Wednesday, June 10, 2009

l'm not bad..

I'm just badly drawn.
I was thinking the other day, about how much appearance can affect one's likeability,
especially if you're a cartoon character.
I mean, certain styles of art I just can't get by. I'm sure Flapjack, Chowder, and the X-men are all fine cartoons, but I just don't like the way they look, you know? They don't appeal to me.

Even Spider-Man, until the recent "Spectacular" version, was drawn far too realisticly and with far too muted a color pallette for my tastes. Spectacular, while still a little stiff, and with some unnatural movements to the characters, is by far my favorite version of Spidey yet.

I guess I am drawn to "Classic" interpretations of the characters. Batman TAS, Superman's most recent foray, Ben 10. Not that I actually watch Ben 10, mind you, but I do like the style in which the characters are drawn.

There are some series out there that just jump out at me, I love the character designs so much. Note I haven't actually seen more than one or two of the shows in question (excepting TDI) but I do love their character design and would gladly watch them sitting around playing pinochle.
















First up is: Bionic Six.

Look at those guys! So clean, so boldly designed!

Believe it or don't, they're supposed to be a family (guess adoption's taken place) who've been given bionic superpowers! Woo - the eighties were just bursting with good ideas, weren't they?
That's Rock-One, Bionic-One, IQ the smart one, Karate-One, Mother-One, and Sport-One.

Okay, so the names are pretty lame. And as for powers... umm, I guess they're all bionic, strong and fast. Mother-One is sort-of telepathic and Bionic One has super-senses... Sport-One carries a baseball bat...

Okay, so they're not exactly well-designed as heroes, but man, they are good looking!

Next up we have one of my favorite cartoons, Total Drama Island (think Survivor).

TDI is so crazy, mixed-up and occasionally rude-but-funny that they're coming out with a sequel next week, Total Drama Action.





I just like the way the characters look. Simply designed, you get an idea of what each is like just by looking at them, and the show is consistently funny besides.




Last in my list of cartoons I just like to look at if not neccesarily to watch, is 6teen.





Just a fun bunch to look at. You can tell what the characters are like (sort of) by glancing at the picture, the lines are clean, bright colors - just overall a nice drawing. I actually look forward to watching an episode all the way through one of these days.
Heck, I keep trying to come up with a reason I'm so drawn to these cartoons, why they strike me so right - but I really can't. They're just the sort of cartoons I'd be watching, along with Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and Ben-10. Just really well designed cartoons.

3 comments:

Martin Maenza said...

I'm with you on TDI/TDA and 6Teen. My son watches those and I can get into them. I do like, most of the time, the art on the new Batman: the Brave and the Bold series. Chowder is pretty gross - I don't like it at all. I go hot-and-cold on Flapjack.

Jim McClain said...

Love the design work on Spectacular Spider-Man and Ben 10.

Have you seen the Secret Saturdays? They make me think that Orange and black aren't just for Halloween anymore.

KC Ryan said...

Yes, I have seen Secret Saturdays - kind of an oddball take on Jonny Quest, isn't it? I'm not too fond of the emphasis on the kid, though - you know, he saves the day, he's right after all, that kind of thing. Not a bad show, though - an I do like the character designs.