"Impetus"
While my skills have improved over the years since I worked on this piece (at least I hope they have), this one will always be a favorite of mine. For starters, it was my first successful attempt at doing a pin-up. As someone who didn't grasp how to draw human anatomy well and often made numerous attempts until they were passable; to succeed on my first try was an accomplishment.
It was also around this time Tony and I got our hands on a program which changed how we illustrated forever: Adobe Photoshop. With it, we would go to Kinkos in the middle of the night and spend hours trying out all sorts of things. And since I worked the overnight shift, we never had to pay for the computer time. Truth be told, I learned more about the program competing against Tony than I would in some classroom. The two of us were always discovering some new technique or method individually, and then attempted to impress the other. Little did we know our goofing around led to a brand-new character still around today.
The flaming guy on the bottom of the picture is Impetus, a superman-like hero who meets a very gruesome ending. Now, I'm not sure how we did it, but between the two of us we found a way to create that charred affect. And boy, did the look of the character make an impression on us; especially with Tony. Before I knew it, he was adding Impetus into some of his pin-ups; each time making him more and more decomposed. Eventually we realized Impetus, who in his after-death life would forever be named Crispie, was a permanent member of our cast.
Now if only I could get my act together and finish that comic.- Jake