The Collapse

I almost died. Pulmonary Embolism. Blood clots n the lungs. A week in the hospital.That was rough. I collapsed at home around 10pm on June 29th. I was rushed to the hospital by my housmates who found me unconscious on the floor. I was released on the 4th of July, diagnosed with a medical condition that will keep me on medication and weekly doctor visits for the rest of my life.

When I collapsed I was rushing to meet a June 30th deadline. The project was called (and I hadn’t even recognized the fucked up strangeness of this till now) The Collapse. The job was for 36 illustrations to be completed by June 30th. This was a studio job through Empty Room Studio. Jer Mohler from ERS had done the cover for this project and he gave me the job after I assured him I could complete it on time. I started work on the first of June. What kills me about this is I would have hit the deadline if not for my collapse. As it stands my medical problems have kept me from working much since I was released from the hospital. I’m recovering, and I hope to be up to speed soon, but it’s been a frustrating few weeks. Below is one of the 36 illustrations from Collapse. I’m currently inking the last 2 and plan to turn the project in on Sunday. Only 17 days late.

My medical problems put delayed more then just one project. Here’s the full list:

The CrossRoads of Eternity Omnibus #2 was supposed to be released in April. I wrote about half the issue and had already completed the cover by that point. April slipped by and so did May, with me only completing half a dozen illustrations. While I still hope to complete about 4 more illustrations for this project, CrossRoads headman Travis Brown has stepped up to take on the other half of the art. So hopefully Omnibus #2 will go to press by the end of July. Cross your fingers. below is one of the werewolf illustrations I did for the issue.

Cycle: Avalanche: Otherwise known as the French Job Part 2. I started this project back in May (just like I said I would) but I just know I’m going to blow the end of July deadline. luckily Sebastien has been incredibly understanding and given me an extension. I don’t currently have any of the new stuff scanned, but when I do I’ll post it here.

Verge: Adam Dray hired me to do the cover for his new Cyberpunk RPG Verge. he payed me back in March and then I completely forgot about him for over a month. But once I got to work on Adams concept the cover really came together. You can see the cover and learn more about the process that went into designing it and the game itself here http://adamdray.livejournal.com/tag/verge.

Monster Fight: Nate Peterson has hired me to do the art for his Pokemonish monster battle game (I’ve forgotten what it’s called). My hatred for Pokemon is very near and dear to me, so I’m very excited about this game. Plan on starting work on this as soon as I wrap The Collapse. This also ties in well with my Pokemonish comic Perfect Drug. I recently finished drawing the first issue of Perfect Drug. I had planned to publish the comic online but I recently received an offer from a small publisher who wants to publish the series. We’ll see what happens. the picture below is from Perfect Drug and not Nates game. I’ll put art from that up as soon as I have it.

Space Dwarves: I’m doing some Space dwarves for Mike over at Rebel Minis.I’ve worked with Mike on on Six-Gun Assassins and Modern Havoc and I feel we have a good track record together. When he said Space Dwarves I almost said no thanks. But the chance to design miniatures was too good to pass up, and the chance to actually do something cool with space dwarves was even better. This is another project I’ll be moving onto as soon as The Collapse wraps up.

Panty Explosion: Panty Explosion is done. I finished the layout this last night and I’m sending it off to the printer later today. The book clocks in at 96 pages. I’m pretty happy with it. Special thanks to all the people that downloaded the test rules and sent feedback. I think you’ll really like the final version. The Panty Eplosion website (www.atarashi.com) will do live late this month. You’ll be able to buy a hardcopy of Panty Explosion off our site by mid August and it should show up in stores in by October. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime you can check out the cover art below. This is a style I’ve used before, but this was the first time I’ve ever tried applying color to it. i’m pretty happy with it. I’ll be posting about the process I used later.

Fall of Pilaeus: My Baeg Tobar webcomic has gotten off to a rocky start. I’m only 5 pages in and already hopelessly behind schedule. Jer Mohler offered me an out but I plan to stick with it and try to catch up. Luckily the site relaunch has been delayed, giving me a bit of time.

Thats it for now. i’ll post again soon with more art and more stories about how some clients took advantage of my illness to screw me over and how much it sucks to be freelancer and not have medical insurance. I also want to say thank you to everyone who took the time to email me and inquire about my health. I appreciate it.

-Jake