Dynamole in Danger

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Here’s Rhinosferatu and a new version of Elephantom giving Dynamole some grief. In an alternate universe this would be in color. I did the drawing in ink while I was at The Vancouver Comic Jam at the Jolly Alderman pub on Cambie & 12th Ave a few weeks ago, and then I filled in the tones in Photoshop. I meant to submit it to The Art Blog Challenge before the 31st but I never got around to it until just now. Maybe it’ll get up, maybe it won’t.

Here’s what’s wrong with it:

The composition balance is off.
The character design isn’t solid.
Knowing that I was going to Photoshop the tones, I didn’t give the outlines enough weight.
Could use a shadow or a floor line to put the characters in context to a semblance of reality.
Some other finicky flaws like eyes and other details too numerous to mention.

Dungeons and Masterminds

The D&D campaign I’ve been playing in recently is now over! It was a short campaign run by Paul and it was a lot of fun. I played Zabsurast Hoohoo the Barbarian/fighter/ranger with a rogue cohort named Hives (pronounced HEE-vays like you would pronounce Chaves, but Zaburast always pronounced it like the skin condition). In a nutshell, we were sent on a ship to an island where a modern stoner from California had been imprisoned by wizards because his ‘invention’ of gunpowder would tip the balance of power.

This last session could well have been a total party kill (TPK) as Paul had no compunction about sending numerous deadly foes at us since we all knew it would be the last night for the campaign, but we pulled through with flying colours (though it was harrowing for a couple of us for a while there).

The Mutants & Masterminds game I’m in should wrap up next week, right after H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday Party, which gives me no regular gaming outlets until Caleb starts up his Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. I’ve been waiting to play that for years.

In the meantime I’m desperately trying to figure out what I’m going to do for Spaceship Zero at HPL’s Birthday Party!

Did I mention that I played World Wildlife Federation of Justice last week and it went really well? I’m looking forward to running it again on the weekend.

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.
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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:

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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.
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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.

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The WWFJ’s strong man, Porcules. Note the beard.

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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:

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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:

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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.

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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:

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Still not satisfied. This third version is a little leg-bendy, but my favourite so far:

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MORE ADDENDUM:

Here’s one of the WWFJ’s founders, the Llamazon(ian).

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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!
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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.

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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

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and his incompetent sidekick, Hellhound!

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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.

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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):ironmonkey.jpg

One of my new favourites, Dynamole:

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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:

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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:

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Beware the diamond claws of Haardvark:

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I like Tasmanian Daredevil, but I think he would be cooler as a she. Maybe later. Meantime:

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Or, what if Tasmanian Daredevil was a woman?

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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.

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Ok let’s try this one:

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Here’s the evil mastermind, Dark Horse:

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And the terror of tiny toon, Micronewt:

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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.

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I really enjoy Cardinal Sin, though I think his outfit needs work. Or maybe less work.

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Thanks to Kerry for this one – Orangutangler:

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And this one – Baboom!

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The Wooly Marmot. Not to scale. (He’s huge!)woolymarmot.jpg

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.

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Some time later…
Tarmadillo!

"Perpetual" WWFJ – The Game

World Wildlife Federation of Justice

Yes…you want to play my superanimal game – I know you do.

Chris made up Go-Rilla, the ape with super-speed.
David Bradley is working on Major Ursa, a bear with powers from the North Star itself.
Denzil has an idea for Pen-gun
and Martin has a porcupine geneticist character that I don’t really get.
James has some kind of boar idea that’s a bit shakey….

I’ve got some adventures and bad guys all lined up though. I’ve changed the lineup of the major bad guy team (I’m sure there will be more than one bad guy team – these guys may actually turn out to be the minor bad guy team, it’s too early to say). Rhinosferatu of course, and Hypnopotamus. I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with Elongator and Elephantom on the team. Tarmadillo is going on for sure, though. Possibly Laardvark & Invisibull, but I’ve not decided.

The good guys will be part of a Justice League-type organization – the WWFJ (title of this post). So the player characters will start off as independents and the idea is they will earn their membership into the Federation. That way, you know…they’ll have a pension. There are six “big league” members of the WWFJ, and they are:

Astromandrill, cosmic-powered ape from another world (think Superman mixed with Silver Surfer)
Porcules, swine of legend (think Thor and Hercules)
The Llamazonian, warrior-woman with an enchanted bow. (Wonder Woman meets Green Arrow or Hawkeye)
Gnucleus, the radioactive gnu (uh…yeah)
Octopussycat, mistress of a thousand squid-gadgets (Like Batman – she’s got the Octomobile and the utility belt and all the rest)
Pandroid, robotic panda from the future
The Great Wolverini, master of the mystic arts (Dr. Strange or Dr. Fate knock-off)

The player characters themselves will be very lucky to interact with this major players in the superhero world.

And, I bought a new VCR today – it has “commercial skip” which I’m pretty excited about.