From the Crypt, 16: More Heavy Metal

9/6/92.

Lo! There shall be an ending!!!

To this run of retro, at least. This was the end of this sketchbook, so it's a good time to stop and take a breather. This was a team-up of two popular 90's characters, one you already know (Deathlok) and one you've not seen before (Death's Head). Both very popular, both with pretty bad names, and a good indicator of what the 90's were like. It was a very violent time in comics, with the words 'Blood', 'Death', or some other nasty name popping up more often than rude drivers in Maryland. It was all so over-the-top, though, none of it really seemed to stick. Although it was the time of 'grim 'n' gritty' in comic books, it was still far enough removed from 'realism' that none of it seemed very serious. But, typical action poses, typical oddly-shaped guns, typical avoidance of drawing detailed hands or feet. Still, there are a few things I really liked out of these last few drawings.

Probably going to post some new stuff in the next post or so, along with some pictures I think. We'll see.

Hope all is well.

Music: "Big Guns" - AC/DC

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, 9: The Times, They Are A-Changin'

June 4, 1992.

Oh 1990's, how I miss you so... cyberpunk-styled cyborgs were such the rage back then- undoubtedly some type of latent self-mutilation/body modification, cry-for-help-or-at-least-attention. Cyborgs were all over the place back then, certainly in comic books, or at least godawfully huge machine-wearing people were with guns as big as small cars- you know who you are- yes you with no pupils and tiny feet, you know I'm talking about you. The whole latent image problem business could just be so much bunk, but the big cyborg thing was very real, and I bought into it wholeheartedly. Couldn't even tell you why, really, other than I was a big fan of Robocop and a big fan of rampant technology in general. Also, it looked cool.

These two were my first attempt at an idea that's been with me ever since- like the best ideas (or like a Hollywood producer), I came up with the name first, then the rest sorted itself out. I won't spoil the name just yet- the concept evolved from this first idea, that of a group of 'highly-trained operatives, with state of the art cyber-enhancements' doing massive amounts of property damage, into something less... '90's, and into something I think is a big more interesting, or at least copywrightable.

Nothing much to say regarding the drawing itself, other than it was plenty of fun to draw at the time, I got a kick out of coming up with the crazy weapons and tech, and man, she's got a really small hand... and I just noticed, they apparently have the same sized waist... jeez...

Okay, that's all for now. I think next week I might just post something new, to break up the monotony of all these flashbacks.

Cheers.

Music: "Demolition Man" - Sting (yes, originally done by The Police, but this is the specific version I'm thinking of)