Birology: Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent

Should've invited Superman...

Batman, at the Gotham Police department Christmas party...

With December (and Christmas) nary a reindeer's leap away, the office party season is slowly beginning. I can't imagine the Gotham City Police dept. has a great knees-up, especially if Batman drops by for a quick drink. They're having to deal with all the low-level crimes and he swans in after being dropped off in his Batmobile/Batsub/Batplane/Batcopter/Bathysphere/Batcycle/Batrocket/Batwhale (all those vehicles have appeared in the comics by the way - I especially like the Batwhale). For a Gotham police officer, having a chat with Batman about crime-prevention must be like talking to an old school friend who's become ridiculously successful - every story you tell will pale in comparison to his. "I arrested a man for assault today." "Oh really? Yeah that's cool. I stopped Mr. Freeze from turning all of Gotham into an icy wasteland. And then I had dinner with Wonder Woman."

And don't even think about asking him if he's ever met Bruce Wayne...

Face To Face Two Face...

Of all the characters I've recently drawn Two-Face was the one I was most proud of. It took forever to get the right look and colours for him. And while I was messing around with some pictures today I thought it would be good to use his faces in a pop art style cartoon. Marilyn Monroe eat your heart out.

Rogues Gallery #5

The final Batman rogues gallery features two characters I'm not really keen on but who are well-known enough to draw: Bane and Killer Croc. Super-pumped Bane has a real 'mucha lucha wrestler' thing going so I stuck to it, with a minimalist costume. He's all about brainpower and sheer strength - there's no need for an elaborate costume because he doesn't need it. He'll kick your ass either way.
Kilelr Croc often looks super-muscly too, but I prefer to make him more lithe and reptilian (without straying into Spider-Man's Lizard territory). He's an outcast who stalks the sewers, so I gave him a long trench coat (which I think I'll go back and make grubbier) to hide his ugly, scaly body, jogging suit bottoms to make sure he can move freely and quickly, and sunglasses as I like to think living in the gloom of the sewers has made him overly-sensitive to light. Getting the right balance between man and crocodile is tricky and varies wildly in the comics. Sometimes he looks like a scaly-faced man, other times he looks like a giant, full-blown were-croc with the snout and tail. I took the design from the animated Batman series and then added my own stuff from there.

That's all for the Batman's rogues gallery. Let me know what you think of them. Batman himself will appear soon enough - I'm still trying to get him right. But I've really enjoyed drawing the characters so I think I'll move on to other DC comics characters. I'm not sure which ones yet, but I do have my eye on the Justice League...

Rogues Gallery #4

Batman has very few female villains (Catwoman only half-counts as she's not really a villain more like jewel-thief/Batman's bit on the side), and really only Poison Ivy and the Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn spring to mind. They're a common pairing in the comics, even having their own spin-off. So I drew them. And not in a way they're usually portrayed. Now, every interpretation of Poison Ivy I've seen has her as an ultra-sexy scantily-clad vixen, which I can see the point of - she's meant to be beautiful like a flower. But I looked at the whole thing in a skewed fashion and took the opposite approach: what if she's skanky and rough-looking like a weed? My take on Poison Ivy is what you might expect an eco-warrior criminal to look like, and she's meant to remind you of something growing in the cracks of your patio: tangled hair that looks dragged through a hedge backwards, a scrawny build, and the torn green dress. If I was going to sum it all up, she's meant to look like a botanical witch.

Harley Quinn is also a busty bombshell in the comics and cartoons, and while I kept her smokin' body I decided to make the face look worn and rough in line with the Joker I did: smeared lipstick, pale make-up, crazy eyes: she's been drawn to be the female equivalent of the Joker. I toyed with the idea of giving her face a scar or two (what with the Joker's penchant for knives) but stopped at that. I did tear up the costume a bit - you want it to look like she's been in a few fights, either with Batman or her boyfriend. She's also striking the classic pose of holding an over-sized mallet behind her back.

Next up, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel with Bane and Killer Croc (I refuse to draw the Clock King!)

Rogues Gallery #3

The 3rd rogues gallery features characters that aren't as well-known to people who don't really follow Batman: Hush, The Mad Hatter and Ra's Al Ghul. Hush is drawn as he appears in the comics: bandaged and in a battered trench coat. Hush hasn't been in the comics all that long, but he's a really great villain becasue he knows who Bruce Wayne is and has a personal vendetta against him. The Mad Hatter is clad in blue, as he did in the animated Batman series, but I gave him a ring-master's costume seeing as how he's the orchestrator at the Tea Party. He also has reddened eyes as I like to think he's constantly high on opiates and other narcotics. Batman's ex-mentor Ra's Al Ghul always has a refined, Eastern dress style, but it's never the same costume, so this is just a mix of how he looks in Batman Begins and the comics.

One more rogues gallery, and then it's onto the femme fatales...

Rogues Gallery #2

The second in the rogue's gallery line-up, featuring The Scarecrow, The Penguin and Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent. As with the last picture I've taken my favourite bits from each villain's iteration and put them together in my own style. In the case of Scarecrow, I took the sack-cloth mask and hat from the comics, then added that to a suit as the Scarecrow wore in Batman Begins, adding sown up parts and patches and a cord of rope to hark back to the tatty scarecrow costume of the comics. The Penguin (who I've never really liked much) is more Burgess Meredith (who was The Penguin in the 60s show) than Danny De Vito. And Two-Face - who I drew based on The Dark Knight and Animated Series incarnations - took ages to get right, but I'm very happy with both faces. The whole thing about Two-Face is that if you put your finger over one side of his face you should be able to see a lost, innocent man, and if you cover the other you should be able to see pure rage.
As ever, let me know your opinion. A third rogue's gallery will appear soon, but I haven't settled on who to draw in it yet. If there's a Batman villain you like then let me know and I'll stick 'em in there.

Rogues Gallery #1

What's that Rob, you're a Batman fan? Why, I had no idea!

One of the things I love about Batman is the rogues gallery: some of the greatest and most famous villains in comic and pop-culture history. The Joker, Catwoman, The Penguin and more have all managed to jump into the public mind, so that even if you've never read a Batman comic you know who they are. This is my cartoony take on my favourite three: Mr Freeze, The Joker, and The Riddler. They're amalgamations of some of my favourite iterations of the characters, all blended together and drawn in my own style. As always, love 'em or hate 'em, let me know what you think. Coming soon will be another trio of The Dark Knight's villains: The Penguin, Two-Face, and Scarecrow.

Robin. Why?

Standing at the altar, Batman began to regret asking Robin to be his Best Man...

The other night while watching the Batman TV series I heard Dick Grayson, aka Robin, actually say 'Holy Venezuela Bruce!' (I kid you not), and in between shuddering and wishing the 60s had never happened I remembered this cartoon I'd drawn.

A pen and ink sketch as I've not had the time to colour cartoons in properly of late. I'm nowhere near good enough to ever draw comic books, but if I were then Batman would be the one I'd draw, which is why the Batman here is fairly well done but the Robin could be any guy in a mask and cape. But as a lifelong Bat-fan I've never understood Robin, nor really liked him. Outside of the garish 60s series he makes no sense in any way, and certainly not in the modern and most accurate interpretations. His incessant childish chirpiness mixes with Batman's moodiness like oil and water and ruins any drama. Why would Batman, a psychologically scarred superhero capable of taking down any villain by himself, need an accomplice in the form of a teen acrobat? As a moving target to distract the attention from himself? And when you have a cool superhero name like 'Batman', why go and ruin that by placing it next to the name of a diminutive garden bird? (And no, I'm not one of those people who think they're gay. Aquaman however...) Their pairing makes no sense. Batman and Robin go together like chalk and some kind of anti-chalk substance: Batman's costume blends into the shadows - Robin's looks like it's designed to blend in at a day care centre. Batman is the world's greatest detective - Robin is the world's greatest douchebag. Batman is an adult, trained for years in martial arts and all sorts of offensive and defensive fighting styles - Robin is a thirteen year old kid who can do somersaults. Oooh, take that, Riddler!

Anyway, Robin rant over. Hope you enjoy the cartoon.

"It would make me weep, if I still had tears to shed"

The second in my Batman pics is my favourite villain of all time - Mr. Freeze. Let me know what you think of it...

Why So Serious?

I'm a HUGE Batman fan, and love to draw the Caped Crusader, so -because I've nothing better to do - I've done a collection of pictures featuring the denizens of Gotham. Above is The Dark Knight himself, and over the coming days you can expect to see my favourite characters: Mr. Freeze, The Riddler, Commissioner Gordon and, of course, The Joker.
As ever let me know what you think of them. The pic above is meant to be simplistic - all shadows and darkness, just like Gotham and its 'hero', and its also meant to highlight just how alone Batman is.