Page 14 of "Conspiracy of Mammals." Could Bob and Squeak be almost back to the tree? Tune in next week to find out...

Page 13 of "Conspiracy of Mammals" in which Bob's secret weapon of mass destruction is unleashed on the snout of a hapless amphibian.

Page 12 of "Conspiracy of Mammals" in which we learn a bit about Squeak's plan and Bob's mother.

Page 11 of "Conspiracy of Mammals." Go, mammals!

Page 10 of "Conspiracy of Mammals." Nerd Note: Bob and Squeak are facing a Koolasuchus, a crocodile-sized carnivorous salamander that could get upwards of 10 feet long. While their heyday was far earlier, fossils have been found well into the Cretaceous, making this a rare but possible encounter. God, I love science.

Page 9 of "Conspiracy of Mammals." Having the whole scene take place in the dark is rather cheap, however neccessary to dramatic tension, so to compensate, I figured I'd upload both 9 and 10 at once.

It was late. I was trying to draw a model sheet. I'd been reading that damn forum thread about big pants. I have no excuse. Bob is rather shamefully out've uniform, but I gotta admit he looks cute.

Page 8 of "Conspiracy of Mammals." Inspired by all the wild off-the-page layouts of "Sandman" I tried to get a little more daring in my panel layouts. Of course, since it IS about two small mammals, the melodramatic bits are more funny than anything else...

Page 7 of "Conspiracy of Mammals" Perhaps a little heavy on the pathos, but c'mon, who can resist a sniffling Bob?

Page 6 of "Conspiracy of Mammals" in which I play with different kinds of panels, and Squeak's strong opinions on fire-breathing dragons and Bob's cousin are revealed.

Page 5, of "Conspiracy of Mammals" The epic journey of two small rodents and their severed brain continues! Thrills! Chills! Sound effects of a brainstem flapping in the wind! (And hey, where else you gonna get that?)

Page 4 of "Conspiracy of Mammals" Let me say for the record that it's not Squeak's fault he walked into the dinosaur. He's three inches high, nocturnal, weighed down with a brain, and walking through tall grass, so we should cut the poor little mammal some slack.

Page Three, of the epic adventure of two small mammals and their brain. (Bear with me, I promise action soon.) Staring at the image now, I notice that I have a fondness for graded backgrounds, and I'd just like to mention that those are all airbrushed in via stylus, because I fear and loathe the artificial smoothness of the dreaded gradient tool.

Page 2 of "Conspiracy of Mammals," as Bob and Squeak liberate the mighty brain! (As always, critique appreciated.) It'll make more sense if you read page 1 first, but then again, the language of disembodied brains is universal.

Inspiration is definitely where you find it. At one point during recent weird forum discussions here on VCL, I said to the ceiling, "Yes, it's all a vast conspiracy of mammals to keep scaly things down." Predictably, the idea cracked me up completely--I had a sudden mental image of the small mammals living with the dinosaurs trying to bring down their saurian oppressors, and "A Conspiracy of Mammals" evolved from there. The second page is in the works, although I don't quite know where I go after that--whole thing will probably only be four or five pages tops, but you never know. Suggestions welcome. (I have absolutely no experience with comics, by the way, and reading "Understanding Comics" mostly made me feel terribly insecure about trying, so any critique of really really obvious beginner errors I'm making is most welcome.)