G.I. ROBOT by tom fowler

i very nearly didn't get a chance to contribute this week, MY week! i wanted to do a lot more with this, but realized (with help from a lovely yet angry look from my wife) that i had to try and make some money instead. mostly i was trying to emulate the italian painted british war comic covers that i'd found on today's inspiration. i'd originally thought to place jake in the snow of baston; with trees exploding around him and soldiers huddling in their foxholes. but i cannot separate jake from the south pacific.

G.I. ROBOT was one of the first comics to absolutely blow my mind when i was a kid. i think i was in grade four(?) walking home from school with a buddy of mine who was reading this weird-ass book about a robot who came out of a suitcase in the jungle. i was instantly riveted and, reading over his shoulder, just couldn't believe that only a few pages later that same robot was beating the living hell out of a SAMURAI ROBOT with HIS OWN FREAKING HEAD!!!! that image has stayed with me my entire life. it has informed the sense of mischief i try to bring to my work and my undying love of weird.

a little while before xmas (november maybe?) i tweeted to chris, declan, and evan about an idea i had for a challenge if they'd be interested. then we all got busy and i didn't bring it up again. my idea was to do a weekly sketch-off based on a character one of us would pick (me being the first to pick). i had no idea how to collect it, the idea of a group blog being completely foreign to me, so i let it slide. months later during thor week, chris floated the same exact idea and laura put it all together. i want to publicly thank them both for getting something together that my increasingly grampish brain just couldn't seem to process.

btw the title i came up with for my intended sketch-off series?:

"G.I. ROBOTS AT DAWN"