Tales from the Scratch Pad: The Future of Richard Parker

Hey there sports fans Al here the latest:

Well as time would have it I have turned in my four pieces of art (out of 8) for the 88 STRONG show. I feel that these are some of my strongest work and really shows what I can do when I'm under some pressure to get things done. I had really hoped that I would have been able to get all 8 done but with real life getting in the way (like I have talked about) I could only really bring myself to focus on 4 solid pieces.

So that show will be taking place here pretty soon within the next couple weeks so this frees me up artistically to work on a massive piece “The Undersea Kingdom of Richard Parker”.


"The Undersea Kingdom of Richard Parker"

As Beth pointed out to me when I picked this up this should be your center piece for you show this year.

And I totally agreed. I had been urged to make some bigger pieces by my art mom, Lynn Peterson. And really Richard Parker needed a big piece especially if your dealing with an undersea kingdom.

I'm debating whether to include the Flying Dutchman in this work or the Ghost Ship of Nova Scotia.

There are the recognizable characters of R.P., Rose of the Sea (a.k.a. The Mermaid) and in the background in a spectral fashion – Lord Neptune.

But course since this dealing with Richard Parker he has to be the center piece for the whole thing.

I think that I have finally hit it right on the head! Funny it's similar to the very first Richard Parker image I had ever worked on and who knows (I don't) that I was channeling that image as well for this.

Like bookends.

With that I think that the other work (characters that surround Richard Parker) will come together in back of framing the rest of the work easily.

It will be much in the same vain as the way you used to see Jim Starlin do the Avengers/ Adam Warlock or anything from his descriptive background for the Metamorphosis Odyssey back several years ago.

And by the way if you haven't read either of those story lines you should do yourself a favor and pick them up.

Now the biggest challenge for me is not to fall into such characteristic tropes, tridents for example, that you would find with underwater adventure like you would find in Namor, the Submariner or Aquaman. There are some typical things that you can't get away from but the main character is much different in the way he comes across in my opinion. He stands robust and ready to keep his ground unlike others that have depicted deep-sea divers fighting for their lives he is fighting for the lives of others.

At least that's what I intended. The hero from another place defending someone different than himself. I love that basic concept. Everyone is about the kind of character that is grey and sometimes plays both sides of the fence. Mad Max is kinda like that but in the end of the movie (any of them) his basic decency takes hold and does the best that he can always regaining his humanity.

I'm hoping that I can make that as black and white as possible if not in story than at least in the art.

Watch here for more as time goes by.

NOW AS IT GOES BY - EUCON!

Even after the sting of the Cypticon show begins to fade and I had thought that I wouldn't do another show my old friend from Eugene OR. Royce Myers is organizing a comic show that had been missing for years there if fact a decade. I think I was there last time while I was busy working with at the time the Eugene Comics Guild. With our very first group anthology- Guilded Edges #1. It at the time seemed like a great place to premier a new local comic book.

I hadn't really thought about this in a long while. This was back in May 1999. The book had only been proceeded by my first foray into making comic books (and self publishing though I didn't know that at the time) in 1998. But that's beside the point. Eugene my old town has finally gone done a show and right right by someone I know well.

Royce the organizer of the show I have known for over 20 some odd years. He is a very stand up kind of guy. Even helped out this kid move up to PDX. That may have been due to the serveral times I had helped him and then he and his wife around the Eugene area. I have been proud to call them my friends.

But they have gotten a good write up in the local news paper (The Eugene Weekly) and also have a Facebook page to advertise what and who is going to be at the show.

So I have HIGH hopes that this show will do well there. At least that is what I am hoping for.

And that's about it for the kid here.

And for anything else that pertains to the box check out these sites as well.
Etsy

Big Cartel

Storenvy

And of course I still have my comics that I have worked on here at Indyplanet.

And mind you there is website