I had a ton of fun during this past Summer's convention cycle. We got to see old friends, make some new ones and raise a lot of money for the scholarship. (Thanks to the folks in Boston, Baltimore and Charlotte. You're the BEST!) In case you're still read this much-dormant blog and don't yet follow me on Twitter (@mattwieringo), we're (unofficially for now) up to $3,000 annually. That may not sound like much but during a 3-year school career, it adds up. And it will only grow.
Anyway, one of the folks we caught up with was Chris Kemple. I had been promising him a pin-up of his awesome Red Vengeance character for some time and just hadn't followed through. It wasn't from lack of interest. I love retro characters like The Spirit and Rocketeer and drawing Red Vengeance would really scratch that itch. I just didn't feel like I was up to the challenge. I started the thing about 20 times and was always disappointed with what I drew. I don't work well under pressure, even the self-inflicted variety.
Then, one night, I was riding home from work after spending a little downtime admiring some Art Adams drawings online and I thought, "What would Art Adams do with this?" The answer was obvious. An ape in a tuxedo! Seemed perfect for the era in which Red Vengeance lives and, besides, sometimes you just gotta draw a gorilla in a monkey suit. I went home and had my underdrawing done that night. I thought it would be funny for my buddy and (briefly) Perhapanauts inker Christian Leaf if I threw in a metric ton of bricks and straight lines to ink as payback for what I put him through during our two-part 'Haps western. After spending six hours of three nights inking in those bricks, I feel your pain, buddy! Karma's a bitch. Forgive me?
So, here it is. I hope you like it. I had a blast drawing it. Shipping it off to Chris next week.
Later!
