General audiencesThis material is suitable for all ages and temperaments.
| Mature audiencesThis material may not be suitable for small children or sensitive individuals.
| Adult audiencesThis material is not suitable for minors or sensitive individuals.
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Posters
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This ambitious release of the mid-fifties combined live action and rotoscoped animation in a titillating thriller about a flying-saucer invasion by beautiful but perilous alien fox-women. It was an all-or-nothing gamble for the small studio that produced it—but the production and marketing budgets and the star power of larger houses overshadowed it. The film failed at the box office and as a result dragged its parent down into bankruptcy. All assets were sold piecemeal at auction to repay creditors, and both movie and studio faded into obscurity, forgotten even by most film buffs.
Only one copy of the theater poster is known to survive, discovered by a collector at a yard sale in the early nineties. Unfortunately, the years had not been kind to it: one corner was dog-eared, the opposite side sported a significant tear, and the inks were faded and damaged from exposure to ultraviolet light and skin oils. Still, it is worthy of preservation, if only because of the film’s peculiar history, and prints of it are now available to the discerning aficianado. . . . Well, not really. Actually, it was inspired by Donald Fagen’s song “Tomorrow’s Girls”, from his 1993 album Kamakiriad. The design echoes the song’s campy atmosphere and the era it satirizes, even to the sulfur-yellow background featured in so many movie posters of the time. “Fleischerscope” is an homage to Fleischer Studios, whose pioneering work in animation included invention of the rotoscope process. Thanks go to Baron Engel, who kindly provided an appropriately goofy ray-gun design not used in a previous project, and to Christina “Smudge” Hanson, who provided a made-to-order flying saucer model. | |||||
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This is the first in a series of collaborations with Baron Engel to produce artwork for the CD faces, insert cards, and tray cards for the music CDs by his fictitious all-mouse girl band called Move to the Music. It’s supposed to be their debut, so the design reflects the idea that the music label would use prefabricated templates to hold the production costs down on what might turn out to be a flop. Hence it’s a touch austere, with only enough distinctive design to give it an identity on store shelves. The face art was printed on a transparent label and affixed to a CD, and the cards were printed on gloss paper. They and the original cover art were matted and framed together as a “presentation piece”. It and prints of the front cover art are available for sale from Backbreaker Studios. Characters created by Baron Engel. Artwork copyright 2007.
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Baron Engel had the idea, described the basic design, and drew the figures; I coined the product name, scanned the figures, and dropped the art into an Illustrator file with background and typography. Prints available for sale from Backbreaker Studios. Characters created by Baron Engel. Artwork copyright 2006.
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The last issue of the limited comic series Bureau of Mana Investigation went through some editorial shuffling, ending with a hole on the inside back cover. The grayscale original was commissioned to fill that hole, and the print version was colorized later. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley. Bureau of Mana Investigation copyright 2004 Backbreaker Studios; used with permission.
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The pen-and-marker original was drawn on request in a “theme” sketchbook, the idea being to base a piece of art on a quotation selected from a list in the book. The title stems from the idea that, if man was made in God’s image, then surely man’s creations would be the grandchildren of God. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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The heavy outlines and flat colors are reminiscent of European propaganda posters of the twenties and thirties. The poster’s design follows the story’s description very closely. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley. Original version published in Yarf! issue twenty-four as illustration for David White’s short story “The Soloist”.
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General Audiences
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The original was shaded entirely with gray markers, so the challenge in creating the print version was to convert those gray shades to color and to add missing details. The author rated it as my best work up to that time. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley. Original version published in Yarf! issue fifty-eight as gatepiece for M. C. A. Hogarth’s short story “Rosettes and Ribbons”.
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The daughter of the model for “Margie” sat very patiently for this piece; her mother and I decided she would be a cheetah. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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A live sitting and photo reference were combined for this piece; she really did have a white Honda Hurricane at the time, but had sold the racing leathers years before. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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The co-worker on whom this was based apparently complained her legs had been drawn too fat. Ah well. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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Mature and Adult Audiences
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This fascinating boutique originally catered to the porn industry based in the San Fernando Valley, specializing in erotic paraphernalia designed for the diminutive stature of mice and rats. The seminal version of the advertisement shown here, designed for industry publications, dates from the 1970s, when the business boomed; it changed very little when a digital makeover occurred in the early 1990s. Today the colors and composition remain largely the same, hearkening to a bygone decade, for the very simple reason that they work. The advertisement’s bold, striking simplicity catches the eye and instantly conveys the shop’s business model, and its unchanging look has created an enviable continuity of brand identity.
More recently its clientele has expanded beyond the original customer base to include discriminating mice and rats all over the world—necessitating a slightly different version of the advertisement that shifted the business name upward to obscure a potentially objectionable portion of the artwork. Expansion to a warehouse location has enabled Naughty Little Things to ship a large volume of merchandise, but the original store and offices remain where they always have been: at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles. There is even a small showroom available for the use of microphile shoppers, though the bulk of the square footage is devoted to weefolk. . . . Well, not really. Actually, the store exists only in the mind of Baron Engel, who outlined its origins and mentioned that it’s located on West Sunset Boulevard in L.A. Apparently Petina deMouse and Jackie Lyon mail-order from Naughty Little Things when they are in the modern world rather than their native twenty-fourth century or adopted fourteenth century. Inspired, I designed the advertisement and made up the information on it; Vine Street does indeed demarcate the 6300 block of Sunset, but so far as I know there is no actual building with that address, because it would be in the middle of Vine. I like the idea of a microphile showroom, but as with the ad info I can’t guarantee it’s canonical. You’ll have to ask Baron. Still, I think the art captures the essence of the idea. Yes, by the way—in his world(s) mice are eight to nine inches tall, and rats get up to a foot tall. One can imagine the manufacturing difficulties. | |||||
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The model decided this time to be a skunk, and posed in the vinyl coat and boots. The background, of course, was created from whole cloth. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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The model decided this time to be a wolf, and posed in the collar and stockings in front of the fireplace, though there was no fire at the time. This was the first finished piece done entirely without outlines. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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The pen-and-marker original was a gift for a friend, who was floored by the effort and the fact the piece nailed nearly all her tastes right on the button. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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The model was very pleased with the expression, which is also what inspired another friend to supply the title. The same friend remarked that the body is not idealized as so much pin-up art is, yet still is attractive and desirable. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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The model, mother of the girl who posed for “Heather”, decided to be a cougar. Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley.
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This was a souvenir of a very enjoyable visit. At Susan’s urging, I started on pencils while she ran upstairs to get her inking pens. She said the tree had “lots of character” and suggested the fast-food bag and box of doughnuts because “leopards always stash their lunches in trees.” Prints available for sale through Rabbit Valley. Original artwork inked by Susan Van Camp. Originally published in Paper Phantasies issue eight.
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Design
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The most detailed and self-consistent furry worlds I have ever encountered are those of Baron Engel. Not only are the history and infrastructure workable and plausible, the characters are vivid and believable. Some of the latter work for, or head, unique and colorful business enterprises, and recently they’ve inspired me to indulge in a little corporate-identity work for practice. This is one of the results. . . .
When Petina deMouse found her way to the twenty-first and fourteenth centuries from her native twenty-fourth—she still won’t say how she did it—one of her first priorities was to establish a financial presence, using part of her original fortune to create Avalon Limited Holdings. Later she brought her old flame and business partner Jackie Lyon up to date (so to speak), which caused some real consternation. The “moderns” are people in fourteenth-century Andur that hail from later time-periods, including quite a few folks bearing a suspicious resemblance to Baron and his friends (including me); with few exceptions they are nominally employees of the holding company and draw generous stipends. Enough money started flowing back and forth from one century to another that Petina and Jackie were forced to hire a forensic accountant, Tabitha Proudears, to launder it, since nobody else in the modern world suspects all this hopping around is going on. . . . Of course, the information on the cards is fictitious. I have no idea how many post-office boxes are in Carmel, but I doubt they would need to go to four digits unless the numbering scheme isn’t simply consecutive. | |||||
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The most detailed and self-consistent furry worlds I have ever encountered are those of Baron Engel. Not only are the history and infrastructure workable and plausible, the characters are vivid and believable. Some of the latter work for, or head, unique and colorful business enterprises, and recently they’ve inspired me to indulge in a little corporate-identity work for practice. This is one of the results. . . .
After Roberta Mendoza, following family tradition, graduated from university and passed her bar examination, she faced the question of what to do for employment. Being an entrepreneurial type, she established a modest little mail-order business—Bound to Be the Best—out of her apartment, catering to the BDSM community, of which she had been a member for some years. Before long she faced the prospect of being a victim of her own success; among other things she was forced to contract out steadily increasing custom work. When the time came to choose her legacy from her affluent family, she selected a large, rambling house on three-quarters of an acre in the midst of eastern San Jose, surrounded by the light industry that had grown up on the parcels gradually sold off from the original land belonging to the homestead. It had been in the family for decades, since the previous owners had deeded it over in lieu of cash payment for attorney services. It was an ideal site—elegant but discreet; roomy but not impersonal. Not only could it host all aspects of the business, it could host parties as well, without fear of alienating the neighbors. After a decade of more or less steady growth, Bound to Be the Best today boasts more than a half-dozen employees, including office manager Rumiko Hasegawa, seamstress Megan Rosenberg, and shipping clerk Natalie Taylor, and a solid reputation for supplying some of the finest garments, accoutrements, and accessories in the business. . . . Of course, the information on the cards is fictitious. There really is an Old Tully Road in eastern San Jose, and light industry does dominate the area—although there is no street number of 100 and no large plot with gracious house. | |||||
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Making a living as I do in the publishing industry, I’ve learned the ins and outs of such things as CMYK versus RGB, bleeds, trim sizes, spine thicknesses . . . and resolution and format. Every now and then I have to deal with someone who has learned none of these things, yet still attempts to work with them, resulting in unfortunately predictable disaster. So, just to make it crystal-clear—uh, sorry, couldn’t resist—here are details of “Tomorrow’s Girls”.
Resolution: The left half is at 300 ppi (pixels per inch) resolution; the right half is at 72 ppi resolution. The former is print-quality; the latter is most emphatically not and is in fact suitable only for viewing on a monitor. Format: The left half is lowest-quality JPEG; the right half is LZW-compressed TIFF. The latter is print-quality; the former is most emphatically not and is in fact suitable only for viewing on a monitor. Both were enlarged and resampled in GIF to permit viewing on the Web. | ||||
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This snug little floor plan is an exercise in minimalism, balancing size and expense against lifestyle requirements. The furnished version is designed with built-in furniture.
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Created for an on-line role-playing setting that never actually got started, this airship was designed for a world where technology and magic co-exist uneasily. Manse Wyrd created by Kim Liu and used with permission.
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This was commissioned for a graphic story project. The vessel’s bow is to the left, protected by a debrís shield of fused asteroid-mining tailings. Aft of that, a framework (hexagonal when seen from bow or stern) holds eight fifty-foot cargo boxes filled with forty-foot containers, as used on container ships and big rigs. The red engineering module contains a fusion ring, an FTL generator, and a contragravity drive. It and the blue habitat module have a beveled-hexagon cross-section. The slab-like green module supports secondary engineering systems and six short-range trans-atmospheric vehicles on hardpoints. Four shuttles are configured for passengers and two carry four cargo containers each.
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This VHS sleeve for a hypothetical and rather unusual Zig Zag Studios product was an interesting design challenge, done for a lark. Zig Zag created by Malcolme “Max Blackrabbit” Earle and used with permission.
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Starships designed for very different purposes by very different worlds at very different times using very different means of interstellar travel.
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A main battle tank using contragravity lift-and-drive is more likely to look sleek and aerodynamic than like a modern tank without treads. As well, given the interest with which the military is pursuing exoskeleta and legged vehicles, the nay-sayers’ argument that they are impractical under any and all circumstances would seem to be undermined somewhat.
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The referee described the player characters’ starship, Epymetheus, and the expedition insigne in some detail, so a sketch seemed appropriate.
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