Archive for August, 2010
Continuing with our look at the various Spectre series at DC, we turn to the 1992 series, helmed by writer John Ostrander, which lasted 63 issues. This series featured a rotating cast of excellent cover artists, which made it difficult for me to pick just 7. (Incidentally, you can find covers from this run in previous 7 Covers posts, here and here.) But here we go:
Artists, left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Charles Vess, George Pratt, Dave Johnson, Kent Williams, Rafael Kayanan, Michael William Kaluta, and series artist Tom Mandrake.
(Have a favorite series of your own? Or an artist? Character? Submit your own set of 7 covers by sending 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.)
Forget about Batman and his Batmobile, or even his “God bullet,” the real technologically awesome bullet is the super-speedster all-electric car built at The Ohio State University (my Alma Mater) which recently broke the world record for fastest electric car:
Popular Science has the details.
“…driver Roger Schroer throttled VBB2.5 to a peak speed of 320 miles per hour, logging a two-way average mile speed of 307.66 miles per hour.”
Another ERB-related post for PANELista Brent Bowman…it’s Tarzan vs. Predator: At The Earth’s Core.
I haven’t read this mini-series, but given that it’s written by Walt Simonson, and drawn by Lee Weeks, odds are that it’s a pretty solid, entertaining read (despite the crass premise).
A new one keeps springing up every three months it seems. The indie-con in Pittsburgh is in mid October and is a two-day show. Tables are $25-$45.
Here’s a nice wrap up of an indie con in Minneapolis that happened this weekend. This is one I’ll think about for next year, if they’ll have it again.
For the last decade or so, indie legend Peter Kuper has been doing the venerable Spy vs. Spy comic in Mad magazine. What’s amazing about his style is that he creates them all via hand-cut stencils and spray paint. You can buy the original art on his site. Here’s a look at one of them:
And there’s a great, lengthy interview with him on the Graphic NYC site.
Ahead of last week’s Chicago Comic Con, The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting (and depressing) article about the convention circuit that draws has-been TV actors and semi-celebrities out to peddle their autographs for $20 a pop.
“The deal varies depending on the convention and the celebrity. The biggest names are flown to a city, given lodging, paid a fee for attending and guaranteed to earn a certain amount on their signature — if the guarantee is $10,000 and the celebrity makes $7,000, the promoter owes them $3,000. The sought-after names, the Shatners and Leonard Nimoys and Stan Lees of the convention world, command high five-figure fees and keep the autograph profits.
Then there are the Kane Hodders.”
Lou Ferigno, Larry “Soup Nazi” Thomas, Felix “Cousin It” Silla…they’re all profiled in the article.
Just be sure you have something positive and life-affirming – like, say, a good comic book – to wash the taste of desperation out of your mouth after you’re done with the article.
Oh, and if you’d like another dose, here’s a snippet from Tod Allen’s report on preview night at the Chicago Con:
“Bar con wasn’t so hot. The big sighting was Julie Newmar, Burt Ward and a couple of Julie’s entourage having drinks in a cordoned off section of the Hyatt bar. It was a bit surreal to watch Newmar walk out of the bar, sit in what appeared to be a high-backed office chair on wheels, and be wheeled away, but it happened.”
Speaking of features that were on a bit of a hiatus due to my busy schedule, this week marks the return of 7 Covers! Yay!
I’m going to do a few of these based on The Spectre, one of those old DC characters that’s been featured in his own solo title at least 4 times, plus numerous limited series. I totally dig this character, from the simple costume, to the high concept, to the omnipotent powers that really challenge a writer. Anyway, this week I’m featuring 7 covers from the 1987 Spectre series:
Artists, left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Chris Wozniak, Charles Vess, Mike Mignola, Michael William Kaluta, Tom Artis, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Jerry Bingham.
I know this feature has been absent for several weeks, and the deluge of emails I received begging for its return finally convinced me to get off my lazy butt and post a new one. So for all your supernatural fans, here’s a not-to-be-missed crossover: Yeti vs. Vampire.
Or to be more precise, cartoony, non-scary Yeti vs. scantily clad porn star vampire. It’s too bad this was a one-shot. I’m sure there’s a lot of backstory, conflict, and social issues that could be explored within the pages of such a title.
I came across this fun site via the Meathaus blog. The premise: ask 20 set questions to various cartoonists/ creators. Mostly it’s the indie crowd but that’s Kool & the Gang by me. Highlights so far are Zak Sally, John Porcellino, Renee French and Brandon Graham.
Some of the responses are genuine, some are snarky or in some case pretentious. That pretty much sums up indie comics, doesn’t it?
If I read this right in the questionaire, Dash Shaw was a figure drawing model before doing cartooning full time.
Also, it seems that drawing on hammermill cardstock is okay. A few of the featured guys draw on that stuff. Not that I’m judging that. It’s okay to draw on pretty much anything that’ll take the media.
After the Aug. 11 Character Wednesday, I still had a little inspiration to burn, so you get this:
If I had it to do over, I’d vary the horizon lines between the first and second panels, have Mr. Miracle facing more toward the camera in the last panel, and spend some time on some water effects.
Here’s an interesting post from Jim Munroe, writer of Sword of My Mouth, about the effort put into the creation of a comic or graphic novel:
So here’s a breakdown of how much time we each spent working on the book.
Jim’s hours: 283.8 (writing: 23%, revisions and editing: 16%, publicity: 20%, publishing business: 38%)
Shannon’s hours: 1000+ (drawing)
So basically, Shannon put in 80% of the time even considering I took on publicity and publishing roles…
We’re dividing the money we make 80/20%, but it still feels weird. I mean, I knew it took a long time to draw, but it really takes a long time to draw. This wonky division of labour is something to keep in mind when if you’re ever approaching someone to draw a comic. Even if you’re a slow writer and they’re a fast drawer, you’re still asking them to spend much more time realizing something than you spent creating it. What are you bringing to the project beyond amazing ideas and sparkling prose?
Does these seem a fairly accurate breakdown of work (80% artist)? I suppose it depends on the artist and I am guessing on the job. Does anyone else track their time on projects like this?
For this week’s Character Wednesday, Brent chose the insidious Baron Blood!
So here’s Brent Bowman‘s:
Ross Hardy!
Cathy Guisewite has mercifully pulled the plug on her craptacular Cathy strip. Another strip that should have been *shelved 10 years ago. Not only was it one of the poorly drawn strips that made Dilbert okay, but it seemed like a put-on. Cathy is supposed to be Guisewite’s avatar, but it makes her out to be some kind of bulimic wannabee. Guisewite’s pretty easy on the eyes while the cartoon version looks like a hot dump on a Sunday morning.
Anyway, the strip was never that good and had she debuted it today, it might never have happened. When you think about it, a lot of the neuroticism explored would have easily been vented on a blog. The best strips are the ones that do a better job of masking the puppeteer. Like Pogo, or Peanuts. They channel their views through talking animals or little kids or a stuffed animal come to life. Guisewite never took full advantage of the medium.
I’m oblivious to how groundbreaking it was for the strip (by a woman) to appear in a newspaper. While yes, she was a female cartoonist, the stereotypes she trotted out didn’t do feminism any favors. If anything it was anti-feminist. At the strip’s peak, it was carried in 1400 papers. Finishing out at half that number this year. Perhaps she saw the writing on the wall and opted to retire. The (newspaper) comics and editorial cartoonists are being dropped at an alarming rate.
*This is where I have much respect for cartoonists like Larson or Watterson who knew when to pull the plug. I don’t fault Schultz because he was doing it to support the many charities he gave to.