Friday, September 12, 2008

A World Without Hero's

One of my favorite comics when I was young was the Green Arrow / Green Lantern "Snowbirds Don't Fly " set that Neal Adams did with Dennis O'Neil in 1971. DC comics did the impossible, they matched real issues with superhero's.

I loved it because , I mean how many times can you have these characters fight the same formula villains . It was a huge milestone to me and one of the few comics that felt honest. I wish these guys would do it again so ....





Quentin Tarantino said in Kill Bill that Superman was our modern mythology . That Superman uses Clark Kent as a critique of humanity and that Kent is a dope because Superman sees us as weak and cowardly. So to me Superman is the American ideal , our Jesus in a way . "Truth , Justice and the American way ". There is such a contrast in our "mythology ideals " and our actions. I did a rough a couple days back because I wondered if Superman was real how angry he would be over what we have done.


"T'WAS BEAUTY KILLED THE BEAST "

Remember when Eisner refused to leave Disney and Roy had to take him down like King Kong ? Yeah thats the Disney Animation building.



Some sketches for a graphic novel song sequence I was doing. It probably wont make sense without the words .



Some quick costume scribbles .




Ok, many of you have seen Jamie Hewlett's incredible version of the Monkey King. He is producing a stage play and has done an incredible Gorillaz style animated trailer. Well hard to believe but in 2003 Dave Smith came up with doing the Monkey King himself and asked for some character sketches. While nowhere as good as Jamies these were my first shot.



My version of Rupert Murdoch , puppet master ! Media dictator Rupert hires insane attack dogs like the Michelle Malkin to run propaganda sites like Hot Air Dot Com . This peice only makes sense if you have seen hotairs own graphic .


1979 ? And here we are at the beginning of my career ( well pre-career ) . My first color film done on acetate with a grease pencil. The bg is a color card.

21 comments:

Alexandre Augusto Ferreira said...

Hi TD.
Great stuff!!
I love the costume scribble and Monkey King design.Amazing!
Keep posting!

TotalD said...

Sorry about silence but life is like that. Crazzzzzzeee busy doing everything but what I wanted to do. More stuff coming .

Allen said...

Sounds like you are really busy.
Liked some of the new stuff and its neat reminising over the old. I remember that green lantern comic myself --big fan. If you get a chance check me out, would love some feedback. Still fighting the battle.
Allen

Unknown said...

HA! I love the Murdoch/Malkin drawing. That about sums it up.
I really can't watch TV anymore. My wife makes me leave the room when it's on, because she doesn't want to hear me rant:)

Great stuff! Take care of yourself.

Albert Sorrentino Jr. said...

Great blog! Love what you have to say and you're surely spot on about superman. Neal Adams is classic, I have a bunch of his Dracula comics! A lot can be said about Dracula and America as well SLURP! Too bad he isn't just an american icon! ANYWHOO, I love the energetic quality to your characters!

TotalD said...

Thanks Sorrentino . I loved Neal so much. He did some X-Men for Marvel while Kirby did some Jimmy Olsen/Superman for DC. Kirby is another absolute favorite for me and the father of Marvel (and of modern comics in a way ) in my eyes. I hope some day someone does a documentary on these artists . I'm also a big Steve Rude fan.

TotalD said...

Ah Blair, totally been there. I have the rant gene as well.

el pancake said...

hey that last panel brings back memories....wasn't the cat meowing away in the fish market until a huge whale came on screen?

TotalD said...

WHAT A GOOD MEMORY ! That was 29 years ago

el pancake said...

..because you were amazing me by casually coming into the school and whipping things like this off.

bsleven said...

D!


These are amazing! You'd been quiet for so long I was begining to wonder where you were. : )

I love you art!

TotalD said...

Hi Beth,

Well I have been to France and having a good time so it's nice to draw once in a while, not bad for an old girl on HRT . I think I've gotten faster ! Scary. Anyway I hope this finds you happy and well and married now. I must visit your blog too !

Darlie

Vulnavia Morbius said...

I love Steve Rude, too. The design-i-ness of his Nexus was very appealing.

Have you ever seen Alex Toth's takedown of Rude? Rude invited it, and, boy howdy, did he regret it.

Funny. I was just reading those Neal Adams GL/GAs last week.

Take care.
Christianne

TotalD said...

No I never saw that Christianne. Now I'm going to look for it. I've been a long time admirer of Steves work, I sold one of his paintings to Alex Ross.

TotalD said...

Found it! OMG , is that brutal !

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1024328

The thing is , Alex is right. I love Steve's work but in ever case Alex saw it naked. The first page is really disappointing . I almost feel like Steve was afraid to draw them.

Vulnavia Morbius said...

Yeah. That's pretty brutal, and I agree: it's spot on. But then, I'm a huge Alex Toth fan, too. I always loved one of his other bits of advice for cartoonists: "When in doubt, make it black." I think I heard that through Jaime Hernandez, who REALLY took it to heart. Heh.

Oh, and I LOVE Michael Eisner as Kong. That's priceless.

Take care,
Christianne

Clive said...

A nice long post. I visit when I can. Look forward to more, from past and present.

Hobo Divine said...

I clicked on it but it wont play?!!!
What am I doing wrong?

~ Sincerely,
~ Hobo Divine

TotalD said...

They seem to enlarge for me. ??????

Fred Reyes said...

I dig that Kong art!

TotalD said...

Thank you Fred =)