Fresh from the feverish throes of flu (and try saying that fast three times), it's Rob's Random 5!

1. For Tweet's Sake: I don't really get Twitter. I don't hate it, but nor do I love it. It's just not something for me. But I can understand why other people like it. It seems like a good way to stay in touch with people, and also a good way to spread breaking news. Sky News certainly agrees with the last part of that sentence, as you can get Twitter news updates from them (just as you can from any major news network). HOWEVER, I think Sky's gone a little bit 'Twitter Crazy', as I was rather shocked to see it has its very own Senior Twitter Correspondent. This, I think, is someone who reports on goings on on Twitter in the same way a Parliamentary Correspondent would report on the day to day goings on of MPs. What next? Correspondents for Facebook and MySpace? Or eBay? "This just in, Mrs. Price of Croydon bid £22 for a pair of pink bunny slippers." or "We're getting some breaking news that John Smith is no longer in a relationship." It all seems a bit...well, bandwagon-y. I mean, I watch the news to get news; actual, proper, fact-checked and researched news put together and presented by people who are actual proper journalists. If I want to know what shokjok42 or miamigirl666 think of Swine Flu I will go and look on Twitter for their opinion. I get a little bit tired every time the news and public opinion bleed together, as in when they get people to text/email in with their opinion on a story, or when Sky News has that 'What's Popular on the Web?' section that frequently just shows clips of funny cats from YouTube.
2. Foxing Hell: This story made me laugh this week. There's a picture book to be written out of it without doubt. A mother fox that steals shoes for it's children to play with?! The cute factor is off the scale! And if a movie version of the book was ever made, I could imagine Teri Hatcher voicing the fox mother, and Peter O'Toole as a wicked old cobbler with a grudge. Make that, Hollywood!
3. Where's the S.W.A.T Team?: This story is just...well...brilliant. There's a picture book to be written out of it for sure too.
4. Rifftrax: If you haven't seen Mystery Science Theatre 3000 then your life is just a little bit colder and darker than those who have. There are plenty of hilarious episodes on YouTube and they're all well worth your time (I recommend 'Puma Man'). If however, you have seen every episode of MST3K that's out there, definitely check out Rifftrax on YouTube and at Rifftrax.com, which is Mystery Science Theatre but without the puppets. It's done by the same guys and is every bit as funny. Plus they cover well-known box-office films like Star Wars, Bourne, and Indiana Jones. The Dark Knight and Jaws are hilarious.
5. Publisher excels as sex sells (good tongue twister there): And might this be the weirdest book that you never want to read? Seriously, if this thing can get published there's hope for everyone. It was a tie between this and rash of Australians being abducted by aliens for my 'weirdest story/thing of the week'.

Until next time, goodnight and good gravy.

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.