Good Riddance 2020, Ye Fucker - salvaging(?) a non-blogging year, Part 1

Yeah, it just wasn't happening blogging-wise during this wretched year. Not even because of Covid - in fact this blog has been dragging its feet for a couple of years now. Guess the reason for that is the lack of response, to be honest. The year's artistic output was decent though, so I'll put the finer ones up here anyway before midnight. Then we'll see what next year brings... Maybe it's time to move over to Instagram?

Something Corvin-related to kick it off. Palatine Gara,one of the lesser antagonists (at least for the time being), decidedly drawn in the style of José Luis-Munuera, the sole creator of the awesome Les Campbell comics series.

Since we're talking Corvin, let me firmly state that Book 3 is in the works. Being made in the usual not-so-superfast pace, but I think it will be fine. Especially if I can figure out the middle part I'm getting into right now. Here's a preview of the first couple of pages:

So, as the title character would say: "Onwards, till we finally meet those rascal Ottomans!"

Getting back to the year's illustration chronology, the next one was made for a sad occasion. Albert Uderzo, one of the greatest comic book artists passed away at the end of March. I drew this sad, drinking Asterix as a tribute to him.

Now for something lighter: the above mentioned Campbells all-ages pirate comic is really tons of fun, and inspired me to fanart its notorious troublemaker, Carapepino, among a few other characters.

One of spring's definite artistic community highlights was the Six Fanarts Challenge, that sprode through Facebook like a virus (sorry...) in April. I certainly did my own version based on friends' suggestions. The two characters next to the Witcher are from Bone, my all-time favourite comic book, which was very happy to see finally being translated to Hungarian this year (even though and alas it was not translated by me :D)

Next up,something kinda curious. It is not everyday that one draws Cupid dressed up as a nomadic Hungarian warrior shooting his arrow backwards, but when 5th graders are faced with such visual terror in their school textbook, then there is not much else left to do (click link at your own risk) https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10220236169392045&set=a.10203671740691680   

The last piece for this Part 1 is pretty intimate, and guess it's mildly mature content as well. Anyway, I had a long and a little unconventional relationship with a special lady, which ended suddenly and without warning last October. Perhaps naturally, it took me quite a while to process the ending. This thing below was part of that. Not sure if it's good at all, but it's puts the intimacy out there, which I thought was important at the time. Of course, a good and honest conversation works a lot better, and we finally succeeded in doing that not long ago. 
Anyway, the women in the background are hommages to my great illustrator friend Dou d'Ache, whose work my lady friend is also fond of.

Some illustration work: The Little Book of Left-Right Equivalence

Wow, it's almost November... Think it's high time I took a note that a book illustrated by me was published in er... March. Without any further ado, let's check out the cover:

Sooo, Mr. Erik D'Amato - my former boss at the once fine now defunct news site politics.hu - wrote this pamphlet on how polarized and crazy American politics and public life has become, while plenty of similarities can be spotted in the the idiosyncracies of the two camps. Hence the drawings also came in pairs, to (literally) illustrate this point. Before sharing some of the fun ones, I would like to emphasize that it was a paid job, furthermore a very decently honoured one.

Now, the illustrations. First of all, a MAGA hat, as shown on the cover, only without colour.

Comrade Brezhnev, the head of the Soviet Union about forty years ago or so (yes, those sneaky Russian also get some mentions).

A triggered feminist lady. Disclaimer: yours truly is something of a feminist himself, but this portrait was actually a lot of fun to draw.

Next up, Mr. Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian Marxist philosopher, pictured as (a somewhat ageing) Jesus - the client's wish is my command (within reasonable limits ;-) )

Now, it's time for the Head Clown to make  his appearance. "Tremendous" caption also featured in the book for the sake of bipartisan balance.

I really cannot leave out one of our own homegrown jokers, Péter Szijjártó, who is embarrassing the hell out of Hungary for five years now basically every time he makes an appearance as foreign minister. Pictured here as the incel next door as he's got the features.

The back cover with two terrified ladies lest the gender balance should tip, like... (insert quote from In Bruges, if you please)

Last, but no way least the author himself. Yes, it's totally a possibility to have your own portrait drawn, should you commission me - I would like to point out that I'm perfectly available for similar (or different) projects. I swear I will not take so long to blog the next one.

Before I forget, make sure you get the book from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Left-Right-Equivalence-Hypocrisies/dp/1793881944/
Also, stay tuned, a couple more posts are most likely this year, as some other pretty good stuff have been made.