Greetings, False Believers! If you’re viewing this page from another link, there’s a much nicer and more recently updated WWFJ page here:
http://www.worldwildlifefederationofjustice.com/
Okay here’s what I did at work today. Get excited! Preston Blair’s animation book really helped me come to a happy medium between cartoony and superheroicy. More in style with Captain Carrot than my previous attempts in ’04. As many of you know, I ran a Mutants & Masterminds/Spaceship Zero game set in a “funny animal” universe which I ran at home and at VGG Game Days. These are some of the characters that were played by players, and NPCs that worried the players or fleshed out the background. I’ll be adding more characters in the not-too-distant future.
First off: Mandrill…or Astromandrill? He was a big gun in the World Wildlife Federation of Justice universe. He was actually a founding member of the WWFJ.
The Great Wolverini – Master of the Mystic Skills. Note the moustache and arcane eyebrows. Also a senior member of the WWFJ.
After looking at some cool Alex Toth drawings, here’s a redux for GW:
He’ll bite your head off, man. Dupligator is a new addition I just made up. He strikes me as a low-level hero. Maybe a part-time member or someone who hasn’t proved their worth yet.
Modelled slighty off of WB’s Junior Bear.
Who’s next? Why, it’s Stewie’s favourite (and the love child of Grape Ape and Magilla), Go-Rilla. He was part of the player character group who was striving to gain the notice of the WWFJ.
The WWFJ’s strong man, Porcules. Note the beard.
Oh my god why do I love this guy so much? And what’s going on with the costume there? A foul villain.
And why do so many of these guys have the stiff cowls? Don’t ask the ubiquitous Rhinosferatu:
He’s evil!
I’ve got so many more to go! Gnucleus…Tarmadillo…Psyrax (who knows what a hyrax is?)…Mad Cow…Haardvark…Tasmanian Daredevil…etc etc. I wanna do a comic. Even if it’s only a one-shot.
ADDENDUM:
Better that he looks like Daffy than Donald. Try to imagine green feathers and maybe a dark blue costume. I may even get rid of the shirt and just have the metal vest and belt. I picture Earthquack as a bad guy.
Sorta ran out of paper on the left there. Oops. Originally I pictured Octopussycat as sort of a Batman character. She was a gadget girl, but everything was octopus-themed. Now she strikes me more as a gal with octopus powers…camouflage, ink, sticky suction. I guess mostly I just liked the name. Cuz I’m not sold on the visuals, even though she’s got a kind of blue-ringed octopus motif going there.
Okay here’s a redux on Octopussycat:
Still not satisfied. This third version is a little leg-bendy, but my favourite so far:
MORE ADDENDUM:
Here’s one of the WWFJ’s founders, the Llamazon(ian).
Move over Gleek, Blip and Abu, here’s the WWFJ’s answer to Aquaman–Sea Monkey! Are those fins still there when he takes his costume off? I don’t know! I don’t wanna know!
What if you took Tex Avery’s big bad wolf (you know, the one from Red Hot Riding Hood) and mixed him with Wile E. Coyote and gave him a super suit? Why, you’d get Crackerjackal of course.
But is he a good guy or a bad guy? Hard to tell with that moustache.
STILL FURTHER ADDENDUM (How many more can I do?)
Woe betide the fool who crosses the infernal deviant, Elk Diablo
and his incompetent sidekick, Hellhound!
Here’s a little guy who is also destined to stay in the Sidekick Lounge, Bugbear. Note the dial on his belt that he uses for…something.
A little cutesy, I know. But wait! Here by special request is Shaolin Monkey (you can’t really see the shaved head but I did make a point of not adding hair):
One of my new favourites, Dynamole:
I was gonna give him big thick glasses, like every cartoon mole must have, but then I thought goggles were cooler, and the antenna, gizmo belt and backpack followed naturally.
But no one can trump my new favourite (except for Rhinosferatu of course), arch-nemesis of The Great Wolverini, the ruthless Salamancer:
There’s something so right about funny animal supers getting the Kirby treatment. In hindsight I should have added some extravagant technodoodle to the tip of his tail just to busy it up that one notch further.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t draw guns. Oh well, here’s The Toad Warrior:
Beware the diamond claws of Haardvark:
I like Tasmanian Daredevil, but I think he would be cooler as a she. Maybe later. Meantime:
Or, what if Tasmanian Daredevil was a woman?
Here’s Elephantom. I don’t know why I coloured in bits of him, he should be transparent. Too much like Gentleman Ghost? I think so. I’ll give him another pass later on.
Ok let’s try this one:
Here’s the evil mastermind, Dark Horse:
And the terror of tiny toon, Micronewt:
I don’t know what the deal is with the tuning forks, I just thought they looked cool.
What happens when Sylvester gets abducted by the Master Control Program? You get Datalynx.
I really enjoy Cardinal Sin, though I think his outfit needs work. Or maybe less work.
Thanks to Kerry for this one – Orangutangler:
And this one – Baboom!
The Wooly Marmot. Not to scale. (He’s huge!)
This costume is too generic for my tastes, maybe I’ll give him a makeover later, but in the meantime, this picture of Starbuck will have to do. Silly thing is while I was drawing him I thought “this one should be female” but then of course I realized that I’d have to rename her Stardoe and that didn’t have the same ring to it.
Some time later…
Tarmadillo!
Hilarious! I don’t know why either, but I also have an abiding love for Hypnopotamus. It’s the priceless name, man. Though InvisiBull is so incredibly useful… Sea Monkeys are where it’s at – you can’t go wrong with that. This bodes very well…
A hyrax is like a little marmot. A real marmot, not a Big Lebowski “nice marmot”-marmot.
Hypnopotamus just like I imagined him. Thanks for making my imagination come to life Uncle Toren.
Now if you can make Psychodelican, Elephantasm & Hive Mind come to life then you’ll have four of five members of the Brain Drain drawn.
Don’t ask who the fifth member is because I haven’t made that one up yet.
Psychodelican? I’m having a hard time visualizing. What about Brainstork?
Don’t forget about Earthquack! And how about Gyroffe (a spinning-like-a-top giraffe a-la Red Tornado), or BattaLion the one-lion army!
Go Go-rilla!
Hes there one second, gone the next!
Go Go-rilla!
To keep you safe and the villains vexed!
Go Go-rilla!
When trouble mounts, hes on the run!
Go Go-rilla!
His super-speed is second to none!
Robbers dash,
But in a flash,
Cash is gone,
What went wrong?
Strong is good,
But fast is better!
This speedy apes,
A real go-getter!
I want to move the first verse to the last, as the first verse should always introducing your character and the bridge can riff on for much longer. I just dont have the time right now.
Go Go-rilla!
Oh my stars and garters I forgot all about Earthquack. I just drew him up. I’ll post him tomorrow probably. Any other favourites anyone wants to see?
Psychodelican is a pelican that can produce the effects of psychotropic drugs in targets of his choice. He basically makes ‘everyone be trippin’ then walks in and takes the loot.
I didn’t want him to be all tie dye but given the Captain Carrot theme, it might fit.
Crackerjackal! Crackerjackal!
Dupligator and Pandroid.
Octopussycat seems to be my favourite. There’s something touching about a cat standing over the graves of her murdered parents, saying she will become an octopus because criminal cats are a superstitious, water-hating lot.
My favourite is Hypnopotamus – how can you say no to that wild look and pitchfork hand/claw!
If Crackerjackal had one of those Zorro/Black Blade type head scarves (with ears sticking out, of course) the moustache would be more heroic.
Just..wow.
Can I say that again?
Alright.
WOW!!
I found a quick sketch I did of Hypnopotamus a while ago when all this naming madness was going on. He had no mustache or twirly eyeballs. He was wearing a tux, white gloves, a cape and a top hat.
Your drawing of him is better but I wonder if a top hat might not fit the bill. He could hide things in his top hat to use when his hypnotic powers fail him.
Anyway, just thought I’d mention that.
Who will fight sea monkey? He needs a cruel nemesis…
I suggest Maulusk! Bivalve terror of the deep.
So I was just talking to Ken and he said he was joining the M&M game at your place on Mondays. He said he wanted to make a lucky guy but that someone else already did that. So I said he should make the animal universe equivalent to player’s lucky guy. He’d be called Lucky Duck.
That is all.
No question, Crackerjackal tops the list for me. Jackals are supposed to be cunning and evil, according to most folklore, so I think he’s a villain, a brilliant villain like Basil Saveen, the anthropomorphized Paul Saveen that Tom Strong meets in that alternate toon universe. Hey, Wile E and Big Bad Wolf are cunning villains too, eh? Perfect.
The new drawings are great.
Dynamole looks like he should be shooting electrical bolts into something.
Bugbear probably turns the dial to shrink down to bug size just like the Atom used to do in the early days.
I think Salamancer just leaped past Dynamole into number one with that drawing. It is true. Kirby + Funny animal heroes = great.
Warren, I was thinking about you when I was Kirbying up The Salamancer. I also think that maybe Bugbear is using his dial to set his bug-telepathy to “earwig.”
Now I’m trying to think which characters (protagonists, I mean) would be the best to actually build a story around, if by some weird chance I did make a comic. You need a combo of good design, interesting characters, and powers that aren’t interfere with make good storytelling. I think Crackerjackal’s in there, plus Dynamole, Shaolin Monkey, and maybe Octopussycat.
You could actually give Shaolin Monkey a bald spot on top of his head to show that he has shaved there, but not elsewhere. That makes me laugh 🙂
I also agree that Dynamole needs to have some super-weapon that involves focusing the power he has created and stored in his backpack(?)
Haardvark is great. Me likes him.
If I did up a team based entirely on your drawings then I’d likely pick:
Llamazonian (she fills the all around hero role)
Sea Monkey (water hero)
Haardvark (strong, invulnerable hero)
Cracker Jackal (he’d be the witty, non-powered hero)
Go-rilla (the speedster)
Dynamole (the energy projector – assuming he shoots lightning/electricity from his gloves)
oh ya. i think the team should fight Salamancer who will nearly best the team but with the last minute aid of the great wolverini (who later goes on to be a back up member), they drive Salamancer back into his extradimentional realm and seal it off.
just my first thought
Yeah, Dynamole is definitely one of the main protagonists. He’s an inventor. He built Junkyard Dog which I am currently designing very slowly.
There has been some good ideas over on the M&M forums ( http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=17723 ) such as Loosey Goosey & The Ruminator.
Others that came up through discussion with Mr Metzger: Dog-Sothoth (clearly a bad guy…or force) and Arcane Toad.
And how about Clock-a-Doodle-Do? (clearly another villain obsessed with time)
Or Crock-a-doodle-do (alligator meets chicken)
Or Cluck-a-poodle-do (poodle meets chicken)
Or Cluck-a-doodle-roo (kangaroo meets chicken)
Probably missing the point of combining powers with animal names but I couldn’t help myself.
Yeah this isn’t unholy hybrids, Banks! Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh!
Bugbear cracks me up everytime I look at it. He looks so damned happy with himself. Haha.
This is brilliant stuff. More drawings like Salamancer, please! Funny animals and the Kirby treatment mix well.
DataLynx looks like he stepped out of Tron. Elephantasm is super-scary, in a good way.
I thought Cardinal Sin would be more Pope-y for some reason. An avenging Catholic bird.
I was stuck in traffic the other day, and rather than do what I normally do (bitch and beat my fists into the steering wheel) I opened my magazine to an ad page and tried to make up some WWF characters. They are mostly eye-rollingly silly, but that’s what I’m known for. Here you go:
Baboom – a baboon demolitions expert
…they only get worse from here…
Gecko-Roman Wrestler – watch out, he’s slippery.
Boa Conscriptor – this serpent will enlist you in the army, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Cariboomerang – a caribou who can throw his horns at you and they come back somehow.
Racoontour – this masked bandit has that “je ne sais quoi” that the ladies can’t resist.
Orangutangler – this primate is a master of rope use.
Wolfred Brimley – if the elderly don’t get their diabetes medication and a hearty breakfast, he’ll huff and puff and blow your retirement home in!
Koala T. Control – we all need this guy around – he obviously did not get a look at this list.
With Baboom (kind of like DCs the Human Bomb, but a monkey) and Orangutangler (I think he’d make an awesome stretchy dude, like Rubber duck), there’d be enough primate characters for form a team!
Stewie, you said a mouthful. Astromandrill! Sea Monkey! Go-Rilla! Shaolin Monkey! Orangutangler! Baboom! Not to disparage the good folks at Green Ronin, but our character names outdo the character names of the Primate Patrol.
http://www.pen-paper.net/mm.php?op=teams
scroll down to past halfway for “Primate Patrol”
If you want Starbuck to have a female companion you could always call her Doenut.
Ba-dum-bum! I’m here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.
Red Rover did not look how I expected. I had the preconceived notion that he’d be a hold over from the Cold War. A Russian dog hero. Perhaps the dog that got shot up in Sputnik and bathed in cosmic radiation.
I love dupligator. But another other ‘gator themed superheroes could be….
Fumigator. (soooo gassy)
I really liked the idea of doing a Red Rover character but I didn’t have any solid idea for conception. So I looked up “Red Rover” on wiki and learned about it’s mariner roots. Hence the pirate deal. I do like your Sputnik suggestion. Laika (the dog that died in Sputnik 2) was a female so maybe I’ll do a retcon.
I know I’ve mentioned it beofre, but I’m going to say it again because I think it’s a winner …. Awesome Possum!
If this would have been around in the late 80’s early 90’s when I was playing TMNT rpgs. character creation would have been awesome! Completely ripped off your work but awesome