Cartoon Duo Peril DiD sketch; Paper & Pencil.

A journalism seminar brings Channel 6 star April O'Neil to Gotham City, where she meets just-as-impulsive-as-her star of Gotham Live, Summer Gleeson. However, in the middle of the seminar, news flies in that another sacking of a Wayne Enterprises firm was seemingly accomplished by the exact same "dark, masked" figure as has been evident for the last couple weeks. Knowing some investigation could land her a huge break, Summer takes off, leaving April hanging. Not to be outdone, April knows how big her reputation could grow if she nails a big story in a big city other than her own.

Evening passing into night, April is able to smooth her way to some information, using her, er, charms, despite being a stranger in Gotham, and her sources lead her to a Wayne Inc. owned storage facility, a likely target for the thief. But as she climbs into a window, jumps down, and trips an alarm!!!i the main doors bolted shut, and the window now too high up to reach, she desperately looks around for something to give her a boost, when a hand covers her mouth, and a cloud of smoke surrounds her...

Upon awakening, April finds herself on an upper level of the storage warehouse, tied to a pillar with a cloth tied around her head and between her teeth. Sounds of struggling and mmphing makes her turn to her left, where she sees Summer, gagged as she was, and tightly hogtied. Summer's desperately reaching for her knots, but they are out of her reach and it looks like she is tied really tight. Before April can do anything, a black clothed figure, dressed as a Ninja, walks up from her right. He takes of his mask, revealing an evil smirking japanese man. He speaks: "So, if Richman-san shows his face, I will take my revenge and then take all he owns. If not, then it will be an explosive end for you two uninvited fools!"

It was then that April noticed a charge of dynamite with a 20 minute timer on the pillar above her, and the charges of dynamite wired throughout the room, on the other posts as well as around the room. With no way to contact the turtles, she and Summer can only hope that Bruce Wayne, or anybody else shows up soon...

Ok, sorry for the HUGE setup again, but I am really getting into some of these DiD scenes lately. I will skip the rest and hurry right to the meat & potatoes:

April O'Neil: I have been wanting to draw her for quite a while, but since many artists better than I have done some really great works of her, I got a little intimidated. However, I paired her with a sitting pose that I haven't really ever done yet. Many depictions of her usually grant her a large to huge chest, but I didn't really want to, so I kept things modest. I drew her lips closed around the cleave gag because of a real life DiD reference, and I thought it looked good, though it probably is a completely ineffective gag.

Summer Gleeson: Ever since I saw the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Night of the Ninja", and saw how Summer Gleeson not only got tied up, but hogtied! In a cartoon! What a great episode. Since then, I have wanted to draw her, but the Bruce Timm style is not actually easy for me. However, I did have references. Summer has an interesting hairstyle, but not really all that difficult. She also has a great blouse/skirt/coat combo, for all of us out there that like business gals tied up.

Kyodai Ken: Kyodai was an awesome villain IMHO for Batman. He had a past with Bruce Wayne, had a lot of the same skills, and always seemed to have leverage over him. Except for his head and the standing position, drawing him was pretty easy, due to his all black (with red belt) ninja outfit, with no ornamentation. I have to admit I like a bald villain with a goatee and a wry smirk. Good evil presentation.

The Scene: I copied most of the idea from the already mentioned "Night of the Ninja" episode of Batman: The Animated Series, one of my all time favorite cartoon shows. I took the general idea of the warehouse scene near the end, including the big fan and crates, but of course changed things around a bit to work with my angles. I hope it looks good. The character idea was to have a standing villain, one tied up damsel motionless due to her proximity to the villain, and the other DiD struggling like crazy (but as always, to no avail). Also, due to a suggestion from a great DiD artist here on dA, I made the foreground lines dark and left the background lines normal, to show distance (I hope...never tried that before).

I really was pleased with this one, so let me here your comments!!!

- JC