AudioShocker

It's Project Basement. And that means it's time for:

Cyclops by Pete Borrebach

Pete IN DA HOUSE with some badass MS Paint art. The Culturology and Time Log writer lays the PB v2 smackdown like this:

First of all, I should admit that I was introduced to the X-Men, like so many other people of my generation, by their Saturday morning cartoon show and, perhaps even more importantly, their arcade game. And my interest in the X-Men, other than the characters Cable and Bishop and their awesome intergalactic time travel stories from the decadent 90s, has been maintained as much by the Marvel vs. Capcom games as by anything laid down in a comic book.

Which is mostly to say, I don't know a whole lot of Cyclops' story or backstory. Like so many great hatreds in the history of humanity, my hatred of Cyclops arises as more from ignorance than anything else. That and James Marsden. It is impossible for me now, after the first three X-Men movies, to think of Cyclops as anything but a whiny, Tom Cruise wannabe pretty boy. Character traits that I just can't stand.

I always imagine most nerds kind of going for Cyclops. He's an alpha male, a natural leader, a hit with the ladies. But we've all seen the movies! Nerds should hate jocks! Alpha males are jerks. But most nerds spend too much time wishing they weren't nerds, instead of transcending their own nerdiness. Team leaders in mainstream comics--at least comics with popular cartoon shows and arcade games in the early 90s (that's right, Leonardo was a close second in my choosing what character to draw)--always strike me as only superficially flawed. As if a little bit of angst and stress under pressure suddenly makes them complex characters.

I will admit that laser eyes is a pretty awesome super power, so when Cyclops throws a tantrum and cries about tearing the seat of his designer jeans, he cries laser tears.

Next week: Punisher and Marv by Katie Henderson!

Project Basement deja vu with:

Cable by Chris Maverick

Please welcome Chris Maverick, multimedia artist and Cosmic Hellcats webcomiker, as he gives us our second Cable of PB v2:

So this is what I get for being lazy about my submission. Wayne also did a Cable pic for a character he hates and said much the same things as I was going to say. So in short, I agree with much of what he said about lack of concept and design but there's something more I want to say.

The reason I hate Cable so much is that he represents some of the things I most hate about comics. Lazy storybuilding and retconning. One of my favorite things about comics in general and the big two in specific is the concept of a shared sandbox. As much as I might like reading a story written by one person, be it William Shakespeare or Dave Sim, at the end of the day the adventures of Macbeth or Cerebus are ultimately written by one person and it is merely that one person's ideas that get represented.

Then you take a character like Spiderman or Superman and suddenly we have a situation where tens or hundreds of writers over the years have to continuously build upon a common myhthology. Extending it, in logical ways to create engaging stories in the present, remain consistent with the past and not handcuff creators of the future. Cable essentially throws the middle finger to that very concept.

Cable was created for one reason and one reason only. An artist with no real storytelling ability (and arguably very little artistic ability, but that's another story) essentially leveraged his popularity to be given free reign to do whatever he wanted to do. The problem was, when he got it, he had no idea what he wanted to do, so he drew a picture he thought was "COOL" and inserted it into the book and forced everyone to find someway to make it fit. So suddenly a character was around that had never been seen before, and to make him fit, he was suddenly written into EVERYONE'S backstory. Wolverine had known him for years. Captain America had known him for years. Chord, from New Warriors had known him for years. When we went to the future, it turns out that everyone in the future had known him for years. It just so happened that in 50 years of storytelling, none of us readers had ever happened to see him before.

Since his creator had no idea what to do with him (and on top of that, up and left the company like five minutes later anyway), other creators dealt with this by shoehorning him into every other characters backstories even further. Not only was 50 years of storytelling ruined in the name of present day stories that weren't really that good anyway, but the character became so entrenched in Marvel mythos in general (and X-book mythos in specific) that writers were forced to deal with him for every future story, a problem which persists with the character today. On top of this, he's so loosely defined, both in terms of personality and the specifics of what his powers even are, that he can never really be used in a story without contradicting the way someone else used him in another story.

[INSERT STANDARD "NICK LIKES LIEFELD" DISCLAIMER HERE.]

Next week... Jean Grey and Cyclops by Kaylie McDougal!

The titanic Project Basement returns with:

Jericho by Dan Greenwald

PB v2 is about to get gabby. Take it away, Dan!

For my contribution, it was a no-brainer. I find Jericho to be the most useless and ridiculous-looking character in the DC Universe. Originally, I wasn't going to submit it as black & white, but I think it's important to see the how goofy the costume design is when colored.

I imagine when George Perez and Marv Wolfman were coming up with Jericho in the early 80's, the conversation went something like this...

"Hey George?"

"Yeah Marv?"

"I've got an unused character that I want to put on the team, but all I have is the name. Think you can help me flesh him out?"

"Sure, what's the name?"

"Are you ready for this? It's...JERICHO!"

"...."

"Well?"

"What does 'Jericho' mean? Does it mean something for the character?"

"I don't know, I just thought it sounded like a name that meant absolutely nothing."

"Okay, whatever. Well, with a name like that, he'll have to look unbelievably stupid."

"Go on, I'm listening."

"Well, for starters, I think he should have a giant head of blonde curly hair, like that William Katt fella. The kids love that Greatest American Hero show. But we'll add a twist: he'll have muttonchops!"

"Brilliant! Keep going!"

"The costume is key. I'm thinking big puffy sleeves, bright purple vest and boots, cobalt blue pants, a large gold belt with a giant gem in the center, big gold bracelets and a half cape that drapes around his neck and shoulders that serves no purpose whatsoever."

"Uh, sounds rather flamboyant. Not that I care, but is he going to be gay?"

"Marv, what would give you that idea?"

"No reason. Okay, what should his powers be?"

"Ah, I'm glad you asked. I think we need someone on the team to have a really useless power...I mean, in a combat situation, this creampuff should be able to do very little. I'm thinking he has the ability to possess someone by making eye contact with them."

"George, you just blew my mind. That's a great lame power!"

"Thanks Marv. And as a special gift to you, I give you the final aspect of this character that will make him almost impossible to be interesting; he will be mute! He will never have any dialogue with any other character or any thought balloons to help develop the character! We'll make some sort of attempt to have him practice sign language in the book, but it still won't make any sense to anyone."

"A character with no dialogue? I can't believe I never thought of it! Thanks George, I couldn't have done this without you."

"It's my pleasure. Hey who knows, maybe someday artists will be writing AND drawing comics."

"Hahahahaha! Oh George, you crack me up!"

Next week... Punisher by Mikey Wood!

Meesa love Project Basement!!! It's...

Jar Jar Binks by Scott Hedlund

This week was totally supposed to be Cable by Wayne Wise... but I forgot to get him to send me his hate-filled tirade! However, Scott had already emailed me his (extremely timely) Jar Jar vitriol, which reads a little something like this:

Jar Jar Binks is my least favorite character, bar none, across the span of that far, far away galaxy of Star Wars and pretty much the entirety of the multi-media-verse. Jar Jar Binks is the inept CG muppet that was brought to the public's attention with the movie Star Wars: Episode I: the Phantom Menace. With the introduction of Jar Jar Binks, the movie was brought down to the level of the Naboo swamp that bred him. Jar Jar ushered in poop jokes as the new norm for humor in the Star Wars galaxy. Jar Jar's greatest example of his failure as a redeemable character occurred in Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones when Jar Jar supported Chancellor Palpatine's bid for power in the Senate. This advanced Palpatine to Emperor status and became the most oppressive dictator the galaxy would ever know. In my drawing, I couldn't ignore the fact that all of this could have been avoided had the quixotic Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn had simply ignored that back-water platypus and taken the Bongo himself to Naboo's Capitol city of Theed. I only wish the young Obi-wan Kenobi would have spoke his mind right then and there.

Next week -- Cable by Wayne Wise... for real this time!!!

We're baaaaaaack! Project Basement volume 2 kicks off with...

Captain America by Byron Winton

A new contributor! Our first v2 sketch! Our first duplicate character. Wow. EXCITING.

Truth be told, there's a lot to like here. Funny, great use of color, the feel of a sketch with the polish of an accomplished artist (*ahem* byronwinton.com *ahem*), and TIGHTS! I mean, just look at that buckling crotch -- those pants are snug!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd leave the black edges of Bryon's scan intact rather than clean it up. This way, it gives you an idea of what type of sketchbook was used. The only thing it doesn't give you is an idea of the sketchbook's size... the damn thing is about as big as my hand! Basically, this drawing is far more detailed than it looks.

Now be back next week for Aquaman by... me!