With today’s sketch, I wanted to revisit a couple of subjects I’ve written about recently– mainly my affection for both the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES characters and the artwork of the great Joe Staton. I’ll say up front that KARATE KID was never one of my favorite LEGION characters, but when Joe began working on the KARATE KID ongoing series that DC published in the mid-to-late 1970’s, I certainly bought it. Joe’s work on the book– like all his work– was wonderful. My memories are a bit fuzzy on the details of the title– but I loved Joe’s work on it, as well as the work of Ric Estrada. I seem to remember them trading off or working together or a combination of the two on the book… maybe one of you remembers better than I can. KARATE KID might not have been the most brilliantly written or high-profile comic during that time– but it was fun for a LEGION fan, and the artwork was terrific. I think it spun off of LEGION because of the ever-growing craze for karate and kung fu in the States that was happening at that time. I remember going to a local movie theatre every Saturday for a while to see the new kung fu films they were showing that had been recently imported (which were actually usually years old, but were new to our shores). I had a mania for that kind of thing back then– and the KARATE KID comic fed that appetite.

In trying to find information on Joe’s KARATE KID work online (unsuccessfully)– I came upon a listing for his work with Paul Kupperberg on a DOOM PATROL relaunch they worked on back in 1977. I’ll have to do a sketch and post on that some time soon…. it was something I really enjoyed at the time.

Love me some Joe Staton…..!

OK… that’s it for today.

This is entry 291…. the countdown to 300 begins…!

Mike

Today’s sketch is of MR. ECHO from the show LOST. Like almost all the characters on the show, Mr. Echo’s past and the path he’s on while on the island is fascinating to watch unfold. The ones that AREN’T all that interesting, they’ve killed off (Shannon and Boone, for example). I don’t think I’ll be posting too many more of the cast sketches here on a consistent basis….. I don’t want the blog to become all about the show LOST. That, and I’m already starting to lose a bit of interest in sketching the cast. Heck, this is supposed to be about whatever inspires me to sketch something and not all about a single subject.

OK… back to work. Sorry to keep it so short– but things continue to get tighter and tighter on the deadline front.

This is Entry 290.

Mike

For my Friday sketch, I leave you with Kate from LOST. I started sketching her yesterday, and I became addicted to drawing the characters from the show…. I got caught up in picking different characters and trying my hand at their likenesses– and before I knew it, I had blown most of the day. Not a good thing. It was fun to get caught up in the excitement of drawing something really fun, though. That usually only happens when I’m drawing for myself anymore… so it really felt good to have that excitement coursing through me. It made me feel like a kid again.

In Wednesday’s comments section, Robert mentioned that the producers of the show wanted to create LOST comics…. and it wasn’t that long ago that a friend of mine was sending me his interpretations of the cast as warm-ups for the comic. He had been picked to illustrate it (I think I’ve got my facts right here) and was told that the comic would be happening soon. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for some reason at that time…. things kind of fell apart. I know that there are a lot of TV shows being turned into comic books these days, and I don’t buy any of them– even if I enjoy the show. I think if LOST became a comic, though… I’d have to buy that.

Have a great weekend, folks.

This is Entry 289.

Mike

In my last post, I wrote that I might start sketching some of the cast from LOST since I’m such a huge fan of the show. In honor of tonight’s second episode of this new season, I thought I’d begin– with Jack. I think that Jack is my favorite character… but I don’t know why. I really like the job that the actor Matthew Fox does on the show. He’s got an amazing intensity, but he doesn’t overdo it. EVERY actor on the show does a fantastic job… and although it’s an ensemble cast– I get the feeling that the Jack Shephard character is the pivotal role on the show. Do they feature him more than the others…? I don’t know– I think they might.

Anyhoo– I’ve got to keep it brief again with all I have to do. Things are piling on me pretty heavy these days.

This is Entry 288.

Mike

I’ve got to keep it pretty short today. Deadlines are smothering me– so there’s not much time for musings… however ham-fisted mine usually are. Instead, I’ll just leave you with a sketch of that Savage Cimmerian CONAN. Over on THEDRAWINGBOARD .ORG there’s a very cool thread with lots of folks posting their interpretations of CONAN. These ‘jam threads’ are a constant over on that wonderful forum– and I enjoy taking part in them as much as I can. I think that of all the art-related boards I haunt, DRAWINGBOARD.ORG is probably my favorite.

Sorry to keep it so short…. but I don’t have much on my mind anyway. I’ve been so hunched over the board working with various sports events blaring on the TV while working that I haven’t had time to think of anything else. Although I DID catch the season premiere of LOST last Wednesday. Anyone else a LOST fan? I’m a huge fan of the show. Maybe when I’ve got more time to work on likenesses (they’re not easy to do for me without taking my time) I’ll do some sketches of the characters/cast from the show.

OK… back to work.

This is Entry 287.

Mike