Those Girls from That Weekend

HeoresCon, June 4-6, 2010
Charlotte, NC

In what resulted in this continuation of a June 7th "monotonae" post, "Girls for Sale," I recently typed my name in Google and found the site ComicArtFan, a self described gallery and marketplace of comic related art.

Here three members posted a combined total of seven scans of commissioned convention drawings I did at this years' HeroesCon.

This doesn't mean I'm famous or anything, but maybe in some way this may bring a little attention to Tuff-Girl.


This costume for this "classic" style of Cat Woman was from reference provided by the commissioner (That sounds funny. I guess I used the term "client" previously.). Yes, experienced comic convention attendees do carry stacks of reference with themselves in the hopes that they might get their favorite character re-created especially for them.

This composition was left open to me, so, no, I wasn't trying to re-create a comic book cover. The safe box is a bit of property that felt right for the image's story and something I gladly added on this, one of the first commissions of the con. However, since additional property means more drawing (i.e. work), I decided not to so easily volunteer extra work on later commissions.



This is Starfire in the now classic George Perez costume of the 1990's. The client, had a sketchbook nearly full of commisioned art mostly of Starfire based both on Perez's art and Glen Murakami's animated style from the fan favorite Cartoon Network series. I had to reference the sketchbooks previous entries for the costume details. Unfortunately I forgot to draw her arm band, an omission that bugged me the whole following week. I'm over it now.



I've drawn enough Wonder Woman art that I didn't require reference, and in fact, this one was drawn during some down time, and later sold. This, like most of the other pieces done at the con., is in the animation inspired style I've picked up, and you may argue that as result she appears too young.


http://www.comicartfans.com/

You can type "Bryan Mon" in the search box for everything posted.

Wichita in "Beach Thief"

Here is the ten page Wichita adventure that played as the second feature story appearing in the first issue of "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl." It's broken into two parts. The mythology is helped, in this first issue any ways, not only by have Wichita involved in the action, but also by depicting Debbie in it as herself and not entirely is Tuff-Girl and inserting Deanne, none of which is in the lead feature.

The conceit of the Wichita stories is that they're Tuff-Girl stories told from the dog's perspective. The story telling is simpler with a more cartoony art style inspired by Chic Young's "Blondie."

Early Wichita designs actually more closely followed that of Dagwood's pup Daisy (or Pluto). Her final design incorporates a smooth line from head to nose which better suggests the profile of an Airedale or wire hair terrier and fur concealed paws that was more inspired by the design of Danny the sheep from Disney's "So Dear to My Heart" (1949) than other cartoon dog designs.

Neither Wichita nor any of the animal characters will talk or "think talk" as do Snoopy or Garfield. Instead the details of Wichita's thoughts and actions are described by the narrative - think nature film ala Walt Disney's "True Life Adventures" or more recently "March of the Penguins."

Production wise, the feature was originally planned as an eight page story told in two parts until two pages opened up in planning the book. Which was a bit better for the story, since it might be an idea bigger than even the final 36 panels.

Not hindered by the fact that I had yet to coalesce how magic works in Tuff-Girl stories, I needed a magician opponent for the tale and had come up with Voilare based on "voila." His design is roughly a caricature of Jim Valeri because of the similarity of the names. Then I kind-of sort-of based the assistant, Ana Cara, of his wife Kara. Ana Cara's back story is that she replaces her sister as Voilare's assistant. Her sister's name is Abigail Carolyn Dubois (a.k.a. Abby C. DuBois).

I was hoping to have the rabbit, Friday, play a bigger part in the tale, but there really wasn't enough room. Friday is named for a magician friend.

TAGS January 31 & February 01, 1994

01/31: Bemoan my Valentine.
02/01: Not that Monster asked.

January 31: Rodney (African Lion, 2nd appearance) and Murray (cheetah, 7) are best friends. As it happens, up until this point TAGS hasn't needed that relationship for any joke or story angle. Maybe they go out hunting together or something.

February 01: Jeannie (swan, 2) is dissatisfied relationship with Hans (fox). This might be the groundwork to have them break up and later pair Jeannie with someone else.

In these break room scenes, I don't know if readers think that it's odd to depict folks' bodies, albeit in shadow below the tabletop. Mostly, the table substitutes for the brick walls in Schulz's Peanuts. I wasn't comfortable with having the bottom panel border be the tabletop, thinking it flattened the depth too much.

Meredith McClaren

Debbie and Wichita
Artwork © Meredith McClaren
Tuff-Girl and related characters © Bryan Mon

Meredith has a drawing style that favors anime influences (think "FLCL"). It’s misleading to say so, because it has a flowing, introspective quality that’s as if it were something she invented in a similar way that nobody drew Mickey Mouse until Fred Moore drew Mickey Mouse (“The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Fantasia,” “The Brave Little Tailor”) a decade after Walt Disney invented the character.

Meredith is a young artist graduated from The Savana College of art and Design (SCAD). She posts an amusing weekly autobiographical comic strip, “Scraps.”

I met Meredith when she interned one summer at Cartoon Network, Atlanta. She created the image above as a pin-up for the first issue of “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl.”



http://iniquitousfish.blogspot.com/

Check out “Scraps”:
http://iniquitousfish-scraps.blogspot.com/

Margeaux McClelland

Tuff-Girl
Artwork © Margeaux McClelland
Tuff-Girl ® and © Bryan Mon

Margeaux McClelland has a bubbly comic art style with obvious anime and manga influences (think "Lupin III"). Add too that her watercolors and her pieces often become an amalgam of saucer-eyed manga and comfy, spectral storybook qualities.

Margeaux is a young artist not too long graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design. She has collaborated with two other artists on a web comic and has on her resume work done for Carter's and StorybookAnytime.com.

I met Margeaux when she interned with Cartoon Network for a summer. She created the pin-up above for the first issue of "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl."



http://mxartdump.blogspot.com/

Check out the web comic, "Burning Heart:"
http://www.burningheartcomic.com/index.html

Stephanie Gladden

Tuff-Girl and Tuff-Mutt vs Rip Tyler
Artwork © Stephanie Gladden
Characters © Bryan Mon

Stephanie draws funny characters like Walt Kelly (Pogo) and draws cute like Fred Moore (Mickey Mouse), fresh, lively and always appealing. If that wasn't enough, she draws great dinosaurs - everything needs to have her dinosaurs in them.

Stephanie has been drawing professionally since 1991, where she got her start working in animation, including Disney’s “Pepper Ann.” Stephanie started drawing comics in ’93 and has drawn many licensed books over the years, such as “The Simpsons,” “Ren & Stimpy,” “Looney Tunes,” and “Tom & Jerry.” For nearly ten years, she worked as a character artist for Cartoon Network, creating art for “The Powerpuff Girls,” “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,” “Duck Dodgers,” and “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.” In 1998, Bongo Comics published her own original comics creation, “Hopster’s Tracks.”

I met Stephanie working for Cartoon Network, Atlanta, where I estimate she drew 98% of all Powerpuff Girl (PPG) art ever to be used for marketing, advertising and licensing and a few PPG comic book adventures to boot; enough that I’d have to check myself and remember that some guy by the name of Craig and not Stephanie had created the super powered trio.



To see more of Stephanie’s work, visit her web site:
www.stephaniegladden.com.

Ruben Procopio

Tuff-Girl and Tuff-Mutt
Artwork © Ruben Procopio
Tuff-Girl ® and © Copyright Bryan Mon


Tuff-Girl and Tuff-Mutt
Artwork © Ruben Procopio
Tuff-Girl ® and © Copyright Bryan Mon


Ruben Procopio skills as an artist are expansive covering both 2-dimensional design and 3-dimensional sculpture. His concept and comic art has a romantic noir feeling that reminds me of classic action thriller comic strips of the 1940's and '50s. His character sculptures are lively and fresh and are doubly astounding given his prolific output.

Ruben has contributed his creative talents to over 16 Walt Disney Feature films, including "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Lion King." His father, Adolfo Procopio, was a long time artist with Walt Disney Imagineering having worked on attractions for nearly all the Disney theme parks.

I met Ruben through mutual friend Ed Murrieta when we were all working for Disney in some way or another. When I asked Ruben for an action pinup for the first issue of "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl" he obliged with not one but the two smash-up pieces (above).

For more about Ruben, check out his studio web site, Masked Avengers Studios or visit his web log for the latest from the creative dynamo. There's also an entry on Wikipedia.



Masked Avengers Studios
www.maskedavenger.com

Web Log:
http://maskedavengerstudios.blogspot.com/

Water Gal!

"She-Bolt"
Digital color over scan of black pencil.

I made this drawing to commemorate a milestone of Juan Ortiz's. She's based on the design of his own Sea-Bolt character whose stories can be found in his independently published "Silver Comics".

http://www.silvercomics.org/
http://juanortiz.org/secondpage.html

Comic Talk

HeroesCon
Charlotte, NC
June 4-6, 2010


Aside from being creeped out by the bizarre expression of Elongated Man on a Justice League tee-shirt hung on the wall of shirts across from the Monster Enterprises booth, the only thing I forgot to mention was the podcast interview of Merrill and myself by ComicRelated.com.

I tripped up on the blog i.d. It appears that spelling it out is a bit harder for me than writing it out, kind of like "Mississippi" before learning it as a mnemonic. Otherwise, Merrill's by then well rehearsed 1-minute breakdown of what is Tuff-Girl pretty well covers things.

The bonus part is that this picture from the site is the only one I have of Merrill and I at the booth. In the back you can just make out the variant covers of the "G.I. Joe Origins" comic featuring a story Merrill wrote.


Podcast interview:
http://comicrelated.com/news/6802/the-related-recap-202

http://comicrelated.com/news/6866/heroescon-photo-flood

http://comicrelated.com/

Girls for Sale

HeoresCon, June 4-6, 2010
Charlotte, NC


The general consensus around the hall was that business wasn't as good as hoped. Possibly attendance was lower. Definitely, folks just seemed to have a tighter hold on their monies - out side of the Saturday night auction I'm told.

Having naught but my experience drawing and painting personalized artwork on Disneyland's Main Street, my business of convention sketches surprised me by being fairly brisk.


"Rex"
Convention sketch.

With a 6.75" x 10.5" comic backing board advertising "CONVENTION SKETCHES $15.00 1 CHARACTER" I began Friday morning with a Rex from Cartoon Network's new action show "Generator Rex" in black sharpie on the slick side of another comic board.


"Ben, Big Chill"
Convention Sketch.

Second I drew a composition with half a Ben and half a Big Chill, one of Ben's alien hero transformations. Two halves equal one character sketch right? As I would on the remainder, I drew on the dull side of the comic board, except in the cases where I was drawing sketchbooks or other paper provided by the client (yes, some folks do anticipate having sketches done and bring their own paper stock).


"Samurai Jack"
Convention sketch.

In keeping with the Cartoon Network theme and as a marketing ploy I drew Samurai Jack thinking that would start to attract art patrons.


"Tinker Bell"
Convention Sketch.

And with the red and blue pencils and black pens I had brought, I continued to sketch characters in between "Hello"s and "Have a free button"s to attract potential business to the Monster Enterprises booth.


"Batgirl"
Purchased sketch.

Early on I even gave away two sketches, Wonder Woman and Scarlet Witch, to two young girls whom I'm not even sure recognized who the characters were, but were looking for free stuff. Their father almost stopped them, but I let them keep them. Merrill laughed.


"Belle"
Purchased sketch.

At some point some body stopped at the booth and was admiring the "Supergirl vs. Kid Flash" print we had on display and risked $15 on a commission for a Supergirl sketch.


"Green Lantern"
Convention sketch.

And that got a ball slowly rolling. We sold 21 sketches, with a total of 24 characters; of those 24 characters 20 were girls, that's over 83%.


"Zatanna"
Commission.

Saturday we (or I should say "I") were the busiest with the commissions with me drawing for most of the day. Merill had the brilliant idea to spread out some of the drawings I had done within easy view of passersbys. I even had repeat customers in the form of two brother a friend claiming to be patrons of the comic arts.


"Batman, Robin, Catwoman"
based on the cover of Batman #42
Commission.

Alas it wasn't until Sunday morning after having drawing the three-character "Batman, Robin Catwoman" piece Saturday night, that I had the brilliant idea to take pictures of what I was drawing. I guess that shows you the value I place on a 20 minute sketch.


"Space girl"
Commission.

So presented here are twelve pieces I had the presence on mind of which to take pictures starting Sunday morning. Pieces sold but of which I have no pictures are these:
4 - individual Supergirls
2 - individual Batgirls
Catwoman in some body's sketch book
Starfire in sketchbook
Mary Marvel
Supergirl vs. Kid Flash
Neil Gaimen's Death
Tinker Bell
Wonder Woman
Paul Chadwick's Concrete

... and as I said earlier, 1 - Wonder Woman and 1 - Scarlet Witch I gave away.


"Supergirl"
Commission.

Sadly, even though Samurai Jack caught many an eye, my first three, Rex, Ben and Jack, were set out on the table unsold for three days.


"Jungle Girl"
Commission.