At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, BOOM! Studios announced that they had obtained the license to create comics based on Jim Henson’s Muppets. The main title will, quite obviously, be The Muppet Show. The original show featured a format that would allow the publisher to create what amounts to an anthology with each issue, something they’ve already done with their Zombie Tales and Cthulhu Tales title. Acclaimed cartoonist Roger Langridge (whose Fred The Clown is spoken of in reverent tones) was assigned to create covers for the series and handle the framing sequences for the books.
BOOM! sent out a copy of the uninked, uncolored cover of the one of the issues out to a few sites, including The Muppet Newsflash. It appears below.
Setting aside the fact that the art is obviously unfinished and the phrase “check out a sample of Langridge’s preliminary penciling for one such cover on the right” appears in the post and that Langridge had won accolades for his work on the characters in the pages of Disney Adventures magazine, the sort of people that deeply worry over how their favorite puppets from a 30-year-old program are treated bring their knives out. The first few comments are sane, pointing out that they do or don’t like it, and mentioning specific reasons. Then it all goes pear-shaped when frogboy4 makes an appearance. Please note that the bolded lines are part of the original comment.
Rowlf and Gonzo are hideous! Is there any way the fans can give this guy feedback?
I do like his page layout compositions from what I have seen and some of the characters do take to his style, but the key ones like Kermit and Fozzie really suffer in this heavy handed over stylization that leaves more fingerprints of Langridge than of the Muppets! This smacks of individual artistic narcissism rather than respect for the Muppets that Jim Henson, Michael Frith and Don Sahlin created.
By tweaking a few of the designs and insuring the correct spelling of “Wocka Wocka” NOT “Wakka Wakka” as this artist has inked in the past, I think this could be both stylized and respectful to the subject matter. Someone contact this dude before it goes to print – please!
I will say that much of the art really does shine like Janice, but THAT GONZO IS UNFORGIVABLE! If I met this guy in person I’d hurl a chicken at him for that.
This should be a vehicle for the Muppets, not for an artist to make a bigger name for himself. I do believe he can easily back up from that line if he chose to do so. Let’s see if pride or quality will win out.
I’m not sure if threatening to hurl poultry at someone counts as assault; I’d recommend contacting a lawyer before pursuing such action, anyway.
Fletcher Bird responds to frogboy4 in an even-handed, if slightly patronizing tone that provides some perspective on the whole thing:
Wow, that’s some contrasting opinion right there…
I think we’re in very dangerous ground when fans cans start undermining the evolving creative process and nitpick character by character based on one extreme pose. Gonzo is certainly no worse than the Gilchrist overly cartoonized version of the eighties, and IMO will look fine when coloured.
It is important that Kermit always stays appealing, and i’m sure that will improve as things progress, but comic artworking is such a personal medium, that I really fear that too mauch extreme, ferocious reaction will create an unhealthy paranoia in the people behind this project to stop trusting their own instincts and not let it happen at all. There is sooooo much right about that image (Scooter!!!) that i’m happy to see how things turn out in full colour, and page by page, in context of Langridge’s stories.
Langridge’s sense of humour has proven itself to be magnificent in the past (on his previous own-creation books) and I really think we need to give him the chance here – I for one am delighted that Disney are willing to try something slightly different for these comics in a medium that is so perfect for experimenting in.
(Oh, and Frogboy, I think we can pick out the bits of your text that are the most important for ourselves without the bold, if that’s cool. It just sounds like you’re shouting and possibly being much more rude than you’re meaning to be 
)
frogboy4, of course, uses this as a chance to get on his pulpit once again and begin ranting about – I kid you not – the semiotics of Gonzo and the marketplace:
Fletcher Bird.
There is something of value here and that was expressed in my other post. There were a couple of compliments in there, but I am calling a major foul on this artist from what has been shown thus far. There is a reason why Boom and Disney decided to go with character photos for the cover of the ComicCon sampler rather than any of Langride’s art housed inside.
You are obviously a fan of the artist already, but much of this work with the Muppets misses the innate charm of the characters that translated easily into the Gilchrist cartoons. I have seen bad Muppet and Henson product in the past kill future plans for better stuff so yes, it is important to emphasize fan opinion boldly or otherwise. It is presumptuous to feel that fans should just eat up anything with the Muppet label. I am known to be one of the biggest supporters of good product and giving artists and creative teams in the Muppetverse the benefit of a doubt. In fact, I am often criticized for that.
The Glichrist Gonzo design exaggerates the lines already in the puppet. That is what sets the difference. This Langridge fellow invents his own character. This is Warner Brother’s Beaky Bird not Gonzo. There has already been some art published showing more of these drawings. This seems like fan art than licensed product. I’ve provided paid work on official Gonzo product. I know it well. This isn’t even a bad interpretation of Gonzo. It isn’t Gonzo at all. And when you misspell a character’s trademarked catchphrase and worst of all – give Gonzo 4 fingers on this current rendering, it shows a gross lack of knowledge of the Muppets.
frogboy4 then states that he’s emailed Langridge with his concerns about how the man is drawing a licensed property that frogboy4 did not create, produce, write, or have anything to do with outside of buying the product.
Anonymous is proud to stand with frogboy4:
Whoa, what an awful take on the Muppets!
Fozzie is plain HIDEOUS with that wide flapped thing of a mouth and completely different eyes (no lids), and not only does Rowlf have a similar problem with his eyes and ugly wide mouth, his nose is turned by 90°, and he sports a TONGUE!!! Holy crap!
And frogboy4 is right, what’s with Gonzo having four fingers all of a sudden, and again what seems to be a common problem with Langridge, no eye lids?!
Then what’s with Scooter’s teeth? Beaker’s humongous head and 80’s supermodel do? Bunsen’s comparably small anime-style noggin? Statler’s overgrown side burns? And the overuse of the ring-around-the-pupil effect on Animal, Camilla, Crazy Harry and Beaker (and if we could see Sweetums behind the logo he’d probably have it too)? Ugh. Lame. I hope they’ll consider adding some respectful artists down the road.
Stylizing is cool by me, as long as you show respect to the characters’ characteristics.
Another Anonymous has some concerns with the art, but you should really pay attention the part that’s bolded for emphasis:
Okay there are some things here i like, He’s captured Scooter’s eager to pleaseness, Piggy’s man(frog) hungryness, and Robin’s hyperactiveness and as for Janice, she’s hot. Other bits i dont like, but i will say this for the guy. He must be a fan, when was the last time yo saw Crazy Harry or a Snowth depicted anywhere? I think its important to give the guy space to breathe, look at it like this we didnt all like every part of Studio DC live but there were parts of it that were good and charming, just as im sure there will be parts of this that are charming and some parts less so.
i dont draw, I write and osmtimes people dont like what i write but ya know, theres a reason an artist, writer, actor interprets things in a certain way
Yeah, I started scratching at my skin furiously when I saw that, too.
Oh, hey, guys, frogboy4 is back with more thoughts after he spent a lot of time thinking about a penciled preliminary cover. This time, I’m bolding my favorite part. After that, it’s just gravy:
Probably what I should have posted in the first place 
I have slept on it and let the elements sink in. I was very excited about this comic initially and with much of the art that many fans criticized. Langridge’s layout style is some of the best I’ve seen. His character style and humor are unique and can work for the Muppets. Much of it already works very well while some of the preliminary art I’ve seen on this is quite attractive.
The bothersome part for me is this – I still see some of these designs as an abuse of creative freedom that other artists fought hard to gain with the Muppets. Slight tweaks on a few of the key characters and a re-haul on Gonzo is mainly what this fan wants. Yes the picture featured here is small – the weirdo is even smaller and out of context but it reinforces his previous larger color designs that have popped up around the web.
Disney requiring Kermit edited out of Henson specials in order to strengthen the Muppet brand, Disney requiring unnecessary nose netting on Master Replicas Gonzo poser to insure product longevity and Henson not permitting Palisades to create a scrunched faced expression for a Kermit figure due to what they viewed as lack of context is the kind of heavy corporate control that hampers an artist.
Insuring that a drawing of Gonzo somehow resembles the character and has the correct number of fingers is not much to ask. I feel Langridge is trying to work against the grain on Gonzo’s design (among a few other central characters). I think that his style can be injected into the existing form instead of eclipsing it. The very head shape is incorrect and actually an inverted form of what it should be.
I have seen many interpretations of the characters over the years from fans and professionals. Let me also admit to seeing some unsightly officially built poser images and character art sent to licensors over the years to be used as models of the characters. That seems to finally be rectified, but some of these comic extremes aren’t going to help.
I’m still giving issue one a chance. I just hope to recognize enough of the characters I know and love – especially my favorite Gonzo. I don’t believe it to be nitpicky or asking too much for the artist to reign himself in a little bit. Creativity thrives on working within some level of constraint. I hope the best for this project.
Guys, he
slept on it. He spent a significant portion of his time thinking about – and I’ll repeat for emphasis – an
uninked, uncolored preliminary cover for a comic that won’t be on stands for another few months.
I’ve never been much of a Muppet fan – probably stemming from my general disdain for puppets – but I was able to identify every character on the cover easily. I could look at what Langridge had laid out and said “That is a comic book with Muppets on it.” I suspect that fans like frogboy4 would only be happy with fumetti or CGI renderings.
That reminds me: BOOM! has the Pixar license too. You don’t think those fans are…
