Archive for August, 2009
Amazon.com and Andrews McMeel Publishing are sponsoring the Comic Strip Superstar contest. You could be the next big syndicated comic strip star! (yes, that was sarcasm, considering the syndicated strip business is even further down the death road than print comics…)
“The winner will receive a publishing contract from Andrews McMeel Publishing, a $5,000 advance from Universal Uclick, and a monthly stipend for the development of 20 comic strips that will be considered for syndication.From the submissions, Universal Press Syndicate will narrow the entries down to 250 quarterfinalists. The quarterfinalists will then be narrowed down to 50 semifinalists by John Glynn and Lee Salem, seasoned Universal Press Syndicate editors. In the semifinal round, popular comic strip creators G.B. Trudeau (Doonesbury), Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), Scott Hilburn (The Argyle Sweater), and Mark Tatulli (Lió and Heart of the City) will choose 10 finalists and post feedback for each on Amazon.com. Amazon.com customers will then have the opportunity to view the finalists’ submissions and vote for the grand prize winner.”
Official rules are here.
Deadline is September 12.
My collaborator on the Terminator Salvation movie prequel, artist Alan Robinson, sent me this page of original art from the series:
This is page 15 from issue #3.
Thanks Alan!
By the way, believe it or not, Alan’s new gig is drawing a 6 issue mini-series for IDW based on the Weekly World News! Yeah, I know. Bizarre. Click on over to his website to see some of the art from that project.
I have a dirty little secret. Like a Republican senator railing about the sanctity of marriage, I harbor a secret love in my heart that until now I have been unable or unwilling to give voice to for fear of exposing my own hypocrisy and secret, terrible shame.
I really, really enjoyed Steve Englehart’s late 1980′s tenure on the Fantastic Four.
Fantastic Four #323
That’s right… at the same time the once-mighty scribe was driving the train called West Coast Avengers off the tracks, I actually took out a subscription to the FF title he was writing so I could be spared the embarrassment of slipping each new issue into the middle of my stack of books as I approached the register at Central City’s east side location.
It was a dark time for the FF, coming during the era in which Marvel dictated across the board cosmetic changes to all their non-mutant core titles– black costumes, Grey Hulks, goofy yellow and blue armored Thunder Gods… The FF got saddled with turning the Thing into a talking pineapple and replacing Reed and Sue Richards in their membership with the Inhumans’ Crystal (not necessarily a bad idea) and a She-Thing (THAT was a bad idea), all under the umbrella of Englehart’s relentlessly goofy plots. What did the book have going for it? Well, Ron Frenz was supplying some beautiful Kirby-Klone covers that pretty much sold the book (he was doing the same for Thor and Captain America at the time), and something about the interior artwork appealed to me. My former arch-nemesis Keith Pollard provided some “poor man’s Buscema”-style layouts, while inker Romeo Thangal and colorist George Roussos both took a light approach to their respective crafts that gave the art a very crisp look. Plus, there were Englehart’s relentlessly goofy plots…
So it is that I owe Dara an apology for the scorn I have so frequently heaped upon his own fondly remembered and much-maligned WCA series. I’ll probably continue to do it in the future, though.
With everything going against this series, Marvel had to heap one more thing onto the pile: an intrusive crossover with the “Inferno” storyline over in X-Men. New York has been overrun by demons, but since the cause and resolution will be confined to the two (!) X-titles that summer, we just had to put up with all the rest of our comics making absolutely no sense for a couple months. I never understood the logic behind these crossovers; if Nova guest starred in Spider-Man’s mag, it was to get Spidey readers to check out Nova. Did they decide that not enough people reading the Marvel line of books were checking out the X-Men on a monthly basis, so they were trying to lure in the legions of Englehart fans? The crossovers certainly weren’t required reading for the X-Men series’, so I can’t imagine the goal was the other way around.
Of course, having progressed to those years ourselves by now, we have learned that reports of Celestial WMDs were exaggerated. Kang really should have known, given that 1988 didn’t look as bad as Deathlok would have had us believe, either (though Reagan tried). Our cast is unaware of this yet, and the story closes with Mantis mysteriously disappearing as the FF’s attack on Kang’s ship goes horribly wrong.
This was among my favorite series’ of the time, up until the point Englehart had a falling out with the editors and wrote his last few issues under a pseudonym. Walt Simonson was actually brought in to clean up the mess, but he unfortunately was allowed to use his FF series to tie up loose ends from three different comics (Avengers, FF, and Thor), so his run was an exercise in continuity-cleaning more than anything else, and lacked the charm of Englehart’s issues.
Need to draw a futuristic car for your next story? Interested in the latest eco-friendly car concepts? Like looking at kick-ass sports cars? Indulge all 3 by checking out this slideshow of 13 Hot Eco-Cars That Go Zoom.
Without trying to sound too self-serving, I think I’ll start a series sharing various one-off sketches and commissions I’ve done recently. In addition to my frequent comics projects, I like to decompress by doing single-image character pieces. This way I can try out new techniques and tools, and get in some drawing practice as well.
I just got back from Chicago Comicon this past weekend, so I’ll start this off by sharing some commissions I produced over the 4-day marathon.
This was the first—booked via e-mail several days before the show—Wesley Dodds, the Golden-age Sandman.
First appearing in 1939, Dodds (as The Sandman) was an original member of the Justice Society of America. Wielding his signature gas gun, and relying on prophetic dreams, as well as highly honed detective skills, The Sandman prowled the streets, subduing criminals under cover of darkness. The Sandman used a World War I era gas mask to protect himself from the effects of his own sleeping gas.
After various incarnations over the years (including a stint by Captain America creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby), Dodds was featured in his own solo title in 1993 at DC/Vertigo when Matt Wagner and Guy Davis launched the film-noir Sandman Mystery Theatre. He was even ret-conned into Neil Gaiman’s “Dreaming” continuity in 1995 in the one-shot special, Sandman Midnight Theatre.
It’s no secret that Guy Davis is one of my heroes, and Sandman Mystery Theatre was one of my favourite comics of the past 20 years, so this one was a pleasure.
Typically these pieces are 9×12 inches (sometimes a little larger), and drawn on Strathmore cold-press watercolor paper.
More to come! For more information on commissions, drop by my gallery on deviantART or my website.
About the “Most Eighties-Style Superheroes and Supervillians.” Includes this great description of Longshot:
Longshot remains the only superhero ever modeled on pop singer Limahl of Kajagoogoo and “The Never-Ending Story” fame. For real.
And this one about Looker, a DC character I’m not familiar with:
If you’re creating a character whose whole deal is that she’s stylish and hot, maybe try picking up a fashion magazine or something, so you can see what’s considered stylish and hot. It probably won’t include butterfly collars, Ziggy Stardust eye shadow, a unitard with one leg missing, or big white circles over the lady’s nipples.
My wife just told me that the Spider-Man musical, Turn Off the Dark, isn’t happening. It was going to cost $900K a week and had a $45 million budget. Maybe Marvel can reallocate some of that money to re-retcon “Brand New Day” out of existence.
The birthday’s almost over as I type this but Marvel turned 70 today. It’s been kinda hard to read you lately but hey, every once in a while you throw me a bone. I have the Scottie Young art to look forward to and the Strange Tales project. The random Criminal or Incognito. I will never forgive you for Greg Horn/Guy Davis combo. (Just let Guy do the covers for Christ sakes) Or Mark Bagley and Rob Liefeld’s awkwardly distracting anatomy.
But I have so many fond memories of Spiderman, X-Factor and the Fantastic Four. Epic was especially thrilling. Part of my gateway exposure was looking through my cousins collections. The one cousin almost had the complete Kirby run of Fantastic Four. Never got any of the damaged ones they’d get in trades. All the great artists that came through the doors. The Bendis run on Alias, Ultimate Spiderman (I grinded my teeth as I waded through the Bagley horror-show), and Daredevil was great.
It’s hard to say where things go from here on out but make mine Marvel.
This installment of 7 Covers features one of my favorite artists, the incredible Michael William Kaluta.
(If you’d like to submit your own set of 7 covers (it can be any theme, or no theme at all) send me small files (i.e. 72 dpi for the web) to ferret at ferretpress dot com and include “7 covers” in the subject line. Also, let me know if you have a blog or website you’d like me to link to.)
I’m selling some stuff on Craigslist. I thought I’d have some fun with this particular item:
Super Ninja Training: Wavemaster Portable Punching Bag w/ Gloves
It has almost become cliche to say about urban works of literature or comics that “the city is a character.” I’m guilty of it myself having written in a paper about how the city of New York permeated the feel of Don DeLillo’s Underworld.
Having said that, this feature from Architect’s Journal (a British mag) about the top ten comic book cities goes to show the importance of setting in comics.
It has been said many, many times before, but the fact that Marvel set their universe in a real New York City, as opposed to DC’s Gotham or Metropolis, was a significant differences= in the companies approach.
On the same site, check out the Star Wars top ten architecture feature.
Boingboing recently featured a link to this article on the British Architect’s Journal website listing the author’s Top 10 picks for cities featured in comic books. As you can guess, Metropolis and Gotham City are on the list, but so are less known cities (at least to American audiences).
My vote is for Schuiten’s city of Urbicand. I believe that story was serialized in Cheval Noir. Just check out this insanely detailed art:
As some folks point out back on the boingboing site, the list is far from complete. Cerebus was cited as another comic feature some amazing architecture. Can you guys think of others?
As far as artists, I’ve always loved Walt Simonson’s architecture, especially when he drew fantastical cities, from Asgard or alien metropolises. Marshall Rogers, I believe, began his career as an architect and contributed a lot to the Gotham City look. Mike Mignola can draw the hell out a gothic cathedral or a decaying castle. P. Craig Russel does gorgeous renditions of fantastical cities of myth or magic. Who else…?
Bonus link: On Influence: Batman, Gotham City, and an Overzealous Architecture Historian With a Working Knowledge of Explosives is an in-depth article on the role of Gotham City in the Batman mythos, on the Life Without Buildings architecture blog.
Like most people, I’m a member of Herb Trimpe’s email list. A few weeks ago I got a message asking for a very small donation to a nonprofit scholarship fund (or somesuch) his daughter-in-law was trying to establish. Donors would in turn receive a postcard sketch from Happy Herb; here’s the jewel that arrived in the mail today:
Aaaaw. Hulk get sentimental.
It’s even personalized; turning it over, one can see that it’s plainly addressed to… “Craig Bosart.” Sigh.