#band comics

[northwestofinsanity]

So, I may or may not have created a monster in 90 minutes to add onto over the next couple of weeks, seeing however things end up going, and how much I’ll need to compensate for not having the serotonin boost the animal shelter usually gives me.  Typically, I only keep my art on DA because I’m a bit shy about it, and there’s a chance I’ll delete this later, but for now, maybe it can give some of my mutuals a laugh in an otherwise dark time.

(Yeah, this is imagining what my favorite bands would have done if they were bored while locked down in quarantine... starting with BOC -and this particular one is somewhat of a spoiler for a comedy scene in “Life As We Don’t Know It” that I won't be getting to for a long while to come.)

[undeadgarden]

Welp here it is!  One of the first page ideas!  go check out Adam the Bass player.  Let us know what you think

[northwestofinsanity]

Well, this is what I spent 5 hours of yesterday drawing.  Thanks to a challenge concept on another site some of my mutuals might know me on, I can’t stop thinking about how many odd quirks in common three of my favorite keyboardists have -all of which likely never have/had crossed paths in their lives, but oh well.  Neal Doughty of REO Speedwagon, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, and the late, great Allen Lanier of Blue Oyster Cult.  These three have/had varying forms of sarcasm constantly running, and in certain pictures and interviews, have this shrug they do where they toss their hands out to their sides or up in the air limply (sometimes it’s just one hand, but I went full-fledged for this cartoon).

I referenced a Canadian TV interview from 1987 for Neal, where he deadpanned a troll response to an interviewer asking how REO seemed to have avoided some big trends (he got Kevin Cronin so riled up with that! XD)... his sarcasm is mostly harmless and playful, really.  I did use a picture reference for Donald, albeit I feel like I’ve seen him do that in so many photos and interviews my dad showed me growing up -all but two of which I suddenly can’t find anymore when I want to reference them (anyway, he has the most biting form of snide here by contrast, so he doesn't even need to say anything to get his message across with it).  Allen is of course portrayed as he was in the Tom Snyder interview about hearing damage, telling off critics for unfairly jumping all over rock and roll about problems that can apply to any genre -he must have tossed his hands up at least five times in a thirty second clip there while mimicking the critics (you tell’em, Allen!)

[the only thing that could have made this better was if Neal had been in a video interview doing that shrug in 81 or earlier so he’d have his signature hat and could have created some symmetry with Allen... oh well.]

[northwestofinsanity]

Finally, the complete Deep Purple comic page for what would these guys do if they were quarantined back in the day.  Featuring Mk II, circa late ‘69/early ‘70 in one of those houses they were known to stay in while writing.  In this scenario, Ritchie Blackmore does one of his seances late at night while the rest of the band hangs out in the kitchen together... but I guess he forgot to open a window or something, so thick smoke started flooding the house, causing mass chaos.  Cue a frustrated Jon Lord who’s probably seen similar incidents before and will see more in the future -or ones that were equally chaotic for different reasons (AKA the axe incident), a Roger Glover breaking a mug in the sink getting jumpscared by an old-fashioned smoke alarm (those things are terrors!), Ian Paice choking on the smoke being in such a confined space in a larger amount than he’s used to, and Ian Gillian just wanting to tease Ritchie about his mistake.  After everyone’s opened the windows and doors (with Paicey knocking the curtain down while rassling with an old, double-hung window), and he’s gotten the ceiling fan running, that is.

The last picture was *so hard* with Roger and Jon’s positions, but I purposefully took my time over it, because it was great amusement to imagine, between those two and Paicey flipping the hand towels up and down to fan the smoke out.  And then there’s Ian being of no help, just pointing and laughing at Ritchie, who has literally walked in with a dark cloud over his head!

I did a whole-page capture to show the continuity between the panels (because it’s hard to get each strip isolated without either cutting out parts of the top and bottom, or getting some of the surrounding section into it), and each separately for better quality, even lighting, and not having the paper not fit my camera frame, because my scanner’s quality is actually worse with pencil sketches.

[northwestofinsanity]

Alright, part 1/3 of the Deep Purple cartoon I’m doing while quarantined (and I need the humor more than ever).  This is my first try drawing Deep Purple in full detail, so I chose printer paper over the notebook for it...

Deep Purple fans who have read up on history might have an idea of what's going on here...  We have Mark II (in their iconic outfits from a well-known photo shoot -except I let Roger have his hat too) staying in one of those old houses they did for writing (or, in the context of my cartoon series, they ended up quarantined in one together), and Ritchie is up to one of his seances while the others are passing time together in the kitchen.  Except whether it was the way the draws in the house worked, or some other reason, the smoke got out of hand, and blew out into the rest of the house (he’s aware he’s gonna catch it too).  As Ian suggests, chaos will certainly ensue!  If it hasn't begun already, as poor Roger just broke a teacup in the wash basin getting jumpscared -anyone who has had the pleasure of encountering the oldest of hard-wired smoke alarms from the early 70s knows they are terrifying -and this is not a sort of smoke Paicey is accustomed to being in the middle of, so it’s too much for him.  As for Jon, he’s not surprised anymore... this is not the first or last time this will happen.

I’ll probably post all 3 parts separately for this, because I’ve noticed Tumblr does some weird thing with image size on reblogging.  (A shame for spamming the tag)

[northwestofinsanity]

Quarantined with Def Leppard today... with the band period after Rick’s accident, but prior to the release of Hysteria, and the boys are locked in at the studio together.  

We have, in the top upload, Steve and Phil fencing with used paper towel rolls, while imagining they’re in some fantasy-land battle with cannons and horsemen in a valley between forested mountains (*plays “To Glory” by Two Steps from Hell in the background*).  Rick is watching the action, while Joe is stir-crazy and annoyed because he can’t get the TV to work no matter what angle he tries to operate it from, so he’s missing a Sheffield United game he wanted to watch.  And Sav is listening to Queen records through all the drama.

“Can we listen to Mott the Hoople next?”

“No.”

“But you just listened to an entire-”

“-and I’m listening to the other one first.”

“I already can't get the United game to show.”

“Good.  They suck.”

“YOU suck!”

...And then we switch to a simpler cartoon style and have a strip of Rick getting creative making dinner with what they have on hand after Joe complains he doesn't see anything good.  I imagine this early on in his recovery, Rick did have a small amount of help with the prep, but once everything got going, he managed well enough, and his bandmates are proud of him.

In the bottom, I have what I call my “fast scribble” style of the boys under a blanket fort camping out for the night, because why not?  Yes, Phil and Steve have an extra large sleeping bag they’re sharing -I imagine this isn't the only reason or the first time the Terror Twins would have spent a night camped out at the studio.

All the events in the top picture are ideas suggested by @mccoys-killer-queen.  Thanks for the suggestions for spending a day in with these five, and happy birthday, btw!

[undeadgarden]

Oh no!!

[undeadgarden]

Page four sketch draft