Missile Mouse - The Design History

I've been ultra busy these days so I don't get to blog as much. But the book is coming along well. There's lots of new characters I'm adding to the missile mouse universe and I'll be posting those in the coming weeks.

I came across some old folders of artwork I did about 10 to 15 years ago. In it were a bunch of Missile Mouse drawings. It was fun and painful to see all the variations and evolutions he's gone through over the years. I thought I'd post the pictures here with a brief explanation of each drawing. Hopefully you'll enjoy this stroll through time as much as I did.

1992: This is the first drawing of Missile Mouse I ever did. I was watching Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers after school and every drawing I did seemed to be some variation on the theme of rodent adventurers. I remember seeing The Rocketeer in theaters and LOVING it. And every Sunday I eagerly rushed for the funnies to see if Calvin and Hobbes would be a Spaceman Spiff adventure. This drawing was my attempt to take everything I loved at that time of my life and distill it into one character.

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1993: I can see some Stan Sakai influence in this drawing. I did this for my high school newspaper. I updated his spaceship and blaster design, but MM still looks pretty much the same as the original design.

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1994: Fearing he was looking too "cute" I can see I began to stretch his proportions out a little here.

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1995: I finally settled on colors for him. Proportions are that of a human. Also little technical details seep in like knee pads and the jet pack harness straps around the legs.

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1996: I was heavily influenced during this period by Dave Johnson and Masimune Shirow. MM exchanges cute for kick butt. Emphasis on technological details and physique.

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1997: Continuing with the ultra humanized technical MM. First time I can recall drawing him with out his helmet on.

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2000: For a few years I tucked Missile Mouse away and focused on other stuff. Then one day I thought I'd take a whole new approach to his character design. I believe I was influenced somewhat by the Stuart Little movie that came out in '99. Gone was the helmet, human proportions, and technical detailing.

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2001: These two illustrations introduced a couple visual staples that would stick with the design. The jet engine based rocket pack, and the snub nosed blaster, and the large hairless ears. Also, going back to the extremely cute proportions.

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2002: I decided it was finally time to draw a Missile Mouse comic. The plan was to make a short 25 page ashcan and take it to conventions and sell it on my site. My design theory was to take the technical cool stuff I applied to the character designs from the late nineties and apply them to the cuter designs I did in 2001. He went through a couple phases in this stage, but through that I nailed down a few other components: the belt buckle, the blaster, the jet pack, the boots, gloves, and suit.

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2003: I did a follow up short story and changed the suit ever so slightly by replacing the open collar with a round neck opening, complete with draw strings. It stood for several years and can be seen here, here, and here.

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Today: This is the design from the Guardian Prophecy in the Flight Explorer book, and is where the design stands for the graphic novel. I took away the draw strings and gave him an updated symbol akin to the tri-triangle design from the original 1993 design. I'm completely happy with this design, but recognize it could still change as the character and the universe grows. I found this sketch I did a couple years ago which might be a good direction for the future.

Eat This!

Missile Mouse doesn't normally carry grenades. Not that he doesn't like them. It's just that they're bulky, and heavy, and a little inaccurate. That said, they're extremely effective in difficult situations. No one understands difficult situations more than MM. In the image below he's about to give a drognardian hopper something to make his bad breath go away...forever. That little Altoid of death happens to be a V50 made by EG (ExplosiveGalactique). Typically MM would prefer a surgical shot to the head with his trusty blaster. Quick and easy. But when you're transport ship is shot out of the sky, and the only thing that survives the crash landing on a drognardian infested planet is a crate of V50s you're not going to complain. You make do.

This was a commission I did a week or so ago. You can get one like it by ordering one here. If you want.

Been super busy. Work steadily progresses on the Missile Mouse graphic novel. I'm trying to ink 2 pages a night, which at times is difficult, but satisfying to know I'm staying on track. When I announced I was working on this book I said I'd post some designs and concept work to tide us over until the release of the book. Next week I plan to deliver on that promise. I'll begin posting some character designs and background info on the key players in the book. So stay tuned.