There might be a light at the end of the tunnel.... I hope

Well seems I am still battling my so called creative block, or whatever you might want to call it. But I do think there is a light at the end of the tunnel, as my Mom always used to say. Of course it was never about a 'creative block' she was talking about, just mainly life itself. And I sure don't want to get to the next saying she used to tell me. Ha. I always dreaded the 'just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get on with it'. Honestly it struck fear into my heart most of the time. Most of the time I heard it later in life and I was back from overseas.

So anyway short of my Mom's ghost coming back to haunt me, I at least did some work today. Admittedly it was more costume, design, practice work.....but it was work.

Obviously it is of the fair Helene, KiGor's woman. Still trying to get a feel for her character, or how I think she would be. I finally decided to tie her hair to one side so it would cascade over one shoulder.....I thought a fairly sexy look and a good 'do' for long shots to identify her at a distance.

So hope you enjoy, and bare with me as I continue to claw my way out of my self made abyss.

Ki-Gor, Lord of the Jungle

One of the things I have been meaning to post, and comment on is KiGor, The best Tarzan knockoff of the Jungle. I have always liked the KiGor character. He had a long journey from pulps to men's magazines into the 50's. He comes complete with a female character, Helene. Like Jane, at the first she wants to get KiGor back to his english roots. She always seemed a more solid character than Jane to me. Jane, now don't get me wrong, is great - especially when she goes missing from Tarzan and has to stand on her own. But Helene starts out a strong character by falling out of the sky as her plane is in trouble. She is a pilot, a good shot and of course the typical reason for alot of situations KiGor gets into. As the stories went along she becomes a much more sensual character than Jane ever did. This may be as the stories moved from Jungle Stories magazine into more of a men's magazine format later in the run.

Joe at Moonstone has given Martin Powell and I more or less a free reign with the stories, which will be eleven page back up style stories. We are going to do a couple and see what happens.

Martin and I are on the same page with these, mainly because Joe at Moonstone wanted to know what makes KiGor different from Tarzan.

We are going to play up a little used item from KiGor's history. He was raised by a shaman after his true father's death. Also we plan to make KiGor's Africa a very strange and scary place.

So hang around for some good old solid Jungle Action!!!

Easing into the flow....with something a bit sinister.

When the going gets tough, you design Nazi flying robots!

I have had this kicking around in my brain for awhile. Seems like a logical villain for Captain Spectre when the war breaks out on the western front. I guess there should be a Japanese version also, since they exchanged technologies at the end of the war.

Anyway I tried to keep the image and all of the German infantryman during World War 2, including the famous 'potato masher' in the boot, only on a large scale. I figure he should be about 12 ft tall, to make them scary on the battlefield and in the sky.

Yet another of the weird world war two weapons that are so fun to make up.

Thanks for all the kind words and concern...

To all my loyal Legionnaires....Thanks. I do appreciate all the kind words and concern over the recent events.

It will still be awhile before I get back to the Captain Spectre strip. Mainly for two reasons.

One: I was kind of on a slump the last few weeks. I was running out of my very small backlog of strips, and to be honest I have been in kind of a creative block. Nothing seems to be flowing as far as creativity is concerned. I haven't been able to do good layouts, or storytelling. The drawing seems ok, just putting it all together and down on paper seems to be the rough part.

But I am sure that things will work out in a short time and all will be back on track sometime soon. I am sorry, because I was wanting to get this chapter wrapped up sometime soon and move on to the stand alone book shortly.

Two: I had been tired and fixing to start my vacation when the wreck happened. So on the top of needing some time to decompress mentally....I now had to contend with some physical pain from the wreck....it took a day or so but finally these old bones started hurting quite a bit. I am still limping around a bit. Plus now without a vehicle I will be homebound, which in my opinion is a great thing. But all the insurance stuff and arranging the repair of my totalled vehicle took some time and mental energy doing the vacation. So for the next week mostly, I will be working at home on work things. I wish it was on my things. But alas those bills must be paid. No government handouts seem to come my way.

So again thanks to all the Loyal Legionnaires for tuning in and for posting and sending kind words. Without the help of friends in times of need, where would we be.

Thanks to all my friends, and one in particular -- you know who you are.

Also to keep me company this next week, is my constant four footed companion - Chopper, seen above in one of the many drawing assistant positions.

Deer season opens!

Well the title to this post might be misleading. I mean it as a little joke since Friday night on the way home, to start a working vacation to get caught up on a few things, I broadsided a huge buck! I counted seven points with two or more broken off by the weapon of choice - My TRUCK.

The entire front end of the truck is crushed and destroyed. Thank goodness for seat beats and air bags, because I didn't even have time to blink. The buck came out of an approaching vehicles headlines as he bolted across the highway. I hit him full force and he flew to the other side of the highway as I slid into a ditch right in front of a cemetary. Sliding because the fenders were wrapped into one of my tires and I couldn't stear. Ha. The grim reaper missed me again.

So sore, in one piece, and without a vehicle I start my vacation with a bang!!!