Big Bad Beowulf!

This one's for Johnny! Johnny Bacardi!
Over on his blog senor Bacardi has been writing about an old DC comic called Beowulf: Dragon Slayer. While I haven't read any of the stuff I did look at all the pictures and decided I wanted to draw Beowulf. He's got a ridiculous corset on which, for all I know, is holding in his guts after a particularly bad run-in with Grendel (or whomsoever is his mortal enemy). What I like about Beowulf is his helmet. It reminds me of the evil queen from Sleeping Beauty and the devil, Chernobog (Chernovog?) from Disney's Night on Bare Mountain sequence in Fantasia.

Since this guy is a barbarian I tried to be a little Buscema in my drawing which is why I'm showing the pencils...well, that and I just haven't had the time to ink it yet. I would never in a billion years deign to compare myself to the great John Buscema but his awesome barbarians were on my mind when I drew this.

Oh, and here is a panel from one of the comics which I yoinked from Johnny's blogspot. It shows off his awesome helmet and his not so awesome corset with mis-matched suspenders. Crud...I just realized I should have added his cool fur cape...in the inking, perhaps.

j.

Fruitbat!

All this Superhero talk reminded me about a comic I drew waaaay, waaaay back in my early days (like, '98...'99). There used to be an anthology book called Love In Tights which was put together by fellow comic pals J.Torres and Clay Moore. I don't remember which issue it was in but I'm almost sure it was the last and I know that it had an Andi Watson cover on it. The original story was in black and white (I coloured this one image a few years ago) and parodied the old "Batman and Robin are gay" cliche. That idea is SOOO boring and wrong headed. It's obvious that it's the villains who are gay, especially the Joker. Sure the Joker has Harley Quinn but she's totally a beard. The old Joker used to tie up the Dynamic Duo and deprive them of their utility belts (in my story, their costumes, see next image).

So I came up with a story wherein the Choker (it's a parody...I didn't say it was clever!) has our heroes in yet another deathtrap but he stops before delivering the final blow (pardon the pun...no wait...don't) and confesses his whole reason for existing is that he has a sort of superhero bondage thing! Yikes!
I really should find the comic and scan in the whole story so's you can read it yourself! Though I'm not sure I want to look at that early awful artwork.

Incidentally, the cover was inspired by Sheldon Moldoff who used to ghost for Bob Kane on the early Batman stories. I met Sheldon at a store signing once and really thought he was a terrific guy. The cover image was me paying homage to him.

Cheers,
j.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment!

As requested by Nick, here is your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man!!

Funny thing about drawing this Spidey...I've drawn him before with less manly proportions (two issues of Tangled Web). In fact my Spidey tends to have a head like a pumpkin. So I consciously tried to beef him up without giving him my standard body type. I think it still has the funny lumpy muscles that I like to draw. I don't know if I succeeded in making him a pin-up in the realm of Beefcake...I'll leave that judgement up to Nick.

Peace out,
j.

From the secret files of the Justice League!

Last week we talked a little about Superheroes and their chest hair. At first I had a picture of the Batman in mind and I even got as far as doing a little sketch. But the more I thought about those wonderful DC heroes the more I wanted to draw a team. So this weeks post is the original Justice League of America (minus Wonder Woman) in the group's locker room. If this were a contest I'd ask you, dear reader, to name the members from left to right...but it's not a contest so I won't.

Please enjoy!

Do I have to mention that all characters are copyright DC comics?

p.s. For some reason the image is not posting so that you can click on it to view it larger...or at least it isn't doing that for me. So here's a link to a larger version: http://www.wire-fu.com/j-bone/JLA_LockerRoom_clr.jpg

j.