What's In an Ad?

In my time at Diamond Select Toys, I was lucky to work with a very talented designer, Steve Rowan, who always captured my design notes perfectly, and was a great guy. Here are a few of the ads we worked on over the years, many of which were designed for the Previews catalog, but then were resized for comic books, specifically Archie comics.   

This first one I think did a great job showcasing the different Transformers factions within each set of Minimates block figures. Three series were out at the time, and I think Steve made it very colorful and eye-catching while keeping clear who was in each set. 

The Cobra Kai action figures were a great line, and we were lucky to have some great photography to work with from master photographer Peter Minges. This one is fairly straightforward, but president Chuck T. was always a fan of cross-selling the older figures, especially when we had them in stock. I think they create a nice "co-starring" element, and Steve's layout has real movie-poster vibes. 

Asking Steve to showcase the four main Turtles in this TMNT ad while showing that each came in a different set was a challenging request, but Steve delivered, creating a pretty unique ad, I think. I love Minimates, and squeezing 15 of them into one ad was a recipe for disaster, but I think it came out neat and organized and does a great job of selling the product.

I worked with a different designer on Ironguard Supplies ads, Brian Desautel of Infernal Machinery, and together we went with a more story-driven ad style, with a text block that talks about the product in a fun way. I don't think "Zombie Proof" was mine, but I'm pretty sure "Shields Up" was -- we must have brainstormed over 100 short catchphrases to use in ads like these, not to mention packaging. 

This is just a fraction of the ads I worked on over 14 years. Thanks to my design partners for helping create them!

The Art of Zach: Wild Toys

 

Back when I worked at ToyFare Magazine, shooting toys was my job. I took pictures of toys well into the night, for the Twisted ToyFare Theatre comic strip and sometimes for visual price guides, where we would document every toy (or character) in a toy line. It was fun, but it was also work. 

When I started working at Diamond Select Toys, I shot toys out of necessity -- we had a photographer who took pics of prototypes on white backgrounds, but prototypes usually can't do much, and I wanted to show off what each toy could do. So I took samples out in the street, made them walk around, switched out their accessories, and posted the pics on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 

I still work for DST, but we've since hired people to run the social media accounts, and even a second photographer to take pictures of toys. So for the first time, I don't really HAVE to take pictures of toys. But now I WANT to. So I shoot for myself, posting on my Instagram account, and posting behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube and TikTok. 

But I'm a book guy. I WAS a magazine guy, and I still like magazines, but I REALLY like books. So I made a book. You can still see all of my pics on Instagram, but if you want to own them and possess them, like Gollum, you can buy the book. It's called "Wild Toys," and it is the first in what I hope will be a series. Enjoy! 

The Greatest Hats of All Nerd-Kind

I was searching my e-mail for something and came across this story from the old ToplessRobot.com comedy and news blog. I don’t know if any of that is still discoverable online, so I thought I’d share it here, since I’m pretty proud of it. It was probably a Top Ten at one point, but I’ve only found seven of them, so here go the Top Seven Hats of Geekdom! (References may be dated.)

7. Jayne's Knit Cap, Firefly TV show

Firefly fans are a dedicated lot, and with a limited number of episodes, ships, collectibles and actor autographs to obsess over, every frame of the show's fourteen episodes and one movie gets equal scrutiny. So while some "Brown Coats" choose to wear the article of clothing that gave the fandom its name, and others sport any number of T-shirts with the show's omnipresent Chinese advertisements on them, when it comes to headgear, there is only one choice: Jayne's hat. Sent to Firefly's resident bad-ass (well, one of its several resident bad-asses) by his mother, the original hat was red, orange and yellow, but really, any knit hat will do, as long as it has earflaps, a pom-pom on top and negates any sense of cool you might be attempting to project. It only appeared for one episode, but that's 5% of the show, which practically makes it a cast member. 

6. Indiana Jones's Fedora, Indiana Jones movies

The true measure of a hat's fame is what length the hat's owner would go to in order to retain ownership of said hat. And there is no hat so treasured as the hat of archaeologist Indiana Jones, by either its fictional owner or the legions of fans who now possess one. Given to a young Indy by a fortune hunter he crossed paths with, Dr. Jones has risked life and limb to keep it in his possession, whether it's retrieving it from behind a rapidly closing stone door or snatching it from the hands of a franchise-hungry Shia LaBeouf. Not that it falls off very often -- it usually stays on through extended action sequences, only leaving Indy's head when he is placed under a blood trance, or impaled by spikes. Plus, whenever he puts it on, it plays his theme music.

5. Dum-Dum Dugan's Derby, Marvel Comics

For a 100-year-old who fought in World War II, Dum Dum Dugan is pretty spry. He still works for SHIELD, he still has a luxuriant red mustache and he still rocks a derby like it's nobody's business. True, nobody seems to be able to explain why he's still walking around unassisted, but I'm going to chalk it up to the hat. Assuming that's the same hat he wore back in the Big One, that sucker is bulletproof, and back in the 1940s "bulletproof" meant "lined with solid steel." So in addition to being a circus strongman before he signed up to fight the Nazis, he's been walking around with a heavy-ass hat on his head for 70 years. Not only would that strengthen his neck muscles to a ridiculous degree, if he ever took it off he could probably jump over the sun.

4. The Eleventh Doctor's Fez, Doctor Who TV show

"I wear fezzes now. Fezzes are cool." With those words, spoken by the Eleventh Doctor (played by Matt Smith) in "The Big Bang," fezzes rocketed to the top of the "Most Popular Doctor Who Headgear" list, obliterating the previous top entry, the Fourth Doctor's floppy hat, which, to be fair, was already overshadowed by that Doctor's enormous scarf and/or hair. Since then, the fez has returned or been referenced several times, and while it was temporarily succeeded by a Stetson in one episode, the version of the Doctor who wore said Stetson was promptly shot. DO NOT MEZ WITH THE FEZ. IT WILL END BADLY FOR YOU.

3. Zatanna's Top Hat, DC Comics

The DC Comics sorceress Zatanna is by no means the first magic-user to wear a top hat. Hell, Mandrake the Magician was rocking the top hat back in the 1930s, and he still owned that look 50 years later, as a member of the Defenders of the Earth. But there is nothing quite like a beautiful, scantily clad woman in a top hat -- the top hat lets you know you're in for a classy affair, even if the invitation failed to mention pants. Granted, the Gentleman Ghost has been wearing one for much longer -- and more consistently -- but G.G. was also never in the Justice League. Plus, whoever decided to ditch the hat and switch Zatanna over to more standard superhero garb in the late 1970s should be brought to the present day in a time machine, fired, and sent back again. 

2.      2. Finn’s Cowl, Adventure Time TV Show

      If you haven't watched the ridiculously fun cartoon Adventure Time, you really should. It's like a more surreal and ridiculous "Mr. Peabody and Sherman," and it has singlehandedly revived the animal-ear hat. For a while, anime seemed to be doing a pretty good job of popularizing them on its own, but if you attended San Diego Comic-Con this year, you saw thousands of people wearing them, and parades of people walking up and down the streets in them, and they were all Adventure Time hats. Granted, that's because the Cartoon Network was handing them out for free, but just because something's free doesn't mean you're automatically going to wear it. You wear it because it's awesome.

1.      1. The Sorting Hat, Harry Potter books and movies

      Of all the hats on this list, the Sorting Hat is the only one who talks, and the only one of them who could be described as having a job other than "dome protection." The Sorting Hat is the Head Sorter of Children at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is kind of like a guidance counselor, since it sends students down the paths that will shape them into the noble or evil adults they'll become. He's also the staff weaponer, storing bladed weapons within himself and distributing them to the children as needed. Is it any wonder he's the most popular talking hat in children's literature?

The Art of Zach: Drawing Crime in a Future TIme

Toy design has always been a dream of mine, and as I explore more in that direction, I thought I'd dig out some of my old designs for, you guessed it, C.O.P.S. N' Crooks! The 1988 Hasbro toy line was a favorite of mine -- although much later in life, I never owned any in the 1980s. But as an adult it became a favorite, and I probably enjoyed how obscure and fanboyish it was to like it. No more, as Fresh Monkey Fiction has announced a remake of the toy line, and prices on the old figures have gone through the roof. (When I first collected the ENTIRE SERIES, they were fairly affordable on-card, and I opened them all.)

Here are my designs for a re-make, which I actually sent to Hasbro back in the day. 

The Art of Zach: Tales from the LAW Blog

I love to draw, and while my current job doesn't call for it, I try to do it whenever I get the opportunity. A while back, my fellow ex-Wizardites and I (a.k.a. the LAW) started to post our artwork of comic and cartoon characters to the LAW blog, which lasted for a while before it fell into disuse. Just so I have them all in one place, here are my contributions, in one blog post. Ignore the quick Photoshop color jobs, but I'm pretty happy with most of these pieces, and incredibly proud of a few. 

GEIST
I wanted to do an homage for my piece, and the minute I started to think about famous comic covers to emulate, Silver Surfer #4 popped into my head, with Thor fighting the Surfer. Mostly because it's so damn famous, but also because it had a flying character fighting a standing character, which worked for Geist and his opponent, whoever he was going to be. I almost made it Turbine, but then I decided to go with Brutal, since he's bulky like Thor and he has a bad history with Geist.

This is the first thing I've drawn in a looong time. You can check out all my old comic strips at my old Angelfire site, and of course, you can buy Justin Aclin's Hero House on Amazon.

DESTRUCTOR

When I first read Sean's "Destructor Comes to Croc Town," I was blown away. I had to read it twice to make sure I hadn't missed something, some clue to the enigma that was Destructor, but I hadn't. Destructor was simply a metal can of awesome, and he kicked crocodile-man ass. I was going to do an Iron Man tribute cover, having been inspired by Ben Morse's ode to Tales of Suspense, but in the end I just had to do the comic's great, mostly wordless story justice, and show Destructor locked in mortal combat with a massive Croc-Man.





This is the moment when his arm is torn off, and the Croc-Man has yet to learn that that was not necessarily the best move to make. Not only does Destructor now have a five-fingered wingman, he's got a blunt instrument to swing. The scene as drawn by Matt Wiegle is awesome, which is why I tried to computer-color it, in an attempt to do more than lamely imitate Wiegle's amazing art. Eh. Not my forte. Here it is anyway.





Read "Destructor in: Prison Break," then buy both Destructor adventures in Murder.

ORKO

This week we'll be expanding the scope of the LAW Blog to include characters NOT created by LAW members. The first lucky winner? Fricking Orko from Masters of the Universe. Don't ask me how he won -- it's a long story that involves bourbon, a nostalgic YouTube video and no small amount of emotional blackmail. And while I respect Orko as a person, I hate the way that he looks. Looking at him and hating him, I decided to see what I could do to make him cooler. This was the result.

First, I decided that Orko needed legs, because only losers hover. And since he was going to get tired walking around, I gave him a horse. Specifically, I gave him He-Man's robot horse, Stridor. And I gave him Castle Grayskull to live in, too. Basically, I gave Orko He-Man's entire TV show, because if Orko had legs, a horse and a cool castle, he'd be much, much cooler than a half-naked barbarian. And for the first time, I think my sketch looks better in color!

Call him Vampire Hunter O. Hopefully, other bloggers will draw Orko the way he really looks, because my sketch really isn't the best way to kick off Orko week. I'd say buy a Orko comic, but I'd rather you bought Hero House.

BATMAN

As a fan of DC's Elseworlds stories (as well as the Legends of the Dark Knight toy line by Kenner), I could draw Batman in different historical outfits all day. Unfortunately, I'm not that good an artist, so Braveheart Batman and Black Knight Batman aren't really options. But after catching an advance screening of "The Runaways," I started thinking about the 1970s glam rock/punk rock movement, and after briefly debating if it made any logical sense for Batman to do anything in the '70s other than be Batman, I kinda sorta made him the frontman for the Stooges.



I don't know what the other Stooges look like, but I gave Batman Iggy Pop's chiseled abs and skinny jeans. Of course, I instantly regretted not making Batman David Bowie, since then I would at least have an easy pun. ("A Bat Insane," "The Thin White Bruce," etc.) The name "Iggy Pop" doesn't lend itself to Batman-related puns, although I suppose you could call the band "Iggy and the Bruces." And of course he would perform such hits as "I Wanna Be Your Unofficially Sanctioned Vigilante," "Search and Place in Arkham Asylum" and "Lust for Street-Level Justice." Here's a colored version.



Check out the amazing covers for Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne at DC's The Source.

CAPTAIN CAVEMAN

I don't know if Captain Caveman was designed first or named first, or if he was the result of some sort of decades-long Hanna-Barbera R&D project, but he is ridiculous. Is that a massive beard, or is his body furry and peanut-shaped? I'm sure this was explained in the cartoon, along with where his powers come from, but it has literally been decades since I saw one. So I drew him as one of my favorite superheroes, Captain America, and I dressed his son like Bucky in the background.

It's sad that one of the most iconic images of Captain America I can think of is Ultimate Cap pointing at the "A" on his forehead and saying "Do you think this stands for 'France'?" Damn you, Mark Millar. Anyway, I wasn't gonna color it, but I had a few free moments while watching "Jason and the Argonauts." So here you go.

BOYS CLUB

First of all, I need to thank Sean T. Collins. Not only did he create Destructor, he's introduced me to literally dozens of indie comics I would never have known about otherwise. So when he chose Boys Club by Matt Furie to be the next subject on the LAW blog, I looked it up and was blown away. Four guys (A frog, a... wolfman? A... bear? Some other thing?) just hanging around, eating, drinking, doing drugs, being naked, spouting catchphrases and vomiting. Funniest shit ever. I was particuarly intrigued by the wolfman-looking character, Landwolf, whose appearance I can only assume is inspired by Teen Wolf. In homage to the T-Wolf, I drew the following:

It's Landwolf in Teen Wolf's basketball uniform, about to dunk over the heads of his friends Andy, Brett and Pepe. I have no idea which is which. Hope you all like it.

GHOSTBUSTERS

Things have slowed down on this blog a bit, but we keep picking new characters to draw, and the next characters chosen were the Ghostbusters, so I figured what the Hell. I wanted to show them busting somebody, and thought it would be fun to put a famous ghost in the trap, rather than some generic ghoulie. I suppose I could have put Deadman in there, or Starscream, but I just couldn't resist the pun potential in choosing Poltergeist from Justin Aclin's comic Hero House.

Again, this is one where I gave up 75% of the way through because I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew, but ended up going back in after getting inspired (this time by Alex K.'s animation on the new Marvel What The....?! and Sean T. Collins' new comic). I even got fancy with my computer coloring, throwing a Mike Dimayuga panel into the picture frame and using some glowy filters on Egon's stream and the ghost trap. We lose Egon and Ray's ankles, but we're all better off, to be honest. As much as I love coloring, I may try to do an actually good black-and-white sketch next time, rather than going for the finished look. 

Check out a 50-page preview of Hero House here, then order it from Amazon. Then order MY book, Pop Sculpture, from Barnes & Noble!

THE WARRIORS

Following Rickey Purdin's amazing entries on this blog is a thankless job, but he always inspires me to draw better, so I revisited my Warriors sketch, which I had given up earlier, thinking it was too ambitious for my skills, and managed to tighten it up a bit and finish it.

I'm not saying it's the best drawing of any of the Warriors -- Ajax, Swan and Rembrandt are okay, I guess, but Cochise comes off looking like a woman -- I'm just happy to have finished it, and to have figured out how to do a crazy gradient background on the colored version.