Some very belated summery drawings

Hey, it's only mid-November after all...

First and foremost, a deliberately kitsch one for my Mum's birthday. Needless to say, but love your Mums, Folks!

The King's Speech is a real fine movie and Colin Firth waves in a dashing way, so I thought
why not draw it.

A little - way too little -  practice with my digital drawing device. For explanation on the caption see for example: https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-to-take-down-controversial-soros-posters/

It was high time time for me to check out Valerian and Laureline, the awesome classic French sci-fi comics series, hence the fanart.

Last but no way least, another fanart - Wonder Woman, from DC: The New Frontier by the waytoo soon passed away Darwyn Cooke. Up there withthe old superhero classics - do yourself a favour and get a copy, Folks!

Zombie Apocalypse 2060

Think I promised some "quick updates" two months ago or so... Heh-heh.
It's obviously time to make amends, so I'll give you a short comic back from May, drawn right before, during and after the Budapest International Comics Festival. It was inspired by a little reflective piece made by some friends of mine about Nyugat+Zombik (West+Zombies), the first successful Hungarian crowdfunded comics project, the completion of which is now long overdue. West here stands for the name of an eminent literary periodical of the early 20th century, written and edited by some of the best Hungarian poets and writers of the age.

Long story short, the young and imaginative artist (let's call him Olivér) had the idea to engage these literary icons in a fight witha crowd of zombies occurring  in their favourite café. He raised about 30,000 USD  an utterly successful crowdfunding campaign in the autumn of 2014, and promised to deliver a 200-page-long graphic novel by the next Christmas in return. So far so good, but there is still no sign of the end product 1,75 years after the deadline. Olivér does not seem to sweat over it too much - save for an apologetic Facebook post every few months -, as he also sings in an alternative band, which enjoyed a reasonably busy schedule during the summer festival season.

So here comes my little satire. The year is 2060, and the comic is about to finalized at last.. 

Zombie Apocalypse 2060

Panel 1

(Aaarrghh)

Panel 2

Olivér: Aand… Done!

Panel 3

O: Hooray!

Panel 4

O: Now, I will share the good news on social media at once…

Panel 5

Dear Supporters, who have kept faith with me until the very end! I’ve got awesome news: I just indeed, actually, entirely, at last FINISHED THE COMIC BOOK!

Panel 6

I’m bringing the whole works to the printer’s office on cd (heh) today so that it may finally become a gift this Christmas to everyone’s joy.

Panel 7

There is even more great news as Onlyforyoulittlegirl, the band I used to sing in, will reunite after a 30 year hiatus for the premiere of the comic book.

Panel 8

O: Think it’s time I leave for the printer’s…

(Aaarrghh)

Panel 9

O: Ugh… Bloody stairs…

(phone ringing)

Panel 10

O: Hey Dave! The Opus Magnum is done, so we can rehearse tomorrow… What?! The city is swarming with zombies?! Oh, you’re so funny!

(AAARRGHH)

Panel 11

O: JESUS AND THE VIRGIN MARY

Zombies: AAAAARRRGGHHH

There you go. Ironically the next post will be on my own pending project, the second installment of Corvin. 

Spring drawings and other updates

It's probably safe to say now that 2017 is not going to be the most prolific year on this blog, but there are still things to post about. The good news is that the herniated disks are fine thanks to some therapy, so there is no obstacle to drawing currently.

At first some quick doodles done during the daily grind for my "proper" job:

On the current situation of "freedom" of speech in Hungary.

A displeased football manager/ politician/ company executive.

Next up, some more sophisticated fanart. Brandy, the most badass animal psychologist from Liberty Meadows, Frank Cho's awesome epic length strips series.

Last - but certainly  not least - some sketches made during the workshop of Jul, one of the special guests of this year's Budapest International Comics Festival. Jul is the current writer of the renowned Lucky Luke series - hence the rather inaccurate portrait of the title character based on my memories. Even though this was a conversation workshop, I just had to sketch the interpreter, too. The samurai above them was entirely spontaneous.

The workshop was held in Budapest's French Institute, who kindly made Jul's visit possible, i.e.paid for his flight, room and board, etc. Some prominent Hungarian comics makers were in attendance too.

Also, here is yours truly, checking out what Lucky Luke actually looks like as opposed to his memories :)

Dear Readers, expect some more quick updates like this and forget about this not being a prolific year... Hohohooo! :)

Corvin progress report

As promised over a month ago. Well, work is under way, though the herniated disks clearly did not facilitate it. The possible release date for the second Corvin book right now is the end-of-year comics fair before Christmas in Budapest. I can show you a couple of teaser panels and previews for now:

Expect some shakeup in the village.

Behold an unlettered page and my new eraser pen:

Lastly, some lettering in the making, i.e you eventually realize that some text is needed in the bubbles with broken lines too.

That's all for now, Folks. I'll keep you posted on further developments.

Hullo 2017 - the post that took i's time

It's not customary to kick out a year's blogging with most of March gone, but I have a couple of good reasons for the delay. 

First and foremost, I had severe back pain for a month or so from the middle of January. For a while it seemed to be sciatica - which is bad enough - , so I did this drawing as part of the therapy. A superhero suffering from sciatica, which is "isiász" in Hungarian, hence the big letter I.

By the time I coloured it, the situation turned out to be even worse - a couple of herniated disks in my spine. However, by then I have been on the right medication and also started the physical sort of therapy, so now I'm hopeful to kick the disease - and throw away the pills -  in some time.

 In other news, between two assaults of pain I finally had a chance to check out the manga pen I won at a Facebook sharing game. Here's a WIP shot and the final result.

Another not too pleasant activity was waiting for my pre-Christmas comic book orders to arrive. These suffered a huge delay either for Hungarian Post becoming badly understaffed, or the copious amount of cheap trinkets people ordered from China - or mostly likely because of both. However, the good stuff finally arrived in February.

I got so inspired that I drew a fanart from the closing volume of Scott Chantler's Three Thieves series, which winds up the story pretty well. Protagonist Dessa learned to wield a sword beside her many other skills.

That's all for now, up next the proceedings with Corvin - relatively soon.

There goes 2016... A final batch of drawings

A few more drawings from November and December to wind up a very mixed year.

Another Vlad Tepes, a slightly more lighthearted version this time. Made at the (hopefully) revived Drink&Draw session in the Tücsök (Cricket) Beer Garden.

Too many great artists passed away in 2016, several of them definitely before their time. Maybe this is not true of Leonard Cohen, who "had many good innings" (as a British mate of mine said), but his death is still a great loss.  This portrait actually resembles a bit to my Dad, who passed away a week after Mr. Cohen, so may in fact be my tribute to him.

A female Agent Kitty, just to walk on the bright side.  Head design kindly borrowed from French comics genius Boulet. Merci!

Next up, a lot more serious cat. Fanart of Blacksad, the title character of an utterly awesome Spanish-French comic, finally being published in Hungarian.

Sadly, another tribute was in order this week, as Carrie Fisher was also claimed by 2016. The original Star Wars movies were defining childhood experiences for so many of us, and she formed an unforgettable female lead character as Princess Leia . May the Force be with her!

Last but definitely not least, let me show you something drawn by one of my finest comics buddies (the cover designer of Corvin himself ), Gábor Pápai. Gábor is one of the proud ones who completed the whole Inktober challenge. He also published his drawings and made personalized covers to top it off. So here's me and Mr. Colin O'Gara, whose further adventures I need to work hard on in the new year.

So, let's call it a year, and please allow me the audacity to wish all of us a slightly better 2017!

This year's Inktobers

Inktober is a drawing initiative that takes place each October and the participants are supposed to make a drawing in ink for each day. I succeeded in making 10 this year, which is by far my best result to date. The prompts provided for each day did help.

So let's see what I made. Different topics were influenced by current personal, political etc. events,so brief explanations are given where needed.

Loud - made on the very day of the failed, terribly pricy and totally unnecessary migrant quota referendum in Hungary.

Fast: Sadio Mané, Liverpool's best summer signing meets the Roadrunner

Hungry: a classic line from the film comedy Valami Amerika

Sad: quoting Moby's song. One of those days...

Hidden: hommage for a fellow Hungarian comics artist

Rock: our prime minister Orbán weighs down heavily on the safeguards of democracy

Scared: Colin from Corvin

Jump: hommage to the great French artist Boulet from his first collection of Notes, now available in English too.

Big: an old World Cup mascot drawn during my holiday

Creepy: no comment :)