InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Nimins."

icon_uk (icon_uk) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-03-28 00:39:00

Entry tags:

char: batman/bruce wayne, char: robin/nightwing/dick grayson, creator: george perez, creator: irv novick, creator: jose luis garcia-lopez, creator: mitch ballard, creator: trevor von eeden, in-joke: bondage, in-joke: context is for the weak, in-joke: herodickery

A return to what we do best... or I think I do at any rate! :)
It's been noted, and not by me, that since we moved here, we've been lacking a certain something, a certain "je ne sais quoi", But I've realised je sais exactly what quoi we're missing...

TIED UP ROBIN!

And so, to rectify that, I've gone digging through my archives to come up with a selection of published pages and commission work which fits the bill. More by coincidence than anything they all feature Dick Grayson... what a surprise! :)

So, to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim in his original version of "Back in Business" from Dick Tracy (Not to be confused with Madonna's version, the Sondheim one is far more of a period piece... but I digress)

Mitch Ballard - My very first commission piece!

I love this piece "The Hunter and Hunted" so damn much! It set the standard for all my future commissions, and I've been ridiculously lucky with the commissions and pages I've got. The scan doesn't do it justice, but Dick's PO'd glare is wonderful, and as someone once said, looking at it, "You can just tell by looking at it. Under that mask, Slade is SMILING"

Irv Novick and Dick Giordano

From Batman 246 "How Many Ways Can a Robin Die?"

Trevor Von Eeden

From his backup strips in Batman, and my second ever commission piece!

Gene Colan

From the Vampiri story arc

Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

From Batman 321's cover

Dick Giordano (I think)

Walt Simonson

Also from Batman 321

George Perez

From New Teen Titans #22

And this is what seems to be a test-ink page by Rick Magyar over Perez pencils from New Teen Titans #7. The odd thing is that Magyar didn't ink the published issue, and there are no word balloons.

Bob Brown and Joe Giella

From a Batman issue whose number escapes me for the moment, but is an unused cover

Andy Price - One of my most recent commissions

And we end as we started, with the Mitch Ballard piece, this time to show the difference that colouring can make! :)

Hope you enjoyed these affectionate tributes to the Teen Wonder in assorted states of captivity, and that this will inspire others to share their... personal peccadillos!

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	psychop_rex 2009-03-28 03:07 am UTC (link)
	Dammit, now I've got that song stuck in my head. And I know perfectly well it won't go away until I've watched the movie again, and my VCR is dead at the moment, so I can't. Dammit! Thanks a lot, icon_uk. Oh, well, at least it's from a movie I like. Are you a fan of it? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-03-28 04:49 am UTC (link)
	Don't worry, it's a great little song. :) Dick Tracy? It managed to do what it set out to do I suppose, but since I have little love (more due to lack of interest than active loathing) for the original comic strip, I was perhaps not the best audience for it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

psychop_rex
2009-03-28 02:42 pm UTC (link)

Just curious, I guess, since almost no one I've talked to has ever even heard of the film, let alone seen it. It is quite different from the comic strip in some ways, actually - while they got the visual look spot-on, the strip could be GRUESOME at times, much more so than the movie. Villains got shot, drowned, frostbitten, mauled by wild beasts - one villain, the Brow, got the folds of his abnormally furrowed forehead caught in a slowly turning spiked wheel... Eech!

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icon_uk
2009-03-28 03:35 pm UTC (link)

The movie was big at the time, but doesn't seem to have lingered. Which given the charisma free zone which is warren Beatty IMHO doesn't surprise me. When you're actively outacted by bloody Madonna.. oy!

I recall a trio appearing in a text short book I read around the time came out, which gave us the trio of Whirlpool (His face carved into spiral scars by a vengeful rival), Sizzle (Whose face had been disfigured by having his be pushed into a hot frying pan) and the Juice, (so named for the constantly weeping sores on his face)

At that point I felt somewhat nauseous to say the least...

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psychop_rex
2009-03-28 03:57 pm UTC (link)

Ick. That's a bit yucky even by the strip's standards - methinks they were trying too hard to be original. Anyway, the first two miss the point of Dick Tracy villains entirely - they're not disfigured by anything that HAPPENED to them; they look that way naturally. It's an expression of their ugly souls or something. (There are exceptions, of course - there was Haf-and-Haf, who was the inspiration for Two-Face and had basically the same origin, and the Blank, who wore a mask - but generally speaking, they were just ugly 'cause they were freaks.)
And in Beatty's defense, yes, his acting was kinda cardboard, but so is the character. Dick Tracy is one of those characters whose main function is to be a blank slate among a crowd of eccentric villains and supporting characters, thereby providing reader identification. (Other examples would be Tintin and Mickey Mouse.) Tracy's main feature is that he is a touch, honest cop - the strip never really goes much further than that, and neither did Beatty. Anyway, I've seen him in other movies where he was good, so I know he CAN act.

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	sistermagpie 2009-03-28 07:51 pm UTC (link)
	I think it might have worked better with an actor who looked more like the Dick Tracy type--somebody chiseled who could embody the idea just with his presence. The problem with WB is Dick is pretty boring and then you've just got a pretty boy standing around bringing nothing to it himself. Though I don't remember the movie too much. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

psychop_rex
2009-03-28 08:12 pm UTC (link)

From what I've heard, Beatty was actually planning on using prosthetics to make the character more accurate, just like he did with the villains. He was going to give himself the same hawk nose and squared-off chin that Dick Tracy has always had - which would have been awesome, except WB said no. They were afraid people wouldn't be able to recognize him as the major star that he was at the time. So he just stuck with the yellow hat and trenchcoat - which are pretty iconic, I'll grant you, but still, the chin would have been nifty.

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