Happy Halloween!!!

Around midnight just as the day turned into Halloween, I had the brilliant idea of mixing Gil Elvgren and Shane Glines and came up with this...
Gil Elvgren (March 15, 1914-February 29, 1980), born Gillette Elvgren, was an American painter of pin-up girls,
advertising and illustration. Elvgren lived in various locations, and was active from the 1930s to 1970s.

http://www.gilelvgren.com/GE/

Shane Glines has done work for several well known series. He worked as a layout and cleanup artist for Spümcø, before graduating to Warner Bros., where he was a character designer for DC Comics based series, such as Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond. He is also known for his character design work on Cartoon Network's Samurai Jack. I haven't seen Shane in a long time, he was a good friend and a great Virtual Fighter II player.

WB Mural

Well, here it is. I finally got a chance to swing by the WB lot and take a shot of my handy work.
It's nice to see your artwork jumbo size.
I heard some rumors WB spend 2 million dollars in the making of the New Mural.
I'm a little depress after hearing that, I wish a had one third of that for all the work I put on it.


And here is what the Mural looks like at night. Pretty cool idea to have the villains showing up at night only.
The Villain with a smiling cheek, says he’s strong but instead is weak.
Look at my previous"WB Mural 2009" post for more details about it.
A friend of mine send me this picture taking at dusk, nice quality pic.

Tigra vs. Cheetah

It doesn't get any more cat fight than this, Tigra vs, Cheetah. Inspired by Frank Cho's beautiful art I decided to come up with another cat fight I always wanted to see in the comics world.
Tigra also known as Greer Grant is a super heroine in the Marvel Comics universe. Introduced as the non-superpowered crime fighter The Cat in Claws of the Cat #1 (Nov. 1972), she was co-created by writer-editor Roy Thomas, writer Linda Fite, and penciler Marie Severin. She mutated into the superpowered tiger-woman Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974). "The Tigra" it's also the historical defender/champion of the Cat People, a humanoid race created by sorcery during the Dark Ages.
The Cheetah is a super villainess in the DC Comics universe. Commonly regarded as the archenemy of Wonder Woman, the Cheetah first appeared in 1943 in Wonder Woman #6 (volume 1), written by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston. Since then, the character has undergone several updates as comic book continuities have evolved and shifted. Indeed, there have been four different Cheetahs since the character's premiere, including Priscilla Rich (the Golden Age Cheetah), Deborah Domaine (the Silver Age Cheetah), Barbara Ann Minerva (the modern age and current Cheetah), and Sebastian Ballesteros (a male usurper who briefly assumed the role in 2001). I choose the third Cheetah, the british anthropologist Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva.
Changing the subject, I'll be working two jobs starting next week (Ben 10 and The Simpsons) That means I won't be able to come up with my Versus Series for a while, sorry folks. I'll definitely do some more when ever I can. Coming up with the "Versus" series it's a lot of fun and extremely addictive. I hope you liked my last post for the next few weeks.

Quicksilver vs. The Flash

I always wanted to see a comic book about this one. When I was doing research for the characters I already had something specific in mind. Then I came across one Flash piece by Karl Kerschl that already was what I wanted to do, so I based it on his work.
It came up OK, it's not exactly what I wanted, but I'm happy with it.
Once nicknamed the Scarlet Speedster, all incarnations of the Flash possess "super-speed", which includes the ability to run and move extremely fast, use superhuman reflexes and seemingly violate certain laws of physics. Thus far, four different characters, each of whom somehow gained the power of "super-speed", have assumed the identity of the Flash: Jay Garrick (1940-), Barry Allen (1956-1985, 2008-), Wally West (1986-2006, 2007-), and Bart Allen (2006-2007).
Quicksilver or Pietro Django Maximoff is a fictional character that appears in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964) and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby.
In 1964, Quicksilver first appears with his sister, the Scarlet Witch, as a part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in Uncanny X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964). Pietro and his sister reform and join the Avengers in Avengers #16 (May 1965).

Mystique vs. Shadow Lass

Well there you have it, the colored version. I'm sure I'll find more thing to correct later on when it's not 4:30 in the morning.
Ah...Mystique. Throughout most of her history, Mystique has been a supervillainess, founding the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and assassinating several important people involved in mutant affairs. Mystique herself is a mutant, a shapeshifter whose natural appearance includes her blue skin and yellow eyes. At one point, she mentioned she is over 100 years old.
And Shadow Lass it's from the 31st centurie, her real name is Tasmia Mallor and her homeworld is Talok VIII. She has the power to project darkness. Like all Talokians, she has blue skin and pointed ears. She and her cousin Grev (Shadow Kid) received their powers from their ancestors, whose spirits reside in a cave on Talok VIII (Talokians practice ancestor worship).
Shadow Lass joined the Legion of Super Heroes after her homeworld was invaded by the Fatal Five. She helped the Legion to defeat them. After joining, she became romantically involved with Lar Gand and eventually married him after he was mortally wounded fighting the Time Trapper as part of the conspiracy to avenge Superboy's death at the Trapper's hands.

Onward in Space or Time

Here's the rough pencil and the inks for Mystique (from X-Men) vs. Shadow Lass (from The Legion of Super Heroes). I guess the only thing they have in common other than being hot it's blue skin. I look forward to color this one. I'm thinking about photoshopping Mystique's belt skulls.
I'll be super busy with my regular Simpsons job all week and I don't know when it's the next time I'll be able to finish this piece. So there you go for now. Peace out!

T.

WB Mural 2009

In July 2008 I got a call from my old friend Amy Wagner at the Warner Brothers Burbank studio. I was recommended by Bruce Timm, James Tucker and Glen Murakami to redesign the WB mural, the one that's been at the Olive and Pass Avenues for the past 15 years. We had a meeting at Sam Register's office and went over the details. See the bottom half of the above image for the final layout I designed and came up with. That's the one everyone at WB Animation was happy with. Later on I heard someone from the main WB lot was going to change my layout and add some of the cartoony characters on top of it.
On April 7 Warner Bros. Animation hosted a special Animation Celebration event on the studio lot, during which it unveiled the first update to its popular animation mural in 15 years.
The event was open to the public and feature entertainment, prizes, fun events for families, refreshments and a live performance from Beat Freaks, the all-girl dance crew from the 2009 edition of America’s Best Dance Crew.
There were also a few special guests like Julie Newmar (the original Catwoman from the 60's tv show) and Diedrich Bader (voice of Batman from Batman the Brave and the Bold)
I don't really mind the changes that were made to my original design. After all Bugs Bunny and Duffy Duck put WB Animation on the map. Although I like my layout better, there are less tangents and a lot of less empty spaces. I wish they hired me to add the cartoony characters as well.
All the villains heads show up at night only thanks to special painting and lighting.
It's a true honor to be part of this historical landmark.
Click here for the Cartoon Brew article

Catwoman vs. The Black Cat

To my surprise Terry Dodson already did a piece of Black Cat vs. Catwoman for the Wizard magazine. The interesting part it's I found out about it right before I was done with my version. He even made Catwoman on the same side and pulling the Black Cat's hair like me, that's crazy!
For those who doesn't know anything about comics, the Black Cat it's a Marvel Comics anti-hero that has been both a one-time foe and an ex-girlfriend of Spider-Man. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Keith Pollard, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979). The Black Cat is a skilled (somewhat reformed) "cat" burglar who is currently an occasional crime fighter and adventurer.
And if you don't know who Catwoman is, you better leave my Blog right now. Selina Kyle the DC Comics supervillainess was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, partially inspired by Kane's second cousin by marriage, Ruth Steel...waddayaknow.

The Submariner vs. Aquaman

And to continue with my new "Versus" series, I'll give you Aquaman vs. Namor.
Both king of Atlantis. The classic DC vs. Marvel underwater heroes.
Aquaman was created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in More Fun Comics #73 (Nov. 1941). Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles, Aquaman later starred in several volumes of a solo title. During the late-1950s and 1960s superhero-revival period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books, he was a founding member of the team the Justice League of America. In the 1990s-present Modern Age of Comic Books, Aquaman's character became more serious than in most previous interpretations, with storylines depicting the weight of his role as king of Atlantis.
Namor the Submariner was created by writer-artist Bill Everett for Funnies, Inc., one of the first "packagers" in the early days of comic books that supplied comics on demand to publishers looking to enter the new medium. Initially created for the unreleased comic Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, the Sub-Mariner first appeared publicly in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939) — the first comic book from Timely Comics, the 1930s-1940s predecessor of the company Marvel Comics. During that period, known to historians and fans as the Golden Age of Comic Books, the Sub-Mariner was one of Timely's top three characters, along with Captain America and the original Human Torch. Everett said the character's name was inspired by Samuel Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". The first known comic book antihero, the Sub-Mariner has remained a historically important and relatively popular Marvel character.

Captain Marvel vs. Captain Marvel

Since I was a kid I always wonder if there will be cross overs about characters with similar name or powers between different comic book companies. Since I never got to see Aquaman vs. Namor, Quicksilver vs. The Flash and so forth, I thought it would be a great idea to make up my own version and have some fun drawing cool characters.
I even thought it would make a great comic book line. It could be named Crossover Battles Presents...of course you would have to deal with an extensive amount of work from licensing. But it would be a new an original source of work for everyone in the business (writers, artists, editors, etc). I think the most fun part was coming up with the battles matches, I got 67 so far.
I know I should be working on Terranova, my Sci Fi epic film. But I got very enthusiastic about drawing characters that remind me of my happy childhood. Every once in a while it's very healthy for an artist to draw for fun and not for a work related project.
I hope you like my first one, there's still some work to be done but I think it's OK to post.
Captain Marvel from DC comics was created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940). With a premise that taps adolescent fantasy, Captain Marvel is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a youth who works as a radio news reporter and was chosen to be a champion of good by the wizard Shazam.
Captain Marvel from Marvel comics is the name of several superheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Most of these versions exist in Marvel's main shared universe, known as the Marvel Universe. It's almost like a title.
I chose Khn'nr the most recent one, an alien character who has appeared in numerous comic book series published by Marvel. He is a Skrull sleeper agent posing as the Kree Captain Mar-Vell aka Captain Marvel.
The shapeshifting Skrull Khn'nr was bonded with the DNA of Mar-Vell to lock his body into Mar-Vell's form and given technological replicas of the Kree Nega-Bands. However, his mental conditioning was botched, causing Khn'nr's personality to be erased leaving the Mar-Vell persona dominant. Though part of the Skrull invasion of Earth, this Captain Marvel decides to fight against the invading Skrulls.

Watchmen Birthday Card

Behold, the birthday card for my ex-wife. Since she thought Rorschach stole the movie I figure she may like a Rorschach birthday card. I hope you dig the step by step posts.
What did you think of the movie? I really liked it. I thought it was a good comic book adaptation, not too many people in Hollywood knows how to do that properly. I think most of the people who didn't read the comic had a hard time following the movie and getting it. And most of the people who were familiar with the comic really liked it. I wasn't too crazy about Nixon's make up, that could be better. Ozymandias' lynx Bubastis could be better too, it looked too CG to me. And yes you can see Doc Manhattan's wee wee so fu@*ing what! When is nudity going to stop being a taboo subject in America? You were born naked, remember? The sex scene with the Silk Spectre and the Night Owl was too short if you ask me, my goodness she looks so hot in that skintight latex. I liked the end better in the movie as well.
Great flick all around thou. I heard they made $55,655,000 on the opening week end. I hope Zack Snyder keeps making comic book related movies.

Happy Valentines Day

My superhero Valentines Day card, pencil, ink and markers.
I hope you all had a great Valentine's day!
Cheers.

Emmy Award

Here is my fourth Emmy Award for being part of the show.
"Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' nineteenth season, and was first broadcast on December 16, 2007 on FOX. The episode averaged 10.15 million viewers, winning in its time slot and receiving a 12 percent audience share. The episode follows Homer's attempts to recall a deliberately forgotten memory from the previous night.
Directed by Chuck Sheetz.

Atom Eve

I was doing some comics shopping last Wednesday at the House of Secrets and being surrounded by all that great art got me inspired. Suddenly I had the idea of drawing an Atom Eve from the Invincible in the Bill Presing style. I thought it would be cool to see a sexy cartoony version of that lovely character. And here's my first pass. Even when I know I should be doing storyboards and key frames for Terranova in my free time, I couldn't resist having some fun.