I finished the ink job on Rust today. So i thought I’d show her off. I’m not sure how I’m going to colour her. I prefer watercolour but I don’t want to screw it up, which I’m sure I’ll do. Oh well at least I’ve got the uncoloured version scanned in.
Superchthonic
Okay, who thinks that “Superchthonic” should be the name of the next Thickets album? Because I do. It works on so many levels. Supersonic. Sonic=sound. Chthonic = the underworld.
ps it’s pronounced ‘SOO pur THAW nik’
Because if I Won't, Who Will?
Sometimes a guy just has to draw a page full of cartoony hands, Preston Blair style. Tonight I took advantage of the monthly “Do Ink” collaborative drawing events (on Main & 26th as put on by Ms Char Hoyt and her cronies) to catch up on my drawing assignments. After all, I promised John K I’d do my homework.
I also drew The Wooly Marmot, but he can be found in the usual place.
My Spoon Is Too Big!
Today, on the internet (here), I pre-ordered the Bitter Films Volume One – six films by Don Hertzfeldt. After I did so I got an email that said “As an added bonus for pre-ordering, you may enter the promotional code “CLARITY” during checkout in the official Bitter Films store for 15% off your order. This offer expires August 18th and may only be used one time.” Too late for my use, but if anyone else wants to support Mr Hertzfeldt, they can do so a little cheaper.
Meanwhile, Bad Girl Chocolates has been updated with the pinup girl images I did for my fabulous chocolatier/gamer friend Kelly! http://www.badgirlchocolates.com/girls.html (you can hit F5 to refresh and cycle through the 4 girls).
World Wildlife Federation of Justice and their foes
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!
Well, *I* Thought It Was Funny
Number 37: the Rastafomorian.
Screwin' around at work
Also here’s a pic of the new me. (Every day has a new me!)
Con Fu 2006 Wrapup
First, here is a drawing.
This was drawn while I was working on the Preston Blair cartooning book. You may be able to see the influences. Just screwing around (still).
Con Fu was this weekend and though there were a lot of cancellations (this was the first con that I had a SSZ game that was cancelled due to insufficient players), it was still a successful event. The Pentathlon went over pretty well – everyone who participated walked away with something, especially since the clown who won the grand prize distributed 75% of his winnings to the other participants. This was the first con where we had three LARPS, and the Clix turnout was great, as usual. Even I played in the Mage LARP and had a surprising amount of fun. It inspired me enough to consider running a very small LARP for H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday Party. I think it would be fun to do a LARP about cannibalistic castaways called “Twelve Hungry Men.” Dan talked about a superhero LARP and I would be into that. Unfortunately, they double-booked the club and it was not a smooth hello. Vampire LARPers and wedding guests doing the chicken dance do not mix.
Then, as if three days of gaming wasn’t enough, I had my usual Mutants & Masterminds game tonight, though it was an intimate affair (ook) with Caleb and Mike. Extremely fun though, for me and for them. Lot’s of intrigue, investigation, and crazy characters. The players are double undercover, which is very fun to play. There was virtually no combat. There will be next session though, I can pretty much guarantee it!
Animation Lesson 2: Squash & Stretch.
Here’s lesson two on stretching & squashing the face. As a bonus, I include sketches of Uncle Eddie Fitzgerald! You can see the photos here!
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OTHER STUFF:
Today was supposed to be the day that Comet 73/P Schwassmann-Wachmann (phew!) was to impact the Earth and cause tsunamis and whatnot. That is, according to some no-nothing crackpots. It was also Towel Day, for you Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans.
Plus, the Enron goons were convicted of fraud and conspiracy and face many years in jail. Which I think is wrong, and I’ll tell you why. I read that the judge “set a $5 million US bond.” I don’t know what the difference between bond and bail is, but I’m going to publicly renew my stance on non-violent criminals. See, some criminals definitely need to be taken out of society and institutionalized, like sex offenders and murderers. Actually they need to be tied to the Tree of Woe, but that is another post. But jail is “too good” for hucksters and corporate criminals. They should be made to pay for their crimes in a way that benefits society. These Enron goons don’t need to be locked up. Clearly they have some kind of business skills and these could be put to use – put back into the workforce.* BUT! the vast, vast majority of their earnings should go into social services, environmental programs, funds for scientific research on the hyena’s pseudo-penis, or combating invasive species, or whatever the prospect du jour may be. Basically, they should be taxed up the wazoo in all aspects of their finances**.And if they can’t pull in their expected profits for someone in their line, then they’re put to work cleaning streets or whathaveyou for 8 hours a day, or as long as will pay for their auditors.
The sentence time should reflect the damage done in monetary terms. It’s said that the Enronalds may have cost billions of dollars, so they’d be sentenced to life in my scheme.
Felons could still live comfortable lives if they are willing to work hard enough–they would get to keep a certain percentage or whatever they can earn over and above their quota–but they’re entered into a semi-communist system where most of what they can earn is going to worthy endeavors.
* heavily monitored, of course.
The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course
John “Ren & Stimpy” Kricfalusi is teaching the masses the basics of animation, via Preston Blair’s book “Cartoon Animation.” I walked down to Oscar’s Books yesterday and picked up the combined volume 1 & 2, which is slightly different than the pages that John and Steven Worth have put up on their sites.
Here is my attempt at Lesson 1: Construction: The Head
What’s happening is I am copying Preston’s drawings in blue, then scanning them in and laying them overtop the original. I’ve marked in red and added notations where my drawing deviates from Preston’s.
(I have not put up every drawing – there’s just too many. But trust me, I did them. And I’ll put up more for lesson two soon.)
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