Click here for the full episode/strip.
I’m going to try a new feature here wherein each week I present “Stick Figure Night Live”, a recap/review/commentary on that weeks’ Saturday Night Live episode. I’ve been a watcher and fan of the show since I was old enough to watch it, in all of its highs and lows.
What’s a stick figure recap/review/commentary? Well, here’s the SNL Cold Open from this past weekend:
In keeping with the live aspect of the show, this comic was done as I watched, during commercial breaks, etc. In full disclosure there were momentary pauses so I could get everything down and I did a bit of aesthetic clean-up digitally.
Curious? Interested? Entertained? Angered? Click here for the complete Stick Figure Night Live! #1, starring Amy Poehler and Katy Perry.
It occurred to me that while I’ve been working fairly steadily on comics and comic related business in 2010, everything I’ve been working on won’t see print until 2011…and some of it won’t even see print in the United States.
So come February 2011, SPONGEBOB COMICS #1 will start the bi-monthly run of that series. More on that in the coming months, I’m sure.
And in the past month or so I’ve got a new cultural comics icon to add to my “I’ve worked on…” list: the heroes in a half shell themselves, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There’s a slight catch though. Remember when I said “some of it won’t even see print in the United States?” Well, these TMNT comics are being published in the UK, Russia, Poland, etc.
So for what it’s worth, I thought I’d share a couple of pages of inks of said comics. Here’s a 2-page story wherein the Turtles get into it with the Foot Clan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
So, vacation’s the wrong word for it, because it’s very much work-work-work, but who am I to deny the playful flow of a post title?
But yes, Comic-Con 2010 ended on Sunday, 7/25, and as always, it was a whirlwind.
Many sketches were sketched, among them a “Punisher being annoyed by SpongeBob and Patrick”, a series of Batman related head shots (I was particularly pleased with the Clayface; hopefully I’ll get a scan of that soon), and interestingly enough, two separate requests for me to draw people’s dogs.
I’m happy to say a nice number of people picked up copies of the X-BABIES paperback collection, and I got to meet a nice bunch of folks who’d read and enjoyed the series when it came out at the end of last year. On the flip side, there were those two “industry” dudes who in one conversation passively mocked the X-Babies, but the less said about them the better (save for the fact that, if they read X-Babies they’d see that we were taking jabs at them, so ha-ha indeed!).
Once again I’m attending Comic-Con International in San Diego, specifically holding it down in Artists Alley, table FF-18. I will have books, original art, and prints for sale, along with doing “sketches by request”, as usual.
Over the years a lot of people have lamented the growth of the con and that “it’s not even about comics anymore”. To that I say embrace it! For all the shop talk about bringing in new readers to comics and expanding the audience, it seems an event called Comic-Con that brings in people who while not specifically comics readers, dig on things that could be tangentially connected, could be a good thing and a good opportunity to reach out and/or open our arms to the anime/manga fans, the video game/MMORPG gamers, sci-fi aficionados, and yes, even Twilight fans.
I for one encourage you all to stop by and have a chat with me about any of it. It is convention after all, where people convene and discuss and share. So let’s do that!
Yesterday, DC Comics announced and released a new approach and costume design for Wonder Woman. The first appearance of this “new” Wonder Woman is in WONDER WOMAN #600, released today.
(New on the left, Traditional on the right)
This isn’t the first time Wonder Woman (or any other superhero) has had a costume change and likely won’t be the last. But as so many announcements in comic book/superhero land, it gets buzz and sparks conversation.
It got me to dig up some sketches I’d done a while back after discussing Wonder Woman in an Re: Comics column for acmecomics.com (read it here). Given the buzz I thought I’d share. (and if you want more Wonder Woman designs, check out Dean Trippe’s Project Rooftop site here, where numerous cartoonists submitted designs back in 2007)
Tomorrow, June 3, the X-Babies mini-series I wrote gets released in its “graphic novel” collected edition; all four issues, alternate covers, and even some design/development sketches…96 pages under glorious paperback stock covers!
With its release, I wanted to share an e-mail sent to myself and (X-Babies artist) Jacob Chabot shortly after the release of X-BABIES #4 in January. It’s a long one, even edited a bit for content (and be warned, there are spoilers) but worth sticking with it. The sender, Dennis, wrote:
Many years ago, during my time at Marvel Comics, assistant editors (of which I was one) attended semi-weekly “Assistant Editors’ Classes”, something that happened throughout Marvel’s history from time to time. This round of classes were taught alternately by Chris Claremont and Mark Waid, both of whom were (and are) renowned for their work as comics writers. And the classes were less about being assistant editors and more about thinking about comics, characters, etc.
For a series of weeks we were given some homework. The first assignment was to choose either The Avengers or the X-Men, select a roster of six characters to make up that team, and explain why.
The second assignment was to take the team you’d composed and develop a proposal for a year’s worth of stories and what, given the power to do so, you’d do with the team/title you’d chosen – in theory something different than what was, at the time, happening in those series.
As a long-time Avengers fan…and at the time assistant editor of The Avengers, naturally I chose The Avengers. I composed my team and following that developed a proposal that took some glee in the hypothetical nature of it. In a nutshell, I proposed a storyline that would change the very nature of what The Avengers was, how the team functioned, etc. Something different.
In light of recent and not-so-recent goings on with Avengers comics over the past seven years (and for those who don’t follow this sort of thing I did consider taking the long way and explaining it all, but thought that might be…tedious) and more recently the launch of a brand new Avengers series last week, I thought I’d drag out and share the line-up and proposal I’d written way back when.
In reflecting on it I can’t help but notice some of the…similarities to what’s happened over the past seven years. Stylistically, yes, there are huge differences, but thematically, for those who’ve been paying attention, there are definite parallels.
The point of this isn’t to show off in an “I had this idea first!” sort of way…well, maybe a little…but really, it’s more to show how there’s sometimes parallel thinking out there and how similar ideas can be explored or executed differently. As to whether those ideas or stories are worth exploring…or whether the executions worked or didn’t, that’s a whole different discussion and surely a matter of personal taste and opinion.
But, for those who are interested, you can read my “take”, as it was written over 10 years ago, by clicking here.
The first Saturday in May is and has been, for the past several years, “Free Comic Book Day“. This means that you could go into any participating comic book store and they’ll have a selection of comics available…FREE.
Over the years, FCBD has become a bigger and bigger event, with publishers generating original content and comic book shops putting together events, promotions and sales to commemorate and maximize the event, including participation and appearances by comics creators.
For example, a store mentioned on this here site more than once, Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, has become well known for their FCBD events, bringing in a slew of writers and artists and drawing huge crowds.
To that end, this coming Saturday, May 1, check out your local comic book shop and see what’s going on. At the very least you’ll get some free comics. At the very best it’ll be like a miniature convention. And if you’re in or near Bloomfield, NJ, stop by The Comic Book Market (28 Washington Street), where I’ll be alongside my pal and co-conspirator on X-BABIES, Jacob Chabot, signin’ and sketchin’.
And if you don’t know where your local comics shop is, well, click here to find it!