The Recluse

Thug-O-Nomics

Thug-O-Nomics has been around in my head for about as long as Beeboy. I was calling him Rah-Rah at first, "Rah-Rah" was slang for out of control youth from the hood. The character Rah-Rah was elegance in simplicity. He wore his hood over his modified winter hat. He was like my personal Dr. Doom.

Changed him up a little bit, gave him a ridiculous chain and medallion. I really like the medallion design. He's a small time knuckle-head trying to make it big. I had him somehow become an apprentice/disciple of some big bad, learning the ropes to be a mastermind. But he's too short sighted and doesn't usually get what he's after because he's impatient and impulsive.

Well that's the basic gist.

CGI

CGI
It's taken so long to get this guy off the ground and on the site because he is just so silly looking. Not that that's a bad thing the object of this is parody after all. Besides, if Ben Edlund could get away with Chairface Chipenale on the Tick, I figure it's all fair game.

He's the Mysterio counterpart in the Hate-Filled Half Dozen. His background is video game design. He helped develop one of the biggest flops in console entertainment. It was the virtual 3DSpere system. Everyone who ever played it got vertigo or some other nauseating symptoms. He was laughed out of the business and would "never work in this town again." He had to take an IT support job to make ends meet. And he hated every minute of that crap. He was so close to fulfilling his dream.

Now all that got in his way were going to experience his nightmare. He refined his gaming technology achieving interactive 3D hologram hard light constructs. And he used it for evil. This led to him crossing paths with the Grasshopper/Cricket. And that meeting ended with his defeat. Now the Cricket/Grasshopper is on his revenge list.
Cal O'Marley has been in contact with CGI since then. And now the Heroic Protagonist is going to pay.

Fried Squid - Cal O'Marley PHD.

Slight Redux.
The mask is a bit different here, just simplifying his look as I will have to draw the thing repeatedly. Also though this is intended to be silly, the original design is a little too silly for my liking. This new look is much more to my liking.

Cricket vs. Grasshopper who will win?

I'm thinking Cricket is simpler, but for some reason I was so very against it when I first came up with the character. It had to be Grasshopper. It just had to be, but I'm really warming to the idea of cricket.
Jiminy even.

Okay So, here's BeeBoy.

Okay, so, this is Beeboy the Stunning Beeboy. He's been in my head and sketch pads since 1997. I even started developing a story with him and an even older character of mine, Captain Small-Fro. I was going for an inner-city feel mixed with the satire of The Tick. My brother thought it was to silly an idea to pursue so I abandoned it for a long while. Beeboy always had a little real estate in the darker corners of my mind though. Beeboy as seen in the collage above was originally going to be very street level with a costume easily assembled with clothes from any sporting goods store. The pants were nylon sweat pants, they were really popular at the time, with one leg rolled up which was also, inexplicably popular at the time. The lesson here is not to design costumes based on trends and short term fads.

Anywho, Beeboy was to be a play on words. He has powers related to the bee, which as we all know is an insect that can sting you and pollinates flowers and produces honey. He also is a B-Boy or break dancer. His fighting style had break dancing moves and is heavily rooted in capoeira.


Below are a few pages I was working on for a fund raiser comic I was trying to get done in April for the MoCCA Arts Festival. I missed the deadline of course and slowed to a crawl in development.


But, after a talk with some friends Memorial Day Weekend at a BBQ, I was rejuvenated and so was Beeboy. How long with this burst of inspiration last? Long enough to continue doing this forever I hope. Stay with me people, I will not leave you for so long again. And Beeboy will be frickin' everywhere.

Now off to work, I have promises to keep.

New Pic, same OLD BUZZARD