276. Hulk
I discovered a purple highlighter and had to draw the Hulk so I could use it.
275. The Avengers
On Halloween, my friend Joe G. posted a picture of himself dressed up as The Avengers. For some reason, I really wanted to draw that concept, without all the Joe G. parts. He’s a nice man, but no thank you. I made some changes and added a Nick Fury eyepatch because Joe G. doesn’t think. Shame on you, Joe G.
274
Is Redesign Month still going on? Is this Superman? It’s still better than Jim Lee’s piece of shit update of Supe’s costume. It is amazing how quickly one can get drunk on only a quarter of a bottle of bourbon and a handful of Starbursts.
273. Dracula
Happy Halloween! About 4 or 5 years ago, when I still had a local comic shop that I tolerated shopping at, I walked in one Saturday after they had just purchased a collection. They were sorting through the books, and I was being particularly nosey. I was flipping through a stack and saw a small run of books. Published in the mid-to-late 60s, Dell Comics released a very short run of comics which turned Frankenstein’s Monster, the Werewolf and Dracula into hip 60s superheroes. I think they lasted about three issues each. I bought one of the Dracula books.
From the wikipedia:
Dracula is a modern day direct descendant of the original Count Dracula now working as a medical researcher in the old family castle in Transylvania where, due to his experiments to develop a cure for brain damage using a serum developed from bat blood, he accidentally gains strange “vampire”-like powers including the ability to turn into a bat and superhuman sight and hearing. He decides to embark on a superhero career in order to redeem his family name, developing his body through diet and exercise to the peak of physical perfection and designing himself his own distinctive crimson-cowled purple costume with a bat-shaped gold belt buckle, after which he vows to fight evil and superstition in all its forms.
Leaving for America after the local peasants burn down his castle, he adopts the secret identity of “Al U. Card” (a hastily chosen pseudonym short for “Aloyisius Ulysses Card”). In issue #4, his girlfriend and confidante, blond socialite B.B. Beebe, gains the same powers and became his blue-clad sidekick Fleeta (from “fledermaus”, the German word for bat), bringing to the team not only a black belt in judo but also an abandoned hidden underground government radar installation/bomb shelter on her family’s mountain estate that Dracula uses as his secret laboratory lair.
So yeah. I wanted to redesign a horror-based superhero or villain for the final day of Redesign Month and to celebrate Halloween. I struggled to think of a character, but finally remember Dracula. The original look is pretty cheesey and generic, a deadly combo. I added a bit of Baron Blood (the Captain America villain), Wolverine and Batman to the costume, and I’m generally pretty happy with the outcome.
Tomorrow, I return to stupid shitty post-its!
272. Omega Red
I don’t think I ever read any comics where Omega Red was a major character after his debut. Well, there were a couple issues of Ultimate Spider-Man where Ultimate Omega Red showed up. So anyhoo, he’s a pretty generic guy. But holy shit, when I was 12/13 when he debuted, I was into it. I was into all of it.
I tried to simplify his costume from the 90s excess and I changed the tendrils to be more of an organic, biological thing. I imagine they’d be gross.
My friend and I used to joke that if we’d ever got the chance to write a Wolverine story, it’d be all about him meeting characters that he’s never met before. They’d be complete strangers! Mysterious foes from the present! At the time, it seemed like every character and villain that Wolvie was running into was some mysterious figure from his mysterious past that he couldn’t remember, or he did remember them and they were looking for vengeance, blah, blah, blah, blah boring bullshit fucking blah. For me, Omega Red represents the beginning of that terribly dull trope in Wolverine’s history. But again, as a pre-teen I bought it and I bought as much as I could.
271. Brother Voodoo
I don’t know a thing about Brother Voodoo. I do know that he ousted Dr. Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme once, and then called himself Doctor Voodoo. And it upset me. Just because he’s the Sorcerer Supreme didn’t mean he got a doctorate! Dr. Strange is Dr. Strange because he’s a fucking doctor!
And then I found out while doing this redesign that Brother Voodoo is also a doctor. Psychologist, actually. Fuck me.
Side note: I might kill the guy who sits behind me at work. I have never met anyone with so many annoying tics that manifest all day all the time. He sighs like someone is punching him in the stomach, he coughs like a life-long smoker, he drums on his desk and he types like he’s a piano virtuoso. And he stares at me, unblinking, whenever I walk into the room. I’m gonna snap. I know I it. I can feel it. I’m gonna get fired. And probably go to jail.
Last night I watched The Cabinet of Caligari. Be careful here. Not The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This is a movie from the early 60s that has absolutely nothing to do with the 1920s silent German expressionist film. This is a movie about a woman held prisoner in a sinister doctor’s mansion written by Psycho‘s Robert Bloch. Near the very end of the film, the set turns into the sets from the original “Caligari”, but that is the only connection. It also features the most irritatingly voiced, annoying, unlikeable lead character I’ve seen in a film. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s perfectly avoidable. You’ve seen hundreds of movies with the exact same twist this one presents, so seriously, just avoid it.
270. Blue Beetle
The Ted Kord Blue Beetle is one of my all-time favorite comic book characters. I like him for a variety of different reasons. He’s basically light-hearted Batman. He’s got all the skills, the gadgets and the money without all the brooding, mopey tragic bullshit (FYI, A well-adjusted Batman is my favorite Batman. Give me Brave & The Bold ‘toon Batman over Christian Nolan’s Batman any day). Plus he’s a genius (Batman’s smart, but Ted’s smarter). And he’s funny. Because he puts his wit out on display, everyone underestimates him and treats him like a joke. I like to think that’s a part of his great plan, even though he’s clearly been shown to be bothered when folks put him down. And to top it all off, he’s got a snazzy-ass costume. I challenged myself to do a Beetle redesign. It was tough to pull off a look that was reminiscent of his costume and something newish. I think I did okay. It really helped a lot when I discovered that beetles only have 6 legs, not 8, which I mistakenly believed. I’m a dumb guy.
And if you think I’m not furious that DC still hasn’t brought him back, you would be mistaken.
Also, I just learned that there briefly was a woman running around using Ted’s stuff calling herself “Red Beetle”. She was red. I guess this was in the Justice Society book just before Flashpoint/New 52. Apparently – according to the website I discovered this on – one of her powers is “Attractive Female”. Really? (Edit: To be fair, they list Ted’s powers as being an Attractive Male, so I guess that’s a thing).
I watched Repo Man. I didn’t enjoy it, and I think it’s a matter of not living up to the hype.
I also watched V/H/S 2. I believe I wrote about the first one somewhere here. I had liked it, but it had its problems. Part 2 improves on it in every way. It’s got a two clunker stories, but even those are pretty good. The wrap-around is also far more intriguing. But the real gem is the story called “Safe Haven”. Co-written and co-directed by Gareth Evans of The Raid. It’s a just slow-burning piece of tension that keeps mounting and finally erupts into a bedlam of batshit mayhem. The entire movie is worth watching for that segment alone.
269. Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn, to me, has always been an incredibly sweet, if not absolutely psychopathic character. She’s awesome and it seems like a hugely popular cartoon and award-winning graphic novel (Mad Love) would set the standard for how the character would be portrayed. Yet, every time she shows up without Bruce Timm & Paul Dini’s influence, she’s pretty much just a psycho-slut from hell. Her looks in the Arkham games and her New 52 appearance are pretty terrible, unless you’re a 12 year old boy. Which is weird, because mentally, I am. But her original costume is so great. So I decided to try to combine the overtly sexualized looks with her original and also a pinch of Juggalo.