Friday, January 25, 2008

Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday


This is a just completed pinup for 'Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday', the graphic novel sequel to the 80's cult classic film, Repo Man.

The comic's written by Repo Man's writer and director Alex Cox with art by the briliant Chris Bones and Justin Randall. For more info, check details over at Gestalt Publishing's website.

Colour and designwise this was a bit of an experiment for me. At times I tend to be very literal with my choice of colours (pink skin, blue sky etc) and very conservative in my approach to design. So this time I tried to push myself further in both of those areas. Let me know if you think it works/doesn't work.

I was influenced by the comicbook work of Dave Johnson whose experimentation with design and colour is very inspiring.


---An important note regarding the blog feed--- On a different subject, it's been brought to my attention that there have been some problems with this blog's RSS feed and people not getting notified of my blog updates. The feed should now be getting automatically redirected to Feedburner and there are additional links to syndicated feeds at the bottom of the sidebar here on the blog. Let me know if you have any problems (unfortunately if you are you're probably not receiving this blog entry. Sigh)

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Countdown to Cloverfield

All movie geeks out there have been feeling the buzz generated from the trailers of the new J.J. Abrams monster flick, Cloverfield. If you haven't as yet, check out the trailers and see what all the fuss is about.

The main fascination is that no one knows what the monster looks like. There have been theories aplenty on every movieloving forum on the internet, from Cthulhu to the Devil, and Voltron to a new improved Godzilla. I too have been collecting the clues and forming many theories of my own as to the identity of the monster. So from now until it's release on the 17th of January (yes that's right, Australia gets it one day earlier than the U.S.'s 18th release. Wheee!) I'll be putting pencil to paper and drawing some of my theories as to the identity of the monster. Some are based on info and quotes from the trailer, the viral campaign and Mr. Abrams himself. Others are just ridiculous flights of fancy.

Enjoy!

MONSTER THEORY #1- RAT MONSTER


WHY- Creator J.J. ABRAMS has been quoted as saying that he came up with the idea for the monster when him and his son saw Godzilla toys in a Japanese toyshop. He wanted to create an American equivalent. A monster that America could call their own. So since this movie takes place in the Big Apple, my theory is that he chose a vermin that is synonymous with New York City- Rats! Taking it one step further I chose the ugliest rat around, The Naked Mole Rat and mutated it for the role of the monster.


MONSTER THEORY #2- FISH MONSTER


I tell ya, drawing can be a fickle mistress sometimes. After completing the Rat monster above, I went through countless of sketches and failed drawings for this fish monster. I had a definite idea in mind but just couldn't translate it to paper. Then one day, I'm doodling while scanning in work drawings and lo and behold, the drawing just materialised. Guess I was just trying too hard at first. Anyway...

WHY- The sea is an obvious choice for the origins of the monster. It enters the city via the harbour (decapitating The Statue of Liberty in the process). A giant sea lizard had been done (Godzilla...duh), so I researched fish that live in the local area. The fish used in this mutation is an Atlantic Wolf Fish merged with some fossilised dinosaur bones to become the monster.

17th January 2008- Saw it tonight. Top stuff! A bit short, could have been 30 minutes longer, but it was an original and clever little flick. The monster was pretty cool too (none of my theories were right, but I figured that was the case)
All artwork © Chris Wahl 2019 unless otherwise stated. All characters are copyright to their respective owners