What a shift in tone! I love it. From the drunken yet affable Black Snow giving us his best flirtatious look to some dark room torture. I drew this one much faster than any of the previous pages, and from a technical standpoint it is a lot simpler than any of those. Not nearly as many layers and a much less complex background. Yet I think it’s just as good.
In fact Alex really complimented my drawing and felt the need to tell me how good it looked, something fairly rare. So what are we looking at here? Two new characters! Arthur and the man you’ll come to know as Redemption. I’m very excited by Redemption, and took some time coming up with his character design. A bible thumping super villain? I’m in.
If you couldn’t tell, his look is largely inspired by the knights of the crusades. What’s up with his face? I don’t want to reveal too much, I’ll just say he’s a very interesting character with a detailed back-story and a role to play.
I’m actually not so into the whole bible babble stuff, as I usually glaze over that type of thing. I think Alex did a really good job in this scene making it interesting and convincing (I don’t just mean this page). He wrote some really good stuff, some of which has been cut to make the scene shorter. Don’t fret, we plan on using some of it later. I will take credit for thinking up the awesome name though. Redemption! So many levels of meaning, it will be great.
For some reason we seem to return to the bible often, here with a zealot and in I’m Famous! with regular mocking. Couldn’t tell you why. We aren’t religious guys.
Lets talk about Arthur for a moment. I think he turned out really well, and is our first black character in the story. We plan on having quite a few more black characters this time around in an attempt to more accurately represent Detroit.
Detroit’s population has declined 25% in the last decade (according to last year’s census), as the car factories continued to close down people abandoned the city. Of that population, 713,777 people, the race breakdown is 82.7% Black, 10.6% White, 1.1% Asian, 0.4% Native American, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 3.0% other races, 2.2% two or more races. In addition, 6.8% of the population self-identified as Hispanic or Latino. Basically, that’s a damn high percentage of black people, in what is still one of the largest cities in America. So we aim to try to represent that.
In case you missed it, check out CM Punk’s amazing promo that closed last night’s WWE Raw.
In case that video is removed here is a full transcript:
“John Cena, while you lay there, hopefully as uncomfortable as you possibly can be, I want you to listen to me.
I want you to digest this because before I leave in 3 weeks with your WWE Championship, I have a lot of things I want to get off my chest.
I don’t hate you, John. I don’t even dislike you. I do like you. I like you a hell of a lot more than I like most people in the back.
I hate this idea that you’re the best. Because you’re not. I’m the best. I’m the best in the world. There’s one thing you’re better at than I am and that’s kissing Vince McMahon’s ass.
You’re as good as kissing Vince McMahon’s ass as Hulk Hogan was. I don’t know if you’re as good as Dwayne though. He’s a pretty good ass kisser. Always was and still is.
Whoops! I’m breaking the fourth wall! (Punk waves to the camera)
I am the best wrestler in the world.
I’ve been the best since day one when I walked into this company. And I’ve been vilified and hated since that day because Paul Heyman saw something in me that nobody else wanted to admit. That’s right, I’m a Paul Heyman guy. You know who else was a Paul Heyman guy? Brock Lesnar. And he split just like I’m splitting. But the biggest difference between me and Brock is I’m going to leave with the WWE Championship.
I’ve grabbed so many of Vincent K. McMahon’s imaginary brass rings that it’s finally dawned on me that there just that, they’re completely imaginary. The only thing that’s real is me and the fact that day in and day out, for almost six years, I have proved to everybody in the world that I am the best on this microphone, in that ring, even in commentary! Nobody can touch me!
And yet no matter how many times I prove it, I’m not on your lovely little collector cups. I’m not on the cover of the program. I’m barely promoted. I don’t get to be in movies. I’m certainly not on any crappy show on the USA Network. I’m not on the poster of WrestleMania. I’m not on the signature that’s produced at the start of the show. I’m not on Conan O’Brian. I’m not on Jimmy Fallon. But the fact of the matter is, I should be.
This isn’t sour grapes. But the fact that Dwayne is in the main event at WrestleMania next year and I’m not makes me sick!
Oh hey, let me get something straight. Those of you who are cheering me right now, you are just as big a part of me leaving as anything else. Because you’re the ones who are sipping on those collector cups right now. You’re the ones that buy those programs that my face isn’t on the cover of. And then at five in the morning at the airport, you try to shove it in my face and get an autograph and try to sell it on Ebay because you’re too lazy to go get a real job.
I’m leaving with the WWE Championship on July 17th. And hell, who knows, maybe I’ll go defend it in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Maybe…I’ll go back to Ring of Honor.
(Punk looks at the camera and waves)
Hey, Colt Cabana, how you doing?
The reason I’m leaving is you people. Because after I’m gone, you’re still going to pour money into this company. I’m just a spoke on the wheel. The wheel is going to keep turning and I understand that. Vince McMahon is going to make money despite himself. He’s a millionaire who should be a billionaire. You know why he’s not a billionaire? Because he surrounds himself with glad-handed, non-nonsensical, douchebag (censored) yes men, like John Laurinaitis, who’s going to tell him everything he wants to hear, and I’d like to think that maybe this company will better after Vince McMahon is dead. But the fact is, it’s going to be taken over by his idiotic daughter and his doofus son-in-law and the rest of his stupid family.
Let me tell you a personal story about Vince McMahon alright. We do this whole (anti) bully campaign
(Mic cut off.)”
Work? Shoot? Worked shoot? Who knows? It doesn’t really matter, because it was amazing and has everyone talking. The fact that people are questioning it is testament enough. After reading next weeks Raw spoilers it seems pretty clear it was at least partially planned.
It is the most true, different and exciting thing to happen to wrestling in a long time.
For those totally unaware, CM Punk’s contract is set to expire on July 17th, the night of the Money in the Bank PPV where he will be fighting John Cena for the WWE title. Is that true that his contract expires that night and he plans on leaving? All reports I’ve read say yes, but who really knows. Another interesting thing to note is that CM Punk had a similar storyline when he left Ring of Honor about 6 years ago, where he did indeed win the title on his last night and stuck around to defend it for a few extra months.
So what will happen here? It’s anyone guess, but it was a shocking moment that seemed to have a lot of truth to everything that was being said. I’ve been a fan of CM Punk since his debut on the doomed relaunch of ECW almost 6 years ago, and in that time he has consistently been the best thing going in wrestling. He is the main reason I continue to watch, especially since Jericho left again. If he is really leaving in a few weeks it will really be a shame. He is as hot as ever right now, and WWE should do whatever they can to hold on to him and capitalize.
His soliloquy is reminiscent of Joey Styles quitting to help form ECW and Daniel Bryan returning to NXT after being eliminated.
The unfortunate thing about these comparisons is that WWE failed to fully capitalize on both situations properly. Hopefully they have learned and won’t make the same mistake again.
This is the type of promo that could shake everything up and legitimately change things. A lot of WWE flaws were laid out for the world to hear on WWE programming, and I can only hope they are not dumb enough to allow someone to point them all out without a plan to fix them.
Whatever happens, it is a very exciting time to be a WWE fan.
So, do I hate Anime and Manga? If you read my blog regular you may think the simple answer is “Yes!” Correct. Blog over. Thanks for coming.
Oh wait, not correct. That is the easy answer I choose to give people instead of explaining myself.
Smarter readers may think, “Hold on, they’re about to do a Manga spin-off with Mark “Rawr” Eagan.” There are so few smarter readers out there. BTW, Check this out:
I'm Famous in Japan!
Cool new site background for the collaboration comic, eh? Lone Wolf looks a bit like Super Sonic.
Observant readers may have even noticed that I use elements from the Anime/Manga world in my drawing fairly regularly. Look close, it ain’t all traditional western stuff folks. For example, the Lone Wolf’s character design, the over the top emotional reactions, a lot of the early Black Snow stuff, my backgrounds and even the tone of I’m Famous! It’s all there for people who care to open their eyes.
So the truth is, I don’t hate Anime or Manga. I hate generic Anime and Manga and people who blindly love it all. Most of it is bad, really bad, yet there is this truly annoying cult fan-base out there for virtually all of it.
Let me tell you a little about my own history with Anime (I never really got into reading much Manga). In my Freshmen and Sophomore years of high school I was in the Anime club, where I gathered with nerds at lunch twice a week to watch Anime in the dark and eat. Yes, I was popular. My favorite stuff I enjoyed watching in there? Lupin the 3rd movies and the Mobile Battleship Nadesico series. We also watched a bunch of other stuff like Golden boy and Cowboy Bebop, and countless others I forgot.
Around this time, perhaps a year or two earlier, I was also into the original red Pokemon, trying to catch them all. I even watched the TV show. Oh, and I was an official member of the Manga fan club. I also used to watch Anime with Alex, who had quite a collection. I remember watching classics like Akira and Ninja Scroll (my favorite anime) together. I even watch the Anime they’d play at night on PBS, like Tenchi Universe, Urusei Yatsura, Bubblegum Crisis, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Please Save My Earth.
I used to spend my hard earned money buying VHS tapes of Anime at Suncoast. I remember getting Devil Man and Bastard! as gifts from Alex. I had a collection. I even bought the lame sequels to Ninja Scroll.
Then by junior year I started to get over the whole phase/craze. I would say I was probably into Anime for 4 or 5 years, then I moved on.
So don’t tell me I don’t know Anime or Manga and that I never gave it any kind of chance. I don’t blindly hate it all, I just think most of it is crap and can’t abide the fact that it seems to get a free pass with people simply because it is Anime. You can still be discerning people, it doesn’t have to be a blanket love or hate thing. Most of the crappy anime, the extremely annoying fans, and especially the huge, terrible collection of amateur, wannabe fan artists out there have turned me off from the style as a whole. It has to be something special for me to enjoy an Anime or Manga these days
Which brings us back to Rawr. I like Back Office and his style, and I’m very excited about working with him on I’m Famous in Japan! His character designs are fun, we’ve got about 8 written (though it will be longer), and we’re working on a fun cover. BTW, look for it to be the same kind of tribute/slash parody to the Anime world that we traditionally bring to the super hero genre. If you like Anime, Japanese culture, or just our comics, then you’ll really enjoy it.
Still going fast and strong! I really love doing splash pages, covers and pinups. For some reason the seem to come easier to me and be more fun. Not to say that this one was totally easy. Never did quite get the right hand totally the way I wanted it to look.
I did something different here that I’ve played with a bit on earlier pages: I did not draw any lines, and all shading was done with the burn and dodge tools. I just laid done my shapes in the shades I wanted, then I worked from there. Perhaps I would’ve been better served drawing in the more traditional cartoon, line style I’m used to. It probably would’ve been easier, but I always like to try new things, and I think these results are quite striking, if not stunning.
I also had fun playing with my more expressionistic backgrounds, as has previously been my style and always something I like to work with. It’s good to be able to make realistic looking backgrounds (like this crappy office Black Snow works out of), but I think more expressionistic ones certainly have their place as well. It has never been my goal to recreate a totally realistic look. Even if I was talented enough to do it, that’s not the way I want to draw, and seems to lack a certain creativity.
You can’t truly see it because of the size, but the eyeballs are actually very realistic. I re-purposed them from an eyeball I created based on a tutorial a couple years back, and I wanted to see how they’d look in black and white, darkened and mixed with more cartoony drawing. I think they work well.
I went a bit off script here, as Black Snow was supposed to deliver this line then the script simply called for “opening credits!” after, which Alex had a couple different ideas of how I could interpret (showing characters like a TV show was one, listing our titles and showing different drawings of Detroit was another, I think there were more). In the interest of time, length and simplicity I decided to combine some of those ideas and make them into a more traditional splash page with production credits.
What next? Tighten up the next scene a bit and get drawing on it! A very different scene, to be sure. With a new character (well, two really), so I’ll need to do some sketch-booking first as well, as I don’t totally know how they’ll look yet.
But before that, a return to I’m Famous! Maybe I’ll draw that next one I referred to before, as it is really good. But I’ll also get to work on I’m Famous in Japan!, as Alex and I have already started the writing and Mark “Rawr” Eagan has been working on his character designs (some interesting new looks!). I have to build the page for it and I have a cover design in mind (plus I’ll be drawing some of the strip).
I keep cranking them out! In truth, after finishing the last page I could hardly wait to get to this one because I really wanted to show Black Snow being charming (or at least trying to be charming). We haven’t seen him in this capacity for a long time (issue 2 I guess, and he wasn’t all that charming then). A bit more depth and versatility for our main character.
He has really come off as such a swarthy loser so in this graphic novel that it makes his odd attempts at flirtation fairly humorous. Who would seriously consider this man in any romantic capacity, especially after he just finished (or still is) mocking them? The goal, or my goal at least, was to make him somewhat like Bill Murray’s character type in his 80′s comedies; a fairly dishonest loser, but full of charm and humor so we root him anyway.
I really like his back and forth with Marie, and look forward to doing their story right this time, as we never got the chance to return to it in the original comic books.
If page 6 gave us classic Black Snow in his catch phrase, we really get classic Black Snow here with a return of sorts to his original slicked back hair style. It looks much greasier now though. I really love that middle right panel where he is really working it. It is interesting to see him with his classic look but in the updated style, and with eyeballs. While I really enjoyed the original eye slits, and plan on continuing them in Famous, there is something much more expressive and human about actually seeing the pupils of a man.
Oh, you’ll notice I got to make this page only 3 rows of panels (instead of 4 like the other pages) so I had more room to work, which felt good. Room for more details in their faces and such. One reason I was able to do this was because we are nearing the end of our intro scene! I don’t want to spoil too much, but the next page will be the splash page, so look forward to that!
