May the Fourth Be With You - 2017

May the Fourth Be With You!

Well, to quote Groundskeeper Willie from "The Simpsons": "I warned ya!  Dinna I warn ya?"  Yes, last year I threatened to keep the train going with Jaxxon the rabbit in a Slave Leia outfit and, by gum, that's exactly what I did!

So, continuing my insane quest to reform Jaxxon into a cool character in Star Wars, here he is for the third "May the Fourth" in a row.  If you're interested in the previous cartoons featuring Jaxxon, hit the link on the bottom of this post, or the Label on the side of the Blog.  

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STEP ONE:  Here are the scribbled, digital pencils, which were done in Sketchbook Pro--a new program I am playing with.

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STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks which, again, were mostly done in Sketchbook Pro.

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STEP THREE:  I am just too used to Photoshop, so I imported the file into Photoshop to finish off the picture's coloration.  Mostly, I did a grayscale painting of Jaxxon, then threw some color over top of a MULTIPLY Layer, followed with lighter colors over a Normal Layer.

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Done digitally in Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop.

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May the Fourth Be With You - 2016

May the Fourth Be With You!

I thought I should take a break from painting the Bounty Hunters from "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" to do something quick for the Nerd Holiday of "May the Fouth Be With You".  Um, wait, I think there may be something wrong with the logical construction of the previous sentence.  Oh, well, no time to look back, now!

Once again, I decided to do something with the giant, green rabbit introduced in the "Star Wars # 8", published by Marvel Comics in 1977, Jaxxon!  That's right, I am continuing my single-handed quest to make Jaxxon a cool character!  Even though the odds are greatly against me, I shall carry on, regardless--mostly because I don't know the meaning of the word "Quixotic".

Quix·ot·ic - /kwikˈsädik/

adjective: Quixotic - exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

Oh!  Well, I guess that's pretty spot on, then.  Anyhoo, LAST YEAR'S "May the Fouth" entry had Jaxxon standing in for Han Solo; this year's had him standing in for Luke Skywalker.  I'll give you three guesses who will be wearing a metal bikini next year for "May the Fourth Be With You"...

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils on a new document 900px x 1,350px.  When they were finished, I dropped the opacity to 20% and did the inks overtop on a NEW Layer.  Speaking of which...

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STEP TWO:  The digital inks were done mostly with a 5pt hard round brush.  The background was done with a texture brush in grayscale.

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STEP THREE:  Lastly, I added in the color on a new MULTIPLY Layer and the lettering.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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May the Fourth Be With You!

May the 4th Be With You!

"May the Fourth Be With You" is a pun so bad and obvious, I'm ashamed I didn't come up with it first...

No, it isn't Bucky O'Hare.  It's Jaxxon, the giant, green rabbit which was part of Marvel Comics "Star Wars" series.  

Yes, when I was a kid I actually bought the issues that introduced Jaxxon and, as you can guess, I have a soft spot in my heart (and probably head) for the character. 

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PART ONE:  Here are the digital pencils.  They were originally done on a 1,000 x 1,500 pixel canvas, but I shrunk it down to 900 pixels to keep the file size within reason on the site.

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PART TWO:  And here are the digital inks.  They were done mostly with a 5 pt. Hard Brush, and a patterned brush for the stippled background of the Cantina walls.  

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PART THREE:  Here is the color plate.  I created a New Layer and set it to Multiply to color the page but keep all the linework.  I finished the whole thing off by adding the lettering, above.

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Done digitally in Photoshop

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Big in Japan...

 I was watching some old Gamera movies and this seemed rather obvious... :-)

Click to Embiggen

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For those interested, here's the original pen-and-ink drawing:

This was done with brush-and-ink on 11" x 14" cardstock and scanned into Photoshop.  I colored it digitally--primarily with a chalk brush--over several MULTIPLY Layers.

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Happy (belated) Merry Everything!

I hope everyone has a Happy Merry Everything this holiday season!

In the spirit of the season, here is an old, old cartoon I did over 20 years ago which was published in "The Comics Buyers' Guide" (the January 12, 1990 issue, to be exact), which I scanned in and colored in PhotoShop.

This was done with pen and ink on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" paper and colored in PhotoShop

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Halvin and Cobbes - 90's Comics Redux

I still have several things I am finishing but, once again, I wanted to be able to post something until they are ready to go up on the blog.  I stumbled across some old stuff I had laying around and thought this was mildly amusing enough to post.

(Click on the cartoon to Embiggen) 

This was a cartoon I did wwwwaaayyyyyy back in 1993 (holy crap!  Where does the time go?) as a submission for "The Comics Buyers' Guide" back when it was a weekly newspaper, rather than the current monthly magazine.  Sadly, it wasn't published.  [I did have a few other cartoons published in the CBG which I called "Dyspepsia of the Mind", and even got to do a Guest Editorial for them about collector mentality gone wrong.  Maybe I'll post those someday, as well...]

In the early 90's, ultra-violent anti-heroes and all manner of cover gimmicks (multiple-covers, holographic covers, glow-in-the-dark covers...) were going from occasional happenings to almost seeming to become the norm.  Plot and story were replaced with gritting teeth, constipated expressions, and foil-embossed covers... Well, sorta like now, I suppose, for the most part.  The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess.

Oh, and the reference to "JSA" was the delightful 1992 "Justice Society of America" run from Len Strazewski and the late Mike Parobeck (gone too soon).  I suppose I should also say "Calvin and Hobbes" was one of the BEST comic strips out there and still remains one of my all-time favorites.

Hope you like it!  It's almost 20 years old, but seems almost as applicable today, sadly.  :-)

Pen and Ink on 8-1/2" x 14" bristol board (colored digitally)

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