There is a nasty cold making its rounds at the kid’s daycare, which in turn means that I have now caught a deadly man cold. My efforts to quarantine the kids were foiled by my nemesis and wife as she unlocked the front door and let the biohazard riddled critters inside. Pray for me to any holy and/or unholy divine creature that you believe in.  

Black Billy Phil was inspired by the early designs of Peg Leg Pete, most noticeably from the wonderful short Steamboat Willie. It was the first cartoon to actually sync music, sound effects, and animated movement. The reason he is a goat is that I wanted to reference the use of Baphomet in demonology in a fun way, and the name is a mix between Black Phillip (the demonic goat from The Witch) and Billy Goat from the story of the Billy Goat Tavern.  

Black Billy Phil is very concerned with the safety and wellbeing of his train while wearing both a belt and suspenders. Not the cleverest goat around, he is often outwitted by Pascal the Rascal. 

This page was really fun to do, experimenting with how to continue Curly’s dialogue while transferring the scene to Kaz. It is very easy to get caught up with talking heads without any visual interesting actions, so I am trying to up my game on that department. To do that, I have been reading a lot of old Ghost Rider and Punisher comics. Most often, they have some very impressive framing and interesting angles. 

Welcome to the world of Pascal the Rascal! It is so much fun to draw in this rubber hose style, I can understand how the creators of Cuphead might have enjoyed themselves working on their spectacular game! 

Credit is where credits due: The wonderful forest background was made by the talented BonesWolbach, a fantastic artist over at DeviantArt who creates and shares some very impressive background art with the community. I usually do my own background art, but due to health issues and time concerns, I decided to use and edit a pre-existing one. 

Finally, we have arrived at the main event! To be honest, I was not sure that I could pull off an old-timey rubber hose look, but after studying old cartoons and comics for a long time and taking some inspiration from newer additions such as the cool but cruel game Cuphead, I think it looks good! It is very fun to draw in this style, but a little weird to ignore joints and my usual proportions and instead use these flabby floppy arms and legs, and draw in an ever more cartoony style than usual. At the same time, it is very liberating and fun! I hope that you all will enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoy drawing in this style. 

As a kid, I often wished that I could get sucked into the pages of a comic book. I wanted to go on imaginary escapades with Calving & Hobbes, get superpowers, and experience adventures with Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Batman. When I got older, I wished for the same thing but with dirty magazines instead, and the less said about that, the better. Now Curly gets dragged into a classic comic. It may not be his favorite one (Les Adventures de Inspector Rou Rou!) or an action hero comic (Colonel Meltdown!) but no less a visit to the funny pages.

I finally got my hands on a copy of Chrystal Dynamics action title Marvel’s Avengers and have been fooling around with the campaign. I absolutely love their portrayal of Kamala Khan and how they have created a very likable Bruce Banner. She is an adorable fangirl who can hold her own in a fight and pushes the story forward, while Banner is the awkward science nerd that contrasts well with big green. I recently unlocked the Iron Man himself, Tony Stark and they have done a decent portrayal there as well, however, he is no RDJ. There is a ton of stuff to do and some cool cosmetics to unlock, sadly many of the cooler skins and costumes are locked behind a pretty pricey paywall. I think Insomniac did that much better, having all costumes unlockable ingame when it comes to both Spider-Man titles and their Ratchet & Clank series. When I buy a game, I do not want to spend money on suits and skins, if I am going to pay for extras, it better be quality DLC with worthwhile content that adds to the game in more ways than one. 

I think this is the first real look we have gotten of Arioch since he first appeared on the last page of chapter 1: The Lonesome Ghost. Originally, he was not even this story when I wrote it. And it was a whole other comic book that Curly found, but in an effort to build up both the world, story, and lore a bit I tried to tighten the writing. Who is Arioch for Curly? Why is he after him? What’s up with the hand coming out of the pages of this magnificent comic? Not all questions will have answers in this chapter, but some will be answered. All I hope is that you all enjoy the ride, so you better faster your seatbelts because it is going to be a bumpy one!