"Puny Banner" ("The Hulk")
Those damn Marvel Comics characters. After what happened last year, I knew I couldn't draw a picture of Plight having any interaction with Bruce Banner's alter-ego unless I wanted to be faced with a lawsuit. So I found myself trying to figure out how to do a picture of the Hulk without actually drawing the Hulk.
And as you can see, that's exactly what this is.
I refrained from adding a lot of background detail on purpose because I wasn't sure where I was going to set up the scene. Although it looks like it's all one piece, it's actually composed of four different placements: the shadowy figure, Erik, the word balloon, and the background. But instead of turning out a new effect, it seemed to look like a normal drawing from me. I have no regrets though - it's pretty cool and it laid down the groundwork for what I needed to improve on with my second picture.
No, you read that right. You see, this was the first picture I drew for this year's gallery and one I completed way back in January of 2003. In fact, I wrote this caption in February 2003 - four whole months before the film, not to mention this page first made its debut! But of course that's all in the past so you're reading this years later while I'm updating the text. And you know what? It feels really weird. This is perhaps the earliest thing I've ever completed ahead of schedule. Of course, I can't say I didn't have the time to make the picture better, can I? - Jake