Mystique vs. Shadow Lass

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Well there you have it, the colored version. I'm sure I'll find more thing to correct later on when it's not 4:30 in the morning.
Ah...Mystique. Throughout most of her history, Mystique has been a supervillainess, founding the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and assassinating several important people involved in mutant affairs. Mystique herself is a mutant, a shapeshifter whose natural appearance includes her blue skin and yellow eyes. At one point, she mentioned she is over 100 years old.
And Shadow Lass it's from the 31st centurie, her real name is Tasmia Mallor and her homeworld is Talok VIII. She has the power to project darkness. Like all Talokians, she has blue skin and pointed ears. She and her cousin Grev (Shadow Kid) received their powers from their ancestors, whose spirits reside in a cave on Talok VIII (Talokians practice ancestor worship).
Shadow Lass joined the Legion of Super Heroes after her homeworld was invaded by the Fatal Five. She helped the Legion to defeat them. After joining, she became romantically involved with Lar Gand and eventually married him after he was mortally wounded fighting the Time Trapper as part of the conspiracy to avenge Superboy's death at the Trapper's hands.

Onward in Space or Time

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Here's the rough pencil and the inks for Mystique (from X-Men) vs. Shadow Lass (from The Legion of Super Heroes). I guess the only thing they have in common other than being hot it's blue skin. I look forward to color this one. I'm thinking about photoshopping Mystique's belt skulls.
I'll be super busy with my regular Simpsons job all week and I don't know when it's the next time I'll be able to finish this piece. So there you go for now. Peace out!

T.

WB Mural 2009

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In July 2008 I got a call from my old friend Amy Wagner at the Warner Brothers Burbank studio. I was recommended by Bruce Timm, James Tucker and Glen Murakami to redesign the WB mural, the one that's been at the Olive and Pass Avenues for the past 15 years. We had a meeting at Sam Register's office and went over the details. See the bottom half of the above image for the final layout I designed and came up with. That's the one everyone at WB Animation was happy with. Later on I heard someone from the main WB lot was going to change my layout and add some of the cartoony characters on top of it.
On April 7 Warner Bros. Animation hosted a special Animation Celebration event on the studio lot, during which it unveiled the first update to its popular animation mural in 15 years.
The event was open to the public and feature entertainment, prizes, fun events for families, refreshments and a live performance from Beat Freaks, the all-girl dance crew from the 2009 edition of America’s Best Dance Crew.
There were also a few special guests like Julie Newmar (the original Catwoman from the 60's tv show) and Diedrich Bader (voice of Batman from Batman the Brave and the Bold)
I don't really mind the changes that were made to my original design. After all Bugs Bunny and Duffy Duck put WB Animation on the map. Although I like my layout better, there are less tangents and a lot of less empty spaces. I wish they hired me to add the cartoony characters as well.
All the villains heads show up at night only thanks to special painting and lighting.
It's a true honor to be part of this historical landmark.
Click here for the Cartoon Brew article

Catwoman vs. The Black Cat

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To my surprise Terry Dodson already did a piece of Black Cat vs. Catwoman for the Wizard magazine. The interesting part it's I found out about it right before I was done with my version. He even made Catwoman on the same side and pulling the Black Cat's hair like me, that's crazy!
For those who doesn't know anything about comics, the Black Cat it's a Marvel Comics anti-hero that has been both a one-time foe and an ex-girlfriend of Spider-Man. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Keith Pollard, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979). The Black Cat is a skilled (somewhat reformed) "cat" burglar who is currently an occasional crime fighter and adventurer.
And if you don't know who Catwoman is, you better leave my Blog right now. Selina Kyle the DC Comics supervillainess was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, partially inspired by Kane's second cousin by marriage, Ruth Steel...waddayaknow.

The Submariner vs. Aquaman

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And to continue with my new "Versus" series, I'll give you Aquaman vs. Namor.
Both king of Atlantis. The classic DC vs. Marvel underwater heroes.
Aquaman was created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in More Fun Comics #73 (Nov. 1941). Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles, Aquaman later starred in several volumes of a solo title. During the late-1950s and 1960s superhero-revival period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books, he was a founding member of the team the Justice League of America. In the 1990s-present Modern Age of Comic Books, Aquaman's character became more serious than in most previous interpretations, with storylines depicting the weight of his role as king of Atlantis.
Namor the Submariner was created by writer-artist Bill Everett for Funnies, Inc., one of the first "packagers" in the early days of comic books that supplied comics on demand to publishers looking to enter the new medium. Initially created for the unreleased comic Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, the Sub-Mariner first appeared publicly in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939) — the first comic book from Timely Comics, the 1930s-1940s predecessor of the company Marvel Comics. During that period, known to historians and fans as the Golden Age of Comic Books, the Sub-Mariner was one of Timely's top three characters, along with Captain America and the original Human Torch. Everett said the character's name was inspired by Samuel Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". The first known comic book antihero, the Sub-Mariner has remained a historically important and relatively popular Marvel character.

Captain Marvel vs. Captain Marvel

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Since I was a kid I always wonder if there will be cross overs about characters with similar name or powers between different comic book companies. Since I never got to see Aquaman vs. Namor, Quicksilver vs. The Flash and so forth, I thought it would be a great idea to make up my own version and have some fun drawing cool characters.
I even thought it would make a great comic book line. It could be named Crossover Battles Presents...of course you would have to deal with an extensive amount of work from licensing. But it would be a new an original source of work for everyone in the business (writers, artists, editors, etc). I think the most fun part was coming up with the battles matches, I got 67 so far.
I know I should be working on Terranova, my Sci Fi epic film. But I got very enthusiastic about drawing characters that remind me of my happy childhood. Every once in a while it's very healthy for an artist to draw for fun and not for a work related project.
I hope you like my first one, there's still some work to be done but I think it's OK to post.
Captain Marvel from DC comics was created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940). With a premise that taps adolescent fantasy, Captain Marvel is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a youth who works as a radio news reporter and was chosen to be a champion of good by the wizard Shazam.
Captain Marvel from Marvel comics is the name of several superheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Most of these versions exist in Marvel's main shared universe, known as the Marvel Universe. It's almost like a title.
I chose Khn'nr the most recent one, an alien character who has appeared in numerous comic book series published by Marvel. He is a Skrull sleeper agent posing as the Kree Captain Mar-Vell aka Captain Marvel.
The shapeshifting Skrull Khn'nr was bonded with the DNA of Mar-Vell to lock his body into Mar-Vell's form and given technological replicas of the Kree Nega-Bands. However, his mental conditioning was botched, causing Khn'nr's personality to be erased leaving the Mar-Vell persona dominant. Though part of the Skrull invasion of Earth, this Captain Marvel decides to fight against the invading Skrulls.

Watchmen Birthday Card

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Behold, the birthday card for my ex-wife. Since she thought Rorschach stole the movie I figure she may like a Rorschach birthday card. I hope you dig the step by step posts.
What did you think of the movie? I really liked it. I thought it was a good comic book adaptation, not too many people in Hollywood knows how to do that properly. I think most of the people who didn't read the comic had a hard time following the movie and getting it. And most of the people who were familiar with the comic really liked it. I wasn't too crazy about Nixon's make up, that could be better. Ozymandias' lynx Bubastis could be better too, it looked too CG to me. And yes you can see Doc Manhattan's wee wee so fu@*ing what! When is nudity going to stop being a taboo subject in America? You were born naked, remember? The sex scene with the Silk Spectre and the Night Owl was too short if you ask me, my goodness she looks so hot in that skintight latex. I liked the end better in the movie as well.
Great flick all around thou. I heard they made $55,655,000 on the opening week end. I hope Zack Snyder keeps making comic book related movies.

Emmy Award

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Here is my fourth Emmy Award for being part of the show.
"Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' nineteenth season, and was first broadcast on December 16, 2007 on FOX. The episode averaged 10.15 million viewers, winning in its time slot and receiving a 12 percent audience share. The episode follows Homer's attempts to recall a deliberately forgotten memory from the previous night.
Directed by Chuck Sheetz.

Atom Eve

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I was doing some comics shopping last Wednesday at the House of Secrets and being surrounded by all that great art got me inspired. Suddenly I had the idea of drawing an Atom Eve from the Invincible in the Bill Presing style. I thought it would be cool to see a sexy cartoony version of that lovely character. And here's my first pass. Even when I know I should be doing storyboards and key frames for Terranova in my free time, I couldn't resist having some fun.

The Brave and the Bold

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I was asked by the WB producers of Batman the Brave and the Bold, to do some action poses of different DC characters to be included on the opening title sequence. The best part it's that Kamandi was one of those characters. Kamandi is a DC Comics comic book character created by acclaimed artist Jack Kirby. The bulk of Kamandi's appearances occurred in the comic series Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, which ran from 1972 to 1978. Kamandi is a young hero in a post-apocalyptic future. After a huge event called "The Great Disaster", humans are a persecuted minority in a world ruled by intelligent, highly evolved animals. I grew up on that plus Kamandi was one of my first Kirby comics.
One of the other many characters was Jonah Hex. Jonah Hex is a fictional character, a Western comic book anti-hero created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga.
The right side of his face is horribly distinctly scarred. He was an officer for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, fought at Gettysburg and is normally shown wearing a tattered Confederate States Army jacket. Hex is surly and cynical, and is in many ways similar to Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name or The Outlaw Josey Wales.
I heard the show it's doing well.
BTW needless to say these images are copyright WB Animation and DC Comics.

Batman the Brave and the Bold

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Another project I've had the pleasure to work on is Batman the Brave and the Bold. Batman: The Brave and the Bold is the name of an upcoming animated television series based in part on the comic book series of the same name. Batman having a pronounced cleft chin, will team-up with several other DC Comics heroes. The show is scheduled to debut on November 14, 2008 at 8:00 pm, on Cartoon Network. I promise after the show it's aired I'll post a couple of my designs. Here is a screen grab from two of my designs.
Enjoy the opening sequence on this link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Yg24vfokc 

Dead Space Downfall

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Good Anime , low quality in graphics, excelect B movie. It is dark , bloody full goar like a Ramirez film.
The story is pretty much straightforward. Dead planet, host parasitic alien form, comes to ship and kills everyone.
If you are into horror Sci Fi, you may like it.
For the record all of this images are copyright either EA of Film Roman.

Here is one of my "character design" jobs. Miner # 1 covered in blood.



Another "design" for one of the many Slashers...



They actually misspelled my last name after I made them read it back to me properly... it's Tejeda not Tejada.
They misspelled my last name on The Simpsons Movie too, but after I demand an explanation they corrected it for the DVD release. You would think in a multimillion dollar industry the people in charge of the credits would check how to spell everyone's names...once again that's Hollywood for ya.

TERRANOVA now NOVA STAR

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And here it is, my first poster rough design for Terranova.
Too bad Spielberg came up with a Sci Fi TV show also called Terra Nova. I'm going to have to change the name now. The way I see it, a chance to come up with a better name...
My Terranova it's a live action epic science fiction film I've been developing for the past 10 years on my free time.
I wrote the script's final draft with some help from Ben Chiang. I also penciled a story board action sequence and design all the characters for this epic film.
It's been very difficult finding time to invest on my own film since I'm always busy working for FOX or WB. So far I managed to finish my script (yes it's registered), do some boards, designs, a story treatment with a synopsis, a bible and a short quicktime slide show teaser with all of the above.
Most of the backgrounds I collected from the internet and of course the rights belong to their respective owners. Whenever the film goes into production they will be all re-design anyway.
Subsequently you must sign a non disclosure agreement before you are exposed to this original material. Terranova it's my baby, I'm not taking any chances.
Up until now a small elite had access to it. Ever since Paul Dini made a very positive comment about it, I know I got something real good in my hands. I like to think of Terranova as a franchise gold mine.
All I can tell you without giving anything away it's that my film has it all. A good story, interesting characters, lots of FX, robots, mutants, five dimensional aliens, alien animals, space ships, Agartheans, mutated animals, action, philosophy, spirituality and adventure. Did I leave anything out?
This Photoshop collage poster it's the result of a sleepless night. Some of the art it's copyright psxextreme.com, www.dragos.org, www.xurge3d.com and the space ships are by Sliver. The rest it's all by me.
I know it seems like a lot of celebrities for my casting choices, but hey...there is a multicast mega budget Sci Fi epic film for ya.
Not too bad for my first "none drawn art" post in my Blog.

Walking with Buddha

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Here is a model I revised in 2005 from Walking with Buddha for the Ngong Ping 360 Buddhist Cultural Center.
Walking with Buddha is an immersive, multimedia attraction allowing visitors to follow the life of Siddhartha Gautama - the man who became Buddha - and his path to enlightenment.
It physically takes you on a journey through Siddhartha's life. From the opulence of Siddhartha's Palace to the harshness of the Forest, you will feel as if you are truly 'walking with Buddha'. Travelling through the various stages of Siddhartha's life, you will witness his transition from being a Prince at Court to reaching supreme awareness and becoming Buddha.
They only gave me a character design "clean up" credit, after I did some animation walk cycle as reference for TMS, the overseas studio. I also went over the main designs, revised them and of course clean them up. If you ask me that is more than just character design "clean up".
At least I got to be part of this cool cartoon and got to work with Bill Sienkiewicz, one of my many heroes when I was a kid.

Dr. Feelgood Comic Book

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In 1997 I was called by Shaun McLaughlin (the producer from the New Batman and Superman Adventures at that time) He asked me if I wanted to do a comic book for Motley Crue, since he knew I was a Motley Fan. His friend also named Shaun was the art director for Motley Crue at the Generation Swine Tour and was looking for a fast comic book artist. They asked me to do a comic book from a script based on the Dr. Feelgood song in "four" days, since the band was already on tour. My comic images would be shown during the rest of the tour on the big screens on each side of the stage each time Motley played that song.
It was very difficult to complete my new assignment since I was already working full time for Warner Brothers designing characters for a Superman episode and doing some storyboards freelance for a Batman episode. It was also my first time doing storyboards for WB and I wanted to impress Bruce Timm by doing a good job, no pressure.
Later after I started, I got a call asking me to do it in "two" days. So I drank coffee like water, didn't sleep for two days and got everything done and shipped on time. I probably did 35 comic panels in 15 hours listening to the Dr. Fellgood song over and over.
The panels were in black and white due to the lack of time. I was inspired by my comic book artists heroes a that time, Jaime Hernandez and Jordi Bernet.
A week later I got a giant check from Motley Crue to me for $ 6,000 dollars. I think it was my best paid comic book work ever.
I wish I had a copy from that check, it was awesome. I spend everything on my drum kit the next day at Guitar Center in Hollywood.
Here are some of those panels.
Thanx Tommy, Nikki, Vince and Mick I would never forget it. I only wish I had a chance to meet you guys and do some more work for the band...maybe some day.

Girls with Guns

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From an old sketch book named "Girls with Guns" that belongs to Chris Roman.
I found the sketch book in my library by accident when I was looking for something else.
I didn't even know I had it all this time since 1997. I guess I was the last one in doing a piece for the book...ooops...sorry Chris, my most sincere apologies. And yes, I did this in 1997 not recently.

Hellboy II

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Since Hellboy II: The Golden Army it's opening today
I thought it would be nice to have something related to it.
So there...based on a Mignola sketch, but much more simplified.

Update (7-12-08' - 2:41 am)
You are not going to believe what happened today.
I went to see Hellboy II at the Arclight in Sherman Oaks at the 8:30 pm show.
I had a one sheet print out of my tickets, but I thought I get the individual printed tickets when I get there just in case Adriana was late. Adriana was one of my party of five along with Laysha, Laurie and Paul. She is always late.
When I went to do that the operations manager pull me to the side and told me Guillermo Del Toro himself was going to be there for that screening and that he chose those particular seats himself. I guess I got the best seats in the house. We got separate re-assigned seats for that show-time, one on each corner of the theatre, the only unpleasant part of the evening.
So...to make it up to us for the inconvenience they gave us a full refund, a free cool bag full of Hellboy merchandise, including a poster drawn by Mike Mignola, autographed by Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman and Doug Jones.
Oh, and it gets better, we went to dinner at the Arclight Cafe and Guillermo Del Toro and his wife got seated in a table next to us. Obviously we went to talk to him after dinner like the good geeks that we are. He was super cool and nice, very down to earth. Since I'm from Argentina I got to talk to him in spanish and told him I want him to direct my Sci Fi epic Terranova and gave him my last business card. After telling him about our re-assigned seating adventure he even offer to get those seats back to us, because he wasn't going to be at the screening after all. But a lying son a bitch dude that works there said those seats were for the people responsible for the FX in the movie. Whatever...if it wasn't for that I would never meet one of my favorite directors.
We watched the movie and I thought it was awesome. Following the screening was a Q&A with the director. I even got the microphone and got to ask my question.
Like the Simpsons Comic Book Guy would say...best movie night ever!