In honor of the new Ultimate Spider-Man, Miles Morales, I drew a couple of prominent black superheroes. For BL here, I used the Cully Hamner design from Black Lightning: Year One, which isn’t too different from the stand BL costume, but just enough to make it not totally ridiculous. It also doesn’t hurt that Cully Hamner is great.
190 – Black Lightning
189 – Superwoman
Rounding out the Crime Syndicate of Amerika with Superwoman, the evil Wonder Woman.
I think I’m gonna revisit these characters with a team piece at some point.
188 – Power Ring
Some months back (March) I drew a couple members of The Crime Syndicate of Amerika, the evil Justice League from Earth 3 (or 2, or whatever), with the promise that I’d come back and draw the other CSA characters. I plum forgot.
So here we are in August, and here’s me making that up with Power Ring. There have been three versions of Power Ring, the evil Green Lantern, and I wasn’t digging on any of their designs or looks, so I combines the appearances of four of their GL counterparts to make one evil Power Ring.
The costume shape and flow is inspired by Hal, the white sash, boots and gloves are inspired by Guy, the mask is Kyle’s and the man wearing it all is the evil John Stewart.
187 – Whiz Comics No. 20
My Dad’s birthday is today, born on August 6, 1941, making him 70 years old. While my Dad and I share similar (negative) personality traits, we don’t have much in common, and our relationship isn’t the best. It’s not bad by any means, and I’m fairly certain that whatever is keeping us from being closer is pretty much all due to me and whatever keeps my brain from functioning correctly.
But he’s my Dad, and I love him. He’s never not been there for me when I’ve needed him, and he’s always done his best for me and my family. He may be a cranky, curmudgeonly stubborn, impatient nut for plans and detail, but so am I, and I hope that when I grow up, I have the ability to provide for a family the way he did.
I don’t know if he will appreciate this, I’m not sure if he will like it or get it, but today’s drawing is his birthday present. The original drawing is 10 x 15, framed, black and white art. I can’t remember the last time I bought a birthday present for him, or even my Mom, but 70 is a big milestone, and a gift seems appropriate. Sadly, I’m a broke bastard, but I can draw a picture when needed.
The drawing is a recreation/reinterpretation of Whiz Comics No. 20, the original seen below. I wanted to redraw a comic cover that was published in the month he was born. Golden Age covers are either incredibly simple or just plain bizarre and busy. Whiz # 20 was the best one I could find, even though I can’t understand a single thing happening in the background of the original. I’m also aware that Captain Marvel was not originally published by DC Comics, but I don’t care. I like adding modern trade dressing to old covers when I do recreations.
Anyway, even though he won’t ever read this (and he better not), Happy Birthday, Dad, and many more.
186 – Space Ace
To follow up playing Dragon’s Lair for the first time, I downloaded Space Ace shortly after. I think it’s a better game, it’s got a lot more going on, the animation is better, the plot is intriguing, the characters speak, and the “damsel in distress” isn’t a vapid slut.
185 – Red Skull
I haven’t seen the Captain America movie yet. Don’t ask me about it, don’t tell me about it. That’s what that policy is about, right? Movie spoilers?
184 – Oswaldo December
I get an obscene amount of spam at this blog. It’s just part of life. Most of the spam is pretty typical, but sometimes there are gems among it. I love spam that reads like dadaist poetry, or tries to cram the title of the post they are spamming into the spam. And when the spam comes under a crazy name, I love it too. So when I was spammed by “Oswaldo December”, I declared it the greatest spam name I’ve ever gotten.
In addition, I wanted to draw a superhero that gave off a very 70s vibe, and gave him the turtleneck and medallion combo seen in Monday’s Phantom Stranger sketch (I drew this first, though). I decided to christen this superhero “Oswaldo December”. Just ‘cuz.
183 – Dick Grayson
And with this, I am at the halfway point of daily drawings and sketches. I’m pretty sure that I will not be continuing to do this after a year, but I definitely feel that I am over the block I felt last year (when Adam Hughes ruined my life). But enough about that, there’s still six months worth of daily sketches to look forward to or to dread.
To celebrate this landmark occasion, we have a bunch of Dicks on board. My friend Joe Grunenwald (whose requests make up the majority of the previous six months of drawing) requested that I draw Nightwing from any era. I’m a big fan of Nightwing and in general, a big fan of Dick. I decided to take this opportunity to draw Dick in all his stages of life, from young Dick the acrobat all the way to older Dick as Batman.
I actually drew this collection of Dicks as a Christmas gift for Joe. I am poor and cheap, and thought it would be a suitable present while filling Joe’s request of Dick. While the drawing of Dicks predates the sketch-a-day, I colored the Dicks over the course of the weekend, and tried a different method than usual.
I laid the Dicks with flat color in Photoshop, then exported it to Illustrator and added the shading and highlights there. It was a lot more work than necessary, so that’s the last time I do that.
Finally, I guess this is now a tribute to Dick’s tenure as Batman, which ends this month (August). Next month, the DC Comics Universe sorta reboots, and Bruce Wayne takes the mantle as the sole Batman. It’s kinda too bad. I love Batman, and of course Bruce Wayne was going to be the only Batman at some point, I just feel that his return happened far too soon, and Dick’s time as the Bat wasn’t very long. I thought Dick brought an injection of freshness to the Batman books and I’m gonna miss him under the cowl (I feel the same about Bucky/Capt. America).
Oh well, I’ll still check out the Batbooks written by Scott Snyder and Grant Morrison, as well as Batgirl and Batwoman, and of course, eagerly looking forward to Dick returning as Nightwing again.
And yes, I am 12 years old.
182 – The Phantom Stranger
No mystical character rocks a turtleneck and chain combo like The Phantom Stranger, complete with a cape and fedora for a super-suave bonus.
