Archive for January, 2006
Just for fun
haven’t put up one of these cover remixes in a while, so here you go.
(disclaimer: not my work, found at somethingawful.com)
Monday Morning “Guess the Artist”
Another Monday, another page of art from the early career of some of today’s big name comic book artists. Although this week’s page probably doesn’t fit the mold exactly. The artist in question is known, but isn’t exactly a household name. He has worked with some big name writers, though. It may be a hard one. If nobody comes close in their guess, I’ll drop a few hints later on.
(click image for large creepiness)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006)
AA Weekend Covers
Another weekend, another themed edition of Awesome and Ass covers. This post is dedicated to my main man, Andy Bennett. That’s right, folks, it’s a very special Moon Knight episode of AA Weekend Covers!
AWESOME
(click to enlarge)
Moon Knight #6 (vol. 2) (December 1985) by Bill Sienkiewicz.
For me, Moon Knight will always be associated with the fantastic artwork of Bill “The Thrill” Sienkiewicz. It’s the title where he refined his style from a Neal Adams clone to the highly distinctive and stylized form we now know and love. Plus, he experimented with fully painted covers. I love the completely subdued color palette of this one. It might as well have been a black and white illustration. It captures the essence of a cold winter night, at once peaceful and ominous.
ASS
(click to enlarge)
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #57 (December 1993) by Stephen Platt.
What happens when you combine the worst exaggerated cartoony features of Todd McFarlane’s art with the worst anatomy mistakes of Rob Liefeld? Stephen Platt, my friends. And this guy was hot, hot, hot! The kids back then sure loved them the craptacular rip-off artists. Allow me to point out Spider-man’s thigh-tumor, and Moon Knight’s…hell, I’m not even sure how to describe his anatomy. Um, marshmallow-like? Lard-filled-balloon? Helium-ragdoll? And if I’m not mistaken, he only has 4 fingers (like those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!) and a belt that looks like a giant metal wok on a ring. Does it come as a surprise to anyone that this gem of a book comes from the 90s, aka the dark ages of modern comics?
(previous weeks: 12/3/2005, 12/11/2005, 12/17/2005, 12/25/2005, 1/7/2006, 1/15/2006)
Tom Judd’s “Everyday”
British artist Tom Judd decided to keep a sketch diary for an entire year, drawing a page every day.
“”365 PAGES AGO I HAD A VERY SILLY IDEA. Draw a page everyday for one year. Each day I spent around 1 hour on the page, sometimes more, sometimes less. There was never any planning or preparation, I would just go at it whenever I had a spare moment in my day and had something I needed to write or draw. Some of the drawings are observational and some are just plain weird.
You can view the whole thing on his website.
Looking for a creative job?
This is for our readers in Columbus or the Central Ohio area. Columbus Alive, the free alt weekly newspaper, is looking for the following positions:
Reporter
Graphic Designer
Photographer
More info on page 19 of this week’s issue, or online here.
In other news, here’s the Alive’s list of Top 10 selling comics for this week, as reported by The Laughing Ogre:
1. JLA #125
2. Ultimate Extinction #1
3. Ultimate X-Men #66
4. X-Men: The 198 #1
5. Fables #45
6. Desolation Jones #5
7. Son of M
8. Ghost Rider #5
9. DMZ #3
10. Exiles #75
The newly refurbished Art School Confidential Site just went up. A movie Steve, the Tims (Fisher & McClurg), Andy and I can relate to. (maybe too well) No trailer yet but worth it for the opening site animation. Comedy will insue in April which means that it’ll hit Cowlumbus in June.
(I blanked there fellas, group hug!?)
Lost theories
You kids like that Golden Globe winner show, Lost? How about that funny show, The Office? Then this is right up your alley:
“Many, many people have written replies to my blogs. Literally TENS of people from all over the country. Some girls have even included their email addresses and expressed an interest in getting to know “Dwight” better in a romantic sense.[note: I was directed to let all the ladies know that "Dwight" is off the market. L (sad face)]
But no one, NO ONE!, has ever thought to ask “Dwight” what his theories were on the mysteries of the show “Lost.”
Watch and learn:”
Funny stuff.
Highlights from my Grandmother’s funeral last weekend:
My grandparents lived in Conneaut, OH, located at about the very northeastern tip of the state. Many years ago the place was a booming railroad town, until the railroad disappeared and the town went belly up. The city now looks like one of those places where the factory that employed everybody living there moved its operations to another country, leaving the place to rot. My wife and brother and I were not optimistic about finding a decent place to eat (and avoid much of the rest of the family) until we saw a flyer in the lobby of Conneaut’s only hotel advertising an Indian restaurant. An Indian restaurant! We were so very excited– until I found the address for the place was in New York. The closest good restaurant, only two states away.
“The Guilt Rose”: Because of a number of upheavals in our own lives, my wife and I were unable to make it up to Lake Erie to visit after our daughter was born seven months ago. We felt bad enough about this as it was, but my aunt made a point of telling EVERYBODY about it as we were introduced (“and this is the Great-Granddaughter she always asked about but never got to see…”). She wasn’t being malicious, just very, very stupid. At the viewing, my aunt pointed out a rose clutched in my dead grandmother’s hand, which she told us represented our baby (all together: “the great-grandbaby she never got to see…”). At the conclusion of the funeral service, she approached us and presented us with the flower, plucked from Gran’ma’s hands. It even had a ribbon on it saying “Great Grandma.” My wife left the room in tears. Thanks, auntie.
My Grandfather (who preceeded his wife away from the mortal coil a few years ago) was a Mason, and my Grandmother was a member of some sort of sister organization called the Order of the Eastern Star or somesuch. At the conclusion of the viewing, some ladies from the cult lined up in front of the casket to address the crowd. “We have come here tonight to honor the memory of our dear friend, er… What was her name?”
We really should do this more often.
New Derek Kirk Kim online comic
The uber-talented Derek Kirk Kim has launched a weekly free webcomic called Healing Hands. You can read it here. I believe the way it works is he adds a new panel each day.
Sweet.
Here’s hoping this one hasn’t been mentioned here before: an interesting article about Superman’s anti-KKK activities in the 1940′s:
Some cool history about anti-Klan espionage finding it’s way into the Superman radio show, particularly the bit about Superman casing Klan headquarters. The writer goes on to make some comments about modern comics in general which suggest he hasn’t read many lately.
Ferret Central Presents: A “WTF?” Comic Cover Moment
So I’ve featured a lot of Elementals covers and art pages for the various features I do on this blog. In the spirit of keeping the trend alive, and to coincide with the latest drama surrounding Saddam Hussein’s trial in Iraq, here’s a weird cover from May of 1991:
(clicky click to enlarge)
That’s right, superheroes beating up Saddam, as rendered by Adam Hughes! Only in comics, my friends, only in comics.
So I finally finished Roadstrips which was a bit of an ordeal to start out with. I first spied this book on Phoebe Gloeckner’s table at SNAP!. Once I drummed up enough con money to go back and buy it all of her books were in the van. This was a good hour before the show ended!? Her and her class were all still there at the table. Puzzled by this behavior, I let it go.
‘If you’re anything like some people, when you think of NEVADA, you think of
WHORES.’- P. Gloeckner.
A couple months later I saw the book at the library and checked it out. It’s passable as far as anthologies go. No suprizes as all of the contributors were well established creators/ cartoonists already. I’d probably wait to buy it till I saw it on one of the contributors tables. Some of my favorites were Abel, Porcellino, Cendreda, Kelso, Knight, Kindt, Tommaso’s. Gloeckner scored the most memorable opening line in recent memory (see above) but I miss the charm of her drawing. I was somewhat disappointed to hear that she’s abandoned drawing for photo-collage. I can see why she would persue this as her work can be voyeuristic at times. Well, all the time really. These stories work so much better when she reads them in person (as she did at SNAP!). Because when one reads the same strip at home the human element is gone. Photo comics are sort of an oxymoron as they don’t really… work. An interesting experiment but I have yet to see someone pull off the same emotion/movement you get from an expressive line rendering or painting. It’s like all the air is sucked out of the room and the characters can’t breath. To see one strip done like that in a sea of ‘traditional’ work is too jolting. If it was any longer than two pages, I would of had to of read it last.
I suppose I feel the same way about photography in general. Sometimes when I see a photography exhibit I wanna scream. I get this closterphobic feeling and want to leave the room.
Attention mini-comic creators: Isotope Award
“SAN FRANCISCO (February 9th, 2005) Acclaimed San Francisco comics retailer James Sime, proprietor of Isotope – the comic book lounge, announced today that submissions for the much-celebrated 2005 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics will be accepted until March 15th at midnight. “Alright mini-comic creators, it’s time to fire up your printers and copy machines again,” said Sime, “And it’s time to score yourself some of the gold and the glory that is the third annual Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics!”
For more details, go here.
I discovered this guy’s (Jeremy Forson) work courtesy of Drawn! – a artists group, of which Jay Stephens is a regular contributor, run a blog out of Canada (I think) Which tipped me off on art blogs run by James Jean and Ashley Wood. Also the latest indie publisher to blog- Top Shelf has started one.
Other points of interest- Fanta’s FLOG and Oni Press’ reformated Buzz section.