I like it, I like it a lot.

Another long overdue drawing in both the categories of "I want to draw ___" and requests I receive, "I'd like to see your take on ___." I've teased you with other primers, but here it is: science ninja team Gatchaman.

I, of course, was first exposed to the team as the focal point of the series Battle of the Planets, a drastic rescripting of the Japanese series for a US audience in immediate and desperate need for sci-fi after the runaway success of Star Wars.

This drawing took me a while to work up to; it can't really be a stand-and-pose drawing, since the characters are all similarly but distinctly dressed. And, with 5 of them having similar but distinct abilities, a fight scene is also a challenge. At the end of the day, I thought the task at hand would be to showcase their personalities as best I could.

And, a major challenge in the drawing in layers don't smudge the heck out of the original art. I mostly succeeded, with just a few smudges that cleaned up alright. Color would be good on this one someday, but it was a nice exercise. I'm somewhat pleased!

Oh—the blog post title comes from the mid-90s redux of the series. Richie and I say that to each other often, as well as a quote from Solaris, "You fool, you failed."