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.

This is our 100th post!

If you take away the Holiday drawings (for Labor Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving), the two Catwoman comics (third part to be posted next week) and the JoJo-ustice League poster… that means Jojo has drawn 93 heroes since we started!

In honor of that we’re going to look back the the drawing that started it all. One day, oh those many months ago, Jojo started drawing X-Men on her placemat at lunch. She pretty much only knew them from Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and some are more accurate than others.

Since then, I’ve had her re-draw everyone from the placemat, except for Professor X, so let’s see if she’s gotten better or worse with time!

Gambit

Her original Gambit was pretty spot on, although she gave him glasses he doesn’t have. Her full Gambit drawing adds Gambit’s weird eyes… but also makes him look like a zombie or something.

Storm

Her original Storm drawing is what really made me want to do this blog, because it doesn’t look very much like Storm, but I could tell who it was supposed to be.

Cable

See this one is funny. Her original drawing, when she wasn’t thinking about it, looks a lot like Cable. The goggles are weird but she got the hair and shoulder pads. When she did a full drawing of him, it turned into Cyclops with Doctor Octopus arms. Though,  Cable’s giant gun looks the same in both.

Wolverine

I think her original Wolverine got the mask a little more right. They’re pretty much the same.

Rogue

Her original Rogue looks more like the movie version of the character, and the new one looks like the ’90s version. Funny story, I’d actaully asked her to draw Jean Grey, and she thought this was her. 

Magneto

She drew his helmet the same way both times, and the wrinkles on his face. He got a lot meaner in the new one, and fatter.

Juggernaut

Jojo draws men like their muscles are stuffed with potatoes. Juggernaut is King Potato. In the new one she added nipples.

Cyclops

In her original, she drew a fairly accurate ’90s cyclops. In her full drawing she got lazy, didn’t want to think of his costume and drew movie Cyclops. She also gets Cyclops and Cable’s names mixed up. A lot.

Nightcrawler

These are both the same: adorable.

Beast

Finally, Beast. I guess her original is more accurate, because at least he’s not a wolf-man but neither of these are quite right. I’m going to give points to the full drawing for putting him in glasses and a lab coat. At least that’s the right tone. 

And there ya have it! It’s a mixed bag, sometimes they are the same and sometimes the new one is a different version of the character. The funniest one is Cable becuase she clearly had some idea who that character was, and then forgot and drew Cyclops.

Here’s to Jojo drawing 93 MORE heroes!

Today Jojo has drawn Wolverine.

In order to understand the full meaning of this drawing, you’ll need a little back story. I’m something of a Wolvie fan myself and own a wolverine t-shirt that I wear, probably once a week. So when I asked Jojo to draw Wolverine, she knew that she should know what he looks like, but also knew that she didn’t. She told me afterward that it pained her to draw this one because with every new line she added, she knew she was just making it more and more incorrect.

Really though, this drawing is very good. She got all the colors right and she had the right idea about his mask. Wolverine’s weird mask-shaped-like-his-hair things, are strange enough that you can’t fault her for drawing them more like ears. She made his arms all yellow instead of bare, and sometimes his boots have pointy things like his mask, but this is recognizable as Wolverine.

I also like that she gave him the big “X” on his chest that the original X-Factor used to wear, even though she’d never seen them. Basically, I like it when design choices are so obvious (hey, let’s put big X’s on them!), that Jojo comes up with them independently.

Oh right, and the way she drew his butt is funny.