The Techxorcist : a fresh new cyberpunk novels series

Lately, I had the honor to illustrate the main characters of The Techxorcist series : a series of cyberpunk genre novels written by the amazing Colin F. Barnes.

The characters are, in order : Gerry Cardle, Petal and Gabriel.

If a blend of Blade Runner, Mad Max and The Exorcist sounds good to you, you should definitely give a try and buy Artificial Evil, book 1 of The Techxorcist.

Ebook:
Anachron Press
Amazon: US | UK |
Epub: Kobo | Lulu
B&N & iBookstore coming soon.

Print:
Anachron Press
Amazon: US | UK |CreateSpace

Sample Chapter

What if... creepy ghosts were hiding in your washroom

The Akaname is a terrifying creature that licks the grime and filth in dirty washrooms and bathrooms.

I remember when a friend of mine used to live in a dorm room in an old building, full of cockroaches in the summer and cold in the winter, with shared toilets and showers. The residents were seemingly avoiding each other in the corridor, probably listening at the door to make sure nobody was there before coming out. Very cheerful ambiance.

Supposedly, one room had been the theater of a suicide and nobody wanted to rent it anymore. According to my friend from Hong Kong, the ghosts of the dead are always roaming around water points : sinks, toilet, etc. Let me tell you that, even as rational as I try to be, when the imagination kicked in, it was a real challenge to go take a piss...

What if... Japanese witches still haunted the forests

The Yama-uba (lit. Old Woman of the Mountain) appears often in the old Japanese tales. Sometimes, she is a good old woman, helping the protagonists. More often, she is an evil hag with ill-intents. Anyways, if you cross her in a dark forest, well, good luck with that ;)

What if... Japanese demons (Oni) roamed the streets

Another creature from the Japanese folklore. The Oni are ogres, or demons, often appearing in the old tales. I imagined what they would look like in a modern setting.

What if... Japanese folklore creatures were walking the streets of today

I have been living in Tokyo for almost 4 years now, doing freelance art from my super secret bunker. For the last years, I experienced a very powerful earthquake, and dozens more smaller ones, lived in the fear of radiations from the nuclear plant meltdown in Fukushima, still witness growing political tension with China over some islands, etc, etc. One time, a city alarm even warned us that they had found an unexploded bomb from WW2 near my house (this happens often as Tokyo was repeatedly bombed by Americans during WW2 and lots of unexploded shells lie here and there in the ground).

The Japanese people is one that endures since they first set foot on these unforgiving islands. They have a long history and a pretty rich folklore featuring amazing, creepy, and sometimes, ridiculous characters and creatures. These folk tales are called Mukashibanashi ( lit. Stories from Old Times ) and are an endless source of inspiration.

This is my interpretation of a modern day Kappa that would creep in the alleyways of Tokyo.

RPG character sketches. Yes, I am a big nerd !

I started playing tabletop RPG when I was 15. And I always was the DM. I played Warhammer Fantasy RPG, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, AD&D 2nd edition and Stormbringer. This allowed me to create my own stories (I was too poor to buy expansion books) and kept me drawing the monsters, treasures and environments that populated the world I put the players in.

Lately, I started a campaign with an old friend of mine and I decided to make some quick portraits of the characters of his story.

This is the player character. Edmund Delaney. He is a handy man with no relatives wandering a land that just emerged from a devastating plague. He got his scar fighting a Mine Demon.

To thank him for his help, a craftsman made a beautiful mask for Edmund. My inspiration comes from the magnificient masks of the Venice Carnival

This is a Klakarim. Klakarims are savage invaders from the north that are motivated by the desire to make their race rise.

This is a victim of the plague.

Lucky Jack is Edmund's companion. He is a gambler with a propensity to find any excuse to challenge anybody into duels. Yeah, he's a j3rk... But he's the kind of j3rk you want on your team.

This is Edmund's friend : Marion. She is the daughter of the innkeeper, at which establishment Ed lodges. She took care of Emund's during his remission after the fight with the Mine Demon.

This is the damn Mine Demon.