Roger Langridge's Blog, page 257

Revisiting the Clown

So I've been having a crack at colouring some old Fred the Clown stuff, with a possible eye to re-releasing some of the material in a different format or something - I dunno yet, exactly. I'm not sure if Fantagraphics' collection is still officially "in print"or not, and if it is, whether it constitutes a different work if it's completely recoloured. So, some homework to do there. Still, I thought I'd share a few of the recoloured pages here.

Here's the first - originally the inside back cover of FTC #3.

The Lost Fred the Clown strip

When I was doing Fred the Clown as a weekly web strip, I was usually never more than a week ahead. Consequently, I had a "buffer" strip standing by in case things got on top of me and I didn't have time to do the strip. The fact that my buffer strip was this kind of disturbing one probably kept me from ever needing to use it - although I kind of like it now more than I did at the time.

Meanwhile, In the Swamp...

Seasoned Muppets

More swag from the hard-drive tidy-up. The last few issues of the Muppet Show Comic were in limbo for a year or so before they finally saw print as the Four Seasons mini-series Marvel released last year, and those ones were given different covers from those I drew originally (which I actually prefer to mine, if you're wondering). I didn't draw one for "Fall" because things got complicated before I got around to that one, but Winter, Spring and Summer are all present and correct.

Fin Fang Finale

Rounding off the Fin Fang Four posts, here are my roughs for the first three pages of the original one-shot. I actually like these a lot.

Fin Fang Follow-Up

I promised you some more of these. Our initial pitch was for a four-issue series, so there are a couple of characters represented here we never had a chance to do anything with; our story was crammed into one single issue to go with the "Marvel Monsters Month" they were doing. These are scanned straight from pencils, I believe.

Fin Fang Frippery

Another forgotten tidbit from the hard-drive sort-out: some of the initial drawings I did for the pitch Scott Gray and I originally sent to Marvel for our original Fin Fang Four one-shot. When I look at how much work I put into these drawings I guess I must have really wanted this badly – for financial reasons partly, but I think part of it was also so I could tell people I'd ticked Marvel off the list. It's the sort of credential it's nice to have under your belt. And I really wanted to get Scott writing comics again, which is not something he was doing right then. He's one of the very best, in my humble opinion.

There are some more of these to follow tomorrow.

Popeye Number 7

More discovered treasure from the ol' hard-drive clearout. I only did a few covers for Popeye when I was working on it, but one of those covers was for one of the two issues I drew the interior art for, #7. Here are the cover roughs I submitted; you can see which one Craig Yoe liked the best here.

Muppetish

I've been clearing out my hard drive of superfluous files (pencil art, roughs and so forth that I'll never look at again) and I've come across a couple of things that might be of some interest. Here's the first...

When Jason Segel's Muppets film came out, the nice people at Boom! Studios asked me to whip up a drawing to present to Mr Segel at the premiere. I still only have the vaguest idea who he is – I'd never seen him in anything, still haven't – and I've yet to see the film. This caricature was based on a few screen grabs, so it may be a bit off. Still, here it is, for whatever it's worth.

Joining the 21st Century

Not really. Me and my Preston Sturges DVDs aren't likely to be separated anytime soon. But I thought I'd look into getting one of them fancy-pants banners all the convention-hopping cartoonists are using these days. It's sort of reached the point where I'm the only guy without one and I feel like a leper. Here's a design I threw together – I kind of like it, but I think I'll sleep on it before I send it off to get printed up.