From the Crypt v.2, Item 12: Somebody Called About the Cable?

8/21/93.

Nothing terribly clever to say this time around. Too tired. More of the typical work of the time, though it looks as though I was moving away from the super-detailed muscles and towards less overrendering... which I guess would just be rendering. Biggest thing I notice about this pic is that I had the patience and creativity to make up all the crap on Cable's body- none of that's really original to the character, I just thought it would make for a fun picture. Might've been some kind of backstory to it, but I can't remember anything.

Later.

...oh.  Before I go, I direct you to Library Card of the Damned, my new blog.  It's hopefully going to be me reviewing books, movies, and god knows what else.  Check it out if you want to know what I think about what I read, watch, listen to, and otherwise occupy my days with when I'm not thinking about how to get out of posting anything new here ;)

Music- "Powerpuff Girls Theme" (cause it's STUCK in my head...)

From the Crypt v.2, Item 4: Mutant Mods

March 28, 1993.

The first question that came to mind when I looked at this before scanning it was, "why does a mutant whose power is healing from any injury need a suit of armor?" That's the kind of thing you only think of with age... or perhaps with common sense. I can offer no excuse, other than hell, it was the 90's and people dug that sort of thing. Everyone was getting armored up back then, in the comics. Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Spider-Man... it was only natural to do the same to everyone's favorite mutant. Though I don't think he ever showed up with armor in the comics.

As far as the picture itself, I can't make much by way of comments on it- I don't recall what made me put it together the way I did, but two things do come to mind. One, I remember struggling with what to do with those stupid boot he used to wear- they looked like full-sized versions of his mask- but on his calves. Not sure how he walked, and I don't think he was very stealthy with those things on. Two, I liked the idea of his face being completely hidden- I think it made his mask look more frightening. Don't think that would fly with Hugh Jackman in the role, though.

Alrighty- enough for now, I'm bone-tired. More Wednesday, with luck.

Music: "Mr. Roboto" - Styx

From the Crypt v.2, Item 3: Ripped (Off)

March 5, 1993. Seems like it was a pretty productive time for me, artistically. I really can't think back that far to what might've been going on, but at the very least I was drawing.

And what a drawing it was. sigh. See, this is everything that was good and bad about comics in the 90's (stop me if you've heard this one before). The 90's brought a real and lasting change in how comics were seen and perceived. This is when books stopped being about the characters and (frequently) became about the creators of the books- the comic book equivalent of the end of the studio movie system and the rise of the 'movie star', in my opinion. Sure, there were always very famous and popular artists (let's face it- people are pick up comics for the art initially) out there, but it became a whole other animal back in the 90's.

If there could be said to be a unifying style to this art, it was 'dynamic'. The artists themselves varied pretty wildly in the details of their art, but overall it had a real sense of action and vibrancy in it. Lots of useless detail lines helped. Also, over-rendering the people into something that looked more like an anatomical model of muscles rather than a 'normal' human being was a big difference. Super heroes always looked stronger than mere mortals; now you could see how each muscle was better. Hell, I remember there was actually an artistic trend in comics to draw the guys with bulging arm veins! Yep, true. One could ponder the meaning, symbolism, and effect it had on the average comic reader back then, but I'll spare you (for now).

Anyway, as you can see, I feel for this trend hook, (crosshatched) line, and sinker. The main culprit of this art style you see above was a guy named Bart Sears. I don't remember him always drawing like this, but there are some artists out there who can change their style to reflect current trends, and I guess he was one of them. Of course he pulled it off much better than I ever managed. My problems with this are like all my problems with drawing: I didn't have enough background to really understand what I was drawing. These weren't copied from anyone else's work, so I was left to figure out how the muscles were put together on my own, and figure out where the lines would go. I did okay, I guess, but really? that's just ridiculous. I never had the knack to really pull off these super-muscled people. So, when you see something I've done of late, just think: I could still be trying to draw just like this.

Back then, though, I recall being pretty proud of it- it was reasonably dynamic, and God knows I put enough lines in there. Bits and pieces I'm still pretty proud of, really. But jeez, how did these people digest food, with waists like that?

Music: "Them Bones" - Alice In Chains

From the Crypt, 15: Heavy Metal... *sigh*

8/30/92.

Deathlok and Cable. One's a brave and honorable man trapped in a mechanical death machine, the other's a cyborg sent back from the future to save mankind. In other words, it's Robocop and the Terminator.

These were two of the more popular characters from Marvel back in the day... Hell, Cable was one of the most popular characters around back then. Things have changed somewhat... for one thing, shoulder pads are OUT.

Anyway, this was one drawing I recall being particularly proud of, if only for actually getting more than one character on the page. I always liked the way Deathlok looked in this shot- the turned head was quite an accomplishment for me back in the day (which is funny, as nowadays that's almost all I draw). More overexaggerated muscles, and guns that seem to be random assortments of rectangles. All good fun.

That's it. One more picture and this book is done, I believe.

Music: "More Human Than Human" - White Zombie

From the Crypt, 5: It's Uncanny!

Man, it was great to collect comics in the 90's. Books were routinely selling over 1 million copies an issue, there were multiple covers for all your favorite books, and just about every character had their own comic (actually, it was really just great to sell comics in the 90's). And no one was bigger than the X-Men. The biggest artist in American comics at that time, Jim Lee, was drawing the biggest comic in world, X-Men, written by one of the most popular writers of the day, Chris Claremont. The X-Men was everything good in comics...

And everything bad.

Convoluted plots that went on and on, only to go nowhere, badly-written dialogue, and yeah, the art was great, but spawned (inside pun there) so many bad knock-off styles that, after a surprisingly short period of time, seeing any hatchmarks to indicate shadow (or worse yet, to indicate hatchmarks) drove me to twitching.

But all that was in the future. At the time of this piece of unfinished business, I was completely in love with Jim Lee's art, and the X-Men comic in general. Though I'd never be able to draw like Jim (though I've done a decent knock-off-- excuse me, homage-- in my day), I loved the action and dynamics he brought to his characters, not to mention the cool as hell poses, so I did my best to mimic that here. As near as I can recall, these aren't based on any specific poses he did- but the poses are so generic, it's hard to say that for certain (Joey, maybe you can correct me on that). Regardless, it was fun to draw, no doubt. And of course, not finish. I remember having plans for the rest of the picture (as you can see, two characters- Rogue and Psylocke- are missing, as is the logo), but not why I never finished. Probably because drawing women is tough. Was then, is now.

This picture is a great example of how my 'style', such as it is, has changed through the years. I always found a great deal to like in the dominant style of the day, whatever day that was, but I never did a great job of taking it to heart. This is probably as close as I would get to that painted-on, well-defined muscle-bound superhero look- as defined by the clean lines of Jim Lee (before the hatching, obviously)... actually, this isn't the most well-defined muscle look I've ever done- that's coming up later on, and we'll get to it, but this is probably the most super-hero style I've ever done. In some ways, I wish I could return back to this style, if only to apply what I've learned since then in anatomy and composition, with the dynamism and cleanliness of what I've done here. Clean lines, without being cartoony (as I tend to veer into nowadays).

Anyway, there's a new bit of look-back for you. More to come later this week. If I'd paid attention, I could tell you what's next... but I didn't.

Cheers.

Music: "International Bright Young Thing" - Jesus Jones