Ian Malcolm, Age Seventy • 30 July 2007

With the gradual second cessation of Ian in Communism Land, I began thinking of different directions to go with a long-term comic. Oddly enough, they all tend to focus around Ian for some reason.

The first idea was Ian's great great great great grandfather, Thaddeus, at the Civil War Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862 (sketches at bottom of this page). I decided not to go there and considered the future, with a comic Ian at age seventy having to baby-sit his grandchildren for the day.

Ian's Daughter and Grandchildren • 30 July 2007

Ian's grandchildren, depicted in this concept, were Leviticus (top) and Bojo (bottom). His daughter, named Ianette until I come up with something better, would drop off the kids for a day with grandpaw Ian. Over the course of his comic he would regale Leviticus and Bojo with stories of his life from the comfort of his Lay-Z-Boy. A brief visit by old Josh would stir up conflict.

While I did the concept drawings and began writing the story, I never went any further towards developing the comic.

Naked Gal Eating Hamburgers • 3 August 2007

Okay, so this one didn't just come out of nowhere. Katy was working on a project dedicated to the theme of "naked girls eating hamburgers," and I drew this in response. I never sent it along to her because I grew increasingly disappointed with how the drawing turned out. The arms and feet look terrible, though I am happy with the cheap box gag.

Rotwang, the Inventor • 13 October 2007

For Halloween 2007 I wanted to go as the nefarious inventor Rotwang, from Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, which is basically one of my most favoritest films ever. Rudolf Klein-Rogge played Rotwang, the inventor of a robot to invoke a worker's rebellion, who sported a black-gloved mechanical hand long before George Lucas gave one to half the characters in his movies.

Stalin the Aeroplane • 14 November 2007

Even Soviet dictator robots have dreams and aspirations that forever remain beyond their grasp.

The Teslamobile • 24 January 2008

So a company is making cars under the Tesla name. It's fully electric, which I suppose makes sense, but come on! This is Nicola Tesla we're talking about! Dude would build a car like a tank, with giant towers arcing electrical discharges between them, massive jacob's ladders of electrical energy. It would not be a sporty little red number.

Underwear • 29 January 2008

The backside of this page is an advert for giving blood. Instead of being helpful to society I drew some underwear.

Useless.

Stalin's Valentine • 14 February 2008

Valentines Day this year was celebrated with a huge plethora of heart-shaped cards in the preceding week. On the big day I did this pithy comic of Ian and Stalin having a very brief moment of tenderness.

This was drawn on red paper that I've color-corrected for this album.

Eugenics Concept • 21 February 2008

For my History of Sex class I took part in a presentation on eugenics in the 1930s. The presentation was in talk show format and the group wanted to have commercials and product placement, so I took it upon myself to whip up a board game for a quick gag. I portrayed the host so I flashed this for all of ten seconds during my opening monologue.

A much more in-depth write-up about the making of this game can be found here.