BONUS POST: ‘Tis The Season

I had absolutely no plans for a Halloween post, but Charles first insisted (which had no effect), and then challenged me. I don’t usually take the bait in such scenarios, but I also happen to be a fan of one Frankenstein’s Monster, and thus today’s l’il treat:

Timing me over IM, Charles challenged me to draw Frankenstein’s Monster in 5 minutes, and ink it in another 5. The plan was to color it in another 5, but I didn’t run into him again on IM, so I just went as fast as I could. It took me about 40 minutes to color and typeset this, because apparently, I am a sloth on downers. Oh well, under an hour is still pretty fast… for me.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, CHARLIE BROWN!

HUBBA HUBBA!

(Super tired = Super early post… enjoy!)

An entry for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forum. The thread is here, my post is here. Voting was split up into two threads, here and here, and a final poll between the finalists was conducted here. Err… basically I came no where close to even making the first cut, but I encourage everyone to check out the other entries–there’s some great stuff there!

The subject of the redesign is Shokoti, an obscure but somewhat popular villainess who appeared only once in the cartoon. This time around, there were a lot of entries, and I had a hard time figuring out how to redesign the character while trying not to make changes for change’s sake. All in all, I thought a different approach might be necessary:

I changed her name to “Shokutie” for two reasons, 1) to play up the cartoony aspect of this drawing and 2) because I cannot resist a terrible pun. Sorry. I settled on “Wicked Mistress of Hubba Hubba” as her title after rejecting “Villainous Mistress of Va Va Voom” and “Evil Mistress of Honk Honk Awooga.”

I’m basically satisfied with the drawing and color choices on this one (i punched up all her colors so they were more saturated and vibrant than the original). The actual rendering however is pretty “meh” (don’t even bother trying to identify consistent light sources!) and I wish I had pushed the hair color more towards black rather than blue.

This sketch, obviously, does not fall in my normal series of Masters of the Universe drawings. Although, because of the modified name, I guess she could conceivably be some kind of a slightly super deformed avatar that manifested sentience and became an independent entity, similar but not exactly like the background I came up with for Horduck. Wow, that was a nerdy sentence. Aww, what the heck, here’s a profile for the little hottie:

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PROFILE: SHOKUTIE (so named by Orko) has the basic abilities and personality of Shokoti, however her power levels are diminished, and her demeanor has an added impish aspect to it. She’s still something of a bully, but it appears that Shokutie may be a more innocent version of Shokoti, as she lacks some of the original’s more cruel tendencies.

HISTORY: After her defeat at the hands of He-Man, Shokoti attempted to rematerialize herself on the material plane by creating an avatar that contained a fraction of her power. The avatar was able to bring about Shokoti’s return, but in the process, apparently became autonomous. When Shokoti tried reabsorbing Shokutie against her will, Orko (who had somewhat befriended her), casted a mirror spell, attempting to deflect Shokoti’s magic. As could be expected, Orko botched the spell, but it had an unexpected affect–Shokoti was able to reabsorb an equivalent amount of magic so that her soul and magic ability were rendered whole once more, and yet Shokutie was able to continue existing, free from the power of her originator. Still somewhat weakened, Shokoti retreated, vowing vengeance on He-Man and his allies, as well as her diminuitive doppleganger. Orko attempted to convince Shokutie to join the side of good, but she was still struggling with her newfound freedom and possibly evil nature. She was allowed to go free, and was last seen on Etheria, playing pranks on Horduck.

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So, I guess that means that this is part of my regular series of He-Man pics. I also have a “standard” version Shokoti that I drew up (that one sticks pretty close to the original costume), and will be posting sometime in the future.

Some plugs and an O.G. (Original Goodguy)

This is long overdue, but I ought to mention that a couple of my friends have Etsy shops with quality products in stock…

Ren is part of the Paper Lotus Design Group, and she has cool and quirky greeting cards, stationary, apparel, and tote bags available:


Annie, founder and proprietor of Ape Kabuki, has beautiful block prints (hand-carved and pressed) for sale at her shop:

Last but not least, October may almost be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy Cat-tober at the Nathan Hamill gallery/blog/store (click on NEH gallery). After you’re done checking out his bleakly terrifying (yet strangely fascinating) kitty-cats, be sure to check out the greeting cards for sale at his non-Etsy store. CAT-TOBER!!!


Visit my friends, support independent artists, and do all your Christmas shopping early! We now return you to your regularly scheduled dorkiness–

My brain has been made of an inert slime lately, so when I needed a sketch subject, Josh suggested Superman:

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I sketched this up really quickly (probably less than 15 minutes), but then ended up agonizing over it in Photoshop for 2 hours, tweaking the lines, and noodling with the colors. Superman seems basic, but if the slightest thing is off, it screws up everything. I’m not completely happy with this one, but I don’t hate it either. The proportions of the face and somewhat youthful appearance are influenced by the late great Mike Wieringo‘s version of the big blue boyscout.

Put on your game face…

Transformers came out on DVD this week, and I’m glad to say that after repeat viewings I feel the same about it as when it first came out. I got an itch to draw the movie version of Bumblebee, which you can compare to my depiction of the cartoon version from a few months ago.

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Trying something new here… sort of. Combining two of my regular techniques, this one is 100% Photoshop, sketched in pixelly fashion with the pencil tool but colored in the semi-painterly fashion that I use every now and then. It’s pretty fast and dirty, all kinds of B.S. imaginary light-sources going on here. Still, I’m fairly happy with it. Bumblebee is drawn, by the way, with his battle mode face-plate (which I think is much cooler than his weird gas tank mouth). I believe it was Vinny who called it Bumblebee’s “game face.”

BOOYAKA!

Necessary Evil Character Files (Part 7 of 7): Mother Knows Best

(Posting early)

The conclusion to my series of character designs for Josh‘s comic Necessary Evil, today’s character is the Matriarch, late super-villainess supreme, and mother to Jacob and Miller:

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Although she’s already dead when the series begins, the Matriarch’s presence is felt strongly. Her death serves as Jacob and Miller’s motivation, and each of the twins must decide whether her infamous career as a super-villain will serve as an ideal to strive for or a cautionary tale.

Don’t forget, Necessary Evil #1 is available now!

Ask your local comic shop to order Necessary Evil–it’s available in Previews. And after you’ve done that, add Necessary Evil as your friend on MySpace.

Previous Necessary Evil posts:

Necessary Evil Character Files (Part 6 of 7): A Principal Player

(Posting early again–it’s been a busy week and time’s a-wastin’!)

As expected, the first issue of Necessary Evil was on shelves this past Wednesday! The printing is gorgeous and I want to extend my congratulations to Josh, Marcus, and Vinny for a job well done.

The signing at Comic Bug went well, and there’s already talk of another signing for issue #2–I’ll keep you posted. Whether or not there’s another signing, if you live in the Los Angeles area, or happen to be passing through, definitely check the store out–it’s in a great location, street parking is no problem, and most importantly they’re well-stocked. Directions to the store are available on the web site.

Continuing my series of character designs for Necessary Evil, today’s character is Headmaster of the Necessary Evil Academy, the Marquee de Antihause, AKA Anti:

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Anti is Jacob and Miller‘s Headmaster. But perhaps more importantly, he was the best friend and ally of the Matriarch, Jacob and Miller’s deceased super-villain mother. Can Anti provide the twins with answers about their mother’s death?

Ask your local comic shop to order Necessary Evil–it’s available in Previews. And after you’ve done that, add Necessary Evil as your friend on MySpace.

Previous Necessary Evil posts:

Necessary Evil Character Files (Part 5 of 7): Second Generation Henchman

(Posting a bit early, as is my habit… )

Before I go on with today’s post: Necessary Evil #1 is in fact coming out this week! For those of you in the Southern California area, Josh (the writer), Marcus (the penciller), and Vinny (the inker) will be on-hand for a signing at The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach on Wednesday October 10th–for all the details, please check out the The Comic Bug web site.

Continuing my series of character designs for Josh‘s upcoming comic Necessary Evil. Today’s character is another student at the Necessary Evil Academy, Thug Junior:

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Thug Junior’s father never amounted to anything more than hired muscle, and that’s why Thug Junior is determined to be more. For now, Thug Junior does provide the muscle for Jacob and Miller‘s group, but they treat him as an equal.

Ask your local comic shop to order Necessary Evil–it’s available in Previews. And after you’ve done that, add Necessary Evil as your friend on MySpace.

Previous Necessary Evil posts:

Necessary Evil Character Files (Part 4 of 7): There’s No Blocking This Guy

(Busy couple of days coming up, posting early, etcetera… )

Resuming my series of character designs for Josh‘s upcoming comic Necessary Evil. Today’s character is another student at the Necessary Evil Academy, Pop-Up:

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Like an annoying internet avertisement, Pop-Up uses his powers of teleportation to appear at the most inconvenient times. He becomes sort of a little brother figure in Jacob and Miller‘s group of friends.

Supposedly Necessary Evil #1 will be out next Wednesday (we are trying to get confirmation on this). At any rate, I will, of course, mention it if that is the case. There will also probably be a signing in the Los Angeles area–check back for details.

Ask your local comic shop to order Necessary Evil–it’s available in Previews. And after you’ve done that, add Necessary Evil as your friend on MySpace.

Previous Necessary Evil posts:

Clever Titles Are Overrated

After a brief hiatus, the re-design challenges at the He-Man.org fan-art forums have returned! The thread is here, my post is here.

(Voting thread is here and I placed 2nd–the winning design was an awesome piece by my pal Jazyl.)

First up is Light Hope, a mystical column of light who is guardian of She-Ra’s headquarters (the Crystal Castle) and acts as her advisor. My version depicts a human avatar of Light Hope:


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The design of his helmet is based on the toy version of the Crystal Castle, while his staff is a depiction of the cartoon version. The double crests on his robe are loosely patterned off of the upper windows of the Crystal Castle toy, and the colors of the robe are based on the toy’s flag. His breastplate, belt, and boots are based on the Bow action figure–not because he has any connection with Bow directly, but because if there had been a Light Hope action figure, it’s likely that Bow’s token male sculpt would have been harvested for parts. The symbol on his chest is the same sun-symbol motif found on She-Ra’s, and his wings of light echo the double wings of the cartoon version of the Crystal Castle. His sword of light is based on a She-Ra role play set which differs from other depictions of She-Ra’s sword.

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PROFILE: LIGHT HOPE is a master sorcerer and expert warrior. He wields a sword of light and the staff of the Crystal Castle. His wings of light provide him with flight as well as a defensive barrier. Light Hope’s even-handed wisdom is reknowned throughout the cosmos.

HISTORY: The power embodied by the Crystal Castle of Etheria is ancient, and, like Castle Grayskull on Eternia, predates recorded history. Light Hope–a powerful warrior-mage rumored to be allies with He-Ro the Wizard and King Grayskull–sacrificed his mortal body to become the caretaker of the mysteries of the Crystal Castle. It is foretold that Light Hope will take on his human form once more in Etheria’s greatest hour of need.

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