Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Poke-Monstrosity


Years ago, I was REALLY into the whole Pokemon thing. I had everything: the cards, the figurines, the games, the videos... you name it. There even used to be a "Pokemon store" a few towns over from where I live, and I'd beg my mom to take me there every week. It was mostly cheap Chinese knockoffs or imported cards, but I still dove headfirst into the stuff. God, it was nuts. I could barely keep up with it.

Then one morning I woke up, looked at all the Pokemon paraphernalia I had strewn around my room, and had this "Oh God, what have I done?" feeling. I felt so guilty that I dragged my parents through all this. The money they must've spent on all that garbage. So I took all of it, put it in a big box and shoved it up in the attic. I looked online recently to see if any of my cards were worth anything, but its barely worth the paper they're printed on. The only Pokemon-related things I'll ever keep are the little figurines. They're still really cool to look at.

Looking back, I don't know why I got so hooked on it, like millions of other kids did at the time. Maybe it was just because everyone else was in on it, and I was just curious enough to get in on the act too. I have to admit though, the designs of these creatures are very appealing and original when you really look at them. AND IT'S STILL GOING! When I stopped, there was, what... like 200 of them, now there's over 500 of the damn things! How do kids these days keep track?

Recently, I was conversing with a few friends, and I asked them what I should draw. They named some random Pokemon I never heard of, so I looked up reference and drew it. Then somebody named another, and another and another.... so now it's become this regular thing, where I draw like 5 or 10 random Pokemon and compile them together. Here's a few of them




I wonder if Beanie Babies still sell...

4 comments:

aintshakespeare said...

I missed the Pokemon thing, but my brother and sister-in-law were really into it. I agree that the figures are full of character. It helps too that they are so brightly colored.

I love your poster.

Michael J. Ruocco said...

Thanks, but the poster isn't mine. I found it on google when I searched "All 500 Pokemon". It was the closest thing I could find to having all of them together in one picture.

Shelley said...

omg, that astaire-hitmonlee! <333 I find the miltank, bulbasaur, sleeping skitty, not-a morning-person drowzee and that musical parrot thing that have no inkling of the name of particularly appealing. I love your poke-doodles. they're so much fun to reinterpret and adapt, aren't they?

I mainly watched the show and enjoyed the monsters rather than played the games (quite the opposite nowadays), and I kind of fell out of the loop after the third generation came out, but pokemon's still a big nostalgic thing for me - a fact that nintendo no doubt took into account when they released soulsilver and heartgold for the DS. ah well, who's complaining? not me! :) I need to draw myself with my current team, seems like that's all the rage these days.

honestly though, the fifth/latest generation of games that's just coming out might actually get me back into it. the more i hear about it, the more interesting it sounds.

Corinne S. said...

Sadly I'm still a fan to this day. I guess it cause this show really was one of my inspirations to wanting to Animate besides Disney since Anime was slowly coming in at that time & the stories & creatures became so vastly different than the usually forest animals we always dealt with. Luv the sketches! Might just work on a few pics myself for a collaboration I have in mind. :3