“Gorilla Grodd” seems a little superfluous. I mean, we can figure out that he’s a freaking gorilla. Not like if he called himself “Toaster Grodd” you’d be confused as to the origin of his species. And it’s not like we call Kal-El “Human Superman.” The comic book world is such specists.
But since I grew up knowing him as “Gorilla Grodd,” that’s what he is here. Grodd has got to be one of the pinnacles of awesome in the history of comics: a super-intelligent monkey with psychic powers. If Awesome married Cool and had a baby, it’d be Grodd.
With the savage interpretations of Grodd–and brilliantly conniving version of him in Alex Ross’s Justice series, he rules so hard, he kicks the ass of your unborn children.
You know, come to think of it, Solovar isn’t “Gorilla Solovar.” Hm.
Maybe…Toaster Solovar?
You can do a GIS for Grodd and get back fifty different results. Forty-six if you throw out the pictures of Dennis Rodman. But seriously, folks. Grodd here has a LOT of different versions–from a big brown monkey (Super Friends) to a big purple monkey (his original appearances) or a medium-sized big purple monkey with a hairdo that looks like an aging Ben Franklin. Mr. McGuinness seems to draw his inspiration partly from Grodd’s appearances on the JLU, and I think it rocks the house, hardcore. Also, since Grodd has been drawn anywhere from 6′ to 10′, and everybody knows that nobody does big like Ed. Except for maybe Milena Velba.
Grodd here is a Hulk Classics figure (I can’t remember which…the cool one that has the least amount of clothes on) and a severely modified DCD Grodd head. I shaved off all details on the Grodd head except the eyes, but even those were crazy modified. I slapped on as much Magic-Sculpt as I could until it started looking like a gorilla.
Overall, Grodd is my second-heaviest custom next to Grundy, and one that I’m most proud of–while I know that many people find the McG figs (and most of my work) to be cookie-cuttered, I think this one let me stretch my legs and work my chops. If it’s physically possible to do those two things at once, that is.
