The Joker's new hobby?
I can't decide on whether to call this one
"Where does he get those Wonderful Toys Boys?"
or "Don't do that! You won't be 'Mint on Card'!"
Al Bigley has been on my radar for quite some time now. As well as being the artist on the independent comic "Geminar", he's done a lot of commercial work that would be instantly recognisable to most, including the packaging art for much of the Batman Animated Series action figure cards.
I love his style, and over time I've obtained a couple of pieces that he did, a sketchcard and a BTAS Robin piece, but I've never commissioned him myself.
So when I decided to take that plunge, I thought it might be fun to play with his toy-card designing past, head towards the meta-textual a little, and have the Joker decide that, since Batman has all those wonderful toys, he should have a one-of-a-kind collectable action figure too!
You know I say that artists seem to enjoy my pieces, and it shows? Well, Al seems to have had a BALL doing this one, the level of detail is INSANE! Much more than I could have hoped for (He even included the logo from Robin's old solo stories from the 1950's!). The trap is lethal, whimiscal and very evocative of the 1970's era (Seriously this is cover art level work IMHO), that's one terrific Joker there, and Robin is in fine form, playing the helpless hostage is for OTHER sidekicks, he's going to get free if it kills him!
Al actually put together a great piece on his blog about the process from start to finish, which I thoroughly recommend
"Where does he get those Wonderful Toys Boys?"
or "Don't do that! You won't be 'Mint on Card'!"
Al Bigley has been on my radar for quite some time now. As well as being the artist on the independent comic "Geminar", he's done a lot of commercial work that would be instantly recognisable to most, including the packaging art for much of the Batman Animated Series action figure cards.
I love his style, and over time I've obtained a couple of pieces that he did, a sketchcard and a BTAS Robin piece, but I've never commissioned him myself.
So when I decided to take that plunge, I thought it might be fun to play with his toy-card designing past, head towards the meta-textual a little, and have the Joker decide that, since Batman has all those wonderful toys, he should have a one-of-a-kind collectable action figure too!
You know I say that artists seem to enjoy my pieces, and it shows? Well, Al seems to have had a BALL doing this one, the level of detail is INSANE! Much more than I could have hoped for (He even included the logo from Robin's old solo stories from the 1950's!). The trap is lethal, whimiscal and very evocative of the 1970's era (Seriously this is cover art level work IMHO), that's one terrific Joker there, and Robin is in fine form, playing the helpless hostage is for OTHER sidekicks, he's going to get free if it kills him!
Al actually put together a great piece on his blog about the process from start to finish, which I thoroughly recommend