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.

Hello 2019 - It's a new comic book!

Yup, back from the dead (it's a long story, which I'll spare ya). Without any further ado, the Corvin 2 book is completed, printed and self-published at this year's Budapest Comics Festival.

Behold the cover:

Some great Hungarian comics people helped me "dressing up" the book, just like the last time around. We are pictured below with cover colourist extraordinary, Mr. Gergely Madarász. I'm also totally grateful to Judit Anticia Kiss for the book's design and converting the pages into a printable format. Győző Dudás followed the progress of the book from the beginning, and gave some great advice on how to enhance it. 

The festival was great fun as always, Dürer Kert (myformer university campus) is an ideal venue, we can hopefully hold on to it for a few more years.

This is definitely the biggest news of late, but there is another pretty big one: I also illutsrated a book, which was published this spring. I'll tell you more about it in the next post, so stay tuned ;-)

Post-summer drawings

Traditionally posted over the last days of the year ;-)

First of all I managed to complete nearly half an Inktober this year, so behold the better results:

Roasted - and it totally is, isn't it?

Drooling - a classic Hungarian cartoon character lost in the opium bars of Bangkok.

Now, some doubleheaders: cruel & whale - fanart from Craig Thompson's Space Dumplings.

Precious & star - a little LOTR foolin' around.

Expensive & weak (I think)

Last, but totally not least, my Season's greetings for this year. Another fanart of the lovely Laureline, original paperwork  a Christmas present for a very dear friend.

That's all for now, I hope to give you a long due Corvin update before the new year.

Summery drawings...

... right before September ends. First of all, a spontaneous one. You doodle a head, then end up with a rooster-headed Napoleonic soldier. It happens -nothing out of the ordinary.

And now, for the fanarts. Firstly, another Valerian - the male protagonists of the classic French sci-fi comics you have already seen here, along with his female counterpart, Laureline.

Let's move on to another one of my favourite graphic novels, DC: The New Frontier by the late Darwyn Cooke. A heroic supporting character Captain Nathaniel Adam from the U.S. Air Force.

And then, our very own Wonder Woman, living it up on Paradise Island. This was a bigger undertaking, as you can see from both the inked, and the final, coloured version:

And now, Inktober is about to commence again, so stay tuned!

Yearly Corvin update

Gosh, those updates used to happen a lot more often. Though I do not post every newly done page any more, as I'm saving those for the follow-up to the overly successful printed book I published two years ago. Here's a peek of the latest finished page, anyway:

The good news there is only about five more to go, so there is a good likelihood of Corvin Issue 2 premiering at Budapest's end-of-year comics fair. 

The likelihood is even raised by a real strict new editor on board :-)

The main antagonist will feature a lot in the issue to come, and he also has a special ability to look sharply and disapprovingly. So let's pin our hopes on this reinforced Strict Department now ;-)

Some commissioned work

I.e. drawing for money - yessir! Back in May I was asked to make a cover picture for a life coach's Facebook page. It was a fun little job.

I'll keep it brief this time, and just show you the three main phases of work:

The first sketch, just to make sure I got right what the client had in mind - the first two panels resemble a well-known meme for a reason.

Final penciled version, cat curling up in a harmonious position.

The end product as it now appears on the Facebook page, inked and lettered with logo and artist's signature.
Let me know if you need a similar one ;-)

2018 - It's alive...

Though it may not be exactly kicking, I have made a few drawings this year, and been working on my Corvin comic too. Pity I get to update this blog so rarely these days...

So, let's see the miscellany this time around.

At first, a little idle sketch, just for fun. Giacomo's (i.e. Casanova, the famous 18th century ladies' man's) jakuzzi. Why? Because the two words alliterate. B O O M.

Next up, another fun one, started completely spontaneously. These doodles can turn out rather well, though it is not easy to recreate and elaborate them in a more conscious manner. Anyway, here is Sulejman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, juxtaposed against my sketchbook, and a Will Eisner fanart made by the very talented Canadian artist, Scott Chantler.

Now, some more serious efforts. i.e. fanarts of one of my current favourite comics, the French sci-fi classic Valerian and Laureline. First, male protagonist Valerian walking in a door in the second book of the series, called The City of Shifting Waters.

Then, the biggest effort in this post, female protagonist Laureline trying to make sense of a certain situation in Book 7, On The False Earths.

Lastly, the most grim one topics-wise, a strip inspired by the outcome of Hungary's elections in April. I drew this right before going to a big protest in Budapest, attended by roughly 100,000 people who thought it was not right that the governing party seized a 2/3 parliamentary majority once again by getting only 48% of all votes. The last panel is quite wishful, I admit that.