Earth's Mightiest Sketch Blog: Ant-Man

As I mentioned not too long ago, friend of the blog TJ Dietsch kicked off the Society Pages, his sketch blog devoted to the Justice Society of America. Today, I follow suit with the first installment of Earth's Mightiest Sketch Blog, my attempt to create semi-credible images of every member of the Avengers, beginning with Hank Pym, aka the original Ant-Man.

Hank Pym is actually one of my least favorite Marvel characters, based more or less on a childhood bias rooted in not being able to understand why this blond guy in a red vest was on the same team as Iron Man and Hawkeye (he was in his particularly lame Dr. Pym identity at the time). Conversely, Hank Pym is Keith Giffen's favorite Marvel character, so there's a difference between Keith and I (also, he's a highly successful comic book writer and artist).

Anyhow, my personal feelings for the character aside, not counting the aforementioned red vest, Pym has had some rad costumes over the years, so I was glad to start my series with him...


Rather than go with Pym's current Yellowjacket get up, I chose to draw him in his original Ant-Man costume. I like this outfit, a Jack Kirby design (you can rarely go wrong with those), because it's simple but funky and has a kooky helmet I knew I'd have some fun with. At the same time, I was a bit worried I'd screw up the helmet, but I think I pulled it off nicely. Admittedly I cheatd a bit, adding that conveniently shaped hill type thingy so I wouldn't have to draw feet (I hate to draw feet), but I'm gonna try and stand up to that challenge in the future.

Overall, this sketch could have perhaps been a bit more dynamic, but I'm happy with it as my first effort having used very little reference material outside of refreshing my memory on the costume specifics.