Movie Night by Tom McWeeney
Tom McWeeney's "Movie Night" is the fifth piece he did in a series of humorous looks at comic-book super-villains. He have always felt there was something inherently funny about bad-guys, especially SUPER bad-guys and he wanted to explore that by putting them in real life, everyday settings and situations.
All of the pieces in this series start with the same thought, "Who would be fun to draw?" I think of comic-book villains that visually are interesting to draw, either because of their size and shape or their face, costume, powers etc and then try and think of something funny to do with them based on those things. Juggernaut was on my list from the start because he's massive and I knew I could have fun with the contrast between him and regular people and the surrounding environment.
-Tom McWeeney
The gag hit me exactly where you would expect, while waiting on line to buy movie tickets. I liked the idea of this unstoppable mountain of a man just casually walking up to the ticket booth, oblivious that he'd just accordioned the line of people that were waiting in front of him. The style is just my standard cartoon style, influenced by a life spent reading MAD magazine, watching old Warner Brothers/Tex Avery cartoons and Hank Ketchem Dennis the Menace trade paperbacks.
-Tom McWeeney
Step one was a VERY loose sketch done with pencil on copy paper. It was done quickly just to decide what would work and what wouldn't. The initial sketch had a lot more background and a reactionary character all of which I cut once I began the tighter version. This was one in Photoshop along with the inks. I drew all the main elements on separate layers so I could tweak the sizes of everything. I knew that scale was important to the humor and wanted to keep that very flexible. Once the inks were done I used it to make a quick color rough. I laid in my idea for the colors (reds, yellows and browns on the figures/foreground elements-blue-green background) and was lucky in that I felt they worked on the first try.
-Tom McWeeney
Most often they don't and require multiple roughs. The color was done with a minimum of rendering on the figures as I didn't want them to start competing with the rendered cinema walls. The only rendering/texture outside of the background was done on Juggernaut using a crosshatching brush. This was done to add some interest to him and to make his metal costume look weathered and old. The rest of the image was done with simple hard shadows and a few gradients here and there. The final step was to change the the ink lines from black to various colors and add some reflective light to Juggernauts back, again to draw the viewer's eyes to him.
-Tom McWeeney
I can't honestly say I learned anything specifically new, just that it reinforced the old adage that "Less is more." Quite a bit was cut from this as it transitioned from the pencil sketch to the final color piece. Each cut was designed to bring the image down to the bare-bones; the very least needed to get the point across. I find that humor needs a certain amount of speed in order to work. The idea has to come across quickly or you loose the audience. That means sacrificing all superfluous details.
-Tom McWeeney
About Tom McWeeney
Tom is a cartoonist who was raised on a steady diet of Marvel comics, MAD magazine and Saturday morning cartoons. He spent his early career in comic books working for Dark Horse, DC and Wildstorm. He is currently a freelance toy designer and illustrator. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Nanci, son Tyler and dog Finn.