iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Finally brought closure to an offhanded gag I wrote in 2016.

Panel 1: Aisha barges into her old bedroom, now transformed into a cluttered storage room for her dad's salvage and repair business. "What the hell is this?" she shrieks.

Panel 2: Aisha's parents arrive at the doorway. "What did you expect?" her mom retorts. "We didn't know you were coming!" "My room…" Aisha mutters, stunned. "Just calm down, everybody," her father says. "I think I have a solution."

Interstitial caption: Ten Years Later

Panel 3: Aisha's father ushers her and her mom into the same room, now (mostly) overhauled back into a girl's bedroom. "So, i did my best to spruce things up, y'know, with the curtains, and whatnot," he says, gesturing around the room. "There's still some boxes I gotta move, and the conduits need wrapping, but..."

Panel 4: The camera pulls back to reveal the full room, a blend of industrial pipes and joists with hanging lanterns and a pink bed. Aisha, beaming, says "No, it's amazing, dad. I love it."

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Aisha's mom never lets her make any cool drink orders.

Comic panel of Aisha and her mom standing in a front yard strewn with empty wine bottles. “I’ll have a dirty boilermaker, on the rocks,” Aisha says, to their offscreen host. "No thanks, we’re here on business," her mom retorts.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

That hiatus went on for so long I can’t even remember when it started. But anyway, the comic is back now. You should read it. www.automansdaughter.com

A drunken Siddig, wearing sunglasses and a purple smoking jacket while standing in front of his house and all his furniture, yells “At least leave the albino ones! They won’t survive in the wild!”

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Clayton and Holt and spooky trees, from webcomic Dust ’n Dread. #dustndreaddtiys

Digital illustration for webcomic Dust ’n Dread’s Draw This In Your Style contest. Cowboys Holt and Clayton sit uncomfortably at a campfire in a spooky forest. Their fire emits an unearthly pink glow, while the twisted black trees surrounding them are backlit by a sickly yellow night sky.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Tickets are now on sale for The Ottoman's world premiere at the NY Shorts International Film Festival! We’re coming in strong at the top of Program 2, plus Q&A with all the animators after the show! Check it out, won’t you? www.nyshorts.net/program-2

The poster for The Ottoman, a 12-minute animated short, featuring the three main characters standing in the medina in front of their giant beetle mech.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Had to throw together a new widescreen thumbnail while applying to film festivals, and I gotta say, I kinda dig the results. This title style is clearly influenced by the comic covers I’ve been drawing lately, but it had never occurred to me to try it on a movie poster…

A widescreen movie poster for “The Ottoman,” featuring the Ottoman, his wife and son standing in front of their armored mech in the medina. The title of the film, in gigantic translucent orange letters, is superimposed in the mid-ground, with the characters’ heads obscuring it at the bottom.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

In the span of five seconds, this shot combines a 180° camera move, ground deformations, flowing sand, prop manipulation, smoke, fire, and a character hitting the ground and running at top speed. Tall order for animator Laura Craig, but she delivered: intense action, and even more intense emotion…

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

The boy’s stumble wasn’t in the script—animator Kyle Torres felt it was worth adding, and we extended the shot just to accommodate it. But what makes that stumble the right choice for the scene is the way it connects to the film’s imagery of resilience and perseverance seen throughout the film.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

After a long hiatus, the main storyline returns! But this time, featuring lush, exquisite coloring, courtesy of @jackarais.bsky.social! You’re getting maximum value here, readers. automansdaughter.com

Comic panel from The Automan’s Daughter: In a cluttered, dieselpunk bathroom, Aisha crouches in a large metal bathtub. Her mother, having opened the door from the living room, says: “Can I come in?” Aisha, visibly annoyed at the intrusion, yells “NO!” in response.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I normally rely on painterly rendering and shading for my colors, so this cover, with its giant hard-edged shadow, took me way out of my comfort zone. Nowhere to hide!

The cover for The Automan’s Daughter, chapter 10. The artwork depicts a sunglasses-wearing Siddig, lying on his back on the bottom of a drained swimming pool. Standing in the shadows nearby is Tajj, looking down at him impassively. Sitting casually on a diving board is Aisha, looking down at them both.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

This is one of my favorite shots in the film, because you can catch all the Ottoman family dynamics in just a few seconds: dad is oblivious, the boy is carefree, and mom is ever-vigilant for calamity. The Scarab is, as always, lumbering. Animator Sam Wilson was a force of nature on this one…

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

The challenge of a complicated camera move like this is that you can’t animate the camera until the animation is set, and you can’t animate the characters until the camera move is set. The only solution: start with a best-guess camera move in an empty environment, and animate characters to match.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Strap in, it’s another mecha shot, this time showcasing the Scorpion’s memorable reveal, as it unfurls from its compact parking stance. Were the Akira-style headlight streaks really necessary? History will be the judge.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

As we wrap up post-production, it’s a great time to start showcasing some of our favorite shots from The Ottoman. And there’s none better to kick things off with than sequence 3 shot 1.1! This powerhouse of a shot features the Scarab mecha thundering across the desert ruins, headlights blazing.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Inking practice with some fan art of Motoko Kusanagi, wearing her “white jeans” outfit from Standalone Complex season 2.

Digitally inked black-and-white fan art of a pistol-wielding Motoko Kusanagi, in her “white jeans and leather shrug” outfit from Standalone Complex S2.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

My entry for #meetthewebcomic is The Automan’s Daughter, a retro-styled mecha adventure comic set in a dieselpunk North Africa. If that sounds like your jam, check it out at www.automansdaughter.com, and consider supporting it on www.patreon.com/luckbat!

An action-packed comic panel of Aisha and her father Osman frantically careening their beetle-shaped mech through a crowded marketplace while a much larger piloted Spider mech pursues them.
The copy reads: “Military-school dropout Aisha Osman and her
industrialist uncle Siddig must outwit bikers, spies
and kidnappers as they gear up for a tournament
showdown with the formidable Widowmaker mecha.”

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 26/07/2024

The Automan’s Daughter is on summer (and fall) break! Perfect time to read the first nine chapters at www.automansdaughter.com! In the meantime, feast your eyes on this incredible illustration of Aisha enjoying her summer break, drawn by the incomparable @kimhu.bsky.social!

Poster-style artwork of Aisha, clad in her explorer outfit and carrying a radio transmitter on her back, in mid-leap onto a crumbling pillar. The old medina, in pink and purple hues, looms in the background under a pale cloudless sky. (Illustration by Kim Hu)

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 13/05/2024

Process diagram for #webcomicday! The Automan’s Daughter is a mecha adventure comic set in a dieselpunk North Africa, inspired by European comics of the 1970s. Updating biweekly, it's free to read at automansdaughter.com

A series of diagonal strips showcasing four stages of webcomic production: 3D & Pencils, Inks, Color Flats, and Shading. Stacked vertically, they depict chapter 9 page 8 of The Automan’s Daughter.

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 09/03/2024

It’s the season finale! More webcomic chapters should end with one of the characters telling you to go to hell, in my opinion. Anyway, The Automan’s Daughter chapter 9 is complete! Perfect time to dive in, before we go on hiatus. www.automansdaughter.com #dieselpunk #webcomic

Cropped panel of Siddig walking away from the viewer, crashing beach waves in the background. Midway through putting on a pink collared shirt, he glances over his right shoulder and says:

“You can all go to hell.”

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Mike Stamm @luckbat.bsky.social · 09/02/2024

I feel bad that crunch time at my day job has caused the comic’s update schedule to slow to a crawl. Apologies, everyone! On the plus side, I did manage to post this page, where for some reason everyone is heatedly gesticulating with one arm.