Day 24: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Time for something a little more light and fun to start the countdown to the final week of "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween".  It's another post from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"--this time it's Lucy's costume of a witch mask and ghostly bedsheet.  I will admit I have a lot of nostalgia for The Great Pumpkin, having watched it yearly when I was a youngster (yes, kids, there was a time before VCR's and DVD's, or your Cartoon Networks, when you had only one chance per year to watch a cartoon special, or holiday-related show and you better hope you saw it or it was too bad 'til next year... Now THAT'S scary!).

I was very tempted just to do the simple, colored in pen-and-ink line drawing and call it done, but nnnoooooo, I just had to crosshatch, like, a billion lines.  When will I learn?  Onward to the final leg of this race toward the finish line!

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STEP ONE:  In Clip Studio Paint, I created a 1,500px x 2,100px @ 300dpi canvas and quickly sketched out the digital pencils.

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STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks.  At first, I was thinking about doing a realistic style digital painting, but then thought about doing a highly detailed scratchboard effect...  Nah, how about a shadowed, digital pen-and-ink?  I finally settled on an inking style similar to Gahan Wilson or Robert Crumb with semi-dramatic lighting.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished painting, with various layers of color added.

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This was done digitally with Clip Studio Paint on an iPad.

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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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Akira / Charles M. Schulz Mash-Up

Akira / Charles M. Schulz Mash-Up

Linus/Tetsuo Transformation

I guess I'm still in a Charles M. Schulz state of mind.  And, with it being the 30th Anniversary of "Akira" (an anime I sought out shortly after it was released on VHS for rental back in the day--as well as the manga when it was being released through Epic Comics, and eventually the giant, phone books of the series), I thought it would be amusing to mash 'em up.

In this case, it is Linus as Tetsuo in the beginning of his transformation.  Originally, I thought about doing it as Charlie Brown saying "Good Grief!"  But, then I thought it would be better to have Linus, and he could use his blanket as the "cape" and his hair would vaguely resemble Tetsuo's (well, that may have been a little optimistic).  It seemed to work better, in my humble opinion.  I may still do something right-and-proper for Akira, as it is a series for which I have a great fondness.

Also, completely unrelated, this is something weird for me: I had my own brush with the Mandela Effect this evening.  For the longest time, I thought "Charles M. Schulz" spelled his last name "Schultz"--right up 'til a few hours ago.  In fact, my fingers still automatically type it out that way.  Now, I could just say it's a case of me not paying careful attention as a kid, assuming it is spelled in the more classic manner, and having my stupid brain just insert the "t" that I always assumed was there; nope, rather than admitting I'm a total, complete dumb@$$, instead I'll postulate an alternate-universe/quantum something-something/time-travel mix-up.  So, there!

That said, I went through this morning and updated my obvious, previous posts and fixed the spelling to "Schulz"--well, aside from a couple drawings which have "With apologies to Charles M. Schultz" on them, where I'm afraid my shame will still be on display as I'm too lazy to fix it at the moment.  Good grief!

For fun (your definition of "fun" may vary), below, I actually decided to include the steps for making the picture.  It shouldn't be quite as cumbersome as the trying to do the last post of the O.M.A.C. / Charles M. Schulz Mash-Up.  So, for those of you interested, here ya go!  For those of you not interested...  Um, well, it's still there.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, which I did on a 1,500px x 2,100px canvas at 300dpi.  

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STEP TWO:  Here are the digital inks.  I used a slightly modified G-Brush from Clip Studio Paint to ink the drawing, typed in the text with a Comix Heavy font, and created the dialog balloon.

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STEP THREE:  I colorized the drawing in Photoshop on a Multiply layer.

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STEP FOUR:  Because I liked the distressed effects in the previous post, I thought I'd do it again.  In this case, the color-Mulitply layer was duplicated on top of the original one, with a 4pt Color Pixelation filter applied to it; it was changed to a Lighten layer and opacity was dropped to 50%.  Then, on top, I had a scan of a cracked, yellowed paper which I placed on top, changed to a Darken Layer, adjusted the Levels to bring out some of the texture, and dropped the opacity to 40%.  

To post it, the resolution was dropped to 1,000px x 1,400px at 200dpi, and called it "Good 'nuff!"

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This was done with Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop.

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O.M.A.C. / Charles M. Schulz Mash-Up

O.M.A.C. / Charles M. Schulz Mash-Up

Page Recreation of O.M.A.C. #1 by Jack Kirby

For absolutely no reason at all (well, other than it amuses me), here's a page recreation of pages 4 and 5 from O.M.A.C. issue #1.  It's a mash-up of Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C. (One-Man Army Corps) as I imagine how it would be done by Charles Schulz.

O.M.A.C. is one of the more esoteric DC characters that pulls my interest for some reason.  To be honest, like many Kirby creations, it isn't the best written, but there is a glittering idea bomb within which appeals to me.  Something darkly satiric and psychological beneath the veneer of super-heroes and bad guys punching each other and punctuated with explosions.  In the case of this issue, it is robot decoys which would be used to seduce and assassinate world leaders.

And, yes, I know the Little Red-Haired Girl has a name, Heather Wold.  But, as that is relatively obscure, I figured it would cause more confusion to use "Heather" as a substitute for the name "Lila", and stuck with "Little Red-Haired Girl".

For fun, here's the original pages from O.M.A.C. #1 by Jack Kirby:

I decided not to include the various steps used in creating the pages, as it would be quite a long, boring list.  But, it was done digitally in Clip Studio Paint using LOTS of layers, and with some of the dot/moire pattern filters done in Photoshop.  I also did some discoloration and cracked paper texture effects to give it an artificially aged look.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2016 - Part 3

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness - 2016

Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing

It's yet another submission for March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog for 2016!

This time, it's a mash-up of that kid with an over-sized melon who already bears a slight resemblance to M.O.D.O.K., Charlie Brown.  If the mechano-chair fits...

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PART ONE:  Here are the quick breakdowns, done with a .05mm mechanical pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.  I then scanned it into Photoshop, which was a 1,000pt x 1,400pt document. 

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PART TWO:  I did digital inks with a 9pt hard brush in Photoshop.  I thought I should move just a little bit off a straight Charlie Brown drawing and emphasize some of the brow to merge him more visually with M.O.D.O.K.

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PART THREE:  The colors were done with a new MULTIPLY Layer, and then did the glowing effects with a new Layer and a 50pt air brush at 50% opacity.

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Done with Photoshop.

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Mash-Up: Charles M. Schulz and OMAC

MASH-UP:
Charles M. Schulz and O.M.A.C.

(I would like to acknowledge and thank Paul Montgomery from iFanboy for the idea of the Charles M. Schulz and Kamandi Mash-Up.)

O.M.A.C. (One Man Army Corps) was another one of those short-lived Jack Kirby creations that I just thought was so cool when I first discovered the comic.  A bullied office drone, Buddy Blank, receives a command from an orbiting satellite, Brother Eye, and becomes a One Man Army Corps.  The first issue involved a crazy, corporate world; a United Nations type organization, the Global Peace Agency, the agents of which disguised themselves so you would not be able to tell their nationality; and assassin escorts which were exploding robots.  The first issue was so great to my fevered imagination, that the following issues just didn't quite live up to that one.  But, I still enjoyed the heck out of that series.

And, they retconned OMAC to be Kamandi's grandpa.  So, he sorta fit in this Mash-Up.

I also liked John Byrne's four issue, black-and-white, prestige format OMAC series from the early 1990's.  But, I never really got too much into the new OMAC Series, or the one before that in which there were a lot blue robots/cyborgs with metal mohawks.  I think Batman created Brother Eye or something like that... Just before they rebooted all their continuity.  It was so far removed from Kirby's creation that I didn't connect to it in the same way I did with the original.  I've often toyed with the idea of doing a submission of OMAC to DC Comics.  Maybe, someday...  :-)

Here's the Pen and Ink drawing, cleaned up in Photoshop.

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This was done with pen and ink on coated laser printer paper and colored in Photoshop.

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Mash-Up: Charles M Schulz - Ben Boxer and Dr. Canus

MASH UP: 

Charles M. Schulz and 

Ben Boxer and Dr. Canus

(I would like to acknowledge and thank Paul Montgomery from iFanboy for the idea of the Charles M. Schulz and Kamandi Mash-Up.)

It's Ben Boxer from the "Kamandi" series as I imagine Charles M. Schulz would do it.  Ben Boxer, and other humans in Kamandi's time, had a "Cyclo-Heart" and if the circle above the heart is pressed, he became covered in an indestructible metal shell and looking almost like the Silver Surfer.  Cool stuff!

Here is the pen and ink drawing, cleaned up in PhotoShop

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Here is Dr. Canus, also from "Kamandi".  He was a talking, humanoid dog... and a scientist.  In his case, he literally thought he was the leader and the humans were the pets.  So, in Jack Kirby's future, I guess dogs become just like cats are today.

Here is the pen and ink drawing, which was cleaned up in Photoshop.

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This was done with pen and ink on coated laser printer paper and colored digitally in Photoshop.

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Mash-Up: Charles M Schulz - Kamandi

MASH-UP: 

Charles M. Schulz - Kamandi

(I would like to acknowledge and thank Paul Montgomery from iFanboy for the idea of the Charles M. Schulz and Kamandi Mash-Up.)

Kamandi was another one of those Jack Kirby creations that I picked up when I was in my late teens, about the same time I discovered "The Eternals", "OMAC", and his run on "Captain America".   Vaguely, it was sort of Last Boy on Earth meets "Planet of the Apes", with some other sci-fi elements mixed in.  His name comes from a misunderstanding, as he was raised in Command D (Command D/Kamandi).  I really thought it was a fun series.  The humanoid animals (lions, tigers, dogs and apes, mostly) believed in a Garden of Eden called "The Washington Zuu".  I mean, how great is that?  :-D

Here's the Pen and Ink drawing.

This was done with pen and ink on coated laser printer paper and colored digitally in Photoshop.

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