Disney Princess Color Analysis

You know how sometimes you have an idea as soon as you wake up? This morning, this was mine:


It's a combination of Scott McCloud's approach to analyzing Golden Age superhero costumes, and Dustin Weaver's recent observation that, with her bold, primary colors and jet black hair, Snow White is basically Superman.

Just as we involuntarily, subconsciously know that purple + green= Hulk, red + gold = Iron Man and gray + bluish black + a tiny bit of yellow = Batman, we can't see that unique combination of blue-green, red, flesh and lavender without immediately thinking (in a Jamaican accent) "Ariel!" We can instantly recognizable all the Disney heroines from their color schemes alone. I haven't tried it with any other characters, but you can easily imagine similar color swatches for villains (Ursula, Gaston, Jafar, Scar, and Radcliffe all have wonderful and very distinct color schemes), heroes (think of Beast, Aladdin, John Smith, or especially Quasimodo), or even supporting characters (though characters like Flounder, Genie, Phoebus, or Mushu tend to be colored from much simpler palettes.) In every case, the colors are as unique as the character designs themselves.

(Notice that with the exception of Snow White these are all characters from the post-1989 Disney Renaissance. Disney had some terrific character designs in the 30's, 50's and 60's, but the color element doesn't particularly stand out for me. Quick! What color was Aurora's dress in Sleeping Beauty? ...See? Even if you know, you had to think about it.)

I don't understand color. I barely understand how it works in real life, and I'm certainly not to the point of being able design with color in an appealing way. What Disney does (or did?) is simply amazing to me. They can paint with all the colors of the wind!

(By the way, here's a link to a cool artist who drew many of the Disney princesses as superheros.)

Cartoon for Ali Farzat

Ali Farzat is a great Syrian political cartoonist. Recently he was kidnapped by paramilitary thugs (believed to be working for Pres. Bashar Assad) and brutally beaten. They deliberately broke both of his hands.

(click for larger version)

I was going to write a long tract about the metaphorical dimension of this horrible attack, but it's all pretty obvious, really. Farzat spoke Truth to Power and met a fate similar to so many who do. I'll just add that Farzat's cartoons are awesome, and he's obviously a man after my own heart, my very favorite type of political cartoonist. Google him some time. It's purely visual storytelling - no patronizing labels or captions, none of the gags based solely on dialogue or wordplay which have made our own editorial pages so trite and boring. What's even better, Farzat seldom caricatures specific individuals. He rarely, for instance, draws the tyrant Assad. Rather, he seems to draw "types," the archetypal plutocrat, politician, pauper, or proletarian. This is such a great way to de-emphasize transitory "personality politics" and keep the focus where it should be, on the long-term conflict of classes.

By the way, on the off-chance that somebody wants to read my cartoon right-to-left, here's the Arabic version:



Get well soon, Ali. Get well soon, Syria. Ash-sha`b yurid isqat an-nizam!

Titanzer Fan-Art!

I drew some fan-art for my friend Kevin Wilson's giant-robot webcomic Titanzer!

The image depicts the titular titan, Titanzer, having his ass handed to him by the immense evil alien robot Inert, whom I internally refer to as "Fisto Punchalot." In the foreground is Titanzer's distressed owner/operator, has-been celebrity Johnny Yamamoto.

In addition to being a fun and hilarious guy who draws a great webcomic, Kevin is also the person who lent me a button machine to make promotional buttons for Savage Nobles in the Land of Enchantment. Below are the three designs:

Check out Titanzer everybody, and DON'T! GET! FISTED!

Calico Jack Guest Comic

I did a guest comic for my friend Patrick Devine's comic "Calico Jack," which reassures us that in the 26th century there will still be punk rock, piracy, and (apparently) floppy disks! The more things change, huh?

The comic re-depicts an incident from issue 2, page 13. Jack has obviously taken some creative liberties in the retelling. Capt. Miller is nowhere near as villainous or confrontational in the original story, despite working for an organization, the Federal Union, whose initials are "F.U."

More Figure Drawing w/ Periscopers

Glad I used ink this time instead of my usual scratchy 4H pencil. Without light, form is meaningless.

Life Ain't No Ponyfarm Fan-Art

My friend Sarah Burrini is visiting Portland this week, all the way from Cologne, Germany! She has a great biweekly webcomic in German AND English called "Life Ain't No Ponyfarm" which I recommend you check out, especially if you "sprechen zie Deutches." I decided to honor her visit by drawing some of her characters.

There are a lot of auto-bio webcomics out there, let's face it. But "Ponyfarm" is exactly the type of auto-bio comic I can really get into i.e. one that is full of lies. Though Sarah herself is the main character, she is only sometimes the focus of the story - the other characters are Ngumbe, an elephant who wants to be Miles Davis, "El Fungo," a hot-headed Mexican mushroom, and Buttercup, who is just an adorable pony.

Here's the color version - I sorta rushed this, but I sense the potential for greatness.