The time has come.  I've waited on Eden for a long time, but they've had some severe logjam issues for the past year or so, and with the end of the Buffy/Angel license, it's unlikely that this will ever be published in its current form anyway.

(That said, if the Eden guys read it and they really like it, I'm totally open to publishing it or reworking the rules into another product)

I'm a big Ghostbusters fan.  I loved the first movie, really liked the second movie, and loved both iterations of the cartoon.  I played the hell out of the old WEG version of Ghostbusters and GBI.  I wore the pips off two ghost dice and repainted both of them, twice.

I'm also a big fan of the Cinematic Unisystem, which should be news to nobody.  And, while I liked the original Ghostbusters RPG, I don't think it's the only possible take on the material.  WEG Ghostbusters played up the slapstick elements of the setting for a game that's a really humorous romp.  But the movies, and particularly the cartoons, remind me more of the light-hearted side of Buffy and Angel.  Danger is a little more serioius, and the world is a little less comedic, while still being witty.

So, back in July of 2006, I wrote a conversion of Ghostbusters to Buffy/Angel.  "Spook Stopers Inc" is pretty much GBI, dropped into the Buffyverse, which isn't a perfect fit, but it gets by.  If I were really going to run a Spook Stoppers game, I'd probably remove all the Buffyverse-specific stuff and just use the rules for a more ghost-heavy, Champion-light setting.

I, not having Acrobat, had no easy way to set this up as a PDF, so my friend, Lisa Hartjes did the honors.  I actually DO have a way to do PDFs now, so I might do a slightly spiffier one with graphics and stuff somewhere down the line, but for now this one will get the point across.

spookstoppers.pdf (333.63 KB)

Another day, another preview.  Thursday the comic starts.

This one is an unused panel.  I went with a slightly different style for the comic, a little less heavy on the ink.

Oops, I went off to watch Pan's Labyrinth last night (good movie) and forgot to give you another Domino Girls teaser.

Dominio Girls is about a couple of girls who practice somewhat Voodoo-inspired magic, so they're bound to run into ghosts sooner or later.  I'm still working on how I'll portray ghosts to get a hazy, translucent effect in pen and ink with relatively little shading.  I think the second one works pretty well.  I just need to smooth out the transitions between "solid" and "misty."

I have added two new Qualities to the Unisystem Qualities section: "Gift of the Gab" and "Natural Born Killer."  (I really gotta stop with the humorous Quality titles)

Both were inspired by Jack of All Trades from One of the Living.  As I am now running an All Flesh Must Be Eaten campaign, you can expect to see more of this kind of thing.

This one is more experimentation, blending pencils with inks for a little more depth of tone.  At the size and speed I'm using, extensive stippling or crosshatching isn't practical, so I'm exploring other options.

The anatomy is a little screwed up.  I inked this one in a hurry.  I'm fairly happy with the general effect.  Computer coloring (grayscaling?) will probably work out better, if I can build up enough skills to be able to do that in a reasonable timeframe.

Domino Girls goes live on February 1.  I'll have to see if I have enough stuff for three more previews.  I'll try to do at least two.  And it's really time for some more non DG content on this blog.  I'll have to try to find some of that.

Two pictures today, an early sketch of Diana, and one of Phoebe that's been colorized.

Here's Diana, although I got somewhat better at drwing her hair.  Sharp-eyed readers might notice faint vertical lines marring the drawing.  (They showed up better before I compressed the picture for the web.)  That's because I do a lot of my sketches on the backs of pieces of paper I print out at work.  Reuising is recycling, after all.  I cut the paper in half to make it fit neatly in my workspace, which doesn't leave a lot of room for big sketches, but it's good for thumbnails and just playing around.




And here's Phoebe, who actually has arms in the comic, but does not yet appear in color.  We're still working on a way to do color that doesn't take too long.  I'm a really slow artist with a full time job, and I don't want to spend every spare moment working on the comic, so we're limited in what we can do.

Diana and Phoebe originated as WitchCraft characters (further verifying that Eden Studios owns my soul), and were originally identical tiwns.  They became fraternal twins for the comic because that would make it easier to tell them apart.  That also meant I could make Phoebe brighter and more flamboyant, and Diana darker and more somber, in keeping with their respective personalities.

Okay, time for some more preview artwork.

That's the gas station I posted a map of earlier.  The maps even came in a little handy.

Beginning in February (2/01/07, at 12:01 AM Eastern Time, I believe, but don't quote me on that) I will be providing artwork for another web comic - one significantly different from David's Nearly Adequate Web Comic.  Don't worry, though.  Nothing will interfere with the rigid schedule of updates I'm currently maintaining for DNAWC.

The new comic is called Domino Girls, and you can check it out at dominogirls.lisahartjes.com

Domino Girls is a modern occult story about a twin sisters who travel the country, playing jazz and blues and fighting monsters.

Here's an early peek at some of the art.  I'll post more later.