Here’s a section of the final art of the “Kim Jong” piece, which I sent off to MAD yesterday to be included in their “20 Dumbest Things of the Year” feature in MAD #473:

As I mentioned before, this job entailed a different approach as MAD’s editors wanted a fully painted look to the art, as opposed to “line and color”. In the last 6 months or so, I have been tapped by MAD a few times to do painted pieces for special features, giving me a chance to get away from my usual style. The first of these was a piece about “Rejected Characters from the Movie “Cars”“, where the intention was to try and approximate the look of the animated cars from the Disney film. I didn’t really even come close, but just tried to get some of that feel. The last was the “Religious Video Games” article in this month’s MAD #471. Here I needed to try and approximate the look of the video games graphics for each spoofed game. This one needed to be painted for a similar reason.

I like to get the chance to do something different every once and awhile. Getting out of one’s comfort zone is the best way for an artist to broaden their skills and grow… but it’s a little stressful when deadlines are involved. It’s called a “comfort” zone for a reason. I have a tendency to get wrapped up in rendering things and and suddenly I have spend 3 hours on some inconsequential part of an image when time is short. This job was nice in that it was a single image that was not too large or complicated.

I have a great respect for painters. I’ve done some painting in my time, but I just don’t draw or think like a painter. I see things in line and draw by defining shapes with line. Painters think in tones and values. Even when I do a painting, I am still trying to contain everything within some kind of boundary as opposed to blocking in values and building things in three dimensions. I find the integrity of my drawings tend to get warped when I try and paint something. Parallel edges will go awry or the perspective of one object within an area will change and become “off” as I paint. That’s me thinking in line again.

When I color within a line drawing, I allow the lines to contain and define the forms, and use the color to add depth and values. The nature of the dark lines means that I can be very loose and blocky with the color. Those bold lines will cause the eyes to not see the contrast in values of the color, but will cause them to blend visually. Without the lines, it’s a totally different story.

Here’s a close up of a “line and color” piece in final form:

Here’s the same piece without the line work:

Take away the lines and what you have left looks terrible… like a sloppy half-painted mess. Those lines need to be there to define the forms and cause the eye to blend that color. The values of my color job have barely any impact. Painters need to define the forms they are painting with the values of their color.

I had fun with this Kim Jong piece… one nice thing about painting something as opposed to ink and color is that I go right from the pencil to the color. No inking. In this case I did a little tighter pencil than usual, scanned it in and just started slapping the paint around in PhotoShop. That isn’t much of a timesaver, though. At least not for me. By the time I got this image completely painted (there is a lot of background not shown here), I probably could have inked and colored it the usual way in about the same amount of time or possibly less.

As promised, here are some pictures and details of the finished Superman costume. These were taken in a dark nightclub on Saturday night, where Anna and I went to meet some friends and fellow caricaturists. I had a lot more pictures but many were just so blurry I couldn’t post them. Some of the artists we met there had some great costumes, and I don’t have pictures of everybody. Too bad.

Me in the Supersuit… a little bulgy in places.

Zack Wallenfang as Steve Irwin

My ravishing wife Anna as Kryptonite!!

Kelly and Jim Hungaski as a yard Flamingo and Gnome

Anna and I

The Superman suit is a kind of modified version of the “Superman Returns” movie suit. I actually really got to like that version after seeing the film and doing the parody. The textured and patterned nature of the material made sense (it is supposed to be Kryptonian cloth) and looked great on the screen. I really like the 3D “S” emblem, and even the little mini “S” symbols in it that makes the texture grew on me. The belt also looked good. For the purist, the costume seemed to depart from tradition for no reason, but on the screen it worked. Unfortunately the materials were custom made for the film, and it’s apparently a lot easier to make sculpted, latex armor than a blue stretch material with diamond patterns in it. So, I did the best I could to match the movie look and changed a few things along the way I did not like about the new movie look.

The Bodysuit

I had a line on some authentic blue 4-way stretch material with the exact diamond pattern in it from a guy who was having it printed in bulk via a dye-sublimation process. This was pretty expensive and when the delivery date kept getting pushed back until it was uncomfortably close to getting the suit made in time, I canceled that order and went with a close color in regular spandex from Spandexwear. I had them reverse the material so the glossy side was in and the more matte side was out. These bodysuits are well made and inexpensive, I used a black one for the Batsuit.

The Trunks

One thing I disliked about the movie suit design was as the speedo-like shorts he wore. Let’s face it, wearing shorts on the outside of your pants is just weird and cannot look cool. Still, with those low riders in the movie Brandon Routh looks like he has the torso length of a weasel. I went with more of a trunk with a higher waist. I got them for $8.00 at NYDancewear. These have no texture like the film version, but the color is close.

The Emblem

Since I had no patterns on the bodysuit or trunks, I really needed an impressive “S” emblem for the chest. Fortunately I found someone called the Bronze Armory who makes a flexible urethane “S” symbol that was cast right from one of the movie ones, complete with the little “S” pattern in it. This emblem seems bigger than the one Routh wore in the movie, which is fine with me as I thought his seemed a bit small. The makers have an eBay store and sell all sorts of cool movie prop replicas. Anna had to help me superglue it to the bodysuit.

The Belt

Also made by the Bronze Armory, this is a nice urethane replica of the movie belt. I think it and the symbol are a little thicker than the actual movie versions, but they look pretty convincing.

The Boots

As usual, the most expensive part of the suit. The actual movie boots are a very unique and odd design, with a wrap around calf and inset textured leather. No one makes and exact copy, but Motorcowboy, the company I got my bat boots from, make a pseudo-movie version with at least the right color. They aren’t the movie boots but they are great looking boots just the same.

The Cape

This was another thing I needed to get right. In the movie the cape seems to tuck into the shirt at the top along the collar, and is a dark red leather-like material with a brighter red lining. It is also without seams except on the edges. I found a guy via eBay who makes these using red pleather material, and creates the movie look at the neck by sewing in a metal curve along the collar and attaching two straps at the corners, which go in front of each shoulder, under your armpits and snaps between your shoulder blades at your back. Works well and hold the heavy cape in place, but limits arm movement a bit. No texture here either, but the nice leather look and the right color.

All in all a pretty good Superman costume. Next time I plan on wearing it, I will have to step up the cardio the month before and lose a few pounds because spandex isn’t kind to even a little bulge in the old waistline!

Oh, I also have to give props to my neighbor Tracy, who is a hair stylist and did the color job and hairstyling for me. That really made the look. You have to love Halloween… it give us grown up geeks an excuse to wear our underwear outside our pants and get our nerd on in public.

Q: I’ve been looking everywhere for the materials you mentioned in your inking tutorial. Where can I get Gillott nibs and that stuff?

A: Few if any art stores carry anything but a few token inking supplies, mostly in the form of “Cartooning Kits”. Ecccch. Thank goodness for the internet. Here are some sources for inking supplies:

Gillot Pen nibs:

Tough to find these in the US. You have to order them from overseas, and that’s expensive. But, if you have to have them, try:

Scribblers (UK)
John Neal Booksellers

There are others but these are under $1.00 US each. If you look elsewhere, usually the good nibs are found listed under “Copperplate” among calligraphy supplies. These suppliers have lots of cool nibs like Brause and such, so if you are looking for something that “feels right” buy some singles and try out a few. You can get pen holders here as well.

You could try my method of getting Gillott nibs: beg a friend and colleague who lives in Great Britain to order 1,000 nibs at his local art store and bring them with him to the NCN convention in the states, where you pay him for them and then buy him some beers in gratitude. I am still a few Guiness shy of total compensation. Thanks, Steve!

Pen Holders:

There are lots of different kinds, but I found one I really love called the Universal Pen Holder. It’s just a clear plastic rod with a soft plastic sleeve around the end to hold the nib. The soft sleeve also acts as a cushioned finger grip. Simple but great. You can get them at John Neal on this page.

Pelikan Drawing Ink A:

This is more common now, but a few years ago they had lost their US distributor and finding it was impossible. If you want to get a BIG bottle, try:

MisterArt

Most of the rest of the stuff you need like white out, etc. is readily available at any regular or on-line art store.

There used to be a great single source for Gillott nibs, good inks like Dr. Ph.Martin’s Black Star HICARB or Tech 14W Black, and other great inking supplies on-line called AOE. They were the cheapest and had everything. Unfortunately they stopped carrying Gillotts for some reason, and have redone their website but the area with the inking stuff is still not up. They may be back to carrying the Gillotts by now. You can keep checking back at the AOE website or call them at their toll free number on the site and ask about it.

I’m finally getting some projects out the door here at the end of the week. Here’s a couple finals of some little jobs:

Workplace poster:

I don’t think this one will be winning any awards or anything, but it gets the message across. I changed the figure that was bothering me and adjusted the sizes of some of the heads. I left the main guy with the wheelbarrow bigger than the others as a kind of exaggeration for humorous effect… sometimes cheating the perspective or the relative sizes of objects and people creates better focus on the important aspects of an image. This is my usual ink on bristol board and PhotoShop color job.

Private Commission:

If they all went like this I’d do them more often. He loved the sketch and I went right to final with no changes at all. This kind of thing can so easily degenerate into a “are my ears really that big?” nightmare. For any of you caricature artists out there who have lived though that and wonder if it happens only to them, know that the great Mort Drucker refuses to do personal commissions because he also has had that problem. Unbelievable. This is a simple ink and wash. No digital work at all.

Uh Oh, emergency MAD job:

Just got a call to do a quick single image for this year’s MAD 20 (The 20 Dumbest Things of the Year). The subject of my “20″ piece is everybody’s favorite nuclear armed, hobbit-like dictator nutcase, North Korea’s Kim Jong. I don’t want to give away the gag, so this is just my initial study:

This will be a quick but interesting job, as they want me to paint it rather than do an ink and color job. I rarely get a piece in the “20″, because they prefer the super-rendered style of art to the more cartoon-like work I usually do. So here is a chance to stretch my legs a bit and do something different. The deadline is Monday. Ouch. I’ll post a cropped final on Tuesday after I come out of my coma.

I mentioned in a few posts a while back that, at certain points in the process of a job, I listen to audiobooks in my studio via my iPod. As I also mentioned, I can only listen to audiobooks I have either already read or have listened to before. This is because I cannot devote the kind of attention necessary to follow every word and action in the book… I have to be able to zone in and out just a little or it would be a distraction rather than a way to stay focused and on task. A while back someone in a comment asked what audiobooks I was listening to lately. Quite a few, actually.

Recently I listened to a few books I had read as a kid or in college. Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” was one… what an interesting book that is. It’s far more than a vampire story. It’s really a study of what happens when modern technology (what was then modern technology: wired messages, locomotive travel, advanced medicine, newspapers and fast communication of news to the public) collides with old world myth or belief. In the ordinary run of things, modern technology would lay waste to old myths and legends, disproving them. But what if they were real, and could not be disproved but rather proved true? Even Stoker’s writing style of telling the story through the journals, letters and recordings of various characters was a statement about the forward thinking of the day and it’s reaction to facing the supernatural of the old world made real. Great story.

Another I heard for the first time and had not read since late high school was Truman Capote‘s “In Cold Blood”. The hype and success of the film “Capote” got me thinking about the book. It was as haunting as I remembered. Listening to it now knowing somewhat of the behind the scenes of it’s writing (of course, that was Hollywood so who knows what was accurate and what was not) did not change much for me. I could hear Capote’s sympathy for the killers the first time I read it. I also listened recently to the Dan Brown books “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons”. They are engaging time passers, but not my favorites. Anna loves them.

What I’m listening to right now, yet again, is Stephen King‘s “The Dark Tower” series. This is a terrific story arc over seven books that is remarkable in many ways, not the least of which is that the first book was written by King back in 1970, and the final volume completed in 2003 (those are dates of writing, not publication). King wrote the first three volumes within a reasonable timeframe, then the fourth a bit later, with the last three coming over 15 years after book four. Even so, the story remained largely within continuity. After he began the final three books meaning to complete the story, King saw fit to go back and revise book 1 in a manner that he felt made the story more cohesive. I have both the original version of “the Gunslinger” and the revised one, but have yet to go through them and see where all the differences are. Some are obvious, some were very much needed and do make the story more complete and, some are (sorry Steve) ham-handed and unneeded references to later species, characters, places and events that seemed out of place and forced. King calls “The Dark Tower” his “Lord of the Rings”, and although he does not mean that statement to compare his skills with those of J.R.R. Tolkien, he is not exaggerating.

As you can see, I have a lot to say on this subject. “The Dark Tower” is one of my favorite series of books. It is meaty, full of symbolism and contains an odd mixture of the western, sci-fi and mythology that makes it unique and utterly captivating. I’m a sucker for long and detailed epics, also loving Tolkien and Frank Herbert‘s “Dune” books. However, I am not quite ready to write about the Dark Tower just yet… perhaps when I am done listening to it again in a week or more I will do so. For now I will just mention something that struck me as I finished book four, “Wizards and Glass” on audiobook tonight, and started on book five, “Wolves of the Calla”. That something is Frank Muller.

Frank Muller has done the reading on a large number of audiobooks from classics like “The Great Gastby” and “Great Expectations” to several of Kings’ Dark Tower books. I didn’t know how many books (and how many famous and excellent ones) Muller had done until I started downloading books from Audible all the time for the studio. I downloaded Thomas Harris’s “The Silence of the Lambs” this summer and listened to that. Narrator? Frank Muller. I recently started downloading some John Grisham books to listen to down the road sometime. Narrator? Frank Muller. Now that I knew of him he seemed to be everywhere.

I am not surprised. The man had a gifted voice. He could alter it in fundamental ways so that you could instantly tell the difference between characters, but not in a way that he seemed to be doing “voices”. It’s hard to explain… it was like hearing the same voice but in different accents and pitches that made you believe different people were speaking without sounding like there was a room full of voice actors doing a dramatization. It was amazing, and his voice also had a hypnotic quality to it. He could really bring you into a story, and keep you there. He had an incredible talent.

I say “had” and “was” and “could” because Frank Muller won’t be doing anymore audiobooks barring a miracle. On November 5, 2001, Frank Muller was in a very serious motorcycle accident near Los Angeles, California. He sustained multiple fractures, lacerations and abrasions, and went into cardiac arrest three times. He also suffered severe head trauma, which was subsequently diagnosed as Diffuse Axonal Injury. Few people who suffer DAI ever leave a vegetative state. Frank has done better than that, but will need long term care for the rest of his life, and his voice will likely never grace another audiobook recording again. You can read about Franks accident and his courageous efforts at recovery here. I was reminded again about Muller’s tragedy when I started listening to “Wolves of the Calla”. Muller had read all four of the previous Dark Tower books, and according to King he was scheduled to read the remaining three when the accident occurred. George Guidal took over and read the last three Dark Tower books as well as the revised first book. Guidal does a terrific job, but it was still jarring to hear the words of Roland from another’s voice after so many hours of Muller’s superb readings.

King was a good friend of Muller’s, and he started a non-profit organization called the Wavedancer Foundation originally to assist the family of Frank Muller, but it has evolved into a resource for any artists or performers who become disabled and unable to work. It’s a very worthwhile cause, and other authors like Peter Straub and John Grisham, whose books Muller had graced with his talents on the audio recorded versions, have worked with King doing benefits and such for the Foundation. I wrote about a trip Anna, I and three of the kids took to NYC this summer to see King (and John Irving and J.K. Rowling) do a evening of reading, and one of the charities benefiting was Wavedancer.

As sad as I am when reminded that Frank Muller won’t be reading any more books for me to enjoy, that sadness pales in comparison to that which I feel for Frank and his family. Our loss of the future enjoyment of his talents is utterly small and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. I cannot imagine the hardships their family has endured since that terrible night in 2001. My heart goes out to them. I will always be able to revisit what I know of Frank with just the press of a button… they lost so much more. Frank is far from gone, however, and he has bucked many odds already in his recovery. I wish he and his family every blessing.

If anyone is interested in helping the Wavedancer Foundation by donating, follow this link for more information. Oddly, the Wavedancer Foundation has no website, but others have stepped up on the internet to tell folks where they can donate to help the cause. Also several audiobooks, at least at the time of their release, donated profits or portions thereof to the Wavedancer Foundation in honor of Frank. I know King’s “Wolves of the Calla” was one, as well as the recording of the benefit done by King, Straub, Grisham and Pat Conroy called The Wavedancer Benefit: A Tribute to Frank Muller. I am not sure if that is still the case.

If nothing else, do yourselves a favor and go get an audiobook that Frank has read, find a comfortable chair, put on the headphones and prepare to be lost in a way that tired eyes and wandering attention sometimes prevents when reading yourself. Experience storytelling by a master of the craft, and afterward remember to be thankful for what you have, and do something to show you don’t take it for granted.

It seems like ever since I was in art school, the rumors of the death of commercial illustration as a career and a viable market have been numerous and unending. They still are. Organizations like the Illustrators Partnership and the Graphic Artists Guild have been rallying against various issues that have adversely affected the ability of illustrators to make a living and/or have hurt the illustration market in general. Some things are inevitable and beyond anyone’s control, and some are being thrust upon illustrators and their market… and some are us shooting ourselves in the foot.

Even as early as 20 years ago, when I was going to art school, there was very little to suggest that the personal computer would become the major competitor of commissioned illustration it is today. “Photoillustrations”, or photographs manipulated and combined in PhotoShop or similar programs, have become inexpensive alternatives to hand done illustration. Many major publishing houses have an in-house art departments that PhotoShop up images that previously needed the services of an illustrator to accomplish. Such images are easier and cheaper to produce, and often don’t require the pesky ability to actually be able to draw. That’s not to say that Photoillustration can’t be done very well with loads of talent behind it, but it can also be done fairly convincingly without those things. Illustrators can’t stop the advance of the digital age, we have to roll with it.

Things like the Orphan Works legislation I’ve discussed here before and other copyright reforms can also impact the illustration market, for good or ill. For years copyright law has been overwhelmingly in favor of creators… but that might all be changing soon.

Then you have the “shooting ourselves in the foot” thing. These come in the form of stockhouses and collections of images sold royaty free. Stockhouses are large collections of images, the copyrights for which where purchased in bulk by enterprising ‘agents’ who then offer them for reuse to buyers of images for dirt cheap. Illustrators have been complaining about the practice for years, but who is to blame? The illustrators that sell the copyrights to their images for quick bucks, that’s who.

This link is a sign of what is going on all too often. Seymour Chwast is a well respected illustrator and designer, a contemporary of Edward Sorel and Milton Glaser. I can almost guarantee you would recognize his work if you saw some of it. Here he is selling 500 of his images as stock… royalty free for peanuts. It’s hard to rally against this kind of thing when well respected illustrators sometimes have no problem doing something like this. Of course “do not judge lest ye be judged yourself”. If someone offered me six figures or so for the eternal copyrights to a bunch of pieces of art moldering in plastic bins in my basement, I suppose I cannot say with certainty I would dismiss them out of hand. I’d like to think I would.

Personally, I think rumors of the death of illustration are greatly exaggerated. Just like any form of art, or any kind of business, illustrators need to evolve with the times. 50 years ago illustrators were able to make a living doing product illustration for advertising. Today there is virtually no market for that kind of thing, so the illustrator who refuses to do anything but market themselves and do product illustration are refusing to evolve and will go the way of the dinosaur. Illustrators today who bemoan those who use the computer and refuse to embrace it will also struggle in the future as more and more publications wonder what to do with a painting on a piece of Strathmore board when they are expecting a CMYK TIFF file sent to them via email or FTP. You have to keep up with the times… or they will pass you by.

Here’s an interesting article on Graphic Design vs. Illustration today. I got the original link from the blog of fellow Minnesotan illustrator Cedric Hohnstadt.

In honor of Halloween’s approach, I thought I’d share this story.

When ever we have guests at the house they are inevitably shown into my studio for a look around. It’s full of fun and cool stuff, so there’s a lot to look at. The one object that gets their attention initially is always the same, however. No, it’s not the original Al Hirschfeld, nor the original Mort Drucker. It’s not the original Sebastian Krüger, either… not the Twins bobbleheads, or the shelves of old Batman toys, or even the Shakespeare bust with the flip-up head. It’s always:

“Where did you get that Batman statue?!”

“It’s not a statue” I always explain. “It’s a costume.”

An amazing costume, however. It’s a perfect replica of the Val Kilmer “Batman Forever” suit. Nicknamed the “Panther” batsuit by Batman geeks because of it’s sleek and organic look compared to the bulky Keaton suits, this was (and still is) my favorite of the movie suits (yes, even with the unfortunate “nipples”). I would call it ‘movie prop quality’ but the truth is it is actually much better than most of the movie costumes probably were. Actual props from movies don’t look that good up close. They are usually very hand made looking… film is very forgiving. In late 2002 I decided I needed a custom made, high quality batsuit. Why? You never know… Burnsville, Minnesota could suddenly be overrun with supervillains and there I’d be without a rubber suit to don and kick some Joker ass.

I wasn’t really sure if such a costume existed. Just for kicks I did some web searches to see what if any possibilities might be out there. What I found was a complete sub-culture of people who were obsessed with the making of replica movie props, costumes and other cool stuff. Really, that should not have surprised me. I think that in the internet-shrunken world of today there probably exists a society, club, group, association or cult devoted to any and every conceivable subject or activity known to man. Anyway, these guys (and gals) are serious. They are all highly creative and many of them are very talented sculptors, casters and artists. They are also completely obsessed with “screen accurate” replicas of everything from utility belts to Space 1999 laser guns. They scoff at people who do not know the difference between a “Star Wars IV: A New Hope” Luke Skywalker lightsaber and a “Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back” Luke Skywalker lightsaber (the horror!). Some of these guys have access to original props and many have full blown prop studios capable of casting latex and urethane prop replicas of astounding accuracy and quality. They trade their secrets, share their observations and occasionally feud on message boards throughout the internet. They get together at comic book conventions where some bring several different costumes and have been known to change costumes several times a day. That’s dedication.

Among these I found a forum dedicated to the making of replica Batman props and costuming. Obviously there are copyright infringement issues there, but in general as long as nobody is selling anything, the big boys leave them alone. Of course the reality is that everybody is selling this stuff, but it seems to be either ignored by the WB or they can’t get enough evidence to make a case… or maybe they don’t care. Either way fan made props abound and can be “traded for”, even if what you trade are pieces of paper with Jefferson and/or Franklin on them. I pieced my batsuit together from a variety of sources.

The Armor, Cowl, Cape and Belt

Most of the suit came courtesy of two prop makers from California that made some great Bat stuff. They cast their pieces using fiberglass molds that make seamless items with a very smooth finish. I got the cowl, armor, belt and cape from them. These are made from latex rubber, even the cape. They claim to have made them from casts of actual props from the film, and that might well be the case. The armor came in pieces, and I had to mount them on a bodysuit and paint them myself.

That proved to be a bit of a pain. It’s the best way to go as it guarantees the armor will fit your particular build and height, but it’s a tricky thing to do. First, I needed a bodysuit as a base. A lot of Batman costumes use a wetsuit as the base suit, as they did in the first film. However, wearing a wetsuit is like being in an oven. A heavyweight lycra body suit (or “diveskin”) is much better and more comfortable. I got a black one from this website. In order to glue it on, I had to wrap myself in cellophane before putting on the suit as the adhesive used would give me chemical burns without a layer of protection. Then, I had to stand still why The Lovely Anna (who is an amazingly good sport) brushed DAP contact cement on both the suit and the underside of the armor and placed it on me. It took about 90 minutes to set, during which I stood still and watched TV while my skin burned from the places the cellophane didn’t quite cover all the way. Once dry, I wriggled out of the suit and placed in on a mannequin I had gotten off eBay. I then painted the entire thing with a rubberized paint called “Plasti-Dip”. Plasti-Dip is a staple among costumers. It created a more uniform look from the armor to the suit. I also painted the cowl with it. The suit is flexible but not us much as you’d think. The latex is very thick so it doesn’t warp or bend out of shape. Once in the suit it’s tough to move around freely.

The cowl is a nice piece of work. Totally seamless, so it’s very smooth with a nice finish.

The belt is probably the best looking piece of the suit. The buckle and pods on the sides are a hard resin, and painted with a metallic paint that makes it look like black metal. Very sharp looking. The rest of the belt is a flexible urethane. It attaches in back with velcro.

The Emblem

This was from a separate source. The gentleman who made it specializes in resin pieces, and this is cast in three pieces… the outer ring, the inner oval and the bat. All three are painted and attached for a very clean and smooth 3D look. I had to cut a hole in the chest armor to recess the emblem, gluing it in with DAP.

The Gloves

I got these from a guy who has some deal with an overseas leather maker. Somehow he got a hold of the original patterns and made these beauties. Real leather, with the palm/wrist zipper and correct stitching (or so I was told). The “fins” I also got from this gentleman, and attached them myself. I got a second set from the emblem guy, but they were hard resin and very sharp… I might end up stabbing someone with them accidentally at a party. The current ones are soft rubber. These are real leather gloves and look great.

The Boots

These were not cheap. I got them from a replica boot maker that makes all sorts of boots you’d recognize. Actually I got them from a middleman and discovered his “source” too late, soaking me for an extra $50.00. Still, these are very nice real leather boots. It’s often the footwear that gets the cheap treatment in a superhero costume.. mainly because it would be expensive or impossible to get something more real looking. It’s many a superhero suit that was worked hard on down to the calves, only to have the feet covered with tennis shoes and then a dyed pair of knee socks.

It’s a lot of work getting into this thing. I need at least one person’s help. First, I climb into the armor via a back zipper. Then the boots and belt go on… that’s the easy part. The next thing is the cape. Since it’s latex it is very heavy , and pads of velcro keep it in place over my shoulders. It velcros together at my throat. The top of the cape has velcro pads I added for the cowl to connect to.

Next comes the cowl. I apply eye blackover my lids and around my eye sockets like in the movies. I now look like either Raccoon Man or Alice Cooper’s geeky big brother. Since the neck of the cowl is so narrow, it’s very hard to get over my head. I have to resort to KY Jelly to grease my head enough for it to slide over. A word of advice.. DO NOT USE VASELINE to grease your hair. KY washes out with soap and water… Vaseline has to be stripped out with acetone. Nevermind how I know that. Once the cowl is on, it needs to be positioned over the velcro and pushed down tight. Finally the gloves are put on, and I’m ready to punish the evil-doers!

Oh, except my 90 year old grandma could kick my ass when I wear this thing. I can’t turn my head. I can’t sit down. I walk up stairs like R2-D2. I can’t raise my arms higher than my chest. I can only drink a beer because I can bend my elbows so my hand can reach my mouth. It’s also unbelievably hot in that outfit. I can only handle about 3 hours in it before I melt. I don’t smell the best after I get out of it. Let’s just say if Batman really wore a suit like this, Catwoman wouldn’t get within 10 yards of him after a hard day of crime fighting.

Last Halloween I wore it to a big fundraiser party for a local theater. Knowing there was no way I’d survive for 5 hours in that suit, I had two costumes. I died my hair black, wore a tux and handed out business cards at the pre-party and the first part of the main bash that read “Bruce Wayne- Billionaire Playboy”. About 10:00, I went out to the SUV and changed into the batsuit. I didn’t win any prizes. However I was VERY popular at the party. It seems that fundraisers for theaters are attended heavily by male theater actors and patrons who are gay, and they REALLY like rubber suits with built in muscles, nipples and a codpiece. I got my picture taken a lot that night.

No Batsuit this year. I am giving it a year off. This year: Superman! At 40 I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep up a physique that is reasonably capable of being seen in public in spandex without inducing any vomiting. I’ll post some pics of the finished suit soon.

In the meantime… is that the Batsignal???

Very busy with several jobs right now but here are the pencil roughs for two in the works:

Workplace poster job:

Yet another one of these, but they are always fun and the Marlin Co. is a great client. I am unhappy with the figure on the left handing the deposit slip to the teller… he is very awkward and stiff looking. I’ll have to play with that one.

Personal commission:

This is the President of the Minneapolis Club, who is retiring this year. This is technically a print job for his “retirement brochure” (whatever that is), but he wants the original so it’s more of a commission, which I hate doing. We’ll see if this turns into another of those “that just doesn’t look like me” fiascos. I intend to do the final as an ink and wash, because the brochure is in black and white.

I am also working on a caricature of Pete Rose that will be used as a model for a sculptured collectors mug, sort of like a bobblehead but you drink out of it.

I also should be done with the Nader job by the end of the week.

Busy, busy, busy!

I know… I’m too busy to blog today.

I had to post this link to a post on the outstanding blog of writer Mark Evanier. I am envious he was actually on hand Saturday evening at the Comic Art Professional Society‘s dinner honoring Jack Davis, which was the subject of this post of mine last week. I wish I could have been there. Follow the first link above to read Mark’s report on the evening.

I knew about the secret plans to also honor Sergio, as CAPS president Chad Frye quietly asked for artists to do their version of Groo for a book to be given to Sergio that evening, similar to the one given to Jack. Alas, I was told about it too late to do a drawing… not that Sergio would miss it or anything.

Vacation over…