Halloween 2012

I can't believe Halloween's already here (next thing you know, Thanksgiving's over, then Christmas pops out its jolly old elfin head). Well, without further ado-doo, enjoy this strip for your Samhain celebration. Mine's gonna involve getting pizza and watching cheesy horror movies with my family.

• "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" (1966) has got to be, hands down, my favorite cartoon to watch on Halloween, so it was inevitable that I pay a playful tribute to it in a themed strip. I chose to spoof the "I got a rock" scene, but only because I thought of a dumb pun to play off with it. I could've easily done a Scooby-Doo scenario with Tyrra, but then I thought, "Nah, too easy."
• Get it? 'Cause he got a ROCK, and Tyrra got a ROC (which is a giant bird of prey from Arabic mythology). Heh, heh... I'm such a dork.
• I added the "- With apologies to Schulz & Melendez!" credit due to seeing Frank Cho do this whenever he made pop culture references in "Liberty Meadows", and since I'm paying tribute to the Great Pumpkin special, I wanted to handle it as respectfully as possible.
• For anybody who's wondering, Tyrra is dressed as Dynomutt, Dog Wonder (one of my favorite Hanna-Barbera characters) and Quacklad's supposed to be Ash in his medieval outfit from "Army of Darkness" (1993). Groovy!
• Tyrra's line had to be that right amount of funny and dark, all tied together with a little grin (just something you'll expect from the horror comedy aspect of this here webcomic).
• "As big as a battleship."- another reference made to that cheesy giant monster movie, "The Giant Claw" (1957).
• Once again, I had fun playing around with the gradients and coloring to give the background a nice autumn night for trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween, everybody! Eat, drink, and be spooky! Take care and stay safe, East Coast!

Pumpkingeist

pump·kin·geist
Noun: A unique type of ghost known for dwelling within jack-o'-lanterns. Very mischievous, but overall, harmless and friendly to the owner of the pumpkin it's haunting. 

• Tyrra, unlike Quacklad, isn't gung-ho about "busting first, asking questions later" when it comes to encountering spirits. As a dog, it plays into the old myth of animals being able to see ghosts when humans can't, and as a young character, it plays into her love of scary things.
• I like to think that due to different visual interpretations of monsters and ghosts, there would be a variety of different "breeds" and classifications of them based on habitat and existence within the "Quacktown" world. I've yet to explore it within the comic, but the look of ghosts will be based on memory, how well they remembered their past lives. The more they remember, the more they look like the spirits of human beings, and the latter resulting in odd-looking ones with unusual quirks like the Pumpkingeist here.
• It's recently occurred to me that I love the traditional bed sheet template for cartoon ghosts. Maybe it's because they're so amorphous in appearance or the template itself being classic, but it's a fun design to doodle. I'm even proud to say that I own a bed sheet ghost costume that I'll sport this Halloween.
• I love playing around with the Brush tool in GIMP for smoke and glowing effects. I did a yellow glow on the jack-o-lantern's eyes, nose, and mouth before adding the ghost's ectoplasmic green one. The smoke effect was added as a little nod to dry ice smoke effects at haunted attractions.

Who Goes There...?

Hard at work on some short "Quacktown" comics for my favorite holiday coming up soon. Until then, enjoy some candid Samhain-inspired drawings featuring the Duck and his Dog.

After watching some scary movies back to back to get into the Halloween mood, I got inspired to draw Quacklad during his younger/early days of monster-hunting again.

• Me wanting to draw Quacklad during his younger/early days came about after watching "The Woman in Black" again (hence the hatchet and lit candlestick). Nothing gives off a mix of spooky and retro cool like a Victorian ghost story.
• The demon's design was inspired by Henrietta's stretched-out neck/skull face form from "Evil Dead II". A cycloptic eye, exposed gums/nasty teeth, and jutting cheekbones were added for extra creepiness. The ectoplasmic drool? Well, why not.
• Serious fun was had playing around with coloring and gradient effects, not to mention drawing the ghostly demon and the Duck in his prime. 
• Quacklad's old/Victorian outfit has color elements of his current one (mainly just the orange vest and purple tie as a nod to his usual orange hoodie and purple tuque). The demon's coloring scheme was bluish green for its spiritual aura and mix of light/dark tan shades. The Paintbrush tool was used for the glowing effects.

Jonesing

Sorry for the long break, guys. I've actually been booked solid during the last half of September. I got a new part-time job at an apple orchard/cider mill, then went through a bit of an art block (that's over now, thank goodness). Oh, and I'm going to be a proud uncle. "Uncle Scooter"- I'm already diggin' the sound of it.

With all that being said, October is here, and with that, the door's open on spooky encounters and Halloween thrills for our Duck and Husky! Our first strip for the month pays tribute to the style of the late-but-great animator Chuck Jones, whose 100th birthday is is this year. Chuck Jones is not only my favorite "Looney Tunes" director, but also one of my major influences as an artist.

•  Jones' birthday was September 21, but better late than never (I had actually started on the layout the week before that day, but got swamped with other things before actually drawing/inking it). Jeff Goldblum had it right, folks: "Life, uh, finds a way."
• I had the most fun drawing Tyrra in the Jones style, sticking her with a Wile E. Coyote/Ralph Wolf-ish appearance. I had thought about making her look a little like the wolves from Jones' adaption of "The Jungle Book", "Mowgli's Brothers" (1976), but the initial sketches didn't translate well with aspects of her usual design (mainly that hair of hers). 
• Tyrra being in charge of the explosives is something I plan to exploit in future strips.
• Drawing Quacklad was easy; I just basically drew him like Jones' take on Daffy Duck while exaggerating the quirks of his wardrobe.
• The kid decoy/trap was loosely based in appearance on Ralph Phillips, the little boy who liked to daydream from two of Jones' cartoons, "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z" (1954) and "Boyhood Daze" (1957).
• The witch and vampire were inspired by Witch Hazel of "Looney Tunes"/"Merrie Melodies"-fame and Count Bloodcount from "Transylvania 6-5000" (1963). I drew them both with the notable "skin tooth", and made the vampire a bit like Count Orlok of "Nosferatu"-fame.
• To give the background a more cartoony look, I watched a good number of Jones' "Looney Tunes" shorts and Maurice Noble's background/layout work, then settled with flat coloring with minimal digital altering and effects. To give it that right amount of spooky and funny, I watched "Transylvania 6-5000" again ("Abraca-pocus!").