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Pictures drawn from 1996 (Detective Series)....
Mattman
As you can see, Mattman reverts back to the traditional
light blue/dark blue uniform after experimenting with the black (and later
silver) costumes. However, there were slight alterations made, such
as the big black "M" logo on the chest, in place of the smaller one inside
the yellow oval. Also, more muscle definition was added, as well
as the scruff facial hair. By the time the Detective Series had started,
I started drawing Mattman's head significantly thinner, and the eyes smaller.
This helped him look a little darker. Whle drawing the modern versions,
I combined the two looks. I took the tradional blue aspect of the
uniform, and added that with the more movie like black "muscle" costume.
The light blue would have hindered the look of the costume, so I did away
with it completely, making the whole costume blue, then added some black
and silver to touch things up.
Mattgirl
I decided to abandon the bright pink and violet costume
that Mattgirl had previously worn since I was starting to make the characters
look a bit "darker" and more serious. Therefore, I had exchanged
the pink with black, and the violet with yellow. However, when this
costume appeared in some issues, at times I added a little purple to the
mix, or sometimes drawing it completely black and purple, with the only
yellow part being the "M". However, for the most part, her costume
was black and yellow. In the modern version drawing of Mattgirl,
the cape is eliminated completely, and for the first time she wears a mask
with the "eyeless" look to it. Actually, her costume probably went
through the most drastic overhaul, as aside from the purple and black,
nothing about it is the same. This is probably for the better though.
The Giggler and The Yoker |
George Lore and John Yagglesworth |
When I started planning for the more series oriented Mattman comics, originally I had intended on eliminating the green hair dye, while keeping the face paint and colorful outfits. However, slowly I started realizing that each issue, I was drawing Yoker's hair longer and longer. So, I decided to keep the keep the hair dye, and grow the hair long enough to put in a pony tail. Likewise, I had also been drawing Giggler's split in the middle horizontal hair longer and longer, til it reached that length. I had also been giving them different costumes practically every issue, but decided to remain with these costumes above. George Lore is the scientist alter-ego of The Giggler while John Yagglesworth is the alter-ego to The Yoker. I had intended on Bruce Basilo befriending John Yagglesworth, but I never got to that point in the series. In the modern drawings, The Yoker's lavender trench coat is replaced with a gray one, his pants are dark purple instead of lavender, he wears fingerless gloves, and his hair is down instead of in a ponytail. The Giggler's lavender and green costume is replaced with gray and black, respectively. And, as an homage to his old colors, I've added green and purple streaks to his spiked hair.
Ben Helner
I created the Ben Helner character (who was, in the comic
book reality, a television and movie star) so that I could create comics
of him being in movies (as in, the entire comic is his movie, starring
him) and television shows (I started doing one issue where the entire comic
was an episode of Home Improvement, with him in it). He was also
going to be a foil in the relationship of Matilda Morton and John MacArthur,
as Matilda would develop a crush on him while being engaged to MacArthur.
However, ultimately, I stopped doing the comics before I got anywhere with
his character. He was probably going to end up pretty worthless anyway.
General Frank Morton
This was intended to be the late Commissioner Charles
Morton's father, and Matilda Morton's grandfather. He looks very
odd in this picture because, for some reason, I drew his face really, really
fat and his body rather skinny. I don't quite know what his purpose
on the series was meant to be, other than the fact that I really liked
drawing the way his face looked. That's probably the only reason
I created him in the first place. Much like Mr. Helner above, I found
no reason to include him in the Hero of Justice mini-series.
