GunSluts was Phoenix's first ever web-comic. The title is a nod to The The (one of Phoenix's all time fave music artists), as it is also the name of an unreleased album from the band. The comic was meant to be serious and mildly mocking at the same time: a "gun slut" being the epitome of the comic book female character--exaggerations in both anatomy and firepower. It was to be a statement on comics/animation, fandom, and life in general. This image was used as the front page to the GunSluts site. It was created on cardboard with pens, markers, and white-out, then scanned and edited.


GunSluts Page 1: The process for creating these pages was VERY time-consuming (which might explain why the series was abandoned so early). Each panel was handdrawn, scanned, edited, and enhanced on PhotoShop (i.e., the colored boxes). This was an experimental effort for Phoenix and fellow MagiTek member Thugmasta J (who did all of the PhotoShop work). The "journal" boxes were made by scanning a crumpled piece of legal pad paper and then typing atop it.


GunSluts Page 2: Same process as before. The images used as watermarks are scans from Dante's The Divine Comedy (another nod on Phoenix's part--He's owned 5 different translations of the classic).



GunSluts Page 3: All pen sketch, converted to a negative on PS. This was the last released page of the comic.


Early idea art for GunSluts. There's a certain humor in having a punk rock band called The Nads.


More early sketches. Both this and the image of Brad were done in all pencil and ink.



This is the one and only comic released from the Legion of New Wave Heroes series. It originally debuted on the MUSE website, and acted as comedy relief to contrast MUSE's serious themes. It blends two of Phoenix's inspirations: 80's new wave/post punk music and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Thugmasta J originally titled this installment "Slutty Bitch Fantasy" and did the PhotoShop editing.


Art created for a MagiTek hoodie sold at the webstore. Created on PhotoShop.


Art made for the unreleased MagiTek CD: MGITK REMIX. A scanned photo was made into grayscale on PhotoShop, inked by hand, and rescanned. This is meant to be in the style of the artist Brute!, who does all the art for KMFDM's album covers.


Another piece from the MGITK REMIX art set.



This is the first page of the weekly webcomic, MUSE: A Rock Mythology. The page is titled: "Rusty Cage". When originally released, the pages (or "Tracks") where organized into chapters (or "Discs"). The first 7 tracks on Disc 1 focused on the character based on Johnny Cash (and, obviously, all the Track names are nicked from actual Cash song titles). The Director's Cut notes for this page are as follows:
"This is where the MUSE story begins. It shows a worn down Johnny Cash in prison for his crimes against the state (when actually he's being subdued for leading a rebellious movement against the Cobain-run government). I put quite a bit of time into the art on this page. Of course, this is well before I hit my stride and decided on a uniform art style. The entire Johnny Cash segment was my chance to decide how and what I wanted to do with the story and art. I especially like the bottom panel. I'm pretty pleased with the overall scripting on this page. And of course, Jonathan did wonders to make it look good in a presentation sense." This was all made with pencil and pen.


Disc 1, Track 2: "The Long Black Veil". Pencils/pens.


Disc 1, Track 3: "Folsom Prison Blues". The "poster" on this page was a Johnny Cash album cover edited on PhotoShop.


Disc 1, Track 4: "The Mercy Seat". The art was laid atop a watermark of an electric chair which was found in an online encyclopedia.


Disc 1, Track 5: "My Old Faded Rose".


Disc 1, Track 6: "Ring Of Fire".


Disc 1, Track 7: "Unchained".


Disc 2, Track 1: "Come With Me". This page is where the Billy Corgan/Zwan story-arch begins (thus the Zwan song titles).


Disc 2, Track 2: "Ride A Black Swan".


Disc 2, Track 3: "Declarations Of Faith". On this page, you see a different art style than previous in the series. This was intended to be the sort of art used from this point on. Too bad only one more page was produced. Maybe someday...


Disc 2, Track 4: "Freedom Ain't What It Used To Be". This is the last (and biggest) MUSE page created.


Early idea art for Johnny Cash and Creed.



St. Croix High was meant to be a spinoff of GunSluts and Succubus (both of which take place in St. Croix). This page was the last new comic to be released on the MUSE website, around the time Phoenix was working on the Succubus Redux for Thugmasta J.


Interpretation of Anastasia, the heroine of Thugmasta J's comic, Succubus. This was done in all ink.


Interpretation of Rune from the Succubus comic. This art came from the same sheet as the Anastasia drawing, but was separated by J with Photoshop. Also, all ink.