Petrified!

Drew this for an author in New Zeland for his next book.  Since it’s being published, this time around I asked my bro to colour it up for me on Photoshop.

This is actually kinda exciting Having my drawing as a book cover!

The Mad Scientist In Me Asks…

“How about we play around with DNA and actually create a superhuman being”?

Yes, it’s been contemplated widely, but then it’s never been possible with ‘ethics’ cropping its officious little head and turning the idea to stone. So I’ve been trying to think up an ethical way to bring superheroes out of the pages of comic books and have them walk/fly/crawl among us.

The way I see it, gene manipulation is the only way to go. Unlike the half-baked theory we’ve read in comic books in which most superheroes were either blessed/ cursed with their extraordinary powers after being exposed to radiation by some means.

Take Marvel’s friendly neighbourhood Spiderman who got his arachnid powers when a radioactive spider gored its pincers into his hand or Daredevil who was sauced with nuclear waste. Back here in the real world, mutations of this sort aren’t likely in the least.

Chances of radioactivity altering your entire genetic make-up instantly giving you the ability to shoot sticky webbing through your wrist, scale walls with protrusible hairs made up of steel-like keratin or gaining ‘spider-senses’, are as likely as you seeing Punisher pirouetting in a pink tutu (apologises for any mild trauma that description might have caused). And in the case of Daredevil, if you were deluged in nuclear waste, the reaction with your cells will have you sooner floating to heaven than kicking Kingpin butt with the use of your echolocation powers.

That rules out radioactivity mutating cells to give people abilities that defy nature. Which leaves us with GENE MANIPULATION!

Now the legendary method of genetic engineering requires identifying and isolating the gene you want switched- using restriction enzymes, and then filling the vacant spot with the new gene. Sounds simple? Far from it. And then there’s rejection of the new gene to worry about… But it’s been proved to work in the making of a Frankenstein chicken! Alright, not exactly “Frankenstein” although I’d like the bolt of lightning scenario, it’s a lot more dramatic. But the chicken did have its moment, as scientists waited with bated breath, purple in the face and about to pass out– for a tweet. No, it wasn’t a geeky chicken that was ’social network’ savvy, it was a chicken with the vocal chords of a quail.

What’s brilliant about this method is that the switch is made at a very early embryonic stage. So all we need is a few eggs and sperm (of which there’s plenty), have them fertilized and allow the embryos to develop in a laboratory. Of course this is a bit of a trial and error method and we’re going to have quite a few anomalous and abominable looking animals before we create a chimp that can defy gravity and whiz through the air…

And this is the bit where I can’t seem to think of a way around that hulking nemesis ‘ethics’. Standing rigid with folded arms in our way it’s going to be tough but just think, “what if”? What if we had our very own clone army with super powers?

Of course there are more obstacles that stand in our way. The next problem hurled at us, is what will these superpowers be?

Sadly, choice is limited. Taking into consideration the forces in the laws of physics that keep our good planet Earth from floating  aimlessly through the vast expanse of the cosmos, we are restricted to certain superpowers.

Here’s why (for convenience of reference let’s name our superhero Bandu), Bandu won’t be able to have Flash’s power to travel faster than the speed of light because E=m0/-1√v/c2!

According to a concept proposed by none other than the wire haired physicist, Einstein:

If an object is already travelling near the speed of light, it can’t move much faster, no matter how much energy it absorbs. Its momentum and energy continue to increase, but its speed approaches a constant value—the speed of light. This means that in relativity the momentum of an object cannot be a constant times the velocity, nor is the kinetic energy given by 1⁄2mv2.

So Bandu will just keep getting heavier as he runs a nice groove around the planet, deeper and deeper, until he finally hits magma! And Bandu is toast.

But what we can do is add on specific genes from other animals. Gills are a bit complex… but we could try. Webbed feet? Organutan arms? Think of the possibilities…

So if you’ve got any suggestions as to how this can be achieved ethically do feel free to share your ideas. I’ll be sure to credit you in my acceptance speech when I’m awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the writing of this post. Mosquitoes, on the other hand, were shown no mercy.

Caricatures of Bloggers II

Makuluwo was my first caricature so I played it safe and stuck more or less to a proper profile instead of exaggerating her features in true caricature style. This time around I thought I’d be a bit more adventurous and well… here’s PapareBoy

At the risk of blogger anonymity being at stake… but I don’t really think anyone who hasn’t met him before will be able to recognise him after having seen this.

So, while I’m polishing my caricature skills by drawing Kottu.org bloggers, if you are on my Facebook Friends list, you might just be my next victim!

Be vewwy quiet…I’m hunting wabbits!

Getting Back at Makuluwo for the Urban Dictionary blog title post.

A caricature of her as a bunny wabbit (as Elmer Fudd would say). On a positive note, Maks, you’re the first person I’ve drawn a more detailed caricature of…

Caricatures require a bit more work than portraits ’cause you have to distort the face while retaining distinctive features so there’s still some resemblance.

And this isn’t perfect… I kinda started out wanting a clean line art sketch but somehow I ended up pencil shading. So now it’s a cross between the two and doesn’t quite look like her, the Kottu Makuluwo, but heck!

Maks The Wabbit

Round and Round the Garden…

…with a Nikon D50

The Ents I

Margosa (better known as Kohomba), Margosa again and Guava

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Strange Yellow Flower

I haven’t got a clue as to what this flower is…

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The Ents II

Burnt Bamboo, stump of Indian Willow (I) and Coconut

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Leaves

Bamboo, Cadju and Coconut

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Out from the Ugly

Yet another plant in bloom in the garden and I haven’t an inkling as to what it is

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Dead Leaf (Cadju Tree)

Once a massive tree with sturdy sprawling branches that supported a tree house and held a quire rope swing, the Cadju tree was cut down a few weeks ago. In its 20 or so years it’d gotten diseased… Its trunk was rotting from the inside.

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Indian Willow

The stump of Indian Willow (II). Both trees were cut down recently, they were towering at about 40 ft.

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Coconut Fiber

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Sludge Monster (In the making)

The neighbour’s stuck bits of glass bottles along the top of the wall at the back of the garden. The neck of this bottle-bit seems to have collected stuff over time that has turned into disgusting goop. Will probably mutate into a sludge monster and eat us in our sleep…