Super Squad

Sorry it took so long to post the real image of the Super Squad here, but I kept making minor alterations to costumes and character names and wanted to have those set before I unveiled them all.

From front to back we have Super Bat (the leader), Froggy (the creature), Super Bug (the sarcastic one), Super Deer (the girl) and Super Rat (the smart one). If you couldn't tell by their terrible names and ridiculous costumes, the Squad is somewhat of a parody of super heroes.

I originally came up with the Squad back around the 4th grade. I continued drawing them off and on until about somewhere in high school. Every time I brought them back I updated their looks a little and played with their personalities. When trying to come up with an idea for a comic, I couldn't resist bringing back my childhood creations. This time, though, some major costume changes were made and two of the characters were kind of combined in to a hybrid that doesn't look like either of them (Froggy). I prefer 4 member teams (rather than their initial 6) and neither of the characters I used to make Froggy had much actual personality, so I felt comfortable combining them in to the team pet. It is funny what a 10 year old who loves cartoons comes up with for heroes, villains and everything else, so that's been fun to think back on and figure out what works and what doesn't. Surpisingly, I think a lot of it will work for this project and it's stuff that I probably wouldn't have thought of now for a completely new team. Some stuff was just too weird or didn't make any sense to bother about translating to the newest version of the Super Squad.


Hey just for kicks, here's some old versions of the characters circa 2001 (DONE IN MS PAINT!)

Stay tuned for more updates

recent developments...

Sorry for the lack of posts since the comic con, I've been horribly busy. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and checked out my illustrations, and an even bigger thank you to anyone who bought anything. My wife posted some pics on her blog after the event. It was a great time and I'll definitely be back next year with even more work.

Which brings me to the main point of this post...

I have recently begun work on a few different projects and with a few different people. Unfortunately I can't say too much about any of them, but I'll tell you what I can.

I've started three new projects which I hope to compile into a comic for next year's con. One, which is more or less pictured above, features some old characters of mine who have been redesigned and reimagined. The second combines a lot of characteristics of characters I have worked with briefly but never quite made it, so I took all the best parts and I'm running with it. The third is a bit more ridiculous, but should be a lot of fun.

Now the projects with other people...

My wife and I are working together (finally) making paintings, prints, collages, et cetera which we will be selling as a company on Etsy.

My brother and I are in talks about his next project and the possibility of me doing some color work. It's mostly just been a "hey would you be interested" and a "yeah let me know when you finish Rock of Pages" type of thing, but it's worth mentioning.

Some high school friends (sorry no link yet) just contacted me about doing some work for their band. This is all still early on and I'm not sure how much I can talk about it, but it could be a huge break for everyone included.

Sorry to be vague, but I'll give updates and post pictures as things get farther along.

Big Red Monkey

Hellboy is awesome and, although I enjoy the movies and animated features, nobody does him as well as Mike Mignola. It's funny, it's creepy, it's dramatic and the artwork is beautiful. If you've never read Hellboy, go out and do yourself a favor.

I always like it when HB slings the creeper over his shoulder, so that's what I did for this piece

Along Came a Spider...

So I've been hard at work getting the rest of my pin ups finished for the con. This is one of the three I've been working on this past week. I don't know why I always seem to work on a handfull of projects at once instead of just finishing one and then moving on...

Anyway, I figured Spidey would look best next to Venom from my last post


-x

We are Venom

To me, Eddie Brock will always be Venom and Venom will always be awesome.

Ghost Rider v2.0

No, not the sequel to the Nicolas Cage movie...

I thought I'd spruce him up a little as I'm thinking of making him one of my prints for sale at the Gem City Comic Con. The Con is April 11, so mark your calendars. It's only $6 to get in or $5 if you have a student ID so you really don't have an excuse not to come.

My big bro got a table this year and he's letting me sit at it with him to try and get the X name out there. We will both have prints for sale and he's working on getting a few comics ready as well. You can check his stuff out at his page rockin' website.

Gem City Comic Con April 11. Be there or be... somewhere else.

X-MEN: professor xavier

Well... kind of. I went with a psychic projection rather than his phsyical self so he could kind of just watch over the team instead of stand (sit?) with them.

He's the last member for my line up so all I have to do now is the final composition. I think I might do a couple touch ups to some characters, but I should be posting it soon.

X-MEN: shadowcat, white queen, havok

So these guys might not always be essential, but Shadowcat (Kitty) has always been pretty popular and White Queen (Emma) has been pretty important lately. Havok is just a personal favorite of mine.

I think of Kitty as being a bit younger and less experienced so I went with a little more of a basic costume. It also kind of reflects her Astonishing costume.. which was probably her best. She's changed a lot over the years, but still maintains her youth and optimism for the most part.Emma gets to break a few rules with her costume... I'm not talking about what you're probably thinking about right now. I let her be even more monochromatic than Iceman who is covered in ice, even down to having the only white belt. I debated over her X being red or white, but I wanted to keep some sort of conformity throughout the uniforms.Havok typically has a simple costume so I tried to keep my version that way. He has a little trouble controlling his power (must run in the family) so his full body suit helps contain it. I also like his big gauntlet that help focus the power because it adds some unique shapes to his character. I think part of why I like Havok is because he and Cyclops are kind of like me and my big brother... but I don't constantly compare myself with my big bro. Havok could be so much cooler if he would just step out of Cyclops's shadow instead of complaining about it. I don't know if you'll notice, but I tried to have as much family resemblence between Cyclops, Cable and Havok as I could... maybe a little more so with Cyke and Cable.

That leaves just one more character for my X-Men. Can you guess who it is?

X-MEN: cable and bishop

These guys hail from two different alternate futures in the X-Men timeline... timelines? Neither future looks very positive for humans or mutants. Cable's is more of a constant war and Bishop's is filled with mutant concentration camps. Both guys are huge gun-toting soldier types and both think it's their own responsibility to save the future.

Cable started off a lot more militant, but has become less so over the years. He's still not a guy you want to mess with, but now he might use a staff against you instead of the biggest gun you've ever imagined. His original look was unfortunately designed by Rob Liefeld and featured giant shoulder pads and approximately 75 belts (each riddled with pockets and pouches) wrapped around various parts of his body. Over time this has been simplified and streamlined and he has grown to adopt more traditional X-Team colors. I drew him somewhere between his current costume and an older classic.Bishop is famous for a few things other than the 'being from the future' thing. One is the M brand over his eye, two is the red bandana around his neck, three is a mullet. I opted out of the last one. Bishop's a cool enough character when he's fighting evil humans or robots or aliens or mutants, but now he seems to be fighting good mutants... specifically Cable. This doesn't sit well with me. Sure, it makes the mutant baby hope for the future thing interesting, but I'm with Cable all the way, so Bishop isn't currently anywhere near my favorites list.

Rounding out my X-Men will be some other cool characters.

X-MEN: gambit, rogue, psylocke

Back in the day, X-Men had two teams, Gold and Blue. Most of the members were from the first two classes, but the Blue team had some newer members.

Gambit is awesome. It's hard not to like this guy... unless it's the Gambit from the Wolverine movie. In the comics, Gambit has pretty much only had one costume. Cartoons have tried variations and I took some inspiration from all of them. You basically just have to make sure he has his signature coat and is wearing black and magenta. He always talks like he's super confident, even refering to himself in third person, but seems unsure of his place on the team.Rogue is a cool character if you give her flight and strength. The whole 'I can't touch anybody or be close to anybody' thing only goes so far... and isn't always helpful in a fight. I much prefer the tough southern belle dramatic one. It adds another layer. She typically wears green and yellow and had a short coat in the 90s that... maybe doesn't make much sense, but it adds something. I also like the hood she sports now, but maybe I just like the 90s too much. I gave her the newer style hair, but I'm not sure I'll ever understand the white streak.Psylocke is a character that I actually don't know a whole lot about. I know she's a telepath and a great fighter. Apparently she was just a British telepath but then someone took her mind and put it into a ninja with purple hair. I don't know, but it makes her look cooler I guess. I tried to add some sort of Japanese influence to her look instead of just giving her a leotard.

Who's up next? Maybe I can interest you in a few time travelers...