DONKEY KONG WINS!!

Finished polishing off my first DONKEY KONG illustration last night (though I may still tweak it here and there). Been working on this one for a while in my "spare time" (between 10pm and 3am), but I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. The coloring actually didn't take as long as I thought it would -- as usual, the added effects and details took a bit longer to hammer out than I'd have liked.

Apologies to all you Mario fans out there -- looks like the little-carpenter-that-could bit the barrel! That's right, "carpenter". Mario (or "jumpman" as he was known before being given a name) began his career as a carpenter before he was shamed out of the profession and had to learn plumbing from his brother, Luigi.

Apparently, Mario used to be a bit of a bad guy before Nintendo decided to polish up his image and pit him against King Koopa. I love the game DONKEY KONG, but couldn't we play as the gorilla instead? He's a much more sympathetic character once you know the story behind the game. Apparently, Mario kept DK as his pet, yet treated him poorly, keeping him locked up in a cage and perhaps beating him while the poor ape is forced to watch from behind bars as Mario incessantly makes out with his hot girlfriend, Pauline, right in front of the imprisoned beast! Can you blame him for busting out, kidnapping Pauline and tossing barrels and flaming fireballs at the creepy carpenter? I'd do the same thing! Mario was later recaptured, of course, only to have his son come and rescue him and take out Mario in the process. Is it any wonder DK went crazy and eventually holed up in a greenhouse, communing with insects (see DONKEY KONG 3)?

Anyway, this time, much to the distress of Pauline, Donkey Kong wins and Mario eats a barrel. Hooray! I wonder what ever happened to Pauline anyway? Mario seems to have taken the golddigger route, ditching the sassy lass for the royal Princess Toadstool. I think you made a big mistake, Mario -- sure the princess is loaded (except their currency is probably mushroom-based), but Pauline is way hotter! Your loss.

Critiques and feedback are appreciated, please. The second DONKEY KONG illustration is underway and I'll post more progress on that when applicable.

DONKEY KONG LOVES PAULINE!

Here's the final large drawing of Pauline and Donkey Kong for my 2nd DONKEY KONG based illustration, done over the weekend. Inks and colors coming soon.

SLEESTACKS!

I just saw some new Sleestacks!
You might know they're remaking yet another childhood favorite of mine: LAND OF THE LOST. Just caught the trailer for the new movie (starring Will Ferrell) and I got to see the new Sleestacks in all their glory!
The original show was poorly produced and, though I enjoyed it as a child, I certainly wasn't wowed by the rubber dinosaurs and shoddy bluescreen work. What did hold my attention, though, were the Sleestacks. Clearly just men in suits, yet somehow they creeped me out and seemed very eerily alien to me. Maybe it was their big expressionless eyes, or the sounds they made, or both. I dunno.

Anyway, can't wait to see them on the big screen, and I hope the movie doesn't take itself too seriously (doesn't look like it). The new design looks pretty cool as they didn't stray from the original designs much at all except to add some detail and alleviate the "rubber suit" feel. I do feel a Sleestack illustration coming on, though...

SUPAH SYBORAH!

Another quick character design. This one is from the Kaiju concept that's been rattling around in my head for some time now. I love Kaiju, and I've got a small notebook devoted to notes and scribblings for a massive giant-monster themed project that I've been slowly adding to for the past couple of years. Anything involving Kaiju needs to be given at least a bit of the tongue-in-cheek approach. Treating it too seriously often results in disaster as happened with Emmerich and Devlin's American GODZILLA, although that could be blamed solely on them being plain bad filmmakers. CLOVERFIELD showed that it can be done completely seriously, however, as did the original GODZILLA, but I think those instances of success are few and very far between. The most far-out crazy treatment of the subject, I think, can be found in the wonderfully fun and intentionally hilarious KAIJU BIG BATTEL. KBB's giant monsters appear as brilliantly-costumed wrestlers beating the parts off each other amidst foamboard skyscrapers. I've had the pleasure of attending one of their live matches and it was sheer bliss.

Anyway, I haven't yet decided where on the Kaiju spectrum I want to seat my project. It's not going to be CLOVERFIELD-type storytelling, but I may not want to go quite as ridiculous as KBB. We'll just have to see where this takes me. I'll be digging out more character sketches as I go and fleshing out some of the beasts and monsters bit by bit. This guy is named SUPAH SYBORAH, and he's basically the JET JAGUAR (or ULTRAMAN) of my Kaiju universe. Who is JET JAGUAR, you ask? He's a human-sized robot that can grow to monster-size to battle alongside (or against) Godzilla. That's all I've got to say about him for now. More later!

WRESTLE SPROUTS!

These are a couple of quick character designs for something I've got stewing in the back of my head. All I know is that it's focused at children and it's somewhat nutrition-based. Since my wife got her job working for the local hospital's "healthy kids" program, I've been thinking about some sort of imaginative children's concept that promotes healthy living without resorting to the sort of brainless, ham-fisted conceptualizing that usually accompanies that sort of thing (y'know, where there are bad guy characters who are invariably anthropomorphized soda pops and candy bars and the fearless good-guy in a ridiculous costume always gathers the kids around in a huddle to hammer home the importance of exercise and good nutrition as they nod and feign excitement). I want to be a bit more creative and far-out in characterization and plot, staying far away from anything so obvious as to get in the way of the enjoyability of it all. Kids aren't stupid, after all (well, most of them anyway), and they can smell something designed by men in suits to push a "message" a mile away.

All I know about these characters so far is that they're part of a wrestling troupe called the "Wrestle Sprouts". I came up with the name while eating brussel sprouts and ruminating about wrestling. Aren't I clever?

MARIO!

Here's a quick peek at Mario for my second DONKEY KONG illustration, currently in-progress!

SNEAK PEEK AT "DONKEY KONG" COLORS!

Howdy, folks!
I'm in the thick of coloring my first DONKEY KONG piece, trying to fit it in between a few freelance jobs and other odds and ends. It's progressing quite smoothly and I thought I'd share a peek at it with you to fill in the gaps in my posting schedule.

"KEEP ON WANGLIN'" SHIRTS 'N' STUFF AVAILABLE NOW!

I finished coloring this design a while ago, yet somehow neglected to post it here. Ah, well. The design is based on Robert Crumb's famous "KEEP ON TRUCKIN'" design, and is now available at my CafePress shop on a multitude of clothing, button and miscellaneous other items (you know your dog wants a Wanglin' shirt).
If you like ridiculous pink squids that seem to be stuck in some sort of 70's timewarp, then follow the link and buy yourself a shirt or two!

Merchandise includes, shirts (sleevy and not-so-sleevy), sweatshirts, hoodies, buttons, apron, thong, boxers, mousepad, onesie, bib, dog-shirt, tote bag, messenger bag, mugs, steins, coaster and throw pillow. I know... it's shameful.

DONKEY KONG inks!

Finally finished the inks for my first DONKEY KONG piece. I wish I had a larger scanner. I had to ink each element on separate sheets of bristol (DK, Mario, Pauline, the girder) and scan them individually, then piece them together in Photoshop. I think my scanner is wearing out, too, because it seems to be starting to slightly distort each scan so it's not as easy to get scanned elements to fit together anymore. Oh well... gotta have money for a new scanner, and that's not happening right now.



Colors will follow soon!

BATMAN'S "SCARY VOICE" COSTS FILM OSCAR NOMINATION!

Well, the Oscar nominations are out, and, much to the surprise of many hopefuls in the comics community, THE DARK KNIGHT did not get nominated for Best Picture, though it did appear in many other categories (and Heath Ledger did secure that Best Supporting Actor nom). Despite the fact that I didn't think the film quite deserved getting a Best picture nomination, you know what I think was the one major detracting factor that prevented a Best Picture nomiation? Christian Bale's ridiculous "scary-Batman" voice.

Seriously, it was over-the-top, mostly indecipherable and laughable. Was the director simply too intimidated by Bale to not pipe in almost immediately and say, "Uh, Christian... no, that's not gonna work. Do you maybe need a throat lozenge or... no? You meant to do it like that? Okay, yeah, that's not gonna work. Let's try something that's nothing like what you just did. Remember, this is a serious movie, not a comedy, and folks need to be able to understand what you're saying."

This better get cleared up for the inevitable sequel.