Drawings, Paintings, and other bits of art which are (mostly) related to comic books and other pop-culture ephemera. I hope to post something at least every week or two, so check back semi-often.
March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)
It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing: MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!
It's Pi Day, and what better way to celebrate than a M.O.D.O.K. cartoon (click the "Pi Day" Link/Label on the side bar for more examples)? I will admit, I'm not much when it comes to Math (or Maths, for those of you across The Pond), but Pi Day amuses me. Although, Mario Day (Mar10) also amuses me, as well, but I always forget about it until it is the day of, otherwise I would probably post something in honor of that day, too. Next year, I guess...
Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!
* * *
STEP ONE: Here are the very quickly scribbled digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.
* * *
STEP TWO: And here are digital inks along with the Lettering.
* * *
STEP THREE: And here are the added colors, done on several layers under the Digital Inks.
March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2024 (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)
It's another submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog. Go over and pay them a visit to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing!
Just in time for Pi Day/Pie Day, here's a parody of those classic Hostess Ads those of us of a certain age will no doubt recall, in which the day is saved by the hero tossing out several dessert cakes and pies! Except, in this case, the "hero" in question is M.O.D.O.K...
* * *
STEP ONE: I did the digital lettering first in this case, and then quickly scribbled digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.
* * *
STEP TWO: And here are digital inks.
* * *
STEP THREE: And here are the added colors, done on a layer below the digital inks.
March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2023 (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)
(Click to Embiggen!)
HAPPY PI DAY!
It's yet another submission for the long suffering March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog! This time it's in celebration of Pi Day -- March 14th (3.14). And yes, that’s really Pi to the first… I dunno, how many ever many digits fit in the balloon while still being vaguely legible. So, I guess you could say this post is actually educational (you’d be wrong, of course, but you could say it).
I copied Pi to the first 10,000 digits into a text file and it would make Clip Studio Paint choke for a little bit when trying to import and place it, so that was fun.
Now, in honor of Pi Day, I'm off to have a big ol' slice of cake. Er, I mean Pie. Wait, why not both?
* * *
STEP ONE: Since the pencils will look almost like the inks, here is the doodled idea that lead to this cartoon. It was a 10 second sketch done on a corner of an index card. In actuality, it is about 2" x 2", give-or-take.
* * *
STEP TWO: And here are the digital inks.
* * *
STEP THREE: And, finally, here are the colors. I decided to keep the colors simple as it was 1) a cartoon version 2) the wall of text/numbers behind M.O.D.O.K. was enough noise in the background to warrant keeping everything simple in front.
OK, I'll be the first to admit I am not smart enough for this joke.
It's a mash-up of two things I really don't participate in: Video Games and Math. Video games I gave up for the most part cold turkey almost 20 years ago. I had burned myself out on a combination of pumping every spare quarter I had into arcade games (remember those?), Atari 2600, Nintendo NES and the next gen Super NES, and any other game systems I could get my hands on right up to 1999, when I realized I was wasting too much time on video games and basically quit. Granted, I was (and am) still wasting time on a LOT of other things, but video games wasn't one of them.
And Math, well... Math and I don't see eye to (i). That's another joke I'm not smart enough to make. I think.
So, "the cake is a lie" is from the video game, "Portal", which I have never played. However, I have seen enough of it referred to in the nerd culture I swim in that I was aware of both "Portal" and "the cake is a lie" meme. Heck, it even has a really great ending song in which the insane computer, GLaDOS, taunts the survivors that she is "Still Alive" (written by Jonathan Coulton, no less). I listened to it again a few weeks ago, which is why it was semi-fresh in my mind. Here it is for those interested:
There is even a symphonic version which also makes me smile, since I appreciate seeing low-brow and high-brow cultures mix it up. Lest this go from a Pi Day post to a "Portal" end song "Still Alive" post, it's probably in the "Suggested Videos". Go look, I'll wait...
As for the formula Pi^(e) = 22.459157718... Well, I went down a YouTube rabbit hole about calculus, graphing imaginary numbers, and Euler's Constant. Not much of it really stuck because of what I said above about Math and me. But, I did remember (e) was something in math. I guess that means it wasn't completely wasted on me. Close, but not completely.
With that as the background, my chain of thought went something like this: Pi Day... If the cake is a lie, Pi is something else. If the cake is a lie, maybe Pi is the truth? Nah, that's obvious. Bleh. I need a pun--the worse the better! (Which is how puns work, after all.) So, then I tried to think of a pun from cake to Pi... Oh, wait, with Pi being mathematical, and (e) also having to do with math, well there we go! I Googled the formula "Pi^(e)" and it turned out to give an actual answer--No one was more surprised than me! And, even better, it could be plotted on a line. LINE! Of course, that pun is almost bad enough to work! If the cake is a lie, the Pi^(e) is a line! Ta da!
Who says explaining jokes isn't fun? :-P
For my amusement, I posted this as close to 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 (CST) as possible. Y'know, 'cuz Pi.
It's Joe Pi--one of my favorite characters from the comic book series, "Top 10", by Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and Zander Cannon. The premise of "Top 10" is that it is like "Hill Street Blues" in which everyone in the population has super-powers. Joe Pi is a transfer from Turingville and has to deal with discrimination within the precinct, stereotypes, etc. Given the humor and intelligence of the character, Joe Pi quickly became one of my favorite characters!
HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS of Joe Pi's first appearance in "Top 10" #11, giving you a flavor of what makes him so great.
Unfortunately, I thought of this a few hours too late to finish it before midnight on March 14, 2016. However, when I put the last, finishing touch on the cartoon, I checked the clock on the corner of my computer screen; it was March 15, 2016, at 3:14am (CST). Perfect!
* * *
STEP ONE: Here are the digital pencils, done on a new 1,000px by 1,400px document.
* * *
STEP TWO: The digital inks were done mostly with 5pt Hard Brush.
* * *
STEP THREE: And here are the colors, done on a new Multiply Layer. Done and DONE!
