Der-shing Helmer

Early access! In which Der makes a living doing odds and ends

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/whyalwayswins/thebook?ref=2jealg

Our project Why Always Wins just soft-launched! I'm posting it here about 2 hours before we start spreading it around for reals, just so our most special audiences (you guys) ...

MI 546 (early access page)

The robot went out to collect data, and has returned with his findings ;__;

This will be a 3 update week on the site, so 3 updates here this week as well, woo

MI 545 (early access page)

Kick her into the lava yeah or nah

MI 544 (early access page)

D: ?

MI 543 (early access page)

TFW your weird cave adventures are maybe coming to an end but also your bitter billion-year-old shark alien friend is back to stalking you for some reason (hashtag relateable)

MI 542 (early access page)

FINALLY, SOME VISUAL METAPHORS AROUND HERE am I right

In other news: it is fun to paint dramatic lava lakes

MI 541 (early access page)

I could write something pithy here, but mostly my thoughts while making this page were "bitch get out of that waterfall"

Okay obligatory pithy comment: Mike is being rational for the first time in the entire comic!! Taking care of yourself is the first step in being able to take care of others!!!! LEVi is too secure in himself and will not stop dunking on everyone!!!!!!

Spinel

I don't draw fanart! I don't draw fanart!!  i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob 

MI 540 (early access page)

He's the best!!

MI 539 (early access page)

Last early access page for now, next pages will go up when the main site updates (this week, that is weds and fri, then tues-thurs until the final scenes). 

Bex's role in the comic has been, from the beginning "the imperfect mother." It's a theme that carries through the entire story. Part of the reason I decided to write this comic is because of the disintegration of my relationship with my own mom. It's been the primary source of pain in my life for the last decade or so, and imp...

MI538 (early access page)

Maybe this is kind of a dick thing to say but I don't really like stories about hope, where hope saves the day. Sort of feels to me like one is relying on something unlikely happening, a confluence of events that ideally works out in your future. Relying on chance feels like desperation to me, which like I said is kind of dickish but that's just my perspective. 

Curiosity has gotten me through before though. There's always a part that just wants to know how it turns out, even if it...

MI537 (early access page)

This scene was tough! I wanted Mike to openly admit that the only reason he didn't kill himself is because Bex fortuitously needed a favor. I think people who have been there understand the mix of gratitude and shame and feeling of failing at one thing you maybe do have a choice in. When things get better that feeling turns to mostly gratitude, but they're still in the cave so idk if he's there yet

Feels good to be back~

I've been kinda majorly absent from Patreon because finishing Mare has been such a huge stress and weight on my back, I haven't been able to work on anything else without feeling tremendous guilt and it really shows in my lack of posts here... HOWEVER, I'm back now!!!

I'm going to be posting page 3 days ahead for all $5+ Patrons starting in like 3 mins and then on every update day on the Mare site, you'll get an advanced page here too until the end of the comic. 

I have some ...

Court Magician

Eh, while I'm here, a fanartish sketch I did for a short story I read recently. Haven't painted like this (on one layer, like a barbarian) for years, was fun to just kinda go nuts with the colors.

Boy howdy

Been super busy, all of my creativity and motivation that was completely absent for the last 12 months came back at once and I'm back to hyperfocus mode. I have a TON of work I owe because I sucked so hard for so long, so I'm slowly getting through that... one of the big things I needed to check off my list was the cover for my stupid late book, which I am finally done with... It's most certainly the largest and most complicated painting I've done and I'm glad to be finished. Little preview a...

Pseudomedusa 1

While moving the last week, had a vague idea of a series of pseudomedusas whose hair doesn't quite quality for full medusa status. This one is sporting a head of Bipes biporus, which is a leggy amphisbaenid, so unfortunately doesn't pass muster.

The Elevator

Another find while packing up, an horror short I thumbed on a stupidly-shaped piece of cardstock. I have like 5-6 of these small horror comics floating around in various scrappy forms, maybe I should actually like... finish one... 

Failed book prototype

I'm making a huge move and packing up my entire life at the moment, and found this book... This is a rare one. To be honest I completely forgot it existed. 

Back when I was starting out, I got preyed upon by a terrible publisher. They put out low quality print products, didn't let me proof anything that was being made before it went to print, had me doing most of my own book pac...

Marcille

Been reading Dungeon Meshi and really enjoying it! Marcille is my favorite for having the best reactions, but all the characters are really likeable. I took a long break from reading non-webcomics so it's nice to get back into it.

And a quick colored version, just fiddling around with desaturation a bit

Bonus 10% off coupon code!

Sup

I am moving soon, and doing a book sale to cut down the weight a bit more... all my books are currently 15% off but you guys can take another 10% off by using the code:

catdrugs

We have to drive 8-10 hours with the cat in the car... he can go about 8-10 seconds before he starts freaking out inside his carrier so we're going to the vet thi...

Palico commission~

Continuing with the theme of random art from the last few months that I've neglected to share... a commission I did for a Kickstarter backer (and good friend), Russ~ He wanted a commission of his Palico Tiercel, which I think is from a game where apparently cats are samurais? I am not really sure what's going on there, but I did my best to stylize his good boy and give him the ridiculously gigantic googly eyes he deserves. 

Oh you're an artist huh? Can you draw me

If you're an artist you know how it is, your annoying family member or friend will casually violate international torture referendums and ask you to design a business card or draw their portrait for them, and now you have to be the bad guy and explain that your labor costs money and is, actually, a real job... so I was at my fiance's cousin's wedding a few months ago and his uncle (who is a bit volatile) asked me to draw his face "like a cartoon." NORMALLY this is the worst ever, but I was af...

The proud ambassador

Of course, there was no such thing as a perfect metaphor. The Martian envoy had availed himself of every opportunity to practice shapeshifting; adding  a segment here, adjusting a proportion there, until it was time for the big competition. Incredibly, out of thousands of applicants, the committee had favored his design and appointed him the official Martian ambassador to Earth! Unfortunately he not been able to meet the late Earthling ambassador in person before it passed, but he had hi...

Chapter 6 Cover

Hello again~

I'm going to skip over the elephant in the room and just jump into the process breakdown for this page (we can paint the elephant a nice color later)

I have been raring to get my hands on this chapter for a while! It's one of the chapters that required the most rewriting of all the existing chapters (with Chapter 4 coming in close second... you can read the original version of Chapter 4 2018-12-27 19:29:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Pulse PDF

Elements Fire won the Eisner last night for Best Anthology!

I was really happy to be a part of this groundbreaking anthology featuring diverse stories from the minds of creators of color, and it continues racking up accolades, having won both an Ignatz and an IPPY in the past few months. 

This comic is sci-fi, cuz that's what I do, and some stuff might seem a little familiar since I was t...

dadpost (v minor spoilers)

Happy fathers day~

I don't have a relationship with my dad. He is around, just not very invested in fathering. He lives about 5 mins away from me but we haven't talked in 5+ years, for the most part he is the kind of person that checks out and lets other people handle things, and left our family when I was in my teens. Even before that I don't really recall being "fathered." For a while I wasn't actually sure what fathering meant tbh. I knew what maternal behavior was from experience and media...

How 2 cover

I hate making covers XD They have to be painted at a large size and my computer reeeeally doesn't like it. So like in most situations, it's a lot easier to make the final piece after doing a lot of thumbnail iterating. 

The first image above is my KS preview image which I made a few weeks ahead of the KS campaign (I brought this preview with me to ECCC to show anyone who asked about it)

Thi...

Book process still going, cover thoughts

Hi hi, I'm deep in crunch... been pulling 16 hour days the last 2 months and have to get an insane, likely impossible amount of work done in the next 20 days, haha. In all likelihood will fail and miss my deadline, but sometimes that's just how it goes. A big part of being an artist, and a human, is going through these rougher times with a good attitude. It's nice to have the opportunity to really do my best and know I'll pass or fail based on my own merit.

I'm picking off some random tasks to...

Greetings from Book Editing hell

Hi friends

Hope you are doing great, I am doing pretty okay right now. I apologize for my absence recently, but most of what I've been doing has been extremely boring and hard to share because it is so boring... example above. Literally going over pages many many times trying to improve it in tiny ways that almost nobody will notice (but that tends to be the difference between an ok product and a really nice product). 

I'll be updating a lot more from here on out though; I have a po...

Making project videos: some thoughts

So, my Mare Internum Kickstarter is doing well so far (thanks to readers and the powers that be (ie readers)), and a lot of that is due to the massive amounts of planning I do before launching any sort of project. One of the things that took the greatest amount of time to plan was the Kickstarter video

I consider the video one of the most important parts ...