Realistic Muppets

New episode of SMDG which you should listen to or at least subscribe to on iTunes so we look popular...

I actually did this a while ago for a different project that didn't get picked up, but it goes with my continuing series of realistic characters like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Care Bears, and Denver the Last Dinosaur. Yep, I've got myself a real series of pieces here. Someone should contact Gallery1988.

Shows George Lucas SHOULD have done.

New episode of Saturday Morning Deathgrip, and it was Star Wars themed, thanks to an episode of the 80's show Ewoks.

I did character designs for a Wampa, Wookie (Chewie, natch) and a Tauntaun. Seemed obvious enough. And we all know that a Tauntaun-based show would be the most successful program in television history. Like the moon landing, only on a weekly basis.

I should have done a Rancor too.

Realistic Chipmunks

New episode of Saturday Morning Deathgrip available here.

We watched a Christmas episode of Alvin & the Chipmunks, so I decided to add to my growing collection "realistic takes on cartoon characters" (Like Denver the Last Dinosaur and Care Bears)

These are fun.  Also the character designs from the Chipmunks movies are not that great to me. They live in that weird world of cartoonish animals along side of real human actors, it's usually horrifying. Take a look at any of these examples (chances are, you never actually saw those movies).

If you want to take a cartoon into the real world, just go all the way.

It's Christmas, Logan

A new episode of the podcast is up. We watched X-men from the 90s, which is a show I friggin love.

It was the Christmas episode, "Have Yourself a Morlock Little Christmas" and one of the recurring themes is the Scrooge-like grumpiness of Wolverine. There was also a Christmas tree that was as sad as Charlie Brown's. So the picture kinda suggested itself.

Care Bears, emphasis on Bear.

A brand new episode of Saturday Morning Deathgrip means art. I think I say that everytime.

In honor of Thanksgiving, we watched a Thanksgiving episode of Care Bears. It was shockingly bad. I don't remember that show being that bad, but then again, I also don't remember watching it that much. 

Denver the Last Dinosaur proved to be a popular picture. And it was tough to come up with a theme for this show. So I recyled the concept of just a realistic version of the characters, and voila. That's Cheer Bear, who I think is some kind of happy bear, but I'm sure they all are. 

We did have the Care Bear's Christams record, but I'll be plum buggered if I remember what that was about. Other than Christmas. I'll also be plum buggered if I have any idea where the phrase "plum buggered" came from in my vocabulary.  

Anywho, give that episode of the podcast a listen, won't you?

Jem and the Holograms rooftop concert

New episode of Saturday Morning Deathgrip is up, and we watched "Jem and the Holograms".

For the art, I had some trouble, because I'd never seen this show before. But I do know that late in 1989, Jem and the Holograms had drifted apart creatively. Their computer generated images were becoming like weights around their collective neck. The strain had let to schisms between the girls. Not helping matters was the wane of synth-pop as a marketable music form. Since their instruments were all geared toward synth-pop, what could they do. Over the course of the year, the girls put aside their differences, and managed to assemble one last album, and, memorably, that winter, they climbed to the roof of the studio and performed their last concert. A truly, truly outrageous concert.

Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

Poltergeist/Garfield mash up

So we have a new episode of Saturday Morning Deathgrip up. It's a Halloween episode and it is something else.

It was Sean's idea to do Poltergeist. The poster is a classic. Pooky was my favorite part of this, really...

Pac-Man as Peter Venkman

New episode of Saturday Morning Deathgrip (Have you listened to us? Why not?)

It is no secret that my favorite movie is Ghostbusters. This turned out to be a fairly lovlingly-rendered watercolor of the sixth floor of the Hotel Sedgewick, but with Pac-Man from the show as Dr. Peter Venkman moments before the most famous line from that movie (Thanks, Carl!)

Seriously though, this is where it came from:

And my background reference;

Watercolor is a great medium. It just feels so nice on my eyeballs...

Captain N: The Gamemaster

Anew episode of Saturday Morning Deathgrip. We watched the Nintendo advertisement... er, cartoon show "Captain N: The Gamemaster." Art was challenging for me, because what the heck do you do with a generic cartoon that featured a bunch of a video game characters? So I dusted off one of my oldest tricks, the photoshopped picture (I used to enter contests on Worth1000 and Fark all the time... I wonder if my things are still out there. I did a great "More Cowbell" arcade game cabinet back in 2003.) Anyway, that's why there's a two-fer for this episode. One is Captain Phillips (by all accounts a serious film about a serious topic) is turned HILARIOUSLY into Captain N (being attacked by Somali pirates.)  the second is of course presented by George Lucas, directed by Francis Ford Copolla and starring Michael Jackson in a 3D Musical Adventure. Also, I don't know know if you've seen Captain EO recently (feel free to here) but after my visit to Disneyland last year, I must say that I was less surprised by the prequel trilogy than I probably should have been.

Anyway, please have a listen to the episode (which doesn't feature me for reasons explained in the episode) and if you're feeling generous, subscribe to us on iTunes and/or maybe tell a friend of yours to listen, too?

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