Colonel Coco

Rolling along with the Breakfast Serials, this is Colonel Coco. The Spokesperson for the Cereal that bears his name, Colonel CoCo is an eccentric gamesmen who just loves everything Coco. But nothing satisfies his Coco cravings like a big bowl of Colonel Coco's breakfast cereal. He's kind of like a cross between Captain Crunch and Colonel Mustard, except really really into Coco. 

Under the surface though Col. Coco is more sinister then his Coco loving exterior would have you believe. He takes on more the persona of Coco themed super villain. Coco Manor is equipped with many booby traps, like trap doors that lead to his pit of "Cocodiles". As Head of The Cereal Mascots union, he wields a lot of power in the breakfast cereal world. Unbeknownst to the rest of the union, he is using that power for total Coco domination of all cereals. So when whom he perceives to be his biggest rival, Scraps, falls upon hard times, He sees this as his opportunity to eliminate Sugar scraps.

Back in the day, kids could send in cereal box tops to gain membership into an exclusive Col. Coco fan club called the Cocoteers. They would receive a badge, and the more box tops they sent in the higher up they would become. Today the Cocoteers have taken on the role of a secret organization bent on furthering the Coco conspiracy. They have members everywhere, from the police, to political offices, to leaders of industry. 

Recently his Cereal company has added The Coco crew as an entourage for the Col. to Hip up his image ( reference to the ill advised crunch crew that briefly joined captain crunch in the 90's).  They are obviously his old Cocoteers dressed up in hipper urban attire. They take on a roll as Coco's bumbling henchmen, doing his bidding when needed. 

More to come!

the Breakfast Serials

So I haven't been posting much on here lately. Mainly because I've been mostly work on my big project in my spare time. I've been trying to shop the idea around and get it turned into a TV show but to date no such luck. So I've been working on more stuff to try and sell it. Splash pages, storyboarding a pilot episode, etc. I figured there's no harm in starting to throw the concept work up here though. If anything it will probably motivate me to get more done. So over the next few weeks I'll be posting up drawings of the different characters, and telling you more about the idea.

The show is essentially about advertising mascots, specifically breakfast cereal advertising .The characters are mostly parodies of cereal mascot archetypes we grew up watching. The show's aimed at adults and plays upon themes that we probably didn't consider when we were young watches these commercials between our Saturday morning cartoon shows.

The show is set up in a way so there's a continuing story, but you can enjoy a single episode not having seen the rest of the series. Each episode fallows a similar formula: It starts with a commercial with featuring one of the characters, and then fades out into a scene featuring that character, that either gives some added back story on the character or explains how they fit into the ongoing plot. Montages are used pretty regularly to advance the story, and most episodes finish with an action/heist sequence shot in the style of a breakfast cereal commercial.

This is Scraps Raccoon. He's the main character and loveable cereal mascot of Sugar Scraps, the sugary breakfast cereal kids love, and Dentists hate! The ads featuring him generally have him stealing Sugar Scraps from children, because as his catch phrase says, he's "Gotta have 'em Sugary Sugar Scraps!". He doesn't say much else besides that. Scraps has got it pretty good as the Mascot for Sugar Scraps. It gets him all he ever wants in life, which is essentially all the Sugar Scraps cereal he can eat!

All that's about to change. Sales have dipped slightly and the Cereal company Execs have decided that after a long run with Scraps on the box, it might be time to hip up the cereal's image. Enter Raz Raccoon. He's hip! He's cool! He's got lightning bolts in his fur! He raps! He Breakdances! He can skateboard up a vert ramp and slam dunk a basketball while shredding on an electric guitar! He's so cool, all the kids will surely want to eat Sugar Scraps again now.

With Raz in, Scraps is out on the street. With no marketable skills he has no money for shelter, or more importantly Sugar Scraps, which as he's on record saying, he's "gotta have 'em!". Life isn't kind, and he finds his beloved cereal a lot more difficult to obtain, now that stealing the cereal isn't part of a staged marketing campaign.

So Scraps dawns a mask to conceal his identity and turns to a life of crime. It's the only way he can still get his hands on the cereal he craves. Every time he steals a box though, he now has to gaze upon Raz's face on the front where his used to be. It starts to wear on him. While his obsession up until this point had merely been eating as much Sugar Scraps as possible, he now starts to feel the pain of rejection, and jealousy. So in between in his various cereal heists, he is working on a bigger plan. Kill Raz Raccoon, and take back his place on the cereal box!

I'll throw up more soon. I've got a lot more characters too come. Not to mention episode ideas.

Stay tuned!

Casual Rex vs. Predator

Ran into my old pal Casual Rex recently. Kind of worried about that guy. He gets drunk and picks fights with some pretty tough customers.

 And here's something I did way back in first year of College, on the first day actually. Fall 2005 we're talking. We were supposed to do a self portrait of ourselves at our creative peak. I seem to remember being told I had missed the point of the exercise. Had forgotten all about it until I was googling a band and the first thing that came up was their MySpace, and I was like I had one of those once upon a time. Remember when that was a thing? Turns out its still there, so I took a trip down memory lane, and came across this. The hat I'm holding kinda looks like a blob eh...

Shark Riders anticipated return!

Since everyone's been so good, I think it's about time I give the people what they demand. Some Shark rider action seems to be what most folks want to see out of me.

They seem to have found themselves in a bad situation here with a Giant Octopus creature of some sort. Even though they're pretty evil dudes our Submarine suited hero isn't going to leave them hanging. Or floating rather.

So I think it's about time you met the Shark Riders' nefarious leader. Haven't really thought of a name as of yet. We know he's the leader cuz he rides the number 1 Shark. Maybe he's just Number 1. Nah, that's lazy on my part. He's tough as balls this dude though. Rocks an old bell diver's helmet instead of the standard scuba gear, perhaps to mask a horribly disfigured visage? He's mysterious for damn sure. Naming suggestions are welcome.

Scud! the disposable assassin

 

One of my favourite books, comic, or otherwise, is Scud: the disposable assassin. I call it a book because I have the complete story in one big volume, although it was really a monthly comic book title. It's odd that when it was all said and done it came together as well as it did all things considered. The bulk of it was done back in the 90's, and was written in a style that seemed to cater to the fact that writer and artist, Rob Schrab seemed to want to draw whatever he wanted from issue to issue. So he just shifted the story drastically towards whatever subject matter tickled his fancy. I think that's one of the reasons I liked it so much. It was pretty popular in the 90's to the point Oliver Stone wanted to make a movie out of it. As the story goes Schrab was getting pretty depressed on the direction they wanted to take with the movie. Concerned they would fuck up his baby, he pulled the plug on the film and stopped doing the comic. Not before writing himself into one hell of a corner though. Over a decade went by, before he decided to give Scud a conclusion, and somehow it really worked.

 For those of you not versed with the story, the basic premise is pretty awesome. In the near future, after the rapture has taken place, a company called Scudco offers you the service of robot assassins conveniently available out of vending machines. You give the Scud his target, which he kills and promptly self destructs. Our hero, a Scud robot is assigned to kill a a crazy monster named Jeff (it's a girl monster). While on his mission Scud pops into the washroom where he notices in the mirror the warning label on his back about self destructing. Not wanting to blow up, Scud Seriously injures Jeff instead of killing her, and puts her up in the hospital on life support. Now he has to take on missions in order to pay the mounting hospital bills.

I actually drew these a long while ago when I first read the full book. Only found them recently, so I decided to ink and colour them. I drew Scud with his loner arm, that he has while his robot arm is in the shop. That there is his sidekick Drywall. He's my favourite. Wish I'd drawn him with his piranha gun. Maybe I'll do that some other time. He's like this sack dude with zippers all over him with these arms that come up with stuff from this weird storage dimension inside of him.

One other thing that I thought was pretty cool about Scud, that's sadly not included in the big book I've got, was with the issues he used to have "suggested voice talents" for the characters. So if you wanted to, you could imagine that actors voice as you read the dialogue. Recommended voice talent for Scud was John Malkovich.

Yes we Canseco!

So it came to my attention recently that Jose Canseco has expressed interest in the soon to be vacant mayoral position for the city of Toronto left by bloated fat guy, and all around bad person, Rob Ford. The legality of him doing so is in question as he's not a Canadian, but the prospect of it still makes me happy. I'm from Ottawa, not Toronto, so I don't get a vote unfortunately, but I'll do what I can to support the cause.

Figured I'd put him in the 98' Blue Jays jersey, seeing as it's for the Mayor of Toronto. Canseco at his most iconic though was with the Athletics I think. Gave him a Sam Bat too, made just outside of Ottawa. Last year on my birthday, Jose came to town for free and participated in a home run derby against this local guy, Evan Malamud. All the proceeds went to charity to benefit kids with autism. It was a real fun time, and Canseco was class the whole way through. Say what you want about Jose, but the guy's got a big ol' heart, which is way more than you can say about Toronto's last mayor. I hear he's coming back to Ottawa this year for another charity home run derby at Old Lynx Stadium.

Speaking of Lynx Stadium, I'm sad to hear that our Intercounty Baseball League team, the Ottawa Fat Cats are folding this year. Word is it's partly so they can reno the stadium so it's ready for when we get a Double A team, so it's not all bad news. I had a lot of fun at Fat Cats games though. I always thought that was a great name for a team from Ottawa. I would've done the their uniforms a bit different though. First up, a team named the Fat Cats should rock pinstripes, just saying. Logo wise I'd go with the above for the shoulder patch. and either an O or the cats head on the cap. Hopefully they come up with a good name for the double A team.

Phillie Phanatic!

 Now the 1993 world series came to a satisfactory conclusion as far as I'm concerned.  I'm a Blue Jays fan first and foremost, but I've got a bit of soft spot for the Philadelphia Phillies. Partly cuz I still hope for good things for Roy Halladay, but mostly because of the Phillie Phanatic. He's the best mascot in baseball, sports, or anything for that matter, and I'm a fan. Can you name a better mascot? Didn't think so.

So my lady friend's family is from Philadelphia originally, and are pretty big Phillies fans. That extends to their dog, Jake. I'm a pretty big fan of Jake as well. He's a pretty awesome guy. Figured I'd draw up him and the Phanatic hanging out for her for Christmas.

Folks have been saying I should put up the roughs and the concept sketches I do. Doesn't seem like a bad idea. Also just want to point out this is the first thing I've inked and colored using the Ipad. It's pretty sweet. Highly recommended.

Also, here's Jake. Told you he was a Phillies fan.