CREATURE FEATURE 2013: "THE ANOMALY"

THE ANOMALY

On October 4th, Strange Labs had the pleasure of being a part of Mysteries of the Unexplained, a group art show featuring artists from all over South Florida. In addition to being Halloween-themed (my favorite holiday), what made it even more rad was that my work appeared alongside extremely talented, local creative types like my friend Baghead (https://www.facebook.com/bagheadart)

Once I read the theme for the show, the concept for "The Anomaly" arrived almost instantaneously. I'd been experimenting with glow-in-the-dark paint, as well as the subjects of astronauts and rockets for some time, and it actually ties in with a much larger concept, to be revealed later this year and going into 2014. 

Like all of my other work, it began with toy pieces (an old Star Wars figure, GI Joe bits, a 3.75" scale skull from a playlet, etc.), then evolved from there. The initial plan was to display the actual figure at Bear & Bird, but they needed something hangable, so the concept was reworked. Instead, the figure was shot in front of a diorama, then printed 8" X 10" and framed. While not my original intention, it produced what I envisioned in my mind, all without having to worry about the lighting of the piece or if the ghostly effect was going to work. 

It is, forever, bathed in the creepy, ethereal glow. 

Mysteries of the Unexplained runs through November at Bear & Bird Gallery. For more info, please visit:

http://www.bearandbird.com

http://tatescomics.com

If you can't make it down to the Sunshine State, Bear & Bird also put up a flickr gallery! HUZZAH FOR TEH INTERWEBZ!:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearandbird/sets/72157636226967565

"The Anomaly" is #94 in the stream

GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED 2: BOSS OF BOSSES

This past summer, I had the honor of showing in my second CustomCon this year. This one was extra special for me because it was hosted at Joe Acevedo's site, where I first stumbled across the show in its infancy. At that moment, it became a dream and goal to be in a CustomCon. To be fortunate enough to be in two was unthinkable at the time, so I'd like to thank Joe again for hosting all these years. 

Definitely check out his site and show some support when you have a sec. There's a TON of material to go through: http://www.joeacevedo.com/

My second entry into CustomCon is a continuation of the first: GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED.

The Dark Knight has THE best rogues gallery, and I knew after the first series that I was going to have to work on all of his major foes. Work on series 2 began while Gotham's Most Wanted series 1 was being submitted.

Black Mask made his impression on me very early. A lot more obscure than The Joker or Scarecrow, I first remember seeing him wearing an orange, pin-stripe zoot suit and an expressionless wooden mask, made from his father's coffin. While never a fan of the orange suit, that creepy, unfeeling face seered itself into my brain. 

One of the more complex pieces from Gotham's Most Wanted 2, Black Mask is a combo of Indiana Jones and GI Joe parts, with random bits like rubber bands. Nowadays, BM wears a black skull mask, but I've worn out that road, and I find the more humanoid appearance to be way more disturbing, for some reason. Much more of a gangster than a traditional super villain, his wardrobe reflects this... he almost reminds me of Sonny Corleone from the first Godfather.

In the Gotham's Most Wanted continuity, Black Mask desires to be the Boss of Bosses in Gotham City, as well as the rest of the Eastern Sea Board-- to do this, he's willing to step on the toes of the Maronis, Rupert Thorne, and the Falcones. Truly a criminal with no honor, Black Mask is finally the gangster worthy of the town...

NEXT TIME: THE ANOMOLY

GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED 2: THE TWO FACES OF JUSTICE

Harvey "Two-Face" Dent has always fascinated me, even as a kid. Before his appearance in Batman: The Animated Series, my first exposure to the character was from The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, a sort of "Greatest Hits" compendium my Mom bought me when Tim Burton's Batman first came out. I even remember thinking how cool it was that Harvey Dent was in the movie, and always wondered what Billy Dee Williams would have done with him, had he been given the chance...

Completed in Summer 2013, his piece was extremely straight-forward-- a Men In Black 3 figure topped off with a third party head, with a paint job inspired by The Animated Series. Harvey's rocked a lot of looks, from gaudy stripes to even worse animal print (*COUGH*BATMANFOREVER*COUGH*). The clean, black-and-white aesthetic was it. 

In the Gotham's Most Wanted universe, Harvey Dent is very much the same flawed, tragic man revealed on The Animated Series and Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy... by far the best treatment of the character so far. I may revisit D.A. Dent in the future, but only to make a direct adaptation of Aaron Ekhart's take from The Dark Knight, probably using the same recipe...

GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED 2: ASHES TO ASHES

There's something about saboteurs. As a kid, one of my favorite GI Joe figures was a mercenary/saboteur/man of mystery called Firefly (ironically enough)... to me, he was kinda like the Boba Fett of COBRA. Years later, I found out about the Batman villain of the same name via Batman: The Animated Series and immediately developed an inexplicable fondness for him. Aside from the jetpack some incarnations of the character wear, I find Firefly to be one of Batman's rogues most grounded in reality: A pyromaniac obsessed with reducing Gotham City to ashes.

Firefly was one of those pieces that just immediately came together. Once I saw the head from a GI Joe movie Viper figure, I knew I had my "realistic" version of Firefly's helmet, and everything else fell into place. His upper body is from a GI Joe 25th Anniversary Ace figure, with Jungle Duke legs. As always, the accessories (TINY tools!) came from my Graveyard and were hand-weathered. 

In the Gotham's Most Wanted 'verse, Firefly is pretty much the same down-on-his-luck-FX artist-turned -villain. Just like the Spider-Man villain Mysterio, the special FX angle always fascinated me about the character, and endeared him to me, since I've been obsessed with visual FX all of my life. I didn't want to make him too tech-savvy, so I ditched the jetpack. I figured Firefly would mainly rely on gunpowder, grenades, dynamite and well-planned getaways to evade capture.

Perhaps his luck as run out...

GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED 2: THE MAN WHO BROKE THE BAT

                                                 
The Knightfall storyline happened when I was a kid, so I totally fell for DC's media blitz surrounding Bane's maiming of Batman. To me, the most interesting thing about Bane is that he bested The Bat... and that's about it. The Bane I grew up with was an overgrown wrestler in a luchador mask with a perpetual case of 'roid rage... then Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises happened. 

It was the partnership between Nolan, Goyer, and Tom Hardy that yielded what is, for me, probably the best portrayal of Bane ever. Hardy's Bane is a terrorist mastermind, killing thousands of innocent civilians when he bombs Gotham City and causing thousands more to suffer via an economic crisis-- things Ra's al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Joker, and Two-Face could not do in the previous Nolan films. 

He was finally more than a grunting buffoon (as depicted in Schumacher's travesty Batman & Robin) or a Latin stereotype that was vaguely Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican (every cartoon ever), all at the same time...

My favorite costume from The Dark Knight Rises is the first one we see Bane wearing, just before crashing the plane. I had been wanting to make that specific version for a while, so when I saw the Roadblock figure from the GI Joe: Retaliation line, I knew I found my base. Topped off with a third party custom head, and The Man Who Broke The Bat was complete. The very definition of an LBC for me, but still perfect for the character and, like, 98% on-model.

Before creating this Bane for Gotham's Most Wanted 2, I made another version that I absolutely hated. Also inspired by Tom Hardy's Bane, but not nearly as successful, I ended up disassembling the piece and using him elsewhere...

Looking at the piece now, it's not the worst I've ever produced (that would be the customs I did at 9-10 years-old), but, at the time, I wasn't happy. In retrospect, I should have removed the straps that went over his ears and just kept the one going between the eyes, but make it a little wider. I do love the paint on the piece, though, and feel he does have that creepy, thousand yard stare...

Bane here kinda breaks my established aesthetic for Gotham's Most Wanted, but I don't really mind. I really wanted a good Tom Hardy Bane in my favorite costume, so that won out. Theoretically, in the 1940s, the outfit I used was available, so it still kinda works. Well, that's how I explain it away...

GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED 2: RIDDLE ME THIS...

It was the uber-brilliant actor/impersonator Frank Gorshin that made me fall in love with Edward Nigma. As an elementary schooler, I was obsessed with the 1960s Batman TV show that was re-running then on cable, and every time The Riddler made an appearance, it was a treat. To this day, nobody's quite been able to do what Gorshin did nearly 50 years ago. As I got older, the more sinister, calculating super-genius from Batman: The Animated Series became my go-to reference for the character. 

Much like The Penguin, this Riddler had a previous, less successful incarnation. Just like his avian pal, I really disliked the original base head I'd chosen, and it kept me from feeling like he piece was truly done. When brainstorming the second series of Gotham's Most Wanted, I knew Mr. Nigma had to be a part of the line-up, so I chose a new, more appropriate head (from the 3.75" Abrams Star Trek line), new bowler hat (from the accessories Graveyard), and new coat, all topped off with a vibrant lime green. His color scheme is inspired by his Animated Series counterpart, with a little more mobster grime added. 

My favorite part of the custom is that cocky little smirk, like he's got something on his mind that he's not telling...

"RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN: What looks like a bat, but has four wheels and is under MY COMPLETE CONTROL?"

GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED 2: OSWALD COBBLEPOT- THE COLD, CUNNING PENGUIN

OSWALD COBBLEPOT- THE COLD, CUNNING PENGUIN

The Penguin, oddly enough, was an early childhood favorite. Because of his numerous appearances in cartoons of the 70s and 80s with The Joker, I always thought they were a team and found it odd when I discovered just how different the modern comic versions were. But when you look back on their Golden Age exploits, it's much more in line with their Hanna-Barbera incarnations.

Mr. Cobblepot is a fusion of original, vintage GI Joe parts (Headman torso & waist) and modern (GI Joe movie Destro arm), topped off with a third party sculpted head, with some accessories courtesy of Indiana Jones' Henry Jones Sr. 

For Gotham's Most Wanted, I wanted to ditch The Penguin's tux and go for something a little more mobster-y. The Penguin was actually one of the very first villains I worked on when I started my Batman universe, but I was never quite happy with the head and hands. Once I found suitable replacements, I rediscovered my love of the character and knew he had to be in GMW 2... though I may not be quite done with Mr. Cobblepot. I've always wanted an on-model version of The Penguin from Tim Burton's holiday favorite, Batman Returns...