Chewy and Rocket

You can never go wrong with a furry sidekick: 

Chewie (or is it Chewy?) and Rocket affirm how much they have in common

...though the raccoon looks a bit concerned about the situation.

Probably what my sons really like most about these two is their weapons, not their furry charm.

This one was for Star Wars Day (May the fourth be with you) ...but it did not get finished or posted then as dinner has to get made, even on Star Wars Day.

Unicorn, Raptor, Wade, Rocket and Groot

Much anticipated spring movie characters with weird, awkwardly drawn, pink furry unicorn:

Yes of course we saw the Avengers Infinity War. 

And we will not miss Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, no matter how ridiculous the premise necessary to allow dinosaurs the opportunity to eat humans again.

Deadpool 2 presents another challenge. 

We were able to all watch the first Deadpool movie courtesy of some fancy editing by mom on the iPad. While our eleven year old son has definitely viewed more material inappropriate for his age than I care to admit here... I will probably have to put the popcorn bucket over his head if we see the movie in a theater.

Baby Groot and Rocket from GotG Vol 2

‪Too adorable to kill:‬ ‪

But trash pandas might not like broccoli. 

Groot offers some greens to Rocket Raccoon for lunch. ‬ ‪

Yes, of course my kids liked the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie‬.

Proposed Sidekicks for Doctor Who in Season 10

Just some suggestions...

Yes, I know that they have already announced who the co stars will be for Peter Capaldi's last season. We even saw the Christmas special.

This napkin post is rather delayed, I am afraid. We had the conversation about who should replace the dear departed Clara quite a while ago. The kids both thought that a new sidekick should be someone other than another young attractive Caucasian woman, but could not agree on what sort of person should be next. I have assembled a cast of their favorites as potential companions.

Doctor Who is not really on our sons' minds right now, but as the tenth season is coming up soon, I thought perhaps it was time to post this one.

My younger son was happy to point out some of the many drawing failings on this one. Deadpool is too small,  the pug in the foreground is awkwardly posed. And, he would like to add that pugs aren't necessarily his favorite dogs right this now.

This napkin is definitely more about quantity rather than quality. Back when I was drawing two napkins a night, I used to have a rule about no more than two characters at a time. It made a lot of sense.

Rocket Raccon, Captain America and Deadpool

What did you have for lunch today?
I had a Cap' Sandwich!

Our sons certainly enjoyed watching "Captain America: Civil War" last weekend. But they did not seem as outright giddy as they have been after the viewing of various other much promoted and anticipated superhero blockbusters. Perhaps that is partly due to superhero blockbuster fatigue? It hasn't been so long since Batman and Superman squared off, and the next X-men iteration is breathing its hot breath on our necks already.

But I think that the absence of their usual overwhelming enthusiasm had something to do with the somewhat serious tone of the movie and the lack of talking animals or extensive comic relief. Their main gripe afterward was that there hadn't been enough screen time for Spider Man and Ant Man.

In other words, perhaps "Civil War" would have benefited from a little Rocket or Deadpool.

The "Sandwich" joke appears to be a thing in my husband's family. Two people, usually sitting on a couch, sidle up to an unsuspecting person, usually a child. One asks the other, "What did you have for lunch today?"  The second responds, "A insert-name-of-victim-here, SANDWICH!" Hilarious (or extremely annoying) body compression follows. This sort of thing did not go on in my childhood home. (We did not do the "You've got something on your shirt" thing either.)

Perhaps Steve Rodgers would have a jovial disposition about such pranks. But it seems possible that Rocket and Wade might be a bit much for his taste.....
But Marvel/Disney does own all of these characters. So you never know. It could happen.

Deadpool and Rocket Raccoon

They are touching each other.

My sons are about as enthusiastic about the upcoming Deadpool movie as they can be about something that they are not going to be able to see anytime in the near future. There has already been a good bit of bargaining..."Could we see the movie if..." Well, maybe they could see it if it turned out not to be R rated. But I have to say that the online trailer (which my sons have already viewed with delight) is enough to convince me that they definitely don't need to see the whole thing right now.

I will admit that when I caught a few minutes of Ann Hathaway sobbing her way through a scene of "The Intern" last night, (my husband was watching it, an inexplicable situation that I can only ascribe to the fact that he has not been allowed to eat any solid food for the past 2 days) I was thinking that perhaps I myself might prefer to be watching the Deadpool movie.

But I still don't need to see my sons sniffing the muzzles of their Nerf guns and declaring, "I'm definitely touching myself tonight!" I have already suffered enough abuse.

(If you don't know what I am referring to...well, you could watch the "mature audiences only" Deadpool trailer...or you could choose to remain happily ignorant.)

As for Rocket- he is one of my sons' favorites and seemed like an appropriate companion for Mr. Wilson. There is an actual Deadpool/Rocket crossover comic out there. While I ordered it, I have not seen it yet, so I don't know what the official Marvel line is on their present, or future, relationship. Despite their shared appreciation for destruction and irreverence, it seems likely that they might be slightly awkward in close proximity.

Rocket Raccoon and Future Rigby Take a Selfie

Happiness is a cool raccoon with a warm gun. Or two.

The kids were very pleased with the recent Regular Show Movie.
Rigby, the raccoon character, has apparently become more cool in the future.  He is outfitted with an impressive weapon, stylish jacket and decorative facial hair.

He looked a bit like Rocket from the Guardians of the Galaxy... (Rocket Raccoon, the guy who says, "There ain't no thing like me, except me.") ....So it seemed like a team up was in order. I drew the guys without their weapons...and since they are both so overwhelmingly cool- and so aware of their own coolness- it seemed appropriate that they should be taking a picture of themselves.

My more realistic version of Rigby was not very successful. I was trying to put him in the same representational universe as Rocket, but couldn't quite pull it off.

Rigby as he appears in the movie, with Benson, the walking gumball machine:

Rocket Raccoon with Velociraptor

"Guardians of the Galaxy" meets "Jurassic World"

 It seemed only fair to put the stars (as far as my sons are concerned) of these movies together.
After looking at the press pictures of Chris Pratt snuggling up to a raccoon or baby dinosaurs, I thought perhaps Rocket and the raptor should be similarly cozy.

Not sure what might happen after the photo shoot is over.

Velociraptor, Chris Pratt and Rocket Raccoon

"Guardians of the Jurassic World"

Type Chris Pratt's name into a search engine and invariably images of him posing with an animal will come up. My kids agree, he is clearly a cool guy...but he's even cooler when cuddling with a raccoon or baby dinosaurs.

After yesterday's napkin image of a raptor on a motorcycle, adding Mr. Pratt was the next logical step. And once I had added him, it seemed a shame not to include Rocket Raccoon.

No doubt Rocket would have something to say about the folly of genetically modified dinosaurs...they can't even speak English or pilot a space ship, after all. Although he would probably appreciate the capitalist motives of the builders of Jurassic World.

This image was definitely too complicated for me to pull off comfortably. I often feel like a lazy draftsman when I look over the past napkins images.  I tend to avoid drawing full bodies and usually just chose an easy close up of a head or two. In this case, I didn't even deal with the whole motorcycle and raptor, but I still struggled with the orchestration of limbs and bike parts and ran poor Rocket's arm right out of the image. I will happily set my aspirations lower for the moment.

Rocket Raccoon with Tongue and Goggles

Rocket Raccoon makes a lewd joke in the "Guardians of the Galaxy: Annual #1" (by Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho) that our sons didn't really get, but found HILARIOUS nonetheless.

They had not been big fans of the Guardians comic series, outside of those focused on Rocket and Groot, and I wasn't sure that they were going to be interested in this issue.  In the annual, the Guardians discover the SHIELD helicarrier floating out in space. It is populated by a lot of relatively obscure Marvel characters and a white guy version of Nick Fury.

But had I known that there would be an image of Rocket sticking out his tongue on one of the opening pages, I would not have wondered if my kids would want to read it.  In that scene, Rocket is interrupting Captain Marvel as she tries to record a video message to send back to Earth. She asks him sarcastically if he even knows anyone on Earth, and he responds, "Not intimately!" and sticks out his tongue...just in case any children in the room might have missed the joke.  Carol Danvers recoils and says, "Don't put that image in my head!"

My kids claimed to not understand what he meant by "intimately," but it was all still so funny that they had to turn back to the page repeatedly and giggle over it.

Rocket looks quite different in Cho's drawings. My rendition is of course not so amusing. He seems more wistful than lewd. But perhaps that is for the best, given the 2nd grade lunch context.  I went with the image of Einstein sticking out his tongue for source material.  Although if you Google "raccoon sticking tongue out  there are more images than you might expect, or need... and I am pretty sure none of them are making jokes about interspecies sex.

From Halloween to Christmas

Ansel's napkins from the fall holiday season, more or less.
Certain themes stand out: Rocket Raccoon and the Guardians of the Galaxy, Sea Otters, Ewoks and Star Wars.

Rocket and Groot Decorate for the Holidays

Over the weekend, I realized that there was only one week left of school and there had been no seasonally themed napkins.  

I had noticed that the most popular napkin as far as web traffic goes recently is one with the Minions dressed up for Christmas... And given that we will probably have to see the upcoming Minions movie I should probably do another holiday Minions napkin....The Minions lend themselves to endless costuming and mashups. (google "minions mashup" if you doubt, or have nothing better to do)

Not so much for Rocket and Groot.  They seem a little annoyed by the decorations and the substitution of candy cane for weapon.

Perry, Groot and Rocket:

Perry the Platypus from "Phineas and Ferb" usurps Rocket's shoulder spot.
Maybe this Disney corporate crossover thing might lead to some conflict?.

The Disney Infinity game got us talking about the potential for ridiculous team-ups from the greatly expanded Disney roster. (Or ridiculous death matches, if we are not thinking about a napkin for a Quaker student lunch...)  Ansel did not appreciate any of my suggestions along the lines of "Jiminy Cricket and Darth Vader" ("How do you expect to be a real boy if you don't listen to your conscience?") or "Bambi Meets the Hulk".... ("Hulk smash girly deer!")

He accepted the Perry, Groot and Rocket image this morning.  Perhaps he was just relieved that I had not drawn something like "Snow White visits Jabba the Hut."

Rocket Raccoon Lifts the Winter Soldier

Last week Ansel finally redeemed multiple rewards that he had earned this fall (known as bribes in less indulgent circles) and picked out the Disney Infinity game.  He was relatively unenthusiastic about Skylanders, another console-plus-endlessly-expensive-figurines style game.  But Disney Infinity won him over with the possibility of playing as the Guardians of the Galaxy and other Marvel people as well as other Disney and Pixar characters.

Don't know about you, but the pop culture juggernaut of Disney/Marvel/Pixar/Star Wars is making the whole idea of crossovers oddly less interesting for me.  My sons claim to agree, but I am pretty sure that they do not have the same reservations about corporate monoliths that I do. Certainly the "Phineas and Ferb"and  "Star Wars" episode was nicely done.  Ansel was quite excited to see the "Ultimate Spider-Man" and "Jessie" Halloween episode. (If you are unfamiliar with "Jessie," please don't ask) But once everything is possible and Sleeping Beauty can have a light saber battle with Darth Vader...Well, let's just say that just because it can happen, doesn't always mean that it should...Unless we are talking about drawings on napkins, of course.  Ha.

At any rate, We bought the Infinity Marvel starter set and a couple Guardians characters....because... how could we possibly not have Star Lord and Rocket?  I will admit that I don't really understand the logic of the game at the moment- i.e., which character can play in which world, and who else might appear in that world.

But the configuration of characters that we have somehow makes it possible for the person who is playing as Rocket to snatch up the Winter Soldier- a character we don't own, who just seems to wander aimlessly around the set- and carry him around like a piece of lumber...and then toss him off the edge of the world...again, and again, and again.

I am not sure why the Winter Soldier character seems OK with this, or what is gained by the operation, but my sons certainly seem to enjoy doing it.


Of course Rocket looks like the below in the actual game, so please forgive my...would we call it "artistic license?" and/or just sloppy rendering of his costume?

Guardians of the Galaxy Selfie

I had to put Rocket in the front as  I've lately had much more practice drawing raccoons than people, (green skinned or otherwise) and I think it shows.

Ansel had requested that I include all members of the Guardians on this one, which really exceeded my powers of plausible character arrangement. Apparently Ansel wanted to ask a classmate whether she liked the movie or not, and wanted a visual aid to help prompt the conversation. This was a slightly unusual request as he is most often only interested in the Rocket or Star Lord characters.

When I asked Ansel what was so cool about Star Lord, he told me that he really liked the way that Star Lord's long coat flapped when he jumped. I certainly like that quality in a role model for my 7 year old son more than I like his unrealistic physique or his way with women.

I don't have to ask what he likes about the raccoon.

Raccoons Rocket and Rigby

What do talking raccoons do for fun?

Rocket Raccoon from "Guardians of the Galaxy" makes a proposal to Rigby from the "Regular Show."

Our sons enjoy these two characters far too much.

Rocket Raccoon with Candy Corn

Halloween is fast approaching, and I am unprepared.

Important costume items that may have been shipped from Asia have not arrived.  Or more precisely, the shipper claims that they have arrived, but yet they have not.  Other elements have not yet been made out of cardboard, tape and spray paint.  I am still nursing the delusion that the wearers of the cardboard accoutrements might actually participate in their manufacture, but I am probably going to have to face reality soon. And we don't even know who is trick or treating with whom or in which neighborhood. Halloween might be actually be a more important holiday than Christmas and Hannukah combined as far as my sons are concerned and I have not pulled it together yet.

But I drew a Halloween themed napkin. So at least we have that.

PS. Rocket is holding an enormous piece of candy instead of the usual giant weapon. That is the best explanation I can offer.

Rocket Raccoon Feeds Chewbacca

Another "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Star Wars" mashup.

If Groot is the Chewbacca of "Guardians," does that make Rocket the Han Solo?
I based this image on the scene in the recent movie where Rocket perches on Groot's shoulders while blasting away with a gigantic gun.

Blasting enemies with a huge weapon is not so appropriate for Quaker second grade lunch, so here Rocket is offering the Wookie some healthy lunch food.

Since my children are too cool to admit that they often willingly eat broccoli, there is a bit of a sadistic quality to the situation here.

Red Panda in Rocket Raccoon's Uniform

Absent a request from Ansel last night, I figured I probably couldn't go wrong with an animal in a cool uniform.
Ansel's camp group is going to the Prospect Park Zoo today.  Ansel's favorite zoo resident is of course the red panda.  I put the panda a Rocket Raccoon outfit for maximum stylishness.

Rocket Raccoon With Dumpster

It's all about the raccoon:

Marvel seems to have recently released an additional trailer for "Guardians of the Galaxy" which has more screen time devoted to Rocket.

A snarky talking raccoon armed with what appears to be a sizable arsenal of huge guns could hardly be more enticing to our seven year old son. 

Here in the wilds of Williamsburg Brooklyn, we do sometimes see a very large raccoon  hanging out around the dumpster in our side yard.  While my exposure is limited, I gather that disrupting human trash is a favorite raccoon pastime.  

When I thought about putting Rocket in the place of our neighborhood raccoon,  I couldn't really imagine him going through our trash ( for leftovers...or for ammunition, maybe?)

The kids are already pretty leery of the local raccoon. Finding the Marvel version lurking in the yard would certainly be more daunting.