Quit Hoggin' all the Covers

One thing that sticks in my mind from childhood are the comics. And their covers are branded into my memory. Some of these I had, some of them I didn't. Some were issues I saw in stores. A lot were from my brother's collection that I wasn't aloud to touch. He had boxes of them (still does), all bagged and boarded, and the smell of the plastic bags and paper pages still hang heavy on my senses just like the Turkey did long after the Bumpus Hounds dragged it away.  

Todd McFarlane

Ron Frenz & Klaus Janson

Todd McFarlane

Spider-Man covers. Whether they are Amazing or not stuck so well in my brain. In fact I have written a short story about them.

Brian Bolland

Killing Joke. SMILE

Arthur "Art" Adams

Tod McFarlane & Bob Wiacek

One of the greatest covers of all time. So awesome.

Howard Chaykin

Cool cover for Indy although this isn't the one that really sticks in my mind. The one that I can't find an image of was of Indy getting attacked by skeletons rising from the dead. I specifically remember being really disappointed in the comic because the only skeletons inside rose on the very last page.

George Perez

The Gauntlet.

Jhonen Vasquez

We found a Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comic. Just lying on a ledge somewhere in the Valley. It introduced us into this world. The art was so good. The comedy so biting. I felt like I shouldn't be reading it.

Brian Bolland

OK, not a cover. Just the Killing Joke art was very remember-ie.

Lynn Varley

Lone Wolf and Cub. Creepy. And so mind sticking.

Dale Keown?

When Image started there were quite a lot of covers that spoke to me. They were everywhere.

Mike Zeck & John Beatty

Kevin Eastman

Oh the many covers of TMNT... The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a huge part of my life. The comics, movies, tv-shows, action figures, role playing games, all of it. I would love to see a TMNT movie the calls back to the comics.

I don't know who did the bag art

Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding

Superman's "death". I remember the day well. Check out this "somewhat-mostly-accurate educational parody" of the Death of Superman. Its pretty awesome.

Todd McFarlane

Spawn. I remember staying with my brother at his apartment when this came out. I had a Wizard that I would copy pictures out of. McFarlane really ignited my love of drawing. 

Howard Chaykin & Tom Palmer

These Star Wars comics really bring that loving plastic aroma to my mind.  My brother had them all.

Frank Miller & Joe Rubinstein

Wolverine 1 beckons.

updated - Will add credts... soon.

These are all just kinda off the top of my melon.

Of course there are always the classics like Action Comics #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #1, Detective Comics #27, Silver Surfer #4, Batman #1 and #194, Superman #1, #269 and a whole mess more. But this time I went with these which were a bit more of my generation of comics. And I think that once I start thinking a little bit this blog post may be ever-expanding.

Snikt!

Its Magic Time

GO DODGERS!

here is
more info
on the Magic of baseball

Ad Wizards

On my way back from Wondercon, stopped at Amoeba Records to get some Battlestar and then 7-11 for some refreshments. Across the street from 7-11 I saw this. I think the ad wizards behind the Los Angeles Kings' billboard telling us "Its Brown Time!" may be behind this as well.  

In case you were fuzzy on the pronunciation.

Look about five lines up from the bottom.

Gone Wonderin'

That's what I fastened on the door before heading down to the wondercon 2012, this year in aniheim, in the rain, with a girls volleyball convention (or tournament?) as well as a cheerleader convention (or tournament?) happening simultaneously at the convention center. 

It was interesting. On Friday it was awesome. The floor was easy to walk. I never once ran into anyone or bumped into anyone. Or felt as though I was being swallowed by a crowd. I was complimented on my shirt. The place was a nice low volume of people level. Etc.

On Saturday it was so busy that they had to turn away a Knight of Ni.

(Not really.)

Saturday was the type of day where you see a baby in an R2 unit. 

Paid $1 for a commissioned original of Thor by inking wonder Danny Miki,'s son.

I would definitely pick up a comic done by this kid.

Saw Ralph Bakshi, the Seeker (didn't realize how exited I would be about that) no Kailin though or Zed. Saw Lou Ferigno, not Sir Ridley Scott (DANGIT), no slave leias (that was a bit unsettling... con.. with no... slave leias?), Tom Servo, Crooooooooow (not really Crow), Jhonen Vasquez, The Axe Cop artist (no writer though... prolly had school), didn't see a whole heckofalot of Hunger Games things which was a surprise, found Tale of Sand, which is a lost screenplay of Jim Henson's. He wrote it with Juhl. The girl said it was about a guy who gets tossed into the desert with a map and told not to trust the map. Then he's attacked by something and something else and football players. She said it was crazy surrealism. Sold.

Axe Cop: Written by a 6 year old. Drawn by his 30 year old brother. So good.

I also made sure to boycott all Marvel items, comics, whatever. After what they did to Gary Friedrich (creator of Ghost Rider) I couldn't not. I would not expect a big corporation like them to give anything to the creator, but to steal from the sick and penniless... uuhggh.. disgusting. GRRM says it better here than I could so if you're interested check it out. http://grrm.livejournal.com/268609.html

And I didn't see this before (my sister Jenkins was the photographer at the con), but is that ODAMA with Luck-o-the-Irish Chewbacca???? How could I have missed that? Anyway... I missed all the panels I wanted to see, but it didn't really matter, I just love comic conventions.

Too bad my brother wasn't there.

Lone Wolf and the Wizard of the Comic Book

I used to play Lone Wolf books. Yes I said play. They were a choose-your-own-adventure book... well that's not exactly true..

"Choose Your Own Adventure" books are certain brand of choose-your-own-adventure books (like how scotch tape is really a brand of cellophane tape). And this wasn't part of that series. This was longer and fight-i-er. With swords and magic and a map and meals consisting of large chunks of cheese. This was BETTER than a choose-your-own-adventure. In this book YOU were Lone Wolf - YOU determined your destiny (as it said on the cover). THIS was a Role Playing Adventure!

I found a copy of Lone Wolf: The Dungeons of Torgar A Magnakai Adventure, at the awesome Iliad Bookshop which I have been frequenting since I was around fifteen.

I bought it mainly for the printed out, taped on, inscription on the scroll page.

So let us take a ride around Joe Dever's awesome-promising Book 10 of the Lone Wolf series...

Cover Price $3.50... word

Did you know that there has never been a case in documented history of a human dying from a wolf attack. Meaning: They're our friends.

Maps are so cool. 'Specially liked the ones from the LW books. They were printed on different paper.

Who are you Wizard of the Comic Book? A tiny wizard that lives in a comic book. Or a magician who gets his powers from comics, drains them and gains the powers inside. Maybe a soothsayer robed in comics, his insides and paper skin is made from them, their stories and pages, rainbow colored ink courses through his veins, and manipulator of ideas, thoughts, and dreams. Or did your mom coin the name? Then printed and taped it on to the book before giving it to you, and you didn't want to hurt her feelings. So you left it in there. I don't know, Wes Rhea, maybe you are a girl.

 

 I choose short sword!

And regular sword!

This page always made me leave the room and get a snack.

 

No it didn't hit the zero. It was on the line! REDO!

The story so far...

Ookoolaylay Ghost

Today we have my ukulele. She rocks.

And Ghost Dick has made his return on some fake legal pad sheets.

 

Of Girls and Unicorns

This is a revisitationrevisiualzation of something old. Of a girl and a robot.

And I can't remember if this has been on here before or not... if so I'll replace it if it is... but it kind of went so very well with this one.

Dick n Wand

Here we got a wand I pulled from the ether and sculpted. And An idea for a Ghost Dick comic. I know, right? Its been so long... but Ghost Dick and Friends could be coming back at least for a short run. So best start a celebration dance.

Films and Films

So I recently watched a documentary entitled, These Amazing Shadows, about the National Film Registry. Basically it is a government run program, part if the Library of Congress, that chooses 25 films every December to preserve, or/or restore. A lot of films have been very badly damaged, mishandled, stored poorly, and neglected over the years and even more have been lost or destroyed completely. This art form needs to be preserved as other great works of art in various areas have been.

So far I'm diggin' a lot of their selections. Among the many movies (I think there are around 500 so far) they have The Court Jester, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Back to the Future, Thriller, Fargo, that "Let's all go to the lobby" animation, Endless Summer, Freaks, the Black Stallion, the Philadelphia Story, and a home movie called Disneyland Dream that was made by a family in the 50s (1956 I think) that won a trip to D-land from "Scotch: a cellophane tape company".

So with little further ado here is my list. If I was given complete control of this year's films and didn't give a whole heck of a lot of thought behind it (Which I'm sure I could hone and agonize over until December) this is what I came up with. Keep in mind they must be at least 10 years old, from the good ole US of A, and be culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.

*note these are in no particular order*


1   a christmas story
2   the big lebowski
3   the good the bad and the ugly
4   footage of troll in a house in northern california . (home movie)
5   pulp fiction
6   rope
7   beautiful girls
8   the body (buffy the vampire slayer season 5)
9   dark days
10  the princess bride
11  plan 9 from outer space
12  planes trains and automobiles
13  the dark crystal
14  tron (original)
15  fight club
16  the nightmare before christmas
17  old yeller
18  the elephant man
19  stand by me
20  who framed roger rabbit
21  style wars
22  dazed and confused
23  the jerk
24  my dinner with andre
25  boogie nights

...wow... that was much more difficult than I thought. I'm sure some sentimentality played a small roll in that list and I still have tons more I was pained to leave off. I mean, how can I leave off:

rio bravo

mary poppins 

national lampoons vacation

wonka

untouchables

ghostbusters

big

the royal tenenbaums

the matrix

eraserhead
unbreakable
the many adventures of winnie the pooh
clerks
ed wood
arthur
the usual suspects
punch-drunk love
ferris bueler's day off
troll 2
deep throat
charlie brown christmas n great pumpkin
alice in wonderland (disney animated version)
robin hood (disney animated version)
made
evil dead 
finding nemo
texas chainsaw massacre
swingers
donnie darko
requiem for a dream
memento
deep throat

...I better stop this could go on and on and on and on and on and on

Zombie + Stone

A quick little pic of a zombie in the kitchen...

And a quick little caricature of Sharon Stone from Casino...

Ôbayashi and Kurosawa

I did a couple caricatures for the Caricaturama 3000. This past week was a tribute to Japan. If you haven't donated anything yet and are looking to do so you can always donate $10 by texting "REDCROSS" to 90999.

My choices were Akira Kurosawa and Nobuhiko Ôbayashi. Two great Japanese directors. If you aren't familiar with them check out Seven Samurai and House. Ôbayashi is a little less well known than Kurosawa and a little more experimental. Check out the trailer for House here.

CS Open and An Old Bed

This week we have my scene from the good ole CS Open (Round 1), which I couldn't get to until just before the deadline) and a T-Shirt design I did a while back that I never really finished (I'd love to water color it at some point though).

In this scene we were given a prompt:

Your PROTAGONIST and his or her LOVE INTEREST are at odds. One of the protagonist’s schemes has gone terribly awry, and the love interest has had it. Write a scene in which they have it out – but in an unconventional way. Their words seem measured and reasonable; but the subtext says another thing entirely. You may use additional characters other than the ones specified.

So I tried to marinate it in subtext.

Bro and Pops

Well its been over a month since I've thrown a couple things up here (a long month for other reasons than the lack of blog posts) and I thought I would just throw a couple things up to well, have a little more substance (literally, not figuratively).

Let's see, what to throw up. OK how about a couple caricatures of my bro and pops.