HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

Octoberfair has returned to Clarksburg! Based on the German festival of a similar name, adults are invited to partake in food and beer sampling while the kids run around and play. Since this is an Americanized version of the event, naturally the events lean heavily on Halloween theming more than fall itself. Hence carnival attractions like The Haunted House, Down the Zombie, a FEARis Wheel, and of course the Creepy Corn Maze! It’s here we find Bumper and Xena, the two out to have fun as Crocie feeds on pumpkin-spiced funnel cake in the main tent. Bumper would’ve stayed with his fat friend for it not for Xena presenting her pal with a wager. Should he escape the corn maze before her, without the aid of any of his phantom powers, he may pick their Halloween costumes for this year. Having the perfect costumes in mind, Bumper accepted his alien friend’s terms, thinking this would be a piece of pumpkin pie. About a minute in was enough to prove the little ghoul wrong. He was constantly set upon by scare actors whenever he wasn’t lost in the paths of corn. Just as the floating marshmallow was about to throw in the towel, a rustling noise made its way through the stalks. His fear was immediately replaced by interest when the source of the noise turned out to be a black cat named Kiki. Like always, it didn’t take long for Bumper to befriend the feline, who led Bumper out of the maze. Xena followed close behind, congratulating her best buddy on a job well done. When asked how he did it, the ghost revealed he had some help. Yet when he turned to introduce Xena to Kiki, the cat was gone. What happened to her?

Who knows, cuz she’s not gonna be a recurring character. Sorry folks, the Samp Gang doesn’t need a pet. Their quota of mostly silent, largely adorable companions has already been met by the giggling lil’ ghouly himself. Adding a cat to the mix would just complicate things and draw attention away from our main four heroes. If I’m feeling nice I’ll have Kiki pop up in future Halloween pictures, but for now I just wanted to draw Bumper being friendly to a black cat. Personally I’ve always thought it was weird how they were associated with bad luck when they’re such adorable fuzzballs. Considering Crocie’s stories are about finding kindred spirits in the most peculiar places, I figured a black cat would fit the bill nicely. Of course I had to name it after one of my favorite cartoon witches, but I had trouble deciding on either Luz or Kiki. Only after I ran the names and sketch by my friend @the-pale-servant did I settle for Kiki. I hope you all enjoy her and this DUDEL!

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

Deep in the forests of France is the home of the fae folk or fairies. Many travelers have wandered through the woods to find them, few have ever found it. Save for a visiting Italian pizza maker searching the forest for fresh ingredients. He knew for sure that Escargot Pizza was gonna drive folks wild! What he didn’t know was that he was being watched. After days of being stalked he finally met his follower, Villa, the Queen of the Faes. In no time at all the two had built up a rapport, enough for the pink fairy to show this yellow stranger the hidden gateway to her world. Sadly, it was this show of affection that led both lovers to their doom. Discovering that the pizza maker discovered the secret to finding the Faes, they kidnapped him and used him as leverage against the Queen. Either he forfeit her friend’s life or show them where her kingdom lied. In the end it was for not. Once the hidden world was revealed, the Italian was butchered along with all the fairies, their magic siphoned off for various elixirs and tonics. Now the Queen was truly alone. And angry. She set out to find the poachers in order to give them a taste of their own medicine. To this day it’s said you can hear their screams echoing throughout the forest, their killer still mourning the loss of her beloved.

My, what a dark story. Especially since Fairy Villa originated in a humorous little follow up to 10 Minutes on Halloween. Not wanting Pizza Monster’s girlfriend to be left out of the fun, my friend Fantasynarium quickly made a comic where the ice cream monster had a surprise for her boyfriend waiting at her creamery. Said surprise being this awesome costume that nearly gave PM an aneurysm. Despite the awesome design developed by my friend, I only drew Villa in the ensemble once afterwards. As such I knew I had to bring the Ice Cream Fairy back for this year’s DUDEL event. My goal was to tweak as little as possible given how lovely the original outfit was. In the end it turned out great, especially with the choice in colors. Like the other DUDELZ the rule is only one color allowed, meaning everything else had to be grayscale. Doing so here gave the character a kind of goth look that I oddly dig. I may have to draw more goth Villa in the future. For now though, I hope you all enjoy this long awaited return of Villa!

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE: Alecia wanted to try something new this Halloween season. By that I mean she wanted to get out of the house and not binge all thirteen Camp Carnage films. Again. Most of them were garbage anyway. No, there was something far more fun waiting for her! She just had to find it first. It didn’t take her long. Her friend Clark contacted Alecia informing her of an upcoming costume contest with a hundred dollar prize! A prize the masked maniac was determined to win! How fortunate that her spotted friend recently introduced her to a great show featuring a feisty femme fatale perfect for cosplaying! Skin tight military suits for the win!

Honestly, the backstory I make up for this DUDEL doesn’t matter in the slightest. This is simply long overdue vengeance. For the last two years my masked buddy Alec (@burningthrucelluloid) did his own Inktober challenge in the form of Dresstober. Instead of a list of prompts to base your art on, the artists in question are given a multitude of preselected outfits to dress their characters in. Or in the case of my cinephile companion, his characters, a few of mine, and me. You see, for whatever reason my friends get a big kick out of gender-swapping me. All because I dressed up as Sailor Moon the one time. OraTheRebelKitsune, I hope you’re happy cuz you technically started all this! Does it bug me? Yeah, kinduv’. Much as I love it when my friends make any pictures of or for me, it gets pretty annoying when none of them draw me as who I am. Alec is by far the worst offender, spending an astonishing amount of money for people to draw me sporting cleavage with their own gravitational pull. Earlier this year he paid one artist named fallen20xx to draw me as Ms. Marvel from Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I had gotten Alec hooked to the show while also gushing over Carol’s exceptionally sexy legs. Should’ve known that’d come back to bite me. Just like my friend should’ve known his constant drooling over Maria Hill and Abigail Brand would be his undoing. The latter had a more interesting outfit, hence why my best buddy is wearing it here. Also included is an actual quote he said while watching the show! By the way, I did all this before he paid for fallen’s commission, so really I was totally in the right to sketch this. In any case, I hope you all enjoy this sweet slice of revenge as much as Alec does! XP

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

How does an alien hailing from the planet Garbanzo manage to run a successful drive-in business in the age of streaming services? By not being an idiot. After buying a former run-down truck stop turned drive thru, Ziggy realized his enterprise had to cater to a niche audience. A niche audience that, like him, realizes the best way to watch B-Movies is on a big-screen from the comfort of your car. It’s why the Robot Monster goes to such great lengths to keep everything running smoothly. Thus everyday he sweeps the parking lots, pops fresh popcorn, and inspects his projectors. Gotta make sure the movie can actually be watched, am I right? Can’t very well enjoy The Blob when your equipment’s possessed by evil and spewing out blood like a gore geyser! It’s why he and his wife Wanda make sure to sharpen the chainsaw whenever possible. That’s just smart business!

It’s also an excuse for me to pay tribute to Evil Dead. Specifically the scene near the end where Ash (Bruce Campbell) stumbles around the cellar of the cabin, looking for buckshot only to find more blood. The poor man has the stuff dumped onto his head by the gallon via leaky pipes before he’s seen quivering in front of an antique projector. More of the red stuff leaks onto the lens, making it look like the whole world is turning a creepy shade of crimson around our hapless hero. According to Campbell, the scene was meant as a tribute to one of the production’s backers, Andy Grainger. Thank goodness for Andy then, cuz it’s easily the most ironic moment in the movie, even serving as the cover for the comic adaptation years later. It at least serves as the perfect visual for Sam Raimi’s style of directing. Weird camera techniques, buckets of blood, and Bruce Campbell’s sanity shredded to pieces. Now here it all is in my tribute to the films starring Clarksburg’s resident B-Movie expert, Wonder Ziggy. I hope to draw more of this crazy character soon, but for now I hope you all enjoy this DUDEL!

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

PS: In case anybody's wondering where yesterday's DUDEL is, sorry folks, my schedule got wonky. I plan on re-releasing that soon, but first I gotta finish a commission for my friend AND cleaning my entire house to bottom. My entire body is sore, though given Ziggy's circumstance, maybe I shouldn't complain. XD

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

Bumper is a mystery. Nobody knows when he died, how long ago the deed was done, or who did it. All we know now is that he is a child-like spirit who can only speak one word: Boo. Despite not knowing much about his own origin, the floating marshmallow is more than contempt with living an adventurous life with his family whenever not making new friends. However, one shouldn’t be caught assuming the friendly specter doesn’t have a dark side. It rarely comes out, but is a sight to behold nonetheless. Revealed only when the spirit is angry or agitated, the small spook becomes a hulking, haunting mass of fear! Gone are his pudgy digits in favor of sharp claws, his round, caring eyes swapped out for white, lifeless dots surrounded by a ghoulish gray, even his Boo becomes a deafening wail! For others this form proves frightening. For the Swamp Gang it’s a sign that the little ghostly goober needs a nap.

Just like this drawing needs an explanation! Back in 2017 I had sketched a ‘scary’ version of Bumper for no particular reason. Whether it was an idea for a story or just a random scribbling didn’t really matter, so the idea was left behind. That is until June of this year when the Dungeon Moron @burningthrucelluloid decided to pull the wool out from under me. During the Curse of Strahd campaign, Crocie managed to find his otherworldly companion within the titular blood sucker’s domicile. However, by then a week had passed and Strahd had gaslit the spirit into thinking the reptile had abandoned him. Why Bumper would believe that when the vampire was the one who torched his original body and held him hostage for all the time is anybody’s guess. Gaps in logic aside, the floating marshmallow transformed a dark, snarling, horrendous version of himself Alec referred to as 'Dark Bumper'. Making it all the more spookier was the fact that I hadn't shown him my sketch until after that session. It was after doing so I realized I shouldn't let a cool design go to waste, thus utilizing it for this DUDEL. Here’s hoping you all enjoy it and that Bumper is really just a double agent.

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HAVING SAID ALL THAT: Two Bumper DUDELZ in a row? Jee Clark, I love the undead goober but don't you have other characters to draw? Yes, and I do plan on drawing more of them soon. However, do to prior art projects demanding my attention, there won't be any more DUDELZ for the next few days. This was the last one I had in the reserves, scheduled to be posted later on this month, but I didn't wanna leave you folks hanging. So here's one last DUDEL before we enter a temporary pause. 

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

All Hallow’s Eve has arrived in the Big Apple. For many it’s a time for tricks and treats. For the Knights of the Square Table, it means overtime. While a handful of their colleagues attended to other affairs, AH, 102, ZO-E, and LAS-E were out on patrol when they got the call from Greenwich Village. Much like the parade held there every year, Halloween served as a perfect excuse for some psycho to make their move. Our heroes arrived prepared for the worst of trouble. What they couldn’t predict was one of their own being turned against them. AH certainly couldn’t. While surveying the crowd in the hopes to find their foe, a strange fog overcame and overwhelmed the blind bot. It forced her down to the ground, crying out in pain as a mysterious force transformed her. Her fingers crept out into claws, her face sprouted into a snout, her figure became far bigger. By the time her friends arrived on the scene it was too late: the AH Wolf was born! Compelled by the mysterious force, she swatted her colleagues away under the assumption they were the real threat. Whatever was manipulating AH had turned her into a monster. One that required the rest of our heroes to drop their plans to help their pal. Now with the magical might of EMIL-E, the Knights of the Square Table must turn AH back to normal and figure out who's behind all of this before it’s too late. Can our heroes save the night?

Even if they can’t, this was yet another fun DUDEL to draw. It’s also an idea I’ve had locked away in my mind for the longest time. You can tell because I first drew this character variation back in 2016, back when I was still in CTI. I drew that along with an idea for another spoopy sketch we’ll be seeing later this week, but clearly it was in need of a much needed update. At the very least I knew I wanted to draw this fun take on a werewolf howling atop one of the Chrysler Building eagles, which seems like prime real estate for monster posing. Seriously, if that hasn’t been done in a movie yet then somebody has to make it happen! AH will keep it warm for you until you do. Otherwise there’s not much to say about the redesign, since I stayed fairly faithful to the original with a few tweaks here and there. Really the most interesting aspect of this piece was when I drew it. There was a full moon out a few nights ago and I took that as a sign that I just had to draw this. The following night got even stranger with the arrival of a Blood Moon. Not only was the moon full, but not like Sandy Claws it was huge and red! According to my friend @Void-Android this is what happens when Earth’s shadow is in the lunar eclipse phase. Either way it looked super cool and prompted me to complete this werewolf-based DUDEL that I hope you all enjoy!

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

Xena hears of an upcoming pumpkin carving contest being held in Downtown Clarksburg and eagerly enlists Bumper’s aid. Combining her twisted sense of ambition with his childlike creativity practically guarantees their victory, right? Wrong! That very same childlike creativity is what’s preventing the floating marshmallow from tearing the fruit’s flesh apart. After all, how could he hurt an innocent? How could he bring himself to do such an awful thing?

How could I bring myself not to draw Bumper and Xena for Halloween this year? For crying out loud, Croc’s entire family face the supernatural every other day of the year, so of course Halloween would feel naked without’m. Even if that wasn’t the case, this idea was too funny not to draw. It came to me while watching It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, laughing at Linus’s dismay when Lucy carves up the pumpkin they brought home. There was something so sweet and wholesome about the boy’s reaction that I knew would also work for Bumper, especially if Xena got involved. Unlike Lucy, who struggled to draw a basic face onto a pumpkin, Xena’s imagination is a lot more interesting to say the least. Needless to say it made drawing her Jack-O-Lantern fun to sketch. Another fun aspect were the kid’s costumes, Xena dressed as Ellen Ripley from Aliens and Bumper dressed up as a Ghostbuster. Much like Pizzabeard, I was dying for an excuse to draw these two in these outfits again after doing so back in 2021. It all comes together for an adorably funny DUDEL that I hope you all enjoy!

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK!

There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

Avast me mateys, gather ‘round as I tell ye’ the story of Captain Pizzabeard! He was the fiercest pirate to ever plunder these seven seas! It was said he was saltier than anchovies, as volatile as jalapenos, and cheesier than mozzarella! Which be good, since all he ever stole was pizza. Honestly, with a name like that, what were ya’ scallywags expecting? Nevertheless the captain was a ruthless buccaneer with an appetite as deep as the Mariana Trench! Fighting by his side was the lovely lassie Vile Villa, the bubbly buckenner Fizzy Fright, as well as his three wards, Blueberry, Bubble Gum, and Burger. Together they robbed the ocean blind of its tastiest treasures! Alas, all good tales must come to an end! For one day his ship, the Jolly Domino, fell under attack by a conniving band of pasta privateers. Years of robbing these rapscallions blind had cost the Pizza Monster dearly. Before he could mount a proper defense, the privateers sent their foes off to meet with Davy Jones. Or so they thought. None could believe their eyes that fateful day. It was a week’r so after the Jolly Domino had sunk that their attackers were sent back to Clarks Bay port, their ship full of holes. Even more so when it was discovered that the crew had been liquified, their bodies melted by molten cheese! Some say it was Captain Pizzabeard seeking his revenge from the great beyond. Others say he and his crew haunt the oceans to this day, still searching the world for a salty slice. What do I say?

I say I’ve been wanting to draw Pizza Monster in this costume again since 2013. That year was when I launched 10 Minutes on Halloween, a quick little comic depicting what happens when Pizza Monster leaves his nephews and niece alone while Trick or Treating. Easily the best part of that comic was drawing everybody in costume, PM especially. While I drew him in his pirate ensemble once more after that, no other excuses presented themselves until this year. Being the first DUDEL of this year gave me the chance to test out the color scheme for the rest of my sketches, that being none save for one color. Obviously this one’s periwinkle. I love the end results, especially the ways I updated the costume. My only complaint would go to the background. My original plans of cross hatching it didn’t pan out, so I had to make a big, black, inky background to cover it up. Despite this stumble I hope you all enjoy this and future DUDELZ to come!

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

You know what’s really scary? How we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about Earth's oceans. Centuries of sailing, navigating, and exploring the big blue ball has still garnered very little knowledge of what lies below the waves. Considering what we have discovered though, maybe that’s for the better. For down in the deepest, darkest trenches of the seven seas lives some of the most frightening fish known to man. Blobfish, vampire squid, giant spider crabs, ghost sharks, who knows what else is down there? Polka Shark does. While out searching for a midnight munchie the nutty predator came upon a strange, glowing fish buried deep beneath the sand. Being the sensible sort of creature he was, Polka swam away without giving the glowing fish another thought. And by that I mean of course he ate it. So now he’s a zombie.

For this DUDEL, fans of Polka Shark can breathe a sigh of relief. Much like when Goofy died in 1999’s How to Haunt a House, this is only temporary. It’s also an idea I’ve had for a while. Assuming my memory isn’t faulty, this idea initially took shape back in my days attending CTI, quickly scribbling a zombified shark in the margins of my homework. I ran the sketch by Polka’s original creator Finjix and he got a giggle out of the idea as well. A decade later and I finally got around to sketching the whole idea out properly. My time management skills are rivaled by no one! Still, I think the wait was worth it. My attention to detail has gotten better since my college days, resulting in an undead fish that looks notably more rotten. His flesh is flaking off, black ooze is dripping from his maw, there’s a giant hook stuck in his head, it’s all so gross and I love it! Unlike Striped Starfish. His expression perfectly sums this sketch up. I hope you all enjoy this DUDEL more than he does.

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK! There is a madness deep in the dark catacombs of Castle Clarkenstein. For years these claustrophobic corridors have been the home of the ghoulish giraffe himself, watching as the world passes by. He prefers it this way. It gives him more time alone with the voices. The voices tell him many strange things. Yet they always come back to one: make more monsters! Everyday they tell him this. Everyday he is unable to comply. Hey, being a mad scientist on a budget means he can’t afford the fancy scientific equipment needed to breathe life into newborn abominations. Guy’s gotta afford pizza somehow. Luckily, he has discovered a way of sorts to please the voices. During all those years of watching, Dr. Clarkenstein noticed a particular pattern. Every night during October saw artists posting new pictures based on peculiar prompts. Many of them based on children of the night. While the spotted specter might not be able to craft new zombies, he can sure as heck sketch’m! As such, I provide this friendly warning to you all now: Be afraid. Few people can survive the horrors that are DUDELZ of the Damned!

By that I mean I decided to do my own take on Sketchtober this year just minus the prompts. Anybody gotta problem with that? Tough, cuz I already drew this crap so you might as well check it out.

It is said a monster once menanced the mundane town of Milton, Georgia. The year was 1816, the same year Doc Clarkenstein inherited his family’s enormous estate. By then the young giraffe had been attending school in order to advance the field of biochemistry. It was all he could do to cope with the loss of his family. Being the last of the Clarkensteins was a horrifying revelation for the spotted student. Made no better by the fact that he had yet to meet a woman, settle down, and have a child of his own. What if he died tomorrow? His proud heritage would be lost then and there. Death, it seemed, was his ultimate enemy. Faced with this proposition, the one man clearly had one course of action: conquer death. Should he discover the secrets of restoring life to those already passed, then surely he would have nothing to fear! Except maybe the uptight heads of the university, who disbarred the madman after he proposed his theories to him. As far as they cared, only God may tamper with life itself. Well if God didn’t want the disavowed doctor to meddle with the afterlife, why would he give him this idea anyway? Who were these stuffy scholars to tell the grieving man that he couldn’t bring back the dead? None of them could stop him. Especially now that his family home was fitted with what he needed: a proper lab filled with body parts harvested from nearby cemeteries. Most of them having belonged to American crocodiles for some oddly specific reason. Eh, beggars can’t be choosers. With all of this assembled, the young doctor gave birth to a new form of creature: Crocenstein!

Much like the AH Wolf, Crocenstein is yet another idea I’ve had for a while. The idea first sprang up in a Halloween comic for 2014 exploring Bumper’s fear of Ghostbusters. After the little ghostly goober is zapped at, slimmed, and set ablaze as a giant marshmallow, the comic ends with Crocie giving his wife the stinky eye for showing him the flick. It’s there we can see my original Crocenstein design, which wasn’t that good in hindsight. Ignoring how derivative it is of the design made famous in the films, the clothes he’s wearing are too clean and there’s few indications that he’s essentially a zombie. Dude’s supposed to look dead, not like he has an exaggerated forehead. That’s not even getting into the problems with Alberta’s Bride, but that’s a subject for another DUDEL. For now I just knew my buddy’s monstrous variant needed an update. After drawing this picture twice, I think it’s safe to say it came out looking good. Gone are the clothes in favor of different body parts from various species of crocodilian and reptiles. Unlike his book counterpart, Doc Clarkenstein isn’t too picky about parts. Especially when the end results look so cool regardless! Expect more of this monster in the future, but for now I hope you all enjoy this DUDEL!

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!