Muppet Peter Pan

[David Petersen]

I hope they can eventually steal David Peterson away from his other duties in order to draw a complete issue or series down the road. He has become my favorite cover artist lately.

Wow! Thanks!

I'd love to do some interiors, but the rub is my time. I'm swamped with all the duties on my own book right now, but if I can free up time down the road or can be offered something with a shorter commitment, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually no, I have to seek out my own reference material. All I got from Disney were some spot illustrations I use for the colour palettes.
The problem is finding good shots of the actual puppet in action. Most Pepe photos online are posed publicity photos, which use different puppets to the actual performing ones.

Plus, I remember hearing you're not really a fan of the character. If anything I think your interpretation makes him look younger, and since they're lost boys that never grow up, it actually seemed fitting.

Can't wait to see your art with Langride's scripts. Gonna be amazing!

 

[Amy]

Wow! Thanks!

I'd love to do some interiors, but the rub is my time. I'm swamped with all the duties on my own book right now, but if I can free up time down the road or can be offered something with a shorter commitment, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

That was what I figured, otherwise you'd have done one long ago!
Trying to fit a whole Muppet story in among Mouse Guard commitments would be tough, even if someone else did the colouring.
My workload is exclusively Boom! comics and it is seriously a full-time job. If it's not drawing interiors, there are always covers that need to be done.
But still, it would be very neat if you drew a whole one some day, even if it's only a one-off special or something.

 

[dwmckim]

Actually no, I have to seek out my own reference material. All I got from Disney were some spot illustrations I use for the colour palettes.
The problem is finding good shots of the actual puppet in action. Most Pepe photos online are posed publicity photos, which use different puppets to the actual performing ones.

Wow - so you're left on your own for references? No one from Muppet Studios provided the folks at Boom! with any of the character style guides?

 

[Amy]

Wow - so you're left on your own for references? No one from Muppet Studios provided the folks at Boom! with any of the character style guides?

Well, it didn't surprise me all that much. Not everything Disney owns comes with a massive pre-prepared-and-approved model pack. How many Muppet comics have existed which are less than 20 years old? Not too many. There really IS no 'standardised' way of drawing the Muppets for comics. It's always been that way and the Boom! comics are clearly continuing that with each artist/creator using their own style.

What Disney's Muppet Team keep a closer eye on is the writing - no surprise, with Jim Lewis a key figure on the team. While the art is important in that it has to be appealing and not too grotesque, they are very vigilant in making sure the characters are written authentically.

 

[frogboy4]

I just have to thank you, not only for the beautiful Pan art, but for the lack of vomiting frogs. What the heck was that about in Robin Hood?

The Muppets were never really set up for products or comics. It's both a blessing and a curse. You've done very well with that. This is definitely one of the pieces Disney should tuck away to accompany their Muppet model sheets.

I'd also like to remind people that Jim Henson did want a grown-up Muppet traditionally animated film drawn by Disney's artists. That was an idea he was kicking around right before he passed.

 

[dwmckim]

Oh, i love that the artists have their own styles and interpret the Muppets differently (i'm probably one of the few that would love to see Langridge go even wilder) - but the style guides are more refernence materials for artists - photos of all the Muppets, what they look like below the waist etc...if Boom was given a copy, then you'd have stuff like good reference photos of Pepe for example instead of spending time hunting stuff down on your own.

 

[Amy]

The Muppets were never really set up for products or comics. It's both a blessing and a curse.

Exactly, the blessing is that the 'no reference' approach is partly what allows the very wide range of styles on the comics.
Everything Disney produces of their own is simultaneously prepped for merchandising and licensing from the second it's created. That's how Disney rolls. They haven't owned the Muppets for that long and it seems they're rebuilding the franchise from the ground up, starting primarily with the puppets themselves. Doing reference material for print is probably a very low priority

Could I go more toony on Muppet comics? Possibly, if it didn't detract from a characters' inherent appeal. As we've seen on some comics, pushing a character too far can be very visually distracting and take a reader out of the story.

 

[Drtooth]

Well... I see your work as Disney cartoonish. Cartoony and animated, but it doesn't need to have much squash and stretch, the way Dave Alverz does. He has a very Looney Tunes style in his work, and it works quite well for him. Roger has a comix approach. Cartoony and cartoonish, but more in the style of a wacky comic book. The only artwork I have any real major concern with is the guy who did Robin Hood, and it feels that he didn't know what style he wanted. His Kermit and Gonzo look like he tried too hard to copy Langridge's among other things. Some characters were done very good, some just didn't work in his stylization.

 

[Leeway]

Buh?
News to me. I've done a set of covers, but I just did some cross-checking with my editor and no, I am definitely not the artist for King Arthur. Sorry
Someone at Boom! is posting erroneous information. Here is the correct lineup:
Writers: Paul Benjamin and Patrick Storch
Artist (Issue 1): Dave Alvarez
(Issue 2): Dave Silvani

Actually my name is James Silvani. Nice to meet everyone. Just wanted to introduce myself. You can see some of my muppet art on my blog

http://silvaniart.blogspot.com/