Cavegirl Combat, week 6

Action at last! (Thanks for waiting...)

Mika's and Oko's bodies slam together as they finally lock up for battle.

Custom videos

I have never tried to order a custom video from a catfight producer. I always assumed my scripts would be too elaborate to be affordable ('Princess Alannara slams her fists into Space Ranger Jennifer's exposed breasts as an Imperial War Cruiser bears down on Jennifer's starship.') or that the results would be unsatisfactory for the money invested.  ('Why does that Imperial War Cruiser look like a pie pan?')

So, I'd like to ask you: Have you ever ordered a custom video? How much did you spend (please feel free to answer anonymously)? How many performers were involved? Were you satisfied with what you got? Looking back on it, what would you have done differently, if anything?

And if you answer, let's please not get into criticizing individual performers or producers. I don't want to this to turn into one of 'those' discussions.

"I'll try anything once"

I'm chatting with two women on a dating site who, in their questionnaires, answered the question, "How open are you to trying new things in bed?" with the multiple-choice response "I'll try anything once."

I hope I get to find out whether that's true.

Cavegirl Combat, week 5

This week: Mika and Oko finalize the rules for their battle and face off to see who will drag whom back to the cave as a trophy.

Can I really show that?

Cavegirl Combat is the first story I've drawn where I've made it public as I go. In the past, I drew stories with the notion already halfway in my mind that no one would see them. This time,  I'm committed to publishing it.

But I continue to draw in a vacuum; no one sees these pages or offers any kind of feedback until they're up on the blog.  And every so often, I step back from what I've drawn – pages you haven't seen yet – and say to myself, "Hmmm. Can I really show that?"

I'm not drawing anything I haven't drawn before, but sometimes I'm drawing it in a way I haven't drawn it before. Maybe the action is more aggressive than I usually draw. Maybe the closeups are tighter. Maybe there are more bodily fluids involved.

And sometimes it's stuff that's probably biologically impossible. One of the advantages of comics versus video.

There's no one around here who can look at this stuff in progress and say, "Oh, that's sexy," or "Oooh, that's gross." (And no, I'm not sending any of you sneak previews. Sorry.)

Ideally, this would be the job of my sexy thirty-something catfighting girlfriend, who would respond to my drawings with a 'meh', or by dragging me by my shirt collar to the floor for an on-the-spot wrestling match. That, unfortunately, is not happening right now.

I subscribe to a blog called inappropriate.co (no 'm'). The art is always gorgeous, which is why I read it, but the subject matter is often, at least for me, stomach-churning. But it reminds me that whatever it is I'm drawing,  there's more extreme stuff out there.

More on commissions/customs

I have had several inquiries about custom art and commissions since this blog launched.

To reiterate something I wrote previously, the issue for me is the price I could charge for commissions versus what I would make just doing regular freelance art. I spend anywhere from 12 to 18 hours on every panel of Cavegirl Combat. In my local commercial art market, those would be worth a few hundred dollars each.

I don't mind doing that as a labor of love (or lust), but I can't bring myself to spend that kind of time on a commissioned piece that's probably going to bring me less than a hundred dollars.

If I can develop a style or a workflow that can get me to doing a page in four or five hours, then I'll consider commissions.

And even then, they won't be cheap.

I owe the blog some art

Here's a panel from an unfinished story circa 2005. I shared some of this story with foxyfighter.com, but I don't think this was one of the panels.

I was trying to work in a looser style with this, but I wasn't satisfied with the results.

Anyone know anything about Pixiv?

Became aware of this a few days ago. It seems like deviantART, only with far fewer pictures per member. Then it occurred to me that maybe I have to join to see entire galleries. I can't figure it out.

TOM

link: deviantART

I've been wanting to write something for awhile about catfight manga. But this is a subject about which I know almost nothing, except for what I like and don't like. Generally speaking, I don't like cartoony catfight art, but I find the best manga is extremely sexy.

The art at left is a snippet from one of my favorite artists of this genre, TOM. It's from a series of pages he posted to his deviantART page. Click on the photo to see the whole work.

He wrote that he doesn't especially like the way they turned out, and he's going to redraw them. Which I think is a shame, because it looks to me like they turned out pretty well.

One of the criticisms I have of my own art is that the characters often seem to lack energy. This is generally the result of the way I've posed them. TOM seems to get energy into his figures in a way that I'm not.

Does this sound like you?

You see a story on the web about the latest and greatest 'lifelike' Japanese girl robot, and you're pissed because they still can't be made to fight each other.

The new disclaimer

You'll notice there's a new disclaimer permanently affixed to the top of this column.

I added this because I noticed the search term that most frequently brings visitors to this site from Google (and, to a far lesser degree, Bing) is "wildebeest art".

All I need is to have some middle school kid writing a term paper on 'Great Wildebeest Paintings of Africa' accidentally stumble onto this site and be turned into a perpetually frustrated catfight kinkster like myself.

Of course, I have the 'Adult Content' warning page activated.

I wish there were a way to sort of do reverse-SEO and have this page not show up in certain searches.

Bah. FML.

You know, there are other things that turn me on besides catfighting. But there's nothing that turns me on as reliably as catfighting.

I've paid my dues in my life. I've worked hard, been mostly responsible, treated people with dignity and respect regardless of race, creed, color or station in life.

Is it too much to ask to have a couple of sexy, 30-ish women come over to my house and fight in cavegirl and/or superheroine outfits over which one has sex with me first? Is that unreasonable? Am I not entitled, after all I've done?

I think the government needs to establish a bailout program for us. Something where we can just say, "Look, we're horny. We need the government to send a couple of hot busty fighting women (or, for tag team fans, four hot busty fighting women) over to give our lives purpose and meaning."

But the politicians don't care about us. Noooo, they only care about the lobbyists, and the rich and powerful. I'd bet Wall Street can get all the catfighting babes it wants or needs. But us, the honest working class fans?

Nothing.

This is an outrage.

Cavegirl Combat, week 4

Here's week 4 of Cavegirl Combat.

I told you there was a long setup. I hope there's enough sexy trash talk to keep you entertained until we get to some actual fighting.

Does this sound like you?

You go to a new website, and no matter what the general subject is, the first thing you type in the search engine is 'catfight'?

Your input requested

I'm curious about your reaction to some of the technical aspects of Cavegirl Combat. I'm far enough into it that I'm not going to make any changes at this point, but I'd like to know your thoughts before I begin another project.

I'd like to know, first of all, if you're comfortable with the size and shape of the pages.

Are they easy to follow presented horizontally, instead of the traditional vertical comic book format?

And are the pages too large or too small for your screen? Is the lettering readable?

When I started this, I was simply trying to post one page a week of what would end up being like a comic book. But now, it feels like it's starting to take on some of the aspects of an old-fashioned Sunday newspaper strip, and I'm  wondering whether to move further in that direction. It's a little hard to do plotting when the entire narrative is one long fight – but would it be more interesting if it went in that direction? (It may be too early to answer this question. I forget that I'm much farther into the story than you are as a reader.)

Even if you don't normally comment, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

100,000

This blog hit 100,000 page views Wednesday. That's in 10 1/2 weeks.

That number should not be confused with individual visitors. That number is a little over 19,000.

I'm grateful for the worldwide interest.

I guess I shouldn't laugh...

...but someone found this blog today by doing a Google search for "Rockwell Welch".

Moaning and groaning

One of the issues I've had to deal with over the years is what kinds of sounds my fighting women should make.

In real life, to judge from YouTube videos, it's "shit!", "ow!", "fuck!" and the like.

In mainstream comics, it's "HURGH!", "AIEEE!" and so on.

Personally, I prefer sort of orgasmic moans during a catfight.  It ought to sound like they're really getting off on it, whether they're winning or losing.

But it's tough to fill panel after panel with "Oooh!" and "Ohhh!" and "Aaah!".  I throw in some "Unnh"s and "Nuhh"s along the way, but even that seems insufficient.

 I saw a French comic in Heavy Metal years ago in which the heroine, having been smacked around by the villain, is lying on the ground, with the dialog, "HHH..." "HHH..." "HHH..." "HHH..." floating above her in individual balloons. I thought that was extremely hot, and I've wanted to use it ever since.

Maybe I'll work it into Cavegirl Combat.

Cavegirl Combat, week 3

For those of you wondering when I would get around to using that Lake Powell-inspired drawing I posted several weeks back, here it is.

Yes, I'm still setting up the story. Please be patient; this isn't a 1960's photocopy four-pager.

Rough sketch

I usually don't have the rough sketches of my stuff still around, but in this case I did. Here's an early draft of the panel I posted yesterday.

Until Monday

More of lingerie girl/jungle girl.

From 1999.

Ooops!

Some of you may have caught a glimpse of an upcoming Cavegirl Combat episode. A Blogger hiccup posted it as it was uploaded, rather than on its scheduled publication date. If you saw it, please don't share it anywhere or reveal what happens!

Getting comments

Slid has an interesting discussion under way at his blog, BackSlid. Well, at least, I think it's interesting. The question he raises is, "How Do Bloggers Get People to Comment?"

Several erotic artists/cartoonists, including me, have jumped in to talk about how they engage their readers.

I might mention, by the way, that I'm very gratified by the participation of those of you who comment here. We artists all need feedback, and to know that people are actually responding to our work.

I owe the blog some art

A random breast punch from the living room sofa fight I never finished. Done sometime between 1999 and 2005.