The Dark Knight Arrives!

I was a big fan of Frank Miller's twisted Batman tale THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and remember eagerly buying all four issues! With me being a big Batman fan it was one of those great comic book moments! It is not the ultimate Batman story to me, but I thought it was really an engaging one. Something about a bitter older Batman trying to work through some of his issues while dealing with a battered Gotham city of the future appealed to me at that time. Yes this Batman tale may seem a bit dated now with some of it's story elements and a bit over the top with other elements, yet I still like the Two-Face/Joker stories and how they wrapped up mixed in with the satire. As for the Batman/Superman conflict it was fun to see those two characters differences played out!  

Flash forward to the present an animated adaption of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS has been produced and the first part was released this week. This image below I had started to create for a contest connected to the release of the DVD. I got side tracked with work and did not make the deadline, but decided to finish it up anyways. The image was created by drawing over a pencil rough in Illustrator. I looked at many pages of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS comics to get inspired when creating this and decided to create my own take on the scene from the junkyard where Batman and Robin take on some mutant gang members. So that is it in a long winded nutshell and I have heard rumors there was a sequel to THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. I hope it is a rumor as I think the TDKR story ends just right, but that is just my opinion.

Happy Twenty Year Anniversary BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES!

It was twenty years ago today I think one of the better versions of a televised/motion story version of BATMAN debuted on TV. It was BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES. Creative types like Bruce Timm, Eric Radomski, Paul Dini, etc. did such a great job in putting this show together! In addition actor Kevin Conroy really gave us a fully realized BATMAN with his voice work! Also other actors like Mark Hamill, etc. did excellent voice acting on characters like the Joker, along with other classic and new characters in this BATMAN universe! BMTAS had a perfect mix of crime/film noir style, mood, adventure, drama, and dark humor all in a kid's show if you can believe that! I could not resist in creating an image of BATMAN in Illustrator of the style of Bruce Timm who set the visual look of the show. 

For more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Animated_Series      

Now I think I will go watch an episode or two! 

Some Monsters

It feels like I am still in Halloween mode a week later so I am just going with it. I actually a few of these character below during Halloween. They are all created in Illustrator and just want to have fun scaring you. 

A Couple DC Icon Images

Hey I hear there is this GREEN LANTERN film coming out soon! Anyways it inspired me to do this Green Lantern image and then I could not resist doing this other character Superman. Both of these images I created in Illustrator and I wanted to really try for a streamlined approach with just very minimal detail. So I present my style is a very optimized way and next time I might push it further!

Rick Robot Roundup!

Last week I got my monster creations together for a group shot, so this week I got some of my robot creations to get together for a group shot.  Like monsters, robots were something I was really into from all the B movies, TV shows like LOST IN SPACE, comic books etc. I was exposed to as a kid. Most of these bots in this image were created in Illustrator along with Photoshop and are all my original designs.

Rick Monster Roundup!

I really dig monsters big time and as a kid I grew up watching them when I could on all types of monster films from GODZILLA to ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, etc. They left an imprint on my mind to this day! I really like to come up with my own monster creations and bring them into this reality!  Here are a few of mine I have created in Illustrator over the past few years and I had pose for a group shot. Enjoy.