Spider-Man Noir and Gotham by Gaslight Batman

Brothers in Stylish Darkness:

Spider-Man Noir teams up with “Gotham by Gaslight”s Batman.

Our sons are fond of both of these “alternate universe” iterations of  these characters. Darkness, stylish outfits and significant violence...what’s not to like? 

Although they are supposedly separated by a few decades: Batman in “Gaslight” tracks Jack the Ripper in the late 1880’s London, and Spider-Man Noir swings in the 1930’s during the American Depression, they look like they could work together.

A crossover opportunity, perhaps?

Scooby The Venomous Bat Hound

I may have had a bit too much exposure to Scooby Doo last weekend.

My sons are almost always up for a viewing of a Scooby Doo movie. For those of you who are blissfully unaware of the developments in the Scooby Doo empire since the original television series in the late 60’s and 70’s, there has been a lot more since. 

A whole lot more.

There have been an endless number of films in recent years (and I am not talking about the live action remakes) Scoob and the gang have been paired with everything and everyone from LEGOs to Kiss, to Batman to the WWE. And more movies are coming all the time.

I can’t say we have watched all of them...but perhaps all of them that the kids know about.

It is not exaggerating to say that I loathed the show when I was a kid....yes back when the original series was being broadcast, I am that old. I particularly disliked the munchies-stricken Shaggy and his similarly scraggly chin haired dog. 

As a parent, I have come to mostly amicably tolerate those meddling kids. Mostly because, well, there are much worse things out there to watch. (Although I do detest the contemporary incarnations where Velma is dolled up. Or even worse, where she and Shaggy are a romantic couple.)

But after my younger son watched several Scooby movies back to back last weekend, I felt my old hatred come creeping back.

Thus we have a napkin with a evil looking Scooby (I had already drawn him with three heads as Cerebus, so I had to try something else.) 

I couldn’t just make him look malicious and get away with it, so I dressed him as Batman’s companion, Ace the Bat hound. Ace was my younger son’s obsession during his preschool years. 

I borrowed the composition and style from a

“Batman Venom” cover by José Luis García-López. This is a paperback that collects “Legends of the Dark Knight” issues 16-20 and tells the story of how Batman falls apart physically and morally while taking a performance enhancing drug... kind of like my state after watching too much Hanna Barbera. Just kidding.

(And check out how nicely the shell pattern on the napkin lines up with Scooby’s mouth, or don’t...I can’t reasonably expect anyone else to be interested in that sort of thing...)

Movie Popcorn

Holiday Weekend Movie Goers

We did finally make it to the other superhero movie over the fall break. At the beginning of every day over the long weekend, we would start by announcing that we would go see the DC movie that day, and then motivation would somehow prove to be insufficient. 

But today we finally made it to to the theater, and I finally have managed to photograph this napkin. 

Low expectations are often good when it comes to such things, however, so by the time we did see the movie, our younger son pronounced it not so bad after all. My expectations were perhaps not low enough for the movie or the napkin. 

But I heard that the movie theater popcorn was ok.

Pennyworth Meets Pennywise

Better Pennyworth than Pennywise? 

The Evil Clown & Alfred share some tea & cookies. 

(Was the Clown Prince not invited?)

Yes, it is true, I was required to escort four 14 year olds to a screening of "IT" over the holiday weekend. 

Since the birth of our first son, I have seen a great many movies that I would not have chosen for myself. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. Sometimes not. 

My greatest hope for "IT" was that it would freak out our older son enough to keep him from sneaking out to our darkened living room in the middle of the night to check Instagram. 

The attitude at our local theater seemed to indicate that the movie was genuinely disturbing: there were signs posted on all the entrance doors stating that absolutely no one under 12 would be allowed in even with parental escort. And the ticket seller informed me that I couldn't just buy the adolescents' tickets. I had to be sure to sit right next to them. 

Having survived the screening, I can report that it was not much more scary than say something like the preview for "Lights Out," or "Annabelle."  Nor was it effective at curbing the desire for midnight teenage social media updates. 

Sadly, unlike many other movies that I have seen with my kids, I did not find it possible to doze during it. Maybe that is a compliment. But I'm afraid it had more to do with the "jump scares" liberally distributed throughout. 

I suppose, geriatric that I am, I might prefer horror movies where there is more suggestive build-up and less actual gory mayhem. Once you've gnawed a small child's arm off in the opening scene, where can you go from there?

On this napkin, I am imagining a more civilized visit with evil. Because who is more civilized than Alfred? (I was aiming for the Jeremy Irons "Batman V Superman incarnation of Alfred, if that needs to be said, which it unfortunately does)

And there was that dumb thing about them both having "Penny" in their names.

But did Alfred make the frosted red balloon and batarang sugar cookies? Or maybe Pennywise brought them as a thoughtful hostess gift?

Justice League Members View the 2017 Eclipse

Be Sure to View the 2017 Eclipse Safely:

(Even if you are Batman)

(Unless, perhaps, your head is already on fire)

We are getting ready for the Great American (partial) Eclipse here in Brooklyn.

There's been a lot of discussion about how to view the eclipse in a safe manner. I am the proud owner of not one, but two, arc welding helmets, so we are pretty well outfitted. But the kids really wanted cool eclipse viewing glasses to be purchased expressly for the occasion. Not too much chance of that happening now at t minus one hour.

I am still thinking about a Fresh Direct box viewer though. Unfortunately, our latest delivery is not due until 3-5 pm today, so I will have to unpack our paper recycling pile.

The three superheroes Batman, Firestorm and Stargirl hail from the latest DC Cartoon Network show that my kids have been watching, "Justice League Action."  

Firestorm has a perpetual flame emanating from the top of his head so a eclipse box viewer will protect his vision, but not prevent all burning.

Snake Clowns

Snake Clowns: More frightening even than family.

It was of course inevitable that we would see the Batman LEGO movie. I was surprised that we were able to wait a couple weeks to do so. My younger son and I did have an opportunity to see it earlier, but his older brother forbade us to see it without him. (So the younger brother and I had to go see "The Great Wall" instead. More on that later...if I have the fortitude)

Lego Batman is definitely worth seeing if you have had excessive exposure to all things Batman and Lego. It has a fine sense of humar about the Venn diagram intersection between the two fandoms: Adult Fans of LEGO meets Underage Fans of The Dark Knight. The movie is full of jokes both for people young enough to play with plastic bricks and people old enough to remember that "The Condiment King" was a real DC villain. That said, my kids, DC connoisseurs that they are, were already aware of Condiment King, but they seem to have aged out of actually playing with their collection of 10,000 Legos.

One of their favorite moments in the movie was the scene where Alfred tells Bat/Bruce that he has to overcome his worst fear. Bruce shoots back, "Snakes??!!" Then, "Clowns??!!" And finally, "Snake Clowns!!!" Alfred is talking about the fear of being part of a family again, but Batman retorts, "No, it's Snake clowns! And it's your fault for putting that idea in my mind!"

My rendition of snake clowns was not particularly successful, probably overly influenced by my uncomfortable childhood relationship with Bozo the Clown on TV...but perhaps they are a little bit more frightening than the LEGO version?

If you haven't seen the movie yet, you can watch the video clip where Batman reveals that his greatest fear is snake clowns, and that it is all Alfred's fault

Batman and the other Men

 

For #BatmanDay2016 :

The Dark Knight surrounded by other aspiring men:
Clockwise from top right: Ratman, Fatman, Gnatman, Catman, Spratman & Flatman.

Here's a link to last year's Batman Day napkin... arguably more successful...

Moody Doomsday from "Batman V Superman"

Batman V Superman was available on pay per view. So, we had to watch it again.

This was another napkin produced very quickly in the morning  before camp. Not being able to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep at night any more is really cramping my style.

Trump V Trump Complete

Really, the hair is no exaggeration:

Trump V Trump: Dawn of Injustice

Bombastic conflict and the joy of trying to punch oneself in the face.

Batman V Superman was as long and heavy as promised. But our expectations were low, and the kids were pretty pleased with the movie overall. 

Having drawn the battling boys as pugs, the next obvious substitution was Donald.

This one is not finished yet- (my younger son wanted to know why Batman is wearing a light suit)
There was limited time this afternoon as I had already spent 2 1/2 hours watching the movie.

Batman V Superman Pug Cosplay

The kids are of course looking forward to "The Dawn of Justice" because, you know, Batman is going to fight Superman WHILE WEARING POWER ARMOR.

My husband and I agreed that we could recall very little of the preceding Superman movie, although we were both pretty sure that we had taken the kids to see it.

The appearance of Wonder Woman seems like a potentially pleasant diversion... or a disaster, I suppose.

But Pugs! Always good!
Pugs in power armor? Even better.

As you can see, I did not quite get the pose right.  My younger son said, "What is he doing with that paw?" And the isolated Pug muzzle in the power suit makes the dog look more like a cat... Should have drawn Wonder Woman.... or not

Belated Batman Day

The Dark Knight used to be a more important guy at our house. His stock has fallen quite a bit since the days when there were bitter fights over who got to wear the Batman costume. Neither boy was much impressed to hear that yesterday had been declared Batman Day. (By DC, I assume)

When asked what sort of napkin would be appropriate for the occasion, they sarcastically told me I should draw Fat Batman and Midget Batman. I thought maybe a bit less political incorrectness would be preferable, and drew Lazy Batman and Baby Batman instead.

The Bat Guys are parked on our beaten-down couch in front of the TV, perhaps embodying sloth and immaturity in the Bat Universe....or maybe just in our house this weekend.

(After this napkin, I noticed how many times our rapidly decomposing Costco couch had made an appearance, so I added a "couch" label so you can see how much trouble I have had drawing this piece of furniture over the last three years...here's the link.)

Robot Wolf

I had to work to meet a deadline yesterday afternoon, so the boys got to watch a pay-per-view movie instead of doing their homework and cleaning up the huge mess they had made in the living room.

The movie in question was a recent release, "Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts." As I fortuitously missed most of it, I will quote the imdb synopsis: "When Gotham is plagued by crime committed by an animal-themed villain squad composed of The Penguin, Silverback, Cheetah, Killer Croc and Man-Bat, Batman and other heroes band together to stop them." The movie also featured Nigthwing, Red Robin, the Flash and Green Arrow.

Besides the amazing laundry list of super heroes and villains all rendered in boxy hypermuscular forms, the movie also featured a weird series of robotic animals. I did see the last scene during which Batman was hanging out with the wolf/dog robot which he was calling Ace.  My younger son was very pleased by this canine robot even before it transformed into a motorcycle.

We had experienced a couple years worth of obsession with "Ace the Bat Hound" back in 2011 and 2012.  You can see our long history of Ace napkins at this link. (this is mostly good for appreciating how much my napkin drawing skill- and my phone camera- have improved over the years)

I was not able to get more than a very brief glance at this Ace robot in the movie last night, so I resorted to just making up a wolf robot. He has the same glowing red eyes at least.

Cat Memes: Cat Bearding and Catman

 

Very hypoallergenic versions of two internet fads from years past.

Since we've been marinating in internet cat references recently, I thought why not indulge in two of the silliest, (but yet still oddly compelling) of the cat photo fads from the last few years. Cat Bearding dates from 2011-2 and seems to have been quite widespread.

"How to Look Like Batman Using Your Cat" did not enjoy quite such broad popularity...perhaps because it was not as visually effective and more likely to result in injuries for the cat-wearer.

No risk of injury in our case- beyond those to personal dignity. Despite their love of virtual cats, my sons found posing for this photo to be mostly annoying.

An uncropped version of the photo: 

Below a child demonstrates how he thinks the napkins should be displayed.

...and uncharitably expresses his opinion of the whole project...subtle-like...so maybe I should not notice while taking the picture.

Bane Cat and Winter Soldier Cat

"No one cared who I was until I put on the mask."

I am not proud to admit that I watched the BaneCat video yesterday.  The cat wearing the respirator seems suspiciously mellow about the situation.  I hope pharmaceuticals were not required.

But that video and the promotional materials for "The Winter Soldier" made me think about the power of a bad guy who is wearing a mouth covering.

I was already thinking about cosplaying pets, as I had recently revisited our "super canines" series while posting them on Instagram.

(While I had carefully avoided Instagram in the past, "Daily Napkins" had suddenly acquired 949 followers on its nonexistent account thanks to one repost of a napkin image by Toby Turner a month ago.  I decided I might as well post some more images there as the Tobuscus-derived Instagram constituency seems much more enthusiastic than other social media platforms. )

Anatomically, cats just seemed to lend themselves to mouth covers more than dogs.
I am not sure that the above commentary really explains the image.
Perhaps I should just point out that I was very tired and it was very late last night.

Bat Family Pile-on

We had been in sort of a latent phase regarding Batman recently.  We hadn't been rereading any of the two bookshelves worth of DC materials stashed in the boys' bedroom.

That was, until we received the recently released "Batman Li'l Gotham" compilation by Dereck Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen.  This holiday themed all-ages series features all of the Robins and associated Bat characters drawn as big headed kids.  For our sons, it has an appeal similar to the "Tiny Titans" series where characters from different timelines and stories are all affably hanging out together.  And it is quite beautifully drawn and painted.

After a long discussion of which Robin was which during bedtime reading last night, I had the delusional idea that I was going to draw a whole bunch of Robin-kids goofing around.

This sort of drawing with multiple characters/multiple costumes was definitely a mistake for me to think I was going to be able to pull off after I should have already been in bed last night. 

Assassin's Creed Connor Confronts Batman

This is another image from a year ago that I somehow never managed to post... I think.
At the time, we were right in the middle of the Assassin's Creed IV obsession around here.  And at the tail end of the Batman obsession.  Although, like Star Wars, Batman is never completely out of fashion.  Assassin's Creed is never out of fashion, for that matter.  But I am not drawing Connor on napkins several times a week at present.

I usually added strawberries on the end of weapons to make them more friendly for Quaker lunch, but here I guess the strawberry is the point of contention.  Or maybe they're just having a moment.

"The Nut Job"s Surly with "Lego Movie"s Batman

Snarky characters voiced by Will Arnett bicker over a cashew:

We saw "The Nut Job" over the weekend, because...it was an animated movie for kids and it had a dog in it, and it was in theaters.  It certainly lived up to its promise of being an animated movie for kids with a dog in it. 

The highlight of the outing for Ansel and his friend might have been playing in the theater lobby with a revolving display for the LEGO Movie where one could swap the head, torso and legs of the minifigure characters. 

I am hoping that The LEGO Movie will be a bit more than just an animated movie for kids playing in a theater (but maybe no dogs!)...but we will have to see it no matter the quality.

And,  Surly the fairly unlikeable main character of "The Nut Job" and the latest LEGO incarnation of the Dark Knight share a sort of sarcastic, cooler-than-thou quality that made it seem necessary to me that they appear on the same napkin.

Superman and Batman Observe Gay Pride

I sincerely doubt that either of my children will be taking this one to camp tomorrow, but I felt compelled to acknowledge the culmination of Gay Pride and today's parade here in NYC.

Despite attending a school so politically correct that we don't use the term "Thanksgiving Break" to avoid offending any members of the indigenous peoples of the American continents, my sons are still lower school boys and are not completely above using the term "gay" as an insult.

In other words, tolerance is a message that is worth repeating frequently.

Both kids just said "eh" when I showed them this today.

The Lone Ranger and Batman

Que es mas macho?  Lone Ranger ou Batman?

For some reason, while raising small boys over the last ten years, the lyrics from a Laurie Anderson song from "Home of the Brave" frequently spring to my  sleep deprived and addled mind.  She asks repeatedly  "Que es mas macho?" about a series of pairs of items like pineapples and lightbulbs.  Everything and everyone has to be located on the macho scale of course, and super heroes are certainly not the exception.

Archer rarely wants to see movies in a theater, but the advertising campaign for "The Lone Ranger" remake has somehow caught his attention.  I had previously tried to interest him and his brother in watching a few minutes of the original series mostly for historical and sociological interest, and perhaps to explain my affection for the phrase "What do you mean "we" white man?"  But they wouldn't sit still for even a few seconds of it.  (Black and white television?  Nooooo!) 

I added Batman here because of the morally superior than thou vigilante in a mask parallel... and because I was feeling snarky.  Archer was not impressed, and I don't think his problem was my poor drawing of Batman...or that I really should have drawn the Nolan/Bale remake Batman here rather than the comic book blue and grey version.