Today Jojo draws Bane!

She’d already drawn Catwoman (and done her own take on DC’s New 52 Catwoman) plus she redesigned Batman. So all that’s left is Bane and we’ve got the main characters of the latest Batman flick.

I asked her to draw Bane and she had no idea who I meant. I told her he’s from Dark Knight Rises and she said, “Is he the bad guy?” I knew she hadn’t seen the movie, but surely she saw some trailers, right?

I’m going to say that she only saw the billboards, because she seemed to only know what his head looked like. She said he’s supposed to be really scary, but she didn’t know how he dresses so she put him in a suit.

By dressing a super villain as a business man, It’s possible that Jojo is making a subtle connection between Bane and Bain, Mitt Romney’s former company. Either that or she put Bane’s head on the body of the Spider-Man/Daredevil villain, Kingpin.

Or the real answer: she just drew it for no reason.

Today Jojo draws Dark Claw!

This week, Jojo is doing alternate versions of famous heroes. Today we get a special treat: Dark Claw, the Wolverine/Batman mash up from the Amalgam universe!

You see, back in 1996 the Marvel and DC universes had a big fight. Then they… I dunno, kissed and made a baby? It was confusing. What we got was the Amalgam universe, which was a mix of the two.

Jojo’s version of Dark Claw is close to the real one. The only real difference is the real Dark Claw’s mask is a mix of Wolverine’s, Batman’s and general terrible 90s design. Jojo decided to just give him Wolverine’s mask AND Batman’s ears. She says it gives him a “better silhouette.”

She’s really using her CalArts training now.

Today Jojo draws Huntress (Helena Wayne).

This week Jojo is drawing the children of famous super heroes. Today we get the daughter of Batman and Catwoman (on an alternate Earth) or as Jojo calls her “Catbat Baby Lady.”

When I saw this, I said, “She just looks like Batgirl. Where’s the Catwoman influence?” Jojo responded, “Batman and Catwoman look exactly the same. They both have pointy ears.”

I guess I can’t argue with that. All I’ll do is post an example of how purple Huntress is supposed to be. To make Jojo sad (she loves coloring things purple).

There. Now no one is happy.

Today Jojo draws Vampire Batman.

This week, Jojo is drawing famous alternate reality versions of super heroes. Today’s vampire Batman comes from the book Batman & Dracula: Red Rain. It’s pretty much what it sounds like, Batman fights Dracula and is turned into a vampire.

Jojo’s version is exactly right. She gave him fangs and turned his cape into actual bat wings. I guess some things are so obvious that Jojo reaches the same conclusions the original artist did.

Jojo of course is unwilling to portray Vampire Batman as a good or permanent change, and so has depicted him about to burn up in the sun. Since her Soviet Superman looked so miserable, and Vampire Batman is about to turn to dust, Jojo seems to be implying that we live the best of all possible worlds and any alternate reality would be unfavorable to this one.

Things are getting really deep.

Bonus Birthday Drawing: The Riddler.

Yesterday, someone left us an anonymous message, saying, “It’s my birthday tomorrow (or whenever you get this - it’s Jan. 27th). Do you think Jojo could draw a picture of the Riddler or Mysterio?”

Never one to let someone down on their birthday, Jojo has drawn The Riddler. Since we don’t know who asked for it, if it’s your birthday today, you can assume this is for you.

Since it’s a bonus drawing for someone’s birthday, I’m hesitant to make fun of it. It looks very much like Riddler anyway. She basically took the suit and hat from the comic/cartoon version, and gave it the tons of question marks that Jim Carrey had.

Nice work, Jojo.

Today Jojo draws Alfred Pennyworth AND Ace the Bat-Hound!

This week I’ve asked Jojo to draw Batman’s many allies. She had a good idea of what Batgirl looked like, she mixed up Nightwing and Batman Beyond a little, and… well she certainly drew Batwoman.

Today I asked her to draw Oracle, or Red Robin, or Red Hood, or Spoiler, or Bat-Wing or Black Bat… well needless to say she just stared at me with that expression I’ve learned to call: “please stop saying words I’ve never heard of.”

Two characters she HAD heard of were Batman’s faithful butler, Alfred and Batman’s often non-canon pooch, Ace the Bat-Hound!

It’s hard to judge either of these because they’ve both looked a bunch of different ways. Alfred changes depending on the actor playing him or the artist drawing him. As long as he’s a serious butler with a mustache (or not even), I’d say it’s accurate.

As for Ace, he was originally a German Shepard, but she pretty much drew him as Scooby-Doo. Which is fair.

Today Jojo draws Batman Beyond (kinda)!

So this week I’ve been having Jojo draw Batman allies from memory. She did a really good Batgirl and I thought she was on the right track with Nightwing, but when I asked her to draw Terry McGinnis, the Batman of the future, I realized what went wrong.

Jojo clearly had seen Nightwing and Terry and she had a general idea that they were both teen “batmen”. With these two drawings side by side, it’s clear she jumbled up the details of the two.

Yesterday she drew Dick Grayson wearing Terry’s costume (with Batwoman’s gloves). Today she’s drawn Terry, wearing pretty much Nightwing’s costume but with Terry’s more wing-like cape, and basically regular Batman’s head.

She did say, “I knew there was a blue one and a red one.”

The really tragic thing for me is that this is probably the best Batman drawing she’s ever done, and it’s a mistake.

The tragic thing for Jojo is I just showed her a picture of Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl costume and she saw how much purple she could have drawn.

I think she’s going to cry.

Today Jojo draws Nightwing.

This week, I’m asking Jojo to draw Batman’s allies from memory, and who better than the original Robin, Dick Grayson himself: Nightwing?

This drawing is actually very close to Nightwing’s current “New 52” costume, which looks like this. The only real mistakes are giving him the wrong kind of mask (Dick still wears a Robin-style domino mask) and making his symbol explicitly a bat, instead of kind of a bird (which is a pretty easy mistake to make).

With his recent costume change, getting his color right was going to be tricky, however there was one aspect of the character that Jojo was sure about, saying, “he’s either red or blue right? either way, he’s definitely angsty.”

Today Jojo draws Batgirl!

That’s right, we’re back to drawing heroes. I hope you enjoyed Jojo’s weird tribute to Kim Jong Il, I know I did.

It’s a brand new year and to kick off 2012 right, I’m having Jojo draw Batman’s many allies! We know Jojo’s heard of Robin but let’s see how obscure we can get before we lose her!

Batgirl is a tricky one because several young women have held the title, and there was no way to know which one Jojo would draw. The blonde hair suggests Stephanie Brown but the yellow gloves invoke Barbara Gordon. Most likely, Jojo doesn’t know there have been multiple Batgirls, and doesn’t know what color hair any of them have.

She got the general costume just about perfect, even though when she gave me this she said, “maybe she has a skirt?” The only thing off about it is the lack of bat symbol, but I imagine that, like with Invisible Woman, she couldn’t figure out how to draw it over her breasts.