Lola...

 Last week, Shaggy lost his Scooby. Or, in my case, Scott lost his potbelly pig, Lola. 2 weeks from her 9th birthday. 6 days ago Amanda and I temporarily relocated Lola to a potbelly pig sanctuary just east of Calgary. We were gearing up to renovate our new diggs over the next 2 months, so we decided to spare Lola the stress (as we also needed to renovate her room too), then dash out upon completion and bring our girl back. Sadly, Lola passed away sometime in the night on July 17. Most of those who knew about my piggy know I adored her. Completely loved her. Head over heels. Lola was Amanda's and my daughter prior to the birth of Gwendolyn (sorry Gwen, that's just the way it was, babe). I've heard some can scoff at the loss of a pet, but I ain't one of them. It's been an extremely sad day for us all. But, my piggy had a good life, she was deeply loved by her herd (us!). We picked up her little-giant 135lbs body from the sanctuary and brought her to a crematorium in Calgary. I kept expecting her to jump to life, but sadly, even a kiss on her big, stinky cheek couldn't bring her back. I miss my stinky, grouchy pig immensely. Love you Lola -- please haunt our home!

Papa Kowalchuk at SDCC signing schedule...

Hey all,

I'm at the San Diego Comic Con briefly this weekend.  If you are looking for signatures or sketches catch me at the ONI PRESS booth 1833:

Friday 12-2 & 4-6
Saturday 10-11 & 2-4

There are going to be a bunch of MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS incentives, including a variant cover from Mike and Laura Allred (AMAZING!) and Mysterious Strangers temporary tattoos!

UPDATE: Due to a sudden death in the family overnight, I've had to cancel my trip to SDCC. 

the Mysterious Strangers behind the scenes: Miss Styx and Hidalgo...

One of my favourite parts of this book is all the design work.  With our unique 2-issue arc format, I'm tasked with creating new characters and locations all the time.  It's a blast.  Here's a look at Pres Marcos and the Mutants:

 

And Miss Styx and her Beauty Queen Cultists.  Man, do I hope we see them again in the future!

the Mysterious Strangers behind the scenes: OCCULT

OCCULT was one of the biggest attractions of this story to me from the outset.  I love comic book villains.  Creating, drawing, everything.  Love them.  So I had to take special care with out characters in this first arc.

Our main man 'Capricorn' is one of the rumoured 3 heads of OCCULT.  This is our man:

But, originally, I had designed him as such:

 

Didn't resonate enough with me.

Also in this issue we see Marie Furie and Tabu.  Roberson is terrific.  He asked flat out if I had any preferences on these characters -- all he specified was one is super strong, the other can control minds.  All you lucky cats with the issue in hand know who-is-who:

the Mysterious Strangers behind the scenes: The Strangers

Well, today was it!  Issue's #1 & #2 of my and Chris Roberson's new ONI PRESS series hit the direct market.  I decided it prudent to give everyone a look at some of the supplemental work we have created prior to the release of the book.  Here are a look at our initial character designs for the Strangers!

Verity and Quince.  Verity went through the greatest number of variations of the main cast.  Though Sandoval had the most major overhaul from the original concept:

As you can see, Sandoval was originally called THORNE.  The story of his transformation is a long one, but needless to say Chris Roberson is a terrific partner.  Gives me lots of support and room to create!