After the Oil-Sands

Well, after four long years in Calgary, it's time for me to bid the province adieu, at lease for a while.

But in the memory of all the great times me and Alberta had together, I put together this project - a series of illustrations exploring what the province might look like after the tar sands are all wrung out and the local government and economy collapse. I was greatly inspired by the early years of the post-soviet countries, where pre-existing criminal groups (some already in positions of power, some not) moved in to fill the void left by the collapsed governments, presiding over the new post-currency barter economies. With the overall long-running trend of rural flight continuing throughout the Great Plains (both in the US and Canada) and the ever-beckoning concept of turning the uninhabited expanses of the region into a "Buffalo Commons" (turning non-productive former farmland into native grassland complete with buffalo and wildlife) seeming more and more appealing, I'd like to think that the world I'm about to show you isn't that outlandish. 

In this scenario, we enter the scene right as a new "authority" - a nomadic criminal group, fresh from smuggling some goods and guns north through the newly-porous borderlands of the Buffalo Commons - arrive in Southern Alberta, ready to build an empire.  After all, there's a whole country of free-range ranchers and corrupt corporate farming operations that'll need "protection", and neither biker gangs nor the RCMP will cut it anymore.

Pictured: Two of the Brothers Shaw eliminate Hank Wright, a notorious One Percenter of the "Serpents" Motorcycle Club.  

 Pictured: The long arm of the law finds the Shaws at their camp.
 

Pictured: But the Shaws are quick to slap it away.

Pictured: The new Status Quo. 


Of course, this isn't the first material I've produced on the subject of a lawless future west.
Enjoy some short comics HERE and some illustrations HERE and HERE.

The Crashlanders of Delta

Last year, I did a project set in a far-off human colony called "Delta". You can see all the illustrations HERE, but the basic premise is this:

Delta is a human research settlement on a low-gravity world, inhabited not only by human colonists, but two other non-human sentient species. The native species are the radially symmetrical giants - called the "Amphorans" or "squids" by the humans. A race of hunter-gatherers and foragers, the amphorans are largely indifferent to the new inhabitants of their world.

The last species living alongside the humans and the amphorans are the Crashlanders. Known among themselves as the "Kal-Tuhn", the crashlanders are refugees - survivors from the losing side of a massive civil war. Stranded in a sprawling settlement near Delta, the only way the crashlanders can survive is through the humans. Unlike the Amphorans, who can both metabolise the proteins of native wildlife and fully exploit them based on generations of knowledge, the crashlanders are tied to the simpler and more digestible foodstuffs of earth, giving them one option: to work for the humans for their 'bread and butter', so to speak. Acting as everything from pack animals to construction workers, the crashlanders find themselves subservient to representatives of this young, arrogant race. And it chafes them a bit.

The following are a set of characters - the proto-typical seeds of an all-ages sci-fi story set in this world.



The Crashlander Matriarch and the General Administrator The Pilot The Ancient Chief
The Kid

Prophet #28 Cover

Some of the process sketches for the cover of an upcoming issue of prophet - made in the image of the very first prophet issue circa 1993.

A Murder of Crows

Here's a piece I recently did for the talented Alex Hernandez's latest story, "A Murder of Crows". It's a solid short sci-fi piece that I would highly recommend.

You can read the story right here.

"Shipwrecked with Dan the Gorilla" Concludes

And you can read it here.

The Zon-Tars Return...

A fun little project I threw together to explore the idea of non-human intelligences looking back over the artifacts of man. I'd like to push it farther from here, though - it's still far too conservative.

Open publication - Free publishing - More alien

"Shipwrecked with Dan the Gorilla" up on Study Group!

The first part of a story re-drawn from a 24 Hour Comic I did back in 2008 - "Shipwrecked with Dan the Gorilla" - is up on the Study Group website after YEARS sitting on my hard drive! Enjoy!

Monday Morning Nudes

Quick paintings from life.

Do you want to play?

A futuristic take on the frankenstein monster.

Some cosmonaut roughs

Some brush-pen roughs for the cosmonaut project I posted recently. So often it seems the quickest pieces have the most life to them...

Strategic Defense Initiative

During the 1980s, one of the last and most ambitious military projects undertaken was the Strategic Defense Initiative, or, as it was creatively renamed by the press, 'Star Wars'. It was basically an attempt to take the Cold War to orbit - figuring out ways of using space-borne weapons to intercept and destroy ballistic nuclear missiles, enemy satellites, and everything in between. It was a fascinating (and potentially terrifying) undertaking, apparently employing as many science-fiction writers as it did scientists. But what would the Soviet reaction - or counterpoint, perhaps - have been had these plans actually made their way to fruition?

With all that in mind, I undertook my latest class project - design a 'forgotten world' of some sort.

What might a soviet orbital laser have actually looked like? And what if one had actually been secretly launched in the late eighties?



What fate might have befallen the crew of such a craft?


"In the event of a meteor strike or any other sort of collision, a variety of emergency fail-safes are in place to ensure long-term functionality. In the case of damage to the radiator system, emergency failsafes are in place to shut off the reactor and associated systems - ensuring
prevention of a critical reaction. "


"Similarly, in case of hull breach, emergency pressure-locks would isolate the compromised section to prevent atmospheric loss."


"In case of emergency situations, or serious incidents that prevent immediate escape, all
ALMAZ stations are fully equipped for contingencies."

Prophet #22...

Is out today! Go grab a copy!