PHONE DOODLE

Sometimes drawing with ball-point pen is so freeing. You can almost achieve grey tones and line variations. Phone pads also provide a freedom from permanence (sp?) as well. This phone doodle was one of many and of many days chewing on a character design for CHARLATAN BALL #3...I actually had picked one (also after several sketches) a few months back but wast never quite happy with it. It had been eating at me and eating at me and as I find myself nearing penciling this section of issue #3, could hold back no longer. I will try and post some of the initial concept ones, as well as the final one of where this one goes...though I am pleased by this, we'll see what JOE CASEY (writer/partner) thinks. The character's name is WRATHBURN, who's dimension happens to be called EMBERLAND...

When I first read thru Joe's breakdowns, I imagined a sort of BARON KARZA from MICRONAUTS...then decided to pull more crazy KIRBY-isms into it and incorporate DRAGON-MAN (from the Marvel Universe) proportions. After seeing PATHFINDER last night with my date with DARRICK BACHMAN, I realized my initial, gut response for the character was probably best. He needs to be more of a bad-ass, lord of the realm sort--and hopefully this captures it.

...and yes, that's a mouth in his stomach.

Here is the Dragon-Man version from before:


And this was the initial rough done on the actual back of Joe's breakdowns--done with a SHARPIE and whatever else was laying around next to the computer...