The Mansion of E :: Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author
N.B.: hover your mouse over each strip to view the artist's name and other background information.
[a visit to the Lost Souls Reclamation Department canteen, for Susan S's Constant Flux] [for Orion Gates' Beyond Reality] [for Summer of Keenspace family album] [for Keenspooks' Halloween mansion] As noted yesterday, here's Orion's half of the Big Date. Laura Gates appears in the dimension-hopping Keenspace comic Beyond Reality, and, as you can see above, really really really likes her taser. Tomorrow we leave the Nomes behind for the nonce and move on to a new plot arc. As an added bonus, for (more or less) the first time in The Mansion of E, this arc features a Special Guest Star appearing in the actual comic. A sort of day off for me; someone on the Keenspace Forums brought my attention to this site, which allows you to automagically dress and decorate an on-screen 'doll'. So I did up versions of some MoE characters, with varying degrees of success. Yes, that hat really was one of the options. And the dagger came with the dress; otherwise I would not have included it. Once again, here are some South Park versions of the Mansion's various human characters. The customized ones of Rosemary and Sylvester that Arthur Levesque did a few months back are much better, but I still couldn't resist playing around with the new and improved South Park Character Generator. Thanks to its creator, Janina Köppel, for all of her hard work! [to mark terrorist attack on London the previous day] [ – Halloween costume-swap for Tom Volpe's Alternate Delusions] [for Tom Truszkowski's Station V3] If you're a fellow American and truly have nothing better to do today than reading this, my sympathies. But anyway, when we get back to Sina and Co. near the elevator, there's probably going to be a Jibjib Burd involved in the action, and so I'm taking this opportunity to test out a new design for the species. Probably be a few more tweaks before the character officially appears. In honor of President's Day... if you were to walk into a (human) classroom in the Mansion's country, Yorik the 1st's portrait would be on the wall instead of George Washington. The exact details of his life and times will eventually be discussed. (And no, the country isn't named Yorikland; that will be revealed eventually as well, but if you've been paying extra-careful attention, you might be able to figure it out already..) [for Tom Truszkowski's Station V4] And to wrap up our Halloween 2010 extravaganza, here's my costume-swap piece for the ComicGenesis strip Red City, created by Serge. I don't normally post my output for swaps on my own site, but I gather that is what Serge prefers, so.. enjoy! Plot resumes tomorrow Probably not an explicit spoiler of things to come, but when/if Rosemary is in her right mind and is out and about in cold weather, this is pretty much what she'll be wearing and doing. Happy Winter Solstice Holiday, all! To celebrate the holiday, here's a look at two characters (they're named Arlen and Juniper) who will be joining the main action at some point, and a thematically-appropriate depiction of how they spent much of the Endless Day. (They're not doing this "right now", the sun's gone down and they've gone home to their wife and mother Eloise.) For Thanksgiving day, offering up a glimpse of a might-have-been. In this version of "Mansionland", the Crash happened, and then twenty years later, around the time the three Humans were born.. something else, possibly even worse, happened. This location exists in the "real" world, and we probably will be paying a visit there at some point. Eventually. [for webcomic called Simon and the Minis] [for webcomic called Critters Online] Rishathra and her mother Agita appeared together here. To celebrate, taking a semi-vacation the rest of the week, starting with a few quick pics showing some folks who have only appeared in outline form to day. Here is Sylvester during his University days, with his University friends. A young Rosemary, and her role-model Zeke. Sylvester's relative from a previous generation, Hindenburgh the wizard, in his dining room. The Founding Oracles, Violet, Daisy, Joice, Jenny, Kathryne, Hettie and EvangelineThe official founders of the local area's current Human religion. Two of Comshaw's grandparents, Caytid and and Compline, along with their Schemer/Finagler, Shiv. An Ettin, doing Ettin-type things. Please note that Roshambo the Warrior Beetle(tm) is solely the fictional creation of Alex Linderhoff, and any supposed resemblance to a member of the species known as "Pales" has been scrupulously and officially determined to be entirely coincidental.Plus, the realm of imagination is always in full color! This is the only time a werewolf, vampire or zombie will appear in this comic. [art-exchange with akaScooby/Maelstrom Heart] [art-exchange with IVstudios/Inhumation] Rosemary is not the trencher(wo)man that Mortimer is, but she can hold her own.And no, it's not a Fixit, it's just a hat. Some of us on the Comic Genesis forum got together to celebrate New Year's. Here's my depiction of the get-together. Along with Mortimer, from left to right you have Cara of Flying Tigers, Jak of Breath of Life, Meli AKA Rat of Masadjra, Joseph of Loud Era, and lastly, Mr. Life of the Party himself, Freakboy. Dorothea and Lilith are currently far to the south of both the MoE and the nation of Tiranog. So, to celebrate the new year, Rosemary had a girl's night out with some fellow ComicGenesisers, past and present. Marie of Loud Era, Crystal of Living the Dream and Fuchsia of Alternate Delusions all probably enjoy a good party, while Cerintha of the eponymous strip at least enjoys free booze... As previously threatened, this week I'm taking a semi-break, and you get some portraits of folks who might otherwise be confined to silouette status for the forseeable future, due to being deceased, or off in distant locations. Yes, it has been commented that Sylvester looks a great deal like his Uncle Dalton. Apart from the Weirdo having had certain limited interactions with Oliver, none of our major protagonists have ever even met either of these guys. Both Rosemary and Sylvester had other teachers, but these are ones who have previously been mentioned in the comic, however briefly. With a couple of them, this is the first time their name has been revealed. And since it's Saturday, here are three Basement-dwellers of the last generation or two who each achieved a certain degree of fame in their respective fields of Exploration, Religion, and Healing. Groat and Loomboggle merely died, while Othar, in keeping with his whole persona, Mysteriously Disappeared. I said a week, but you get two more days of portraits, then back to the action.. er.. plot. Here we have Rosemary's parents and grandparents. For the sake of simplicity, I've depicted them as they all appeared at about the same age. Technically, there is no one single person who actually runs things, but these two are the current public face of the "Mansionland" government, so we finish up with them. Back to The Story tomorrow. (As you no doubt guessed from her name, Fluer is from the nation of Bleufuscu.) Veteran's Day 2015. And one of these four characters has previously appeared in the strip. I received a request for a clearer view of one of the posters on the MoE's theaterwall (near the door to the Basement) so I put together an improved version as a voting reward. A belated farewell to Patrick McManus. He was a writer of outdoor humor, and has always been one of my favorite authors. He influenced my sense of humor, and you'll find homages to his work scattered throughout the MoE. If you've never read any of his short stories, give some a try; I can personally testify that you don't have to be a hunter or fisherman to enjoy them. In his later years, he also wrote a string of mystery novels, but honestly I was not terribly impressed with those.We've never seen Skritch the Gnoll before, but the Basement fishing grottoes were previously mentioned here. No, the Nomes of the Known World are not Jewish. But in their long, tangled and rambling history of dealing with the Human majority, there are similarities and echoes. And Nomes suffer the additional handicap of looking nearly Human but genuinely being a different species. Yurpsland is relatively enlightened in regards to its Nomish population, but in other places, Nomes have had to light candles to fight the darkness.Hanukkah 2018. A handful of us scribblers still hang out on the ComicGen Forums, so we got together for more/last Winter Solstice Holiday Art Project. Happy Holidays and all that. Along with Yours Truly, this year's participants are:SpaceprincessCopeTi-PhilFading Aura This is my contribution to the "2019 BLIND DATE Valentine's Crossover Exchange," which was set up over on the Comic Fury user-forums; all the results are currently being posted over there as well. I volunteered Rosemary, and she was randomly assigned this gal as her date. Yes, I've given her name in the copyright info, but I'll still let her intro herself before expanding on that. Rosemary can tell she's not a demon, hence the Nome comment.This whole encounter is canon as far as I am concerned, tho for all you purists out there, no, it's not literally happening "right now", as Rosemary is "currently" walking back to the Mansion from Eetown.And I drew up this whole sequence long before that Fun Weekened I mentioned, so good timing all around.[Note this must be in the future relative to the main-story-arc strips published at the time. It cannot be contemporary because Rosemary was still on the road from Eetown to the Mansion, and it cannot be in the past because she's wearing Audra's helmet.] Isambard Dobig has featured Ariane Eldar in more than one NSFW comic, though as near as I have been able to tell, her most prominent appearance has been in the ongoing Theater of the Bloody Tongue. And yes, in certain ways, she is even more adventurous than Rosemary. "Flokatihead" is how she disparagingly refers to blonde women. Rosemary and Ariane Eldar continue their blind date. And so departs Ariane Eldar. As noted, she is copyright Isambard Dobig. I did my best to capture her canon personality, but I drew up all this without any input by Mr. Dobig, so if I failed, my apologies to him and any Ariane fans out there. If you want to see all the entries in the 2019 Blind Date crossover event, they've been posted here. In particular, Rosemary's second somewhat-less-canon but still amusing date (by Jeremy Johnson of Lectro) can be seen starting here.
The official founders of the local area's current Human religion.
Plus, the realm of imagination is always in full color!
We've never seen Skritch the Gnoll before, but the Basement fishing grottoes were previously mentioned here.
Hanukkah 2018.
SpaceprincessCopeTi-PhilFading Aura
This whole encounter is canon as far as I am concerned, tho for all you purists out there, no, it's not literally happening "right now", as Rosemary is "currently" walking back to the Mansion from Eetown.
And I drew up this whole sequence long before that Fun Weekened I mentioned, so good timing all around.
[Note this must be in the future relative to the main-story-arc strips published at the time. It cannot be contemporary because Rosemary was still on the road from Eetown to the Mansion, and it cannot be in the past because she's wearing Audra's helmet.]
Today's guest comic appears courtesy of the 2003 webcomic "Secret Santa" project, and was drawn by Roland Lowery, creator of Role of the Die. Thanks to Roland for his wonderful work, and a Merry Christmas to one and all! (Even those of you reading this in July...)[this scene was accepted as canon by Robert] Today's fanart strip was generously contributed by Tom Truszkowski, creator of that fine comic Station V3. I think Tom sometimes spends more time promoting my comic than I do, so I owe him a double debt of gratitude. Thanks, Tom! Today's wonderful guest art (actual art in the Mansion, what a concept!) was sent in as part of the "Keenpril Fools" strip-trading event, by "The Loser Hero", creator of the Comic Genesis strip Twice Destined. Check it out; more good art, and it features a female protaganist (or two..) who makes Rosemary look like a simpering pacifist.My assigned strip was Susan S.'s Constant Flux, an enjoyable manga-type affair detailing the romantic travails (and dragon-slaying) of a group of characters, some of them "vitally challenged." Since you're reading this at some distant point in the future, my guest strip can be found here. [from Loxie & Zoot] [from Loxie & Zoot] [from Decypher – Comshaw visits the Grind Café] [from Decypher – Comshaw visits the Grind Café] [from Swords Are Cool] [from Swords Are Cool] For those of you out there who are going into Rosemary withdrawl, here's some spiffy guest art from NJ Huff of Emergency Exit. It's ultra-cool, and thanks muchly to NJH, but remember, if Rosemary ever shows up smiling like this, run away. Very fast. (And I am planning to get back to Rosemary and Sylvester's storyline shortly.) Some nifty fanart today by Sij, author of Netrek, which is a "two-tiered" Keenspace comic about both a young werewolf cartoonist and his creations' travels through cyberspace. Thanks Sij! (or Luprand, or Simon... he's a man of many aliases..) Some fine guest art from "ymmot", creator of the Keenspace comic Bob, which is a light-hearted romp depicting the titular protaganist's bloody gunbattles, all fought in a blistered post-apocalyptic wasteland. I imagine you think I'm being sarcastic at some point in the above description, but actually, I'd say that it is a quite fair description of the strip. Either way, it's a great comic, so check it out! Another great Rosemary sketch by a guest artist. This is a return engagement by the The Loser Hero, who does the fine Keenspace strip Twice Destined. His previous MoE art, part of the 2004 Keenpril Fools event, can be seen here. Now I owe him double. At least go visit his strip and boost the man's hit totals! Today's fan sketch was generously supplied by Roland Lowery, creator of Role of the Die, a fine Keenspace comic about a group of RPG enthusiasts. You may remember his guest strip from last December, which was part of the 2003 "Secret Santa" swap. Thanks to Roland for both of his great contributions! (He posted this latest one on the MoE Forum before I put it up here, so you 10 or so people who looked at it got an exclusive advanced showing.) One extra day of fan-art, giving me a chance to recharge my batteries. First up, we have New and Improved versions of "South Park" Rosemary and Sylvester. It was done by Arthur Levesque, who doesn't produce a webcomic, but still turns out some fine graphical work. The South Park character generator he and I used is here.Secondly, we have a nice sketch of Comshaw by one of the Grand Old Men of Keenspace, McDuffies. If you think my comic's archive is overwhelming...And lastly, I didn't totally slack off, but followed one of the links on Arthur's page and discovered the wonderful world of Micro Heroes. I used the collected goodies at Wicket Harley's place to make superhero(ish) versions of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. Thanks to WH, and if you want more info and examples, check out this Yahoo Group. For those in the audience going into Rosemary-withdrawal, another spiffy fan portrait. (Oh yeah.. ol' Whatisface is cowering up there, too, isn't he?) This one is from Will Ritter, the creator of the fine Keenspace strip Thatguy, which is about the titular hero, his comic-obsessed girlfriend, a proudly-undead Egpytian Pharoah and a perhaps overly-enthusiastic female inventor, among others. Check it out, and thanks Will! Over on the Keenspace Forums, some folks arranged an Event where various Keenspace cartoonists got together and had their characters attend a sort of prom/formal dance together. Orion Gates (artist of Beyond Reality) and I paired off, and drew a couple of pics showing Rosemary going with BR's Orion Gates (yes, same name as his creator, not quite the same person) and Sylvester with Orion's sister Laura. Today you can see my side of the date, and tomorrow I'll post his. Theoretically, there will someday be a cental site where you can see all the various pairings, but the link to it hasn't been posted yet. Another fine Rosemary portrait by a guest artist. This time it's Carissa Neuharth, creator of the webcomic AlexBezZoe, which is a fun romp about the three titular roommates and the somewhat-askew world in which they cheerfully inhabit. If you pay them a visit, watch out for the turkeys, and pass on the mind-controlling smoothies, however tasty they may be. (Thanks also to Ms. Neuharth for all the guest visits from her site; she's either got a lot of fans, or they are all compulsive link-clickers.) Ymmot of Keenspace's BoB returns with some more guest art; he evidently felt that he rushed too quickly with his first piece. Whatever the reason for his return, I welcome him back, and again, assuming you possess post-apocolyptic nerves of steel, I recommend his comic strip in return. Today, a nifty birthday-themed guest strip by W. M. Sonnenburg, a relative newcomer to the Keenspace family with her fantasy webcomic A Hole In The Sky. Check it out; so far, it's a world which I think fans of the MoE will enjoy visiting. (Strange and odd characters, lots of unanswered questions, extremely unhelpful talking trees...) Thanks to W.M. for the art and the link!And yes, as it happens, Rosemary really was living with Aunt Eva when she was two.[this scene was accepted as canon by Robert] Some guest art by Eunice P., creator of the Comic Genesis strip I Come From Mars, a weekly Manga-type comic about.. this rather trigger-happy fellow who comes to Earth from Mars. Eunice, a fellow ComicGen Forum-goer, offered to draw characters for other ComicGen folks because she quite naturally wants to attract more visitors to her strip, I Come From Mars. I'm the one who chose Great-Uncle Frederick as a subject, because I figured he'd never get a guest picture otherwise, and that's just not right. So, anyway, thanks for the good (and extremely fast) work by Eunice P., creator of I Come From Mars! In honor of Halloween, and 800 strips, I did an costume-type art swap with Tim Volpe, creator of one of my favorite Comicgen strips Alternate Delusions. It's about these two (generally) well-meaning slackers who literally stumble across a multi-dimensional gateway, and proceed to wander cheerfully about, meeting a variety of interesting folks and having various.. adventures.. Hm. No wonder I like it. But even apart from that, anyone who does an extended homage/parody of M.U.L.E. is A-OK in my book, so go check it out! And thanks again to Tim for the great drawing! Today's spiffy holiday guest-art comes thanks to my assigned webcomic Secret Santa, Ian Jay. Ian is the creator of the great webcomic Try Everything Once, which details the ongoing travails of the Flaming Croutons, a three-member rock band which wanders around the galaxy having various adventures, whether they want to or not. I particularly enjoyed the band's visit to the Planet of the Aliens, which features inhabitants who might almost be Mansion escapees. So go check it out! Do it now! And thanks again to Ian for the great artwork! Some fan-art from Tom Truszkowski, creator of the always-excellent webcomic Station V3. The fellow in the box is Linton, a character from Tom's strip. If you're wondering what he's like, apart from being the sort of person who'd get dumped out of a ship in a box.. the fact that he brought along a float ring makes him suspiciously over-prepared for his new assignment. Thanks to Tom for the art-work; the rest of you, go read his strip! Do it now! Some Rosemary fanart by Vorticus, who is half of the production team for the amusing ComicGen strip Playing With Knives, which, depending on your point of view, details the production of either the very worst or very best cooking show in the entire history of creation. Today's fine guest art is by Roman Wunderlich, who is the creator of The B-Movie Comic, an extremely well-drawn strip which details the events surrounding a string of strange and grisly murders/brainsuckings at a university which was already not exactly a paragon of enlightened higher learning. He did a good job here, but Comshaw and Ig can only wish they were this buff... A keen group portrait of The Gang by Kat Lowry, creator of Distant Eras, which is about.. well, it's a little early to say yet, since the strip just started, but it appears it's going to be about a brother and sister from an era of magic being sent forward to the (or a) modern world by an evil spellcaster. Mrs. Lowery also contributes art to the excellent RPG saga Role of the Die, which is scripted by her better half Roland AKA Jim, and is a strip I've always enjoyed. A possible explanation for the Mysterious Device which appeared here. Probably better than what I have in mind. As noted, it's a joint effort by N.J. Huff of Emergency Exit and Orion Gates of Beyond Reality. Both strips are about groups of oddballs (along with token Normal People) who have adventures in alternate realities, which is maybe why I like them both. The two strips recently finished a lengthy crossover adventure which was quite impressively done. Go see what all the fuss is about! A portrait of The Three Humans, done by Lego wizard extraordinare D. M. Jeftinija of Legostar Galactica. Yes, he really does his strip entirely with Legos. A parody of various scifi franchises, it's another of my favorite webcomics, so go check it out! Yet another fine guest strip from Tom Truszkowski of Station V3. As I believe I alway note, he's done more for The Mansion of E than I have, and I can't thank him enough. Still, thanks, Tom! (Nitid the painter made his first and so far only appearance here.) And (possibly) rounding out the week, a spiffy pic of some of my Gnolls, as depicted by G. L. Gillen of Squid Ninja, which is a webcomic about the ongoing adventures of this surly ninja who can, you guessed it, turn into a squid. G. L. has set up an interesting world with lots of unanswered questions (an artist after my own heart!) and I've been enjoying the strip for several months now. Go check it out! Ever year, more or less, the brave-but-foolhardy creator of the webcomic Tao of Geek organizes a "Secret Santa" webcomic art-swap. The person inflicted with my strip this year was Andrey Pissantchev, who draws a fun Comic Genesis strip called Annihilicious, which starts out seeming to be a random gag-of-the-day strip, but quickly morphs into something far more interesting. I particularly like the various visits to Hell, where you learn in graphic detail why the place has the reputation it has. Anyhoo. Check it out, and thanks to Andrey for the nifty art-work featured above! (You really have to admire Santa's dedication, as technically Christmas isn't even celebrated in the Mansionverse!) If you want to see what I did for my assignment, check out the Drunk Duck-based Mikyagu, which details the ongoing misfortures of a very unique group of apartment-mates. I tried to inject a short moment of happiness with my picture. (The Head of a Stick is green cuz he's a zombie.) I joined another "Secret Santa" art-swap over on the Comic Genesis forums, and got this spiffy portrait of Our Heroes, done by JessicaRaven, one of the creators of the strip Triquetra Cats, which details the adventures of three super-powered sisters and their fight against an evil organization of vampires. (Please note that the strip CONTAINS ADULT THEMES.) Thanx to JR, and I hope she doesn't mind too much that I increased the "light" in the image a bit before I posted it here.. As for my own assignment, I did a drawing for Tynan's strip My Underworld, but to date it hasn't been posted, and I suspect it never will. Some spiffy guest-art from the Forum, done by Rowland aka Jim, who also does the CG-based strips Role of the Die and/or G For Genesis. Check 'em out, and toss him some $ if you've got any to spare. Along with some other ComicGen artists I participated in a Secret Santa art-swap for Christmas 2007. The above sketch of Mortimer is my gift from the creator of A Webcomic Called Atavism, so many thanks to Cope. My assigned comic was NJ Huff's Emergency Exit, and can be seen here. One of the many works of the extremely prolific webcartoonist RHJunior is "Tales of the Questor", a strip about a young and heroic Rac Cona Daimh (ie anthropomorphic racoon) making his way in the perilous magical world of Aerith. TofQ is one of my favorite webstrips these days, so RHJ and I did an art-swap. His take on the SubShafters appears above. The "real" ones will return next year. My 2007 Secret Santa, Cope of A Webcomic Called Atavism, sent along a second nifty sketch, this one of Rosemary battling a Dornbeast using more traditional weapons than during her first encounter with one of the critters. Thanks again to Cope, and I urge everyone to go check out the inhabitants of Callous City. Just don't get too close.. Over on the Comic Genesis forums, Jon Day (AKA Parables) put out a call for robots to use as background characters in his new 3D computer-generated strip Esthar Gate. I volunteered Hector, and Parables created the above scene. Pretty cool. The luckless robot to whom Hector is venting is Metabot, from VinnieD's AntiBunny. One more piece of robot-themed guest art from Jon Day of Esthar Gate, featuring Shopbot, and Nunsuch. The art is cool and I again thank Mr. Day, but be aware he created this using what is seen of the characters in the strip, not from a description by me. So don't take anything you see above as canon, particularly in the case of Nunsuch. Back to the SubShaft 44f guys next week. Happy Halloween! This year, I did a costume-swap with G. L. Gillen, creator of the fine Comics Genesis webcomic Squid Ninja, which features, yes, a ninja who can turn into a squid. Among many other things, there's also a vagabond Irishman with a large demon problem, a young woman who fights both monsters and hallucinations, a suspiciously helpful nose, and a talking koi who lives in the ninja's toilet. In short, highly enjoyable weirdness and lots of unanswered questions. Which means if you enjoy the MoE, you'll probably enjoy SN as well. Check it out, and thanks again to G. L. for the cool art! (Oh.. and in my drawing for SN, Rosemary shows some skin, which is evidently important to some folks.) Merry Christmas, 2008. The folks over at [i]nsignificant comics had an open Secret Santa art-exchange, so I signed up. I got this spiffy piece which might almost be a sequal to some of the art I received in 2006. This one's from Marko Fithian, who draws the webcomic Roomies. Said roomies's dwelling isn't quite as large at the MoE, but otherwise they would probably fit right in, so go check out their ongoing alien/zombie/robot/pyromaniac adventures! My assignment in turn was the German superhero photocomic Union of Heroes/Union der Helden. Aaannd Santa's downward spiral continues, in my other piece of spiffy 2008 Secret Santa gift-art. This one was done by my fellow ComicGenite Tim Volpe of Alternate Delusions; if those names seem familiar, he and I did a Halloween costume-swap here and here back in 2005. I'm sorry that Tim didn't get a chance to work with someone new, but he's always welcome back here! Merry Christmas, even if it's July when you're reading this. The above excellent piece of guest art is what I received for the 2009 Comic Genesis Secret Santa art-swap. It was done by Rob Lopez, who has a newish but intriguing sci-fi/religious strip up and going called Forsaken Stars. Go check it out! And showing that Rob really went the extra mile with this, some of what is referenced has only to date been discussed over on the MoE forum and not in-strip. Thanks again, Rob, and I will only add that Rosemary serving you bacon and eggs presents you with a serious dilemna: is it more dangerous to eat them, or to make her angry by refusing to eat them?My luckless Secret Santa victim was Chuck Gonzalez and his fine strip Some People's Children, which is a slice-of-life about Chuck himself and his friends, and their day-to-day problems with pesky ninjas and angry bears. Check it out! And here's my other Secret Santa web-comic present, a sketch by Melissa Stone aka Purenightshade, creator of the fantasy strip Children of the Tiger. Thanks to Melissa, and to Sheryl Schopfer, who organized the whole Web Comic Secret Santa Exchange. My assigned victim, as it happened, was a guy you may have heard of somewhere before: Rob Lopez, creator of Forsaken Stars.You get some more holiday filler for a few days; 100% regular MoE strips will resume Wednesday. Probably. If you've been good little boys and girls. A "stocking stuffer" from Rob Lopez of Forsaken Stars. Annd.. one last piece (for now..) from Rob of Forsaken Stars. He was busy this year! Back to the Great Chasm tomorrow. Today you get more spiffy guest art/character portraits. Tomorrow too, although I didn't totally slack off this weekend, and you will also get something (albiet non-subShaftish) from me. Above is the last of the Secret Santa sketches I got from Rob Lopez of the ComicGenesis strip Forsaken Stars. Thanks once again to Rob for all his work! And here's the second half of the MoE portrait weekend. The top drawing is by Claire, AKA Whitehound, who as noted has her own website here; this is her vision of a more realistic (less cartoony} Gnoll and Gobule. Thanks to her for the drawing and the discussion. In a similar spirit, below is my attempt at showing what the three main Human characters "actually" look like. Even now, I've never really been able to draw Rosemary how I see her in my mind, and this is no exception; it's close, but she turned out a little too pretty... Yet another cool guest-strip from Tom T. of Station V3, which was his way of reminding me that I hadn't done anything for his anniversary this year. So I cranked something out. Gonna stretch out Halloween for a few more days here. I organized a costume swap over on the ComicGenesis forums, and above is Part One of my resulting gift from CGer SergeXIII, who is the creator of several intertwined strips; these folks are from Red City; we don't know too much about any of them yet, as the plot's still in the early going, but it looks interesting so far. Tune in tomorrow for Part Two, and then on Wednesday.. something more. And here is Part Two of my Halloween gift from SergeXIII of the ComicGenesis strip Red City.Thanks again to Serge for the great work, and promoting Rosemary as a costume choice. Now go vote, if you haven't done so already. Tomorrow, something else, and then back to the plot. And here's my ComicGenesis Secret Santa gift; it came at the last minute, so it had to wait to be posted until after the holidays. But, cool, it's here, and thanks to Dragonkingdoms of Dawn of a New Era! And so officially ends the 2010 holiday season, with my unavoidably-delayed Secret Santa guest comic from Michael Dellheim of Prepare To Die, which is a fun CGIish comic about three young folks who are mysteriously sucked into a real(?) life version of the Dungeons & Dragons Wizards & Warriors role-playing campaign one of them created. Thanks to Michael, and to Sheryl Schopfer for setting the whole thing up! Thanks as always to Tom T. of Station V3 for the spiffy guest art, and congrats back to him for his own recent anniversary; we got into this idiotic business at almost the same time, and are both still plugging away at it. (Any early-birds over at the WCN, yes, you briefly saw something different...) Once again this year, I participated in a Comic Genesis Halloween-Costume art-swap. My assigned partner was Rob O'Brien, who is currently working on at least three different projects: Sh!T Happens (sic), Flying Tigers and Maelstrom Heart Saga. I chose to use SH for my guest art; it's about the lives and loves of a team of teen(ish) post-apocalyptic(ish) hoverboard enthusiasts. The folks above, however, are from Flying Tigers, which follows the exploits of the eponymous high school martial-arts team. Confusing enough? Ah well, thanks to Rob for his keen artwork! For Christmas this year, I once again joined up with the Web Comic Secret Santa Exchange. Above is the present I got from my Santa, William Chrapcynski, creator of the CGI comic Binary Souls/Other Dimensions.BS/OD concerns a group of.. I hesitate to call any of them "heroes", really, but there are definitely villains running around.. who attempt to escape from (or at least control) the multi-layered artifical game-realm they mysteriously find themselves trapped in. I'm probably getting this all wrong, but it's interesting and weird, and if you enjoy the MoE, you might enjoy BS/OD as well. Check it out, and thanks again to William!And there is in fact a sort-of baseball-like game that Humans in the Mansionverse play, but it hasn't yet reached the Basement. Perhaps this is a glimpse of the future.. As usual, this year I also signed up with the Comic Genesis Secret Santa art-swap, and got the above from Vinnie D., creator of AntiBunny, which is about the trials and tribulations of a persecuted subculture of humanoid rabbits trying to survive in a human-dominated city. Rather grim, but well-done. Thanks to Vinnie for the artwork, although after what Santa's gone through on his previous visits to the Mansion, our heroes may have a long cold wait ahead of them..Yes, I would have posted this on Christmas and the other one today, but that was the order I got them. Ah well.Happy New Year. And here's the now-traditional Halloween Webcomic Costume Swap for 2012. I paired up with my fellow ComicGenesis user Michelle Mau/CG Forum goer VeryCuddlyCornpone and her comic Loud Era, which is a comic detailing a year(ish) in the life of a cross-section of American high school students (that's a bunch of them up above), with the twist that it's set in 1917. A very different time and place than the MoE, but well worth checking out so go give it a read. Thanks again to VCC for the keen art! (And yes, apart from their taste in headwear, Rosemary and LE's Cecilia Wolfram could almost pass as doubles. Just another of those Wacky Coincidences.) Merry Christmas 2012, and thanks to my Secret Santa, Stretch Longfellow of Spoofy Randomness, a fun comic about would-be Santa Percy and his fellow students attending Edona College, which features among other things secret rooftop dorm-extensions and stranded aliens disguised as.. well, you'll have to go read it! My assigned victim was C. Glen Williams of Frighteningly Pretenious Komix, which started out as a witty assembler of vintage clipart, and has, for the holidays at least, shifted to all-original content. You can see my contribution on his fan-art page. Back around Valentine's Day, I joined a holiday art-swap on the ComicGenesis forums. Unfortunately, whoever was assigned the MoE flaked out on me, and so forum-goer Cope of Cerintha and/or Atavism was nice enough to step into the breach with this Rosemary sketch. Nothing to do with Saints Valentine or Patrick (unless one of them drove out the Dornbeasts), but cool nonetheless! Thanks again to Cope.As for my half of the swap, I was assigned Critters Online an old-school slice-of-life comic by Paul R. Zook populated with various, well, critters. The swap-guidelines suggested I draw one of my characters putting on his best romantic moves, and you can see my effort here. (He really made an effort, even putting on clothes!) And here's a nice portrait of Our Heroes by Whitehound, who also maintains the alternate MoE archive/info-center. A belated return to Halloween for a couple of days, with the annual Comic Genesis forum costume-swap (we were all a little slow getting stuff posted...) First up, here are Snow, Wind and Aiyce from akaScooby's comic book Maelstrom Heart, which details the adventures of a punk-rock band on a interplanetary concert tour. akaScooby and I swapped strips last year as well. Another Comic Genesis forum costume-swap, this one from IVstudios who did an all-in-one type deal with his characters from Inhumation taking a much-needed break from their literal trudge through Purgetory. Along with Rosemary, they are portraying folks from an as yet untitled comic by "akaScooby" and MitchellBravo's "Loud Era". And finally for Halloween 2013, Eddie, Tony and Frank from MitchellBravo's Loud Era, which is a enjoyable comic set in the 1920s, detailing the somewhat dysfuntional relationships of a group of youths as they prepare to leave high school and enter the Real World. Thanks again to all three artists for doing this year's swap! Merry Christmas 2013. I signed up for the usual Secret Santa art swap, and got this spiffy pic of a very angry Frederick from the creator of Charles & Viktor, which details the violent planet-hopping adventures of the titular duo. (SKREE! GRAR!). My assigned comic was Rasputin Barxotka, an ongoing NSFW drama about the rather tortured lives of several Russian gangsters and/or Roma. It also features a little sci-fi content, which is what I featured in my guest art. One more scene from the Comic Genesis New Year's party, by Peripheral Descent of Breath of Life. Mortimer unsurprisingly makes another appearance at a Comic Genesis New Year's party, this one by akascooby, who always has two or three different comics going. (These pics are getting posted as people finish them..) Another excellent scene from the still-ongoing ComicGenesis New Year's Party, this time by djracodex, creator of Masadjra, which (mostly) follows the lives of a couple of young women in an Aztec-ish fantasy society. One of them is Meli, pictured above, along with Mortimer and Ig the Saur and various and diverse characters from Flying Tigers, Breath of Life, Loud Era and Freakboy. This week's impressive and labor-intensive scene(s) from the ComicGenesis New Year's Part(ies) are by VeryCuddlyCornpone, creator of Loud Era, who has contributed guest art here on more than one occasion. I'll just let VCC describe the action:"Sssooo modern-day college type house party I took a few liberties. Rosemary and Mortimer from The Mansion of E and Cecilia and Cal from my comic...Rosemary didn't strike me as much of a drinker, so Cecilia is pouring her a cup of imported Serbian lemon-lime soda, "Fizzle McDuffies." Mortimer is helping Cal prepare some finger foods, and she is quite pleased with how well he rolled the mini hot dogs.""Sylvester from The Mansion of E, Nolan and Cara from Flying Tigers, and Aggie from my comic. Aggie hopped out onto the roof for a smoke, talking to Sylvester about his Mansion and his earl-ness and all that- she thinks he might be a little high, but he's friendly and interesting to talk to, so who is she to judge? It's a pretty cold New Year's Eve for a pair of Aussies, so Nolan and Cara are cuddled up tight waiting for Aggie and Sylvester to leave. Everybody left the window wide open, letting the heat out like they were raised in a barn."VCC also did a couple more scenes which don't depict any MoEites, but instead include folks from Breath of Life, and Freakboy. For the moment at least, you can see them here. After yesterday's "official" view of the Mansion, here's a spiffy CGI version created by reader eman; he wants to emphasize that it's a work in progress, but I think I turned out pretty well, so thanks again to him for sharing it. It inspired me to finally get some air-dry modelling clay and bash out a crude physical model of the Mansion's various buildings; I used it for the first time with yesterday's strip, and it really does help to see how the structures can and do fit together in 3D space. And since there were questions.. what you can see here in the shadow of the Main Tower are the Temple of the Brush, the Barrackstack, the Gatestone, the Party Palace, and, just visible, the Ivory Tower and the Factor E. And yesterday you could also see the Boathouse. As I do every year, I participated in the Web Comic Secret Santa Exchange. The snazzy gift above came from Aero Zero, who does the fantasy comic Kyria. Nice to see Santa get a year off from trying to deliver to the Mansion.My assigned recipient was Run Lil Jared, which follows the unwilling adventures of the eponymous young lad who gets shanghaied away from his professional-penguin school and taken to a monster-training academy on a cloud. It's all almost as weird as the MoE, so you all just might enjoy it! You can see my gift here. Cope, creator of Cerintha did a couple of Comic Genesis crossover pics, so I combined them here. First we have Rosemary and some other CG gals taking a trip back/ahead to summer (where it appears that Rosemary is far from immune from Cerintha's ability to annoy every last person she crosses paths with), and then there's Sylvester attending a less-than-successful New Year's Eve party. Thanks again to Cope for doing them! A couple of days late, but here is Hopobefever enthusiastically getting in the spirit of the holidays. It's my fine present from the 2015 Web Comic Secret Santa Exchange, by Maryanne Rose Papke, creator of the comic Xylobone Tomes, which details a quest undertaken by a rather affable wizard-lich and his cute little plant-girl apprentice, through a magical world that appears to be suffering through a slow-rolling series of near-apocalypses. If you're a fan of the MoE, you might enjoy it.My assigned strip was Doodling Around a Spanish/English comic by the Colombian artists Gual and Chano, which depicts the on-going adventures a pair of fourteen year old twin girls and their friends as they work on creating their own comic book. Of course, being fourteen years old, they tend to spend a lot more time goofing off at the beach and a comics convention and such than actually working. Maybe not much overlap theme-wise with my stuff, but very well drawn. As I do every year, I took part in the 2016 Web Comic Secret Santa Exchange. Above is my gift from Spooktacularprize, creator of Between Hay and Grass, a relatively new comic about the adventures which ensue when a young girl and her father go to visit her grandfather's run-down beach resort. My assigned victim was Sam Orchard's Rooster Tails, an autobiographical/informational strip by and about a female-to-male trans person living in New Zealand. Both fine strips, and with Sam's you might even learn a few things! Go check them out! As one of the last two or three people who still occasionally visit the official ComicGenesis Forums, I arranged a New Year's art-swap with fellow forumite Cope, creator of Cerintha. Thanks to him for this pic of Rosemary "celebrating." My version of his characters can be seen here. I participated in a very belated Secret Santa art-swap over on the ComicGenesis forums, and so traded art with Forces of Good and Evil, which is a fun romp about the various and diverse students at two competing schools, one for heroes and one for supervillains. Check it out! Over on the Comic Fury Forums, MK Wizard, creator of the webcomic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde offered to draw up a selected character as a kakapo. And I figured what the heck, stranger things have happened in my own little universe. So here you go, and thanks to MK.Mansionverse magic can NOT change people into large flightless parrots, but perhaps this is the Rosemary of a couple of universes over where Humans didn't become the dominant local lifeform. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
[this scene was accepted as canon by Robert]
Secondly, we have a nice sketch of Comshaw by one of the Grand Old Men of Keenspace, McDuffies. If you think my comic's archive is overwhelming...
And lastly, I didn't totally slack off, but followed one of the links on Arthur's page and discovered the wonderful world of Micro Heroes. I used the collected goodies at Wicket Harley's place to make superhero(ish) versions of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. Thanks to WH, and if you want more info and examples, check out this Yahoo Group.
My luckless Secret Santa victim was Chuck Gonzalez and his fine strip Some People's Children, which is a slice-of-life about Chuck himself and his friends, and their day-to-day problems with pesky ninjas and angry bears. Check it out!
You get some more holiday filler for a few days; 100% regular MoE strips will resume Wednesday. Probably. If you've been good little boys and girls.
BS/OD concerns a group of.. I hesitate to call any of them "heroes", really, but there are definitely villains running around.. who attempt to escape from (or at least control) the multi-layered artifical game-realm they mysteriously find themselves trapped in. I'm probably getting this all wrong, but it's interesting and weird, and if you enjoy the MoE, you might enjoy BS/OD as well. Check it out, and thanks again to William!
And there is in fact a sort-of baseball-like game that Humans in the Mansionverse play, but it hasn't yet reached the Basement. Perhaps this is a glimpse of the future..
Yes, I would have posted this on Christmas and the other one today, but that was the order I got them. Ah well.
Happy New Year.
As for my half of the swap, I was assigned Critters Online an old-school slice-of-life comic by Paul R. Zook populated with various, well, critters. The swap-guidelines suggested I draw one of my characters putting on his best romantic moves, and you can see my effort here. (He really made an effort, even putting on clothes!)
"Sssooo modern-day college type house party I took a few liberties. Rosemary and Mortimer from The Mansion of E and Cecilia and Cal from my comic...Rosemary didn't strike me as much of a drinker, so Cecilia is pouring her a cup of imported Serbian lemon-lime soda, "Fizzle McDuffies." Mortimer is helping Cal prepare some finger foods, and she is quite pleased with how well he rolled the mini hot dogs.""Sylvester from The Mansion of E, Nolan and Cara from Flying Tigers, and Aggie from my comic. Aggie hopped out onto the roof for a smoke, talking to Sylvester about his Mansion and his earl-ness and all that- she thinks he might be a little high, but he's friendly and interesting to talk to, so who is she to judge? It's a pretty cold New Year's Eve for a pair of Aussies, so Nolan and Cara are cuddled up tight waiting for Aggie and Sylvester to leave. Everybody left the window wide open, letting the heat out like they were raised in a barn."
VCC also did a couple more scenes which don't depict any MoEites, but instead include folks from Breath of Life, and Freakboy. For the moment at least, you can see them here.
My assigned recipient was Run Lil Jared, which follows the unwilling adventures of the eponymous young lad who gets shanghaied away from his professional-penguin school and taken to a monster-training academy on a cloud. It's all almost as weird as the MoE, so you all just might enjoy it! You can see my gift here.
My assigned strip was Doodling Around a Spanish/English comic by the Colombian artists Gual and Chano, which depicts the on-going adventures a pair of fourteen year old twin girls and their friends as they work on creating their own comic book. Of course, being fourteen years old, they tend to spend a lot more time goofing off at the beach and a comics convention and such than actually working. Maybe not much overlap theme-wise with my stuff, but very well drawn.
Mansionverse magic can NOT change people into large flightless parrots, but perhaps this is the Rosemary of a couple of universes over where Humans didn't become the dominant local lifeform.