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). 

Filmation Aquaman

Happy New Year!

One of the few gifts of "entertainment" for me this xmas was a DVD of the Filmation Aquaman series from the late '60s.

For some reason, this was never aired as re-runs locally when I was a kid, unlike a lot of other cartoons from that era. So, I'd only seen snippets on Cartoon Network some years back, though they edited them horribly.

The series isn't quite as "bad" as the '70s Filmation Batman series, but still has its moments: Mera (despite being quite powerful in the comics) is pretty weak and useless, always needing to be saved; Aquaman and Aqualad rely heavily on their giant seahorses for transport; and the addition of Tusky the walrus is pretty absurd...I mean, the action takes place pretty deep, and the poor guy is never off camera long enough to get air...not sure how he survived.

The interaction between Aquaman and Aqualad is fun: Aquaman calls his junior partner "tadpole," "minnow," and "squirt." Aw.

The series also was the innovator (I think) of the sound effect of Aquaman's telepathic commands used in Super-Friends and even today in Batman: Brave and the Bold.

Each episode is like 7 minutes long, so you can enjoy in small chunks...so, do!

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

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.