Anyway heres the cover of issue 1 to feast your eyes on.

The Virgigas

Before puberty, and when he only weighed 95 tons, the Virgigas had contained the capacity to feel, see, hear, taste and smell.

As he grew older and as big as several mountains, all of these things began to fade. The colour of the sky once so wildy red at the end of summer, turned orange one season, yellow the next, and then faded into white, then finally pitch black. He could no longer hear the bird song in the morning. Or taste the berry trees he once ate whole.

So from his hiding place on a long lost Pacific island, the Virgigas crawled the sea keeping his head above water until it found a place where small soft sacks of food could easily be found. The Virgigas cared little about what he destroyed as long as it could survive one night after the other, and then one more after that…
Monster Rationale – The ignorance of the Human Race, as we ‘progress’ while actually regressing and losing touch with our own senses/nature in other ways.

Text provided by James Andre (james@milkshadowbooks.com)

* With the help of James Andre for the idea/text, what a mind that guy has on his shoulders

Also, for those playing at home this piece is “strongly influenced” (ripped off) from a peice by the very talented Becky Cloonan. Anyway thanks for reading, til next time.

My whole life I’ve loved to draw, and drawing is what I’ve done, but lately I’ve really been struggling with finding what I once did in it, as I get ever so slightly older I feel as if I should be achieving something with my art and my comics. But I’ve found simply making my work and putting under my bed isn’t cutting it as it once did, but publishing my work has been unrewarding and has only really reinforced a sense that my work is overwhelmingly mediocre.

This, over time, has left me at a crossroads and a desire to leave my work behind and discontinue art making. The prospect though has been hard to put into practice, as I really genuinely love making my work, it’s whats driven me to wake up and get out of bed for most of life in one way or another, but at the same time, accepting its place in my life and what I am meant to do with it, has become problematic to me. This constant reflection and this need for some sort validation has caused me to reach this seemly un-passable gulf between myself and my work. I’m unsure of how to keep faith in why I do it, and why I sacrifice other parts of my life for something that has become unrewarding and distressing.

The creation of work contains huge parts of my life, hours and days, months and years, I feel it is central to who I am, I feel that I can’t quit, I wish I could, but to paraphrase the great Bernard Caleo’s Tango launch speech from 2009, I’m trapped in a cage, the doors open, but I can’t leave. I just wish I could make my peace with it, and accept that the road is long, and I’ve only just began, it could be 20 or years before I create anything of worth, but unless I work at it everyday, that work may never happen and I would be left with the regret of the work unmade. I’m still deep in this fog of uncertainty, so sadly I don’t have any resolution today, but maybe one day soon I will.

I usually have my comments closed on all my posts, but I’m going to leave it open for this one in the off chance that anyone has any thoughts on this, as I can’t be the only one that struggles with making art, and what means for them and how they reach the validation that they require from it. I’d love to talk to anyone who is struggling, or has struggled with it.

The book was launch a few weeks back and I just got my copy in the mail today and thought I should post about it and maybe drive a couple of people to go and buy a copy of the book, which you can do here.

Having not read the whole book*, I can can’t comment on every story, but I think the books a winner, so go and get onboard and grab a copy. Its a full colour, 100 plus page book, with an awesome cover by Jon Sommariva. What more could you want?

*The new Killeroo is a cracker, and the first story by Katie Ryan is a beaut and those are just the first two stories! Honest thats as fars I’ve gotten so far.

Image courtesy of my new webcomic with Gerard Dwyer, ACV, too launch soon. Stayed tuned.

Just a quick update of all that is new and happen’. I finished this fine arse comic with Jason Franks, Renewalist: Ostpitsbergen. Its 5 pages and will be out sometime in March, I’ll be sure to post that when it happens. I’m super proud of my work on it. I want to find some more chances to work on this character and tell a few more stories, I know I’m slowly building a little file of ideas for it.  Jason really lets me run wild with it and come up with fun idea, like Viking Walruses in this case.

Anyway, heres the title panel. Funtimes. Til’ next time.

This something I’m learning, that I have to be as motivated to draw a tiny little leprechaun as I am to draw a new comic, or a illustration for band that I know I can rock awesomely.  It can be tough, because sometimes you get asked to draw something that honestly, might not be the best fit for me as an illustrator in my opinion. But you gotta put your head down, and your bum up and figure it out.

I also had to design a poster and ticket (among other things) for the event. As a designer I don’t feel I have the same problem, I see every job as a chance to grow, to become a better designer and learn some new skills. I mean thats half the fun right? I’ve just have to learn to apply that to all aspects of what I do, and not be precious about my work. Anyway thats my ramble for the week.

Til Next time!

Cheers,

Luke.

Also though, I’ve been working on a new short comic with Jason Franks, The Renewalist: Ostpitsbergen. This is the second story featuring the character, the first remains unpublished and runs 6 pages. So if you have an anthology and your looking for a 6 page colour comic, you may be in luck! To the right, you can see a panel from the new story, it will be published in The Beginnings Anthology, along work from a bunch of ace Australian talent.

I’ve also done a bunch of illustration gigs lately, so I should be able to post more about them with art soonish. Very proud of some of the work I’ve been producing, a real high watermark for me.

Here’s hoping I can keep a slight more regular blog schedule this year? Why not right, anything is possible?

Cheers Luke!