Comics

And lo, there was a Comic-Con!

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San Diego’s Comic-Con International begins Wednesday night, July 22nd, with Preview Night and runs through Sunday, July 26th. When I’m not eating burgers, barbecue and fish tacos, I’ll be stationed in Artist Alley at table GG-12. I’ll be selling sketches, mini-comics, and original art from SpongeBob comics and some animated-style Batman books, as well as … Read more

Plugs, Pics, and Pix

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Golly Gee, so much going on…

Let’s start with some plugs.

First, plug-plug for G-MAN: CAPE CRISIS #1, the first issue of an all-new, 5-issue series by my friend and comics’ superstar Chris Giarrusso, who’s best known in comic book circles as the man behind Marvel Comics’ MINI-MARVELS. G-Man is Chris’ own creation, but it’s in the same spirit of the work he’s known for: kids with superpowers being awesome and funny. I’ve read the first issue and it’s great and when it hits comic shops in August, do yourself right and pick up a copy. And if that’s not incentive enough, the book’s got all kinds of back-up strips in it, a couple by yours truly (more on that in a bit).

gman_cc_miniseries_1Buy this starting in August!

Next plug: KIRBY KRACKLE is a “comic book rock band from Seattle” who I happen to be friends with (that’s right, I know rock stars). They just released their Summer Single titled “Ring Capacity”. And in as much as it’s about DC Comics’ superhero Green Lantern, it’s also a straight-up catchy rocker of a song. And it’s FREE! For serious. Go here, sign up for their mailing list, and boom, they e-mail you an mp3.

single_colorDig it.

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Comics Chatter

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RE: COMICS!, a column/conversation about comics with Stephen Mayer over at Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, is up and rolling, for those who care to read my thoughts on, well, comics. So far there’s been an intro column, a discussion of comics’ prices, and this week, talk of decompressed storytelling. If you’re interested in comics, … Read more

Re: Comics!

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I met the fine folks from Acme Comics (of Greensboro, NC), last September at the Baltimore Comic Con. At that show we spoke, naturally, of comics. That led to some e-mail exchanges and now, Stephen Mayer (one of the aforementioned fine folks), has invited/asked me to participate in a column over at their site (acmecomics.com), … Read more

The time I got to draw everyone.

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My first work in comics, in 1997, was penciling issue #104 of the comic book title WHAT IF? (Vol. 2). The comic starred the Silver Surfer and a character called The Impossible Man, a shape-changing last survivor of the destroyed planet Poppup, a planet of shape-changers. In his appearances, The Impossible Man typically wreaked impish havoc for the heroes he comes across (typically the Fantastic Four).

In this particular comic, the Impossible Man, using newly acquired infinite power, recreates his home planet, Poppup.

The result of this action plays out on the last page of the comic, when a variety of Poppupians appear. The last page of the plot (the text document a comic artist works from to draw the comic) for this story, written by Tom Virkaitis, read as follows:

PAGE TWENTY-SIX

This is an epilogue. We are now back on Thanos’ old altar. The Impossible Man (as Santa Claus) is returning the gems to the Elders of the Universe (who Impy resurrected). The Silver Surfer is also in attendance. The Elders thank Impy who transforms into Captain America and salutes them all. The Elders teleport away as a group. That’s when another Poppupian shows up as the Red Skull and tries to shoot the Impossible Man. Another Poppupian shows up as the Captain America werewolf and yet two others are arguing as to which one is the “real” Bucky (one is the original, the other is the Heroes Reborn Bucky). The Silver Surfer stands silently as all this craziness surrounds him. We pan back as the Surfer tries to convince himself that he made the right choice. “Right?”

Seems simple enough. A good amount of stuff going on, but pretty straightforward.

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“IT IS ON! We are approved.”

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Remember that story about the “NEW Marvel Tails” project that never happened? (if you don’t, scroll down two entries and learn all about it) Well, following that second attempt, the editor we spoke to had suggested possibly exploring another Marvel Comics property for any potential story ideas. After a bit of brainstorming, a new proposal … Read more

From the Reject Pile: The NEW Marvel Tails

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A couple of years back I submitted a proposal to Marvel Comics for a 4-issues series starring Spider-Ham and the rest of Marvel Comics’ “Funny Animal” characters. Working with me as the artist was the very skilled-in-his-own-right Jacob Chabot. For those who understood about 8% of that sentence: Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, is a … Read more