RUH ROH!

~ J.Ho ~ Leave a comment

My first nerdy fan-art of the year! I’ll be updating this post over the next week (ish) with each character, and then the full group shot at the end!

    
  • Scooby-Doo: Canonical Scooby spends so much time standing on his hind legs and behaving anthropomorphically, I thought it just made sense to depict him as fully bipedal for my head-canon redesign. And since each human character in the cast fills the role of a classic teen archetype, I decided to cast Scooby as a beach bum. The Scooby Gang’s base of operations varies from version to version, but I dig the idea of them being based out of California, so the role of beach bum felt even more appropriate for our main character.
  • Velma Dinkley: This series of redesigns started when I was sketching out Velma. I liked how she turned so I kept going! She’s sensible, grounded, and undeniably the brains of Mystery Incorporated–but when a mystery really gets a hold of her, she’ll stop at nothing!
  • Norville “Shaggy” Rogers: I always thought he had a skater vibe—it just makes sense for both his look and his slacker personality. Plus I like the paradox of him being a scaredy-cat when the gang is on a caper, yet being fearless when skating. You will note that his skateboard somewhat matches his other vehicle, the Mystery Machine (coming in a future post maybe??)
  • Daphne Blake: Her original design is so appealing and enduring, therefore Daphne is the character I redesigned the least. I see her as a bit of the group’s leader, and if she happens to fall into the damsel-in-distress role in any given caper, it’s because she’s often boldly charging into the unknown!
  • Fred Jones: The preppy rich kid (note: family crest monogramed on sweater plus matching belt buckle) who’s an outcast because of his obsession with mysteries and traps. I love a utility belt, so Fred’s trap fixation was a good excuse to draw him with some tools and gear.

With all of these redesigns I was going for costumes that have the recognizable flare of the original, but wouldn’t feel jarringly out of place in modern times. Plus I gave everyone more practical shoes for adventures and hijinks! I have some ideas tumbling around my brain for a “wave 2” of redesigns, with some more twists. Stay tuned, and comment if there are any Scooby characters you’re interested in seeing!

Boomer Lives

~ J.Ho

Here’s a quick sketch to commemorate the final episode of WTF with Marc Maron (logo shamelessly hijacked from the podcast banner).

I’ve been listening since almost the beginning (sixteen years), and I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many times I marathoned 5+ episodes of the show while staying up late drawing. When I was burning the midnight oil and struggling with drawing hands or backgrounds or whatever, it was often comforting to hear Marc’s insights, humor, and realness. I’m going to miss having a regular dose of his unique perspective and his soulful guitar riffs. Boomer lives!

Monster Truckers by Table Cat Games!

~ J.Ho

Just in time for the Halloween season, my good friend PVincent of Table Cat Games has released a new tabletop RPG, Monster Truckers! And as it turns out, I did a little illustration for the book!

This was a lot of fun to work on–I tried some different techniques to give the drawing a bit of a grittier quality. PVincent added the type and made it look like a billboard in the real world!

The book is a lot of fun, has some fantastic illustrations, and a gorgeous layout. Available as a PDF at the Table Cat Games web site, DriveThruRPG, and Itch.io, and a printed version will be coming soon as well!

A Tee or Two

~ J.Ho

I’ve been designing some t-shirts for Symbiote Studios recently, and having a lot of fun!

The shirt on the right is Symbiote Studios’ mascot Catnip Bravo (and his pals) crossed over with Cold Slither (Zartan and the Dreadnoks in disguise from GI Joe!)–this one was an SDCC exclusive!

The shirt on the left is Catnip Bravo crossed over with video game icon Shovel Knight–you can get this shirt HERE!

Also, the Grimlock shirt I designed a few years ago is still available HERE!

Very happy with how these turned out–the prints look fantastic, and by the way the shirts are super comfy. Please visit the good folks at Symbiote Studios and take a look at their fine wares!

Super Nerdy

~ J.Ho

I’m not the only one watching the new Superman movie on repeat and drawing their Supersona… right? ^_^U

I imagine this alternate-Me from, let’s say Earth-J somewhere in the multiverse, was caught in an explosion when an H-Dial was destroyed by a malfunctioning Bizarro Duplicator Ray–the mysterious energies unleashed by this catastrophe permanently granted him Kryptonian level superpowers, but did nothing to cure his tragically nerdy brain.

Kicking off Halloween season, the design itself is based on my kindergarten era Superman Halloween costume, created by Mom–she was giving the S-shield a yellow border before it was cool! I was very proud of this costume and let me tell you–little J.Ho was very judgey about the 2 or 3 other Supermen in my grade who were dressed in store-bought costumes that were not nearly as good. B-)

A Good One

~ J.Ho

Eons ago, before the epoch of man, there used to be art challenges on the He-Man-dot-org forums (I think I heard the site is returning, but the forums remain extinct? I digress). One of the challenges was for a good version of Evil-Lyn–I drew something, but didn’t finish the colors, and so I never posted it… until now! I decided to finish up the colors for practice, and so, behold: Benneva-Lyn, Heroic Goddess of Justice! In accordance with the old ways, I have composed a super-nerdy bio:

* * *

PROFILE: A goddess of Justice and righteous battle, the true limits of BENNEVA-LYN’s powers are unknown. Like most deities, she is nigh invulnerable, and possesses awe-inspiring magic capabilities, including illusions and attack spells. Her physical strength is easily greater than that of Grayskull’s Sword-Bearers, and she is an expert in many forms of combat. Actually, she invented many of those forms of combat!

HISTORY: While some ancient powers, such as Lighthope and Grayskull, choose champions to advance their causes–Benneva-Lyn roams the world, meting out justice herself. She dons many disguises to help mortals solve all manner of conflicts, both large and small. She rarely shows her true form, but when she does, it is a boon for the virtuous and spells doom for the wicked. In regards to the Horde’s ongoing invasion of Eternia, Benneva-Lyn is appraising the character of Eternia’s heroes before she makes her presence known…

* * *

Haven’t typed up one of those in a long time–that felt good! Maybe I need to get back to more MOTU/POP headcanon soon…

RED ALERT

~ J.Ho

Was Star Trek Day last week? Yes. Am I yet again excusing my tardiness by saying that every day is Star Trek Day? Also yes.

With this illustration I’m channeling the energy of an oft-repeated Star Trek plot in which a Starfleet officer is annoyed by a visiting (non-Starfleet) relative.

The fellow on the left is a Mugato based on the bizarre Mego Action figure. I decided to interpret this as a highly intelligent alien race that shares a common ancestor with the Mugato and has some physiological differences (notably, lack of vertebral spikes and a tail). This particular guy is a diplomatic envoy who excels at pushing people’s buttons.

The other fellow is his relative, who is of the same species, but also based on the Mugato as it appeared in the Star Trek TOS episode “A Private Little War.” This science officer is (normally) a mild-mannered toxicologist who spends his days in quiet labs researching venoms and synthesizing anti-venoms to save lives across the galaxy. He would just like to get back to work.

Yes, it did just get more nerdy in here. Happy belated Star Trek Day!!

Nubia

~ J.Ho

Nubia–long-lost daughter of Hippolyta and twin sister of Diana!

My redesign draws from her pre-Crisis lore, especially the costume from her appearance in Super Friends #25 (penciled by Ramona Fradon, so presumably the costume was designed by Fradon as well). I like how that particular ensemble made her look like a superhero rather than a regular Amazonian warrior, further illustrating that she is every bit the parallel and equal of Wonder Woman. I did my best to uphold that philosophy while revising her costume, hopefully that comes across!

bb

~ J.Ho

Lineart from a million years ago; Colors from this week… I didn’t know what to draw, so grabbing an old piece to color was a good warm-up.

#FlashbackFriday #fbf #transformers #bumblebee #autobots #cybertron

EDIT: And here’s another Bumblebee drawing from a million years ago. This one was posted previously, but in preparing to re-post it on other platforms, I couldn’t help but slightly spruce it up (added a few color holds, improved the contrast for the shading on the yellow parts, added some more highlights, and did up a quick background)… and now I want to make Transformers stickers in addition to the other 792 things that I want to do??? Hmm…

Bruce

~ J.Ho

Here’s Batman, completing DC’s Trinity! (The holster at his side is a grapple gun btw)

Having fun with this DC line-up, and now that I’ve got the main three down, I wanna veer off into some more obscure corners of the infinite earths. Stay tuned!

And that’s the bottom line…

~ J.Ho

There was a time long ago (that no one will remember) when I started drawing Mario fanart and threatened much more Mario fanart to come… well I’m making making good on that threat (for today at least)! Here’s (a) Toad based closely on their original Super Mario Bros. sprite. (Look it up! ;)

Diana

~ J.Ho

The drawing I posted for Superman Day is actually part of a larger line-up of DC characters that I’ve been working on, so here’s Wonder Woman!

Bye Bye Bongo

~ J.Ho

After 27(!) years I am no longer with Bongo Comics—this news is actually several months old, but I held off posting about it until the last of my work with them was printed. So that’s a wrap for me on bulgy eyeballs and overbites! 

I started at Bongo many (many) moons ago as an intern in college, became a production assistant, then a staff artist, and finally an art director. In my tenure at this job, between comics, collections, foreign editions, exclusives, calendars, and miscellaneous books, I drew something in the neighborhood of *500* covers. 

My career with Bongo covered well over half my life, and literally has been my entire adult life. I’m well aware that this kind of run with one company is not a common story these days, and I’m very grateful that I got this experience.

I came up with the rough idea for this drawing a few years back when I realized I had been on the job for (at the time) half my life. Just wanted a bizarre way to illustrate my career versus my influences/favorites. It had been on the backburner for a bit, but this seemed like a good time to finally finish it and mark the end of an era!

Excited for the next chapter… 

Rex and Sapphire

~ J.Ho

I started this drawing of Rex and Sapphire earlier this year when Ramona Fradon passed away… seeing the glimpse of Metamorpho in the Superman trailer spurred me to go back and put the finishing touches on this!