Hands Up! Studio is the studio of artist John Collins, a.k.a. Johnny Splendor. Johnny is a freelance cartoonist and illustrator who works in a mix of both traditional and digital mediums.
For a side project, I re-imagined the Drak Pack, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon from 1980-1982 I'd watched when I was a very little kid. I used the core characters of Drak, Frankie, and Howler for the piece, thinking of them in terms of more modern, action based, and themed teenagers (Drak as a "prep", Frankie as a "jock", and Howler as a "skater kid").
The original promo image.
Pencil layout for the piece.
Inks added, Digital Cleanup, Logo, and text.
Some quick color, shadows, and effects.
It was fun to do, and I think with the current popularity of supernatural characters this concept could work again.
Mostly everything on the characters was rather dated and just doesn't work for a modern audience, but I really like Drak's cape and wanted to keep it for him, even if it looks a little silly. It's classic Universal Dracula, but besides nostalgia I think it serves a real purpose. Frankie and Howler have very distinctive features that let them easily stand out, but Drak might blend into the background a little with others characters, so the cape helps him stand out as a character, and when he shape shifts could be used for cool effects like wrapping around him.
Mostly everything on the characters was rather dated and just doesn't work for a modern audience, but I really like Drak's cape and wanted to keep it for him, even if it looks a little silly. It's classic Universal Dracula, but besides nostalgia I think it serves a real purpose. Frankie and Howler have very distinctive features that let them easily stand out, but Drak might blend into the background a little with others characters, so the cape helps him stand out as a character, and when he shape shifts could be used for cool effects like wrapping around him.
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