Your Thoughts: The Muppet Show Comic Book

[dwayne1115]

Hello, everyone.

I'm another of Boom's Muppet/Pixar artists and I did the Midtown Cover. I'm also going to be drawing Muppet Peter Pan and I've done a few other variants and B covers for Muppet Show and Robin Hood which you'll all doubtless see soon.

It's very thrilling how well the comic is doing so far and I hope it augers well for the other Muppet titles Boom has in the works.

I just wanted to clarify to frogboy that I absolutely did NOT trace ANYTHING for the Midtown cover or any other artwork I do.

My art style is the total opposite of Langridge's. I'm a life-long Muppet fan and I am dedicated to drawing the Muppets very on-model. That absolutely does not mean 'tracing' or just copying screencaps. I've filled a lot of pages analysing the vintage show and developing model sheets for the Muppets that will hopefully let me draw them as dynamically as Jim & co. acted them. I have the utmost respect for Don Sahlin's designs and hope to recapture the amazing emotional range the Muppeteers gave them in my artwork.

Just wanted to defend my honour there, carry on

Welcome! I'm so glad your here and feel free to to stop by anytime. I'm so glad that there are some real die hard Muppet fans working on this.

 

[Amy]

Are you allowed to reveal yet who will be cast as who in Muppet Peter Pan?

And anyway, even if you can't reveal, welcome to the forums!

Nah, sorry, no spoilers .
You'll get hints once the covers start coming out. I'll be sharing cover duties with Dave 'Mouse Guard' Petersen (cover artist for Robin Hood).

As for release, Peter Pan #1 will be out some time in Aug-Sep, that's really all I know right now.

 

[uppitymuppity]

I love your cover Amy and am looking forward to the Peter Pan issue! Doesn't the second Muppet Show comic book come out today? I need to call and have my copy reserved. Glad to see you here and good luck.

 

[frogboy4]

Hello, everyone.

I'm another of Boom's Muppet/Pixar artists and I did the Midtown Cover. I'm also going to be drawing Muppet Peter Pan and I've done a few other variants and B covers for Muppet Show and Robin Hood which you'll all doubtless see soon.

It's very thrilling how well the comic is doing so far and I hope it augers well for the other Muppet titles Boom has in the works.

I just wanted to clarify to frogboy that I absolutely did NOT trace ANYTHING for the Midtown cover or any other artwork I do.

My art style is the total opposite of Langridge's. I'm a life-long Muppet fan and I am dedicated to drawing the Muppets very on-model. That absolutely does not mean 'tracing' or just copying screencaps. I've filled a lot of pages analysing the vintage show and developing model sheets for the Muppets that will hopefully let me draw them as dynamically as Jim & co. acted them. I have the utmost respect for Don Sahlin's designs and hope to recapture the amazing emotional range the Muppeteers gave them in my artwork.

Just wanted to defend my honour there, carry on

Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to your Peter Pan. Please forgive my presumption that the Midtown cover characters appeared to be traced. It's such common practice these days especially in the Muppet art arena (as a fan you know) that I leapt to judgement from glancing at the online jpeg. It is good work. Maybe too good in some places, but that should be praised.

It is cool that you are actually researching the history of the drawn characters and their previous model sheets. I've seen a lot of the same reference art in my dealings and maybe that's how I got that impression. It's hard to get a realistic idea of the body of work from a cover because by nature the characters are mugging rather than interacting (as covers and posters usually go). Your work and method are honored by this frogboy. It's comforting to know that on top of lifelong fandom, you have also done your homework.

As previously said - I particularly dig your Miss Piggy and of course your Kermit as well. He's so hard to peg and you've done so beautifully. Since the variant covers are expensive I'll be picking and choosing those by most attractive piece than by artist. I chose Alvarez last time, next time might be yours.

I just got back from the comic shop and Robin Hood had not come in! I did get the A & B Fozzies and it was good. Not as good as the Kermit, but still nicely done. Langridge did give Fozzie a tail! It wasn't that bad, but maybe you could send on a model sheet to him. Wocka Wocka!

So, is Kermit cast as Peter Pan? Is Scooter in it (I always imagine Scooter as Pan for some reason)?

 

[Amy]

It is cool that you are actually researching the history of the drawn characters and their previous model sheets.

When I said model sheets, I mean I'm making my own. Over half my career was spent in traditional animation, so I'm very used to studying characters and deconstructing them to see how they're put together. I'm sure we've all seen the same concept drawings of the Muppets over the years.

It's hard to get a realistic idea of the body of work from a cover because by nature the characters are mugging rather than interacting (as covers and posters usually go).

Absolutely, I agree. It's always a bit frustrating when the powers-that-be want a 'smile and wave' picture for covers when I like doing covers with more of a story or that tell a little joke. The Midtown cover was done to a very specific brief from Midtown Comics, but thankfully, all the other work I've done on the Muppets, they've allowed me free reign to do my own layouts and more acting with the characters, which is always good.

He's so hard to peg and you've done so beautifully. Since the variant covers are expensive I'll be picking and choosing those by most attractive piece than by artist. I chose Alvarez last time, next time might be yours.

Kermit is by far the most challenging character to really nail because his head is SO flexible, but I'm having a LOT of fun with that challenge. When I draw Kermit, I think 'How would Jim act this?'
As for Piggy, I'm totally following Michael Frith's lead. His pinup work on Piggy is gorgeous and I want to carry that on.

And absolutely, you pick whichever covers take your fancy, I wasn't suggesting for a minute to BUY MY COVERS RARGH or anything like that! Everyone is going to have different tastes on which issues they'd like to get and that's cool.
Dave Alvarez' first cover is indeed an awesome piece of work.

There is a Fozzie variant cover of mine for Muppet Show #2 out there somewhere, but I haven't yet managed to find out who's selling it!

 

[Drtooth]

Absolutely, I agree. It's always a bit frustrating when the powers-that-be want a 'smile and wave' picture for covers when I like doing covers with more of a story or that tell a little joke. The Midtown cover was done to a very specific brief from Midtown Comics, but thankfully, all the other work I've done on the Muppets, they've allowed me free reign to do my own layouts and more acting with the characters, which is always good.

Oh, totally... I remember Alverez (the one that did the varient cover for Meltdown) show us that he had to change several things over and over...in the original cover, it had a slightly depressed/disgruntled looking Kermit, and the publishers or licensees wanted none of that.

Anyway, as for Muppet Peter Pan, I can make a bunch of guesses as to whos's who.... but I'm gonna wait until official stuff pops up. Lookin' forward to it.

 

[Amy]

Oh, totally... I remember Alverez (the one that did the varient cover for Meltdown) show us that he had to change several things over and over...in the original cover, it had a slightly depressed/disgruntled looking Kermit, and the publishers or licensees wanted none of that.

They actually don't have a general problem with it, it's just that for this very very first issue, they wanted the happy wave-y covers.
They wanted covers that said 'Hey, remember these fun guys?' rather than 'Hey, look what's happening here!', which I can sort of understand from a marketing perspective.

Now that the title has been established, we have much more freedom to show their emotional range. I did the B cover for Robin Hood #4 (which has not appeared online yet, dunno why) and that cover is a pure visual gag.
They'd suggested some ideas which were just scenes from the inside story, but I took one of them and made it into a joke. They loved it.

 

[minor muppetz]

For those who have read issue #2, does it include any human-like characters, like how issue #1 had The Zimmer Twins?

 

[frogboy4]

When I said model sheets, I mean I'm making my own. Over half my career was spent in traditional animation, so I'm very used to studying characters and deconstructing them to see how they're put together. I'm sure we've all seen the same concept drawings of the Muppets over the years.


Absolutely, I agree. It's always a bit frustrating when the powers-that-be want a 'smile and wave' picture for covers when I like doing covers with more of a story or that tell a little joke. The Midtown cover was done to a very specific brief from Midtown Comics, but thankfully, all the other work I've done on the Muppets, they've allowed me free reign to do my own layouts and more acting with the characters, which is always good.


Kermit is by far the most challenging character to really nail because his head is SO flexible, but I'm having a LOT of fun with that challenge. When I draw Kermit, I think 'How would Jim act this?'
As for Piggy, I'm totally following Michael Frith's lead. His pinup work on Piggy is gorgeous and I want to carry that on.

And absolutely, you pick whichever covers take your fancy, I wasn't suggesting for a minute to BUY MY COVERS RARGH or anything like that! Everyone is going to have different tastes on which issues they'd like to get and that's cool.
Dave Alvarez' first cover is indeed an awesome piece of work.

There is a Fozzie variant cover of mine for Muppet Show #2 out there somewhere, but I haven't yet managed to find out who's selling it!

Oh, cool! I suppose this means no toothy or tailed Muppets. The Muppets once had great illustrators in the 80s that really captured the charm of the puppets as they actually looked. I like Langridge's fun Muppets, but I'd also like to see some classic renderings.

You're creating your own book on the character likenesses? Have you thought about using some of your original model sheet images and production art for the credits page? The ones Boom has composed so far could use someting of greater visual interest. Just a thought. Henson fans love to peek behind the curtain.

 

[Amy]

Have you thought about using some of your original model sheet images and production art for the credits page? The ones Boom has composed so far could use someting of greater visual interest. Just a thought. Henson fans love to peek behind the curtain.

I do what my editor asks of me, it's not my place to go suggesting extras for titles I am not the 'official' artist for. For the comics Roger is drawing, it's allllll his work. Dave Alvarez and I and other artists are just ring-ins for the cover duties.

Also bear in mind, these comics are NOT first and foremost being done for the die-hard fans. Disney has big plans for the Muppets and their first priority is getting kid readers engaged.
Boom! is keen to bring comics back to children, so it's win-win for both parties. All the Boom Pixar/Muppet titles come under their new Boom!Kids label. So I can't imagine they'll be including 'behind the scenes' concept sketches in the issues.

However, these comics WILL be collected into graphic novels at the end of each arc for sale in bookstores, so there might be room for Bonus Arty Features there. But again, I have no idea what they have in mind.

I just supply the artwork, I have no say in the presentation of the final product.