"The Adventure Begins"
Hey everyone! Jake here. And if you've happen to click on here to view Tony's pictures from start to finish, let me then welcome you to a little mini-tour. For the next twenty pictures, I'll be your guide giving you my own opinions on the early works of my buddy; partly because it'd be interesting to see another point of view other than the artist, and partly because after six years on the internet, he still couldn't get his lazy butt to do it himself. I kid of course. So without further ado, let's begin....
While this wasn't the first Plight drawing by Tony, this was the first one where both he and I felt was a genuine 'pin-up' and not just a sketch. When he did this, we had only known each other for less than a year; that phase in a friendship when the ground is still a little rocky and you wonder how much you can trust each other. Yeah, we had a lot of common interests (Spawn, X-Files, paychecks from McDonalds, etc.), but interests weren't just enough. It's that period in life when you wonder if some day, some time, he's going to turn on you because frankly, you just never know if the guy's wanted in another state.
That 'fear' ended with this picture, and I'll tell you why.
When he did this picture, I thought at the time the art was pretty good (which is was, but he's grown quite a bit artistically that this piece, unfortunately, seems dated). He did a great job making the characters line up height-wise with each other. I also thought he did good drawing Erik in costume squating down (something I wasn't able to draw at the time - which shows you how impressed I was with it). But I couldn't help but rip on Tony because even though he did a bang-up job, this picture bothered me; bothered me big time. As you might notice, he drew Erik STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO HIMSELF IN COSTUME!
Now I'm certainly not one to keep realism in my pictures, but come on - he drew Rahistal as a looming spectre, but made both Erik's as solid as you can get. And where's Kari and Ekylpse? And when I asked him what the hell he was smoking, he couldn't give me an answer. Nine years later he STILL can't give me an answer! *lol*
The point is, this was the first time I can recall reaming on Tony. And because of it, and because we both made out of the debate alive and feelings still intact, I knew I could trust this guy.
It's a great picture and I really like it. But man, that little detail bugs me! *l* - Jake