Super Antics #15

 And now, for no real reason--

Happy Halloween - MORBIUS STYLE!

I'm a huge Steve Ditko fan. I'm also a fan of Morbius the vampire (a character that came along after Ditko had stopped drawing the Spider-Man comic). I recently thought, "Too bad Ditko never drew Morbius. That might have been cool."

So, in the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd give a "Ditko Morbius" a shot. I don't think I fully pulled it off, but it was fun to do!

Black Cat Judo Tricks!

Black Cat was a popular superhero in the golden age of comics. Not only did she keep the kids entertained with her stories, she also taught them Judo! I thought one of these features would make a fun shirt. I reworked it from the original art by Lee Elias. You can get it here at my TeePublic store! You can buy the art on other products too; stickers, bags, etc. Everything in my store is on sale till Sunday!

Hmmm, it would be wrong to leave you with just one Judo Trick. The feature I've based this on ran in Black Cat #7, on and off, through issue #28. Here they are! Click to enlarge--

This one is the basis for the shirt-- 

Super Antics #14

I haven't taken the time to do something purely for fun. So I did!

Should I add tags to my post, so that if people are hunting for things, they can find them? Hourman and Ourman. Atom and At 'Em. There.

Swamp Monster!

Not only does the comic Weird Mysteries #5 have one of the creepiest covers ever, it has Swamp Monster by Basil Wolverton inside of it. You can read it below.

But first, since Halloween is near, I thought it would be fun to turn a panel of it into shirts and such! Click here to take a look at my TeePublic store!

And now, on with our story! Originally published in June, 1953. Click to enlarge each.

Okay, even though I shutter to do it, here's the cover--

What Artists Think - Blue Bolt Edition

I'm currently on a streak of turning old, public domain, comic images into T-shirts, and such. My latest can be seen above. Available by clicking here. I'm very happy with the results, but this image was filled with a few challenges. Click on any image to enlarge.

The original cover, from Blue Bolt #105, is below. Here's a few thoughts-- Note the reflection of light on Blue Bolt's helmet. I've noticed in old comics, artists often use this shape to indicate a highlight. The hilarious thing is that it's in four sections, like light coming through a window frame. This works great for apples in a still life, painted inside, but not so much for outdoor scenes. I suppose it merely became a symbol for reflected light at some point.

Also, his left, lower leg is really long! I had to draw his right, lower leg from scratch and decided to make it a similar length. I took liberties with his cape too, just to make it a nice shape overall.

I knew I would need to re-ink this cover to get the maximum clarity out of it. But, as I started to work on it, I realized there was no way such tiny hatch work was going to print well on fabric. That kind of detail would definitely clog up and get blotchy.

I paused and considered not even doing this image. Except, I really liked it! It was draw by the magnificent LB Cole and was a great representation of sci-fi comics from the Golden Age. I ultimately decided to simplify the inking and replace the hatching with shadow colors. Happy it worked out.

And here you thought doing art was all cheese and crackers.

Bigfoot vs Clown, Again

I put up a new shirt at TeePublic. It's actually a bit of a rework from art I did a while back (seen below), which never seemed quite right. Looking at it fresh, I realized the clown was too big! I also wanted to help with the storytelling by adding the clown's angry word balloon and the heart showing Bigfoot's love for the shoes. Small stuff, but I like it better!