The Captain Caveman Was Here

I used to watch this show all the time when I was a kid, but I only remember three things: he had hot sidekicks, he screamed a lot, and he beat people over the fucking head. That was my favorite part. This is the Captain Caveman head smash ambush in advertisement form. Everyone seems to be having a great time, which is the magic of advertising. It's also the magic of Mel Caylo, who had the Captain Caveman idea for this week's post. Click for bigger version.

Captain Cavemerica by Zach Oat

I don't know if Captain Caveman was designed first or named first, or if he was the result of some sort of decades-long Hanna-Barbera R&D project, but he is ridiculous. Is that a massive beard, or is his body furry and peanut-shaped? I'm sure this was explained in the cartoon, along with where his powers come from, but it has literally been decades since I saw one. So I drew him as one of my favorite superheroes, Captain America, and I dressed his son like Bucky in the background.

It's sad that one of the most iconic images of Captain America I can think of is Ultimate Cap pointing at the "A" on his forehead and saying "Do you think this stands for 'France'?" Damn you, Mark Millar. Anyway, I wasn't gonna color it, but I had a few free moments while watching "Jason and teh Argonauts." So here you go.

Scooby-Doobies Doooode! by Matt P.

I love how I post to this blog more regularly than my own, but I aim to change within the next few days.

Last week Melly Mel called the shots and sent us back to the Stone Age with Captain Caveman.

My earliest memory of Captain Caveman came from USA Networks' Cartoon Express show, "Laff-a-lympics." Essentially, there were three teams of Hanna-Barbera characters each led by a recognizable character who competed in Olympic-type events. The teams were-The Yogi Yahooeys (led by Yogi Bear), The Scooby Doobies (led by Scooby-Doo), and The Really Rottens (led by Dread Baron or, if you prefer, Dick Dastardly).

So, in my contribution to this blog I went with my favorite and Captain Caveman's team, The Scooby Doobies, and included two of his teammates--Hong Kong Phooey and Dynomutt. Enjoy!

Cap'n Caveman by Rob

I hate Captain Caveman. He always freaked me out. Partially because as a man, he was clearly nude, even though he was cognizant enough to wear a cape; also because he was entirely covered in hair, which, as a nearly hairless person myself, makes me intensely uncomfortable and a little jealous. Still, when Mel Caylo says draw Captain Caveman, you do it or you get the shit hugged out of you.

I knew I wanted to bring out Captain Caveman's innate creepiness with a reasonably realistic face, and when I thought of beings who were mostly eyes and noses, I immediately turned to Ringo Starr. So I tried to model the face off of his photos on the cover of With the Beatles and A Hard Day's Night. The cigarette seemed somehow necessary after I finished the eyes and nose. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out in that it's really, really creepy.

The Hair Club Featuring Captain Caveman by TJ Dietsch

When Mel suggested we draw Captain Caveman this week, I figured I could take it easy and just do a quick version of a childhood favorite. Instead, I found it difficult to really capture CC's essence. I think it's the eye/nose combination that really makes him unique. Anyway, I decided to make things harder on myself by setting this drawing in a dance club and adding Cousin It and Hair Bear to the mix. Plus turntables. Anyway, here's the original, pres-Photoshop version.

After scanning it, I went through and basically bleached everything but the black lines by using the paintbucket tool to make just about everything white. I've found the more I do of this, the easier it is to go through and add color in big waves as opposed to really intricate work. I apparently didn't do enough though as this piece still took a lot of zooming in an altering. I then grabbed some images online of the characters and used the eyedropper to match the colors. After that it was just a matter of adding the other colors and patters. And voila, here's the finished product.

Centurion Batman by Rob

I picked this week's subject matter, exactly so I could draw Batman in a bat-themed Roman centurion outfit. My inspiration was of course DC's recently revealed Return of Bruce Wayne comic covers, my stupid-enormous passion for ancient Rome, and the fact that I'm pretty sure my fellow LAWyers would have hated me if I'd asked them to draw Dr. Druid (next time, though).

I took the pose from a Jim Lee Hush pic, and then kind of immediately fucked it up. Between the nightmare happening with Batman's right foot and the fact that I'm not nearly competent enough to draw all those straps around Batman's groin and shoulders, I decided to leave it in pencil to keep it from looking too atrocious. I feel it was a good move.

Punk Rock Batman by Zach Oat

As a fan of DC's Elseworlds stories (as well as the Legends of the Dark Knight toy line by Kenner), I could draw Batman in different historical outfits all day. Unfortunately, I'm not that good an artist, so Braveheart Batman and Black Knight Batman aren't really options. But after catching an advance screening of "The Runaways," I started thinking about the 1970s glam rock/punk rock movement, and after briefly debating if it made any logical sense for Batman to do anything in the '70s other than be Batman, I kinda sorta made him the frontman for the Stooges.



I don't know what the other Stooges look like, but I gave Batman Iggy Pop's chiseled abs and skinny jeans. Of course, I instantly regretted not making Batman David Bowie, since then I would at least have an easy pun. ("A Bat Insane," "The Thin White Bruce," etc.) The name "Iggy Pop" doesn't lend itself to Batman-related puns, although I suppose you could call the band "Iggy and the Bruces." And of course he would perform such hits as "I Wanna Be Your Unofficially Sanctioned Vigilante," "Search and Place in Arkham Asylum" and "Lust for Street-Level Justice." Here's a colored version.



Check out the amazing covers for Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne at DC's The Source.

Holy Stained Glass, Batman!...by Matt P.

Even though it seems like everyone in Gotham has to have seen The Batman at least once in their life, I like the idea of him being a mythical figure. With the theme of a time-lost Batman, I imagine he'd like to keep a low profile when taking out the bad guys to, y'know, not throw off the whole space-time continuum.

So the first idea that came to mind was, "What if someone one happened to catch a glimpse of the Caped Crusader?" So if Bats ran through Medieval times, I bet his insignia would catch the eye of an onlooker and inspire them to create a stained glass image as a tribute or just as a cool idea. I wanted it to be simple and was really pleased with the outcome.

Also, Here's some other cool stained glass images I came across.

Here's the Photoshop color version to give you the full effect:

'Nam Batman by Ben Morse

No lie, when I heard the time-lost Batman pitch, the first thing that popped into my head was to do a Saturday Night Fever riff, but then without any discussion between the two of us, TJ went and did it first, so instead I did this...

I don't love how I did the shading (particularly on the pants) or that the bandana looks like some sort of earpiece, and in retrospect it would have been neat to add some more bat gadgets or touches, but hey, here we are.

Hat tip to the poster for the original Rambo.

Ward's Version of Batman: Out of Time

What if Batman got on a Time Machine and got lost? That was the inspiration here.



This photo manipulation inspired by Rob Bricken and Corey Ian Haim. CLICK photo for Biggie-Fries Version.

Banorko

What if Orko had a banana head? That was the inspiration here.

Disco Batman by TJ Dietsch

After Rob of Topless Robot fame suggested time lost Batman for this week's subject, I was at a bit of a loss. A Batman from anywhere throughout the whole history of time is a bit daunting. So, I went pretty simple and just did Batman as Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever, ripping the pose off of the poster. I did the usual pencils then inks, then I had a cocktail and thought coloring it with markers would be a good idea. Here's how it looked before I poorly Photoshopped it.

Then I poorly Photoshopped it, giving Bats a wooden dance floor to dance on, a pschadelic background and a disco ball to dance under. I really wish I could use Photoshop more effectively. Or at all really. Anywhere, here's the eye-melting version.

For more of me, head over to UnitedMonkee.

The Secret Origin of Destructor

I've been chronicling the adventures of Destructor and The Mob since I was in third grade. I've done this in a variety of different ways: Prose stories and histories, long lists of characters, playing "Mob" with my siblings and the neighborhood kids or just by myself, or even simply mentally advancing the storyline by increments as I drift off to sleep. Nowadays of course there are also the comics I've done with the great Matt Wiegle. But the main record of Destructor's world that I've kept over the years is in the form of hundreds and hundreds of drawings of the characters, from the waist up, mugshot-style. I drew these all through elementary school, middle school, and high school, mostly in giant three-tiered sheets of computer paper, the kind that had little holes on the edges. I've got a blue binder full of these things--if you're ever at my house, I'll show 'em to you.

So here are the three drawings I have of Destructor from that period.



This is the earliest extant drawing of Destructor, but it's not the first one I did. I first drew Destructor and a lot of other characters in third grade, but lost all the drawings on a class trip. I redrew him...I'm not sure when, exactly. Several months later, maybe the next school year? So that would date this drawing to around 1987, most likely. Note the spikes and horns, always a very prominent part of how I saw the character. You'll probably be seeing them down the line.



As I got older and "better" at drawing, I started redoing some of the most important characters so that they'd look as cool as I was capable of making them look at the time. I'd imagine this drawing was done in middle school, so around '90-'91, something like that. More spikes, bigger horns.



In high school, I finally bit the bullet and broke the mugshot format, and started drawing legs and feet. I did this in a series of full-body pin-ups on loose leaf, no doubt inspired by the pin-ups in the comics I'd finally started reading by this time. This probably was done in 1995. None more spiky!

Pfft, Orko...more like, Dorko. by Matt P.

I remember being really into He-Man as a kid (btw, I would have loved to have seen the marketing meeting to see the guy who actually came up with the idea to name the show "He-Man." I'm sure the office threw him a free lunch that day.) and I don't really much care for it now. So I don't have any kind of real attachment to the characters more than the main characters, their wacky names, and crazy costumes.

I drew this from a random picture online found here I like the graytones and just smudged it with my finger to give some color contrast. To add a little magic, I just erased in the letters at the top left to read "Orko" as if they appeared from nowhere.

I would like to point out in my search for reference I found this awesome Orko drawn by UK artist, Rob Jackson on his blog.

Orko by Rob

I'm willing to bet I'm the biggest He-Man/Masters of the Universe fan here at The LAW, and even I hate Orko. I always wanted MotU to be more serious swords and sorcery, and Orko was clearly kiddie crap (oh, how I loathed the fact they brought him back for the 2002 MotU cartoon, exactly as goofy as his '80s counterpart). That said, I'm also likely the biggest Final Fantasy fan here, and obviously the similarities between Orko and the Black Mage have certainly not been lost on me over the years.

So I decided to make a Orko version of the 8-bit, Final Fantasy I Black Mage sprite. Or rather, I assumed someone already had, looked around the internet, and couldn't find one. I cannot believe I'm the first person to do this, but at any rate, here it is now. Other than the "O," the position of the Black Mage's left arm and the ear (and the colors, of course), it's 100% accurate Final Fantasy I Black Mage. I was going to draw it on graph paper, and then I realized I could draw it in Photoshop far easier, and color it, too. If this is truly the first time this has been done, then I have performed a very nerdy service for the world indeed.

Orko by TJ Dietsch

Hey gang, TJ Dietsch of UnitedMonkee here. I've been blown away by Zach and Ben's reinterpretations of Orko and decided to keep the ball rolling by drawing him as a cross between one of his burly Masters of the Universe brethren (hence the furry briefs) and one of the Spartans from 300 (the DVD cover of which I clearly swiped the pose and sword from). The idea of his furry drawers ending with no legs and his tunic acting more as a cape in this pose really tickled me. And speaking of pastels, this is the first time I can remember coloring something with pencils in ages. I've tried using makers, but they streak, pool and smudge more than I like. Well anyway, here it is. I sure wouldn't mess with him.

Orko by Ben Morse

Continuing my homage/re-casting theme from last week, I give you Orko: Sorcerer Supreme!

If I didn't live up to the standards set by Marcos Martin, well, that's something I'm prepared to live with.