A Vasekhe Christmas Carol-- 01

Saturnalia, if you don't know, was the ancient Roman version of Christmas, and is actually the source of Christmas presents and the Celtic "Birth of the Sun" which later was Christianized into "Birth of the Son [of God]", which evolved into Christmas.

Fun Fact: Though celebrated in December, Jesus' birthday would have actually been in mid-April, near modern Easter (I wonder if crucifixion and defiance of death were popular birthday presents back then).

Happy Thanksgiving from Random Nation!

Explanation: Me and my friends have been tossing around ideas for a while (2 years). The finished product was: "Adventures from Random Nation". The characters, shown in panel 2 left-to-right, are:

John-- "The youngest said, 'All right, Father. Just give me until daylight and I'll go off to learn how to get the creeps. Then I'll know a trick or two...'" -Brothers Grimm, The Story of the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was.

John is a young (anti-Nazi) American-German who, despite being  a scholar of history and literature, is too stupid to understand fear, let alone be afraid. He's filthy rich (even though he has no idea how to spend a penny) and is the discoverer of Random-Nation, an uncharted series of islands south of the Peloponese. John has also learned the art of manipulating the elements from the ghouls he entertained in the Haunted Castle, and also he seems to not be familiar with a thing called gravity.

November-- "Then the king said, 'You have saved the castle and shall marry my daughter!'...and the wedding was celebrated. The boy loved his wife dearly..." -Brothers Grimm, The Story of the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. November is the daughter of January, King of Skarrip Lass, Germania. She can speak to animals, and is John's wife. She is kind and cares for nature, though she has a wild side.

B-Dog and C-Dog-- B-Dog is a bunyip (an Australian cryptid that resembles a walrus, dog, and horse combined) who John found in his travels and raised from a pup-coal-thing. B-Dog mated with a stray bunyip named C-Dog and the two now live together on Random-Nation.

Vasekhe(us)-- "So, having cleared the road, Theseus came to Athens. But Medeia, being then wedded to Aigeus, plotted against him and persuaded Aigeus to beware of him as a traitor." -Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (The Library). Vasekheus and Medos were the two sons of the exiled Kolkhian-princess Medeia and the late king of Athens, Aigeus. Vasekheus (or Vasekhe as his friends call him) learned the art of shapeshifting from his mother, a well-trained priestess of Hekate, the witch-goddess who Vasekhe incorrectly knows as "Great-Grandma". His arch-enemy is the drakaina Sphinka ("strangler"), a daughter of Ekhidna, who he lost his right eye. She also turned him into a newt, but he got betta (Monty Python humour!). He is also the founder of Random-Nation.

Nikh-- "For his second labour Herakles was instructed to slay the Lernaia-Hydra. The beast was nurtured in the marshes of Lerna, from where it would go out onto the flatland to raid flocks and ruin the land." -Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (The Library). A teenage Hydra who lives with Vasekhe (he's too proud to admit that he is Vasekhe's pet) who is so smart (and, apparently, British) that his middle head can talk.

Kaskada-- The awkward result of a forest-god and river-nymph getting married. She keeps her mother's obsessive-compulsive, boy-crazy personality, and (being a dryad) her father's powers over nature and the manipulation of trees. She can, therefore, become any wooden shape imaginable to get her hubby Vasekhe to do her every wish. Her hair and emotions change with the months.

Marissa-- A boy-crazy naiad who Xachiel had to tie to the ceiling (it's unspecified which ceiling) to keep her from clinging to him for the rest of eternity.

Lhi-- An elemental drakon (a flying serpent whose powers and color change with his emotion) who lived as Sphinka's slave as a child, constantly being called "Fluffy" by her. Vasekhe freed him, but dumb as he is, Lhi apparently believes he is his mother, so he loves and follows him unconditionally.

Sherry Lewis-- A talking chinchilla with dementia.

Xachiel-- "Soon the witch came back and said, 'Greetings, Xachiel!...'" -Brothers Grimm, Jorinda and Yoringel. A boy mentally-stuck in the Middle Ages who is impossibly lazy. He basically followed John and Vasekhe to Random Nation, and built a Middle-Age-themed town on his island.

Rusano (below Panel 1)-- "The Lord of the Castle granted his request with pleasure, but asked where he was headed. 'To the Griffin!' came the reply from Hans." -Brothers Grimm, The Griffin. Xachiel's pet griffon. He secretly wishes he had a smarter master.

The basics are: John, Vasekhe, and Xachiel are co-Kings of Random-Nation (have their own islands, mansions, yachts, etc.) and have crazy adventures. That's basically it. In case you don't get the comic, since everyone but John and November are Greek or European, they don't know what Thanksgiving or a turkey are.

Yo.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy perfecting my art style, starting "A Christmas Carol, or a Ghost-Story of Christmas" (I <3 Christmas Carol!), settling in with the school year, and renewing all my Internet-gaming accounts (Go Poptropica and ROBLOX!).

B.t.w. Hi George (O'Connor). Still waiting. But don't worry. You can upload those profiles anytime (quick pause while I purchase a plane ticket to NY to stalk you muttering "pro...fi...les" until you upload them).

P.S. Have you noticed how early Christmas advertisements were this year? The local PCB Wal-Mart was already stocking up on Christmas decor when I went mid-October to prep for my aunt's annual Halloween party.

Empousa

So just yesterday I got bored and did this.

By the way, I'm (im)patiently waiting for George O'Connor's new book "Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory", and his new profiles.

P.S. Legendary is 1/3 done. I know. Slow. For those of you who know me, do NOT critisize. If you personally know me, you also know that when I get the chance I can fall into a mentally-unconscious rut for days on end.

Jack

Remember my little Cairn Terrior Jack. The one with a brain big enough to be a peanut. The one who stares at fence posts for three hours for entertainment. Well, inspired by "Fantastic Mr. Fox" the Movie, I did this on Paint.

Swir...ly...

Note: This is a photo. All I did was edit it to give Jack "swir...ly... eyes..."

New pics! yeah!

Just finished selected sketches based on scenes from "All Action Classics' Dracula" and "The Big Book of Grimm". Check it out!

The Boy Riding The "Bed Of Doom"

--The Story Of The Boy Who Set Forth To Learn What Fear Was

Death

--Godfather Death

Three Elves and a Baby

--The Elfin Trilogy: The Changeling

Rapunzel lowering her hair

--Rapunzel

Red-Cap and the Wolf

--Red-Cap

Snowdrop in her Glass Casket (notice the lump of apple stuck in her throat)

--Snowdrop

These are all Copyright 2010 Lucas Brandon/Ben Caldwell/Vincent Deporter.

(only half-credit given to the last two names; I might've based my sketches on their's but I still changed them into Grimm scenes)

These sketches are for a book-in-production I'm doing (don't ask dates! Still not to publisher!) about select stories from the Brothers Grimm. Now I know what you're thinking: Fairy tales? Princesses? What?

I'd like you to know that the appearance of the Brothers Grimm over the years has been trajically altered! If you want prissy, pony-filled, rainbow fairy tales, go to Charles Perrault. Not the Brothers Grimm. No offense, but just to give you a snippet of what these world-traveling, horror-making brothers did, try reading their story "The Juniper Tree". And if you're really daring, try reading it from the book "Grimm's grimmest", where there are detailed pictures included! This will give you nightmares! And compared to some of the other stories, "The Juniper Tree" is a prissy, rainbow-filled tea-party! If you're thinking half-wit, poisoned Snow-White, think again. More like vengeful Snowdrop. In the Grimm-tale Snowdrop, the Snow-White character gets revenge on the evil stepmother... by forcing her to dance in fire-hot metal shoes until she died! Prissy Cinderella? More like Ash-Maid, a kick-butt chick whose magical birds vengefully peck out her stepsisters' eyes! Heck, "Red Riding Hood" and Granny even get revenge by boiling a wolf alive!

Stay tuned for sneak-peek pages.

Classical Club is back!

Some guick edits, a little bit of dirty work, and my great idea is back to life inside Re!