HOME | DD

Description
Comic Book Character Design, Malibu Comics, Rubble. Pencil, Ink, Digital color.

My first post of 2012 is a character design I did a long, long time ago, for the now-defunct Malibu Comics. For practice in Photoshop, I decided to dust it off, color it up, and share it online with you. I reckon the youngsters out there will disdainfully consider this "old school" stuff. Well, it certainly reveals its 90s flavor. But I still see some fun ideas here, so...

Rubble was one half of a proposed duo. Smoke [link] , and Rubble was to be a literal play on words, an actualization of the cliché. Because nothing was really done with these characters, it will never be seen exactly what potential they may have had. Hank Kanalz (now VP of DC Digital) was one of the co-creators of Smoke, and Rubble. Although I was merely hired as a designer, I did have my own ideas about how the character might work. Smoke was to be as elusive and deadly as a ninja, with the power to become intangible, or vanish like his namesake. Rubble, his counterpart, was instead to be as solid as a rock, able to crash through brick walls, and reduce a building to-- well-- rubble. I gave him a bandolier of special grenade briquettes, which he could throw (a la Bat-a-rang) and detonate via his mechanical wristband/vambrace. KaBOOM!!! Smoke I designed with soft lines and curves. I chose to go for hard angles on Rubble, as if he were chiseled from stone. I borrowed from the art style used by my pal, Brian Stelfreeze, on his classic story, "CYCOPS."

Were these guys heroes, villains, or a bit of both? We'll never know. As a gag, I probably would have named this guy "Barney." Heheh.

Thanks for viewing!

*Smoke and Rubble were the copyrighted property of Malibu Comics.

Description
Comic Book Character Design, Malibu Comics, Rubble. Pencil, Ink, Digital color.

My first post of 2012 is a character design I did a long, long time ago, for the now-defunct Malibu Comics. For practice in Photoshop, I decided to dust it off, color it up, and share it online with you. I reckon the youngsters out there will disdainfully consider this "old school" stuff. Well, it certainly reveals its 90s flavor. But I still see some fun ideas here, so...

Rubble was one half of a proposed duo. Smoke [link] , and Rubble was to be a literal play on words, an actualization of the cliché. Because nothing was really done with these characters, it will never be seen exactly what potential they may have had. Hank Kanalz (now VP of DC Digital) was one of the co-creators of Smoke, and Rubble. Although I was merely hired as a designer, I did have my own ideas about how the character might work. Smoke was to be as elusive and deadly as a ninja, with the power to become intangible, or vanish like his namesake. Rubble, his counterpart, was instead to be as solid as a rock, able to crash through brick walls, and reduce a building to-- well-- rubble. I gave him a bandolier of special grenade briquettes, which he could throw (a la Bat-a-rang) and detonate via his mechanical wristband/vambrace. KaBOOM!!! Smoke I designed with soft lines and curves. I chose to go for hard angles on Rubble, as if he were chiseled from stone. I borrowed from the art style used by my pal, Brian Stelfreeze, on his classic story, "CYCOPS."

Were these guys heroes, villains, or a bit of both? We'll never know. As a gag, I probably would have named this guy "Barney." Heheh.

Thanks for viewing!

*Smoke and Rubble were the copyrighted property of Malibu Comics.