#1 Gorilla Ghost
I have to cop to getting this one from watching The League on FX. They kept saying, “ghost monkey,” and it stuck in my head. Hence, the Gorilla Ghost.
Quick run-down: Carl Rundy is our character’s name, and he’s possessed by the ghost of a recently deceased gorilla. Haven’t decided on hero or villain, but that might come organically from the design.
Design: The idea of a gorilla ghost is absurdly Silver Age, but that just means it’s fun. I see GG as being mostly human looking, so Carl is the focus of the design. He’s hunched over, with knuckles dragging and calloused over due to walking on them. He’s in varying stages of undress, due to the perceived uncomfortability that a gorilla would have wearing a man’s clothes. The other, major part of the design is the ghostly avatar of the gorilla that echoes his pose. The gorilla can’t be seen by anyone, save mystics, but he’s always there, influencing Carl’s every thought and movement. Carl doesn’t get any benefits from the possession, like gorilla strength or the ability to climb or anything…he’s just stuck with the ghost. Poor Carl!
By the way, I can’t draw at all, so you’re all going to have to deal with sketches like this for 30 days, so 😛 thhpppppt!
(PS – I’m doing these almost exclusively on my iPhone, so I will reformat the images at a later date)
EDIT: Artist, Danny Kelly, took a swing at GG! See above!
Copyright © 2010, Vito Delsante.
About the Author (Author Profile)
I'm not exactly sure what I should put here, so here goes. I'm a writer, written for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, AdHouse Books, and Simon & Schuster, among others and his stories have been reprinted in other countries. Mostly concentrating on creator owned work right now, so the challenge suits me just fine. I live in Queens (Astoria/LIC), NY with my wife, Michelle, and two dogs, Kasey and Kirby. I'm not sure what else needs to be said, but I'm sure I'll keep changing this. Oh, here's something. I contribute to the Project Rooftop site. The RetroFix column was kind of my idea, so I feel like that experience will help me out here.Subscribe
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Aha! Now that is Silver Age! Good stuff. I hope to see your hero/villain or whatever you intend to do soon.
Oh, beaten by the old transatlantic timeshift…
Glad you made it over here!
The drawing isn’t half shabby, man!
The character concept I find really cool, especially the part that he doesn’t have any super-benefits from the possession!
The visual concept reminds me of Chiro of “Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce GO!”, whenever in his super-mode. But then again, there it was the other way round, Chiro controlling the ape anergy, and not being possessed, as far as I recall.
I love the way you put “varying stages of undress”. Great prose there!
@King – Thanks!
@Sam – Never heard of Super Monkey…got a link?
http://www.veoh.com/group/super-robot-monkey-team-hyperforce
One of the greatest cartoon shows in the Tartakovsky-style. Graphics may look childish, but unlike the Powerpuff Girls this cartoon show had a pretty badass storyline. Pity, though, that the final season was never produced.
It’s creator did owever great on his run with the similarly-told Teen Titans show.
Very cool! Nice concept too, Make a neat comic!
Thanks, Chris! That’s the hope!
Vito, I thought this was great. Put me in mind of zany fun anything-goes stuff like the old Doom Patrol comics of yesteryear. I particularly liked the fact that the gorilla influences Carl, but provides no special powers. That in and of itself struck me as unique. I thought your sketch was really evocative and suggestive of a lot of possibilities. Evidently, Mr. Kelly was thinking along the same lines as me – ’cause he took the ball and ran with it to create a really beautiful piece. Cheers!
I definitely wanna draw this guy. Awesome, Vito!
@King, thanks for the kind words! That was all kind of the intent. I had the name first, and the character grew from that.
@Greg, feel free! I have this announcement I’m making on my site on day 30, so you might want to keep your eyes peeled for that!
I thought I commented on this! I love this character. An awesome concept of having a lesser intelligence driving the bus 🙂 I think that’s what appealed to me years ago about the comic X-O Manowar. (Visigoth in uber hi tech space war suit)