TAGS March 12, 1994

Black and white India ink on paper as originally published.


Composite of India ink and watercolor and digital retouching of logo.

Sunday, 03/12: Take the hit.


To get it out of the way, I consider myself a lazy colorist. I try to get away with flat, non-graduated coloring as often as I can. Also, in coloring my own comic work, I’ve worked on the images at least twice before with the penciling and inking stages, so a bit bored with it, I rush through the coloring part. Still, you can’t underestimate the impact and transformative effect color has on the art.

Conceptually, I like the first panel of Al (beagle, 3rd appearance) in a boxing ring as a metaphor for the dating process. The humor of it with his opponent being a girl pops a lot better with the addition of color obviously.

The strip has to basic themes: 1) rejection sucks; and 2) Al plus Michelle (weasel, 2) would make for an odd couple. Maybe the humor could have been sharper or had more punch if I had stuck with just one idea.

The girls in the panels of the top half: Fern (kangaroo, 2), Jill (reindeer, 3), Suzie (deer, 2), Emily (tiger, 2), Shirley (seal, 2), Polly (penguin, 18), Rudy (pig, 2), and Tanya (otter, 2).

Then, in couple of break room exchanges, Bill (turtle, 3) and Hans (fox, 2) offer varied insights. And Michelle entertains a crowd including Wolf (weasel, 3), Sara (panther, 2), and Vern (horse, 3).

Use of Al here, as a final comment, was more a choice of not using Monster, because at the time, Monster would have been defeated after one rejection and have gone alone. Well, actually, Monster wouldn’t go to a Powerhouse concert, a rock band modeled after Van Halen. Powerhouse is named after a musical selection used by Carl Stalling in a couple of Bugs Bunny cartoons written by Raymond Scott.

Letter Be

Yet another distraction.

A few months back, I had posted a review of the Disney book “Animation (Walt Disney Studios: The Animation Series)” on FaceBook. Expecting to follow through with lots of reviews of Disney miscellany, I titled the proposed series “Disneyanadocious”. It obviously is intended to deal with Disneyana i.e. Disney collectibles, and mash that with the word you say when you don’t know what to say as coined by the song writing team Richard and Robert Sherman for the film “Mary Poppins.” Not content with that, in my estimation it needed a logo.

I stitched together a logo from the logos of Disney films, theme parks and other productions. I thought that with 16-letters, that I could honor the big landmarks in the company’s 82-year history. Unfortunately, the logos for Snow White, Pinocchio and even Mickey Mouse aren’t composed of letterforms that are necessarily iconic when taken out of context. I think I most regret that I don’t have a representation from any of the Broadway productions. It’s probably arguable that the second “a” is iconic enough, but I wasn’t going to omit the first and only animated feature to earn an Academy Award nomination for best picture.

Eventually, time permitting of course, Disneyanadocious will be part of my web-log of forwarded e-mail flotsam and jetsam, “That’s Good Spam” (thatsgoodspam.blogspot.com), mixed in with my five-point movie reviews.


And here are hints, for those who need it, of the sources of each letter and punctuation:

D - Dedicated by Roy as a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney.
I - A diamond in the rough.
S - Feature Mickey’s big feature film debut.
N - Takes down the Master Control Program.
E - Brought to you in thousands of sparkling lights, and electro-synthe-magnetic musical sounds.
Y - Practically perfect in every way.
A - Wouldn’t you think she’s the girl who has everything?
N - Enjoys the best of both worlds, chills it out, takes it slow, and then rocks out the show!
A - The most beautiful love story ever told.
D - In 1954, Walt visits millions of living rooms in glorious black and white.
O - A classic tale set in New Orleans in the roaring twenties.
C - Must leave the Prince’s ball before the stroke of midnight.
I - Lost a lucky rabbit and launched a company with a talking mouse.
O - You’ll think you’ve seen everything when you see him fly.
U - Flik’s epic story of miniature proportions.
S - Mickey Mouse would present these Walt Disney productions.
! - Where good clashes with evil in a nighttime musical spectacular on the Rivers of America.

The Commissioner

Yesterday, I exhibited my comic, “Tuff-Girl” No. 1, at the first mini-convention held by Oxford Comics in Atlanta. As much as anything, it was an opportunity for local comic artists to present themselves and their wares to the local comic buying public.

It turned out to be a modest affair, on an otherwise pleasant day for the outdoor event.

Here are the sketches that I worked up during the seven hours, save for three which I sold: 1) Humungousaur from “Ben 10 Alien Force”; 2) Supergirl; and 3) a commission based on the patron’s original character.


Thor
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

The first sketch of the day, and except for the commission done like all that I would do that day by memory. It’s not terribly well planned as far as fitting on the board, and I forgot to color in blue pants.


Samurai Jack
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Jack still has his fans. It’s nice to test myself to see if I can still draw things I haven’t draw - well, in this case - since May at Heroes Con.


Capt’n Ameri-Girl
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Based on Marvel’s venerable Captain America. I'm pretty certain that Marvel has or had a young female version of Cap, but perhaps that was in a fictitious “What If?” story. Other wise, this is an original design.


Robin
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Another challenge for my cerebral archives, Glen Murakami’s design for the character from the popular “Teen Titans” animated series that ran on Cartoon Network.


Supergirl
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Did I ever tell you that I draw Supergirl a lot?


Belle
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Having recently purchased yet another home video edition of Walt Disney Pictures’ “Beauty and the Beast,” it’s no surprise to me that I pulled this out of my repertoire. In the context of a convention sketch, I might have been showing off.


Thor © Marvel Comics.
Samurai Jack © Cartoon Network.
Robin and Supergirl © DC Comics.
Belle © Disney.

Lady Slings the Blues

“Sling”
Red Col-Erase pencil and Black Prisma Color pencil on Bristol board.
11.00 inch x 16.75 inch
2010.

The Oxford Mini Con (Oxford Comics, Altanta, GA, Sun. Oct. 17, 2010) will be holding a raffle. My contribution to the raffle is this original piece of Unstoppable Tuff-Girl art.

After finishing the piece, I got the strangest feeling that I had previously drawn the thing or perhaps had drawn the composition. Maybe it’s a lot like a Supergirl and Streaky I had drawn once (or twice)?

Cat’s Super

“Clouds”
Digital color over clean scan of India ink on paper.
20.3 x 25.4 cm (8.0 inch x 10.0 inch) 2010.

Here’s a reworking of a an old sketch done in 2003 (montonae, April, 2009), ’cause I liked it - or most of it. I corrected the arms for perspective and foreshortening, basically moving Supergirl’s elbows closer to her shoulders. I also extended her torso a bit for clarity. Design wise, I changed the cape to attach to her more-clearly-drawn yet still rather ridiculous “S” shield blouse.

However, Streaky remains rather Disney-esque cartoony because, pretty much, that’s how I draw cats.

The different costume color schemes is fun and easy to do. Such is the power of digital art and the brilliance of layers.

The clouds are on the flat side - maybe a bit too much - because I only laid in four basic tones without painting in more or blending what I had put down.

And there should be some birds.

The Skull Army (The End Vol.1)

Although not a comic or graphic novel per se, “The Skull Army” comes from the pages of “Silver Comics.”

Limited copies available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0044WNQ3I/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid=1286382457&sr=1-1&condition=new

http://www.amazon.com/

Food-tasmic!

French Market!
unused sweat shirt design.
30.48 x 30.48 cm (12.0 inch x 12.0 inch)
Color pencil, marker and gauche on illustration board.
c. 1992

In the summer of 1992, the night time spectacular, Fantasmic!, erupted on the Rivers of America in Frontierland, Disneyland, CA. I was a cast-member working in The French Market restaurant in New Orleans Square, whose outdoor patio overlooks the Rivers of America (and yet, by the way, because of the area foliage and incidental pedestrian traffic, is NOT a good place to view the show).

Up until then, the whole west side of the park had a predictable tapering off of business from day to evening in the summers. With a huge outdoor attraction like Fantasmic! with colored lights, video clips projected on water screens shooting fifty feet in the air and pyrotechnics, and nearly every square centimeter filled in with guests in the cycle of arriving, waiting, watching and trying to exit - well, things changed in a big way.

As for this unpublished image, I had by then gotten in to the pattern of designing and selling printed tee-shirts and sweat shirts to commemorate that year’s crew. This time around, I transformed the Fantasmic! logo into the restaurant’s name, and transformed the rest of the marketing artwork, swapping Mickey for three of my characters from the comic “BackStage” and the Maleficent dragon for a gigantic, hungry sheep. This being a full-color mixed media piece on board, I had ambitions of some how reproducing it on tee-shirts, that is until I learned how difficult and expensive the process would be.

The bears (a nod to “Bear Country,” the land which was re-named “Critter Country” with the opening of “Splash Mountain”) by their costumes represent the three basic zones of the restaurant. Fran (?) in the French Market blue dress and white apron is the hostess providing counter service in the buffeteria style restaurant. She apparently is entrusting the group’s safety to some sort of magic straining spoon. Herb is wearing a French Market blue vest and is hoisting what’s probably a fifty pound buss tub on his shoulder. Bus tubs aren’t much good in a fight, not even overloaded ones like that. Miles is wearing chef’s whites for those cast members who cook, prepare and run the food to the front counters. Miles has an empty fry basket in a batter’s stance - could that have been a bad visual pun? “Fry/batter?”.

Of course, I put in a hidden Mickey.