Quote Originally Posted by Albacore View Post
Well I think Captain Apex is a hit with me Gary although the last drawing he looks more muscular in the legs.
Captain Apex had been working out at the gym between issues.

Seriously, I’m not a top-notch figure drawing artist, and a superhero is a challenge. What I don’t want to do is build a physically impossible character, male or female. Comic books are for kids of all ages, and part of the charm is the dream in the reader’s mind that they, too, could become a super-fighter of injustice. Superman is out of their reach: it seems like every issue, Superman acquired a new power as the writers were strung out for plot development. On the other hand, Hal Jordan was just a regular guy like all of us until a dying alien gave him a super-charged ring and made an ordinary human a super-hero. Now that sort of dream-fulfillment is accessible to everyone. And Hal Jordan, both in the comics and as played by Ryan Reynolds in the ill-fated motion picture, was a guy who went to the gym regularly, but Schwarzenegger he was not. Give a kid a star they can reach for, and possibly grasp.

It’s funny, Albacore, but I believe that a lot of members on tg whose early years were spent with a pen or pencil also spent a lot of time emulating characters we saw in comic books. Which got me into trouble when I attended art school because heroic figures are generally drawn to 9 heads, while average people are drawn to about 7 heads. “Un-learning” can be an educational experience, too! 

I, too, was a “DC Comics” sorta kid. When our neighborhood friends used to get together on Saturdays and do comic book swaps, I eschewed Marvel Comics characters because they spent way too much time pondering Right versus Wrong, they had a lot of angst, and I just wanted to see Superman hurl a big alien at the sun, you know?

However, you flash forward half a century and I’d venture that Zack Snyder is struggling with rebooting and reorganizing the DC brand for motion pictures. I thought the dialog in “Man of Steel” was copped right out of “Watchmen”, that Supes was willing to let Zod destroy half of Metropolis and countless lives for the sake of an action-packed finale to the movie, and ultimately violated the canon, not in the least by removing the guy’s red underpants and trimming that forelock off.


On the other hand, the Marvel movies are witty, action-packed, and I genuinely like the inner reflections that Tony Stark (who else could play him except Robert Downey?!) and the others take a brief swig of, but don’t get drunk on questioning the super-deeds that must come with super-powers. They’re 3D, they’re funny, and I think that’s because Joss Whedon plays such a heavy production, writing, and directing role for the Marvel Universe. Add to that your weekly dose of kindred “Agents of SHIELD” (Clark Gregg is both authoritative and hysterically comedic in a deadpan way, like Bob Newhart), and you’ve got characters who don’t just save the USA, but save the world. I like a comic series that is Nationality Blind. Their credo is to protect the innocent and helpless. End of credo.

My Best,

Gary