Coming Soon!

All right. It's confession time. I… like… Star Wars.

There. I said it. And wow, does it feel good to get that off my chest?

Now that I've opened up about my feelings on the subject, I'm taking it one step further by, for the whole month of May, giving this blog a complete Star Wars makeover, with a new Star Wars related post each week! Because, let's face it, when it comes to Star Wars fan art, the internet is severely lacking!

Be sure to check back here on May the 4th (Star Wars Day!) for the first installment, and then continue to come back each week in May for more! PLUS, like me on Facebook for, you guessed it, EVEN MORE!

That's right, internet! I am a fan of an incredibly popular and hugely successful movie franchise… and I don't care who knows it!!

Rebooting Ruxpin - Grubby

     Last week, I started my little fan art project of putting a different spin on the characters of Ken Forsse's Teddy Ruxpin series. Next up is Teddy's best friend, Grubby.

     Grubby is an octopede, an insect like creature with eight hands. Don't confuse him with an arachnid. Those have eight LEGS.

     The original grubby walked on six of his hands and only used two of them to serve as actual hands. I thought it would be more fun, as well as more of a challenge, to have him use two pairs of hands to walk on and two pairs of hands for his finer motor skills. After all, what's the point of having a bunch of hands if you're only going to use just as many as any other Tom, Dick & Harriet? That would be like only using one tong on a fork!

Rebooting Ruxpin

     Growing up, I was a fan of Ken Forsse's Teddy Ruxpin. I never had the famous talking doll or any of the storybooks, but I did have several of the Teddy Ruxpin toys, which my brothers and I played with quite a bit. The adventures we created with those things were probably way better than anything that was ever officially produced. I'm talking 'Shakespeare' good!

Like the time Grubby and Michelangelo had to rescue Boba Fett 

with Bill and Ted's time-traveling phone booth!

     As with most things from my childhood, Teddy Ruxpin has always kind of stuck around in the back of my mind. A while back, I tried re-imagining the characters as gritty sci-fi heroes, but I eventually tired of that and gave it up. It seems like everything's gritty these days.

For example, here's a screen grab from the new Shirt Tales reboot.
What's up with that?!?

     There's been a ton of cartoon reboots lately: Thundercats, My Little Pony, Scooby-Doo, Ninja Turtles... The list goes on and on. Some are good. Some are bad. The point is, the stars of my childhood are getting a second chance! And I say it's about time the spotlight shines back on everyone's favorite illiop! Yeah, that's right. Teddy's not even a bear! He's called an illiop! How nutty is that?

     So if you'll indulge me while I do some wishful thinking, I thought it'd be fun to give Teddy and his friends my own new spin. Here's the first in this 'on-again off-again' lineup of mine: Teddy Ruxpin himself!

     The original Teddy Ruxpin was too much of a "goody-goody" for my tastes. I wanted this version to show a little more mischievous spunk, but still have that same passion for adventure.  Hopefully, all of you like it. 

     Your comments are well appreciated, and stay tuned as I post my further revamps of the Teddy Ruxpin characters. I might even come up with some new friends and foes for the beloved bear.

...oops! I mean, illiop. I swear! That gets me every time!

Indy Shot Last

It's April Fool's Day! The day where you can flat out lie to someone and they will have to simply shrug it off in celebration of... the first day of the fourth month of the YEAR!

For the occasion, I thought I'd share this video that all of us at Number One Group Team Conglomerate made a few years ago.



The joke is that this classic 'Indiana Jones' moment received the same Special Edition treatment as the classic 'Star Wars' moment when Han blasts Greedo in the Cantina. In other words, Indy waits for the Swordsman to attack first before he fires... because, you know, Indy is a nice guy and has impeccable dodging skills similar to his Far Away Galaxy counterpart, Han Solo.

So share this with all of those you know, informing them that this Special Edition is a reality, when in fact, it isn't. Because, THAT'S what this day is all about. Deception.

Happy Day of Lies!

*unintelligible*

Last week I gave my praise for the voice work in the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. This week, I thought I'd talk about what I think is the one small exception... Yakky Doodle.

He's an adorable little duckling, but every time he opens his mouth, I cringe. His voice is obviously supposed to sound like Donald Duck, but, in my opinion, it doesn't really fit the character.

Anyways, here's my take on Mr. Doodle. Hopefully, my art doesn't make you grit your teeth as much as I do when Yakky says, well... anything.

Yakky Doodle

Dat's My Boy!

I decided to go back and do some more of the Hanna-Barbera characters in the same style. Here we have Augie Doggie and his Doggie Daddy.

Doggie Daddy & Augie Doggie

One of the great things about most of the Hanna-Barbera characters is how their voice actors (Daws Butler in particular) are just doing very thinly veiled impressions of random famous people from the time. Yogi Bear is Art Carney, Snagglepuss is Burt Lahr, and Doggie Daddy is the great Jimmy Durante. Yet despite the strong resemblance in the sound of their voices, the characters still manage to be completely original as well as timeless. If someone asks you to do a Yogi Bear impression, it doesn't cross your mind for a second that Yogi Bear is sort of doing an impression himself. You just go, "Heeeyy Boo-Boo!" and then wonder who that weirdo was asking you to talk like a cartoon bear.

Peeyoosa!

The Star Wars films are filled with several moments that could be described as "iconic."
For example, when Luke watches the twin suns set, or when Leia tells Han she loves him as he's lowered into carbonite, and he responds, "I know."

These are subtle little moments that give us a lot of information about who the characters are and what's going on with them.

And then, good ol' Jar Jar Binks strolls along and steps in a piece of animal crap. Also iconic, though probably not EQUALLY iconic. It does, however, give us some information about the character: He's an idiot. You know... in case anyone was still wondering.

And just as that annoying piece of poo clung to the gungan's giant feet, so does Jar Jar himself stick to one of the most beloved franchises in movie history, forever associated with those iconic moments. 

All of that said, ...he is a lot of fun to draw! Here's to you, Mr. Binks!

Meet Gertrude

Back in October, I made a poster for a friend, featuring a bunch of adorable little Halloween characters that I came up with. Here's a closer look at one of those characters. The Little Specter with a lot of Spunk! - Gertrude!!

Yeah. The Specter with Spunk thing is kinda cheesy. How about... the Poltergeist with Pizazz?

The Ghost with the Goods?

Ooh! I know! The Apparition with Appeal! ...with Allure? ...Alignment?

The VAPOR WITH VIGOR!!!
All right. I'll stop.

Pete and Penny Penguin

I've always been a fan of theme park characters. I don't know why exactly. There's just something... I dunno, "magical" about standing next to some stranger with a big foam head. When I was a kid, I actually got butterflies in my stomach while walking up to meet one at whatever theme park I was at. What am I saying? I STILL get the butterflies! It's weird.

I don't know if they're still around or not, but SeaWorld used to have "Shamu and Crew" which were their Meet-and-Greet characters based on the beloved Orca and several other sea animals. My favorites were Pete and Penny Penguin. There's no real reason why they're my favorites, I guess, other than the fact that I like penguins and they're penguins.

Dolly the Dolphin would probably be my second favorite, simply because
of her incredibly creative name.

And so, as is the case with many little pieces of yesteryear floating around in my head, I decided to draw Pete and Penny. I wanted to give them a new look, so I slightly morphed my Penguin Suits design. Who knows? I might try my luck at doing more Penguin Suits someday with THIS type of look. It's like Superman's dad said, "The son becomes the father, and then the father..."

Meh. Whatever. Now I'm just rambling.

Here! Penguins!