Archive for April, 2009
Check out this blog: Art of Obama – “an exploration of the graphics and graffiti in support of Barack Obama”
I know I’m a day late in posting this; it would have been perfect to coincide with Obama’s 100th day in office.
(Dang, I hope Tony doesn’t take away my Socialism Army Award)
Next Saturday, May 9, is the Ohioana Book Festival. Dozens of Ohio authors will be in attendance and Jeff Smith (Bone), RL Stine (Goosebumps), and John Scalzi (Last Colony) are among the featured authors.
This one’s for Craig: Chris’s Invincible Super-blog takes a look at Flash #210.
“Because this is where Lincoln comes out of the laser gun and reassembles his atoms thanks to an anti-disintegration pocketwatch he’d been holding for just such an occasion.”
I personally had a pretty darn good show. I sold more than I have in the past, even to some folks I didn’t know personally.
I stole this and put it on my wall Award: (Or here’s a free postcard. thanks for stopping by.) Don’t know what to say about this but there were numerous broke art school kids running around the show. Nothing more frustrating than going to a convention with no cash… and being vocal about it. One of them did have a sweet sketchbook she was showing around. I’m wondering now if they wandered in or paid to get in.
Hidden Hayseed Award. To Tom Williams for confessing this his middle name is Ray and that he was once called Tommy Ray Williams.
Delicious food at low low prices award: Wal Mart, for having a McDonalds inside their store– much to Dara’s chagrin.
Clean Up on Aisle Five Award: goes to the Left Handed Sophie posse for their table display that probably pushed the boundaries out into the aisle. Xeroxed and hand colored art was physically tapped to the floor clear across the aisle.
Stay Classy Cosmo Award: people really took a note from Matt Feasell this year and started dressing up. The suit jacket/fedora to indie rock stache quotient was neck and neck. You won’t find folks dressed as a dumpy Superman at S.P.A.C.E.
A nice collection of various comic book artists swiping from the previous generation of artists: Swipe of the week.
Can you guess these artists before going to the site?
It’s time (past time) for the Bankies – the 2009 SPACE edition!
I personally had a pretty darn good show. I sold more than I have in the past, even to some folks I didn’t know personally.
I stole this and put it on my wall Award: (Or here’s a free postcard. thanks for stopping by.) Don’t know what to say about this but there were numerous broke art school kids running around the show. Nothing more frustrating than going to a convention with no cash… and being vocal about it. One of them did have a sweet sketchbook she was showing around. I’m wondering now if they wandered in or paid to get in.
Hidden Hayseed Award. To Tom Williams for confessing this his middle name is Ray and that he was once called Tommy Ray Williams.
Delicious food at low low prices award: Wal Mart, for having a McDonalds inside their store– much to Dara’s chagrin.
Clean Up on Aisle Five Award: goes to the Left Handed Sophie posse for their table display that probably pushed the boundaries out into the aisle. Xeroxed and hand colored art was physically tapped to the floor clear across the aisle.
Stay Classy Cosmo Award: people really took a note from Matt Feasell this year and started dressing up. The suit jacket/fedora to indie rock stache quotient was neck and neck. You won’t find folks dressed as a dumpy Superman at S.P.A.C.E.
This … is … Sparta! Award: You will find people dressed in ancient costume, though.
Zapper award: goes to Serena who brought a stun gun to the show. I heard a crackle-pop and turned around. Matt and Serena were playing with a stun gun. WTF?
We’ve got it covered Award: goes to the sheer amount of web media at the show. Indie Spinner Rack, Comic Related and UVN: Behind the Counter were all out in force covering the show.
Flava Flav Award for Best Hype Man: Mike Watson of Hotshot, who grabbed the mic for some vigilante marketing. It was a little rough on those of us sitting near the microphone, but you gotta respect the enterprise.
Stand By Your Man award: Brent Bowman’s wife, who could wait until Brent got back from the show on Sunday before she went to the Urgent Care.
Socialist Army award: Craig and Dara, who both showed up wearing their Obama shirts Sunday morning.
Other … Pocket …. Award: Tony Goins, for waiting 10 days to get the danged Bankies up.
Hot damn, here’s another new favorite thanks to an impulse buy at Gem City a couple weeks ago:
Strange Tales #169 (Brother Voodoo)
Let’s ponder the cover for a little while before moving to the interior pages. That’s obviously a John Romita drawing, yet done in a strange Kirbyesque fashion. Could this have been derived from an unused Kirby layout? Was Marvel trying to “Kirby up” the look of some of their covers since the King had defected to DC? Was Jazzy Johnny just feeling frisky that day? I have no idea. This just struck me as a strange piece coming from Romita.
Another detail to ponder: Strange Tales #168 was published five years prior to this issue, just before that anthology series’ features graduated to their own titles (Doctor Strange, Nick Fury). When fishing for a new title to showcase new characters in, Roy Thomas reached back to revive that title with issue #169. Imagine that kind of thinking today– not only a series devoted to generating new concepts, in a market that hasn’t seen a lasting new ongoing character since John Constantine stepped off the Gordon Sumner back in my high school days, but also that the issue number was completely an afterthought.
Brother Voodoo is the Haitian Doctor Strange, a witch doctor superhero whose loosely defined and mysterious powers are apparently the result of Thomas and writer Len Wein having just seen Live and Let Die in the theatre earlier that year. Most of the Marvel “Phase 2″ characters seem to have been created by committee, the result of Thomas sitting down with a writer over lunch to discuss the “kind of character” he had in mind before the writer fleshed out the concept. As with Wolverine and the Punisher, John Romita probably designed the look of the character before passing it on to the series’ artist, Gene Colan.
Now on to our story! A doctor from the U.N. is waylaid by thugs as he arrives in Haiti, only to be rescued by the spooky protagonist. The scene demonstrates the character’s premise as he dispatches the terrified criminals; he walks through fire, and summons the spirit of his dead twin brother to possess one of his enemies. After this introduction, we’re taken by flashback to witness the character’s origin…
…as big city physician Jericho Drumm returns to his homeland of Haiti after two decades away to rush to his brother’s deathbed. Daniel Drumm was the first Houngan known as Brother Voodoo, until a hex laid on him by an enemy put him at death’s door. The man of science is skeptical at first, until the villain– a mystic called Damballah– shows up to finish the job and Drumm witnesses the magic firsthand.
Tasked by his brother’s dying words to search for a voodoo Yoda called Papa Jambo, Jericho carries his twin’s body with him into the jungle. After nearly dying on the journey, he awakes in Papa Jambo’s hut where he is told he will be trained as the next Brother Voodoo.
This comic truly rocks.
Jean Schulz is giving $1 million to the OSU Cartoon Research Library with the possibility of donating another $2.5 million. Full story here.
There are a couple of comic related documentaries showing at the local Wexner Center in May. Spotlighting Jeff Smith & P. Craig Russell…
On May 12th, will be Night Music: The Art of P. Craig Russell. Show starts at 7pm. There will be a book signing before hand at 6pm in the Wexner lobby with P. Craig Russell at 6pm.
May 22nd will be The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone, and The Changing Face of Comics. Show begins at 7pm.
movie tickets run:
$5 members
$7 general public
$5 students
$5 senior citizens
For more information go to wexarts.org.
An unauthorized Spider-man webcomic that’s cute, funny, and takes advantage of the web “canvas” for maximum visual impact.
(via this week’s Lying in the Gutters)
I came across The Factual Opinion blog via The Beat, and this post in particular: Off The Shelf: Brian Azzarello And His Comics About Killing People.
Within this lengthy article, writer Tucker Stone takes on the daunting (and one may ask puzzling) task of reviewing every non-100 Bullets comic that Brian Azzarello has ever written. We’re talking everything from his unknown Comico work to his short stories in Vertigo anthologies Gangland and Strange Adventures, to everything else (Cage, Banner, Loveless, Batman, Superman, etc.)
“In the late 70′s, when something like Cage is exactly what Marvel should have been publishing, Corben and Azzarello would have been praised as visionaries for something like this. But when it hit a school that believed that anything that wasn’t a safe pussy who said “Sweet Christmas” in Siegfried and Roy’s cast-offs was somehow dishonoring made-up legacies, it got shuffled off and dismissed.”
As if this massive undertaking wasn’t enough, Stone even spices things further by providing interesting Azzarello quotes at the beginning of each review, such as this rather smart-assish one:
“Well, I think that most people out there I have these fond memories of [Deathblow] in my youth. You know, crawling up in the blankets as a child and reading the latest Deathblow book. –Brian Azzarello”
Enjoy.
Bonus for Craig: Stone also reviews a bunch of DC/Humanoids graphic novels, including Olumpus, by Geoff Johns and your fav artist Jackson Guice. It’s a pretty brutal review, but does feature some nice snippets of Guice artwork.
Tara McPherson’s tweaked her site with a new blog. She’s created her own market where she can easily have a gallery show as well as a gig painting covers for Vertigo. I think that’s what I admire most about her work. The whole crossover appeal. She’s not a slave to one particular market. Best post so far is her documenting what it takes to create one of her art prints. Numerous layers including the everpresent phantom layer, that scares the other screens. I lost count but the piece contains 18 layers (screens).
* No RSS but I’m curious as to how her designer masked the images. Can’t link to them or save them which is great. It’s something I’d like to know to add to my site. Somewhat protects your images and bandwidth but nothing defeats the screen cap.