Behind the Scenes - Heroes in a Half-Baked Shell

Hey everyone!

Sorry it took so long to update! I don't know if you've seen the new strip at http://www.wiseguypictures.net  but we've recently updated with the famous "Heroes in a Half-Baked Shell" strip. If you haven't seen it, go check it out before reading this post!! Spoiler alert!

...

Welcome back. Now that you've seen the comic strip, let me show you some behind the scenes embarrassing stuff I wouldn't show you ever. The only reason I do is so you can understand how much I like drawing :D

This is the original, very first draft of that strip. As you can see from it's very VERY low quality, it was done on the spot in my notebook.

It was a quite straight forward concept from the beginning. The complicated thing was, the second panel had to have all of the Ninja Turtles characters in it (or at least the good guys). So I got to work and I came up with a second sketch:

Fun fact: Leo's line wasn't actually on the script. I came up with that one because I never knew WTF the Foot Clan soldiers were supposed to be. It got fixed in the final product by the writers. Much better! :D

So as you can see it didn't change much from the original scribble, except by adding all those characters. Now came the REALLY hard part. Putting them all together in actual good quality.

I don't really want to give it out, but here's the final product:

Another fun fact is, the reason Michaelangelo is the one in the foreground is because he used to be my favorite Ninja Turtle. He rocks.

I'm very happy with it. As trivia, I'll say that the reason there's a TV with "Family Guy" playing in the foreground is an inside joke with the writers to repeated very similar situations we experienced... Don't tell anyone I said that.

As a final treat, I'll put up the first idea I had for the first panel. Originally I was very adamant about the fact that I wanted it to be rainy. I mean, I live in New York too, and that's very much what it looks like. In the end, the rain would've made the panel too busy, so I never ended up using it. So now for your enjoyment, my own private rejection, the original panel 1:

That's all for now. Stay tuned for much more coming up!! :D

-Gus

(All artwork in this site is registered under the WGAe)

Behind the Scenes - If Dr Seuss was actually a doctor...

By now you should know that I'm publishing strips at the amazing website www.wiseguypictures.net written by two extremely talented comedy writers. Well, here's the story of the first one we worked on, basically what if Dr Seuss was actually a doctor.

Now this one was probably one of the easiest ones we've done in the sense that consensus was reached early in the process. For my first design I created a Dr Seuss based on the way he actually looked, combined with the hat from his famous cat, and a little of the hairiness that characterizes most of his characters. The script had the patient saying one final line: "Are you high?!" But me, being the pretentious asshole that I am, decided not to include it (lol):

Some changes were made (basically just removing the "hairy" aspect of the Dr Seuss character), and I proceeded to create a more detailed strip. I created 2, one with the line and one without it.

As you can see, the changes from the original draft and the polished strip are minimal. Finally consensus was reached, and it was decided that it would be an alteration of the second option.

To see the final version of the strip, go to www.wiseguypictures.net and check it out! And come back soon for more behind the scenes and other stuff! :D

- Gus

Rejections 1 - Sonny Bono Strip FOLLOW UP!

I forgot to include the first concept art for the Sonny Bono strip.

Enjoy!

- Gus

A Wee Bit of Fun: Superman VS John Constantine

Oh, he has superpowers alright!

Rejections 2 - The M&M's Strip

Continuing the saga of the comic strips, here are some behind the scenes on a different one. Today we talk about the M&M's trip to the doctor's office.

Now I got the script for this one and drew it quite fast. Here is what I came up with:

It obviously got rejected. While I was trying to stay away from the actual characters to avoid them being the same, I went too far, making them unrecognizable.

I did salvage some things, like the background or Red's expressions: 

On the way, he also lost his doctor's coat. All in all, much needed changes that made the strip a lot better.

If you haven't seen the finish product, run to www.wiseguypictures.net and check it out!

- Gus

Work in Progress - The Legend of Zelda Parody

Not much to say about this yet, but hopefully I'll have time to actually finish it. For now, enjoy this concept art:

- Gus

Rejections 1 - Sonny Bono Strip

By now you should've seen the super awesome website www.wiseguypictures.net where I publish comic strips written by two extremely talented comedy writers.

One of them was the "What really happened to Sonny Bono" strip, where we find out that an encounter with the Abominable Snowman from the Ski Free videogame was the reason for his demise.

For that strip, I drew this panel:

The writers thought that my non-pixelated interpretation of the monster might've been a little confusing, so they asked me to change it to the more recognizable version of it, the pixelated monster straight from the game:

And now, in all it's rejected glory, the first version of the strip:

Please be sure to check the finished (and far superior) version of the strip on the website, and come back soon for more drafts, rejections and original work.

- Gus