Grand Cross - A Story Long in the Making.

Today was a strong day for me. I not only got a lot done around the house, but I stuck to my plans and I worked on my Grand Cross story. For those that are new to my work, I have been working on my own comic book series. This series will be drawn and colored in pencil with the only Photoshop edits will be to format the color for print, and add special effects such as lightning. I know already I am taking on a big task, especially if the story catches on, and I have to meet demands. I suppose I can cross that road when it comes.

Along the road of coming up with a good story line I ran into some very large blocks. To me it was enough to nearly scrap the project. I have been working on this project so long, and at one point adapted the story line to fit the needs of children’s animation programming, that the story got mangled. It was so far off base from what I intended it to be so I felt like letting it go.

I came across an old list of mine. I think it was a resolution list about things I want to do to make my life better. One item on the list was to finish a project that I started. To me I crossed it off too soon thinking that the large colored pencil piece like “Bird in Bloom,” was considered large enough. But I knew was I was writing about. I didn’t know how I was going to pull this one off because I already had so much on my plate with the kids, bills, making a new website, producing art for a show, adding to my portfolio,  ect… This list went on and on. I had to do something to keep me on track. So I made a weekly work calendar. I found that if I focused on one project for that day, I could get them moving, and it worked. Before I would look at my list, and freeze to the point where I would do nothing, and get nothing from it. But now I am glad to say everything is moving forward.

Now I have something to look forward to in a year’s time. A new comic book, and a brave new concept. In this journey I am going to attempt to do things different than the normal comic book world. First off I am not sure how many colored pencil comics are out there, but I can be sure that there are not many, if any. To me it’s a comfortable medium, and I feel I can draw my panels faster than if I were to draw them in illustrator or Photoshop. Second I am going to make people really question what they believe in. How strong would you be? Would you do the same thing? And a whole lot of what ifs.

Grand Cross is a story based on the bible. My story will involve the relationship of Angels and Fallen Angels with Man and God. At one time the Fallen angels we all know were all close to God, and they loved God. Some had fell into sin, but not all were entirely bad. The first Protagonist you will meet in my stories in one of the Fallen. His name is Lahash. Some of you may know this former angel, but if you don’t I will help summarize. He was the Fallen angel who seized the prayers from Moses’ followers. Their prayers were intended to keep Moses alive to make the journey. But it was Lahash who had second thoughts and intended to return the prayers to God. Unfortunately when he was taking the prayers to God, the angel Samael shackled him in fire and brought him before God to face punishment, and the prayers were lost. He received Sixty Blows and cast out of the inner chamber and labeled a Fallen.

It’s the stories that we miss when we are looking. Lahash means one who interferes with divine will. I cannot tell you too much, but the setting for the story in the future when the worlds of God, Angels, and Man are to collide in the final battle. But does it have to happen? Lahash was able to interfere with Gods will once. Could he actually stop the end of days from coming? What would be the consequences of his actions. Why does the apocalypse have to happen? Could his actions mean the end of heavenly eternity? Would your faith be strong enough to stand by God and his Angels to protect the hope of Eternity in Heaven over life and civilization on Earth. This war could be the end of both.

More to come with pictures, character designs, character profiles, previews and a whole lot more.

Thank you for supporting me and all of my projects big and small. Your support makes everything worth it.

Derrick Rathgeber

Visit me at http://derrickr.artist.cm

The Angel of Death

Day 1: The Angel of Death - Pencil sketch. 

I started the drawing last night and finished the sketch late this afternoon. Today is usually my Free Day but I wanted to have this sketch ready to start coloring on Monday. This drawing is based on the original poem "Angel of Death" by Tricia Rathgeber. I cannot wait to see the color make this story come alive with emotion.

Like my Facebook page for updates on this piece. Http://Facebook.com/DerrickRathgeber

Selling Tragedy for Likes

The advertising game has changed in the last 10 years. I have moved merchandise for several companies in my life, and worked on advertising campaigns that were very successful in a multitude of business’. It used to be so much different. You would create a creative slogan, or do mass mailings, possibly a banner on the highway to improve the number of people who see your product. Now it’s all about social media. and public relations.
When I was younger there was a thing called business ethics. The way you would promote yourself and your company would represent your character as an organization or company. In this day and age that concept seems to go right out of the window. One of those examples is the way Blogs, and some business’ promote themselves on Facebook. I have seen several Facebook pages use a tactic that is completely un-ethical, and deceitful  I feel this practice needs to be regulated more, and seen as spam and illegal.

When I am scrolling along my feed I too often come across very disturbing images of a child with a serious illness, or being seriously abused, and the worst I have seen was an open casket of a deceased infant. Sure you see these images everywhere in the news and on the web, but what makes these images more disturbing is the pages that post them are soliciting likes from these disturbing images. For example the image below is stating that if you like this picture it equals 1 prayer for the child.

It sounds like a very enduring act. But in reality it’s the most deceitful ugly way to promote your Facebook Page, blog, and or business. Facebook uses a feature called “Edge Rank” which is used to increase the likelihood that your products or services will appear. Edge Rank is increased by adding “Weight” to your page. Weight is a word for anything you post that enables an interaction such as a like, or comments. So lets say someone has a website that sells goods/ services, and they want to promote something new. Before they would start promoting the new item/service They would need to add weight to my page. So will they do this is the ethical question. In this case a blog posted a child in pain, still at the hospital in the attempt to recieve more likes on their Facebook page. I have seen others use abused children, and worse. These companies are profiting on the suffering of others.

A good majority of the companies and bloggers that use this practice don’t even own the picture. In one instance the child in the photograph(Seen Below), who was attacked by another child at her pre-school nursery. The photograph of the child was apparently stolen from the Daily Mail article or elsewhere on the Internet and reused in this utterly pointless protest message without the permission of her family. They went on to spread the image across the net asking for likes to stop abused children. This in no way fights abused children anywhere, all it did was increase this criminals page rank and set them up to increase sales or hits on their blog.

These individuals need to be stopped. They are distributing these children's photos across the internet, and in many cases lying about the situation in the picture. In one case an infant was just born, and the doctor was holding her up for the camera and all you saw was his hands holding him/her up. In the caption it claimed the baby was being choked, and asked for likes to stop abuse. They took a happy moment and turned into a nightmare and gained over 500,000 comments and 50,000 likes on their page. What a joke. It's disgusting, and does not need to continue. To them someones pain is opportunity, and that is the lowest form of advertising. 

So what can we do about it. Well first off do not respond to these posts. That means do not comment or anything. Instead report them to Facebook as abuse. Something else we can do is gather together and ask for Facebook to implement stricter guidelines on images, and create rules banning this practice. I hope to see more action, and less of these images. If you are too, let Facebook and other media outlets know. 

Thank you for reading I hope I have been some help.

Derrick Rathgeber

Visit me at http://derrickr.artist.cm