Hey everyone!
I’ve been messing around with different designs for a Manta-Man tee! All the different versions are posted on Facebook here. Let me know what you think!
Who wouldn’t want a sexy, stubbly, slippery man on his/her chest?
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For my fourth installment in the “Year of the Yokai” series, I drew a character from MANTA-MAN, the Oni. I love the outrageous features of the more goblin-like Japanese Oni–expect to see PLENTY more!
The third installment of my Year of the Yokai series, the Otoroshi! I couldn’t find out much about this guy, except that he’s a creepy, hairy guy who hangs out on top of gates and doorways. I dug his enormous, shaggy hair, so I imagined him as a sulking emo kid.
This is the second installment of my weekly illustration series Year of the Yōkai. The lovely lady is O-Yuki, Woman of the Snow. She’s not as freakish as some of the other Yōkai I’ve encountered. In both stories I’ve read, she preys upon some woodsmen sleeping in a rickety old shack. One she kills, the other she lets live, as long as he never tells anyone about meeting her. Years pass by, he marries a beautiful young lady, they have kids, etc. One night, he mentions the crazy lady from the shack, spurring his wife to reveal that she, in fact, is that woman, and because he’s broken his vow, she must leave.
A lot of Japanese folklore seems to revolve around women’s hidden, mystical nature and the dire consequences of their discovery. Odd, that. I need to find some tales about sexy men soon. Seriously.
After completing this image, I realized that it bears a striking similarity to an album cover by one of my favorite bands, Wye Oak. This certainly wasn’t intentional, but is kind of interesting, right?
So, while working on Manta-Man, I’ve gone off on a tangentially related line of research into Japanese folklore. More specifically, the wonderfully weird world of the Yōkai, supernatural creatures of the shapeshifting, ghostly variety. Some of these beings may eventually show up in my comics, but I wanted an excuse to draw all my favorites, and thus began the Year of the Yōkai–every week I’ll post a new illustration with an accompanying description. Keep in mind that I don’t claim to be any sort of expert, and I won’t be aspiring to 100% authenticity and historical accuracy. In any case, I hope to have fun experimenting with different styles, different creatures, and sharing it all.
And yes, I must abashedly present the first week’s installment, that of the Noppera-bō, a faceless figure who shows up periodically in horror stories. They might be of either gender, but I ended up drawing a curvy girl, because that’s how I do. As far as I can tell, the Noppera-bō shows up just to freak people out–and maybe, in this case, to turn ‘em on?