Cosmo: Unfinished Comic

Pen, brush and ink on waxed cardboard, c. 1981; 11.75" x 17.5"

Though no title is displayed on the first page, the following story is called "Sunspot" (the name of the futuristic city).  This unfinished comic, c. 1981, was drawn with pen, brush and ink, and lettered with a felt tip pen.  It takes place immediately prior to "Set the Controls" (1981-82), before Ay-Korne had his forearms cut off while battling Cosmo.

Sunspot pg. 1

Sunspot pg. 2

Sunspot pg. 3

Sunspot pg. 4

Sunspot pg. 5

Sunspot pg. 6

Sunspot pg. 7

"The Land of the Land", c. 1981, takes place late in Cosmo's career, when he was around 40.  The world has become a post-apocalyptic ruin, and he's escaped the city (an almost impossible feat) to live out what little might be left of his life up north in the woods, where he came from.  The radioactive/chemical rain has turned his hair green, and special goggles are needed to protect his eyes from the environment.

I did this page in high school, during a spare (I had a lot of them).  Blue ballpoint pen and pencil crayons.

I have no idea where this story with the rock tower was going.  That's Cosmo running wildly up in the top corner.  Pen, brush and ink, c. 1981, on perforated paper, 10" x 16.5".

This futuristic dystopia was abandoned after the first page.  The blank space was intended for a caption.  Cosmo doesn't appear on this page.  Drawn directly with blue marker.  1982.

I did an untitled, crudely-drawn Cosmo story in pencil, digest-size, 18 pages, on August 31, 1983, in about three hours.  This page was an attempt at re-creating that comic on huge sheets of paper.  I didn't get far, and this is all that remains.  Cosmo is in jail, a veritable dungeon, chained to a brick wall.  That's him punching a guard in the face and snapping his chain simultaneously.  Pen, brush and ink, c. 1987.

For more information on Cosmo/Robert Johnson, see an earlier post "Set the Controls".

The Dial-Up Drawings

Beach Girl

 

I had dial-up internet until 2009.  That meant speeds of 40 or 50 kilobits per second...if I was lucky.  Waiting for a page to load took forever.  It was tedious and aggravating.  I had piles of notepads with white paper, 5 1/4" x 8", thick stock.  I always kept one between the keyboard and the screen, to make notes or doodle, always with a ball point pen.  In the last few months of 2008 I started drawing something more than a scribble, using one of my Staedtler felt tip pens.  It was better than staring at the screen, waiting.

It was a good exercise, because the drawings were extemporaneous and, as I was using a pen rather than a pencil, I couldn't do any erasing; if I made a mistake, all I could do was curse myself, or work around it.  Not that it mattered: they were just doodles that no one would ever see.  Till now.  Here's a few of the better ones from those last few months of dial-up.  One and a half inches of the paper in those pads is taken up by the company logo, so the illustrations are actually 5" x 6 1/2" or less.  Arranged in alphabetical order.

Chamber Maid

Cloud

Cyclops

Dungeon

Eyeball

Geologist

Goblin

Lizard

Lost In Thought

Red Riding Hood

Repairs

Rowboat

Smile

Spear

Spiral Eyes

Stone

Tough Bull

Up And At 'Em

Wild Man

Wrench