Inspired by Bastien Vives transgendered designs of several classic Street Fighter characters, Gobi decided to do some "gender bending" of his own. Woman/Man/Woman Poison hasn't looked manlier (alongside a voluptuous Hugo). I prefer Gobi's female Hakan design to the uber-masculine original. Be sure to also check out Gobi's design for a female Oro and female Necro at HIS SITE.

Man, I'm loving me some ORC STAIN.

I've been familiar with James Stokoe's work for a few years now. I bought the first volume of his Wonton Soup comic when it initially came out. I immediately fell in love with Stokoe's art style (a unique mix of manga stylings, Geoff Darrow, and Vaughn Bode)... but was a bit thrown off by Wonton Soup being an intergalactic cooking comic. I was expecting sci-fi fantasy space battles. What I got was a bunch of crazy cooking recipes with intergalactic vegetables and extraterrestrial meats. In Wonton Soup, Stokoe deftly displays his strong sense of storytelling, world building and insane ability to convey a variety of textures through his linework. But I wanted some more ultra-violence!

I'm ashamed to say that initially I passed on ORC STAIN. The covers were beautifully drawn. The main character's design was awesome. But I ended up passing because I'm not that big of a swords & sorcery fan.

Then I read that, in the world of ORC STAIN, sliced orc penis was a symbol of wealth and power (there's even a "how-to" comic on the steps taken to make a chopped orc penis into coins!). That was enough to CONVINCE me to read it!

I am now officially an ORC STAIN fan! It may have taken murmurs of orc penis to read the comic (should I be ashamed?)... but having read the 5 issues that are currently available I'm baffled by the next level brilliance of what Stokoe has created. My geek-love for ORC STAIN is so strong that I bought BOTH the issues 1-5 and TPB collection of those very issues!

Even more so than WONTON SOUP, the world of ORC STAIN is richly realized. From a design and cultural standpoint, James Stokoe has built a brutal world where Orcs social culture of barbarism are seeds from which Stokoe visually and philosophically creates a beautifully bizarre universe.

Go out and buy ORC STAIN. If you still need a bit of convincing, read this FREE PREVIEW OF THE FIRST ISSUE and THEN buy it!

First off, have an awesome Halloween filled with terror, sweet costumes, and candy. And while we're at it, I wanted to give props to Mr. Dan Hipp, the cartooning mind behind Tokyopop's GyaKushu! His style is PERFECT for the creepy and silly. If you haven't checked out his blog, sample some of my favorite halloween/horror themed illustrations (below) and then CLICK HERE.

Master painter, illustrator, & sculptor Frank Frazetta passed away today at the age of 82. His skill was unparalleled with his unique ways of creating texture, lighting and composition. His men are ripped and brutal. His women are beautiful and sensual. He had this unique way of making something look equally realistic and stylized sacrificing neither component for the other. It's sad to see Frazetta is no longer with us, but we will continue to celebrate his life through the astounding body of artwork he has left behind. Here are a few examples of his brilliance:

Fellow Muttpop artists: Gobi, Bill and Fabien have donned themselves the Catfish Deluxe and are doing a live art performance on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th at 6pm at the Angouleme International Comic Festival in France. Angouleme the biggest comic convention in Europe (think of it as the San Diego Comic-con in a castle!). Those lucky enough to attend can watch the character designers behind Tequila, El Panda, Red Demon, Dr. Destruction and King Katch work their doodling magic live and on stage. Sadly Jerry and I will not be there... but we're sure the Catfish Deluxe will put on a helluva show!

For more details and information CLICK HERE. Some teaser illustrations can be seen below!

So, you've seen Gobi's take on a classic Capcom Street Fighter battle (a heated duel between Street Fighter 3's Q and Oro AS SEEN HERE). Fabien M, being the fierce competitor of EVERYTHING, stepped up to the plate and delivered a meticulously choreographed battle royale between Balrog (the Mike Tyson clone known outside the USA as M.Bison), Oro, Evil Ryu, and Q. Considering Gobi's unabashed love for all 3 characters, I'm pretty sure this is Fabien's passionate attempt at proving that Balrog is the King of Fighters (hold up, is that an inappropriate title for a Capcom character?). Fabien made a fight so big, it couldn't be contained in just one post. With a 6 illustration limit, I had to stretch out the fight between 2 posts. Think of it as a big thank you from Team Muttpop in time for Turkey Day. Happy Thanksgiving!

(below are the 1st 4 images. The last 6 images can be seen in the second post.)