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One of my favorite things growing up as a child of the 80’s were the amazing action movies of guys like Sylvester Stallone. What made Stallone so awesome, especially early in his career, is that he was a consummate storyteller. He portrayed flawed heroes. Rambo was no exception. Yeah it was a pure adrenaline rush of an action movie – but it was also a movie about a guy who came back from Vietnam scarred and unable to fit in society. When he is abused and humiliated by corrupt local cops he’s forced to resort to becoming what he was trained to be.. something scary and dark.
Now for the past few years I’ve known about the amazing Craig Zablo and his website Stallonezone.com. Craig is a huge Stallone fan and a fan of comics and art. He has commissioned some of the worlds best cartoonists and comic artists to draw their version of classic Stallone characters. He also frequents many of the same conventions that I do. So naturally I’ve been waiting for my chance to get in on the Stallonezone action, and when Craig contacted me to do a Rambo piece I literally jumped at the chance.
Now one of the challenges I had when I first started drawing this piece was that lately when I feel most comfortable drawing, it’s doing something cartoony and fun. But when I have done drawings based off people I skew more realistic. So my first attempt at this felt less like me and more forced. I wasn’t happy. I knew what I wanted but just wasn’t getting it. After a day or so of throwing paper in the trash I centered myself jedi-style and finally was able to just go with my gut. I think I was able to pull off the look I was going for. Fun, cartoony, but also very much Stallone.
