Re-imagined Commander Keen Art

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:00

I decided for Keen Day that I would do some art in which I tried to conceptualize a different take on Keen. So I started out with "Retro Futurism" of the 1940's in America. That is-- what would Keen look like if he was made the 40's? I also thought, since I was going with the whole "Retro futurism" thing, I would throw in a "steam punk" art piece. And just to be clear: none of the art in this thread will be used in a Commander Keen fangame at this point.

For the 40's version I gave Keen a more grungy look while his ship is a bit sleeker and cleaner. So I combined both styles-- that is the 40's tech style of the more practical objects (such as the wrist watch), while his ship is based off of the sci-fi ships of those times. Also, in the pictures of the ship, I modeled the vacuum cleaner off of the ones from the era. I also made a poster that is based off of art that I have seen of the 40's.

As for the steam punk model, instead of alcohol for fuel and a vacuum cleaner for propulsion. I made a little pit for coal and an extended vent (since I could not think of a Jules Verne-era vacuum equivalent). And of course there's no need for a battery.

So if anyone has any art in which they visualize Keen in an alternate direction, feel free to post it. It doesn't matter if it's a drawing, brief sketch, 3D model or even a video. Just long as 1) It's not gruesome, vulgar or obscene in any way and (2) it is supposed to be an art piece (so no text-based style descriptions).

So by all means, have at it! And happy Keen day!

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:23

Added them to fuclyeah.

Very crafty! I love the steam-punk ship. Brilliant.

ZidaneA · Post by **ZidaneA** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:35

Oh, nice! I love the steam-punk version. Fits very well to the theme!

memsys · Post by **memsys** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:36

very nice i'll give it a "this is neat" rating

Post by **tulip** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:06

Sooperneat. I have Wings3D but I never managed to do something effectively with it, maybe I'll have another go.

Grimson · Post by **Grimson** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:12

The Steampunk BWB is splendid

Catwafer · Post by **Catwafer** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:19

Steampunk Commander Keen! YES!

I had this drawn for me a little over a month ago:
http://catwafer.files.wordpress.com/201 ... 071462.png
It's pretty much the coolest thing ever!

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 20:32

Film noir Keen and Renaissance Keen could also be interesting.

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 20:35

This is beautiful.

Post by **KeenRush** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 18:07

Cool!

My favourite too is the steampunk BWB, but all of them are nice...

Toomuchsparetime · Post by **Toomuchsparetime** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 22:29

There actually is a Commander Keen from the 1930s. The Fleischer brothers (and their studio), rivals of Disney animation and notable for bringing Popeye and Betty Boop to life, created a studio demo reel of short animated clips for potential characters between 1929 and 1931.

Among these were a more dog-like Betty Boop, and also one familiar character dubbed "Kaptain Kanine", a family dog who was to have a secret lab inside his kennel, from which he would monitor the safety of the earth against invading aliens. When duty called, he would don his master's football helmet and become Kaptain Kanine, blasting off on a rocket-powered pogo stick to fight battles in space. The demo's clip showed him pogo-ing to the moon and fighting robotic dogs.

The studio had apparently written and started storyboarding Kanine's first 4-minute feature, called "A Toast to our Universe" (!!!!), but when Betty Boop really took off after her 1932 appearance in "Wolf of Stone" (!!!!!!!!!!!!), the Fleischers went with making more Betty Boop fan-service while Kanine got shelved. They intended to come back to it again, but when Paramount pulled the plug on the studio in '42 that was the end of it.

The 1931 "demo reel" never made a theatrical release and instead sat around virtually unknown until it appeared on a recent limited-run DVD collection of Betty Boop & Bimbo shorts.

I know, it's just totally insaney how close this thing is to Commander Keen, but yeah.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 23:39

Why doesn't Wikipedia know about this? It must be updated!!

Toomuchsparetime · Post by **Toomuchsparetime** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 0:08

Maybe on April 1.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 0:35

You'd better have ripped the demo reel from the DVD by then.

Post by **tulip** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:22

Nice drawing. Sadly I could recognize your style before the sensation could kick in.