A Ninja Among Snowmen: Doom's Latest Doodle

Heroes

 There are many different kinds of heroes in the world, and Doom Shaka Laka has documented several of them. Superheroes seem to be the most obvious, and therefore we begin with them.

Superman is a friendly and personable fellow, despite what some people say. He never hesitates to pause and help out a pedestrian or a working artist in need.

This pose was sketched in front of the Daily Planet offices in Metropolis.







Thor is a somewhat more difficult man to get a sketch of. As he lives in Asgaard instead of on earth, Doom had to do a lot of tracking and careful timing to meet up with him.

Though known for his explosive temper, Thor was actually quite willing to allow Doom to sketch his likeness. This may or may not have been due to the number of pints Doom purchased for him previously.

 As we said, heroes come in many forms. Although 1st officer Spock was never known for his outstanding valor and courage, as his captain, James T. Kirk, was, he was nevertheless an outstanding officer.

Though he never showed a great deal of emotion, he did, in fact, perform several acts of bravery, loyalty, and quick thinking, which saved the ship, or a crewman's life. Sometimes both.

Spock did not wish a portrait to be drawn of him, but Starfleet insisted, as a matter of record.







Knights in shining armor. Nothing more strongly symbolizes our vision of a true hero.
















"I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."

"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
  - Gandalf










Not all heroes are big and strong. Some of them barely stand taller than 3'5". But large in stature or not, trained with a sword or not, Frodo Baggins of the Shire is a hero of heroes. As is his faithful friend Samwise Gamgee, who we hope to soon recover a drawing of.

Across the Sea

Doom's travels ranged far and wide. These doodles appear to date from a time that Doom was particularly interested in chinese culture and history. Dragons and the color red figure strongly in Doom's art from this era. 

 There is no true evidence to connect this dragon with the following picture of the phoenix, but scholars are almost unanimously agreed that they do, in fact, relate to each other.

In ancient China, there were many legends depicting dragons and phoenixes together, some of which label the dragon as the high emperor, and the phoenix as the empress.

Whichever the case, it is certain that these two drawing were done in correlation, and are some clue to the origins of the old legends.

Although the characters drawn here do not correlate with any current chinese writing systems, we can be sure that they do have a meaning. A scrap of text was uncovered not long ago. A Doom Rosetta stone, as it were. We have learned from it that these characters are elemental in nature.

Beginning with the largest symbol at the head of the circle, and continuing clockwise:
Water
Metal
Air
Flora and Fauna
Ice
Fire
Stone

Potter Returns

 Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter's main schoolyard nemesis. Until Voldemort well and truly returned, Draco was the person in the world whom Harry hated the most.

We can see Doom's use of pencil and pen to create the different shades of gray and silver present in the Hogwarts Slytherin uniform.

 Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as Harry first saw him standing before the student body of Hogwarts in his first year. The words spoken by the headmaster at the time were "Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak, thank you."

Ex-deatheater, and hogwarts potions master Severus Snape. This caricature was drawn while Doom sat in on a potions class sometimes during Harry's fourth year, before Voldemort made his return.

All sketches and photographs of Snape after that time show him to have aged quickly and lost a good deal of weight, due to the pressures of working as a double-agent.

Bellatrix Lestrange, one of Voldemort's inner circle. We must truly begin to wonder how Doom was able to get a sketch of this extremely volatile and high-ranking deatheater.

New Doodles Uncovered: Monsters

Doom Shaka Laka has always been partial to monsters. The deadlier the better. This has been evident from the earliest examples we have restored.

Our team recently uncovered several old pieces. Though they are not new, we do have a recorded history, dating them to the time shortly after Harry and Ron.

The scholars have long debated whether this creature is an artistic depiction of the ancient greek legend of the minotaur, or an extremely loose interpretation of Where the Wild Things Are.

Despite this debate, we here at the Doom Shaka Laka preservation society are of a third opinion. That Doom has, in fact, encountered mythical beasts in the wild, and attempted to document them.

Big foot? Minotaur? Who can tell. We only know that Doom has a gift. A real gift for preserving likeness, while still making the creatures absurdly cute.

Yet more evidence to support our earlier theory. We here at the DSLPS know the true story of Frankenstein's monster. The small details such as scar placement and tie color prove that Doom did as well.

 For those in the know, vampires are not the terrifying creatures of legend. But neither are they safe (or sparkly.) Homo Vampira. They are a complicated species which are, in fact, only slightly earlier in the evolutionary chain that Homo Sapiens.

This particular caricature, we believe, was modeled by the great Count L'Tourneux, whom modern history records as an unnamed eastern prince that brought his people into many years of prosperity.

 Even at the DSLPS, we are at a loss to explain this one. The most commonly accepted theory is that Doom, while travelling in the uncharted wilds, encountered a creature not even known to cryptologists.

Judging by the physiology here, this creature is at least semi-aquatic, placing it along the pacific coast somewhere, as that is the main area included in Doom's studies.









Next Week: Potter Returns!