some great comics, both of the kid-friendly variety ("Kittybunny: the Bag Grab") and of the drunken-superheroin variety ("Fool Girl: of Monkeys and Masks"). It was great to meet him and check his work out!

 

 Joel Gill, a local fellow and art professor who does comics and zines both entertaining and educational (often at the same time!) was sold out of the Black Conservative Trading Card (series 2) packs when I got to his table, but I picked up a printed card of them. They have hilarious quotes and "Abilities & Powers" on the back! Can't wait for series 3!

Jeff Lok, a friend from Center for Cartoon Studies, was tabling with Jose-Luis Olivares and myself and I got to trade with him for two of his great comics ("The Gag Rag #2" and "Oh Babies")! They lure you with the familiarity of the style of early animation (such as Betty Boop and the early years of Loony Toons) only to punch you in the gut with violence and tragedy. Very visceral, very funny and definitely not for the sensitive!

I was pleasantly surprised to see my pal Kenan Rubenstein there, who is responsible for some of the most thoughtful and beautiful comics I've seen at a convention. He was selling his gorgeous new book, "Last Train to Old Town: Chapter 1", hand-made, perfect-bound, full-color. All of his comics have a unique "look" to them (unusual sizes, shapes, binding, etc) and this one is no exception. The ending makes you eager to read more, and I can't wait for the next issue.

 

  

So, that was MICE. A great show, can't wait for next year! Time to dive into Unpleasant People #5! Stay tuned!

Ghostbusters circa 1775 or so

Well, I probably won't have much in the way of new one-page comics until I'm done inking Unpleasant People #4 (whenever THAT is...) since any and all spare time I devote to comics is being devoted to getting that done. In the meantime, I present color-experimentation from my sketchbook.

The four main characters done with watercolor and pens on sketchbook paper

I've been tossing around the idea of doing a supernatural-adventure webcomic about ghost hunters in late 18th Century Vienna.

Why Vienna?

Why not?

Portraits of three of the four main characters done with marker, colored pencils and brush pen.

I've bounced ideas off of a couple friends (thanks, Andy!) and so far don't have a complete script for the first chapter. At this point, I'm not even sure if I'm going to follow through with it at all. However, my almost manic love of ghost stories will probably push me forward on this. It's simmering on the back burner for now.

 

Concept sketches for various monsters. These vamps don't sparkle.

Some Pleasant, and Unpleasant, People

First off, I know this is kinda old news, but after a wait that seemed like eternity, "Avatar: Legend of Korra" (sequel to the masterful animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender") is finally here! It seems that perhaps the animation isn't quite as smooth as "The Last Airbender", but maybe it's because I was so dazzled and hadn't seen anything like it before. I sort of miss the whole journey aspect of the first series, too, but I love this one to pieces anyway, and I'm so impressed with the world-building. Again, these people did all their homework and created a three-dimensional, complete world and populated it with engaging, well-rounded characters. Anyhoo, this was my reaction:

In the me-centric news department: I finally finished the pencils for "Unpleasant People #4".
I've started inking it (starting with the lettering and panel borders) and hopefully it won't take too long. A big shout-out to my pals Mo Oh, Matt Aucoin, Jose Luis Olivares and Denis St. John who gave me their feedback and helped me present a more polished comic. So here's a couple portraits of the character Magda. A lot of issue 4 is about her back story. I was going to save the pencil sketch to put in the comic at the end, but Magda's head is so frikkin' big, I'm just going to draw something else.

 

 

As for stuff I'm watching that inspires me: I've been having "RuPaul's Drag Race" marathons. In the first season I was completely taken with Pandora Boxx. She was funny, intelligent and beautiful both in and out of drag. She was absolutely enchanting for the whole competition. 

Her nose is a little too big in the left-hand picture. In the right, she's a space princess gone rogue. And that's that.