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Showing posts from February, 2020

The End Is The Beginning

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No one knows where the virus came from.  It was a weaponized strain, and a state that poured much effort into such a thing would have had to have the resources needed, which limited the list of suspects, to, well, half the world.  What is known is that from the mid-east outward, countries began to fall silent.  Certain of the major powers had bio war facilities, and this is where the story of the Graft begins. The mortality rate was 100% to humans, with symptoms horrible to behold.  The worst thing is that it took so long to kill the infected.  Transmission was airborne, immediate and all encompassing.  All mammals were affected to some degree.  Civilization came to a halt, as the shivering, skinless victims entered the last stages of the sickness, unconsciousness punctuated by bursts of extreme terror.  Some communities were able to implement the Masada solution, but most were incapacitated by the scourge before any organized...

Finishing Because I Started

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3 days of indecision and gloom produced this.  Among other things, I noticed the problem with the relative feet positions and kept drawing anyway.  Then I gave up on any idea, however momentary, of putting in some kind of background.  I did not even have a concept for this when I started it.

Pointless And Fun, Fun But Pointless

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One night in 1984, I was cutting up an encyclopedia to make a poster for a punk rock band that I knew.  I started this collage essay on Russia and the First World War and gave up on it that same night.  I just now found this while going through a box of paper any normal person would have thrown away.  Presented here in all of it's research and layout glory! The guns of August.  I was still in the Corps and taking Russian classes, I thought they would be needed.  "Is this the road to Sverdlovsk"? and "Where have you hidden your potatoes"?  might have been useful phrases to know, I felt sure at the time. But all of us Cold Warriors were... deceived. The "Russian Colossus" turns out to be a newspaper myth.  Mobilization over the sprawling country with inadequate railways and roads took forever.  At the battles of Masurian Lakes and Tannenberg the Russians attacked the Germans, got split up and surrounded, and destroyed....

Blacksad, Mardi Gras

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Blacksad: A Silent Hell Artwork by Juanjo Guarnido New Orleans, 1950's Incredible anthro artwork. Really good art. Tremendous street scene with Al Hirt and Ignatius Reilly, two gay guys, an incredible cast of characters with no tails, and Blacksad and Weekly the fox in the background. Guarnido is as good as they get.  No tails, though, and sometimes his women are humans with a touch of animal noses and ears. Lots of work here and well worth reading.

It Begins

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You can't say we weren't warned. Murphy Anderson, pencils.

The Feast Of Belshazzar

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Let me suggest China.  We owe them a great deal for Korea and Vietnam.  There are others who have it coming and will be held to account but one war at a time. Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. Cato upon ending any speech in the Roman Senate, meaning "Therefore, I think, Carthage must be destroyed", although this is certainly an exaggeration put about a century later by the professional liar and weasel Marcus Tullius Cicero, and is not to be trusted. But the attitude is fantastic!

Barret Bonden Billy

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Billy D. Bunny as Barret Bonden, my favorite enlisted man. http://wiki.hmssurprise.org/phase3/index.php/Barret_Bonden If you have not read the Aubrey - Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien then you are very lucky, I have read them all and there are no new ones left for me.  The very essence of historical adventure and superlative writing, so good they pushed Hornblower and Flashman to one side.  I cannot recommend these more.  But Flashman is still the funniest thing I have ever read, if you think cowards and poltroons are funny, and I do.  Uh,... Lucky Jim is pretty damn funny also. What is it with these English writers?  But not Shakespeare, dear lord no.  Everyone I know likes him because they think they are supposed to like him, tell me, would you rather go to the local production of Love's Labors Lost or go to the local drive-in showing of The Road Warrior with Mel?  You're damn right you would, and we're gonna need a lot more weed tha...

What A BadassThing!

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Check out this awesome belt!  It doesn't fit me and I have no idea what I'm gonna do with it but this is pretty cool!

My New Gopher

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I have been watching Mr. Gopher for two days.  He is a very handsome, and a hard worker.  My brother snuck up on this exceptionally wary fellow to get this picture.  He is currently tearing up the back yard with alacrity.  I hate lawns anyway, a lifetime of mowing them in the summer has left me indifferent to what happens to them.  I put out a strawberry for him but judging from the teeth marks it did not find favor with him.  The ground here is mostly sand, he can really make headway.  They do not go very far from their holes and plug them when they are finished eating or throwing out spoil.  He is no doubt starting a huge family of other burrowing rodents, this does not bode well.  He is a pocket gopher, he has pockets alongside his cheeks that extend to his shoulders for carrying food.  These things are a marvel of survival adaption. Photo by Steve Davis My cat Patches caught this gopher March 3, 2020.  She brought hi...

Hybrid On-Line Magazine

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Andrew the Bee and myself have started an on-line Furry artist cooperative.  We believe that there is a crying need for a site that puts up the best with great art and writing.  Hybrid! will be a magazine as soon as we can get all the kinks straightened out.  Submissions are more than welcome. Andrew the Bee https://hybridfurverse.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-word-from-co-founder.html  Submissions are best sent to - https://www.deviantart.com/lunarlagomorph   Billy D Bunny, in charge of keepin' it real. What could go wrong?

The Shadow Strikes Again

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This was going so well for me until I tried to ink it, and then I immediately blotted the bunny so that I was unable to fix it.  Hence, the all black bunny.  Great.  Three days of walking around in circles chain smoking and staring at the paper and this is what I got to show for it.  Oh, well, what's done is done.   The Shadow strikes again!

Black Cat

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I loved being young! https://www.instagram.com/danielcalmdown/?hl=en This guy is good.

I'm Not Going Gentle, Comprende?

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Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Dylan Thomas  The Bells of Hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling, For you but not for me. And the little devils have a sing-a-ling-a-ling, For you but not for me. Oh death where is they sting-a-ling-a-ling, Oh grave thy victory? The Bells of Hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling, For you but not for me.   I'll go but I won't be quiet about it.  Ever give an adult cat a bath?  That's what I'm talking about here. And you thought that Antietam was hard work. ( Painting by Caspar David Friedrich,  The Cemetery Entrance )

Mr. Bunny's Party 2

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Last night Billy had quite the time!  After a second bottle of wine, he began to talk with old friends and dance to his rockabilly music.  What fun!  True, his old friends are currently dead or they hate and avoid him, but real people call for consideration and hospitality.  Who needs the aggravation? In the picture above, the only things that are really there are Billy, the wine bottle, and the cigarette butts.  There is no sun  here, and the cat, Mingo, has been dead for a while.  Never mind, the night was sunny enough.  Billy is always glad to see Mingo, and the demons, well, one gets used to them.  There is no Sun at Night Down Here, And Mingo Cat's been Dead a Year! See you in Hell.

Peter Ferguson

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The Hungries The Hairy Devil And The Nest Of Ghosts Les Anges Rebelles The Hunter Pastoral Mr. Ferguson is Canadian and was born in 1968.

William Stout

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https://youtu.be/-INCwFxeVVY?list=TLPQMTEwMjIwMjD5wPeUP_ZjAg I have liked Mr. Stout for decades.  He is a major talent.  I have this comic from my defining year of being young with all things possible in front of me- This was funny then, and now. Memorable. Fond of the classics. Versatile. The check's in the mail and I love you too. Siegfried and the Bear. Siegfried and Fafnir. You had to have been there. Wizards poster, 1977.  This flawed but very entertaining movie lifts a lot from Vaugn Bode for the design, this is the killer android Necron 99.  He more than resembles this guy- Vaugn Bode's Cobalt 60.  Ralph Bakshi and Bode were friends. I am no fan of Swamp Thing, to say the least.  But great artwork trumps subject every time. This is really tremendous. Mr. Stout sure is an outstanding artist.  T...