Month: September 2008

Going Green (Part 1 of 4)

~ J.Ho
Let’s dial up the nerdiness here… a while back, I had an idea for the Green Lantern Corps which could never ever be officially made–the gist of it was to populate the Corps with aliens from various science fiction franchises. And even though it could never be officially produced, I still drew up a bunch of character designs. Yes folks, this is how I choose to spend my free time.

These sketches were done quite some time ago–for the first installment, a Skrull and a Wookie:

As you might notice, these are blue pencil sketches, hastily inked and colored with marker. I basically just wanted to get these down on paper, rather than stress out over them. I’m not trying to make excuses though–that Skrull’s foot is terribly contorted and way too big. The next installment will be better, promise.

Cue Jazzy Theme Music, Appendix (2 of 2): Solid as a Rock

~ J.Ho
Concluding a brief series that I started last time. I’ll dispense with the small talk–today’s post features a character who debuted in The New Adventures of Jonny Quest, Hardrock:

Hardrock was a living statue who joined up with Jonny Quest and friends. I honestly don’t know how to expand upon that. Oh well, here’s a clip:

In case you missed my take on the Jonny Quest cast a few months ago, here they are:

Cue Jazzy Theme Music, Appendix (1 of 2): Seeing Red

~ J.Ho
I posted my interpretations of the main cast from Jonny Quest a little while ago, and while I was working on those sketches, I waffled back and forth on including Jessie, a character who was introduced during The New Adventures of Jonny Quest, and later became a core member of the Quest team in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. She was originally depicted as a friend of the family, and was later retconned into being Race Bannon’s daughter. At any rate, here she is:

I honestly wasn’t trying to make her color scheme particularly “girly”–things just naturally went in that direction as I attempted to keep the colors consistent with her hair. Next time, I’ll treat you to the most obscure member of team Quest, hands down!

In case you missed my take on the Jonny Quest cast a few months ago, here they are:

The Man Himself

~ J.Ho
I’m showing my age again… here’s the Batman–not Bruce Timm and Paul Dini‘s, not Cliff Chiang‘s, not Christian Bale‘s, or Michael Keaton‘s. Not Bill Finger‘s, or Jim Lee‘s, or Alex Ross‘s, or Dustin Nguyen‘s, or Jeff Matsuda‘s, or Jeph Loeb‘s or Grant Morrison‘s, or Brian Bolland‘s. Not Bob Kane‘s, not Frank Miller‘s, and not even Darwyn Cooke‘s or Kevin Conroy‘s.

I love all those versions of Batman–but to me, this is the guy. The Batman of Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams:

He’s lean, he’s mean, he’s blue and grey, and he’s got the yellow oval (though I drew it a tad too big). And I’m waffling… he might sound like Kevin Conroy.

The Commish

~ J.Ho
I never followed up after mentioning that I was heading out to watch The Dark Knight. No surprise–I really liked it. What might surprise you, is that my favorite element in both movies is Gary Oldman‘s performance as Lieutenant Jim Gordon, later promoted to his trademark rank of Commissioner.

I drew this right after seeing the movie, but it’s only loosely based on Gary Oldman, drawn without looking at reference. More Bat-stuff next time. Perhaps even the Man himself?

TMNT Tuesdays (Part 4 of 4): Ravishing Reporter

~ J.Ho ~ 3 Comments
When I titled last Tuesday’s Krang sketch, Brains Before Beauty, I meant it. Here’s the Turtle Boys’ resourceful (and foxxy) gal pal, April O’Neil:

Like the aforementioned Krang sketch, as well as Splinter, and Shredder, April is modelled after the 90’s cartoon version, and the title for this post is a tagline from one of April’s 90’s action figure incarnations. For those of you who are too young to remember this, reporters in the 1990’s were all extremely attractive women who wore brightly colored jumpsuits, usually made out of vinyl.

._.

This series illustrating TMNT supporting cast members follows a series from last year depicting the Turtles themselves:

(indecipherable snarling)

~ J.Ho ~ 1 Comment
I had no luck finding it on Youtube, but back in the day, Cartoon Network used to run a hilarious commercial featuring Thundarr the Barbarian and Ookla the Mok. To the best of my recollection, it went a little somthing like this:

Cheesy sax music plays in BG.

OOKLA: (indecipherable snarling)
THUNDARR: Ookla, I think you’re very handsome.
OOKLA: (indecipherable snarling)
THUNDARR: No, really.

That will probably be a lot funnier to you if you are familiar with the characters. Here’s Ookla:

Ookla the Mok, for those who don’t know, was actually designed by the late great Alex Toth. Toth is best known for designing Space Ghost, and while he is very much regarded as an artist’s artist in comic book and animation circles, really he was a master of drawing, period. Be sure to check out the image gallery at the official Toth website.

TMNT Tuesdays (Part 3 of 4): Brains Before Beauty

~ J.Ho ~ 3 Comments
My drawing of Splinter may have sent some mixed signals, and you might not have noticed the pertinent details in my depiction of Shredder–but today it should be perfectly clear that I’m drawing upon the 90’s cartoon version of the Ninja Turtles. Here’s Krang (with the Technodrome silhouetted in the background):

click above for larger view

This is my favorite of the current batch, which may be an unwise thing to say before I post the final one, but I’m satisfied with the others as well. There’s just something about the way the colors turned out on this particular one that makes me think I’m starting to get it. I’m also pretty happy with the irate parallel motion of Krang and his dopey android body.

This series illustrating TMNT supporting cast members follows a series from last year depicting the Turtles themselves: