K. Marx - Meme Wallpaper

1st of an upcoming series of portraits that I should post here and there as part of an effort to spread knowledge and awareness. 

He seemed a good emblematic figure, our buddy Karl, and besides controversial enough to start with (or at least raise eyebrows in any kinda tribute). 

Noam Chomsky points at anti-communism being a religion in NA so indeed you will understand that this is not a popularity contest. 

Fact is, you probably argued somewhere somehow with somebody who thought you should read the guy before talking about his theories or maybe you were the one in the know trying to spread the awareness. 

Reading Marx actually takes you way beyond reading and trying to understand 'the Capital' or 'the Manifesto'. 

It necessarily takes you through reading the theories of his time which were disagreeing with him, such as Steiner (thinker behind anarchism who was at school with Marx and opposing him was the most intellectually troublesome of his enemies).

It takes you through the whole History of the 19th century, from the first Napoleon to the Victorian era preceding WWI. 
From the early corruption of the ideals of the french revolution (Liberty, equality, Fraternity is still the credo but it took every bit of strength to enforce it and it is still far from won) to the wide instrumentalisation of the Military (Bonaparte by attacking everybody kinda made Europe) to the further use of Military Leverage to crush public questioning (the French civil war of 1870, thousands of people were machine gunned down in Paris streets by a returning self-exiled government of financial magnates using french troops they had lost against Germany and had to pay a ransom for).

Reading 'the Civil War in France' (1870-1891)' from which this quote is from depicts a historical situation far different than the Russian revolution. 

One called 'the Commune of Paris', which gave in turn (for worse though) the term 'Communism' so often misemployed. 


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I should  upload a downloadable large print version shortly. 

NeDe WaDe (1852-1892), a.k.a Ned Christie

Ned was a famous Cherokee Statesman (back in the days when Oklahoma wasn't part of the U.S. but a foreign land owned, ruled and administrated according to Cherokee Law), an actual senator and advisor to chief BushyHead of the Cherokee Nation.

Perhaps his most moving fiction adaptation (as fair an adaptation in fiction as can be imagined, the Cherokee Nation depiction is very interesting) is the "Zeke & Ned" novel by Larry McMurtry.

Said to have been an exceptional shot (shooting tree branches under the squirrels picking them up as they fell to save meat), this giant of a man (6'7''), after having been wrongfully accused of murdering a marshall, stood up, during what would be remembered as 'Ned Christie's war', in the fort that he built for his home, for 7 long years, against wave after wave of "law" posses bent on capturing him.
He lost an eye in the fights.
The authorities even resorted to bringing an actual war canon all the way through Cherokee Nation and up the mountain to blow him out (but they couldn't shoot it with accuracy) so that they had to dynamite the whole house to finally get him to try and make for an exit.

At which point, they did shoot him down.

He was found innocent of his charges in a 1918 review of the case.

He embodies the rightful, pure struggle of old ways (bravery, honor, self awareness and pride) against the blurred morals of new virtueless moneyminded invaders.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Christie 

Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), Quintessential OUT-LAW-MAN

No need for introduction for this one. His life, name and exploits were used and referenced in countless movies, comic books, books, etc...

I will  eventually write something about the so called "Lawmen" of the Wild west era, probably when I have a bunch more of them drawn.
But Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp had to be the first one.

Tall (6'3''), dark dressed (mid-1860s puritan rage in fashion probably), he started as a pimp and a hustler (even made fake money), then Shotgun on a stage coach for the Wells Fargo, which really took guts at that time (since you made the only obviously worthy target of each robbery attempt), then ganged up with the fastest, sometimes meanest draws  in the west, into various outfits employed for security, extortion (one of the key concept for understanding 19th century american economics), etc...

Even a stint in Deadwood that did not last and THEN, Wichita, and THEN Tombstone and the O.K. Corral gunfight that made him famous.  

He is always represented as the untouchable "straight-as-an-arrow"grim cop with the unbelievable luck in one hand and the strength of righteousness in the other.

Truth is he was lucky to always be on the good side of the law when guns were drawn to be remembered.
He tried to downgrade the good image people built upon his and his fellow lawful vigilantes and felt quite remorseful of not being able to help portray a more nuanced wild west (he was more than a consultant  on the first "western" ever made, "the great train Robbery"  in 1903).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp

Calamity Jane (1852-1903), Wanderer Extraordinary

What historians call a "Frontierswoman", she's best portrayed in the late HBO's Deadwood TV series, played by actress Robin Weigert.

Most of the other uses of Jane's references are very exaggerated and excentric whichever media is concerned. 
Hollywood's previous musical pseudo adaptation of her life and exploits (1953) or her tough/boyish depiction in the "Lucky Luke" franco-belgian western spoof comic books are too far from, we can only guess the complexity and nuances of her character in such a context as was hers, the 1860s american wild frontier, where most other girls were to be wives or whores, and the standards of mediamaking of those days might not have allowed her not to be a funny character. 

Emigrating West in 1865, she goes from hustling men for to learning to hunt and scout with them. She becomes a fine shot and starts scouting for the US Army. 
Upon saving her captain's life, she gets nicknamed "Calamity Jane". 

She was friends (in love) with Wild Bill Hicock, helped people escape bouts with natives, became a rancher, twice, had a daughter, worked on and on for a big well doing local Madame, worked a stint for Buffalo Bill's touring circus of the West, while drinking heavily all along which led to her death in a hut by a railway where she was eventually found. 

Tragic character, essential figure of  the Wild West era, who deserves her part in this little gallery.

There are others but ladies first so I tried to represent her during her transition between that dark eyed pretty kid and the stocky firm stone face woman she eventually became.    


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamity_Jane

Hattori Hanzo (1542-1596), Head of the Iga suppa

One of the most famous so called "Ninja", we should say "Shinobi", Hanzo can be found in movies, comic books and video games all over.

I thought it interesting to try to get away from these extravagant gothic designs with a version closer to Goseki Kojima's in "The Path of the Assassin" (a must read by the duo who created Lone Wolf and Cub, rendering the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu as a teenager helped by his faithful retainer, Hanzo the best of Iga).
However, the manga stops as Ieyasu attains a position of major warlord ready for the next political struggle, so that Hanzo is rather young looking the whole story.

He supposedly died in blaze of fire as his boats were lured in against Fuma Kotaro's and trapped in the middle of the river where they had been fighting.

Although, there has been at least 3 more Hanzos in the Hattori Clan that wore that name, we are here talking about the most famous one of them all. At his death, his men became officially some kind of pretorian elite guard  for the Japanese governement and the shogun whose family thereafter ruled for 300 years.

I shall join others sketches and pieces that I did on him as well, such as his 14 feet spear (yari) which he used in battle or his final stand against Fuma.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattori_Hanzo

Chan Monk (5th century A.D.)

Line work Character design.

The idea came from working hard lines against colours while researching a piece on the famous Shaolin temple in the Henan Province in China.
This dignified man is therefore my humble take on the temple's founder who came from India, met the Emperor and started teaching his precepts in this adopted land.

The original idea though is influenced by those parchment like (desaturated) paintings from the Tang Dynasty (or the idea I get from them):