Mini-Break.

I know after last week’s cliffhanger, a break in the action is the last thing most people want… but I’m afraid we must squeeze in a quick one before the summer holiday. Give readers a chance to speculate over who it is the strangers have found hanging in the barn.

Enjoy this slightly S&M themed promo above until then.

The Plan.

I’ll happily admit I suck at getting the start date of Babayka-Lives summer breaks right. While year one the webcomic had no break over the summer months, and year two I pretty much timed it perfectly… Last year I screwed up, however, and it didn’t start until the summer was half over, and this year, it looks like I’ve time it wrong again, and the break’s gonna come too soon this year. So to combat this problem, I think after this weekend’s easter instalment (which is like a mini-cliffhanger itself), I’m gonna throw in a quick couple of weeks break. Nothing major, just a bit of a rest until the 6th of May. And then we’ll pick up from there. I always try and aim for June to be the start of the summer break, and doing this will get us pretty close to that.

If the two week break, and the fact we’re getting close to the summer break bums you out a little, fear not. Unlike the last three summer breaks, I plan to make a couple of big announcements while we’re all resting in the sun this year. Firstly, I’ll finally come clean on the secret project I’ve been working on these last several months. I promise the time for revealing all is very close. Also, I might try and find some time this summer to make some kind of digital treat solely for those that do make any Babayka-Lives fan-art. Something I can just email people as a thank you for showing the series some love.

Speaking of fan-art, I’m also flirting with setting out a little challenges, if any readers want to have a bit of fun. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a spoiler, if I reveal that one of the last things to happen in Brides Of Babayka, is Vera announces they’ve had an enquiry from a Canadian female hockey team about visiting the hotel. Babayka Land then opens with the scene of the last surviving member of the hockey team being chase across the countryside and caught by Babayka. I have no plans at this time to ever show what happened between Book One and Book Two, or what horrors befell those poor hockey players. Needless to say it was probably grisly… I’m leaving that one to fan-fiction for now. Should anyone be brave enough to wanna fill in that bit of story themselves with some fan-art or fan-fiction, though… please do. I’d love to see it. I will honestly try and make something digital and exclusive in the coming months, just for those that do create anything, I promise.

And if anyone does take me up on my challenge, please be sure to Note or Email me about your pin-up, etc, so I’m aware of it, and I will check it out. Or let me know if folks have any questions.

So that’s the plan and how things look right now. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for a mini-cliffhanger at Babayka-Lives.com

Fan-Art Request: Update.

A big thank you and shout out to Monica (A.K.A. Pixiefairydust) from Deviantart for stepping up to the Babayka-Lives fan-art challenge and doing this awesome piece you see above.  

I think it’s a scene depicting Alina and Babayka cleaning up after another bachelor has been dispatch back at the hotel. The little details like the bloody handprint on the bed-board, or the washing bowl of bloody water I think are very cool. I love how sultry the Bride looks, and how creepy and otherworldly she got Babayka looking, too.  

It’s also just very cool to see another artist having a go at doing my characters.

I strongly recommend people give Monica’s DA page a look. If only for the sexy Power-Ranger (sorry… Super Serious Sentai) booty in a recent strip she’s been doing, which I’ve been enjoying.

I’ve also started a Babayka-Lives fan-art folder on my DA page that’s looking a little underfed for any and all future fan-art.

Fan-Art Request.

If there’s maybe one area I’ve been dropping the ball when it comes to Babayka-Lives lately, it’s been putting out the call for fan-art. In fact I usually try and make a push in the comic’s summer downtime to see if anyone fancies doing any, and last year I completely forgot.

So here we are tiptoeing into spring, and I’m gonna put the call out early this year to avoid that mistake again. I don’t know the cross over on the Babayka-Lives venn diagram of those that read and those that create, but if that’s you, please consider and feel free to do some. I’d love to see any and all efforts. I’ve actually had a few people in the past say they’re gonna do something (artists friends etc, etc), but so far, no one has step up to the challenge.

So if you fancy drawing a beautiful, early twenties, Russian, brunette, femme fatale or her hunch over, bald,  godless, old man impersonating overlord, or any of the Brides really… please, by all means have a go. However you like to express yourself artistically, from traditional to digital art, to model making or writing, I am officially putting the call out for the first time this year.

I myself haven’t done any Babayka-Lives pin-ups for a while now, as I’ve been busy with the main strip and working on this secret project, so I’ve got a couple of Babayka and Yana pin-up ideas I wanna do in 2017. So if this call out goes unanswered, hopefully there’ll be some new Babayka-Lives art later in the year, one way or the other.

I’m also trying to think of something I could make and give out digitally to kind people who do show the series some love and do fan art. I’m gonna have a good think about it, and see if I can come up with anything. Suggestions are welcome at the usual email address.

And tune in this Saturday to find out who’s in need and shouting for help in this week’s instalment of Babayka Land, as we build to our summer cliffhanger.

Outtakes.

It’s been a very narcissistic couple of weeks for me lately. First of all, I had to draw my first self-portrait in years for a secret project I’m currently working on, and considering I do them so rarely, I wanted it to be a good one, so I’ve been really trying to get my likeness down recently.

And now I’ve gotta free up some space on my phone and delete some old photos, and I’ve decided I kind of like some of the outtake photos from a selfie id photo session I did late last year so much, I’m gonna post them here and set them free onto the internet.

Forgive me for this very self-indulgent post this week. Considering there’s so few photos of me floating around on the internet, though, I hope you’ll excuse it. I know I’m meant to also give you some kind of update on Babayka-Lives for the weekend, but I just caught my reflexion in a shiny surface and I’m too enchanted to do so now, so I strongly just recommend to tune in and find out for yourself.

Thanks And More.

A big thank you to everyone who has been tuning back into Babayka-Lives since its return a couple of weeks ago. I always get a little nervous every time the comic takes a break, that no one will come back and all return readers will evaporate during the downtime… happily that has not been the case again this time. So enjoy the coming weeks thrilling instalments. And I promise I have something big up my sleeve for the summer break cliffhanger this year.

Tune in this weekend to see the stand off between Newton, Elizabeth, Oleg and the armed strangers continues.

Plus there’s still very much time to chip in on my horror sub-genre request post, FYI, if you have a suggestion you’d like to see me tackle in a future model\monster pin-up?

To keep that ball rolling, here’s a few more.

Swamp Beasties: If I’m honest, this is my current personal favourite that I’d love to do. Maybe a grungier Julie Adams from Creature From The Black Lagoon type meets a muck monster style image. I did do a Sand-Thing attacking a cowboy a few years ago, but that doesn’t really count, right?

And speaking of cowboys…

Weird Western: Fun fact… I was a huge western fan as a teenager. It was the only genre growing up that almost equalled my love of horror films, and I’ve been dying to do something set in the old west. However, the fact that it would be a period piece, might make it too hard to pull off to begin with, though.

Kaiju: To be brutally honest, I didn’t get to see a lot of Japanese style big monster movies growing up. They don’t really play them here in the UK on TV or anything. None the less, I’d be up for drawing a super-size baddie in a future pin-up. I think the biggest monster I’ve drawn to date is a T-Rex.

So please keep those horror sub-genre suggestions coming in, guys.

Getting To Know You.

A big thanks to everybody who tune in this week for the return of Babayka-Lives. In this Saturday’s instalment, it’s time to get to know the mysterious armed strangers a little better.

Here’s a short horror film I saw a couple of months ago, and totally forgot to post at the time. I guess it’s kind of a slasher parody. I especially enjoyed the Spock mask joke reference.


Night of the Slasher from Shant Hamassian on Vimeo.