March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 - Part 2

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Hey, it's time for another submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog!  In this case, I had the idea of using the very first Peanuts comic strip (formerly "Li’l Folks") with M.O.D.O.K., Arnim Zola, and Doughboy replacing Charlie Brown, Shermy and Patty.  It was completely unbidden, and not one of the projects for March M.O.D.O.K. Madness I had planned; but, once in my head, it would not go away until I got it done.  So, here it is!

Here's the first "Peanuts" cartoon, so you can compare and contrast...

I did have do some thinking as to who was going to replace whom in my version.  Was it going to be Arnim Zola skipping merrily down the street, and M.O.D.O.K. complaining about how much he hates Zola, with an A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) sitting beside him?  But, since it was March M.O.D.O.K. Madness and NOT August Arnim Agitation, I figured it would be M.O.D.O.K. for Charlie Brown.  But, who should sit beside Arnim Zola?  Not a member of A.I.M, or even Hydra...  That's when I remembered Doughboy from the issue of Captain America I had--Zola's own creation as the Bio-Fanatic.  He would fit perfecting in Patty's place.

So, with the characters chosen, it was just a matter of plugging them in and using Charles Schulz's style.  Done and DONE!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quickly scribbled digital pencils, done in Clip Studio Paint EX on a pencil layer which I color blue, being a creature of the olden days when Non-Photo Blue was a thing used to setup for printing.  Even though it is easy to hide any color chosen, I still like the look of blue line artwork.  The aesthetic appeals to me.

And, yeah, I wanted to include the obvious joke of turning "Friends" into "Fiends" by crossing out the "r" in "Friends".  Let it never be said I'm nothing if not obvious!

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STEP TWO:  Here are the digital inks, also done in Clip Studio Paint EX.

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STEP THREE:  I colored the four-panels in Clip Studio Paint, then imported it into Photoshop so I could add a Filter for Color Halftone (set to 35% opacity); I also dropped the opacity of the original drawing to 70%, as well.  There was also a vintage paper texture I added over top, set on a Multiply Layer and lowered the opacity to 75%.

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SIDE NOTE:  I really like the vintage-paper look, which gives it a newsprint feel.  I **ALMOST** used this as the finished pic, but I had already gone through and colored everything, adding the vintage paper texture last.  So, here are both examples to look at and compare, just for fun.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint -- with an assist from Photoshop.

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