Author Archive: jekief01
Jesse Kiefer at your service. I am a full time elementary art teacher in Nebraska. I teach grades K-5 for 2 schools. In my free time I'm a martial arts instructor, and I try to update a webcomic at http://www.tankmonkeycomic.com.
You can find me on twitter @jessekiefer
and on Faceboook http://www.facebook.com/vorpalarrow
2012 Returning Challenger: Jesse Kiefer
Jesse Kiefer here at your disposal. Returning for a second year of 30characters! Last year I cut my teeth on this project with the idea in mind that I’d create characters for my webcomic projects (specifically Tank-Monkey), and while I did use a handful of the characters from last year most of them wound up being just for fun (30 is more than I thought, ha!). This year I’ve tinkered with some vlogging on YouTube where I’ve been coming up with some fun characters for a series of short webisodes that I’ve been collaborating on with a friend. Most of my time on these episodes has been spent as a green screened Hologram.
This year I’m not going to box myself into making characters for a specific project, but I do hope to come up with some characters for my vlog channel meaning some of my character studies might look like me in costume but I’ll try to vary the looks as much as I can (or as much as I can for a big hairy red-head).
Click the link below to see my work from last year
http://www.30characters.com/author/jekief01/
Or read my Challenger Entry from 2011
http://www.30characters.com/2011/10/21/2011-challenger-jesse-kiefer/
Jesse Kiefer – 30 Characters in 30 Days
It’s been a riot seeing what everyone has posted. The challenge was at times harder than I thought and at others easier. I really dug seeing all of the different styles and approaches to this challenge. There were SOOOOO many! I didn’t keep up with everyone’s submissions as much as I would have liked to… but wow! I definitely found some very cool new artists and creators to follow.
If you want to see how many of these characters will be used, I invite you to check my site as I put these crazy cats to work in my comic. 🙂 tankmonkeycomic.com
Thanks to anyone who commented on or retweeted my characters, and huge thanks to Tyler James for putting this all together, what a great project this has been to work on. An honor to be a part of it.
#30 Rene Magritte and Kal-Dar The Cave Man (TIME TRAVELERS)
And we end with a two-fer for good measure! Rene-Magritte has always been one of my favorite artists and I always thought “how cool would it be if the surrealists weren’t making it up” What if Dali Painted melty Clocks not because he dreamt them up but because he actually viewed these off the coast of an alien world in a far flung future?
So Rene Magritte using a time traveling orb from the Future travels through time with Kal-Dar a Cave man he saved when visiting the dawn of man. Kal-Dar has been traveling with him since that day hoping to repay the debt. DO NOT tell Kal-Dar that “time travel is so easy a cave man could do it…” he doesn’t like that.
Hope you all enjoyed my submissions because I definitely enjoyed the ones I got to see every day from these awesome contributors!
#29 Long-Box
Long-Box is likely the most obnoxious and youngest member of the Collection Agency, always citing continuity errors or asking about validity of an argument by asking if it’s “canon” or not. He disguises himself using the classic Clark Kent Method of putting on a pair of glasses.
#28 Porcelain
Porcelain, the Femme Fatale of the Collection Agency… Her Collect-o-mania is related to porcelain dolls, masks, pottery and the like… brazenly un-apologetically so, she is the only member of the Collection Agency that does not wear anything to mask her appearance. It’s uncertain how far she will go to further the aims of Collect-o and his group, sometimes it seems she has joined simply to find a community that embraces her and her obsessions as “normal”.
#27 Corey Calihan
Corey is the oldest Calihan Brother. He’s worked hard and has done well for himself. He means well but often gives Jace and Rex a hard time with his false interest in their “Karate” School (which makes Rex batty because they don’t teach “Karate”) He’s not a bad guy but he’s passive aggressive and frustrates his younger brothers to no end… he knows nothing about the business of running a martial arts school but often offers unsolicited advice on how to do it. What makes Corey the most frustrating though is that he is a good man and he loves his family and can be very generous, they’d just all be happier if he didn’t always have the last word.
#26 Mr. Ogden (next-door neighbor)
Everyone has a Mr. Ogden, he’s the cranky old neighbor of Tank-Monkey. He’s never having a good day, what’s so good about it?! Someone is always stealing his daily newspaper, and someone’s dog is always in his yard. And living next door to a tank driving monkey? Don’t even get him started on THAT!
#25 Reel 2 Reel
Movie Fanatics are some of the most obsessive of the collectors lot. That’s one reason that Collect-o sought out Reel 2 Reel. In his regular life R2R refused to distinguish reality and fiction. Always annoying people with his need to bring everything back to movies always using phrases like “I couldn’t have scripted that better” and asking questions like “who would play you in the movie of your life?” and then arguing the answer. He is one of the most fearsome members of the Collection Agency because he can physically back up his mania training many years to become a Hollywood stunt man he is trained in multiple martial arts styles. No one can fake a death (or death scene as he likes to call it) like Reel 2 Reel. It’s uncertain why he’s allied himself against Tank-Monkey as Tank-Monkey doesn’t have anything he wants.
#24 Wixits
Wixits defy simple explanation as every story of them varies. They seem to be a sprite/gnome type race. They enjoy tricks but they can be very focused. If you see a wixit it usually means something very strange is going on whether they are directly involved in it or not.
#23 Enemy (agent and council)
Enemy seems to be behind much of the augmented animal experiments… the military has been tracking their movements and activity but cannot seem to come up with a motive for their actions…
#22 The Pilgrim 1%
The Pilgrim 1%
Are You ready for this? I teach art at an elementary school and we’ve been doing pilgrims… so I have a student we’ll call him Timmy (names have been changed) he is coloring his pilgrim red… this is what followed.
Me: Timmy? I see you are coloring your pilgrim red, Pilgrims usually wore basic black and white clothing…
Timmy: I’m making an EVIL pilgrim. Evil pilgrims wear Red, black is for good guys but my pilgrim is evil… and nothing is more evil than fire, so he has FIRE that comes out of the top of his hat. He is RICH he has a billion dollars in a stack and red eyes.
Me: *speechless*
It occurred to me later that this HAD to be the 1% of pilgrims as I had not ever heard of Evil pilgrims who were also billionaires… hence I am sharing this information with you. Thank you Timmy for enlightening all of us to the dangers of Thanksgiving history… it makes the 99% of Pilgrims seem a little less heinous in the light of this new information.
Happy Occupy Thanksgiving!
#21 Swap Meet
Swap Meet is the most unusual of all of the members of the Collection Agency, his store of Collectibles defies usefulness or reason. He will also stop randomly to spout off about fair market value and to argue about price. His weaponry often looks like something out of a pawn shop and he usually wears some kind of bizarre sunglasses.
#20 Zombie (aka “Z-Man”)
Zombie was formerly a magician and illusionist. Faking his own death many who do recognize him believe that he has risen from the grave in an unnatural manner. Now using his skills of illusion, slight of hand, and stealth he and Burn-Out work to solve mysteries and combat the criminal element.
#19 Burn-Out
Jaren Anderson was metalworker, he made parts for factories/mills he was struck by lightning which caused him to build and release energy in bursts. However he runs out of juice after a large burst and it takes him time to rebuild his charge. With the aide of his custom built battery pack and arm gauntlets he can more easily regulate exactly how much energy he’s using so he does not run out of juice.
#18 Janet
The discovery of Janet was quite fortuitous, as she was the first female primate augment. It is uncertain what she will do with her augmented intelligence, she is most interested in learning more about the world she’s living in.
#17 Mad Cow
This Mad Cow… what? Oh Mad Bull, sorry… wait, what? Oh fine! Mad SPACE Bull, is fighting mad he found out what those “other” aliens have been doing to “Earth Cows” now he’s taken to the night sky hunting those other aliens and so he can turn THEM inside out.
#16 The Hare-oscopist
The Hare-oscopist is an unusual augmented animal hybrid. He escaped the medical experimentation facility to find he had an unusual clairvoyance which he parlayed into a meager living writing Horoscopes for the local news paper… hey it’s a gig, and they don’t ask him to come in to the office. Which is important when you are an odd crystal encrusted rabbit with the ability to levitate… just sayin’.
#11 The Fungal Avenger
The Fungal Avenger is an unusual Legend of Meridian 59. It’s said that Shallille took pity on the Fungus Beasts ruthlessly slaughtered on the beaches of the great oceans and created the Fungal Avenger. He appears when Fungus Beasts are slaughtered in large numbers and exacts his own retribution against these “evil doers”
#10 The Nega-Dalmation
The Nega-Dalmatian does exactly the opposite of what a traditional Dalmatian is purported to do… The Nega-Dalmatian impedes firemen, he may even start fires… he is not helpful.
#9 Ninja of the Koala Clan
Possibly the first of ENEMY’s experiments to escape, or the result of another group the Koala Clan may or may not even exist. But their exploits are certainly the stuff of urban legend.
#8 Monkey-Wolf
The monkey-wolf was not created in the typical horror way, he was developed in an ENEMY lab. He can transform between a regular monkey and a wolf monkey hybrid. The heightened senses come at the price of having less restraint… he’s given to more of his animalistic impulses in hybrid form
#30Characters Chatter…