Author Archives: iRogan

Ready to move on?

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Hello everyone, and welcome back for another monthly wrap up. Last post was end of May, so I shall catch us up to end of June. Lots of art, lots of games, lots of reading comic books.

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As always, lets start with games.

In my last post I had wrapped up playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as the big completion. In June I completed Another Crab’s Treasure which is a souls-like action game where you play as a hermit crab who has his shell repossessed through a collecting loan shark, because he couldn’t afford a new rent imposed on his tide pool. It was a recent release on XBox Game Pass, and a good palette cleanser. The cool gameplay mechanic is your shell acts as your shield, and as a hermit crab you can swap out of shells on the fly, testing out a variety to types of garbage found in the ocean. A fun, humourous, colourful game with similar souls-like fighting and gameplay mechanics. 22 hrs – 1000g/1000g.

I also beat Exoprimal‘s story, just in time for the team to announce that they’re basically done with the game. No more seasonal content or anything as the player count had dropped down pretty low. Multiplayer will still be available as well as all the content on a repeating rotation, but they’re just done with it now. So, so am I. 23hrs – 850g/1000g.

I started Atomic Heart and I’m a few hours in, but as we’re getting into the hot summer months, and I’m playing it on the PC – its a little too warm to play in the evenings – so I’ll probably take a rest on this game for a few months. Same with Final Fantasy VII Remake. In FF I think I’m up to chapter 12 now.

Illestrader and I completed Saint’s Row reboot (2022) but we had an issue with the final mission. Half way through the mission, last week, we called it a night – against my better judgement. And the issue came about because the final mission stipulates that its an end-game mission, warning you that you can’t return to the city hub whilst this mission is active. So what happened this week? Illestrader launched the co-op campaign mid-mission, but I can’t join a mission in progress. So I’m locked out of the final mission, and because its his campaign save, I can’t do it on my own, and there’s no mission replay function. So he got to complete it and I didn’t, which sucks. On my own I might blast through the campaign missions again just to get the final mission’s achievements – everything else in the game is unlocked for me, so it shouldn’t be too bad plus there’s a lot left to do and DLC. But right now I’m too mad to think about it. 14hrs – 215g/1424g.

Also playing through Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I play this for 20-30 minute spurts usually after dinner, before putting the boys to bed. They enjoy watching me play it and the gameplay is exciting and colourful and kid-friendly enough.

Lastly and most recently, I’ve started playing The First Descendant as a new co-op game with Illestrader. Game launched free to play a week ago, and it’s a lot like Warframe and clearly a lot of Destiny 2 influences. And Outriders similarities. A lot of egregious microtransaction incentives since its F2P – P2W, with the standard and premium season pass, and multiple character options that are not unlocked outright, but you can unlock them naturally with enough game time spent, or you can pay to unlock, and the skin bundles, etc, etc. Lots of mods and currencies. I will play through the story missions and then move on – I’m not sticking around for the grind. And not spending any more than the season pass. Like one of the top tier end-game characters is $135 if you bought it outright. No thanks.

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Onto some drawings:

In May I drew Scarlett from G.I. Joe and said I’d draw more. Well I drew one more at least: Baroness. There’s a few more I’d like to draw as well. One day…

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been writing a comic reading / review column thing over at Substack. I don’t really know how to describe it, other than I’ve tasked myself with reading at least 1 graphic novel / trade paperback book a week, and then writing about it. Discussing the story, the art, and the creators and my thoughts – just to get them out of my head. At this point, like this journal, its really just for me, as an outlet, as I don’t have any subscribers.

But one of the cool parts is its gives me some motivation to draw some characters I wouldn’t typically draw. One of the series I read was Jupiter’s Legacy, and I did a quick fan art of Lady Liberty.

Next up was a fun inking render of Magik, from the X-Men. This piece has also inspired me to draw her demon side, Darkchilde, which I should be able to share in my next post.

Harley Quinn Fan Art to celebrate another graphic novel reading review. Not that I need an excuse to draw Harley Quinn…read Suicide Squad: Get Joker, by Brian Azzarello and Alex Maleev.

Next was Black Cat, a quick ink wash render.

And then finally a multiple day fully rendered piece for the anniversary of Beyond Good and Evil, Jade. A really great game from 20 years ago. And a fun piece to draw. I’ll probably turn it into a poster as I need some new art on the wall.

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Comics, still reading a lot and buying a lot. Roughly 15-20 months issues a week – which is crazy to think about. And also very hard to keep up with. Presently I’m 5 weeks behind on my reading. I’m hoping over the summer to catch up a bit, as usually my gaming and art slow down due to the hot weather – I don’t enjoy sitting in front of a computer, sweating.

But for my Substack graphic novel / TP schedule, here is my next 5 reads, and my last 5 reads:

Next Read:
Week 26: The Hard Switch – Own D. Pomery
Week 27: Chu – Vol. 1 – John Layman & Dan Boultwood
Week 28: Spider-Man: Noir – David Hine
Week 29: Far Sector – N. K. Jemisin & Jamal Campbell
Week 30: The Watchmen – Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Previous read:
Week 24: Phenomena, Vol. 1: The Golden City of Eyes
Week 23: Suicide Squad: Get Joker / Wolverine: Rot
Week 22: Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1-5
Week 21: Head Wounds: Sparrow
Week 20: The Incal

Also some more recent books I’ve acquired:
The Hard Switch
Homicide: The Graphics Novel parts 1 and 2
Seven Secrets vol 1-3
The Ballad of Halo Jones
20th Century Men
IN.

Looking forward to getting around to reading those at some point in the next few years. Ha!

//

I think that wraps up June. Take care. ‘Til next time.
Rogan
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The Side Job

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to another monthly wrap-up. After last month’s lengthily post, I have a somewhat shorter installment, as I didn’t really get up to all that much throughout last month, April. In the month of May I accomplished a bit more, but April was very much a rest month.

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As always, let’s start with the games.

I beat Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. 125 hours. 1020/2110 Gamerscore. This includes the main storyline quests and the Order assassinations, and most of the side stuff, like the Orlog games and Flyting, and the Alpha animals. I didn’t do the other completionist stuff like collectibles or completing each territory. But I did get Thor’s full gear. I also did the Ireland DLC, a bit of the Ragnarök DLC. Kind of got burnt out on the game near the end, and didn’t try the France DLC.

Still playing Final Fantasy VII: Remake on the PC. Its a slow burn, where I play maybe an hour or so a week. I think I’m on Chapter 9 now.

And also playing Saint’s Row (2022 Reboot) with Illestrader, in co-op. As I mentioned in my last post, the quality of the game isn’t a huge step forward over the past iteration. There’s some fun missions, and the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. Fun in co-op at least.

Now that I’ve wrapped up Assassin’s Creed, my next Xbox story game will probably be A Plague Tale: Requiem. Something smaller and shorter, while I take a breather from open-world games. I also have Hellblade 2 that recently released, Brothers Remake, and Valiant Hearts – Coming Home. Some shorter artistic style games, to cleanse the palette. Maybe I’ll give Prince of Persia The Lost Crown and real try as well.

//

On to some drawings, which again, as I mentioned, April was very much a rest month. But I was able to draw a few things this month, including Rogue (on paper and digital), a cyber witch from the book Hexware, slowly plugging away at a Jinx drawing, and Scarlett, from G.I. Joe.

With Rogue, I originally drew it fully digital, and coloured. But I wasn’t happy with the face. Easy enough to fix in digital – but – I had recently purchased some Posca Paint Marker Pens. I figured because I hardly draw on paper anymore, I might be rusty. So I printed off the line art for Rogue, and light-boxed it onto a comic board in pencil, fixing the things I didn’t like a long the way, and then inked it. Just as an experiment to warm up my hands and test how steady they are. I have the tools, just not really the time or proper space. I do want to test out the markers on a canvas though, so I’m thinking, throughout the summer, as I don’t really like sitting at my computer on hot summer nights, I might do more traditional art.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I’ve been reading and writing about the graphic novels that I consume every week. Comics and art – two huge passions, that I won’t shut up about and need to share. Well, one graphic novel a week is my set homework – to help overcome my ever-growing backlog. And so I thought, to help add some variety to my art, I might try to do more fan art, of the books I’m actively reading. First was a book by Tim Seely called Hexware (week 19), and the main character, Witch-Ware. Loose and quick. Kind of messy. But a fun warm up. I didn’t want this side job to my writing to take up to much time.

Link below to the Substack column on Hexware – also where you can check out all 20 books I’ve read to date: https://andrewrogan.substack.com/p/week-book-19-hexware?r=2glri

Jinx has been a work in progress as I noodle for about 30 mins – 1 hour in the ink, and then step away.

And finally, just finished tonight, Scarlett, from G.I Joe.

Skybound recently started publishing the G.I Joe comic and I’ve been reading it for the first time. It’s now part of the Energon Universe with Transformers, and they’ve been publishing a lot of spin-off books as well, focusing on Duke, and Cobra Commander, and Scarlett.

In its current interpretation, G.I Joe has been around for 40+ years, and I’m now getting to learn about these characters for the first time.

//

I think that wraps up April and most of May. I think I’ll do more G.I Joe characters before the month is out – Baroness for sure.

Alright, that’s all for now.
Rogan
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Silence is Golden

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Welcome back, we missed you. A little bit of an absence here and there but at least I’ve been productive. Just not here…

My last update, from what I can recall was in November, post Drawtober. Since then I’ve played a lot of games. I’ve drawn a lot of pictures. I’ve been writing…elsewhere – and I feel guilty about that. But enough of the delays. Let’s talk about the last (gulp) 5 months.

We’ll start with the games first:

Starfield.
We first things first. I beat Starfield. Clocking in at just over 90 hours, finishing in December (started in September). 740/1000 gamerscore. I didn’t do all the completionist type stuff like visiting all the planets or Star Systems. I didn’t reach the max level or anything like that.

Spoiler warning: I didn’t even play any further than stepping through the stargate and becoming a Starborne. There is apparently an expansion coming, and I’ll step back in then, but for now I can comfortably say I’m done.

I played and beat Crysis 1 Remastered, in one sitting. 10 hours, 820/1000 GS. I still have two and three of the trilogy to play as well.

Illestrader and I beat Redfall, finally. 18 hours. 617/1000GS. I’m really annoyed that this game had some uneven GS achievements, and I’ll either need to play with other people, or go through the story again to complete those, but I’m honestly not interested. The game was decent overall as a co-op shooter. I’m glad I played through it as it had some good ideas.

Illestrader and I also went through Outriders and the Worldslayer expansion. I had previously gone through this game, initially in co-op but then finished it alone. With the replay I was able to 100% the main game and play the expansion. Finished 1260/1305 after 56 hours. The last two achievements will require more hours of grinding and I’m not interested in that.

I started playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with the wife. We played about 8-10 hours which is not a lot. She complained that I was holding her back – not making decisions in combat fast enough, so we’re not playing that anymore. I might still go through it some time. But I have a lot of other games so chances are low.

Finished Star Wars Jedi Survivor, 48 hours, 885/1000 GS. The remaining 3 achievements are collectible types and completionist stuff. Great game overall. Very good looking and fun combat.

Currently working my way through Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and nearing the end. 92 hours, 70% done the main story and already wrapped up one expansion. I want to wrap this game up before I tackle Horizon Forbidden West, which released for the PC a few weeks ago.

Alongside AC Valhalla, I am also playing through Final Fantasy VII Remake on the PC. I recently purchased this as it was on sale. It is my first FF game I’ve ever played, and for the most part it’s been a lot of fun. Even resulted in a Tifa drawing or 3, for obvious reasons ;).

I jumped into Helldivers II for a bit when it released. And I play a random game here and there and continue to follow the news about it. Fun satire game with good mechanics. Even spawned a Stranger Than Friendship comic idea that I might work on.

Now that Redfall and Outriders are out of the way, the next co-op game Illestrader and I have moved to is the Saints Row reboot. So far it is nothing great. Ugly city, feels like there hasn’t been much modernization over the last versions. Which is a shame. But it could be fun in co-op so we’ll see.

Ok, on to drawings. Over the past few months I’ve put out quite a few, which I’ll share below.

Here’s the list:

  • Wonder woman
  • Huntress
  • Black Canary
  • Fallout Vault Girl
  • Psylocke
  • X-23
  • Captain Marvel
  • Jessica Rabbit
  • Poison Ivy
  • Harley Quinn
  • Inked Red Sonja
  • AndrAIa
  • Inked Hawkgirl
  • Rose Wilson
  • Birds of Prey
  • Widowmaker (incomplete)
  • Lara Croft (incomplete)
  • Red Sonja
  • Tifa
  • Red Sonja again…
  • Spider-Gwen
  • Nightcrawler

Lastly, in January, I started writing about comics more, in a different format. I looked at my shelf and it dawned on me that I had accumulated over 200 graphic novels that I had yet to read (did a full count and I have 650 graphic novels / hardcover collections in total, and currently counting my single issue books which is 1500+). So I gave myself a homework project to read 1 every week. 52 a year, to help work down those numbers, because it’s not like I’m going to stop buying new ones. So since the first week in January, posting a new “review” every week, over on Substack. It’s been a rewarding venture thus far, and I can show proof that I am indeed reducing the amount of unread books.

https://andrewrogan.substack.com

Alright, that’s all for now.
Rogan
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Post-Drawtober

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I really should have been updating this area with weekly posts during Drawtober, but I guess I was just focused on the art that it didn’t happen.

But that’s why I’m here, posting now, mostly. During Drawtober I was able to fully complete 10 character drawings. Fully rendered in colour. I’m very happy with the final products which are shared below. I had one final piece planned to end the month right on Halloween, drawing, appropriately, Hallows Eve, but it didn’t happen. Saved for another time I guess. As I had discussed in the last post, I spread it over 9 sets of 3. Sketch, ink, and colour.

In order:

  • Dove – Dawn Granger, who took up the mantle from Don Hall
  • Zatanna Zatara
  • Fire & Ice – Double helping for thanksgiving weekend. Fire and Ice.
  • Mystique
  • Katana
  • Batgirl
  • Mr Sinister – Nathanial Essex
  • Deadpool – Bad Deadpool. Good Deadpool.
  • and Madelyne Pryor – The Goblin Queen

Also during the month, I played Starfield (of course), finished Remnant in coop, started Redfall in coop, played Cocoon, also got Spider-Man Remastered, Dead Space Remake, Alan Wake Remaster, and started Star Wars Jedi Survivor, and Jusant. So I was busy all around.

Redfall has been a perfectly adequate coop game. You are a team of vampire hunters, and the story takes place in a large town surrounded by water which has been frozen in place. Not like ice frozen, but frozen in time. We have to take down vampire nests and bosses. Upon release the game was poorly reviewed. Repetitive gameplay, easy A.I. enemies, etc. It’s received a few quality of life improvements and visual upgrades and it plays fine. I think some people were expecting a game of the year contender like Arkane’s last release, Deathloop, which this game is not. But it’s still perfectly serviceable.

Star Wars Jedi has been fun, but story has started off pretty slow, but it appears to be building to more so I reserve any further judgements till later.

Cocoon was a fun indie game, like Limbo or Inside. Cool art style and decent play time length. I do enjoy me these arty simple indie games.

And I’m currently playing through Jusant where the gameplay loop is climbing. It’s a relaxing type game. Straight forward puzzles. Collectibles. Another good looking arty indie game.

The rest of the games I mentioned I bought but haven’t played yet, except Dead Space and Spider-Man. Dead Space, just half an hour on the PC to verify if I get XBOX achievements or not, which I don’t, so I’ll be playing it on the good ol’ Xbox. After I finish Star Wars. Probably.

And Spider-Man I’ll probably leave till after Starfield. I got the Remastered version for the PC with the Miles Morales DLC. it was on sale to celebrate the release of Spider-Man 2.

In comic book news, I got to meet Dan Slott, Spider-Man writer, which was pretty cool. He had a signing at one of my local stores. So I got some books signed. NBD.

And I’ve gotten a few too many books as of late. But what else is new?

Books for week of Sept 27

Books for week of Oct 4

Books for week of Oct 11

Books for week of Oct 18

Books for week of Oct 25

Books for week of Nov 1

I think that catches me up for the month of October. I think I’ll take a drawing break through out November. Catch up on sleep, and watch TV shows. And then December I’ll start looking into the comic book again with a renewed energy.

Good night,

IROGAN
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Pre-Draw-Tober

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In my last post I discussed Drawtober as I had started some preparation. I’ve curated a list of 60+ characters that I want to draw for the first time (although some are ones I’ve drawn before). I made it through 6 of those, some of which I shared last week. Then I saw a Drawtober list for X-Men super-villains. I figured that might be fun, so I switched to prepping those instead. Made it through 4. So by my count I have 10 prepared already. I’ve also been thinking about my wrestling comic a lot… about re-attempting it. It’s been 3 years since I started it, and I’ve learned a lot in that time, and I’m a good place to pick it up again.

So Drawtober will be a last hurrah of sorts, for single character drawings. Get it out of my system so that I can attack the comic again with new energy. A new challenge.

So last week I shared work-in-progress versions of Dove, Zatanna, Fire & Ice, and Spiral. Today we have Mystique, Magneto, Mr Sinister, and Deadpool.

I don’t really know what my overall plan will be. I have 10 drawings prepped for the month, and I definitely want to practice my colour. So I might just spread these out: sketch, ink, colour, or just see what I have the capacity to do.

Unrelated to Drawtober I drew Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. This was in response to the announcement that the TR original games were getting a remaster collection next year. Maybe I’ll clean this one up a big, and ink and colour it too (or maybe just colour the pencil).

More Starfield photography? Sure. But you asked for it (I should probably create a sub-section for these):

{“Source” : “GeForce SHARE”, “B64” : “eyJEUlNBcHBOYW1lIiA6ICJiZXRoZXNkYXNvZnR3b3Jrcy5wcm9qZWN0Z29sZF8zMjc1a2Z2bjh2Y3djIiwgIkRSU1Byb2ZpbGVOYW1lIiA6ICJTdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiU2hvcnROYW1lIiA6ICJzdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiQ21zSWQiIDogMTAyMzI4MTExfQ==”}
{“Source” : “GeForce SHARE”, “B64” : “eyJEUlNBcHBOYW1lIiA6ICJiZXRoZXNkYXNvZnR3b3Jrcy5wcm9qZWN0Z29sZF8zMjc1a2Z2bjh2Y3djIiwgIkRSU1Byb2ZpbGVOYW1lIiA6ICJTdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiU2hvcnROYW1lIiA6ICJzdGFyZmllbGQiLCAiQ21zSWQiIDogMTAyMzI4MTExfQ==”}

Other game news, I bought The Crew Motorfest since I had wrapped up NFS, and per-ordered the new Assassin’s Creed Mirage game. Although I should probably put more time into Valhalla before attempting Mirage. But Starfield has been my main focus. And The Remnant on co-op nights.

More comics?:

Week of Sept 6th:

Week of Sept 13:

Week of Sept 20th:

Phew, busy update. I shall have another one probably next week as I kick off Drawtober, with some updated drawings and more Starfield photos.

See you then.

iRogan
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