#008

A Notice of Import–Please Notice the Importance: Important Notice!

This week I was slow on the uptake in physically completing the new art for you, dear readers, and so I decided to show some images from my dark and twisted past. Back in the good-ol’-days, I was into superheroes, like, megatime. Still am, in fact. I created my own pantheon of spandex-wearing supernatural heroes to fly and jump and punch bad guys across my juvenile mind. What began as drawing some comic books about a star-shaped hero dubbed “Starman!” grew into a mild obsession onto all things super. Nowadays that looks more like popular animes such as One Punch Man or My Hero Academia. I am certain that my heroes of the present could crush the heroes of the past with two arms tied behind their back.

Heroes and Their Outlines.

Much of the time creating the heroes was spent creating epic backstories.

• The first picture: This is a drawing of a photo taken of the super gang, a group of friends who also all happened to be superheroes. From left to right, top to bottom, here they are. 1) Starting in the back is the Knifer, hiding behind a man with a taco on his head. The Knifer has the ability to throw anything with impeccable accuracy. Unfortunately, such a cool power left his creator lacking of a cool suit to match. 2) Macho Man, a real hunk of muscle, if you know what I mean. Has the ability to influence female minds with his high charisma score and chiseled features, and also can fly for some reason. Fell into radioactive men’s beauty cream. Despite his advantage in altitude, most things go over his head. 3) Astro. By far the coolest superhero to exit my youth, with a scarring backstory and cool suit accompanying. Suit allows space travel and a jetpack, and sweet tunes in his helmet, which activate his super powers: whenever he hears music, he grows 300x stronger and faster (or something like that). His parents sent him to an alien planet where they have tentacles for hair and four arms, where he was taken in by alien scientists, who gave him the serum that gave him his powers. 4) The fellow with the robotic wings is the Beetle, Most likely in his Mach 3 green suit. The Beetle (A.K.A. Peter something), works as a scientist at Foxbots Inc. where his nemesis also happens to work. He created and designed his suits to thwart his bosses’ robots and date his daughter. 5) The Gargoyle. When quiet war vet Jack Lee was bitten by a vampire, werewolf, and Chupacabra within one hour, the various toxins combined in his blood, turning him into a ferocious winged carnivore resembling the beasts known as gargoyles every night. Then, one day, Lee met an old man with one eye who gave him an amulet that allowed him to transform at will and keep his mind. 6) Starting back on the left with Taco Tim, probably one of the first superheroes created. Can fly for no reason, has hot-sauce guns on his wrists, and throwing taco-shells. 7-year-old me was thrilled by this hilarious and entirely new concept of a food-themed superhero. 7) Chess Master? Honestly I can’t remember anything about this guy except that he was a master tactician. 8) The man himself, Star-Man! the original superhero, created by me on Microsoft Paint with the star shape tool around 12 yrs ago. Can shoot lasers, fly, survive space, and is way cooler than Captain Marvel. 9) Thunder Boy, the super-fast boy wonder. Can run so fast that all one sees is a lightning-blue streak of afterburn, like Sonic the Hedgehog. Only 12, yet has one of the coolest superpowers known to boykind. 10) Hairy Larry, another original. Just a hairy middle-aged dwarf who can also fly and has super strength. Not sure why, but I have an original comic book lying around here somewhere.
• 2nd Pic: The Finite Brothers. Five brothers who each have control of some aspect of reality. Instead of having to describe each, just read the words in the image. They were a cool concept for me, and I like the idea of this for a comic book sometime, possibly with heavy shadows and lots of blues and oranges and pinks (similar to the comic You Look Like Death). Unfortunately, i never got farther than some basic daydreaming, and so they live only in my imagination and now all over the internet.
• Pictures 3 & 4: a comprehensive list of all the villains in my super-world. From left to right, some kind of flame-vampire about which I forgot what little lore there was, the Pheonix, a space-alien-conqueror bent on eliminating Astro, whom he sees as the only viable threat to his power, Trashcan, a mad scientist who wears a trash can on his head because he’s mad, and creates giant robots and evaporator rays, and Doctor Demise, whom I would have liked to call Doctor Doom but that was already taken. Pretty sure he fights the Gargoyle, and I don’t think he has any super powers, just is good with a spear. To be honest, I spent much more time on the heroes than the villains. And finally, Amos Fox, founder and CEO of Foxbots Inc., a company that makes robots for normal companies, and also secretly for evil villains, and makes a killing doing it. Amos is a cool and altogether evil guy, and completely unaware that his daughter, Amielia, is dating his mortal enemy, who also works for him undercover.
• 5th Picture: the Sword Masters! Inspired by the Simply Three cover of Knights of Cydonia, what these guys lack in character development and backstory they make up with in cool swords and cyberpunk tech. Left to right, Frenzy wields a massive claymore and has a bionic arm that grants super strength. Jasper has a flimsy rapier, the worst sword, but has the cool ability to control all tech with the computer chip in his brain. and finally, Fiona, who wields dual swords and looks good doing it. She’s the boss, and don’t you forget it, also she has robot legs so she can run and jump in a supernatural manner.

These are the basics. One day it would be cool to remake and remaster them, with finished backstories and cool suits, but that must come for a later day.

Thanksgiving Week.

Every turkey is thankful they are not the ones being eaten at this time of year. Friends, Thanksgiving time is upon us, with Black Friday sales looming like the great white whale, except black and not a whale. The sermon this Sunday (the time this particular procrastinator is writing this), was about thankfulness, who should receive it, what it should be for, when it should be had, and a couple other things I can’t remember without my notes. (Read Ephesians 5:20, if interested). I was reminded of many things, and then just now I remembered you guys. Dear Readers, thank you so much for being patient with this young person figuring out how to art while also figuring out how to blog. You have my near-eternal thanks, until the point you say “enough, we get the picture.”

Farewell

I tried to keep it shorter this week (I do have a job in the morning, after all), and considering the amount of exposition given, I feel justified. I hope you all have wonderful Thanksgiving meals, with friends or family, and have a thankful heart and mindset. (Studies show that this is beneficial for mental health! probably!). Spread the word of the Inkbeard Blog while out gorging yourselves, and remember to say that this was not a paid promotion. Farewell.