JaMiE BaKeR: fallout

Here are some MORE exploratory sketches from my BABES in SPACE story, starring Nauti Girl.

Here are some exploratory sketches I did for my short story in the Babes In Space anthology a few years back. These space-faring giantesses were adversaries for Sephilina the Nauti-Girl (AKA: Squid Girl). As I mentioned earlier, I usually spend too much time doing sketches thumbnails, and not enough time actually making finished product and this situation was certainly typical. I have pages and pages of sketches of these gals. I will post the rest later.

One of the fun things about making my own self-published comic books has been the chance to see OTHER people draw my characters. I’ve put out more pages of Rocket Rabbit comics than anything else but the character of mine that gets the most attention from other artists is SEPHI (AKA Squid Girl or Nauti Girl) and here are two more super new pinups of her. The action pic on the left is by MonkeyFeather (secret identity: John Hoffman) and the relaxed pic on the right is by Atomic Terrier (alter ego: Josh Hughes).

Click on each picture for a closer view, and please check out both John and Josh’s websites (by clicking on their names) for more great artwork.

Seeing these lovely Sephi Pinups has really inspired me to do some more comics with this character. In fact, I have had a few stories roughed out for some time and I just need to knuckle down and clean them up for next year.

To see ALL the pinups of my characters by other artists, (including these) go HERE.

The Maverix Studios and Sketchcrawl Art Auction raised a mighty $13,000!!!! Not a bad effort for a few hours of honest fun.

All the proceeds will go to the charity called EMERGENCY: Life Support for Civilian War Victims.

This is another of the three pieces I submitted; a watercolor of Sephilina, which was successfully bid on by Derek. (I am not sure yet who got the other two).

Derek also put in the top bid of the night; $900 for Patrick Awa’s magical “Little Dead Riding Hood” watercolour. The next highest bid was for Tadahiro Uesugi’s Watercolour, which was won by Ronnie Del Carmen. He was a very good sport, because his bid was already the winner in the silent auction but then, after live-auction bid-battling, he was obliged to pay another $150, or so, which he did with a big smile on his face (knowing that the extra money is all going to a good cause makes it easier to be philosophical at such times). Rhode Montijo’s Ink drawing was won by Ted Mathot and the Steve Purcell Mermaid was taken home by Anthony Hon.

Visit the online galleries of photos of both the artworks themselves and people having fun at the show (pics by Bosco Ng).

Here’s another one of the brush-pen sketches I did while sitting at the Abismo/Nerve Bomb booth at last year’s Comic-Con.

As to THIS year’s comic Con, I am still trying to figure out if I have enough time left to make something ELSE to sell, in addition to the new Elephant book (and selling some prints of the illustrations) especially as my work schedule wont leave a lot of spare time in the next few months…

I have already blocked out a lot of Rocket Rabbit stories, but past experience tells me that I wont be able to get any of them done in time for July and I would prefer not to rush them. So I had thought of doing a little book of pin-ups of established characters, but it seems like a lot of work on something that isn’t really “mine,” so now I am leaning towards a MINI-comic of some kind.

Here is a character from the next SEPHILINA (Squid Girl) story that I have already thumbnailed out. The adventure is called “Buck BuKurk and the ship of women” and I hope to get it done in time for this year’s Comic-con.

If all goes according to plan I will have an issue of NERVE BOMB containing a few short stories featuring different characters. I haven’t decided whether or not to give Rocket Rabbit a rest for a bit, but he may be in there too…

But before I can resolve those questions I have to finish a jumbo sized pile of elephant illustrations first. Stay tuned!

I just got this super new SEPHI pinup today from mr BENTON JEW who, apart from being a storyboarder on lots of live-action movies, also does comics. He was the Editor of the Babes in Space anthology, that Nauti Girl appeared in last year.

He also contributed a story called “Silent Swordsman” to the Komikwerks “Thrills and Chills” anthology. You can see a sample of that story online here. Plus, for added value, Benton’s brother Anson was also in that collection.

AND you can see some a two page color piece by Benton in in Ed Reynold’s anthology, “Zowie!Deux: Tales of Tiki Terror!“. So please, check the man OUT!

Exhibiting at comic conventions these last few years I have made a new type of friend, namely friends who I only get to see when I’m at a convention, and who I keep in touch with via email for the rest of the year.

I made one such pal last year when I (and Rhode) shared a booth with SAM HITI, a mighty talented fellow from Minnesota, and the creator of last years Indy comics sensation TIEMPOS FINALES. I got to hang out with Sam in San Diego again this year because we had booths that were side by side.

Sam sent me some preview pages of his next book which is called DEATH DAY which were pretty bloody tasty, but unfortunately (though understandably) he doesn’t want those pages shown around while he is still figuring stuff out. HOWEVER I’m happy to say that I can share with you this super Sephilina drawing that he recently sent, in an effort to cheer me up, which it did. thanks, Sam.

For those of you that may not have seen his work before I highly recommend that you seek out his books. Nobody else in comics can build atmosphere with their panels quite like Sam… It’s like READING a spaghetti western.

In Sam’s online store there is actually a DEATH DAY PRINT for sale that will give you an idea of what that next book will eventually feel like. Plus, you can buy, direct from the artist, copies of Tiempos Finales and this years book EL LARGO TREN OBSCURO. He also has some beautifully drawn and lavishly printed Mini comics there too, so please check him out.

You can see even more pinups of the same character drawn by other artists here.

As promised, here is the follow up to Herval’s Sephi pinup. These are some more PIN-UPS of Sephilina, by a variety of super talents, that I have collected. Click the images below for a bigger version of each pic.

1st Row: Louis Gonzales, Rhode Montijo, Ted Mathot

2nd Row: Chris Lensch, Ronnie delCarmen, Ed Reynolds.

3rd Row: Unknown, L. Frank Webber, Unknown.

I got most of these from a SQUID GIRL thread at the DRAWING BOARD, but in some cases I forgot to write down who did them, (so if you know who did the uncredited ones, let me know please!).

Plus, I have EVEN more SQUID GIRL pics that I will add later, so stay tuned.

When I recently bought some books from HERVAL, this great Sephi sketch was inside the front cover.

Because I have the bad habit of flipping art books from the back, I didn’t realise that he had done this neat pic for me until I’d had the book for a week!

I have some other pinups of the same character (Sephilina the NAUTI GIRL, AKA Squid Girl) by other artists that I’ve been collecting, and you can see them here.