Science Ninja Action Team: Cosmic Hellcats IX

So please, check back in a couple hours for the next exciting installment of Cosmic Hellcats.

-Mav

So Max and I did this thing between our last story arc of Cosmic Hellcats and the current one where we had a week long break for guest strips while we prepared for the next story. 

We sort of want to do it again. We're maybe a month or two from concluding this storyline and we like to stay ahead of things, so we were wondering if anyone out there wants to do a guest strip for us. We would of course be linking it out to your strip or website and pimping you off and good stuff like that. 

We'd need the strips done in the next month or so, though they wouldn't be appearing til after the current story is done (the month after that).

Let us know if you're interested. Either by commenting here or emailing us at feedback@cosmichellcats.com. Once we hear from everyone we'll talk things over and decide who would fit in best and stuff like that and we'll get back to you.

-Mav

So I've talked about Zivity before. It's a pinup site that the real life Sarah and I work for sometimes. 

Anyway, we put a new photoset of her up there this week, including this shot that is pretty much my all time favorite of her. 

We're also running a couple contests there. So if you happen to be a Zivity member, head on over there and vote for our set "Black and Light." The person who votes the most times before the end of will win an 8x10 print. Sarah has promised a "secret prize" to whoever votes the most on any of her most recent four photosets (they're not all by me). So I've offered that if the person who votes the most, also voted the most on my set (again, that's Black and Light) that I'd make it a 16x20 print instead. So you'd win a couple things. What could be better than that? 

And if you're not a member of Zivity, well then by all means, go sign up there now. What are you waiting for? Even if you didn't win, you'd get to see tons of hot pictures of your favorite over sexed hellcat (well, or even better, the real life model that she's based on) and tons and tons and tons of pictures of other gorgeous women in various states of undress. I can't recommend it enough. So check it out!

-Mav

sarah locker room 13
Originally uploaded by chrismaverick

-Mav 

Max and I are both big fans, you could maybe even say students of Scott McCloud and his book Understanding Comics.

One of my favorite concepts from the book is the idea of what I like to call metacomics. That is, exploring the medium of comics and doing things with comics that you can't really do in other forms of artwork. There's actually a lot of that in Cosmic Hellcats. Granted, pretty much no one ever notices it but us, but it's there, and that makes me happy.

What makes me even happier is seeing someone do it who's not us. And that's what Rick the Stick (by Kenard) is really about. It's easy to be funny. It's easy to be creative. Actually, that's not true, neither of those things are easy. But Kenard definitely pulls it off. But on top of bringing the funny, he brings much more. 

One of the hardest parts of comics is balancing consistency in artwork with character design. One of the first things a beginning artist does is strive for as much realism as possible. However, what you learn as you progress is that by sacrificing some of that realism you can gain a lot of expressionism in your work. What McCloud teaches in his book is that by moving towards the unreal or the surreal, you can actually allow viewers to identify with your characters on several other levels. While the Mona Lisa is a very specific image due to the attention to detail in the rendering, Charlie Brown is an everyman that anyone can identify with.

Rick the Stick takes this to another level. Rick is a stick figure. The ultimate everyman. However, he lives in a world primarily inhabited by more realistic figures and this creates a situation where anyone can identify with Rick and yet see how he stands as an outsider to the rest of the world around him. On top of this Kenard makes visual statements in his strip by playing with everything from color to word balloon design (obviously one of the things I'm most interested in from our strip here as well).

So please check out Rick the Stick. Read it for the sheer enjoyment or read it as a student of the art. But read it and enjoy.

Time to take a look at another comic. 

This one is special. Not only is produced in Pittsburgh, much like your beloved Hellcats, but it's produced by Barry Linck, who hangs out at my neighborhood comic shop, Phantom of the Attic. That has nothing to do with the strip, of course, but I'm amused by the connection.

Anyway, Phineus is the story of a Dungeons and Dragon's style mage, but pushed into a modern setting. The dichotomy of this situation leads him into many an adventure. In fact, Phineus's adventures have been building up since 1991. That's right, 1991.

Unlike most webcomics, (however, much like Hellcats) Phineus has it's roots in print comics. The webcomics are actually reprints of pages that Linck has done over the years collected for the world wide internet audience.

Phineus isn't just an interesting read. It's more than that, it's basically a clinic on showing other webcomic creators what is possible with the medium. How to craft a story, how to cross promote with other comics, how to create extras to spruce up your site and publishing your stories in print. Beyond that, it's a good read, especially if you enjoy longevity of story and world building. Check it out today.

A few weeks ago, Max and I decided to join the Webcomic Planet Collective. It's a community of webcomic artists like us who have banded together for mutual support, cross promotion and maybe even getting drunk and picking up chicks. Ok, that last part wasn't in the charter, but what the hell, one can dream right?

It's actually been really good for us. Aside from having some good incoming links from others sites, it's given me and Max the chance to do something we really love. Namely, check out other webcomics. We agreed to work with the others in reviewing each others comics over the next several months. Our first assignment was Capes-N-Babes. I definitely couldn't be happier about that.

Why?

Well, frankly because it's basically like cheating. You see, I actually started reading Capes-N-Babes before we joined the Collective. I love it.

Something that may not surprise you is, I read comic books. As such, on Wednesdays (world-reknowned as the holy New Comic Day), I go and hang out at my local comic book shop. In fact, as a kid, I even worked at one. Which basically means that Capes-N-Babes is a story I know. It's a story I lived.

In a lot of ways it reminds me of the movie Clerks. It's the story of Marc, a guy, who works in a comic book shop and all the wacky goings on that occur there. Marc does exactly what anyone does in a comic book shop: argue about comics, awkwardly hit on the only hot chick whoever comes in and make fun of the other people in the shop. Really, its the geek mecca. And its hilarious.

Chris Flick, the writer/artist, has come up with a brilliant formula for the strip as well. Max and I have discovered that the hard thing about doing an episodic strip like this is that eventually, frankly you get sick of writing it. There are days where you just want to do something else. That's why we have Hellcat Cosmos. Well, Chris has figured out something even smarter. When he wants to take a break from the story, he just does. So that means not only do we have a wonderful strip about quirky, dysfunctional guys in a comic shop, but sometimes we have a humorous one-off strip about superheroes or pop culture or politics or really whatever is on Chris Flick's mind. Maybe that seems weird, but his sense of humor totally makes it work.

So you should definitely check it out. If you love comics (and I assume you do, because otherwise, why the hell would you be on this site in the first place) then it's definitely worth a read. I laughed myself silly as I went through the archive. And if I haven't sold you on it yet, then I've got one thing that totally will. Marc's best friend, and the most frequent guest in the store is Roy. Roy is a werewolf. Why? Because if I've learned anything from doing Cosmic Hellcats this last year or so, it's that anything is funnier if you have a character that is anthropomorphic furry for no particular reason whatsoever. He's also a sex crazed werewolf. One of these days I'll have to talk to him about doing a crossover strip. Roy and Sarah would probably get along great.

Schoolgirl-Amaya-3
Originally uploaded by chrismaverick

A couple weeks after I did the shoot with Chaste, I ended up doing a similar concept with Damsel.

Typically, I actually do a lot of photoshoots in my studio, so being able to get outside and do some higher concept stuff was really fun.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think. The girls and I always like feedback.

-Mav

One of the things that I've always thought made the Hellcats special compared to other ridiculous oversexified badgrrl comics is that not only are our girls hot but they're all based on real life models.

It's always been our intention to regularly post pics of the real life girls from my photoshoots with them, but I keep getting sidetracked along the way. So here's an attempt to fix that.

I had a shoot with Chaste a few weeks ago. She looks a little different right now, her hair is short and blonde, but as you can see, she's just as much a homicidal maniac in real life as she is in the comic.

Enjoy!

-Mav