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.

the ULTRA UPDATE!

Okay, so I have good excuses this time for the lack of blog updates over the past few weeks! April was crazy! It felt like everything that could possibly happen to me, happened to me in April: did my taxes, got really sick, juggled two jobs for a little while before switching and had two conventions in two weeks! April had its ups and downs, but I'm glad it's May now. I've decided to take it easy this month. I'm also getting close to finishing the pencils for "Unpleasant People" #4. Just a couple pages left. I want to go to the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo in the fall and I want to have two new books by then (the aforementioned "Unpleasant People" and another issue of "Brain Parts").

Speaking of conventions, I had a great time at the Boston Comic Con and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival in NYC.

At the Boston Comic Con I tabled with my good pals Matt Aucoin and Jose Luis Olivares. We had a great time and even put together a little anthology called "School Pencil" the night before the con. It was a combination of one-page works from all of us, plus some jam comics. Matt drew the fabulous cover. It's a pretty awesome cover. I don't want to jinx it, but odds are, there will be a "School Pencil" #2.

Some of my favorite costumes from the con here in Boston: Starfleet, of course, I nearly shit myself when I saw a "Stargate" costume (first time I've seen one at a con), also the first time I've seen Carl Sagan cosplay (apparently not a lot of people were recognizing him. For shame, science fans!), I liked that this Harley Quinn was faithful to her costume in the comics and show (I'd seen enough interpretations), the Keymaster is always a hit, where else do you see Indiana Jones face off against Lady Deathstrike, and I loved these Doctor Who ladies (does this mean the Tardis is also the companion?).

A nice fellow named Rich Johnston stopped by the table to chat and shared some fruit snacks with me. If I had known at the time that he was a journalist, I would have tried to act more intelligent. But he did end up mentioning Matt, Jose and myself, as well as some other great exhibitors in an article he wrote about how great Boston Comic Con is. And it certainly was great.


Some of the great stuff I picked up at Boston Comic Con: "A Daley Dose of Monsters" by Rich Daley, "Avra Kedabra Vol. 1" by Elizabeth Neronski, "The Stuff of Legend, Book 2: The Jungle" by Mike Raicht, Brian Smith and Charles Paul Wilson III, "Caroline's Catalog" by E. J. Barnes, "Geraniums & Bacon #6" by Cathy Leamy, "Kristilyn's Burlesque Sketchbook Vol. 1" by Kristilyn, "The Superhighs" by Dani Marie and Jessica Vitali, "A Conversation about Spiders" by Aya Rothwell, "It's A Maglorificent Monday" by Andy Wong, "Inky Stories" by Dave Marshall, "The Underburbs #1" by Joe Haley and T. J. Dort, "Paul and the Reveres Issue 1" by Tina Pratt

MoCCA was a blast, too! Got to stay with my good pals Katherine Roy and Tim Stout (also alumni of the Center for Cartoon Studies). I also got to see my pal Kenan Rubenstein and pick up one of his great teeny comics. If you haven't checked out his shit, you should check out his shit.

A sampling of the great stuff I picked up at MoCCA: "Yasha Lizard" by Kristina Stipetic, "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and "Pugs on Drugs" by Kat Fajardo, "Rat Bastard Part 1" by Cliff Galbraith, "Amelia Part 5" by Denis St. John, "What's Normal Anyway?" by Morgan Boecher, "9 P.M." by Melanie Gillman,  "Franz Kafka's Poseidon" by Jarod Rosello, "Nothing is Private" and "El Diablo" by Luis Enrique Echavarria Uribe, "On the Beach" by Kenan Rubenstein

And since I feel bad that I've been neglecting my blog for so long, here's another comic to close out this post:

I can't stop with the Illuminati jokes!

Good Hair Days

So, people seem to enjoy my little installments of "Great Moments in Terrible Facial Hair" (at least, that's what I tell myself). But why should facial hair get all the props? There's plenty of great moments in non-facial hair, too! Like this little gem. I'm not sure how she got it that way, but she rocked it like a pro!

Another Work Comic

There is very little embellishment in the below comic. This is pretty much exactly how it happened.

From my last job, in New Hampshire.

Had a little scanning party this evening with enough material complete for another few weeks of blog updates. I drew this comic at a bigger size than I do normally. Didn't think about how small my scanner is. In the end, I had to essentially scan each panel separately and puzzle them together using the most anti-intuitive graphics program I've ever touched (no disrespect to the Linux crowd, I totally dig Ubuntu, but Gimp is a horrible thing that should be destroyed with fire. Unfortunately, I'm too poor to buy Photoshop right now, so I have no alternative).

Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

In case you were wondering...

And in honor of Valentine's Day I present...

Something that has absolutely nothing to do with Valentine's Day.
And here's a glimpse of what I'm working on right now: Unpleasant People #4. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a narrative humor series about the trials and tribulations of a fantasy villain, his scantily-clad second-in-command and, of course, his long-suffering secretary. Issues 1-3 are available to buy (shoot me an email, holly_foltz@yahoo.com or come to the Boston Comic Con or MoCCA where I'll be selling in April).

My thumbnails tend to be very messy. Kudos if you can read the dialogue.

This week's post is done, I'll go back to stuffing my face with chocolate while watching Netflix with my cat.

You think I'm joking?

Secret societies are a thing and should be taken very, very seriously!

Does anyone else get the feeling that the Freemasons and the Illuminati and the like are just clubs for old men to sit around naked, smoking cigars and watching soap operas?

Maybe it's just me.

For what's probably the most accurate insight into secret societies, their formation and their operation, read the beginning of Guards! Guards! by Sir Terry Pratchett.

Here's Some Things...

Noticed something cool the other day: when I was drawing the below comic, I used two different "Star Trek" fonts, one from The Next Generation in the fourth panel, and another non-italicized version of the title font from the original series.

That's not the cool thing. (although Star Trek fonts are, in and of themselves, pretty cool)

The cool thing is that I noticed a diner in Somerville uses the same non-italicized Star Trek font for their sign! I wouldn't have made the connection if I hadn't drawn that comic! These are the things that excite me.

Also, I was walking around and noticed people staring up at the roof of a pizza place. I was thinking "What's so special about those air conditioners?", then I spotted it, too!

A red-tailed hawk, chowing down on a pigeon lunch. There were quite a few feathers floating down. My camera doesn't have a good zoom, or resolution, but I snapped a couple pics anyway. Eventually it flew off (probably got self-conscious with everyone watching him eat).

All raptors aside, it was nice to just chat with random people on the street that I would otherwise just walk past. Being able to just stop and look at something interesting and gab about it with strangers is something I really missed about the pedestrian lifestyle. I really like it here!

Too Much Star Trek

I've been watching "Star Trek: Voyager" lately and as you can tell from the comic below, I've maintained a healthy lack of personal investment in the fictional characters and situations.


Does anyone else think that Captain Janeway bears a passing resemblance to a Gibson Girl?
I think it's the up-do.

Note: I've disabled Lightbox on my blog, so when you click on an image, it will take you to another page with just the image and the option to see it full-sized. I realized that some of the smaller text was too hard to see using Lightbox, and might be unreadable unless seen at full size.

First Post from Beantown!

Well, I've packed my bags, crated my kitty, hitched up my wagon and headed southwards for new, exciting and exotic locales! But I got impatient and stopped in Boston. I've been in a comics slump recently and didn't produce anything new for a long time. I blame the stress of trying to find an apartment and moving and such. However, I'm settled now and back in the creative head-space. Having the ever-inspirational and talented Jose-Luis Olivares and Cathy Leamy in the area doesn't hurt, either!

Anyway, on to the scribblings:

Kick-ass animator Bill Plympton was at MoCCA last year and I rather geeked-out on him. Poor fella.


I had a sudden inspiration to draw a video-gamey-type character. I'm thinking post-apocalyptic cowgirl wielding legendary MUTANT BUTTER KNIVES!