Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

New episode for Saturday Morning Deathgrip (if you read this and you haven't listened and/or subscribed and/or told a friend to do the same, why?). We watched and then recorded us talking about "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends," which is a poorly animated but still entertaining show to me. 

For the art, I was thinking about other famous "amazing friends" and came up with Calvin and Hobbes. So I decided to do Spidey, Iceman and Firestar in a Watterson style. It's hard to make them in some sort of battle with a Green Goblin or Sandman. So instead they hang out in a city scape. You have a problem with that? 

Incidentally, I tend to hate mash-ups like this. Especially with Calvin and Hobbes. So I hate myself. Nice...

The Princess Bride- The Animated Series

So a new episode of "Saturday Morning Deathgrip" is live in and, oh boy, did I not realize how terrible Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling was.  But I have dedicated myself to making art for each episode, no matter how terrible the show is.

Originally, I was going to take the Hulk Hogan design from the show and stick him in one of his movie posters.

Pick your masterpiece!

But then I thought I'd rather have a more recognizable scene, but, outside of Rocky III and, of course, the best mid-90s boat-based action show, Thunder in Paradise, most of Hogan's work is forgettable. But one his colleagues and Rock 'n' Wrestling co-stars is in a actual classic: Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride.   

So I took the character design of Andre the Giant, plus the general aesthetic of the characters: 

Dressed up Andre as Fezzik, made my own versions of Manday Patinkin and Shawn Wallace in the Rock 'n' Wrestling style, using this scene.

Incidentally, the official WWE website actually has a nice slide show of production art from the show. The animation and character designs were not exactly special, but I'm such a nerd for behind the scenes stuff, especially for animation.

Joan Wilder Improv team photo

My pal, Sean (one of the Saturday Morning Deathgrip co-hosts), is on an improv house team at the People's Improve Theater (Every Wednesday at 9pm, it's free!) After a harrowing nationwide search, I was selected as the artist for their team portrait.

Sean and I brainstormed some ideas, (my favorite unused idea would be everyone is dressed as Gene Wilder character but looking sad and confused) but the final idea actual came from my Woody Allen Mummy art for SMDG Episode.  Basically, everyone would select a thing or person they'd dress up as, I'd draw their portrait and put them in an appropriate setting.

The final result is here (Click to make it big):

The font is Futura Medium. Futura is the absolute best. It has slight horizontal stretch, but that's to fill negative space.

I wrote a small essay with photo references of how I came to the final design which you can find by clicking on any name.
Joan Wilder is:
Paul Gostowski, Sarah Peele, Pete LePage, Beth White, Adam Luke, David Chase, Ariel Karlin, and Sean Reidy

Joan Wilder Art: Ariel Karlin

Joan Wilder Art: Paul Gutowski

Joan Wilder Art: David Chase

Joan Wilder Art: Beth White

Joan Wilder Art: Adam Luke

Joan WIlder Art: Pete LePage

Joan Wilder Art: Sarah Peele

Joan Wilder Art: Sean Reidy