Empires Fan Art: Ink! Ink! Ink! (Patreon)

Back when I was doing Empires for Yarf, I would draw the pages by pencil and then send them to another artist for "inking". This was the way it was done in the Old Times. The artist would apply ink to my lines, often bringing their own style to the pages in the process (which I enjoyed). The pencil lines would then be erased afterwards and the final product printed in the pages of Yarf! fanzine. 

I developed a bit of a reputation as a harsh inking taskmaster, mostly because of the amount of pages I would give to a person with about a month or so to finish it before the deadlines. In truth, once I sent pages to another artist I just let it go; I never called or checked in or anything. But the image of me constantly putting people in Lotion Pits and forcing them to ink was hilarious and a lot of comics got published in the pages of Yarf! from inkers who were messing with me. Above: my then-girlfriend, also an artist, pressed into service.

Bryce Nakagawa, another inker, sent in this.

Another Bryce Nakagawa one. I really liked his inking. 

Bryce realizes he bit off more than he can chew.

"Borderline" was going to be a feature in another fanzine called "Mythagoras", based out of Tampa, Florida. The original inker was going to be a young woman named Maggie deAlarcon, but she was also pursuing her own story and realized she could not commit to both projects. By the time I got around to doing "Borderline" myself, I was actually comfortable enough with my own inking I was willing to do it on my own. But then, by that time, I was also ready to move on and not do "furry" stuff any more. 

Kinda too bad, Maggie's inking was excellent but at the same time if she had decided to work with my on "Borderline" I probably would have kept working in the furry genre even though I was kind of losing interest in it and eager to move on to other things... so maybe it was for the best. 

More later!