Here is my favorite Dibny material from Deviantart.
Honorable mention: ME! Rafa Rivas' "Dibny Roll"
I became a fan with the Super Buddies-Identity Crisis-52 era, and this drawing was made around those times. Back then, I had just learned how to color with Photoshop and thought Ralph hugging Sue would be original (ha, ha, how naive). To me, this is one unsatisfying drawing. The feathering is weird, the "shining lights" in Sue's hair looks like gay hair, she has freakishly tiny feet, Ralph's legs are too weird.
20. Reepicheep-Chan's "Baseball and Metahumans"
I like that this girl included Professor Impossible (The Venture Bros.) and Rubberband Man (Static Shock).
19. Jenny Park's "Ralphina is a Classy Name"
I decided to include this one because the characterization is pretty good. I love how fans always ignore what happened with Max and portray him at his best.
Ralph looks a bit old with those eyebrows. Hard to believe he's not smelling a mystery in that scene.
17. Jack's ("Perpetual Insomniac") "Blanket"
As grouse as cute, which is often the case with a lot of stuff that Ralph does.
16. "Spider Guile's" "Elongated Man Preliml"
The pose kinda reminds me of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Like many of the people that made it to this humble gallery, I think Guile is almost a pro. It's interesting to see that out of all the artists here, he's the one with the most conventional comic book artist style. A lot of the others seem to have more animation or Japanese influences. Guile lives in France and accepts commissions; here's a link to his Comic Art Gallery @ ComicArtFans.
15. Diego Gallegos' "Ralph Dibny"
Diego loves the Dibnys and is into japanimation, consequently, the result had t be a mix. I found a lot of Japanese influence among the Elongated Man's fans.
14. Jack's ("Perpetual Insomniac") "Practical Problems"
This is the kind of fun thing I could definitively see Ralph doing in order to spy on someone. Sherlock used to pull stuff like that too.
13. Kyle Latino's "A Ralph and Sue Dibny Romantic Mystery"
Based on a Blackshirt cover, this image has the Dibnys following closer than ever the tradition of The Thin Man. Just for reference, the Elongated Man is a character from the 60s, and his lifestyle reflected so; however, his adventures were clearly inspired by the golden age of detective fiction.
10 - 12. Jack's ("Perpetual Insomniac") "Morning", "A Very Dibny Christmas" and "I Love This Life".
I put three drawings in the same section because the same comments apply to the three, which were all done by Jack. If there's something he is brilliant at is color range. This has to be the best rendering of an elongated man drawing I've ever seen.
Honorable Mention: "SailorBetch's" "Elongated Vase"
Ok, I just added this one because I found the Justice League Unlimited reference quite funny.
9. "DarkNailbunny's" "Elongated Man Amigurumi"
I do not know what an amigurumi is, but that's a nice stuffed doll. Yeah, it's not a drawing, but it's great fan art, so it deserves a spot here. "DarkNailbunny" went minimal with this one, but she has some impressive stuff in her portfolio. Make sure you check it out.
8. Hannah's (Busterella) "Superbuddies: TAS"
The middle row is my favorite. Just spot on for me. However, that's the best Fire costume I've ever seen and I love how Ice's boots simulate cold air flowing. This is Busterella's ideal line-up, but I can't help but notice how a lot of people include Barda in JLI crowds (she was never a member). This version of Ralph's uniform has to be one of the best. She really made the JLU collar work. Sue looks perfect. One defect of Maguire's Sue is that she looks like a soccer mom instead of the cute fashionista she's supposed to be.
7. Laura Truxillo's "Li'l League"
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| Cute, aren't they? |
I think this girl might be a professional cartoonist. She's spot on wit her characterizations. And again, there's the Barda thing. Wally and PG were some of the longest lasting members and she's not even a member, but she certainly caught the attention of JLI fans.
6. Craig Cermak's (inks by Carli Ihde) Elongated Man
Well, that's Ralph in a nutshell: A detective stretcher.
5. Kevin A. Voith's Ryan Styles as the Elongated Man
Is there any doubt about the model for this portrait? If somebody was crazy enough to produce a Super Buddies sitcom or movie, Ryan Styles should play Ralph. Oddly enough, some of Rags Morales' art for Identity Crisis, Ralph does look like Ryan.
The costume is a combination of the JLI era costume and the one from Justice League Unlimited.
4. Jason Brown's "The Super Buddies"
This is not Ralph-centric, but it's one hell of a pic. I love the way the shading was done; kind of like an animated series. I wish comics used that style more often.
3. Jack's ("Perpetual Insomniac") "Old-Time Classy Detectives"
I find this colored sketch very interesting. It has some fairly obvious mistakes, like Ralph's hand being out of proportion (then again, he might be stretching it) or Sue's arm being too thick (then again, women were chubbier back then); but the concept is just too good, and the coloring and shading too nice (and fit for the early Victorian era).
Tying the Elongated Man to the early years of western detective fiction is a nice idea. He's normally associated with Holmes (mostly thanks to Mike W. Barr), but he's also a big Edgar Allan Poe fan and an expert in the entire genre so this is a smart tribute.
This other image by Kyle has the same golden age of detective fiction spirit; however, I can't help but feel that there's a Scooby Doo nod.
1. Hannah's (Busterella) "Dibnys Doodledump-1"
1. Hannah's (Busterella) "Dibnys Doodledump-1"
Yeah, this girl got it right. Sue's fashion sense, Ralph's stretching, even the face expressions. The Elongated Woman tribute indicates that she's even familiar with classic stories. This art tyle definitively works for the Dibnys.
Oh, one more thing. Does anybody know the author of this image?:
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| Mysterious image. |
It's funny how Sue pops up more often in fan art than in official stuff.
See also:
UPDATE 09-16-12Wunderchio and Almond077's Elongated Lass
It's Ralphina!! All grown up! I stll have to dig, but the Elongated Lass apparently appeared in an issue of Superboy, which inspired the creation of this piace. Link.
TheJason10's Elongated Man character design for Justice League
DiDio should take notes from this guy. Or better, just hire him.
Link.
BeeBoyNYCs Sue Dibny
I think it's his best work! She looks so Sue!
Hey, this is Busterella. Thank you so much for the feature and kind comments. :) (The lineup was part of an imaginary project with a friend, and I'll admit we added Barda simply because we like her).
ReplyDeleteI figured. I saw your other Barda drawing, haha. I'm very impressed. Keep up that awesome work!
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I haven't been able to log in to the DC message boards today. Maybe it's just a server problem owing to the long weekend.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll post some random thoughts here.
I was watching Parenthood the other day and it suddenly struck me that the actor Peter Krause is almost exactly my vision of how Ralph Dibny looks.
I actually find this actor annoying--and kind of boring--as I also find the whole Parenthood show. The one bright shining spot is Lauen Graham who lights up a room every time she appears.
But I admit I get a weird pleasure out of watching this show. Like picking at a sore you know you shouldn't pick at. I get some kick out of being annoyed by this show and especially by Krause.
But that's beside the point--except to explain it's not Peter Krause's acting that makes him seem like Ralph Dibny to me. He's just physically how he see Ralph.
I notice that most people think of Ralph in terms of comical looking actors. Krause has a slightly comical look--but still fits within the parameters of a handsome leading man type. And that's how I see Ralph.
For me it makes more comedy to have an elegant leading man doing funny things--instead of someone who looks funny already. Sort of how Cary Grant would often be cast in roles where he was made to look ridiculous.
That should read "He's just physically how I see Ralph."
ReplyDeleteOn a different subject. I recently got a few more back issues of Flash featuring Elongated Man, and I also got a copy of Detective Comics 310--and having looked at this story, I feel even more that this Rubber Man is a doppelganger of Ralph.
So much so that I would like to make this a missing adventure of the Elongated Man.
I'm not sure how one could explain the continuity. But maybe it has something to do with Bat-Mite's magic or a bad batch of Gingold. But I would backdate this adventure so it happened before "The Mystery of the Elongated Man."
Ralph somehow was forced into the criminal act in "Bat-Mite's Super-Circus." And news of this crooked caper reached The Flash, leading Barry to suspect that the Elongated Man was a criminal.
Also Elongated Man related, in the 100th issue of Alter-Ego, Roy Thomas provides an Elongated Man story he had tried his hand at back in the 60s--but it never was published. But in this issue of A/E we get to see the story newly illustrated, but with Elongated Man changed to Long Arm of the Law and Sue changed to Samantha for reasons of copyright.
India Ink, I just read 3 pages of it. It's fantastic! I love Gardner Fox, but this is the kind of story I wished to see when I first opened the Showcase. From the 2 first pages and the final one I can totally tell it's a full detective story in 10 pages.
DeleteI'd say that Roy was ahead of his time, not only he was properly fusing superhero and detective genres, he was also referencing a Doyle story. All of this constitutes a clear early example of postmodernism!
The next post will be the 100th, I'd love it to be about that!
I can totally see Peter Krause as Ralph. However in my mind he's either Dick van Dike or Jim Carrey. Don't get me wrong with Jim; I think Ralph's humor should be closer to Dick, but Jim just has the body type. The ideal actor would have excellent timing, capable of delivering quick comebacks and changing to a deadly-serious tone when necesary. He should also be tall, thin with a long neck, at least decently good looking and ideally Midwestern-looking.
ReplyDeleteJoel McHale doesn't have the face that I imagine for Ralph, but he could certainly give the character credibility and has the body type.
Lauren Graham could make an excellent JLI Sue (early Sue would need somebody who's 19 to 23).
That A/E tip would make and excellent article.