Megaman

One thing I just recently noticed was that I didn't have any Megaman based fanart in my gallery. So I went through my drawers and some of my computer files and found a few old sketches which I've been saving for the past two years or so. I thought I'd post them here on DA just for the sake of updating my friends and watchers until I can finish with some of that other stuff I've been promising.

Before I go over this, I want to start by saying that I've been a huge Megaman fan for a very long time now. And as far back as I can remember, I've been doing Megaman fanart since the beginning which was back in the late 1980s. Only problem is I haven't been doing too much of it lately because my mind has been preoccupied with other subjects. And unfortunately I've lost all my previous works through the sands of time. But like the old saying goes; it's never too late to start over again. Which is exactly what doing right now at this moment.

Anyway, I'm sure everybody knows who this is. Because fans have known him for at least two decades now. And to this day, the franchise continues to go strong although not in the way I dreamed it would from when I was a child. Anyway, the character in the illustration is Megaman, who is known in Japan as Rockman. As fans all know, Megaman is Capcom's robotic superhero, who also serves as the company's icon and mascot. The character was invented by Keiji Inafune, and was most likely inspired by a number of different Japanese superheroes from the 60s and 70s. Megaman made his debut appearance back in 1987 with the release of the first video game for the NES. And from the late 80s onward, it became an ongoing franchise that would spawn countless sequels for other game consoles, and later other media besides video games. And of course, it has also spawned a number of different spin-off series in recent years which were also created by Capcom. But I have very little interest in any of those spin-off series whatsoever as I don't consider them to be as original or as engaging as the classic or the X series.

What bothers me is that to this day, the franchise's potential has yet to be expanded beyond it's current status, seeing that Capcom has done very little to do so. And even to this day, that potential is delayed. Or at least that's how I feel, seeing as Megaman is not so big a franchise when compared to other video game franchises that have gained tremendous popularity in the last few years. But I never seem to give my hopes up as I've always seen tremendous potential in Megaman's story and originality. And trust me, I've always believed that Megaman could become more than just a great action-packed video game series.

One of the things about the Megaman concept that has intrigued me all this whole time, was not just the characters and the story, but also the game-play and the main protagonist's special abilities. Armed with a blaster cannon which can form on either one of his arms, Megaman's signature weapon is the chargable Mega-Buster, which was introduced in Megaman 4. But what makes him even more interesting is his ability to collect the weapons and powers from his enemies, and being able to use them to his advantage. Another thing that made the games fun to play in my opinion, was that each of the bosses in the game were vulnerable to one another's weapon. But the trick was being able to find which weapon inflicted the most damage on which boss you were fighting against. And as the years went by through each of the different releases, that sort of thing never grew old for me. In fact, I still find it quite refreshing despite the years that went by.

My own personal interpretation of Megaman in this illustration is well... Not as the character is normally depicted. Because as we all know, Megaman is typically portrayed as a small child who is about the size of a five year old kid. Whereas in other media like the 1994 Ruby-Spears cartoon, he is depicted as a young adolecent who displays far more masculinity and maturity, although still retaining that sort of youthful human-like characteristic of compassion and sense of right and wrong. Many fans complained about Megaman being too bulky in the American cartoon. While others don't seem to mind too much. But for my own style, I decided to sort of blend the styles from the original concept art from the games' instruction manuels, with a few characteristics from that of the Ruby-Spears cartoon. And I even made the eyes more anime-like to give him more flair as an anime character. Of course, this is the first drawing of Megaman that I've made in a number of years now. But hopefully my later works of him will have better quality than this one. And the generic pose is something that came to me out of memory. Though it's most-likely inspired by one of Hanzou's victory poses from the World Heroes games. Anyway, enjoy.

Megaman is the property of Capcom.