John Carter of Mars

I originally drew this for something else that is no longer occurring so, since it ain't, I figured I'd share it here. John carter getting all jack-rabbity on a Thark.

Steve Jobs

I was unexpectedly touched by the passing of Apple guru Steve Jobs, and not just because I'm typing this out on my Macbook Air right now. Like all people, I'm sure Jobs had feet of clay, but he sure managed to live life to the fullest. That's something we can all certainly admire.

In addition to all his work shaping technology as we know it, Jobs founded Pixar, who, for my money, has been the most consistently excellent movie studio since the early days of Disney animation. I always particularly associated Jobs with the masterpiece Wall-E, and its far-off future of highly evolved Apple-derived robots. I drew the titular character himself, whom I have no doubt has, somewhere in his collection of 21st century memorabilia, a black mock turtleneck sweater.

RIP, Steve Jobs.

Woofman

Had so much fun drawing Frankenstein's Monster yesterday that I requested we draw a wolfman (pronounced woofman. Always pronounced woofman) today. It's also fun.

Frankenstein's Monster, or the Modern Prometheus

Drew this on the train over to the studio today, but didn't have a chance to post it until just now. This was fun-- we need more topics like this.

Warrior, skeletonized

Got a lot to do today so I drew this on the train over to the studio. I didn't quite finish it, but whatevs, it's free, right?

The First Man in Space

Today we honor Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.

After seeing Tim's post, I was surprised to learn that Gagarin died in 1968. Some reading revealed that he was killed in a jet crash, caused by negligence of the ground crew. He was only 34 years old.

I wish the Soviet Union had treated its space heroes better. Hopefully, he and Laika are off frolicking somewhere, wherever it is cosmonauts go when they die.

Willie Nelson

Today's topic was "Willie Nelson".

When I was a wee one, my father (formerly a listener-to of hippie music) discovered Willie Nelson, and much of my earliest musical memories are of the illustrious Mr Nelson here. My default mental image of him is as a younger man, which I tried to capture above (with mixed results) and passed up the opportunity to draw him as the living embodiment of cragginess.

Muppet Angel vs The Count-- to the Death!

I'm not much of an Angel fan, but I am aware that at some point he was transformed into a Muppet. Well, the world ain't big enough for two Muppet vampires, so I decided to draw Muppet Angel locked in immortal combat with Sesame Street's the Count. In the background, Janice the Vampire Slayer is torn in her duty.

Pretty lady eating a mango

Today's topic was "mango".I don't have all that much to say on the topic of mangoes, other than that they're a delicious fruit, if a little messy, so I decided to just draw a quickie subway sketch of a pretty lady enjoying a messy mango. Sorry for the lightness, but if I darkened it too much you could see the totally boss drawing of Poseidon I drew on the other side.

The 38th anniversary of the first cell-phone call!

So, it turns out that the first ever cellphone call was made 38 years ago today.  Who knew the cellphone was so old? It's older than me!

I think the first time, in my own limited worldview, that I really became aware of the soon-to-be-ubiquitous cell phone was about 1995, give or take a year. So, as I am often prone to do, I tried to imagine what 1995 George, if while on one of his patented Angry Walks® through 1995 NYC, would think if he accidentally walked through a space-time wormhole to the NYC of 2011 and saw all the peoples on their bluetooth headsets.

Used to be, you could spot the crazies in NYC a mile off, as they'd be the ones merrily yammering to themselves. Now, we all are. Yay cell phones!

Crying Purple Gorilla Comics.

Today's topic, by Nathan Schreiber, is "monkey reading comics".

Back in the day at DC Comics, someone in editorial (I'm not sure who, but I think it was Julius Schwartz) noticed that comics with covers featuring either (a) a gorilla (b) the color purple or (c) someone crying experienced an otherwise inexplicable boost in sales. Supposedly, these attributes were each allowed to appear on only one cover a month so as not to generate internal competition amongst the company's titles. That restraint is to be commended, but imagine the sales on an issue of Crying Purple Gorilla Comics. I mean, I'd buy it.

BTW, Alan Moore did this joke in the background of Top 10. I'm totally ripping him off.

Firefly day: Captain Mal Reynolds

It's "Firefly" day here on Drawbridge, not "Inara" day, just sayin'. Someone had to draw the Captain, and that someone was me.

So here's how Firefly day came about: we all love Firefly here at the Drawbridge studios. LOVE IT. But especially me.

A while back, the old fogies with whom I share this blog wanted to do a "Space 1999" day, which was some old sci-fi show from before my time. It meant nothing to me, so I asked, "Couldn't we do a 'futures of the past' day instead? You could draw Space 1999, and I could do, like, I don't know, 1984 or 2001: A Space Odyssey or something?"

"NO", said they, "It's Space 1999 day. Suck it!"

"Suck you!" said I, and drew this Firefly piece instead, because, as mentioned, I LOVE Firefly. And lo and behold, my Firefly piece got a whole lot of hits, way more that their Space 1999 pieces did, because people love Firefly. So then, as we all love Firefly, we figured, let's make a whole day of it.

And there was much rejoicing, hallelujah!

iPad vs Kindle-- the battle continues...

See? All they needed was a common enemy.

Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl

Today's topic was "your favorite song". This isn't necessarily my end-all, be-all favorite song, but certainly it's one of my favorites.

"Favorite song" was my idea-- I really enjoyed making a comic strip of another of my favorites when we did "Radiohead" as a topic a few weeks back, and I wanted to try it again. I might make this a series, who knows?

Liz Taylor's Eyes...

...were violet.

I know, scientifically speaking, this was because she had blue eyes and a surplus of vascular tissue running through them, making them violet, but still-- Violet eyes. Pretty cool.

I was sorry to hear of her passing, even though, given my age bracket, I first knew her as that older lady who got married a lot that Michael Jackson would hang around with. As I grew out of my callow youth, I learned the true depths of her star power. Rest in peace, Ms Taylor.

The original Karate Kid

No, I'm not talking about Ralph Macchio here (although he is todays' warm-up topic).

I'll swoop your leg, sucka!

Created in 1966 by a then-13-year-old Jim Shooter for the Legion of Superheroes, Val Armorr of Earth is a master of every form of martial art that will be invented by the 31st century. In his initial appearance, he convinces the Legion of Superheroes to allow him onto their team when he uses his "super-karate" to beat up on Superboy. Despite that impressive feat, he's pretty far from my favorite member of the Legion, and I think he unofficially holds the record of having been killed off the most times. Some writers (Keith Giffen) just hate this guy.

Although the movie character has almost nothing to do with Val here, if you watch there is a prominent credit thanking DC comics for the use of their character's name. So now you know.

Whedon Wednesday- Buffy

It's Joss Whedon Wednesday on the 'Bridge, and and the topic is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Someone had to draw the slayer, and that someone was me. Penciled this on the train ride over, and inked it in the studio. Not the best likeness of Ms. Summers ever committed to paper, but you all get the point.

G.I.Joe: Cobra the enemy.

Today's topic is "G.I.Joe"

What a difference a few years makes.

We're not all that dissimilar in age here in the studios, just a handful of years separate us all, really, but the 12 inch G.I.Joe of Simon and Tim's was like an urban legend for me growing up. We knew it had existed-- grownups were always telling us G.I.Joe was this big when they were growing up, yet none of us had ever gotten a good look at one. There was a pit in the local woods where I grew up that contained the melted and mutilated remains, impaled on a tree stump, of a 12 inch Joe that we would go view on occasion. But for me and my friends, G.I.Joe was a little 3 and 3/4 inch team of guys with cool nicknames and specialties. Even better, they had a team of enemies, Cobra, who were all much cooler than the Joes. I definitely sided with the bad guys.

I was never a big fan of the cartoon which existed to sell us the little plastic men, but I was a huge fan of the comic, which was written by Larry Hama and had art by such talents as Michael Golden, Herb Trimpe, Russ Heath and others.

Bizarro Superman!

I LOVE Bizarro. One day I'll draw a comic with him.

Check out my earlier warm-up I posted of Bizarro, too.

Darna and he arch-nemesis, Valentina

Today's warm-up topic was "Darna", the so-called Filipino Wonder Woman.

I really didn't know much about Darna, so I had to google her. In an awful lot of the pictures that came she was standing next to an evil-looking Medusa lady. Further googling revealed the Medusa lady to be her arch-nemesis, Valentina, so I drew the two of them in mortal combat. Just can't resist drawing a snake-haired lady.