Archive for October, 2008
15 items.
I hope everyone out there has a wonderful and safe Halloween tonight.
As a little Capes & Babes extra..
I had to digitally re-draw Marc’s head in the first panel of today’s strip as I had originally drawn Marc without the Battlestar Gallactica Viper helmet. Then, in the second panel, I was originally just going to draw Marc with the classic BSG leather jacket but thought it might look better if he was actually wearing the Viper helmet.
Of course, it wasn’t until after I had already inked and scanned in the strip that I realized if I didn’t change anything, it would look like Marc wasn’t wearing the helmet in the first panel and then suddenly he was wearing it in the second panel. Or, worse yet, it might look like there was a mysterious third person that suddenly disappeared between the first and second panels.
Fortunately though, digitally drawing the back of a Viper helmet in shadow isn’t that difficult at all! 
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the MonstaBratz for this Halloween week.
-Chris
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Some more continuation of the “Monstabratz”. As I mentioned in Monday’s blog post, these monster babies were originally a product of a newspaper editorial illustration I did. What I didn’t say on Monday though was that in the original illustration, the one single, “classic” movie monster I didn’t turn into a “baby version” was The Creature from the Black Lagoon – and it wasn’t for a lack of trying, since The Creature was always my favorite “classic” movie monster.
Other kids loved Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy or the Wolfman… but me? I always tended to like the more unusual monsters and The Creature fit the bill. But I just could never seem to draw a baby version of the Creature – at least not one that actually LOOKED like the movie version. And my sketchbook, at the time, was FILLED with failed sketch after failed sketch of a baby version of the Creature.
Finally, I ended up ditching the idea of putting The Creature in the illustration. I think I ended up putting the Headless Horseman in The Creature’s place.
But with today’s strip – and with that last panel – I can now finally say I drew a “kid” version of The Creature that I’m happy with. I hope you have enjoyed a more thorough introduction of the “Monstabratz” this week (with the conclusion being on Friday).
Currently listening to the “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” soundtrack…
-Chris
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A few months ago, I did one of the first story arcs for Capes & Babes. It dealt with Capes & Babes sponsoring a little league team… a team that was made up of… monsters. Those monsters originated from a newspaper illustration I did years ago featuring baby versions of all the classic movie monsters… Frankenstein’s monster, the bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, the headless horseman, the invisible man, the mummy, the werewolf and on and on. In the illustration, all of the baby monsters were scared to death because a Goldilocks-like character was reading them a bed time fairy tale.
I figured, as monsters, they would be MORE afraid of a sweet, happy ending tale rather than some kind of horror story.
Anyway, I brought them back for that little league story so I figured I’d bring them back for Halloween as well.
[Medical update: Turns out I have a very acute, inflamed achilles tendon. Hopefully, after staying off of it for a week and taking some very serious anti-inflamation medication, I'll be ready for the Walk Now for Autism walk in Washington DC on Nov. 8th. But man... it still hurts for now...]
In the mean time, are there any avid joggers out there that have had very bad or very painful heel spurs? I’m currently dealing with one right now and I really need for it to get better before November 8th as that is the Washington DC Walk Now for Autism. But right now, this thing is absolutely killing me. If anyone has any great advice on ways to alleviate the pain or what the best solution might be, please e-mail me and let me know. Right now, I’m trying my best to stay off of my feet but that’s impossible to do when I have a long commute in the morning and it’s my right heel that’s on fire. It seems putting my foot in the position I need to drive is the absolute worse thing I can do but I have to get to work every morning.
So, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
-Chris
Okay, here’s what I will say about today’s strip:
Although this specific event never happened to me, there were other things that happened that were very similar to this particular incident. It’s amazing the things I have seen on a Friday or Saturday night between 1am and 3am. I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised… that late at night, it just seems people either don’t really care if you see what they are in the middle of doing, just finished doing, are about to do or are just so wasted, they simply don’t care one way or another.
For all you pizza delivery guys and gals out there, you know EXACTLY what I am talking about as I’m sure you have your own wild tales you can tell.
In any case, I think Roy’s view of all those late night “Skin-a-max” movies have just become a huge disappointment for him now.
Currently listening to “I’m coming out” by Diana Ross on my iPod with a random songlist turned on.
-Chris
[A major plug announcement!]
The Comics Coast-to-Coast Podcast has selected Capes and Babes as their “pick of the week” this week. Justin Thompson said some really great things about Capes & babes in the Coast-to-Coast episode #55 podcast. You can click on the episode #55 link to listen to the podcast from their web site or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.
Now… on to the blog entry for today’s (10/22/08) comic…
In case there are any pizza delivery people out there that might be offended by this week’s strips, I feel I should let you all know that I was a pizza delivery guy myself. For four years. That was my primary job during the summer months of college – and, thanks to some very generous managers, my job during Christmas and Spring breaks or whenever I came back from school and could work a night or two.
Of course, it also helped that the managers who kept me on the payroll knew I would bust my butt whenever I came back from school and worked for them. It probably didn’t hurt that most of them were hired as drivers the same week that I was also but, instead of going off to school, they stayed there and rose up the managerial ladder, so to speak.
My dad used to chastise me quite a bit about working at, essentially, a dead end job. And, if you don’t have any ambitions to manage a pizza delivery chain (which I didn’t), then delivering pizzas pretty much is a dead end job. But by and large, delivery pizzas was a pretty fun job. On most nights, because I knew every possible short cut in my area, there wasn’t a whole lot of stress delivering a pizza on time. Sure, there were those moments when one or two drivers didn’t want to work a Friday or Saturday night so that put extra stress on the drivers that did show up but because all of my friends seemed to work there, even these stressful nights seemed more like “play” than “work”.
And boy… when your shift is over, pizza delivery guys and gals sure know how to unwind. And unwind we did!
-Chris
For anyone that has ever delivered food before, you’ll understand the last panel of today’s strip all too well. And if you never have delivered any kind of food before… pizzas, subs or whatever, well come back here Wednesday and Friday as see the comical life of a pizza delivery guy – uh, I mean, werewolf.
On a sad note, today was a tough sports weekend in the Flick household. Actually, it’s been kind of a tough sports week once the Dodgers were eliminated by the Phillies and now the Red Sox went down valiantly too. I was sooooo hoping for a Dodgers vs. Red Sox World Series – mainly because of all the drama that would have been surrounding the “Manny Saga”. But alas, that is not to be.
But now the World Series will be interesting to watch since there will, essentially, be two underdogs in “The Show”. I wonder if others will feel that this series will be as compelling to watch. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
-Chris
Sometimes, inspiration can come from the most unexpected of places. Today’s strip is an example of that.
Each day, during my daily morning fight with Washington DC, metropolitan traffic, I like to listen to a variety of podcasts to pass the time away (and to help me keep calm). One such podcast that I have enjoyed quite a bit is The Major Spoilers podcast. I was listening to episode number 43 when I heard the guys comment about Robert Kirkman’s new guarantee that he will ship ALL of his books on time from now on.
And that got me thinking… Mr. Kirkman’s a prolific writer so I imagined he might experience some difficulty or stress while trying to make sure he is able to live up to his guarantee.
But then I forgot about the Time Machine he owns.
Currently, listening to Tori Amos’ cover of “Total eclipse of the heart”. This is a FANTASTIC cover to the Bonnie Tyler tune. You should buy it on iTunes if you like the song. I guarantee you’ll like it. 
-Chris
[An Update: Ugh! Having some problems with my internet router at home so I had to wait until this morning before I could upload today's strip. This was actually done about 12:30am last night.]
Hey now, you all didn’t think I’d forget about Roy hitting that car on the way to Joey’s house, did you? And yes, Roy is driving one of those new “Smart cars”. Has anyone seen them yet? I’ve already seen a couple in the Washington, DC area. They seem like they would be an idea commuter car – especially in MY neck of the woods – but man, they also look scary… scary in the sense that if anything happened, I guess you could convert the car into a coffin ’cause that what it looks like when they are out on the road.
A coffin with wheels.
-Chris
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I drew today’s strip yesterday afternoon sitting in a Cici’s pizza restaurant. There was a lady sitting a couple tables away from me. I admired her hairstyle and decided to adapt it to the lady sitting behind the cash register in today’s strip.
So… the moral of the story? Simple.
If you’re in a public eatery and you see an artist drawing a few tables away from you, be careful or you just might wind up in a comic strip.
-Chris
Just thought it would be humorous to see how the Power Pack would defeat the Super Skrull assigned to them. Figured the Skrull would “disguise” itself as their grand ma and the Skrulls would be so egotistical, they wouldn’t even “disguise” themselves as the Pack’s actual grand ma – they would just dress like her.
Oh… and you finally get to learn what Marc’s last name is in today’s strip!
Currently listening to “Sometimes when we touch” by Dan Hill via iTunes random play list.
-Chris
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