Thursday, 17 March 2011
Will Ben McCool survive St. Patricks Day?
St. Patrick's Day
Half of me is some sort of Irish or Scottish decent so St. Patrick's Day pretty much means nothing to me.
In grade school we had to wear our most hideous bit of green clothing that day.
Green clothing is always a bad idea. Even at age 8 I knew that. Then we would
cut out shamrocks from green construction paper, write our names on them
and put them on the wall or something. Boring. I wanted to cut out a green
Godzilla! Then Mc Donalds reeled me in with their clever marketing. They made
me think I'd want a green milk shake other wise know as a "Shamrock shake."
Vile. So vile.
As I got older I saw (in America at least) that today is the First
excuse since New Years Eve to go out and prep for puking the next morning.
I drew a mouse in the style of Hokusai (badly) with a three leaf Clover
because I wanted to draw a mouse. And I wanted to show that today is not lucky.
If you wondered, St. Patrick is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or "apostle" of Ireland.
Half of me is some sort of Irish or Scottish decent so St. Patrick's Day pretty much means nothing to me.
In grade school we had to wear our most hideous bit of green clothing that day.
Green clothing is always a bad idea. Even at age 8 I knew that. Then we would
cut out shamrocks from green construction paper, write our names on them
and put them on the wall or something. Boring. I wanted to cut out a green
Godzilla! Then Mc Donalds reeled me in with their clever marketing. They made
me think I'd want a green milk shake other wise know as a "Shamrock shake."
Vile. So vile.
As I got older I saw (in America at least) that today is the First
excuse since New Years Eve to go out and prep for puking the next morning.
I drew a mouse in the style of Hokusai (badly) with a three leaf Clover
because I wanted to draw a mouse. And I wanted to show that today is not lucky.
If you wondered, St. Patrick is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or "apostle" of Ireland.
Half of me is some sort of Irish or Scottish decent so St. Patrick's Day pretty much means nothing to me.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Buffy
I love Buffy. I really loved that show - the idea of a wee blonde girl bashing vampires and big tough demons... I loved the premise, the characters, and the very fine spin-off, Angel. I wrote lots of words about Buffy once, in a British Buffy magazine that no-one saw. But those many essays expressed my love for Buffy. Bring her back, please - or indeed, any of the characters from that universe. And I mean the Joss Whedon TV show, no other imposters.
So here's my Buffy. I just realized I never drew her before. Rudimentary color; didn't have time to do it properly.
First Slayer
I started watching Buffy as a kid, maybe around the third season, but my favorite episode was the one where she meets the first Slayer, which might be from the college/Dawn/whatever era. I remember watching it asking myself, why have a show about Buffy when you could have a show about BED OF BONES??
Whedon Wednesday- Buffy
Someone had to draw the slayer, and that someone was me. Penciled this on the train ride over, and inked it in the studio. Not the best likeness of Ms. Summers ever committed to paper, but you all get the point.
Buffy - Cordelia Chase
Of course the very best character ( of many great characters ) was Cordelia Chase as played by Charisma Carpenter. Nobody was more concerned with Cordelia Chase than Cordelia Chase and nobody but NOBODY has every imbued the expression " EEWWWWWWwww!!" with more passion.
Whedon Wednesday: Buffy the Vampire slayer
Buffy the Vampire slayer!
Today we pay tribute to a little
known movie from 1992 staring Kristy Swanson,
Donald Sutherland and Paul Reubens.
The plot revolved around a flighty teenage girl
who learns that she is her generation's vampire slayer!
Scary stuff!
Written by geek God, Joss Whedon.
Whom we all love.
Amen.
Today we pay tribute to a little
known movie from 1992 staring Kristy Swanson,
Donald Sutherland and Paul Reubens.
The plot revolved around a flighty teenage girl
who learns that she is her generation's vampire slayer!
Scary stuff!
Written by geek God, Joss Whedon.
Whom we all love.
Amen.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Cobra: Knowing is half the battle.
What a difference a few years makes.
We're not all that dissimilar in age here in the studios, just a handful of years separate us all, really, but the 12 inch G.I.Joe of Simon and Tim's was like an urban legend for me growing up. We knew it had existed-- grownups were always telling us G.I.Joe was this big when they were growing up, yet none of us had ever gotten a good look at one. There was a pit in the local woods where I grew up that contained the melted and mutilated remains, impaled on a tree stump, of a 12 inch Joe that we would go view on occasion. But for me and my friends, G.I.Joe was a little 3 and 3/4 inch team of guys with cool nicknames and specialties. Even better, they had a team of enemies, Cobra, who were all much cooler than the Joes. I definitely sided with the bad guys.
I was never a big fan of the cartoon which existed to sell us the little plastic men, but I was a huge fan of the comic, which was written by Larry Hama and had art by such talents as Michael Golden, Herb Trimpe, Russ Heath and others.
We're not all that dissimilar in age here in the studios, just a handful of years separate us all, really, but the 12 inch G.I.Joe of Simon and Tim's was like an urban legend for me growing up. We knew it had existed-- grownups were always telling us G.I.Joe was this big when they were growing up, yet none of us had ever gotten a good look at one. There was a pit in the local woods where I grew up that contained the melted and mutilated remains, impaled on a tree stump, of a 12 inch Joe that we would go view on occasion. But for me and my friends, G.I.Joe was a little 3 and 3/4 inch team of guys with cool nicknames and specialties. Even better, they had a team of enemies, Cobra, who were all much cooler than the Joes. I definitely sided with the bad guys.
I was never a big fan of the cartoon which existed to sell us the little plastic men, but I was a huge fan of the comic, which was written by Larry Hama and had art by such talents as Michael Golden, Herb Trimpe, Russ Heath and others.
Snake Eyes vs. Storm Shadow
When I was a kid, one of my first and most influential comics was GI Joe #21, the silent issue. There were no world balloons. The story was told entirely through the artwork. It centered around the battle between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. I've been a fan of both those characters, as well as their creator, Larry Hama, ever since.
GI Joe - Veteran
My G.I. Joe was bought for my birthday when I was 6 years old. My vague memory says it was at Canadian Tire near Halifax Nova Scotia ( but that seems unlikely. ) He then went to Scotland with me where he suffered many bruising and downright crippling combat missions , sorties and covert operations. Like a good soldier he valiantly fought the Nazis, Big Jim, Steve Austin, Dinosaurs , Sharks and the Cat. His 'Kung-Fu Grip' tm enabled him to do insane feats of endurance which were completely impossible for any mere Action Man ( Action Man in the UK only got 'Kung-Fu Grip'tm some years later.) Sadly Joe lost all the fingers on his left hand in a death slide accident going down the stairwell ( the same accident that broke Big Jim's head clean off! ) then he suffered a debilitating fall from an upstairs window that necessitated replacing his right calf with the barrel from a BIC pen. Still able to fight valiantly , even with his transparent prosthesis, my Mum made him a Yugoslavian Partizan outfit, which probably allowed him to go undercover to fight the Nazi invasion and err... promote Communism.
Joe was last seen in a Scottish prison camp with many of his surviving comrades, packed away in a dark and unheated attic for the last 30 years. He's there right now...awaiting my orders.
G.I. Joe
I don’t know much about the G.I Joe universe.
I only remember having one of the 12-inch movable figures.
My friend had another and of course brought it over to have
adventures with mine. That was the marketing genius of it I guess.
This is the “Abominable Snow man” action figure. He had snow gear, a gun,
and other snow related accessories to help in the capture of the fearsome
Yeti. I had nothing more to say on the subject, but drawing that little
boot (I always lost one boot) brought back a vivid memory of putting on
and taking off G.I. Joe’s foot wear. I remember that the plastic seam on
the shoe eventually would tear (as it was a tight fit) and I felt
betrayed by the cheap workmanship.
How I wished for Joe to have quality foot wear!
Addendum: Simon's post made me realize I left out my Joe's complete bio and
the reason he is depicted naked here.
I often took the clothes off so I could put them in water
and subject them to freeze experiments in the ice box.
After that they were subjected to heat endurance tests
on the grill which caused irreparable scaring and deformations.
My Joe eventually lost his head riding a metal death slide I built
on the stairs using an Erector set from the 50's. For those
who don't know, Erector sets from the 50's were full of dangerous sharp
metal parts and I often needed band aids after building something with it
or getting my fingers caught in the moving gears of the heavy
electric motor that came with the set.
Thus, poor Joe's plastic 1970's esthetic didn't stand a chance against
the sharp metal toy tools of the cold war era.
I only remember having one of the 12-inch movable figures.
My friend had another and of course brought it over to have
adventures with mine. That was the marketing genius of it I guess.
This is the “Abominable Snow man” action figure. He had snow gear, a gun,
and other snow related accessories to help in the capture of the fearsome
Yeti. I had nothing more to say on the subject, but drawing that little
boot (I always lost one boot) brought back a vivid memory of putting on
and taking off G.I. Joe’s foot wear. I remember that the plastic seam on
the shoe eventually would tear (as it was a tight fit) and I felt
betrayed by the cheap workmanship.
How I wished for Joe to have quality foot wear!
Addendum: Simon's post made me realize I left out my Joe's complete bio and
the reason he is depicted naked here.
I often took the clothes off so I could put them in water
and subject them to freeze experiments in the ice box.
After that they were subjected to heat endurance tests
on the grill which caused irreparable scaring and deformations.
My Joe eventually lost his head riding a metal death slide I built
on the stairs using an Erector set from the 50's. For those
who don't know, Erector sets from the 50's were full of dangerous sharp
metal parts and I often needed band aids after building something with it
or getting my fingers caught in the moving gears of the heavy
electric motor that came with the set.
Thus, poor Joe's plastic 1970's esthetic didn't stand a chance against
the sharp metal toy tools of the cold war era.
Happy Birthday Simon! (Dante Bobble Head)
Maybe one day you'll see Nikolai Dante Collectible toys? Hope you had a wonderful b day and congratulation on the 10th volume of Nikolai Dante! xox
Monday, 14 March 2011
Happy Birthday Simon Fraser
Hello Mr. Ellis and Simon!! Happy Birthday to you both.
Here is my sketch of Simon. Warm and Fuzzy :-D!
(And I just realized if he had dark hair he'd look Asian, so BONUS!)
What a happy day, March 14 is!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)