MODULOK WEEK (Part 2 of 2)

As promised, here is my take on the toy version of Modulok:

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I added some Horde-emblem armbands to Modulok, but colored them in white rather than the standard red, since Modulok already has plenty of red going on. Also, I envision Modulok as being loyal to Hordak, so the emblems are also a subtle cue that Hordak is beginning to build a faction of loyalists to rebel against his elder brother Horde Prime.

The Modulok toy came with two heads, so I couldn’t resist creating yet another version of the character, utilizing what I always thought of as the alternate head:

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This guy is supposed to have a leaner build than your average Masters of the Universe character–think of a luchador or a cruiserweight wrestler. This calls for a little nerdy character bio, am I right? I’M RIGHT!

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PROFILE: Silent, and relatively small in stature, MODUOS hardly appears threatening. However, when his master and clone-father Modulok is threatened, Moduos explodes into action, demonstrating his mastery of exotic grappling maneuvers and acrobatic striking techniques.

When creating him, Modulok tampered with the development of Moduos’s brain, resulting in Moduos being a machine-like drone. Moduos is not protective of his master–he is simply programmed to react. However, what Modulok has failed to understand is that Moduos is gradually developing a higher awareness and has begun to silently observe and question the world around him.

HISTORY: The cruel and brilliant scientist Modulok originated from a planet that has been enslaved by the Tyranid swarms for thousands of years. He escaped from the rule of the Tyranid, and travelled light years away where he encountered Hordak and the forces of the Horde. These two disdainful and evil beings clashed, but each quickly found himself respecting the other. Hordak appointed Modulok as his lead scientist, and Modulok shared stolen Tyranid technology with Hordak, as well as warning him of the creeping Tyranid fleet.

Hordak correctly assessed the Tyranid as a serious threat, in spite of their long distance from Horde territory. He attempted to inform his brother and leader, Horde Prime, but was dismissed out of hand. The seed of discord was planted in Hordak’s heart, and ever since that precise moment, Hordak has grown increasingly malcontent with his brother’s leadership. Modulok has used this to his advantage over the years, manipulating Hordak in the hopes of pitting the Horde against the Tyranid.

Behind Horde Prime’s back, Hordak and Modulok have formulated a plan for Modulok to infiltrate Tyranid-Space with a small force of elite Horde agents, with the goal of gathering intelligence and carrying out high risk sabotage missions and terrorist attacks. Ultimately trusting no one but himself, Modulok created a clone offspring to be his bodyguard for this extended mission–and thus was Moduos born.

* * *

Yeah, that’s right, I included a little incidental Warhammer 40K crossover action in that bio. So what?

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.

MODULOK WEEK (Part 1 of 2)

Hey look, I drew a thing from He-Man! Remember when I used to do that all the time?

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Today’s subject is Galen Nycroft, better known as the cartoon version of Modulok. Of course, in my typical strange manner, I have decided that Galen Nycroft and Modulok should be two different characters. They’re both scientists–Modulok being an alien in the employ of the Horde, and Galen being an Eternian human who mutates himself with a sample of Modulok’s DNA. I’ll post my drawing of the toy version of Modulok on Friday.

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.

That Girl(?) is Poison

Today’s post is for yet another re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, my post is here. The first round voting threads are here and here (my entry didn’t get enough votes to proceed), and the final vote is here.

Apparently, in an issue of the UK He-Man comics, Hordak disguised himself as the “Dream Mistress,” and tried to deceive Stonedar… Stonedar didn’t fall for it (lucky for him). [Place your own cross-dressing joke here]

I chose to interpret the Dream Mistress as a shapeshifting entity who works for Hordak as a spy and saboteur. Here she/it is, in both Horde (right) and non-Horde (left) garb:

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The non-Horde version isn’t significantly altered, so I threw in the Horde version as a re-design (or alternate costume, at the very least). The pose is rather generic, pretty much just a minor variation of a standby that I go to when drawing women (or shapeshifters that look like women). I was a bit short on time for this one.

Pink Panther and Snagglepuss!?

First of all, no, this is not a picture of the Pink Panther and Snagglepuss.

Second, I know you ladies are all wondering, how does a guy who spends his Saturday drawing pink kitties manage to stay single?

*sobbing and incoherent babbling*

Anyways… today’s post was drawn for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, my post is here. The first round voting polls are here and here, and the final vote can be found here–I placed 4th out of the finalists.

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The subject is Clawdeen, the feline mount of She-Ra’s foe Catra. There has been a lot of debate about Clawdeen’s gender, owing to the fact that the toy is identified as a “she” and has feminine-looking eyelashes, in spite of otherwise resembling a male lion (it has a mane like a male lion, however it lacks a tuft on its tail). In contrast, the cartoon version simply looks like a male lion (I don’t recall if its gender is ever specified).

My solution to the gender question was to make the toy and animation versions of Clawdeen into separate characters. The toy version, retaining the name Clawdeen and the specified female gender, gains an armored helm–I leave it to the reader’s imagination whether the plume of hair is Clawdeen’s mane, or simply a part of the helm. The cartoon version becomes Clawdius, Clawdeen’s mate. I swiped the name from Lion-O‘s dad.

I did my best to make Clawdeen feminine without resorting to the heavy-handed shorthand that the original toy suffered from (eyeshadow, long eyelashes). With Clawdius, I was striving for a groomed, submissive feel, to contrast the feral and somewhat crazed look of Manticore. Considering I had the handicap of working with almost nothing but variations of the color pink, I’m pretty happy with how the colors turned out.

WE’RE TWIIINS!

This will be my final post based on Horde Prime for the foreseeable future, promise.

I’ve seen two versions of Horde Prime as he appeared in comics in the UK, each with a different color scheme. I made each of them into new characters, Praetors of Hordak and Horde Prime’s homeworld. Their weapons were my idea.

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I’ll be honest, the drawing of these was a somewhat hasty process. I was trying to keep it fast and loose, but instead it got sloppy. I think the colors helped pull it together somewhat, and I’m glad I was able to tweak the original color schemes, while sticking pretty close to the source material. Here’s the nerdy bio…

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PROFILE: The harsh enforcers PRAETOR ALPHA and PRAETOR OMEGA are, in reality, genetically modified clones of Horde Prime. Horde Prime is over a thousand years old, and the biology of the Praetors matches that of Horde Prime as a young man–therefore, while Alpha and Omega are extremely skilled warriors with some knowledge of combat spells, they have not yet developed Horde Prime’s advanced magic and shapeshifting abilities. Both of them are merciless in the performance of their duties, though an instinctive mutinous streak is gradually surfacing in both of them.

HISTORY: While it is widely known that Alpha and Omega were genetic experiments raised and trained by Horde Prime in secrecy, their secret genetic heritage is unknown to all but Horde Prime and his trusted follower Ifreet.

Disappointed in Hordak’s failure to crush resistance on Etheria, and having placed Zed (the Crown Prince of the Horde) under house arrest for being a rebel sympathizer, Horde Prime is looking at the very real possibility of placing Alpha and Omega in the line of succession. Already, they are entrusted with the stewardship of Horde World, while the newly regenerated Horde Prime leads the Eternian invasion in person.

Hordak does not suspect the true origins of the Praetors, but he is very wary of them. Hordak is aware that his failures on Etheria put him in grave danger of losing favor with his brother, and he senses his brother’s favoritism for Alpha and Omega. Away from the eyes of his all but his most trusted advisors, Hordak has begun to plan the execution of the Praetors of Horde World.

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Also posted here on my variants thread on the He-Man.org fan-art forum.

Flame Broiled Pork

As a companion piece to the Horde Prime redesign that I posted earlier in the week, here is a fan character that I created, Ifreet (named after the mythological entity):

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The idea here is that Horde Prime and Hordak‘s race have a symbiotic relationship with Imp‘s race. Ifreet is one of Imp’s kind–but where Imp is still a mischievous adolescent, Ifreet is a fully matured specimen. Further explanation in the overly detailed bio:

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PROFILE: Horde Prime is infrequently seen without the zealot IFREET at his side. And one can be certain that if Ifreet is absent, he is carrying out the orders of his master. Unquestioning in his loyalty, Ifreet plays a role for Horde Prime analagous to the role that Imp plays for Hordak–something of a cross between pet, valet, yes-man, messenger, and herald. But where Imp’s diminuitive size gives him the added role of spy, Ifreet’s imposing stature instead allows him to perform the function of bodyguard. He stands at close to nine feet tall, is capable of breathing hellfire, and has the natural shape-shifting abilities of his race (but unlike Imp, his shape-shifting is focused on combat rather than disguise). In addition to his innate abilities, consider that his regular armament includes a stun trident and an elite Horde bowcaster, and you will realize that there are few warriors in the galaxy who could prevent Ifreet from executing his master’s will. However, Ifreet essentially has no identity outside of his servitude to Horde Prime.

HISTORY: Having been Horde Prime’s trusted servant literally since before Hordak was born, Ifreet has a unique and envied position within the Horde, in spite of lacking “official” power within the Horde hierarchy. Even Hordak resents Ifreet, much in the way that Hordak’s underlings resent Imp. Now, in the wake of Horde Prime’s regeneration and rebirth, Horde Prime is himself leading the invasion of Eternia, which means that both he and Ifreet are more visible and present, resulting in further resentment amongst high-ranking Horde officers. All in all, Ifreet refrains from abusing his advantaged station, however, those foolish enough to defy his master earn Ifreet’s eternal enmity.

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Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here.

Big Brother Is Watching (Triple Post!)

(Posting early… )

For a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, my post is here. The first round voting polls are here and here, and the final vote can be found here–I placed 4th out of the finalists.

The subject this time around is Horde Prime, Hordak‘s brother and leader.

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The scene in the center is a revision of my previous drawing of Horde Prime–in fact, the secondary head and the silhouette of Hordak on the platform were both directly lifted from the original piece. The figures on the left and right, however, are all new. The entire basis for my interpretation of Horde Prime is the theory that Horde Prime himself was the basis for the symbol of the Horde. The little guy on the left is based on an accessory that came with the original Hordak action figure. The throne room in the center piece is based on scenes from the cartoon. Finally, the Horde Prime on the right combines elements of Hordak’s costume (cartoon version) and the UK comic book version. In-fiction descriptions follow…

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Horde Prime’s Throne Room (center): Centuries before the Horde invasion of Etheria, Horde Prime engaged the heroic champion Light Hope in a battle of apocalyptic proportions. The battle ended in a stalemate, both combatants having received near-fatal wounds. Light Hope sacrificed his wounded physical form to become caretaker of the Crystal Castle and protector of Etheria. His power was greatly increased but his new discorporate form was bound to the castle itself.

Meanwhile, suffering under the effects of Light Hope’s powerful magic attacks, Horde Prime found himself crippled and trapped in his giant form, unable to shapeshift back. He retreated to his flagship, the Velvet Glove, and there, with a combination of advanced Horde science and pirated Infinitan magic, his servants built a sarcophagus-like regeneration chamber. The chamber, combined with Horde Prime’s shapeshifting abilities, allowed him to slowly form a new body, gestating within the colossal rotting husk of his old form. This embryonic body often manifested itself as a secondary head, sprouting from the eye socket of Horde Prime.

Horde Prime’s twisted body renewed itself in a twisted mockery of life and birth over the course of centuries, and in the meantime he plotted revenge against Light Hope and Etheria (it was during this time that Horde Prime’s younger brother and trusted disciple Hordak became the de facto leader of the Horde).

Horde Familiar (left): Through the use of his shapeshifting and magical abilities, Horde Prime can focus his life force to temporarily create a small demonic familiar to act as a spy or messenger. Horde Prime can see through the eyes of these creatures, and act through them. These extensions of Horde Prime were generally reserved for the gravest situations, such as delivering critical information to Hordak without risk of interception. Many rebels have made the fatal mistake of judging Horde Familiars by their relatively small size, failing to realize that a creature with even just a fraction of Horde Prime’s cosmic power is still a formidable foe.

Horde Prime Reborn (right): With the revelation that the two most powerful beings on Eternia (He-Man and Skeletor) had disappeared from the planet, Horde Prime realized that it was the time to strike. Forcing an acceleration of his regeneration, through arcane lore and untested science, Horde Prime is reborn! The cruel leader of the Horde is still regaining his god-like levels of power, but even still he is perhaps the most feared being in the universe. While Hordak holds the Etherian front, Horde Prime leads the invasion of Eternia. Horde Prime seeks nothing less than the utter subjugation of He-Man’s homeworld, after which he will return to Etheria to crush his old enemy Light Hope.

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If this were a toy, I would see Horde Prime’s throne room as a playset, with his giant form being molded into the facade of the regeneration chamber, and his giant arm being a spring-loaded capture claw. Of course, the highly sought-after Horde Prime Reborn action figure would be packed in exclusively with the playset.

Lady in Red

(Posting early…)

When I was working on my illustration of Light Spinner, I decided to draw up her eventual alter ego as well. I finally got around to coloring it, so here’s Shadow Weaver:

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I’m happy with the pose on this one, except for the obscured Horde logo on her belt. I had a bit of difficulty coloring it–for some reason monochromatic red color schemes are something I have difficulty with, and I ended up making a lot of adjustments. The minor changes I made to her costume draw influence from Maleficent and Morticia Addams.

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.

A Witch in Sheep’s Clothing

An entry for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forum. The subject is Light Spinner, Shadow Weaver‘s identity before she betrayed the Rebellion and became the Horde‘s head magic-user. The thread is here, my post is here. The voting threads are here and here. The final run off vote is here–I ranked third.

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I wasn’t too drastic with my design–I basically just combined her cartoon and comic appearances, and tried coloring her so that she wouldn’t come out looking completely like Dree Elle.

DUCK WEEK PART 2: Horduck!

Typical tired Thursday night = early post:

I was watching my She-Ra DVDs, when something about the villain Hordak caught my eye–what’s up with his crazy duck feet? Check out this post on Busta Toon’s blog to see what I’m talking about. Anyways, a hilarious image popped in my head and I came up with this:

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I actually drew this several months ago, just after Christmas, I believe, and had left the colors in mid-progress. But when Super-Munkyboy started an art jam challenging entrants to turn a superhero or villain into animal, vegetable, or mineral, I thought this would be appropriate. I will update with a link when Super-Munkyboy posts the other entries.

The colors on this sucker follow Hordak’s animation model pretty closely. Same with the costume details, with the exception of the obvious, you know… duckification. I’m happy with how the smoke turned out–I’ve been playing around a little with incorporating gradients recently, rather than sticking strictly to two-tone cell-shading.

So originally this was intended to just be an anthropomorphic version of Hordak, but then I got to thinking–given the level of silliness in the old He-Man and She-Ra cartoons, Horduck could easily be incorporated into that universe! And so:

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PROFILE: As a result of his technological and magical enhancements, HORDUCK is capable of shapeshifting in the same manner as Hordak, though his range is more limited. He has enhanced strength and stamina, and possesses thermal vision. Horduck is a classic bully with a Napoleon complex. He sincerely idolizes Hordak, and Hordak, as a result of a huge ego, humors this behavior. However, Horduck and Imp loathe eachother, as Imp percieves (correctly) that Horduck seeks to usurp his position as Hordack’s trusted messenger and protege.

HISTORY: A sickly slave from Hordak’s homeworld, the tiny despot who would become known as Horduck was the subject of experimentation by Modulok. Emerging from the experiments with enhanced powers and strength, he was raised by Shadow Weaver and Hordak, and indoctrinated in the ways of the Horde. Although he constantly claims to be a “Ducktator” of the outer territories of Etheria, in reality he’s merely the officer in command of a small Horde expeditionary force. Currently, he and his squadron are terrorizing a colony of Sagarian Trobbits. The Trobbits however, have allied themselves with the local Twigget population, and a group of Eternian Widgets who’ve found themselves stranded on Etheria.

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Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here.

And so, DUCK WEEK(TM) draws to an epic conclusion! In case you missed it, I did post a Duck-related review on Wednesday–scroll down to check it out. Stay tuned for more Bootleg Sketch Mega-Events(TM) in the near future!

BONUS POST: Double Bonus + Extra Bonus!!!

This illustration was for the second re-design challenge that I entered at the He-Man.org fan-art forums, during the second half of December. My post is here, the whole thread is here, and the voting thread is here. After the results were tallied, I tied for first!

Double Trouble is a character from the She-Ra toyline that never appeared in the cartoon. She-Ra and her allies in the Rebellion were at constant war with the evil Horde, a totalitarian regime that dominated most of the planet Etheria. Double Trouble’s action figure was billed as a “Glamorous Double Agent,” and her action feature was switching her face from good (smiling) to evil (grimacing). And really, I think that’s all kids need to know about morality:

smiling = good

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Inspiration struck when I was looking at pictures of the Double Trouble toy–I noticed that the crest on her helmet, and the symbol on her chest, both had vaguely the same silhouette as the emblem of the Horde (a skull with bat wings). So, rather than having the “evil” version of Double Trouble just grimacing, I designed a complete Horde disguise for her.

The Horde version (left) of Double Trouble is armed with a gargoyle-crossbow thingee, which I assume is standard issue for high ranking Horde officers, because almost all of the Horde action figures came with one. I darkened the green on her uniform so it would be a bit more “military” and added in some red and black to emphasize the Horde theme (for those who do not know, red and black are more or less the colors of the Horde). The end result is sort of christmas-looking, but that was just a coincidence!

The Rebellion version (right) has just has a few tweaks from the original–I added some green on the shoulder pads, and made her bracers and choker silver to match her boots and the accents on her helmet. I’ve never been a fan of the sheer tutus that many of the She-Ra figures had, so instead I made the “skirt” part of a tunic.

BUUUT, that’s not all

click above to view Super-Munkyboy’s Deviant Art post


Mad props to forum member Super-Munkyboy, who drew a chibi version of my Double Trouble re-design–he even modernized the costume to match up to the more intricate character designs of the 200x He-Man cartoon! (The character on the right-hand side is a Horde villain named Vultak) Super-Munkyboy’s post on He-Man.org is HERE, and his deviant art page is HERE–check it out, he’s taken “chibi” to a whole new level!

Surprise! A Nerdy Fan-Art on a Friday Afternoon!

For the uninitiated, this is kind of a complicated one. In the She-Ra cartoon, the bad guys were a totalitarian regime known as “The Horde,” and they were lead by a cyborg-ish guy with a skull-like face named Hordak. Skeletor, incidentally, was originally Hordak’s apprentice, but I digress. Hordak’s boss was an entity named “Horde Prime,” who was also supposedly Hordak’s brother. The only pieces of Horde Prime that were ever seen by the viewers were two glowing eyes and his gargantuan metallic hand (whether armored or robotic, we don’t know). And the only reference to his appearance mentions that he has two heads. Aside from the cartoon, there are also one or two minor and completely contradictory appearances of Horde Prime in the UK comic books.

All in all, this has lead to a lot of discussions amongst He-Man/She-Ra fans about the nature and appearance of Horde Prime. Here is my interpretation:


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A lot of hardcore He-Man/She-Ra fans don’t like Horde Prime, because he takes away from the impact of Hordak, who was always billed within the toys as the leader of the Horde. The strongest argument of opponents of Horde Prime is this:

If Horde Prime was the leader of the Horde, then why was Hordak’s face on the emblem of the Horde?

And this is what got my geeky little brain rolling. The basic assumption that I make in my illustration is this: it is not Hordak’s face on the Horde emblem. For my version, the armor was based on the UK comic book version, while the hand was based on the cartoon depiction. His head and face are, of course, based on the Horde symbol (or by retro-continuity, the basis for the Horde Symbol). As for the secondary head, I just wanted to give him his extra head in an unexpected way. Oh, and I assume that Horde Prime is, like Hordak, a shapeshifter, so the secondary head can retract and morph back into an eyeball. I view Horde Prime as Hordak’s brother, who started out roughly-human sized like Hordak–over time, his shapeshifting abilities developed further, and eventually he was able to use his powers to increase his size.

The discussion thread about Horde Prime on the He-Man.org art forums is here, and my post is here.

For more on Horde Prime: