X3, otherwise known as “X-Men: The Last Stand” comes out today. In celebration/anticipation here’s a Wolverine by J. Chris Campbell:
May 24 2006
Marvel’s “Civil War”
There’s apparently some kind of big multi-book crossover event going on at Marvel at the moment called “Civil War,” and the Newsarama Art Group has selected as its drawing topic this week Captain America and Iron Man in some sort of a “Civil War” context. I’m guessing that Cap and Iron Man wind up on opposite sides in this deal—hence the choice of these particular characters.
Anyway, I’m not an official member of the group, but CCCG member Adam Casey is and usually posts his drawings for the group on our message board… and every once in a while I’ll get inspired and do one and post it as well. In this case, the whole “Civil War” theme gave me a good excuse to draw my absolute favorite b-list Marvel hero, Razorback. He’s a 70s-era good guy—first appeared in a Spider-Man book—and his “superpower” is that he can fix stuff. He’s also from the South, drives a big rig, and wears an enormous razorback hog skin on his head that he can shock you with (is if this whole character’s premise isn’t shocking enough in itself). I believe his real name is Buford Hollis and the name of his semi is “The Big Pig.”
Put simply, RAZORBACK TOTALLY RULZ!!!!
So, here it is:
May 21 2006
Art Out of Time
Check out this The Comics Reporter preview of Dan Nadel’s forthcoming book Art Out of Time. I’m really looking forward to this book since it features a look at two of my very favorite–and often neglected–cartoonists: Dick Briefer and Ogden Whitney. Briefer did a great humorous take on Frankenstein’s monster and Whitney was the artist on the great book Herbie, the hero of which was also known as “The Fat Fury!”
(Click for larger image)
May 17 2006
Comicreaders.com Reviews Midnight Sun
Here’s the review:
Added emotion to historical events
by Chad BoudreauAfter reading the first issue of Midnight Sun, I took to the Internet to do a little research to see what Ben Towle had been up since receiving his 2004 Eisner nomination for “Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition” for his graphic novel Farewell, Georgia. In doing so, I learned the subject matter of Midnight Sun is based on the real-life tragedy of the airship Italia and its crew’s remarkable struggle for survival in the Artic. On May 23, 1928, the airship and its crew crashed during an expedition to the North Pole. The survivors spent more than a month on the Artic ice flows until rescued.
With Midnight Sun, a five-part miniseries from Slave Labor Graphics, writer / artist Ben Towle takes a fictional approach to this tragic history. He tells his story from two points of view: The first is from the crew members of the Italia, who have already crashed when we are first introduced. The second is from a down-on-his-luck American newspaper reporter who is sent to the far north to uncover the facts of the Italia’s disappearance.
The two tales intertwine to create the overall story of Midnight Sun, which doesn’t appear to be about retracing the facts of the Italia’s harrowing ordeal. Towle’s story is more concerned with getting into the minds of its characters.
In a Slave Labor press release Towle says he wants to use “the events of the crash and the personal dynamics of the stranded crewmembers to examine more universal themes like the interaction between fate and conscious choice, leadership and democracy, and love and obligation”, and while it’s too early to tell if he accomplished his goal, the seeds of these ideas are certainly in place in this first issue.
The story of the Italia (now that I know of it) is a one of tragedy and survival. The facts of its doomed flight, the struggle of its survivors, and the details of the various rescue operations has the makings of a harrowing story on its own. Towle, though, goes one step further with his storytelling, and I respect him for his decision to take the direction he has. Here in this first issue, he gives us a sampling of the details of the flight itself, but mostly keeps his focus on the characters. As such, we gain an emotional connection to the tale, to this history.
May 15 2006
WTF?!
I was doing a Google Images search for “overalls back” to–you guessed it–find pictures of how the shoulder straps of overalls worked for my “Haunted Mansion” story I’m working on (one of the characters wears overalls) and this turned up:
(Click for larger image)
I’d like to consider myself “worldly,” but I have to confess, I don’t really even know what this is supposed to be. Is it supposed to be sexy? Is it some kind of bio-terrorisim/anthrax thing? I just don’t know.
I guess the only real explanation is: it’s German.
Recent Comments