Thognart

Because of it's adaptability to extreme environments the thognart has been a favorite mode of transportation for several races on several planets for thousands of years. Originally from Nodgun 3, it spread to hundreds of planets by space colonizers and galactic merchants. It's particularly high stance gives the rider an improved vantage point resulting in superior situational awareness. The large hump on it's back stores energy for weeks at a time making the thognart effective in environments where food is scarce. Still, the care and feeding of a herd of thognarts is an art, and was ultimately an enterprise that proved inefficient for the needs of the GSA. After initially trying to use thognarts for scouting missions the GSA replaced them with a mechanical alternative. Here Missile Mouse wonders how the thing feeds itself.

Missile Mouse Pages

As promised here are some pages from the Missile Mouse graphic novel. The first one is page number one of the book and I've already colored it. This was actually one of the fully finished pages I put in my book proposal for the publisher. Here we join Missile Mouse on an expedition searching for a downed transport ship. He's followed by two hired porters who are a little more familiar with the area than he is. In the foreground is the bones and toothy skull of some long dead beast, foreshadowing that danger is ahead for MM.

The rest of these are a few random pages from the book that I like. While flipping through the pages I couldn't decide which to share, there's so many of them I like. I finally narrowed it down to these. This page was a lot of fun to draw. A while back I posted concept designs for this alien slug monster . You can see those here, and below is what made it into the book:

I had to have MM get eaten by this guy. What good is it having a space slug if you don't put any one in him?

And lastly a nice shot of MM demonstrating how to use the Jet Pack in close quarters. Panel 5 was a bit of a chore to figure out, but all in all fun to draw.

I'll post a few more in the coming weeks.

Scout Runner

Missile Mouse stops to check his six while out hunting down an escape monster from the Galactic Security Agency's maximum security prison. He's riding the TK-3, a bipedal scout runner perfect for the rocky terrain in which he's hunting. The agency once kept a herd of thognarts for assignments like these, but the care and feeding of them proved to be too costly. And their temperament made some situations dangerous. So the GSA switched over to a mechanical alternative.

This was a recent commission I did for a Missile Mouse fan out in the UK. Glad it made it to you safe! If you want your own piece of original MM art go here.

Finished Inking!

I finished inking the last page of the Missile Mouse graphic novel at 10:43 pm last night. What a satisfying feeling that was. It clocks in at 172 pages and has been quite the beast to draw. I ink on some nice paper I found at a paper store in Stamford Connecticut. It is heavy stock and extremely smooth. Takes the ink well. I think it's made for laser printers, but it's perfect for inking comics. Best part is it's about 30 bucks for 250 sheets of 11x17. I'll post some scans of a few of my favorite pages next week.

Character Profile - Ulrich Von Dorf

Ulrich Von Dorf has one of the most brilliant minds in the Galaxy. He is a Cerebellian, an ancient race with the unique capability of genetically passing down knowledge from generation to generation. Ulrich comes from a long line of scientists in his family, which means his brain possess all the knowledge gained from his ancestors over the last few millenia. His knowledge and memory of ancient and advanced technology is immeasurable, making his brain one of the most valuable assets to the Galactic Union.

His most recent studies have been in the field of galactic energy consumption. For the last 20 years he's been trying to unravel the mystery of "infinite energy" a technology that his ancestors stumbled upon, but ultimately were never able to harness.

In "The Star Crusher" Ulrich is kidnapped by the RIP (Rogue Imperium of Planets), and it is up to Missile Mouse to rescue him and figure out just what the bad guys wanted with him and that mind of his.

Here Ulrich is testing his Thermal Flux Disruptor. He's not quite sure what it does, though the first time he fired it up it he noted in his logbook that all the birds in the neighborhood flew backwards for a few days.

Inking Missile Mouse

If you have the patience to sit through 7 minutes of someone drawing then watching this recording of me inking a missile mouse panel should be no problem for you. Around 1:16 I make a line that I don't like and pause to decide whether I should fix it or not. I decide to go ahead and fix it. I use correction tape for my mistakes because it's quick and clean. I'm drawing with #2 and #5 Pigma Micron pens.



I apologize for the compression on this. I probably should have shot it at a higher resolution.

Character Profile - Missile Mouse

This post marks the beginning of series of profiles on the characters of the Missile Mouse universe. I figured it'd be best to start with the mouse himself. Since the last Missile Mouse post covered his design inspiration and evolution this post will focus on the character in world.

Missile Mouse is an agent for the Galactic Security Agency (I'll have a post on the GSA sometime later.) He is an expert pilot, a crack shot, and can dish out a good punch. What he lacks in finesse he makes up with brute force and dogged determination. You could say he's the hatchet as opposed to the scalpel. The GSA isn't quite sure what to do with him, but they need him. Just when they think he's too much of a liability he proves them wrong and becomes an asset they can't function without.

Missile Mouse is a Rodentian, though he has never set foot on the home world his race comes from. Dire circumstances caused his father to escape the planet in secret with baby "M" and relocate to an asteroid belt in a nearby system. When tragedy takes his father from him M takes off on his own and joins the GSA becoming Missile Mouse.

MM wears a standard GSA flight suit with ArmorFlex™ undergarment. It is blaster resistant, blade resistant, water proof, and chemical proof. The outer suit provides thermal insulation, shielding from solar radiation, stabilizes internal pressure, and protection from micrometeoroids and other space debris. The GSA signifies rank by suit color. MM sports the elite colors of gold and red indicating he is a solo agent.

MM also wears a standard GSA utility belt. When fully charged this belt can emit a powerful force field strong enough to shield the wearer from solid and electromagnetic attacks. The belt also has a security feature that when activated electrically charges the suit shocking whatever comes in contact with the suit.



MM is one of the few agents with enough coordinated ability and physical competency to pilot a jet pack. He prefers the UberTech™RS600 for it's weight to thrust ratio and compact size. The RS600 utilizes an advanced form of electrostatic force to produce high exhaust velocity. With no moving parts it is extremely quiet and a perfect tool for MM. MM pilots the jetpack using two control mechanisms located around the ankles of each foot.

MM likes his blasters like he likes his jet packs: compact, lightweight, and powerful. The snub nosed PS-5 collapsible blaster fits his criteria perfectly. When not in use the blaster collapses into a compact disk that can be stored in a pocket on hung on a belt. Perfect for dangerous missions when you don't want extra baggage getting in your way.

Well, that's all for now. I didn't get into MM's goggles. I'll have to save those for another post. I have several other profiles lined up to do. Whether I get time for that or not remains to be seen. Also, work progresses on the graphic novel. I passed the hundred page mark last week. A gratifying moment indeed. Now I only have 60 pages left to ink, and then it's color time.