WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME...

(Click to enjoy more fully my fine ballpoint penmanship!)

Hey there, folks, just wanted to let you know I haven't fallen off of the face of the Earth just yet.  Been very busy with my Character Battle Royale activities over the last few months over at OUTCASTSTUDIOS.COM and it's been going quite well.  I'm now in the finals against a very apt opponent who goes by the handle ThirdRailDesigns over in the social media circles.

I hope to do well pitting my character of choice (Daredevil in the Red Suit) against his character (Iron Man of any era).  I've had luck in my previous battles and here are some samples from the frays...

And this one got me into some hot water with the critics.  Tomb Raider versus Daredevil wasn't a fight I would, as a fan of the Man Without Fear, take very seriously.  In my mind, DD wins this one if he shows up.  Armed explorer versus battle-tested urban legend--no problem, right?

I like to think of a story to set up the scenarios I intend to draw, so I figured it would all stem from a misunderstanding and the story would go like this:  Lara Croft follows a rival to the offices of Nelson and Murdock where he has the lawyers hold onto a relic that he has illegally taken from a tomb... let's say Wyatt Wingfoot's people.  Nelson agrees to this, reluctantly, and Murdock hasn't vetted the guy, so he's in the dark.

Lara decides to break in to the offices and return it to Wingfoot's people and this leads to our showdown.  Murdock, having made his rounds of the Kitchen, is returning to the law office to change back into civilian gear and they have this brief altercation where Matt disarms her and they then agree to work together to take down said Plunderer (ha, it's Ka-Zar's brother--that really works).  Anyway, this is the piece that I turned in...

This one had anonymous  commentators throwing out words like "rape", which pissed me off to no end.  Granted, it is a little suggestive of intimate contact, but then, what's more intimate than hand-to-hand combat?  Not much, really.

(Click to Embiggify)

So I was a little zealous in defending my art and, in hindsight, I probably overreacted.  After all, the observer brings their own baggage to any observable stimuli.  So what if I knew that I'd never portray a character like Daredevil sexually assaulting anyone, they didn't.  So what if I knew the circumstances of the battle, but some people see things differently.  Taught me a valuable lesson about being clearer with my intent.

Anyway, on to the next round...

Round 3 had my poor widdle DD going head to head with a Superman level character of whom I was very unfamiliar with and it was a struggle to find a justifiable way to have the two in fisticuffs realistically. 

The character DD was to battle was none other than Goku from Dragonball Z.  So I struggled with ideas.  I always like to capture a moment from a fight when my character has the upper hand, however briefly.  Here, it was hard to imagine a way for DD to have any moment like that.

Then the idea for a training or teaching session came to me.  DD would be teaching the kid a little bit about boxing, being that his dad was a Pro and that DD has some experience with the pugilistic arts.

My final piece:

(Would've loved to have put in a banner or poster of Battlin' Jack back there on the wall, but ran out of time...
BTW, click to enlarge)

And so there was the semifinals, Round 4...

This round, due to contestant's dropping out, was set up as a three-way battle between myself and two other people and their characters, Storm and Haunt.  Luckily, for me, one of the competitors had to bail on it.  Which left me open to win the conflict with this very busy piece:

Next up... Daredevil versus Iron Man!

Stay tuned...