The punchline in this picture arose from a typically dorky IM session between myself and Charles. For those not in the know, an Owlbear is a Dungeons & Dragons monster, and possibly the offspring of Smokey the Bear and Woodsy the Owl.
As I generally refrain from cursing on this blog (unlike my ultra-profane RL), I have nothing more to say.
Gigan is one of my favorite kaiju from the Godzilla franchise. The version here is sort of an old-timey cartoon version of the classic Gigan, as opposed to the modernized version that appears in Final Wars.
Just go watch Final Wars already!
It’s Metapod!
I drew this ages ago (five years ago, in fact) for two kids at Comic-Con who were taking a sketchbook around and having artists draw random Pokemon. They sent me a scan of it, and here I am, a jillion years later, finally doing something with it.
A few years later I saw those kids again, but they weren’t kids–they were young men, in college, and they were in a band. I’m old!
The end.
Sherri‘s most recent young adult novel was released not too long ago (in February), titled Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. Using a middle school graduation day as a backdrop, Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet tells the story of a young girl struggling with her bi-racial heritage, and her transition into adulthood. Great reading for young adults, as the last days of school give way to the summer. And if you haven’t already, please give Sherri’s other books a look as well. Sherri’s stories tend to deal with young women finding their way in life, and while the books are never “too girly” for a general audience, I particularly recommend them for girls and young women looking for role models who aren’t vapid starlets.
Danielle has recently stocked her Etsy store with a series of elegantly hand-made greeting cards and bookmarks. Each piece is one-of-a-kind, and Danielle’s prices are ridiculously affordable, so if you see something you like, buy it fast!
And, for the buccaneer in your life–Ren just added some charming Pirate Grrl greeting cards to the Paper Lotus Etsy store. I caught glimpses of this set in progress, and I’m stoked to finally see them available for purchase. Buy these so that Ren will make more!
MODOK is spectacularly hideous, and therefore great fun to draw.
And now, a five second review!
The Fall (In theaters now!)
Contrasting a slyly humorous, self-aware, and visually gorgeous fantasy world against a nostalgic yet poignant view of 1920’s Los Angeles, The Fall elegantly tells the story of two convalescent hospital patients. Watch the trailer here.
Verdict: Awesome. Just go watch it!
For More Fantasy Movie Awesomeness: Corny and not self-aware, Krull is still pretty awesome. Just saying.
Obviously I have been catching up on my Naruto. Naruto is seriously one of my favorite things ever.
FRIDAY:
SATURDAY:
SUNDAY:
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY:
My pal, Dustin took some time out of his crazy rockstar schedule to draw an awesome piece for me:
The l’il robot on the left is my character Cog and the super-hott dame on the right is Big Barda, my favorite character from DC’s New Gods.
YOU’RE THE MAN, DUSTIN! Be sure to check out his Deviant Art gallery, and go buy all his issues of Detective Comics, available in finer comic book stores now!
I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love the mythology of video games, in spite of my ineptitude at actually playing video games. I’ve been playing a little Smash Brothers and Mario Kart recently, so the larger Mario-verse has been on my mind. Luckily, a site like Super Mario Wiki exists, so that I may satisfy my deep craving for obscure trivia about the Mario-verse.
Today, a momentary respite from the recent deluge of He-Man related sketches. I was working on this one a few months ago, but put it on the backburner as other things came up. I sketched and ‘inked’ this piece in Photoshop (in addition to coloring in Photoshop, as usual), so the result is 100% digital. The subject matter was pretty random. I started sketching a girl, which became a go-go girl, and then I just threw in a ray gun for the heck of it. This is what happens when I let my mind wander. Really.
I decided to stretch my wings a bit and experment with some textures for this piece–the blue and purple pattern on her dress was created by me, using pressure-sensitive opacity brushes in Photoshop; the other textures were taken from free texture sites (this one and this one). The texture for her hair is a sunset, and the texture for the boots and purse is stained glass. All in all, I’m pretty happy with the results.
Today’s illustration is a monstrous steed for the subject of my previous post. He resembles his mythological namesake, but with some minor differences, and of course he’s patterned after Battle Cat, Panthor, and my own fan character, War-Tiger. He is not to be confused with Montecore.
This one feels a little stiff and “blah” to me. But as longtime readers will note, I live my life by the phrase, “they can’t all be winners.” I’m happy with the color scheme though… I feel like I successfully emulated the bright and garish style of 80’s action figures. Forward, to the nerdy bio!
PROFILE: Armed with a poisonous sting, a deafening roar, and the power of flight, the fearsome MANTICORE serves HIGH PRIEST LEO as loyally as the High Priest serves the God-King of Infinita. Like Battle Cat, Manticore is a highly intelligent creature, fully capable of speech.
HISTORY: Upon achieving the rank of High Priest, Manticore was granted to Leo by the God-King of Infinita himself, as a servant and ally. Manticore is the head of his clan, and is widely known for his arrogant sense of pride as well as his steadfast sense of loyalty and duty.
Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, and my post is here.
Basically, there was a variation of Skeletor manufactured in India with a significantly different, darker color scheme. The Indian toy company was named Leo, and so this variation is known amongst He-Man enthusiasts as Leo Skeletor. Naturally, I decided that I needed to turn this into a new character, as is my custom:
I’ll be the first to admit, this one is kind of a stretch. I took a look at the original toy and decided that I would interpret his dark blue body as chain mail, and using the moniker “Leo” as a theme, I integrated lion-related imagery into his armor to differentiate him from Skeletor proper. After that, his personality and background quickly fell into place.
A not-so-brief note to the truest of He-Man die-hards–you will note that the character’s ring is modelled after the glow-in-the-dark skull insignia ring that was included with the Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops action figures. The ring has no official backstory or copy attached to it–however the symbol on it has popularly become known amongst fans as the “Grayskull symbol,” believed to be modelled after Castle Grayskull or the spirit of Castle Grayskull (a smokey skull-shaped apparition that appeared in several of the early mini-comics that were packaged with the action figures).
However, this explanation still didn’t quite sit right with me… the shapes projecting from the top of the skull insignia’s head were too pointy to be the battlements of Castle Grayskull, and were also far too regular to be wisps of smoke as per the spirit of Grayskull. To my eyes, the projections looked far more like three demonic horns. While all that could be perhaps dismissed as me looking at the ring’s visual cues too literally, something bothered me even more–the fact that the ring was included only with two of Skeletor’s best-known evil warriors. Why were they the bearers of the mysterious rings?
To make a long story long, I decided to go against conventional wisdom–the insignia is not a symbol of Grayskull in my interpretation. I don’t claim to be an expert, and this is all just for fun, so I hope you’ll all enjoy yourselves as the story of that insignia unfolds through the continuing profiles of my variant characters, moving from the classic Masters of the Universe line, to the New Adventures of He-Man, and beyond.
PROFILE: Hailing from the world Infinita, and serving the God-King of Infinita, HIGH PRIEST LEO is an alien warrior-cleric of the highest order. He was born of the same process that created Skeletor–given demonic powers and a terrifying skeletal visage through dark spellcraft and ritual scarring. Armed with a Havoc Staff (the traditional weapon of Infinitan priests) and accompanied by his winged mount MANTICORE, there is no zealot more fiercely devoted than Leo, whose famed exploits in the name of the God-King have earned him the title “the Lion of Infinita.” All who cross High Priest Leo’s path will bow to the will of the God-King of Infinita. HAIL INFINITA!
HISTORY: With no communications received from Eternia in years, Skeletor was declared a renegade, and the High Priest Leo was dispatched from Infinita to track down and report Skeletor’s whereabouts. His vessel damaged by a meteor shower, Leo crash landed somewhere in the jungles of Eternia, and began the long trek towards Snake Mountain.
Nearing the perimeter of Skeletor’s Fortress, Leo spyed Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops standing guard. With little effort, Leo stepped into the open and bested them both. As Trap Jaw lay on the ground groaning in agony, his prosthetic arm torn from its socket, Leo level his Havoc staff at Tri-Klops. Tri-Klops’s glaring red eye widened at the sight of Leo’s ring, bearing the insignia of the God-King of Infinita–a triple-horned black skull. “W-wait–there’s been a misunderstanding!” he stammered, as he fumbled through his belt pouch. Amused, the High Priest paused to see what attempt at bribery this Eternian could muster–though it did not matter, Leo would kill him one way or another. What Tri-Klops produced from his pouch was not gold or silver, but a blank ring. Tri-klops put it on his finger and held up his hand for Leo to see.
“Hail Infinita! Hail the God-King!” Tri-Klops cried. With a gleam of demonic energy, the triple-horned skull insignia materialized on Tri-klops’s ring. “We’ve been waiting for you, my lord.”
With great effort, Trap Jaw clumsily managed to put on a similar ring on his remaining good hand. He muttered the same invocation, and an identical insignia appeared on his ring as well. Leo stayed his hand, somewhat disappointed that he would have to spare these two Eternian wretches. “Tell me everything you know,” Leo demanded.
In the distance, a stealthy barbarian and his dreadlocked young ward strained to hear the conversation between the High Priest, the swordsman, and the cyborg. When the invader fell from the skies, they had shadowed him silently, ultimately tracking him to the fringes of Skeletor’s lands. The barbarian decided that they could no longer risk detection–it was imperative that this development was relayed to his allies in the capital.
Without a noise, Savage sneaked away, his protege on his heels.
Also posted here on my variants thread on the He-Man.org fan-art forum.
For my other “new characters from old variants” posts:
While Two-Bad was billed as a strategist, he was rarely played for anything but laughs. I think he has a lot of untapped potential, and if it were up to me, I would cast him in the role of a genius tactician, Skeletor’s third-in-command (after Evil-Lyn).
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.
The subject today is Kactura, a Masters of the Universe fan character created by my pal Super-Munkyboy:
A cactus woman with built in spikey tonfa, thigh-high platform boots, and an an elegantly crisp color scheme? I was instantly won over the first time I saw this character. Read about Kactura here, and then do yourself a favor and check out Super-MunkyBoy’s art for yourself–right here.
Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here and my post is here.
I genuinely appreciate every single comment, and even though I take forever to respond, they are all sent to my e-mail, so I read each and every one (usually within a day of receiving it). That said, I’m going to try and be better about responding more promptly.
Thanks again! We now return you to your regularly scheduled dorkiness.
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.
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…
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.
Also posted here on my variants thread on the He-Man.org fan-art forum.
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:
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.
Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here.
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.
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…
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.
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.
Today’s post is still under construction! Or, at least what was today’s post is still under construction. So instead, you get this quickie:
Two manifestations of my raging ego in one week. WHAT A TREAT.
