Old School Titans, Expanded

You may or may not recall the drawing of the early '70s Teen Titans from earlier posts. Along the way, I did commissions of Lilith & Gnaark, Mal & Bumblee, and Tula. With some fun time in Photoshop, they are all layered together for a full-team shot. Honestly, I know Tula guest-appeared, but I don’t know when she was waived in as a member.

FYI, I've made custom Mego action figures of the Titans, and in the recent past, remade their packaging. Let's see if I expand this image to include the Joker's Daughter, Bumblebee, Golden Eagle, or Flamebird—or Bat-Girl (I made them both). 

Might not be art week: Customego Teen Titans (Series I)

Mego action figures were popular when I was a boy, and very popular with me in particular. They were 8" and had fabric outfits and accessories. Let's face it, dolls for geeky boys.

I had nearly the whole line-up leftover from my childhood, but when eBay entered my life, the collection furthered. I also discovered the huge, strange world of customizing figures (taking parts and creating characters Mego never made, or making them better than Mego did).

From 1999-2001, I made nearly 200 customs! Yes, I learned to sew (hand- and machine- ) and I could sculpt parts, accessories, and some basic heads such as robots or the Golden Age Sandman). Often, I would sell off early versions on eBay when I my draft 2 or 3 turned out great. Ultimately, I sold off most of my customs, keeping only the "essential" characters, or characters I really loved.

Among the keepers were my Teen Titans. Mego's Titans were 7" and more "teen scale" compared to the rest of the line up. However, Mego's Robin was 8". I definitely prefer 8 inchers... and the parts were easier to come by. I made most of my Titans toward the end of my customizing career, so they were among my finest work.

However, last year between xmas and New Years, I decided to clean up the last of my shoddy work on Black Canary and the Titans. Here, they are posed and await visitors as they entered my apartment.

Mego figures int he early years came in boxes, which I like to protect and display in or out of the box. Making boxes is fun for me, as I can draw the characters—I can also take a lot of creative license with them, so they look more like my customs than they do in the comic books themselves (cheater).

My Titans boxes were actually really bad—let's agree the digital printing has come a long way in the past decade, as has my skills in production (as well as drawing!). While I redrew the figures while I was in Europe in early 2009, I never got around making new boxes until just recently.

Jumping back into customizing is a bit frustrating...what poor sewing skills I had are gone...and even box making is a new challenge. I could only find super lightweight posterboard or super heavy weight for the box backing (you spray mount the color printouts to the posterboard). I totally forgot that medium weight is best...b/c heavy weight cracks when you fold it. So, these boxes, around the edges, the cracking posterbard has pulled apart the the color printouts. From a distance, it looks like the boxes are well worn from childhood play.

At first, I was irritated, but then I thought, (1) they are vastly better than the first set I made 10 years ago, and (2) Who really cares?!?

And yes, as the post title suggests, there is a Series II of Customego Titans figures. And, uh, yes, a Series III (yes, dork).

For more info check:
http://www.megomuseum.com/
http://www.megomuseum.com/wgsh/teentitans.html
http://www.megomuseum.com/custom/customblog.html

Teen Titans '10—sort of

Fish-philes know my penchant for late '60s-early '70s Teen Titans. So my foray into the Titans of today is very much a cautious toe-dipping into the pool.

The sketch session starts off with the non-modern version Betty Kane Bat-Girl flipping a would-be attacker, before I am inspired to draw the Cassie Sandsmark Wonder Girl.

Cassie wears a TIGHT red top with either an eagle or W, and originally jeans and later TIGHT red pants. At first I thought the idea of a super-hero wearing jeans was pretty silly. But drawing her, I warmed up to it. Here, I give her the loose top a la Donna Troy in the mid-'60s with stylized eagle, but showing the midriff. Then I imagined her sewing on the stars wrapping around her hip and leg. Kinda blending Donna's first look with her second in a retro-hippy chick version of Cassie. Now I like her.

I proceed to draw Cassie along with a more modern version of Robin (probably Tim Drake) and some version of Kid Flash (is Impulse now KF? Is that Bart Allen? I can't keep up), fighting the grow-one of the Sizematic Twins.

Admitting Wonder Girl, Robin, and Kid Flash aren't terribly "modern" I proceeded to draw Kid Devil and Rose Wilson astonished by the shrink-one of the Sizematic Twins. Perhaps he broke into the Titans' HQ. I did read about Rose on Wikipedia. I assume in my version, the serum granting her super strength and reflexes is out of her system, rendering her more along the lines of Lilith with ESP as contribution to the cause. I'm guessing with that serum out of her system, she'll have less if no psychotic episodes. Maybe the eye she gauged out will grow back. Dunno.

Titans time—

But, not really.

I get lots of sketch requests, and I turn down many because I am too distracted with the day job and keeping on top of stuff. But I still mindlessly churn out Titans circa 1973 sketches!

My work on the Cavalcade re-print is just about ready to send to the printer, and after that, I really need to start my Bonnie N. Collide guesties for Monica Gallagher. I promised they would be ready to run in September. That's but 2 weeks away!

Fortunately, my loft space is now in great shape for me to start creative work again. It was a long 4-month haul (still far from "done" but in a very live-able state), but it'll feel good to get to some comics again.

Draw, monkey, draw!

Classic Teen Titans

No shocker to any sketchblog regular, I like the Teen Titans circa 1973. As I mentioned earlier, I sold out of books early during Angoulême Festival. I began drawing to amuse myself and others, and ended up selling a few: one rough looking hot guy, a Yvonne Craig style Batgirl (from the '60s Batman TV show), and a '70s style Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah. The last one I drew was this classic Teen Titans. It didn't sell due to the late finish and higher price. It's a nice piece though! I am half glad it didn't sell, so I could make a nice scan of it, color it, and post here! Maybe I will sell it as a print as cons. A number of people pointed out all kinds of artists do that at cons.

a study of Titan boys

Gearing up for a Titans fan's request, I have been sketching away, and you get to see a few. First, a standing around shot of Beast Boy, Golden Eagle, Gnaark, and Mal. Next, Robin finds a clue with Speedy and Lilith behind. Lastly, a thumbnail of a Titans beach party: Speedy tosses Kid Flash a frisbee while Gnaark noogies Robin and Golden Eagle is surfing (tough to see here). below is larger renderings of GE surfing and Speedy tossing the frisbee.

Teen Titans '73

I've been doing a lot of super-hero sketching lately. A number have been Teen Titans. There was a publication gap from 1973-1976, and these sketches are meant to be from that era.

On this page you get Wondergirl, sexy cave-boy Gnaark, Lilith, the original Bat-Girl, Kid Flash, and some zombies for them to fight. Many fans hate this era, but I actually like it. There weren't super-villains, but they were always getting mixed up in strange goings-on. They were a bit more age-appropriate as well... not the 19 year olds going on 45 a la the 1980s incarnation. That was way too serious for my taste.

Plus, there was no hot cave-boy. I just loved it when Gnaark became super-smart in a short-lived attempt to make him a viable character. I've added to the post a drawing I did of Gnaark in 2002, in color. At the time, I was creating a lot of custom action figures, with packaging. This was the art for the packing... I never did make a Gnaark action figure though! He's wearing the standard-issue jumpsuits worn by some of the Titans of this era, except he's so buff, he can barely fit into it.