February Riverside Arts Walk

Greetings to all this Monday. We tried very hard to get this post up and going this morning but were unable to due so. But since it's still Monday, we're good.

Today marks the end of January 2011 which means the first Thursday of February will be this week. How crazy is that!?! And once again, downtown Riverside is hosting its monthly Arts Walk. And yet once again, we'll be participating.

February is the month most associated with love, what with Valentine's Day and whatnot. So, along with the Monster Mythos book and other merch we typically have every month, we have a special Valentine's Day Lucy postcard. In fact, we'll have 2! Seen here.



The first is a typical Valentine's Day theme - what with little Lucy as a cupid searching out those looking for love. Ready to shoot her arrow into their unsuspecting backside. For being a holiday about love, it sure does draw on violent images. But she looks cute so we'll run with it.

Then, for those out there who are not fans of the lovey-dovey holiday and who might be more into the macabre, we have another Lucy postcard. But this one is her in her well-known zombie form with the reminder to all that even zombies need love. They just happen to need brains more. Hah!




We hope you enjoy and look forward to seeing everyone Thursday night. We'll be there from 6-9pm. The Arts Walk is located in downtown Riverside CA inside the Life Arts Center which is located at this address - 3485 University Ave. Riverside, CA

See you then!

The Story of Jebediah Obediah Jasper Jenkins III Jr.

Hello again everyone, Brook here with another Friday post. We visit again “The Lost Adventures of Borracho y Gordo.” Hopefully you are all enjoying the weekly posts and are excited for the comic to start. This week we look at Jebediah Obediah Jasper Jenkins III Jr. This old coot is the local gold miner and a source of constant entertainment for Borracho. Let’s begin!




A biography of Jebediah Obediah Jasper Jenkins III Jr. as transcribed by Hr. D. Pettiman Titwillow.

I wrote down the following story as told to me by an old prospector at the trading post near Silver Springs, about 50 miles due east of Creek Hollow. It is written as was said, so please excuse the disjointed nature of his speech.



Yesterday I did buy me a nice new head-topper, fine as cream gravy I must say, other was so dumfungled I ain’t got no use for it no more. Ya see, years ago used to run shovel over at the ol’ bone orchard, but I would drink the oh be joyful a bit too much and wasn’t allowed around the plot no more. They was always sayin I was beatin the devil around the stump, which I say was a load of hogwash! Hogwash I tell ya! Well, not havin work no more can really put a crimp in your getalong so I looked round. I found a flannel mouthed feller who was sellin a claim at a nice price. After finding out the claim was Simon pure I bought it and ain’t never looked back.

Now I don’t style myself a violent man, no sir, but there is one thing in this wide ol rock that really gets my goat. That four flusher Borracho!! Him and that portly feller always hangin round trying to steal my claim! Some consarned fool tried to tell me that they meant no harm, to which I said you hobble your lip! Fifteen times that sly Borracho has tried to euchre me into buying his danged fools gold. Just thinking about him makes me wanna fight like Kilkenny cats.

This one time I was wearin my best bib and tucker, just minding my own, when that Bunko artist Borracho comes rolling into town. He’s always traveling with the coffee boiler, Gordo. Now I’d seem them round towns in the past but never had no reason to made deal with em. So they come walking over to me looking to dicker. Well I’ll be if that Gordo wasn’t greener than the grass in front of a big bug’s house. Now that Borracho pulls out a nice little hunk of gold wantin to know if I can buy it. That was when that fat deadbeat decides to expel all over my nice rags. Long story short, by the time I cleaned up I realized that all my dinero was gone, and those two were long gone.

Now let me tell you about a time when I got roostered up…..

It was here that Jebediah passed out at the front of the trading post and fell asleep. I hope to get more stories out of him later. I do know that I hope I never run into this Borracho and Gordo gang.

Rosemead High School Visit

Happy Friday all! Well, the week is over and the weekend is looming ahead. Hopefully it will be a great weekend for all parties. On Wednesday of this week, contributing Monster Mythos artists Mike Collins and Eric Gonzalez once again teamed up to speak to a body of students about being professional artists. This time, however, the body of students weren't 8 year olds. They were high school students at Rosemead High School (here in lovely southern California).

The printer of Monster Mythos as well as Rosita Y Conchita, Karl, arranged the visit as they were all invited to come to the school and speak to the 5 graphic arts classes taught by Liza Veljacics. She's in the pic holding the 2 books she purchased. The two were able to talk a little more in depth about working in animation, the artistic process as well as working on and marketing personal projects. They gave tips on what to think about as high school draws to a close, the do's and don'ts of networking, encouragement on following your passions and just life lessons both Mike and Eric would have loved to have heard when they were in high school. (They also learned a greater appreciation for lecturers and teachers too! 5 periods is a long time to talk about the same thing 5 times!)

The classes were great. They met lots of budding talent and thoroughly enjoyed the day spent. (Especially considering it's been years since either one of them stepped foot in a high school building.) They looked at sketchbooks and have already received emails from some of the students. It was a lot of fun and they look forward to being invited back as well as future events.

Have a Tiki-rific weekend everyone and we'll see you back here on Monday with a couple new Lucy drawings and info on February's Arts Walk in Riverside.

New Lucy Sketch

According to Deb, progress on Lucy's ABC book is going well. There are 6 (out of 26) rough sketches that are moving beyond the rough WIP stage. With more coming as the deadline looms for getting the book done on time.

Last week we posted one of Lucy as a Cowgirl. Today we have Lucy as an Egyptian. It even looks like she's trying to walk like one!

We are really excited to post new stuff and we're very grateful to those who regularly stop by and hope you all enjoy seeing the stuff we're working on as we're working on it. As more of the illustrations get roughed and even into the final stages, we'll put them up here and announce all that is going on. Please continue dropping by. Have a great week!

Borracho’s Favorite Gambling Town

It’s Friday, and you know what that means…Yes, the weekend is upon us….yes, its better than Monday….but more importantly its time for the Friday writing post!!! . Hopefully your week went fast and you are now ready to settle in for a nice weekend break, unless you work in retail, then my heart goes out to you! We have another post from our upcoming webcomic, “The Lost Adventures of Borracho y Gordo”. Hopefully you enjoyed last week’s post as much as I did writing it. This week we are going to take a little peek at Borracho’s favorite watering hole/gambling den. Enjoy!



Borracho’s Jernal…Intry 6

Wandering the desert can get pretty tiring, especially having to listen to Gordo complain all the time. There are few places a legendary gunslinger like myself can go to relax. My favorite place of all time is the town of Rotgut.. What a town! This place has everything you need, semi-disease free women, booze that is more liquor than water, and the best poker room this side of the street in Rotgut.

When first you ride into town, you gotta wet your whistle at Madam Crumpett’s House of Ill-Repute. This is the place where a man can feel like a man, and Gordo can cry like a woman. Ugh, I swear, I don’t know why I bring him into town.

Next stop, old Rotgut’s Saloon, now this is the place for me. It’s called “The Widowmaker.” With a name like that you know the drinks are just like the undertaker’s customers…stiff, cold, and plagued by the occasional maggot!

After you’re good and sloshed you gotta stumble to the back where the poker room is and hope you don’t run into Gary. That guy! What a chump. Tries to deal a “fair” game of poker. What a dumbass. Everyone knows it ain’t poker if the dealer isn’t cheating with the rest of us. Can you imagine, he got mad at me once for showing 5 aces? I hear he’s looking for a woman, I’m gonna give him a blind date with my fist!



Gordo hates cards, drinking, and anything fun. He is always whining about money, and how we have none. He says I shouldn’t play poker, since I am “no good” and lose all our money..First of all…It’s HIS money, only a moron would gamble with his own loot. Second of all, I always leave with more than I started with at least 10 percent of the time, the remaining 10 percent of the time, I start barfights and win back my chips the old fashioned way…with my fists! Take that Gary!

So next time you are wandering about, check out Rotgut. Tell them Borracho sent you and you will get a two for one burial discount at the local cemetery!

Lucy Sketch

Good Morning All -

As we all get to start a new week, Deborah and Mike wanted to share a sketch of little Lucy as they are busy working away on the ABC's book. We had previously posted that Lucy doesn't know what she wants to be for Halloween. Here's a rough sketch of Lucy as good ol' Western cowgirl. Ready for a showdown at high noon no less!

There are plenty more sketches coming as well as turning the rough sketches into finished illustrations, which we will share on this blog so be sure to come back often and see the new stuff! Have a great week!!

Borracho’s Weapons of Mass Distraction

Friday!!!!! Brook again, and I have a post for the upcoming webcomic “The Lost Adventures of Borracho y Gordo” In the past we have met the 2 main characters. Today we will look at Borracho’s tools of the trade. These are items he just can’t live without. So sit back, grab a bottle of hooch and enjoy!



Borracho’s Jernal…Intry 13

That lousy Gordo. Woke up today and saw him rifling through my things. Probably hungry. Shame he eats all the food, though not a shame he has no taste for firewater. Guess I will keep him around another week. Time to take another inventory and hope he didn’t eat any of my stuff.

Item 1: Lockpicks
My ol’ trusty lockpicks. I stole these off a drunk priest a while back. We were both in a cell and he clearly thought powers above would get him out. Well here I am and, he is probably still there waitin. These got me out of plenty of times when I was mistaken for a drunk gringo gunslinger. Doesn’t look like Gordo messed with this.

Item 2: My beloved revolver

Now here is a beautiful creature. I named him Frederic Winchester LeForge, though I just call him Duke for short. Yeah I know, its strange naming a gun after a man and not a lady, but lets face it…that gun means power, strength, and intimidation. All qualities a woman just don’t…well you know. I stole this gun off a dead man out in the desert. Duke and I go everywhere together, and have gotten out of quite a few scrapes. Gordo hates violence, and says that he doesn’t like Duke. I think Gordo is just jealous, cuz I talk to Duke more than him, and Duke doesn’t eat all the cornbread.

Item 3: Clove of Garlic

Garlic. No self-respecting gunslinger would be caught dead without it. Helps freshen my breath when I am wooing the ladies. I can tell by the watery look in their eyes, that my charms are enhanced by this miracle remedy. This garlic is also great for fending off vampires, Gordo says they don’t exist, but what does he know. I fought off three once in a box canyon and lived to tell the tale.

Item 4: My Chunk of Fools Gold

Gold is quite a valuable thing in these parts, and this little chunk of fake gold is even more so. I can’t tell you how many times I have traded this same little chunk in for some spending money, only to “receive” it back. It’s a well used item, though most of the time its use gets us banned from a town. A small price to pay for well earned money! I stole this from Gordo…shhhh don’t tell him!


Item 5: Horsehair Mustache

This horsehair mustache has saved my bacon more than anything else. I stole the hair from a very stupid horse. A mustache is the perfect disguise. Once I put it on, no one knows who I am. I have fooled many a lady’s old man with this clever ruse. When I put this little baby on, I can become anyone in town…a barkeep, a barber, a blacksmith. No one suspects the mustache and no one notices my presence, though somehow Gordo always knows its me. He must have some sort of Mexican black magic, I will have to look into that.

Item 6: Knife

This knife has many uses. Mainly I use it for bedpost notching and shaving my horse. I stole this knife from a guy who was keeping it in his back, he was sleeping on his face after a saloon fight. Gordo says it wasn’t really stealing since the guy wasn’t going to use it. Poor Gordo, he is so dumb, theft is the best way to get anything you want.

Item 7: Magic Whiskey

Now this is the most valuable thing in my possession. This is a magic bottle of whisky. I stole this from a snake-oil merchant. As I was walking away with my prize, I noticed Gordo hand the man something and they shook hands. I don’t know what that was, but all I know is that this whisky was now mine! This bottle refills itself every night. I go to bed and it is empty, when I wake up in the morning it is full. I swear one night I saw a big fat fairy creature filling the bottle, but that could have been the booze talking. Well I don’t ask questions….ugh, Gordo’s greasy handprints are all over this.

Well it looks like everything is still here, that Gordo, he is too dumb to steal. Good for me, bad for him!

The Process of Illustrating Lucy

Good morning everyone! Yesterday got away from us but we have the post ready for today. Trust us when we say that the tardy posting will not become a 2011 habit. We'll get back on track. :)

As we've previously posted, one of this years exciting news is the up-coming children's book about Lucy. We can't say much now but here's a tidbit - Lucy loves using her imagination and she's trying to figure out what she wants to be for Halloween. Now, those familiar with the blog as well as those who have seen us behind the table at various events are all too familiar with the buttons and magnets of little Lucy as a Zombie. Seen here:



We did take advantage of the spooky 2010 Halloween season to utilize this illustration for the up-coming book. However, the button/magnet design is NOT the final illustration. Even though she makes a cute Zombie, the button design IS a little bloodier than the final book illustration will be. For obvious reasons....

Several people at last weeks Arts Walk asked about the process that Mike takes to illustrate Lucy. So here is the process. Enjoy!

Here in Mike's own words - "It starts with an idea that translates into a poor sketch done in my sketchbook.



Then I scan the image into the computer and play around with fixing the problems in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I alternate between both just playing around with shapes, fixing tangents, etc.



As it starts to work itself out, I start thinking about the details to plus the image.



At which point I take the finished albeit rough digital sketch into Illustrator for final clean up. After I finish the clean up, I take the file back into Photoshop and start playing with shadows.



I also start playing with colors. Here's Lucy's normal color scheme in Zombie. I like to say that this is what she would look like if she was just bitten.



And here's the image with some Zombie colors as Lucy joins the ranks of the undead in their search for brains...."



This is not the final illustration but according to Mike and Deborah, it's real close. As the book comes closer and closer to finishing, we'll be posting the images as well as the synopsis and whatnot. Come back often to see. It'll be fun for all!

Lord of Demolition

Hello everyone and happy Friday! Hope everyone’s holidays were safe and fun. Good to be back and writing again, let my fingers work off all the HAM! Today’s post continues with our new comic “Burning Gods”. We will continue to focus on CRT’s soldier program with a look at the dossier of the demolition expert David Dyson.



CRT Soldier File 32-4321-94J
Subject: David Dyson
Age: 36 (enhanced)
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 250
Psych Profile: Classified Level TZ-15
Job Classification: Demolitions/Explosives
Squad: Epsilon, assigned to Cmdr. Patton

Observation entry, Dr. Melissa Barnett, 23 Sep 2268

After yesterday’s breakdown, we have kept David in observation overnight. Dr. Ellison is still at a loss as to why the drug profile we use is affecting him so negatively. I thought we had gotten over it since it had been over a month since his last episode. None of the other soldiers seem to be having symptoms quite as severe as David. Dr. Rashesh seems to think that when the drug began to overwrite David’s DNA, something disturbed it, but none of the genetic testing we have administered has come back negative. We will continue to observe.

CRT has looked at all the Dyson data we have provided and has said even with the anomalies he is operating at acceptable levels and we are to elevate him to the next phase of training. I am going to register my opinion on this, and recommend that David be kept under observation for another two weeks.

Observation entry, Dr. Reinhard Speicher, 24 Sep 2268

I have been brought in on the Episilon Squad project after Dr. Barnett’s unfortunate accident. I will be taking over all of David Dyson’s psych evaluations from now on. I have observed him and can find no fault with CRT’s findings. I am elevating him up to the next phase of training.

Riverside Arts Walk

Once again, Mike will be heading up a Tiki Machine table at the Downtown Riverside Arts Walk. Here's in all the info if any one is in the area tonight. We'd love for you to be there. It's always a fun time and why not start the new year off this way? The Arts Walk is a great family friendly activity that includes lots of things to look at and purchase if you are so moved. And not just from our table....

Hope to see ya'll tonight!

6:00pm - 9:00pm
Life Arts Center
3485 University Ave.
Riverside, CA

Happy New Year!

Happy Monday one and all. First off, let us apologize for the lack of postings last week. We're sorry that we were unable to post due to the holidays. Please forgive us. But we do head in to this new year with many plans. Like we've posted before, we have several projects being worked on as this is being typed.

We are still working on just not in the original format we had planned. It's going to be a more TPB than separate issues, collecting the first story arc. We'll keep you posted on that. And new art will be making an appearance as well so stay tuned for that. Here's a pinup done by the talented animation director Lauren Montgomery, who worked on such great direct-to-videos as Woman Woman, Superman and Batman: Apocalypse, and Green Lantern: First Flight, to help tide you over until we can showcase more stuff.



Work continues to go forward with the graphic novel, Burning Gods.



New artwork from Bobby Hernandez is also coming soon for that as well. We also are changing our original thought from serial separate comic book issues to one big TPB, like with Destiny Gauntlets.



Brook and Nate are also still working on the web-comic featuring Gordo Y Borracho. You're definitely going to want to see those crazy adventures.



Mike and Deborah are working on their children's book featuring little Lucy, which will be available starting in September. We'll see if Deborah lets us post some of the artwork.



We have another artbook planned very much in the vein of Monster Mythos. And once again in the vein of mythological. It'll be pretty sweet! As it progresses, artwork and special announcements will be posted.

Also, we've starting receiving photos from people who purchased Monster Mythos for their children or school classes. We're currently organizing them to post for everyone to see. We are enjoying hearing that people like their books.

And finally, Mike will be at the Downtown Riverside Arts Walk again this month. It will take place on Thursday but we'll do a special post announcing all the details later in the week.

That's it for right now. Come back to see all the stuff we've talked about. And be sure to come back on Friday for Brook's Writing Post. It will be fantastic. Have a Tiki-rific Week!!