WEEK 27: Batman Begins

I've been watching Bats since I was a kid. Although my first sighting of The Batman was Adam West and Burt Ward, I fell in love with the character enough that I manage to try and steal my dads black ford (with red interior of course) and rip the shower curtains down trying to climb the walls...all at 4 or 5 years old. I read the comics, wore my first Batman costume. And though over the years we drifted apart...he has always been my favorite. (Although I will admit a slight teetering on the fence when I saw The Green Hornet and Kato mop the floor with Bats and the boy wonder in one episode...I did slightly convert for a while to the Hornet. My second childhood hero) It wasn't till years later when my wife bought me a copy of Millers Dark Knight that I had seen what he'd become. Then Burton's two films came along (The rest are dead to me...DEAD I say!!!) and I got my dose of that boyhood adrenaline again. After the following debacle of films...he seemed to lose his luster. Something I'll never forgive Schumacher for.
Then came Batman Begins....and I was blown away. This was the guy that I knew he was...what he was capable of becoming. As you can tell I love Nolans films. And they will always sit as my prize possessions in my DVD collection. This was the scene that did it for me. The moment when Bruce Wayne not only faces his boyhood fears, but decides what he is to become to combat the criminal element of Gotham. This 3-4 minutes of film is just...goosebumps. The bats, the cave..the soundtrack. And though this took me a while to ink the textures...I loved doing it. Hope you like. You can click the link to my site to see the penciled version. As always thanks for lookin. J.

Round 28: Momma Said Knock Hitler Out

Remember that time Sgt. Rock punched Hitler in the face and ended World War Two?  I'm pretty sure that's what happened, but then again I didn't really pay attention in school.

...Which is probably why I draw cartoons on the internet. 

Round 28: c'mon and fight!

Kinda hard not to think of Sgt. Rock when you think about Joe Kuburt and I was intentionally going to try to steer away from Rock until Ben shared the link to this article.  If you scroll down a bit you come to what seems to be the genesis of Sgt. Rock, The Rock!  A story of a once professional prize fighter who wasn't known so much for his winning record as he was known for his tenacity.  "They called him -- "The human obstacle course"!  You had to beat him -- to be someone!  But no one had ever made him stay down!  Now -- he was fighting in a different kind of ring!  Would he still be -- THE ROCK!"  How can you not want to draw this guy?!  What a great character!

Round 29: Sgt Rock!... Sort of?

Well, I had every intention of doing an iconic drawing of Sgt Rock, but thanks to a healthy dose of alcohol (courtesy of the Cleveland Drink and Draw) and my scant relationship with the character, I created just an average run of the mill soldier.  I'm shooting for partial credit on this one.  If there is one thing I can take away from this round, its that I was able to become a little more familiar with Mr. Kubert's work.  So sad that a lot of these artists don't get their proper recognition until their passing.

Come see more art and inane rambling at my personal blog: Need Your Disease

Ben Hale

GODZILLA

As a kid, while most of my friends were busy playing ball on a Saturday afternoon, I was glued to the 9"x9" little T.V. in my bedroom to watch horror movies. For whatever reason, I became infatuated with monsters and monster movies. Didn't matter what they were....If it had creepy crawlies, if it dripped blood....crawled on 6 legs or stomped cities to rubble, I was in. But there was one in particular that I became enamored with. And that was the big G. ( Gammera was a close 2nd. ) I was raised on the U.S. version starring Raymond Burr and the myriad of his films that followed...Godzillas not Raymond Burr....but years later I picked up the original Gojira. And fell in love with him all over again. The original Japanese version was more of a statement against the use of nuclear weapons...in fact after Godzillas assault on Tokyo, the camera pans over the rubble of the city. The imagery closely resembles footage of the ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This piece, along with a few others by a handful of artists, was done as a going away gift to an editor that greatly influenced my early foray into getting in comics. If you follow the link to Chelzo Studios you can check out my blog and a newly added color version. Now....I'm off to stomp some cities.

Some parting thoughts on Batman: my 2nd favorite Batman villain

Yeah, he's Solomon Grundy, sometimes he has a dislocated shoulder but does Grundy care? Nope.

When he's not stumbling around, referring to himself in the third person or being the only pants eating zombie ever (as Seanbaby explains here) he enjoys the finer things.

Monsters Exchange Program

Ben Alien - Craigified

The Rust Belt Monsters have been doing a lot of live drawing lately.  The fun comes from creatining one massive expression of our group.  An artist will start drawing something, the person next them will draw their own idea, and so on.  But after a while, the piece stops being these separate entities and starts merging together.  You start drawing objects/characters that are reacting to what your friend is drawing.  Maybe one of the monsters will start filling in an environment that better serves your drawing.  And sometimes you pass the baton and let one of the monsters continue with what ever your were drawing.

Its a fun evolution of your character in a direction that you might not have expected.  We each have specific strengths and its always a joy to see your idea put through that person's artistic filter.  The other night I was drawing in my iPad and discarded some Alien drawing.  Craig picked it up and went forward with it.  Its a fun little exercise that I really suggest everyone try.  I did the same thing back in November.

-Ben (NeedYourDisease.com)

Craig Zombie - Benified

Ben's Original Alien Post

Craig's Original Zombie Post

Erin: A few Recent Doodles

Doodle dump! Really digging these 5x7 cards lately. I cut them out of scraps from my favorite Arches 300lb hot press watercolor paper. Some of these should look a little familiar...

See the finish here

Crazy about those leafy vine things

Final piece here

A mini painting I did of friend-of-the-blog Angela's daughter Sylvie

Awesome burlesque performer Fever Blister from her Dr. Sketchy Modeling session

HEY! Did you know that doodling while listening increases information recall by 29%??  Crazy! Draw on my friends, Draw on.

Round 28: Tribute to Joe Kubert

 It's been a rough yeah for those of us who love Comic and Illustrative Art, we've lost giants: McQuarrie, Sendak, Moebius, etc. .  Artists whom we stand on the shoulders of, whose art have inspired us to be both better Artists and better people.  Joe Kubert exemplified such an Artist. He was a gifted and influential Artist as well as a caretaker of the craft. 

We here at the RBMC would like to pay tribute to one of our heroes, Joe Kubert. 

 If you would like to know more about Joe Kubert and his work with the Kubert School please visit:  http://www.kubertschool.edu/

Round 27: The Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker)

I've been fascinated by the Ventriloquist since first seeing him on Batman: The Animated Series.  A timid man  whose personality split to control an overbearing mobster in the form of a puppet named, Scarface.  Not only is Arnold Wesker afraid of his puppet, but his hired guns and various associates are too.  No one acknowledged Arnold, they only look at the puppet.  Its kind of brilliant.

I wanted to try a lot of different things on this one.  A little bit of line coloring, a dash of perspective, and varying up my textures.  As far as the character, I wanted to make it obvious that it was Arnold doing the killing, but his twisted psyche convincing him that its the puppet.

Go to my personal blog to see the original inks and some work in progress shots: NeedYourDisease

Round 27: Mr. Freeze

My real education in Batman came from, Batman the Animated Series.  Like most around my age I had  met "The Challenge of the Superfriends", gone through a "Superpowers" and 60's "Batman and Robin" phase.  Was blown away by Burton's and Miller's Batmen and glowed with spiteful joy when I first read, "Death in the Family".  This was all immaterial when I found the work of Timm and Dini.  The original animated series was a distillation of everything good about Batman including his rogues gallery.  

My favorite, Dr.Victor Fries*.  He isn't in it for money, glory, a twisted sense of entitlement or even, "...to watch it all burn," he's in it for the love of his wife Nora.  Nothing else matters.  It's hard not to root for him especially in the episode, "Heart of Ice".  Do yourself a favor, if you haven't watched it in a while it's one of the best.

As the illustration goes, it's all vector, it was hard to pass up the pun.  

*Can't get this far into the post without mentioning the character design for Freeze was done by another hero of mine, Mike Mignola.

Hawken

I do love me some westerns. And what I love even more than westerns? Good western comics. This is a fan piece I did for the team of Ben & Tim Truman and their book HAWKEN. If you haven't read it yet...really?
You can click on the link to see the the inked line work. Chelzo Studios . Thanks for lookin'. J.

Round 27: Holy Macaroni Batman!

Woo!! Drawing this made me very happy. F yeah Poison Ivy!

R.Crider: Burning For You

Illo for the day job I loosely based on my pal and Drink And Draw Social Club sponsor: John Dudas. What does loosely based mean?  He's a firefighter and I was too lazy to go actually look at pictures of the guy. 

He's got the best comic shop in Cleveland and you should go to it. 

http://www.cnjcomics.com

Tim, Non-Topic Post: WIP GIF

Look! It moves! I felt like making an animation of some older work (mostly so I don't forget how to do it).  I know most of this has been posted before, but now you can view it in all of its animated seizure inducing glory! Or if you want you can always still view the (static) original post right here.

Round 27: The Batman!

With the flurry of posts and busy schedule of the Rust Belt Monsters, we almost forgot to tell you that this Round's theme is The Batman (I always thought that "The" makes it cooler).  We are not immune to the overwhelming coolness that is the Dark Knight.  So in honor of the caped crusader, we will be posting Batman themed works for all to enjoy.  Be sure to bookmark/subscribe for all updates Rust Belt Monster related.

Craig sketcherizes!

Mr. Crider had a good idea sharing some stuff from Dr. Sketchy so I thought I would add my 2 cents.

 These 2 are from Bond girl Sketchy with Dot King with an AMAZING switch as Hans (or maybe Gretel) Blowfeld.

From  the last Dr. Sketchy, it's Freddy Nova as Skeletor!

And finally a quick sketch from the ABW sketchy.