Madman: A Blast from My Past (and Present)!

(Click to enlarge)

As you might have noticed from my last art post, I'm kind of a comic nerd (and I know you're cool with that, Howlers!). However, a lot of folks who know about the Green Lanterns and Thors of the world might not know about Frank Einstein AKA Madman (incidentally introduced to me by my longtime pal and legendary horror host The Bone Jangler, while hanging out in one of his many secret, global strongholds), an independent comics sensation. Created by the incredible Mike Allred, Madman is an amnesiac superhero, brought back to life after dying in a horrible accident and pieced together (making his adopted name clearer as a "Frankenstein" take-off) by Doctors Flem and Boiffard. Once an assassin named Zane Townsend in his previous life, Frank's new lease on life (of afterlife, if you will) gave birth to a lighthearted, conscientious fellow who went on to work alongside his girlfriend, Josephine "Joe" Lombard, Dr. Flem and alien pal Mott (from the planet Hoople. Go figure). My personal favorite Madman run was Dark Horse Comics' Madman Comics, which ran from 1994-2000. Coming in a close second was Frank's crossover with Superman, The Superman/Madman Hullabaloo!, from 1997. All drawn by Allred and beautifully colored by his wife, the mega-talented Laura Allred. I can't put my finger on what exactly made me a Madman freak because there's too much to wade through. The kooky hipster speak, the crazy robots and monsters Frank had to face and the nutty weapons he used- like yo-yos and disc guns- were all part of what made "The World's Snappiest Comic" all that more snappy.

This piece you see here was me dicking around in April of 1998 (about a week before my 27th birthday), trying to put my spin on a really hip cat, just bouncing his way into your view and spinning his yo-yo, ready to strike. However, I put it away after penciling it. Yesterday, I got a bug up my ass and dug it out (to be fair, I saw it when I dug out my Green Lantern sketch) and wondered, "How cool would this be if I actually finished it?" So, I broke out my Staedtler pigment liners (that's fancy-ass talk for inkin' pens), threw on my signature thick-outline stylings and colored it all by hand with Prismacolor watercolor pencils. I think it turned out pretty OK! Maybe not Mike and Laura Allred-cool but I'll take it! And it was kinda the 40-year-old me teaming up with the 26-year-old me! The next Madman I draw will be a LOT ginchier...

Now if we can only get that "Madman" movie fans have been rattling off about and some regular Madman action in print, things'd be real hip, Daddy-O! Oh, before I forget, if you wanna see how bitchen Madman looks in the hands of the Allreds, please visit www.aaapop.com. And track down some of these gems for some fun reading too!


Contact Coyote at artofthepaw@yahoo.com