Another year, another Halloween party here in the Studio. This year’s party felt like it took longer than usual, and I think that might be in part because I tried to fit too much into each panel. Not only does this make the page take longer to get out, but it also makes the figures smaller and maybe even harder to make out, so I’m going to try avoiding that for the Christmas party if I can. I am happy with everything we fit in, though.
There’s a couple characters here we haven’t seen in a while, maybe even some of you didn’t even know some of them were in the Studio. This year I finally got to do something with Carmella Creeper, the undead DJ from the monster cereal line. I always pictured her in charge of the music for these parties, but this year we got to see her. We also got a fun little nod to the Poll Me Closer series, plus I finally got to pair Corey Park with one of the Tom & Jerry witches I introduced last October. We also have a follow-up to the Canute Ask. Of the costume ideas submitted, Link and Zelda just seemed weirdly fitting and also gave me some ideas for how to use them in a scene.
I hope y’all enjoy this year’s party! In spite of it all I’m pretty happy with the final page, and I’m already busy working on Christmas’s!
Carmella Creeper is a new character made for the General Mills line of monster-themed cereals that I expect most people are at least a little familiar with. For thirty-five years the monster line-up has been Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry (the main three we see around Halloween every year), as well as the mostly discontinued Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy. This year they added Carmella, a caramel apple zombie DJ girl. I’m not personally a huge fan of the design, ’cause she feels way too different from her boomer compatriots, but in a vacuum I think she’s fine. I wanted to squeeze out one simple pic with her for Halloween this year to celebrate, ’cause even if I think she feels out of place I still think it’s cool to see a new monster cereal mascot be introduced. I can’t say if she’ll show up again, but I’m happy with this little pic of her at least.
So yesterday I posted an old Erin Esurance picture of mine, and now today you guys get to see my 2016 approach to the character. I considered attempting the vector-like approach of the commercials again (as I did before), but decided instead that I would rather give my own spin to her design. This is a lot closer, I think, to the style I used for my old Eromugen comic. I don’t think of myself as having a style all my own, but I suppose if I did it would be something like this.
I’m honestly surprised I haven’t drawn Erin more than I have; I suppose it’s due to her commercials not airing anymore. I just don’t think about her as often, even though when they were airing I was obsessed with her. One of the reasons I chose to draw her way back when I was first starting out was because I had a huge crush on her, but there wasn’t much porn released yet (at least, not much I cared for). That’s changed since then, and a lot of talented artists have given their take on her. I would like to draw her again someday, maybe try crossing her over with Totally Spies or Kim Possible (or both?).
I love crossovers (shock and awe, amirite?), so when I came across this pic by DTiberius I absolutely had to color it. For those not in the know, Jennifer Hale is a very talented voice actress. Supposedly these are all characters that she’s voiced, although I’m pretty sure Erin Esurance was voiced by Mo Mellady, but what do I know. Either way, I definitely had a blast coloring this one.







