Evan Dorkin's Blog, page 22

Batmilk and Cheesewing Commission

I'm finishing up a final group of commissions that I had hoped to get done last year, and this is is the first of that set, an 11" by 17" mash-up of Milk and Cheese and some of the DC Batman cast of characters. Holy moley, did this thing cramp my hand, mostly because of the logos and the broccoli "hair". That's what I get for tossing logos in. I initially wanted to design an Artichoke-styled Joker because it made for a much cleaner, er, joke ("The Artichoker") but it looked awful. So I went for the broccoli design and threw in some artichoke henchmen as an extra and added some other stuff and kind of overdid it. I tend to toss extra business into commissions, especially if they're late.

Anyway, I have to go color this fella (slowwwly) and then start a Bill and Ted and Milk and Cheese piece (which will have Death tossed in as a "mea culpa" for the lateness), a big M&C piece and two barter pieces I've owed folks for ages and feel terribly about. Hoping to catch-up by next week so I can get back to a script and a cover and maybe some new commissions in the near-future. Only no more big crazy ones for a while. Little ones. With no logos.

Harmony

 Sketch card.

The Mole Man

Pity the poor Mole Man. This hapless little schmuck and perennial punching bag/punchline of the Marvel Universe holds a special place in comics history as the first villain the debuting Fantastic Four went up against. His origin, as best as I can remember it (half the fun of these posts is going off fan memory and possibly being completely wrong) was that he was a lonely, bitter outcast of society, abused, taunted and ignored by men and women because of his height (or lack thereof), big nose, horrible teeth, terrible hair, baggy clothes, ugly Marvel-era color scheme, etc. He also seemed really whiny and probably gave off serious loser-alert pheromones. Anyway, Mr. Schmuck Of The World ends up wandering underground somehow, I forget how, it doesn't matter. No, it doesn't. What matters is that he found himself the king of some Tales To Astonish/Journey Into Mystery-type giant subterranean monsters and a wielder of destructive power via advanced machinery. He also was decked out in the same shlubby clothes albeit with a newly-added funny cape and some badly-designed 3D glasses. I guess giant subterranean monsters aren't great clothes designers and valets. Moving along, the newly-christened Mole Man (nice self-loathing there, dude) has bad eyes from being blinded or being underground or something but he has heightened senses for no real reason I can see a slob like him developing other than being in a comic book. His big power is apparently that he can hit people with a stick really good because of his "mole"-like senses. Okay, whatever.

The F.F. encounters him after some monster sightings or something and then I think Susan Storm shrieks and then our heroes are captured and then the Mole Man bores them half-to-death telling them about his origin ("I fell down a hole") and his life problems ("I'm a loser") and looking like Henry Kissinger with badly-designed 3D glasses. The Mole Man hits them with a stick a bunch of times and gives them some trouble, I guess. Sticks hurt, sure. The heroes could throw rocks at him, I guess, from a bit of a distance, but they don't think of that because they're confused about how a putz falls down a hole and then trains as a martial arts monk with a stick. The whole thing ends with an explosion.

For the next five decades the same sort of thing keeps happening again and again with this guy. The Mole Man gets pissy about his shabby treatment at the hands of prettily-inked females and causes some shit and orders some monsters or funny little subterranean people he's enslaved into attacking superjocks like Thor and The Hulk who hand them their collective asses pretty easily. He never gets his shit together or even combs his hair or gets some work done on his teeth. I think he gets into fights with this alpha-male subterranean guy whose name I forget, another villain who does dumb crap below the streets of various Marvel cities. Tyrannus -- is that his name? He's like if Hercules was The Mole Man and is totally boring. He's not even good with a stick. I won't be drawing Tyrannus anytime soon.

Anyway, there you go. The Mole Man, created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in Fantastic Four #1. The loser gone bad, the outcast who picks up a stick instead of an olive branch. With great power comes great self-pity and dickishness. If I had giant monsters as pals I'd maybe pep up a bit. Who knows.

What, Me Worry? - 60 Years of Mad at The Cartoon Art Museum

The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco will be presenting a retrospective of artwork from Mad's 60 years of existence, featuring original art from both the comic and magazine eras. The exhibit kicks off on April 21st and runs until September 16th. Cartoonists featured in the exhibit include Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Wally Wood, Don Martin, Jack Davis, Sergio Aragones, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee, George Woodbridge, John Severin, Dave Berg, Antonio Prohias and Sam Viviano as well as illustrations and comics by more recent contributors like Peter Kuper and Keith Knight. They'll also have covers by Frank Freas and Norman Mingo. Holy crap.

This sounds like a terrific exhibit, I hope folks in the area will check it out. I'm supposed to have a piece in there (I sent it off yesterday) but in all honesty I'm happy the museum's in SF and I won't be able to see how my work appears next to the greats. I wish I had a comic page to send instead of an illustration but the only sequential work I ever did for them was drawn as separate panels and sections. I sent a two-page spread of a crowd in a McDonald's restaurant but I doubt it will read well on the wall. It's not keeping me up at night but it does make my stomach hurt. Anyway, if it gets in it'll be nice to be in the show and like I said, I don't have to see it. But I would like to see the rest of the work. Elder...Kurtzman...Wood...the Usual Gang of Idiots. Amazing.

More information can be found here.

Japanese Eltingville "Manga"

This little comic ran in the Japanese magazine Newtype in 2004. I assume it's about the Adult Swim Welcome to Eltingville pilot which I know aired in Japan. I can only hope it's a positive write-up. 




I love this, by the way. Seeing your characters manga-fied in an actual Japanese publication is pretty geeky-keen.

Upcoming Appearances

Sarah and I will be appearing at the Asbury Park Comic Con, which will be held at the Asbury Lanes bowling alley/bar/concert venue in New Jersey on May 12th. Other creators who are scheduled to appear include Michael Kupperman, Jamal Igle and  Danny Hellman. They have a very nice website, which you can check out here, for more information. 

We will also be setting up once again at Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 22-24. This year's guests include Jaime Hernandez, Sergio Aragones, Mike Mignola, Dave Cooper and my partner on Beasts of Burden, the great Jill Thompson. They have a huge guest list which will continue to grow from now until the day of the event. The House of Fun will be part of the Indie Island area, the hip, happy, happening place for well-regarded cartoonists who unfortunately don't sell too many books. Ha ha, I kid because it's really...kind of...true. Anyway, if you haven't been yet, you should try to make it to your first Heroes Con. Heroes is a great, well-run, friendly, comics-only show and we're really looking forward to it, honest and for true. 

Other than (possibly) signing at the DHC booth at NYCC this is probably all of our convention appearances for the year. We've actually been invited to several other shows for the first time in ages, and while we appreciate being asked, our schedule and circumstances just wouldn't let us do much traveling this year. Maybe that will change in the near future.

In the meantime, hope to see some of you folks later this year.

More Stuff on eBay:

We have a new round of eBay auctions up and running, including original H.O.F. art (a Milk and Cheese pin-up, some Mad and Nickelodeon Magazine illustrations and the over-sized cover from the Guild: Zaboo one-shot). We're also offering up a Murder Family prototype zippo and a Milk and Cheese zippo (the second release, chrome finish, with the M&C #5 cover image) as we winnow down our holdings and find stuff we didn't know we still had.

Non-art listings include the Lain anime 4-DVD boxed set (along with a Lain doll), some 80's action figure lots (Thundercats, Robotech, G.I.Joe, Masters of the Universe), a few Barbie dolls and a vintage 1960's Emma Peel doll.

Auction listings are here. Thanks for looking.

Dark Horse Presents #10: House of Fun

A reminder that DHP #10 came out yesterday to the shops that ordered it, featuring the first installment of the House of Fun segments by Sarah and I. First up is a two-page Milk and Cheese comic and a six-page Murder Family.

Hope those of you that see it enjoy it. 

Pickleby

Skankin' Self Portrait

A self-portrait I was asked to draw for a project...uhh, last year. 

Now for the late commissions...

BTW- I put this up on Flickr earlier, re-posted it here because I always assume some folks who read my LJ might not be on Flickr or don't usually check it. So I try to post images in both places when possible. Should I continue to double up occasionally? I don't mind, really, so let me know if this is where you see my drawings (and want to continue to see them).