Old School Marvel: Giant-Size Man-Thing

Just surfing around looking at old Marvel comic book covers before heading home from work. Came across this one. I have the sense of humor of a 10 year old, because the title of this comic still makes me snicker.

The King’s Birthday

August 28th is Jack Kirby’s birthday, he would’ve been 91 years old today. Jack was and is still the King. His creations are having impact on both DC and Marvel Comic universes today and you still still see his influence artwork today. DC’s Final Crisis deals heavily with Kirby’s New Gods, something that I’m enjoying a great deal about the event.

From the Sketchbook: Funny Animal – Giraffe

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything from my sketch book. Honestly its been awhile since I just sat down and drew anything. Well tonight I had a chance here’s one character from the big page I filled tonight. I’ll try to get back into this again. Aside from my opinions and thoughts I wanted this blog to be a place to post up my illustrations and doodles.

Hopefully this will be the a renewed feature on here, starting with this guy right here.

Saturday Morning Wayback Machine: Captain Caveman & the Teen Angels

As folks who know me know, I enjoy many of the current cartoons out there. I dig Spongebob Squarepants and Foster’s Home of Imaginary Friends, I watch Avatar the Last Airbender, Teen Titans or Ben 10 whenever I can. But the kid in me still wants some of my old cartoon pals to have some new adventures. Captain Caveman is one of them. Voiced by Mel Blanc, Capt. Caveman was one of Hanna-Barbera’s more unique creations. He was fun to imitate and his use of “Flintstones” technology to fight crime was awesome to behold. I’m still unclear where all that stuff he pulled out of his fur came from. Did he just have big pocket under there or was he a walking prehistoric dimensional rift to a hardware store in Bedrock. Either way good times were had by all each and every Saturday morning with Cavie. And I even enjoyed the Capt. Caveman and Son series, I’ll admit it. Don’t judge me!

Star Wars – The Mighty Marvel Way

Back in the day Marvel Comics was the license holder for Star Wars comic book. In-between the movies, fans could read about the further adventures of the Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids. These stories were sometime really cool, sometimes totally off the wall, and all completely not considered part of the Star Wars continuity canon. But they were fun. Rebelscum.com has an archive of all the covers from the Marvel Star Wars series that went from the 70’s thru the mid 80′.

I dig the Green Rabbit Man and the Obi-Wan Kenobi wannabe on this cover. Plus it looks like Chewie was on ‘roids at this time in the series.

http://www.rebelscum.com/marvelcomics1.asp

Comic Book Review: Amazing Spider-Man #562-563, Final Crisis #2

Amazing Spider-Man #562-563 – Marvel Comics

Written by Bob Gale
Covers and Pencils by Mike McKone

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve bought an Amazing Spider-Man book. I’ve ranted a great deal on this blog and elsewhere about my displeasure with the giant cop out storyline that erased Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane, his revealing his secret ID to the world, amongst other things. But what’s done is done. I had to at least read a few issues to see what has resulted from that black mark in modern comic history.

As I expected, I liked the results. I was never a fan of Peter Parker getting married to MJ, his revealing his identity was a stupid, stupid idea. Hell I don’t even like the idea of him being a part of the Avengers, too bad they didn’t erase that while they were butchering up his background. I love having Peter Parker as the loveable loser, scrapping for rent money, cracking wise while dealing with local NYC crooks and criminals. This two parter story with the introduction of the Bookie character, and coming back to the super villian hangout the “Bar With No Name” was awesome. The story was fun, both the Peter Parker storyline with him trying to find photo assignments after being black-listed by the current publisher of the Daily Bugle and the Spider-Man storyline where he tries to figure out who is placing bets on his crime fighting activity.

This is the kind of Spider-Man stories that I love. And I’m happy they’ve moved him to just one book. And I’m happy I didn’t even hear a mention of the Avengers or Skrulls in this book. So I’ll just chalk this up to making lemonade out of lemons….NO NO I hate how we got to this point, BUT I’m glad this is the type of Spider-Man book that Marvel is putting out. Damn it, just because I like this doesn’t mean I agree with what they did. I still feel guilty about enjoying these couple of issues, almost dirty.

Final Crisis #2 – DC Comics

Written by Grant Morrison
Art and covers by J.G. Jones

Okay, I liked the issue. I wasn’t sure about Final Crisis after reading #1, but this second issue really gets things moving. I only half paid attention to the Seven Soldiers groups of mini series a couple years ago, and didn’t even crack open any of the Countdown to Final Crisis issues. But jumping into this cold its only taken me 2 issues to get into it. Maybe I’ll pick up the past stuff for 50 cents a pop at a convention next year.

We’ve got Martian Manhunter’s funeral, time traveling bullets, the ongoing investigation of the New God Orion’s death by the a representative of the universal police the Alpha Corp, a group superior to the Green Lantern Corp. We also get a glimpse into the current superhero scene in Tokyo where Mr. Miracle is recruiting heroes to assist him in fighting the immergence of Darkseid’s forces on Earth. Loads of other great (return of Barry Allen) and some skin crawling scenes, some scenes are downright brutal (specifically the total beating of the Mad Hatter).This issue is down right dark to put it mildly. Once again DC really goes to the dark end of things for their summer event. A couple years ago we had DC going to the dark side in Identity Crisis where we dealt with issues of rape, murder of the innocent, and immoral use of powers.

While I enjoyed the writing and artwork is this issue and am looking forward to the next… I still have that voice in the back of my head asking why DC has to always go so dark in their storylines. Maybe they’ll get it out of their system when this Crisis ends. Meanwhile I’m squashing this goody-goody voice in my head and enjoying the ride.

New Punisher Warzone Posters Revealed

Two new Punisher: Warzone Posters are making the rounds on the Internet today. They were seen at a get together held by one of the producers of the film. This new Punisher film is being brought to theaters this December by Lionsgate Entertainment. A trailer is also viewable at http://www.punishermovie.com/ . Honestly I’ve always enjoyed reading Punisher comics. He’s a character that usually attracts talented writers and artist, but seeing this character brought to the big screen hasn’t held any appeal to me. I haven’t watched either of the two previous attempts to adapt the Punisher to the big screen, not even on cable at night when there is nothing on.  Looking at the trailer, I’m not motivated to watch this one either.  Maybe upcoming trailers will amp me up on this one.

On another topic, I’m finding this trend of stylized single character posing posters to be really tiresome. They do nothing to get me excited about a film. GI Joe and The Spirit have been using this method as well.

Comic Book Review: Guardians of the Galaxy #2, Capt. Britain and MI13, Plus Spider-man confession

Okay finally back into my normal routine, I picked up a healthy stack of comic books on Wed. since I hadn’t been to the shop in a couple of weeks. WOW, what a great group of books. I don’t know what is going on this month, but I loved everything I read. So get ready for some gushing over these books.

Guardians of the Galaxy #2 – Marvel Comics

Written by DAN ABNETT & ANDY LANNING
Penciled by PAUL PELLETIER
Cover by CLINT LANGLEY

IF for some reason you missed out on the past Annihilation series, if you are looking for something new in Marvel Comics outside of the earthbound super heroics. If you are just looking for some good team-based action without all the Civil War/Skrull/Initiative trappings that Marvel has going on then this book is for you. Hell if you just want good writing, great characterizations, solid storytelling & art then this book is a must. I’ve been a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy in their previous incarnations, and though this team doesn’t resemble the former groups to hold this name (except for one person) this is a great book to highlight characters that have really had a chance to shine in Marvel’s cosmic mini-series events over the past couple of years. Abnett and Lanning have made these characters their own and so far this series really shows off the strengths of these heroes even more. The team is an eclectic mix: Starlord, Adam Warlock, Rocket Raccoon, Mantis, Gamorra, Quasar, Drax the Destroyer, and Groot. Their job is basically to fix the damage to the fabric of the Universe wrought by the previous Annihilation events. I don’t want to give too much away about the book, but its not too late to pick up #1 & #2.

Captain Britain & MI 13 #2 – Marvel Comics

Written by PAUL CORNELL
Penciled by LEONARD KIRK
Cover by BRYAN HITCH

Now this series was a total surprise for me. I loved issue #1, like many people who read it. And #2 is just as good. This is the most interesting tie-in to the Secret Invasion event that Marvel is putting out. This is easily more interesting than even the main Secret Invasion book. Basically the Skrulls are attacking the UK, as they are the USA, but their battle takes place in two theatres in the United Kingdom. The first theatre being the obvious attack of the physical world and the second battle theatre takes place in the “Otherworld” which is identified as the main source of magic for Marvel Universe, described as the true heart of Britain. The Skrulls, have actually adapted technology to invaded and attack this world of magic. Taking this invasion to the metaphysical plane is such a great concept. To think that the Skrulls are that thorough in their invasion of a planet is just awesome. A metaphysical war with the Skrulls is also being explored in the Incredible Hercules title, where currently Herc and a band of Gods are seeking to destroy the Skrull Gods.

Back on topic, the art is incredible, the suspense and danger of the situations actually builds some tension. I’m sure it all turns out well in the end, but right now their is an increasing sense of monumental challenges and overwhelming odds for the dwindling heroes in this book. A great start of this series, and truely one of the two more interesting Secret Invasion tie-ins along with Incredible Hercules.

Okay now a confession on Amazing Spider-Man. I’d initially griped about the Brand New Day idea, and I still hate, hate, hate the way that was explained. BUT I gotta say, I’m liking the new Spider-Man books. Marvel has succeeded so far in making Spider-man an interesting book that is getting back to the roots that made the character fun to read. I’m giving it a chance. I’ve only read a couple issues, but so far so good.

Stan Winston, Effects Wizard and Creature Creation Genius, dead at 62

Stan Winston was a true wizard of special effects. On all levels of make-up, creature creation, and visual effects this guy was amazing. Without him movies such as Aliens, Batman Returns, Juraissic Park, Terminator 2, and many more wouldn’t have been even half as incredible. This was a man of true talent and who possessed a fertile imagination, something that Hollywood and movie fans will be really missing now that he has passed. The last movie I saw that benefited from Stan Winstons’ talents was Iron Man. His effects studio built the suits of armor used in the film.

His traditional effects and creations kept up and blended well with the computer generated effect used in modern film-making. The look of the CG Iron Man armor and the actual suit are seamless in the film. I’ve always been a big fan of the Winston Studios creation, and I hope they continue on for a long time carrying on the tradition of quality effects and imaginative creature creation set by Stan.

Stan Winston Studio Website

Iron Man Dominates & More Hulk Photos

For the second week in a row, Iron Man stood defiant on the top of the box office sales figures. The flick raked in an additional $50.5 million domestically, for an accumulative domestic gross of approx $177 million so far. Speed Racer didn’t fare to well on its opening weekend, suffering from negative buzz online and less than favorable reviews it only brought in $20.2 million narrowly locking in a 2nd place position box office sales.

I don’t think the studio plugged Speed Racer hard enough as a kids movie, with a better marketing effort Speed Racer could have done a little better in sales. But honestly, there was only so much they could do to counter all the positive chatter that has surrounded Iron Man. Even though a feature length Speed Racer film doesn’t interest me in the least, the effects and atmosphere look awesome. It looks like it’ll make a good DVD to pop into an HD set up.

More Hulk images were released, Cinematical has them available to view : http://www.cinematical.com/photos/the-incredible-hulk-1/ A few look like stills from the trailers that have been released, which is fine. Since Iron Man was so well executed, I have some new hope for the Hulk as a movie. As a shareholder, I have some concern about its performance. A lot of fans didn’t like the previous Hulk flick, and since that didn’t come out too long ago it might negatively impact sales for this movie at the box office.