COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 8): A Hag Named Harkness

When you are looking for a nanny to take care of your special little one and your special little one happens to be the child of two of the greatest adventurers on the planet, you tend to want a person with experience, who is adept, who can handle any problem that might spring up.

Everyday problems are obvious for regular people, but what if you, your wife and your child have abilities far beyond those of normal people and regularly save the world.  And what if your child's undeveloped abilities could one day destroy the world?  You would at least hope the one caring for your baby would be able to deal with all of that in an emergency--at least until you could get home and handle it.

Or, say, if your former roommate who is obsessed with beating you--a guy who happens to be an iron-fisted dictator who wears a suit of highly-advanced armor and speaks of himself in the third person all the time--were to show up with bad intentions?  You would need that person to know how to handle that situation--or, at the very least, not panic.

Well, when Reed and Sue wanted someone to watch over little Franklin, they chose well...

High on a hilltop in a secluded little town in upstate New York called Whisper Hill sits a large old home of an ancient retired governess.  She's tall and skinny, and at first glance appears frail as a crisp leaf, and yet there's a steeliness in her eye, a confidence of wisdom and power.  It's actually frightening to look at her directly in the eye for long.

Agatha Harkness is her name and she has been on this Earth longer than Atlantis has sat on the ocean floor.  She is a witch and she is to be feared and respected.  She survived the Salem witch trials and went on to live a successful and long life as a governess.  Probably several lives...

Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee for FANTASTIC FOUR #94, she is probably one of the last creations that the two worked on together.  Kirby only drew her in this issue, but what a debut it is... she not only frightens the fight out of the FRIGHTFUL FOUR, she literally makes Ben Grimm quit quipping and run away from her with one look.  Now that takes some real magic!

SIX SKETCHY SCHEMES

Wanted to put River Tam in an action pose in these two sketches, but in the first one she seems a little too zen and medicated.  I like the pose, not necessarily the weapons, but it has a good sense of movement frozen, so that's something.

Anyway, click on it for enlargement purposes,

otherwise keep your cursor to yourselves!

This second one had the weirdness about River correct, but there wasn't enough baddie interaction and all of her fury directed at one person wouldn't suffice.  Again, not a bad sense of angelic danger moving around athletically...

Click her for a closer look...

Here we have an example of when a sketch goes as planned and comes out the other end looking

better than I'd planned it.  My first attempt at drawing the Vulture felt right!

Click to enjoy bigger baldness, oldie attitude, and that freshly applied coat of Ben Gay!

Marv being Marv, protecting Katie from the hard-core element, even though he's well beyond the hardest of any guy to ever visit the bar.  Really wanted to get the light and dark right on this one and I think it works as a panel pretty well.

Click it for an enhanced look at the shading and the magic place Marv's left arm disappears to.

 

Ol' Steeljack from Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY sure was fun to draw and I think it showed in this sketch of the guy.  Metal skin and the looks of Robert Mitchum and you have this guy down.

Ended up creating a scene in which a mother and child are being saved from a fire.

Click for a closer look at this inferno of sketchery!

Sometimes you force a not-so-good layout to work, when it would be best to leave things as they are and move on to the next attempt.  That's what should've been done below, with Thundra.

I do like how the lower half of her body came out, but the upper needs work.

Click to enhance your experience!

That concludes this session of sketchbook scans, in my attempt to move things that have been piling up on my desktop here on the computer... until then, think about what you did!

MONSTER-MONTH: COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 7)

Welcome to day seven of MONSTER-MONTH here at THE GOODS!

The month when we take a harder look at the FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER and his many interpretations over the years, well thirty-one of them anyway.

Tonight we feature Rocky Horror from THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.  He is quite unlike any Monster ever created by a Frankenstein, in fact, he’s actually a creation of Doctor Frank-N-Furter (played immortally by Tim Curry).  Dr. Frank-N-Furter is a Transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania and he also happens to have discovered the “secret to life itself”.

The viewer is led into the world of Rocky Horror by a newly-engaged couple by the name of Brad Majors and Janet Weiss who find themselves lost one stormy late November evening.  They seek shelter at a nearby castle and walk right into the Annual Transylvanian Convention.

There they meet Dr. Frank-N-Furter and his servants Riff Raff, his sister/lover Magenta and a groupie named Columbia.  Rocky Horror is brought to life.

The creation is an Adonis as played by Peter Hinwood.  Rocky has golden hair a body sculpted from stone.  This “Monster” more closely resembles a god or at the very least an ideal male.  In the world of Rocky Horror, this makes a strange sort of sense as they’re looking at the world through gothic lenses, as opposed to the ones the original Frankenstein was invisioning for his creation.  Had Rocky Horror arisen from the slab in Frankenstein’s castle, he would’ve gladly accepted the creature into his heart and hearth.

There is something OVERWHEMINGLY familiar to me when seeing the creation “Rocky Horror” for the first time and I’m sure I have this reaction merely because I am a comic book reader and more specifically, a THOR/FANTASTIC FOUR reader.

Does Rocky not eerily resemble Adam Strange in his earliest incarnation, when he was known only as HIM?

Just me?

I didn’t think so.

And being that the film was released in 1975 and the first appearance of Adam Warlock was in 1969, well let’s just guess that there could be a visual influence.

(Adam Warlock will be featured later this MONSTER-MONTH as one of the interpretations of Frankenstein that I wanted to spotlight.)

Anyway, Eddie, an ex-delivery boy and partial brain donor to Rocky and Columbia’s lover, rides in out of a deep freeze on a motorcycle in a jealous rage.  Frank kills Eddie with an ice axe.  Frank then leaves the couple and takes Rocky with him to a bridal suite  near the laboratory.

Later Brad and Janet are both seduced by Frank when he impersonates each of them to the other.  Janted then wanders off, upset and discovers that her fiance is with Frank.  She stumbles upon Rocky in his birthing tank hiding from Riff Raff.  Janet ends up bedding Rocky as Magenta and Columbia watch.

Dr. Everett Scott has arrived, he is Brad and Janet’s old High School science teacher and he has come looking for his nephew, Eddie.  Frank, however, suspects that he investigates UFOs for the government.  Frank then makes the connection that Brad and Janet may be investigators as well.

Hijinks ensue and I won’t spoil the rest of the film for you, my fair reader, but I will let you in on the fact that there are battles waged, killings made, songs sung and a UFO Castle blast-off!

It doesn’t follow the typical plotline of a Frankenstein picture, but the elements that are there are certainly there because of the existence of the Monster and his story.

FIVE FRANKENSTEIN FUN FACTS:

1)  THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW is considered the longest-running release in film history as it has never been pulled by 20th Century Fox from it’s original 1975 release.

2)  When the film was screened at midnight, starting in New York City on April Fool’s Day of 1976 at the Waverly Theater, it began it’s climb to cult classic.  By that Halloween, people were showing up in costume and repeating the dialog back to the screen.

3)  TRHPS was shot in the Hammer style and even used Bray Studios and Oakley Court, a country home in Berkshire, England, a Castle known for a handful of Hammer films.

4)  Vincent Price was offered the role of the Criminologist, but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts.  He had been interested as he had seen the West End musical and loved it.

5)  Peter Hinwood couldn’t sing, so a session singer was used for Rocky Horror’s part.  Hinwood mimed the vocals during filming.  In post-production, Hinwood’s speaking voice was replaced by Trevor White, and Australian actor/singer.  Hinwood’s actual voice does not appear in the film, he’s just a pretty face.

While I have your attention, there are a few films of note that will be playing over at TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES that you may want to know about.

Remember, these are LATE Sunday night and EARLY Monday morning…

Late Sunday, October 7/Early Monday, October 8, 2012

2:30am - NOT AGAINST THE FLESH (aka VAMPYR) (1932)

A tale of a young traveler staying in a sinister castle inhabited by an elderly vampire.

6am - DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1932)

Fredric March in the title roles as the Doctor who tries to remove his impulsive dark side from his noble side--thus dooming both.

And finally...

LOCKJAW, TORO, THE GIGGLER & HIGH SCHOOL of the DEAD

Never tried to draw the most powerful pooch in the Marvel Universe

until this, but he was a fun time.  His head is just so massive...

Toro, the Human Torch's partner, is another new one--had to remember

how Burgos portrayed the originals with less expressive faces, still

some of the way Kirby portrayed Johnny Storm creeped in.

David Witherington's "The Giggler" as portrayed by me.  Was told his wacky origin and

that his look is quite a bit based on Frank Gorshin's portrayal of The Riddler from

the original 1966 BATMAN series.

Didn't really have much time to work on this one, the main character from the Manga/Anime

HIGH SCHOOL OF THE DEAD, which is a over the top tale of a zombie apocalypse

with loads of action, melodrama and eye candy.

(To enlarge these images, click 'em!  Don't be afraid.)

...AND ANOTHER THING...!

A commission for my pal Andrew, he loves the Thing and I love to draw the Thing almost as much. I was very tentative with this one (as I usually am when doing work for hire) and wanted to get Ben's look just right. The rocky texture of his is always fun to draw, but there is a method to the freehand one uses when drawing it. Started out with blue line pencils, worked up through pencils, ink and brush, markers and even some white ink for emphasis on the smoke.

WHITE SPIDER SKETCH

Here we have the complete figure of Spidey swinging before adding those crazy black details in front of this all black background I had to go with for speed purposes. (Go ahead, click to enlarge)


Here, I've added in the blacks that kind of blend the edges of his body into the background (had I the time, I would've added in some kind of contrasting element be it stars or a building or two), but still there was something missing... (Click it and see it easier, old man)


So I gave him a bit of a forward tilt and that seemed to give him the kind of pose I was looking for, more aggressive looking.
(For a closer look, click the image, ya dang fool!)

THE NOT SO FANTASTIC LEAGUE

Quite the rush-job at about three months, finally sat down and hacked out this little number reimagining the cover to FANTASTIC FOUR #1 by Jack Kirby as a parody cover for the JLA's funny squad.

IT'S A THING THANG

So I finally got around to inking a very old sketch I did of Aunt Petunia's favorite Nephew and I couldn't decide on which basic background color I liked better...

Highbow black background?


OLD BLUE EYES by ~Ragnaroker on deviantART

Or blue to match his eyes?