wingsofwrath

Welp. Things didn't exactly go as I planned them at the start of this year, but I'm certainly not complaining...

In case you were wondering where I disappeared, fret not, I haven't abandoned drawing or DA - in fact I have been very busy working.

The main job was a massive urbanism project which took a few months to complete and which will never be posted on DA for obvious reasons, but I've also done a lot of drawings for different clients, chief amid which is Mythopoeia. Now, I've done work for them before, chiefly this poster (and other assorted bits and bobs) for the second and third issue of their dieselpunk comic book "Skies of Fire", but whereas before I was an "external collaborator" now I've been asked to become a full member of the team and contribute more to the development of the world the comic is set in.

As such, I did a lot of "behind the scenes" design work and I will be posting some of it to DA over the next few days in a dedicated gallery.

I will also be posting other work I did in the meantime, as well as some new drawings for Shadowless and Inner Space, even though I didn't have enough time to draw actual comic pages.

And, as usual by now in my last few journal entries, here's a link back to the article about those little art thieves from "I. Světová" ("1st World [War]"), the WW1 special edition of the regular "Extra VÁLKA" ("Extra WAR"), published by EXTRA Publishing who decided it was far easier to just steal drawings than pay for them and when asked about it answered something to the lines of "we can't check all the sources for articles people write and we publish, so it's not our problem".

I'm really never going to stop trying to blacken their name, because they fully deserve it.

Finally, I've gone around and finished the new Page 1 of Shadowless, which had lain around unfinished for more than a year because far too many serious Real Life (TM) stuff have happened in the last year and half that kept me from comics.

So I start this new year utterly exhausted, but also fiercely determined to finally start drawing this comic which has been gnawing at the back of my brain for the last eighteen months aching to come out.

Also, page 5 is in the works. Originally, I was going to wait to post both of them at the same time, but then I thought "What's the point?" after all, it's not like I have a steady update schedule to make myself a page buffer...

I also want to thank the anonymous deviant who gave me a Core membership. Thank you!

Oh, and one thing I decided I was going to do in all my journal entries from now on is always link back to the article about those little art thieves from "I. Světová" ("1st World [War]"), the WW1 special edition of the regular "Extra VÁLKA" ("Extra WAR"), published by EXTRA Publishing who decided it was far easier to just steal drawings than pay for them and when asked about it answered something to the lines of "we can't check all the sources for articles people write and we publish, so it's not our problem".

I'm really never going to stop trying to blacken their name, because they fully deserve it. Bloody arseholes.

I was originally going to publish this on October 30, 2015, but, as I was working on the post, around 22:45, I was told about the tragic Colectiv Nightclub fire which had happened 15 minutes previously during a live show by the Bucharest band "Goodbye to Gravity" and claimed the lives of 60 people including a few people I knew.

As such I decided to postpone for one month out of respect for the victims. May they rest in peace. 

You were probably thinking why I haven't posted anything in a while.
Is because I was to busy and didn't have time for drawing? 

Well, not exactly. 

Let me tell you a little story. 

Back on the 12th of October, 2015 I got a message from Ondrej-Filip asking me wherever I gave permission for a Czech history magazine to publish my drawings. 

Since I knew nothing about this I was understandably very curious, so I looked into it and, surprise, surprise, there is indeed a one such magazine which features two of my drawings lifted from DA and presented without any shred of attribution. Quite the contrary, the copyright notice on the first page proudly proclaims that "all published material belongs to Extra Publishing s.r.o"




Here's the inside, pages 64 and 65, courtesy of Ondrej-Filip (Click for full size):



As you can see, the two drawings that were stolen err... "surprise published" are these two (the second one partially): 
 
These were originally drawn for the non-fiction book "The Fortified Region Focsani-Namoloasa-Galati" published by the Romanian Military Museum early this year, but I hold the full copyright to them. 

And let's be clear here, this is not a "mistake", this is deliberate art theft, since I've sent them quite a few emails on the subject, all of which, so far, remain without response. 

So, not to mince words here, the people from the Czech Publishing house "Extra Publishing" who publish the magazine "I. Světová", are, quite simply, thieving bastards and deserve to be sneered at and mocked publicly. 

Also, since legal action is prohibitively expensive and really not worth it in this case (according to Czech Law I can hope to get triple my normal fee and that's about it, not even close to covering legal fees, no wonder they decided just stealing stuff is more profitable) so I won't bother.

Instead, I am calling them out publicly and naming them for the thieves they are. Shame on you, I. světová (extra VÁLKA), shame on you!

If you are interested, the people responsible for this magazine can also be found  here and on Facebook.

Personally I am a completely non-religious humanist, but I wish a hearty Happy Easter to those who celebrate it.

I know you think I'm a bit late, since for a lot of the world Easter was this past weekend, but I live in a country where Easter is celebrated based on the Julian rather than Gregorian Calendar, which means this year Easter comes on the 12th.

Oh, and while I'm at it, Happy Passover for those of Jewish faith.

But moving on to the primary reason for this post, I bet you are wondering why I haven't posted anything since October of last year.
Well, let me tell you it's been a gruelling six months. Nothing bad per se happened to me directly, but a lot of bad stuff happened to my loved ones, culminating in my mother being seriously injured in a car accident in February.
As a consequence, I spent the last few months in a support/ primary caregiver position, which meant all my free time evaporated.

However, I did manage to work a number of projects of which I am very pleased, including two books already published and a Comic book which is to leave the press in a couple of days.

First off, I know this might come as a surprise, but I've illustrated a children's book for a friend of mine, Mari Arsenie, named "The Adventures of Laslo the Dawrf".
Let me tell you, it was a surprise for me as well, since I'm more adept at drawing artillery pieces than dwarves, but there you have it. The artwork, by the way, can be found here:
 

Secondly, it is exactly artillery pieces I drew, since I illustrated a non-fiction book about the Focsani-Namoloasa-Galati Fortified Region (Also known as the Sereth Line).
This is the second book I illustrated for the Romanian Military museum, the first one being about Austro Hungarian artillery, waaay back in 2011.

 
 Here are the actual drawings, all nine of them:



Finally, the one I am most proud of, I have been asked by the good folks over at Mythopoeia to make a few drawings to accompany the second issue of their dieselpunk comic book, Skies of Fire.

Edit, 21.04.15: The Kickstarter of the second issue is currently active! Help us bring this comic to print and earn rewards in the process. If the Kickstarter makes it to 12k you will also get postcards drawn by me of some of the ships in the comic.

Speaking of which, Here is a poster I drew which so hows some of the ship types from this world and will make an appearance in the codex of the second issue as well as make a nifty wall decoration: