Wikky Comic (#4 April 1971)

When I was a kid I really loved Harvey Comics (Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, etc), so this is my homage to them.

The figures were drawn in pencil, inked with a pen and then scanned and colored in Photoshop. The text and various graphic elements were created in my ancient copy of Freehand (which I have since put out to pasture and replaced with Illustrator) and imported into Photoshop where everything was assembled.

Then after I got everything looking just so, I had fun messing it all up by adding dirt, tears and aging effects to make it look like a 30 year old comic that someone found in their attic.

I loved the way old comic covers told a little story of their own. That seems to be a lost art these days.

Here's the original penciled and inked drawing for the cover. Once I scanned this drawing into Photoshop, I decided I didn't like the boy's right hand, and redrew it onscreen.


Here's a color test I did for Wikky, to try and figure out the best color scheme. I ended up picking the one in the upper right.

According to comic book theory, green and purple signify evil. Check out any comic from the 60s and 70s and you'll see that good guys always wear primary colors (think Superman and his red, yellow and blue) while bad guys always wear secondary colors (orange, purple and green, as in the Hulk or Green Goblin).

Filthy Richie Comic Cover: Step By Step

I found these step by step samples in a forgotten folder on my hard drive, and figured I'd post them for those who like to see how-to guides.

Step 1: I started out by drawing Richie and friend on paper in pencil, then inked them with a brush pen. If you've never used one, brush pens are great; they're like markers with flexible brush-shaped tips. You get the same result as you would with a real brush, but without the mess. Plus they're much easier to use than a real brush, which is good, because I'm not a very good inker.

I drew this a year or more ago and at that time I didn't have a graphic tablet. If I was doing this today I would skip the drawing on paper and inking steps and draw it right on the screen with the graphic tablet. It cuts out a couple of steps, plus with the tablet I have the advantage of the precious undo button.

Step 2: Once the drawing was done, I scanned it and placed it into Photoshop, where I touched up any mistakes (believe me, there were plenty). I then added the background color, which was just a solid rectangle of blue. If you add the background color first, then it's easier to pick colors that will make the foreground characters pop.

Step 3: I added the Richie logo, the Comics Code seal, the corner box and the checkerboard at the top. All those elements were created in Illustrator, then imported into Photoshop.

This layout is an amalgam of my favorite old school comic cover elements. Back in the late 1960s & early 1970s, DC Comics had a checkerboard stripe across the top of all their books. This served two purposes; it helped identify the comic as a DC book on the newstand or comic rack, and it looked "mod." Marvel comics always had a box in the upper left corner that contained a little image of the star character, again to help you spot your favorite book as you fanned through a stack. And lastly, Harvey Comics always had the large title character logo, with a small descriptive blurb underneath, as in "Casper, the Friendly Ghost."

The little Richie figure in the upper left box was drawn in pencil & ink too, just like the main drawing.

Step 4: I added color to the logos and such at the top of the cover. A pretty simple step; I just added the colors onto a layer beneath the logo and graphic elements.

Step 5: The next step was to add color to the Richie and Bum figures. The color was added to a layer beneath the line drawing (that way you can change the color of the figure without affecting the outlines).

Because the figures were scanned from a real drawing, that layer was opaque. I had to multiply this layer so that the white would disappear and show the colors underneath (I hope all that made sense). Now that I've started drawing directly on screen, I don't have have to multiply the drawing layer anymore.

Step 6: Once I got all the colors the way I wanted them, the next step was to add halftone effects to make it look like an actual printed comic cover. I duplicated all the layers of the drawing, then merged them into one layer, and moved this layer to the top of the stack.

I then went to Filters/Pixelate/Halftones in order to add the halftone effect. You just have to play with the settings to get the scale of the halftones right. Too small and they won't show up, too big and it obscures your purty drawing.

The halftone layer will most likely look really harsh or blurry. To fix this, multiply this layer, then adjust the opacity. Again, you'll just have to eyeball it until it looks right. I think I ended up making the opacity of my halftone layer 30%. The halftone layer will now combine with the other layers and should look like a reasonable facsimile of an offset printed piece. Not entirely accurate, but pretty darn close (note that the halftone dots are virtually invisible in the image above. Click and view the larger image to see them).

You could stop with this step if you want your fake comic cover to look mint. I wanted mine to look like a 30 year old comic that someone found in a box in their basement, so I added some aging effects.

Step 7: To age the cover I first made a new layer (make sure it's the top layer) and added a solid yellow fill. Then I multiplied this layer and adjusted the opacity so the art beneath would show through, but would now have the tell-tale yellowish tint of old newsprint.

Step 8: Lastly I added various scratches, tears, folds and dirt on various layers. There's no good way to explain it; I just used a scratchy brush and started scribbling until it looked like real scratches and tears. I also used a large brush to darken the edges of the cover. It's pretty easy to go overboard and end up with a cover that's too dirty and aged, so that's why I use a lot of layers. That way if I see I've gone too far, I can just delete the offending layer without disturbing the rest of the aging.

See? It's just that simple! 8 little steps with several dozen smaller steps in between.

Filthy Richie Comic (#15 Aug 1971)

When I was a kid I really loved Harvey Comics (Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, etc), so this is my homage to them.

The figures were drawn in pencil, inked with a pen and then scanned and colored in Photoshop. The text and various graphic elements were created in my ancient copy of Freehand (which I have since put out to pasture and replaced with Illustrator) and imported into Photoshop where everything was assembled.

Then after I got everything looking just so, I had fun messing it all up by adding dirt, tears and aging effects to make it look like a 30 year old comic that someone found in their attic.

Wow, can you believe there was a time when comics cost 15 cents? They cost $4 now!

Here's the original penciled and inked drawing of Richie and friend. I drew these before I had a graphic tablet, so if I was doing them today I would just draw them right in Photoshop. As you can see once they were scanned in I resized and repositioned them to better fit the cover.

Filthy Richie Comic (#10 Mar 1971)

When I was a kid I really loved Harvey Comics (Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, etc), so this is my homage to them.

The figures were drawn in pencil, inked with a pen and then scanned and colored in Photoshop. The text and various graphic elements were created in my ancient copy of Freehand (which I have since put out to pasture and replaced with Illustrator) and imported into Photoshop where everything was assembled.

Then after I got everything looking just so, I had fun messing it all up by adding dirt, tears and aging effects to make it look like a 30 year old comic that someone found in their attic.

This "Morton Comics" cover layouts are an amalgam of my favorite old school comic cover elements. Back in the late 1960s & early 1970s, DC Comics had a checkerboard stripe across the top of all their books. This served two purposes; it helped identify the comic as a DC book when you were thumbing through them from above on the newstand or comic rack, and it looked "mod." Marvel comics always had a box in the upper left corner that contained a little image of the star character, again to help you spot your favorite book as you fanned through a stack. And lastly, Harvey Comics always had the large title character logo, with a small descriptive blurb underneath, as in "Casper, the Friendly Ghost."

By the way, "Morton Comics" doesn't mean anything; I was just trying to come up with a name similar to "Harvey."

Wow, can you believe there was a time when comics cost 15 cents? They cost $4 now!

Filthy Richie Comic (#2 Jul 1970)

When I was a kid I really loved Harvey Comics (Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, etc), so this is my homage to them.

The figures were drawn in pencil, inked with a pen and then scanned and colored in Photoshop. The text and various graphic elements were created in my ancient copy of Freehand (which I have since put out to pasture and replaced with Illustrator) and imported into Photoshop where everything was assembled.

For the dollar trail I drew one dollar in Photoshop, then cloned and rotated it until I had a whole trail of bills. Then I used the distort tool to lay the dollar trail down in perspective. You couldn't do that in the 1970s!

I really need to redo Richie's word balloon. That font really bothers me. Comic books were hand lettered up until the late 1990s, so I should go back and write it by hand to make it look more authentic.

Then after I got everything looking just so, I had fun messing it all up by adding dirt, tears and aging effects to make it look like a 30 year old comic that someone found in their attic.

By the way, "Morton Comics" doesn't mean anything; I was just trying to come up with a name similar to "Harvey."

Wow, can you believe there was a time when comics cost 15 cents? They cost $4 now!

Tardis

Don't worry, I didn't have a stroke. This is a special guest drawing by my nephew Aaron. Like me, he's a big fan of the new Doctor Who series, so he drew the Doctor's Tardis for me.

For any Philistines out there who aren't familiar with the Tardis, it's a machine that can go anywhere in space or time, that the Doctor uses to travel the universe. It has a chameleon circuit that's supposed to help it blend into the surroundings of anyplace it goes. Unfortunately the Doctor's Tardis is permanently frozen in the form of a 1950s era London Police Box. Oh yeah, it's also bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Aaron drew the Tardis in Photoshop on my graphic tablet. Not bad for a kid, and for a first time tablet user. It says "Police Box" there in the white area, by the way.

A portrait of the artist as a young man.

Spock Gives The New Star Trek Movie 4 Fingers And A Thumb Up!

Animated Spock sez: 
Run, don't walk to the new Star Trek movie!

I really enjoyed this movie. The pace was non-stop, it was action packed and exciting, and most of all fun! When was the last time you could say that about a Star Trek movie?

This was just what Trek needed-- a fresh start. If you add up all five series, there are over 700 episodes, plus an animated series and ten movies. The franchise was starting to collapse under the weight of all that continuity. Every plot and line of dialogue had to be measured against the hundreds of hours of material that went before, lest it conflict with a comment made by a character 30 years ago. This wasn't an option, it was required by the hardcore fans. Starting over with a (mostly) clean slate was the perfect solution.

I wasn't sure how I would feel seeing new actors playing the old familiar characters, but after a few minutes I didn't even think about it-- I totally accepted them in the roles. I guess that shouldn't have come as a surprise; look at how many different actors have played classic characters like Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes throughout the years. I thought the new cast all did a great job-- the new Dr. McCoy was excellent!

I'm still not sure what Tyler Perry was doing in the movie. At least he wasn't wearing a wig and a dress.

Seeing the cast run around on screen in those old school (yet updated) colored shirts made me really happy. I didn't realize until I saw the characters again that I missed them.

Some hard core fans may say the new movie's long on action and short on traditional Star Trek substance, but that's fine with me-- we've had 40 plus years of preachy Star Trek; it's time for a new approach. Besides, I'm a little weary of getting hit over the head by thinly veiled messages. I already know racism is bad, I don't need a "white on one side, black on the other side alien" to tell me so.

Bring on the sequels! I just have one request to J.J. Abrams-- you've created a new timeline and as a result you have an entirely new universe to explore. Please give us some new stories, and don't recycle any old plots. We don't need Nestor Carbonell or Wilmer Valderrama as Khan, thanks.

Still More Old Stuff

As I mentioned in the previous post, I worked at the local newspaper for seven years. Occasionally I would need some art or a character for an ad, and most times I found it was quicker for me to just draw what I needed rather than search through endless pages of clip art for a couple of hours and still not find what I was looking for.

So here's some more of the art I did during my time at the newspaper.

Turkey Shoot. Again with the turkeys! This was for a Thanksgiving Sale, obviously. For some reason I drew a lot of turkeys for auto ads during my stint at the paper. Maybe because the dealerships would give away turkeys if you took a test drive?

All I have to say is that this particular turkey is a turncoat and a Judas. What do you traditionally shoot on Thanksgiving? Turkeys! So what's he doing holding a musket? What else are we to think but that he's gone over to the other side and is hunting down his own kind? He's even garbed himself in the trappings of his mortal enemy, the Pilgrim. I hope the reward they promised you was worth it, sir... and I hope you can live with what you've done.

Penciled, scanned into Photoshop where color and shading was added.



Sweeping Lady. Yet another drawing for an auto ad. She's "Sweeping Away High Prices!" Get it? Every car dealer in the country thinks they're the first to ever come up with that one.

She owes more than a little to Carol Burnett's Charwoman character, but when the client says they want a frumpy woman in curlers sweeping with a broom, there's only so much you can do.

Penciled, inked, scanned into Photoshop where color & shading were added.



Uncle Sam. Auto dealerships loooooove running holiday themed ads. Hopefully Uncle Sam got a permit or an OK from the authorities before lighting up that illegal sparkler.

Drawn in pencil, scanned into Photoshop where color & shading were added.



Truck vs. Truck. It's like "Spy vs. Spy," but with trucks! This was drawn for a Chevy dealership's auto ad that was talking smack about the inferior quality of Fords. I bet the local Ford dealership loved that.

I remember it being tough to draw cartoony, yet still recognizable models of trucks.

Drawn in pencil, scanned into Photoshop where color and shading was added.



Trunk Monkey. This was drawn for an ad campaign for a local auto dealer, but was ultimately not used.

I think the reason it was scrapped is because there were actual Trunk Monkey commercials and the makers didn't take kindly to the local dealer using it in his ad without their permission. To be honest I don't even know what Trunk Monkey is. Some kind of anti-theft device? I'm not even sure it's an actual product. I think it might just be a series of humorous commercials.

Whatever it is, it was drawn with pencil, then scanned into Photoshop where color was added.

More Old Stuff

As I mentioned in the previous post, I worked at the local newspaper for seven years. Occasionally I would need some art or a character for an ad, and most times I found it was quicker for me to just draw what I needed rather than search through endless pages of clip art for a couple of hours and still not find what I was looking for.

So here's some more of the art I did during my time at the newspaper.

Junk Car. This was for an auto ad suggesting that it might be time for you to replace your old vehicle. This was a fun one to draw. I think we've all had a car like this at one time or another.

Drawn in pencil and scanned into Photoshop where color & shading were added.



Crowded Car. This was for another auto ad (for the same dealership), suggesting it might be time to ditch your carpool and enter the wonderful world of monthly car payments.

As usual, there was an extremely tight deadline for this drawing. In order to save time I retooled the Junk Car drawing into this one.




Early Bird. This was for an "Early Bird Sale" auto ad. Get it? Early bird sale, and he's a bird who's up early! Comedy Ahoy! Apparently Yakov Smirnoff writes copy for auto ads in his spare time.

Drawn in pencil, scanned into Photoshop where color was added.



The Price Slasher. This was for a "We're Slashing Our Prices" auto ad. You'd think an auto dealership would not want people associating their four wheeled death traps with the Grim Reaper, but what do I know?

I actually had time to pencil and ink this one before scanning it into Photoshop where color & shading were added.


Too Much Inventory Guy. This was for a "We've Got To Reduce Our Inventory Before The Tax Deadline" auto ad.

If I remember correctly I think he started out as "Reeling From Sticker Shock Guy." The paper in his hand originally read, "Bill" or "Invoice." Hey, there's nothing wrong with re-purposing drawings when you've only got half an hour to make an entire ad.

Drawn in pencil, scanned into Photoshop where color and shading was added.

Old Stuff

I worked at the local newspaper for seven years. Seven lonnnng, soul crushing years, that seemed more like decades. The deadlines were grueling and brutal, but it turned out to be great training. If you can design a full page newspaper ad in two hours with a press foreman standing behind you, arms folded and waiting for you to finish, then you can handle pretty much anything a client can throw at you.

Occasionally I would need some art or a character for an ad, and most times I found it was quicker for me to just draw what I needed rather than search through endless pages of clip art for a couple of hours and still not find what I was looking for.

So here's some of the art I did during my time at the newspaper.

Turkey Bowler. This was for, not surprisingly, a Thanksgiving ad.

When I first started at the paper I would always draw the characters in pencil, then carefully ink them with a pen, erase the pencil lines, then scan them and add color & shading in Photoshop.

Then one day I didn't have time for inking and I just scanned the pencils directly. I liked the look and began doing it that way from then on, as seen here. I got pretty much the same result and it saved a lot of time.

I think the bowling ball came out a little too light, but whaddya gonna do?

For some reason this is THE all-time champion most-viewed illustration on my Flickr site. At the time of this writing it's at 1,950 views and counting. I don't quite understand why, but I'm glad everyone enjoys it.

By the way, this was for a"Turkey Bowl" promotion that a local car dealer was having at Thanksgiving. They set up a small makeshift bowling alley in their showroom and urged customers to bowl with actual frozen turkeys (not live ones, so settle down, PETA people!). If you got a strike you won a prize. Luckily they were only bowling with the turkeys, not dropping them from a helicopter.

Vacation Santa. This was for a Christmas in July auto ad. EVERY summer, EVERY auto dealer in town would run a "Christmas in July" ad, and EVERY one thought they were the first who thought of it.

Drawn in pencil, scanned & colored in Photoshop.

No Bull Sale. One of the local auto dealers wanted a "No Bull Sale" ad, featuring a bull inside an "anti" symbol (you know, red circle with diagonal slash in the middle).

Drawing the bull was simple, but the diagonal line was trouble. If I drew the line over the bull, then it blocked his face. If you put the bull in front of the line, then you couldn't see it. The client eventually said to get rid of the line altogether. So now the whole thing makes no sense. Why's the bull in a red circle? Who knows? Even the bull doesn't know; see how he's shrugging?

This is the kind of thing you can't let get to you if you're going to be a designer.

Drawn in pencil, scanned & colored in Photoshop.

Cowboy. A character I drew for some Western-themed auto ad. I think he was "branding" cars with low prices or something like that.

Penciled, scanned into Photoshop where color and shading was added.

Xmas Gift Tag

Tough times call for tough measures! Due to the tanking economy, I decided to severely cut back on Christmas gifts this past year. In order to soften the blow a bit, I made this gift tag and attached it to everyone's presents.

Santa was drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet, as well as the sketchy green oval. Everything was then imported into InDesign, where the text and the outer tag shape were added. Then I printed a bunch, cut them out with an X-Acto, punched a hole in the side and tied them to everyone's gifts.

Do You Feel Lcky, Pnk?

We don't need no stinkin' vowels!

This is a gun shop down the street from my dentist's office. I'm honestly curious to know what happened here. As near as I can figure it, there are 5 possiblilites:

1. The owner is trying to avoid a lawsuit from Clint Eastwood and Warner Bros.

2. The sign company charged by the letter, and one more was apparently a deal breaker.

3. It's a typo, and the owner signed off on it without proofreading.

4. The owner genuinely believes that "dirty" is spelled this way.

5. "l33t-speak" has already infiltrated every facet of society (I'm a bit concerned that my spell check didn't flag "l33t").

I will give them props for actually using an apostrophe correctly, something which has seemingly become a lost art in our society.

Professor Morbo

Professor Morbo is your standard issue mad scientist, complete with evil goatee, lab coat and insulated rubber gloves.

Things I learned from this illustration: drawing clasped hands is hard!

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.
Here's the original sketch.

Dr. Zira

It's Dr. Zira, from "Planet of the Apes." This was another experiment using the pencil "brush" in Photoshop.

For some reason this drawing is very popular on my Flickr page. As of this post, it's at #6. I guess people still like those damned dirty apes after all these years.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original sketch. Her hair's a bit different here-- I made it wider at the bottom in the final drawing to make her look more feminine (for an ape, anyway).

Her clothing changed a bit as well. That's because I did the sketch from memory and couldn't remember all the bits & pieces. I got out my 12" Dr. Zira action figure to look at for the final drawing. Yes, I have a 12" Dr. Zira action figure. And a Cornelius one too. Yes, I am a geek.

Nerdclops

Nerdclops, like most of my illustrations, started out as a rough sketch or doodle. Then, as usually happens, I wanted to do something to spice up the drawing a bit. So I decided to add a Cartoon Network-type animated background. And then again as usually happens, what should have been a simple little drawing becomes a 2 or 3 day project.

Originally he was holding a briefcase, but I couldn't get his hand to look right, so I made him hold some books instead.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

That's Snot Funny!

One of the more annoying design flaws of the human body has to be nasal allergies, from which I suffer greatly. There are days when this illustration is not much of an exaggeration.

Can you believe I'm still single, ladies?

Note the carefully chosen mucus-green color palette.

Drawn in Photoshop with the graphic tablet.
Here's the original sketch. If you look closely you can see a faint curved line near the end of his nose. That's where his nose originally ended, and there was just one giant nostril with one jet of snot pouring out. Right before I started on the finished drawing I realized that was a bit odd, and added some extra length to his nose, along with an extra nostril and snot stream. Fascinating, eh?

Mrs. Slagmeyer

Loosely inspired by a bizarre woman I used to work with.

Examples of her many insights: She hated drunk drivers–not because they caused death and destruction, but because they were directly responsible for the creation of seatbelt laws, which forced her to buckle up against her will. She also said the "dope smokers" made the stores start stashing her Claritin behind the counter so that she couldn't buy it off the shelf anymore.

Oh, and after I came back from my trip to China, she actually asked me if "everybody over there all looked the same." Sigh...

Note that she's wearing a pair of Crocs. How I loathe them.

I've been informed that her slogan is almost identical to an op-ed article that appeared in The Onion. I guess great minds think alike.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.


Here's the original sketch of the Missus.

Crabby Joe

For some reason I can never remember the name of the Joe's Crab Shack restaurant chain (except just now) and I invariably end up calling it "Crabby Joe's," as in, "Hey, let's go eat at Crabby Joe's." I've managed to live a full and rewarding life despite this, mostly because there's no Joe's Crab Shack in my city anyway and I only eat there about once every five years.

Besides, I think Crabby Joe's is a catchier name than Joe's Crab Shack, so I humbly offer this character logo to the chain as an enticement to change their name.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.
Joe started out as an actual finished pencil drawing rather than a quick sketch. I wanted to add some color though so I redrew him.

Mongo

Josh Mongo attended Dartmouth where he received a Master's in Economics. Immediately after college he began a career working in various prestigious Wall Street investment firms.

After several years he grew disillusioned with the investment lifestyle, cashed in his stocks and retired to Upstate New York. He married Shiela Goldstein and together they opened the eponymously named Mongo's Bed & Breakfast near the Adirondacks. They have 3 children that haven't yet been eaten by Josh.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.I had trouble deciding on a suitable background color. I ended up going with brown, but I kind of like the blue as well.
Here's the original sketch. In the final drawing I thought he needed to be doing something besides just standing there, so i added the gnawed bone.

Mr. & Mrs. Cocktail-Partyton III

When I was a kid I thought that this is what adults did for fun.

Stupid kid.

Drawn in Photoshop with the graphic tablet.

As you can see from the original doodle, Mr. Cocktail-Partyton didn't change much from sketch to finished product. The Mrs. was a different story. It was easy to draw her holding a cigarette in the rough sketch, but I couldn't get her hand to look right in the final drawing. So she went from holding a cig to holding a clutch purse.