Kickstarter

We are down to only a couple days left of the Antler Boy Kickstarter. There's so little time that Kickstarter has started counting down in hours instead of days! Getting close. Since the last update you guys have been amazing at spreading the word and the pledges keep coming in. Antler boy passed 70k and is now at $73,361 with over 1700 backers! There's only two other comics projects on Kickstarter with more backers than that. So thank you everybody for telling friends and family (and strangers for that matter) about Antler Boy. Made a big difference.

Missile Mouse Design History

Today I thought I'd share some development artwork that spans decades that belongs to the oldest character in the Antler Boy book: Missile Mouse. I came up with MM about 20 years ago when I was a teenager getting ready to enter High School. Since then he's changed a lot, and I thought it'd be cool to share with you his design history:

1992: This is the first drawing of Missile Mouse I ever did. I was watching Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers after school and every drawing I did seemed to be some variation on the theme of rodent adventurers. I remember seeing The Rocketeer in theaters and LOVING it. And every Sunday I eagerly rushed for the funnies to see if Calvin and Hobbes would be a Spaceman Spiff adventure. This drawing was my attempt to take everything I loved at that time of my life and distill it into one character.

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1993: I can see some Stan Sakai influence in this drawing. I did this for my high school newspaper. I updated his spaceship and blaster design, but MM still looks pretty much the same as the original design.

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1994: Fearing he was looking too "cute" I can see I began to stretch his proportions out a little here.

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1995: I finally settled on colors for him. Proportions are that of a human. Also little technical details seep in like knee pads and the jet pack harness straps around the legs.

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1996: I was heavily influenced during this period by Dave Johnson and Masimune Shirow. MM exchanges cute for kick butt. Emphasis on technological details and physique.

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1997: Continuing with the ultra humanized technical MM. First time I can recall drawing him with out his helmet on.

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2000: For a few years I tucked Missile Mouse away and focused on other stuff. Then one day I thought I'd take a whole new approach to his character design. I believe I was influenced somewhat by the Stuart Little movie that came out in '99. Gone was the helmet, human proportions, and technical detailing.

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2001: These two illustrations introduced a couple visual staples that would stick with the design: the jet engine based rocket pack, the snub nosed blaster, and the large hairless ears. Also, going back to the extremely cute proportions.

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2002: I decided it was finally time to draw a Missile Mouse comic. The plan was to make a short 25 page ashcan and take it to conventions and sell it on my site. My design theory was to take the technical cool stuff I applied to the character designs from the late nineties and apply them to the cuter designs I did in 2001. He went through a couple phases in this stage, but through that I nailed down a few other components: the belt buckle, the blaster, the jet pack, the boots, gloves, and suit.

Here's a picture of one of the last copies of this ashcan. There might be a few long time fans out there who have a copy of this:

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2003: I did a follow up short story and changed the suit ever so slightly by replacing the open collar with a round neck opening, complete with draw strings. This design stood for several years. Here's a few illustrations:

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Today: This is the design from the Guardian Prophecy in the Flight Explorer book, and is where the design stands for the graphic novel. I took away the draw strings and gave him an updated symbol akin to the tri-triangle design from the original 1993 design. I'm completely happy with this design, but recognize it could still change as the character and the universe grows.

And here's the back cover art from Rescue on Tankium3:

Again, please share this with everybody so those last few stragglers can get in on Antler Boy before the campaign closes.

I'll check in tomorrow and let you know how things are going. Thanks and have a great Monday!