As a quick follow up to my previous post, specifically comics, I archived my weekly collection piles.
Not a weekly process, by maybe bi-weekly or monthly if I’m lazy. The books just stack into piles on my shelf until I’m ready to haul out the short boxes. Then I spend the evening organizing and archiving into their designated boxes.
Then once a series ends, it’s moved into the long box collection.
Tonight, I archived the following series that have ended:
DC Universe – Lazarus Planet event. One-Shots and Mini Series
Not so drawing What I’m playing Reading is fundamental On the screen
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It’s been a little quiet on the Rogan front as of late, mostly dealing with my dad’s estate, finalizing those related matters, which has kept me occupied and distracted. Condo cleaning and staging and selling. Etc.
So I haven’t put stylus to screen since finishing the Aloy poster, last month. But now that that is mostly dealt with I have been feeling the urge. Maybe I’ll start some doodling tonight to see what happens. Next weekend is the last of the move, and then I should be feeling a little more motivated.
My Stranger Than Friendship comic has now been dormant for a year. I discontinued the Pro plan of that website as I felt I was paying to much for something I wasn’t upkeeping. So we’ll see what happens in a few weeks when that expires, and it reverts to the free model, without plugins. I do still plan to work on that comic, along with all the other ideas I have swimming around. But it’s hard to find the time and energy.
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I’ve been steadily progressing in Gotham Knights every co-op Wednesday, starting to get better at the combat, gear crafting and city navigation. I play as Batgirl, and I’ve unlocked the cape finally, through the Knighthood progression, for traversal, and quick-travel locations are becoming more plentiful as we unlock the map. The way the story progression is structured is pleasing, where the main story and side missions are broken up into case files, and you can focus on whatever you want, in whichever order you wish. Or you can spend the evening fighting street crims or finding collectibles. And then at the end of each play session, you can just turn into the Watchtower and wrap-up your night.
Been a few weeks since I stepped foot into the Witcher III lands, but I’ve been making progress in Hi-Fi Rush, which is an attack-on-the-beat style action game with platforming elements. It has funny dialogue and an enjoyable story that’s PG enough for my son to watch me play. It’s also very colourful.
In the odd evenings, I’ve also been playing NHL 23, and on the odd nights that friends are online, we’re playing Turbo Golf Racing. Season 3 just unlocked and it has some new interesting maps.
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I picked up Zoe Thorogood’s previous book, The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, and I have that in my queue. But along with my regular weekly comics, I read through Bitch Planet (Image) Vol 1 and 2 which is where it appears to end, unfinished. There was a side-stories collection that came out afterwards, but not a continuation of the story. I’ve now started on Middlewest (Imaged), by Skottie Young and Jorge Corona. I’ve been slowing going through my TP backlog, and I really enjoy Corona’s art, and Skottie’s writing. I’ve been on a bit of Skottie kick lately, having read TWIG and the duo’s most recent collaboration The Me You Love In The Dark (Image), so, figured I’d read their earlier work.
Guess it’s been a while since I recorded what I’m actually picking up on a weekly basis. Its always fun going through this list, to see what’s new, what’s ended, so here goes:
The Amazing Spider-Man (2022 – present)
The Ambassadors (2023 – present)
Batgirls (2021 – present)
Batman & the Joker: The Deadly Due (2022-2023)
Batman (2023 – present) Zdarsky run
Black Cloak (2023 – present)
Clear (2023)
Danger Street (2022 – present)
Dark Knights of Steel (2021 – present)
The Dead Lucky (2022 – present)
Deadpool (2022 – present)
The Forged (2023 – present)
Gunslinger Spawn (2021 – present)
Hulk (2021 – 2023) Cates/Ottley run
Junkyard Joe (2022 – 2023)
King Spawn (2021 – present)
Local Man (2023 – present)
Love Everlasting (2022 – present)
Nemesis Reloaded (2023 – Present)
Nocterra (2021 – present)
Once Upon a Time at the End of the World (2022 – present)
Ordinary Gods (2021 – present)
Phantom Road (2023 – present)
Public Domain (2022 – present)
Radiant Black (2021 – present)
Radiant Pink (2022 – present)
The Department of Truth (2020 – present)
The Riddler: Year One (2022 – present)
Rogue Sun (2022 – present)
The Scorched (2021 – present)
Spawn (1992 – present)
Stillwater (2020 – 2023)
Undiscovered Country (2019 – present)
Vanish (2022 – present)
The Walking Dead Deluxe (2020 – present)
Wynd (2020 – present)
So there’s a few Spawn Universe titles in there, a few titles tied to the Massive-verse. I also tend to follow artists, or writers. So I have some Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Chip Zdarksy, Donny Cates, Jeff Lemire. And then some of the stapes, like Spider-Man.
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The Witcher S2
Ted Lasso S3
Ghosted
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Dungeons & Dragons
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G361,455 That’s all for this month. Speak soon. iRogan
Earlier in the month I had some time off work. It was supposed to be a family vacation that vanished into nothingness, but I didn’t feel like cancelling my time off, so I used it to my advantage. A full-blown colour piece. It was initially supposed to be just a quick one-night pin-up. No perfect ink or colour. But after finishing that, I found I wasn’t satisfied. The piece wasn’t strong enough to post or share, but the concept was strong enough to warrant a do-over, and so I did. Roughly 4 hours a day spread out over the 7 days off. And the result I am very happy with. Got it turned into one of my annual posters for the wall rotation too.
Aloy, from Horizon series. Below is the Ink, some details, and the final.
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What I’m Reading
In an attempt to improve, I recently got some new art books, focused on composition, and figure drawing. As I mentioned in a post earlier this month, my goals for 2023 are to do more colour and scene pieces, less straight up pin-up left at the outline stage. I want to add more to the inked piece, with shadow and rendering, and then add more background or scene elements, lighting, etc.
Also just finished reading another auto-bio-graphic-novel It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood. Like Ducks, which I read earlier this year, it’s a journaling of the writer’s life and career over a 6-month period, about her story, her art, her mental health struggles, etc. That’s a disservice of an explanation, but the book is very good, and deals with some heavy material, so not recommended for anyone that might not be in the best head space themselves. But one might find it relatable. I dunno.
Less: A Novel
The Wheel of Time Book 10
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What I’m Playing
Finally jumped back into The Witcher III after a brief trip that was Immortals Fenyx Rising. I had started The Witcher first, but it had a slow start and I was craving something a little more action-y. But now that I’m done with Fenyx, back to the Witcher. And happy to report that I’m fully invested again. The story has really picked up, and the combat gameplay, I’m starting to learn, has many strategic layers.
In the co-op space, after finishing Far Cry 6, we’ve moved onto Gotham Knights. A very pretty multiplayer Batman universe game. You can play as Batgirl, Red Hood, Nightwing, or Robin. It’s a very strong presentation, but maybe not quite at the level that the Arkham series left us expecting. It’s very pretty, as I mentioned, but the combat is not as nuanced. There’s also gear scores which are lame. But we’re still early on, so more thoughts on it later.
Recently Completed: AER
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What I’m Watching
The Last of Us
Andor
Babylon
The Witcher S2
Ted Lasso S3
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Lastly, I haven’t shared these in a while, last posted here was Episode 4 I believe?… but I’m up to Episode 9 of my Halo Minute: Co-op Misadventure Halo Infinite video series:
This year one of my goals is to colour more. I find I do a lot of detailed, inked, pin-ups, but then leave it at that. I always say I’ll go back and colour it but instead I just move on to the next drawing. I suspect this is because I colour infrequently enough, that the idea of it is daunting, so I always put it off. I’ve also lapsed on the Stranger Than Friendship comic for almost a full year now if I don’t get a new one out before April. I just need to sit down and think of some ideas. I did have one ages ago regarding Wordle, but I fear that fad has passed. Maybe I’ll do it just to get it out of my system.
So yeah, back to colouring – I think doing the colour step more regularly will help keep those skills sharpened, and allow me to work more efficiently as I continue to improve. And to make the idea of it less daunting. And less time spent on the actual figure/ink steps, so I don’t burn out.
With that, since this is the first update this year, I’ll share what I’ve done, in order:
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What I’m Drawing
I started this year playing Immortals Fenyx Rising (more on that below in the gaming updates) and I really enjoyed the art style, so I kicked off the first drawing of the year with Fenyx herself. This version is her most basic starting gear before I even realized the many, many, different customization options available. I do want to colour this piece, but I may go back to the gear design first (there’s so many more ideas).
Another quick drawing, in Lollipop Chainsaw. And a work-in-progress update of The Gwen Who Laughs. As it had been a while since my last Spider-Gwen variant I figured it was time (my wife would say never again is too soon), and the idea of a Batman Who Laughs version was really intriguing to me. Very fetish, latex look. Corset and belts. Very harlequin type look. Could pass for a Harley Quinn variant instead almost. It was after struggling with this WIP that I decided to take a break and focus on more colour for a bit.
Gender bent Johnny Bravo. Modern day Miss Bravo if you will. There’s actual an episode where Johnny Bravo does get turned into a lady so that he knows what it feels like to be hit on incessantly.
Sasha Banks / Mercedes Mone. Former WWE wrestler who made her debut recently in New Japan.
And Supergirl. Got excited after watching the most recent Flash movie trailer, with Michael Keaton and the reveal of the new Supergirl.
So yeah, colour. A little less focus on the ink outlines. After the sketch is cleaned up, I basically just jumped right into colour. And a simple background. Supergirl probably has the most detail as I did a semi-rough ink version to go with it. The other big change is I am working 100% in Photoshop for these which I don’t typically do. I usually sketch and ink in CLIP and then move over to PS if I need to for colour. But it felt kind of refreshing to stick with the one program and explore some new brushes. Hopefully more to come.
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What I’m Playing
Immortals Fenyx Rising: A very solid adventure game, very much like Zelda Breath of the Wild. In art style and gameplay. This is the game that’s kept me the most busy between January – February.
The game is a very vibrant soft coloured game and there are lots of different arena and puzzle style challenge rooms to mix up the standard-type combat. Ability to fly and ride a horse for traversal. And the collectibles usually involve some sort of challenge puzzle as well. Story is decent, and a good length – a humorous take on the Olympus Gods and Titans stories. Basically a big evil has been released and has turned everyone to stone and taken away the godly powers. Zeus and Prometheus are the two narrators of the story. Prometheus is more of the lead storyteller, and Zeus provides his colour commentary. Telling the story of how this mortal, Fenyx, will save the day. Combat is fairly easy to understand once you get used to the light attack and strong attack button mapping.
As I mentioned above, there is a lot of customization options with the gear you unlock throughout. Each gear item has its own perks, etc, but you can always change the look of that gear while it’s equipped to another style, if you wanted to stick to a theme, but needed the perks.
Roughly 40hrs to beat the story, but I didn’t stick around to finish all the various dungeons, or DLC packs.
Returnal: Returnal which was a PS5 launch title exclusive was recently ported to PC and I wanted to give it a try. I’m not a big fan of rogue-like games. But I thought I’d give it a shot.
I understand the appeal of the genre, and this game is gorgeous, and from a die-repeat-die-repeat perspective it’s not actually that bad. It is, however, difficult, and that was a turn-off. I understand that this genre does require a certain level of difficulty to ensure the player improves and advances and unlocks new stuff, but I unfortunately don’t have the time to dedicate to a game like this when I have so many others in my queue. A friend invested over 100 hours into the grind, and still hasn’t “finished” the story. That’s just not my style. So, I am content with the fact that I did “trial” it, but it’s not for me.
Somerville: A quick 4-hour game, like Limbo, or Inside. Same idea, with the puzzle mechanics that allow progression. A cool alien invasion story too. And very cool looking – I really liked the art direction with this one. And its a little bit more 3D level design than those of its kind. Which made it a little bit clunky to play, but still fun.
Far Cry 6: Oh man, finally, finally, knocked this story out in co-op. There’s one thing that can be said about playing in co-op with ILLESTRADER, and that’s when we start a game, we know it’ll take like 6 months to finish. Since we only get a few hours per week, if we’re lucky, and that if we play that game. Sometimes we switch it up, like jumping into Halo Co-op campaign, for example. But it feels good to say we finished the campaign. I think our next outing is Gotham Knights, but we’ll wait for the next sale. In the meantime, we’ll play through some of the DLC in FC6 and some more achievement collecting.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy has me hooked. I’m trying to complete at least one chapter a night as I steadily make my way through the game. Hoping to wrap it up by the end of the year.
The game is a fun play through, with solid writing. And besides that actual story writing that drives the narrative, there’s just a lot of dialogue that is mostly background noise between crew mates. You really get the impression that this crew has been together for a long time and their banter just sounds natural. I stepped away from the computer at one point while the characters were just sitting on the ship awaiting me to progress the story to the next mission, and when I left they were talking, and when I came back they were still talking. It’s mostly Rocket and Drax that talk the most. With the occasional “I Am Groot”. But to be fair, its mostly Rocket.
And the game includes a surprising amount of “swearing”. It’s not true swearing because its mostly “flark” and “flarking” but I guess they can get a way with it because its not English. Sounds pretty close. I guess it’s similar to Firefly, where they were able to get away with swearing in Chinese without upsetting the sensors.
Speaking of the end of the year, it has been a pretty solid year of games. I have my curated list of games I played this year, ready to go for my year-end Games Reviewed Quickly post:
The Gunk (2021)
Watch Dogs Legion (2020)
The Pedestrian (2022)
Borderlands 3 (2020)
Far Cry New Dawn (2019)
Golf Club Wasteland (2021)
Grounded (2020 early access)
Shredders (2022)
Mortal Kombat 11 (2020)
FAR Changing Tides (2022)
Dead Cells (2018)
Sniper Elite 5 (2022)
Grand Theft Auto III Remastered (2021)
Hitman 2 (2018)
A Plague Tale – Innocence (2021)
GRID Legends (2022)
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Riders Republic
Death Stranding
Forza Horizons 5
Fall Guys
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Far Cry 6
Halo Infinite
Guardians of the Galaxy
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What I’m Playing
As I mentioned above, I’m playing GotG (hoping to wrap it up by the end of the year), Halo on co-op nights, Fall Guys, Lego Star Wars with my 4 year old, Far Cry 6 on co-op nights, Need For Speed Unbound, and even tried Gungrave GORE.
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What I’m Drawing
I haven’t been drawing at all, sadly. I put like an hour into one of my comic pages, just flatting one of the panels. I also tried re-drawing the first panel in my book, as black and white, kinda like a manga to see if I like the style. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with the idea of continuing where I left off or starting over in the format below, in the interest of saving time. Drawing, inking and colouring is a huge undertaking, and I don’t know if I’m cutout to actually progress. I might have to make some sacrifices to my original vision just to actually move ahead and make progress. Whether that means changing the art style , or changing the colour method.
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What I’m Reading
I recently picked up Ducks which is a illustrated memoir about Kate Beaton’s 2 years in the Albertan Oil Sands. Paints a very real picture of what life is/was like there, how lonely it can be, how being a woman in a male dominated industry is like. A very good, honest, bleak, book all around. On the top 10 lists for non-fiction books for 2022.
Also picked up the Classic Collection of Spawn Batman, the combo DC and Image published books, as well as the latest edition that Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo did, that released this month. Among my many other comics that I pick up every week.
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Below is the most recent (3 weeks ago) episode of our Halo playthrough. Unfortunately after finishing this episode, the next two nights that we played, the capture get messed up as it didn’t encode properly. So I got 2 hours of audio, and no gameplay :(. They were some good sessions too. So the series will have a little gap, but hopefully our next session I’ll be able to pick up the recording again and jump into more editing.
That wraps up the last few weeks for sure. Next update should have me completed GoTG, a new Halo Episode (fingers crossed) and my 2022 Reviews Done Quickly.
Idly Playing the Waiting Game 