Giant Robot Time!

As you can tell from the quote and picture over there to the right, I agree with Mr. Tesla that giant robots are indeed a very good thing. Consequently, I'll be featuring them here pretty regularly.  Today's is one of my favorites, courtesy of Dan Burgess.

Color Me Disturbing

My oldest daughter is terrified of frogs so she absolutely hates this picture. I love it.

Image by Riley Rossmo (I believe), colors by me.

Kill The Wabbit!

I am a HUGE Bugs Bunny fan from waaaaaaay back.

Image by Tom Whalen

Color Me Mysterious

Alex Toth, of course. Colors by me.

Mister Miracle #26

In the mid-70s, there was a short lived revival of Mister Miracle that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately it only ran 7 issues. Recently I came across some Michael Golden artwork that was supposedly going to be the cover for the next issue, #26. Alas it was never published but I had some fun imagining what it might have looked like...

 

 

Almost Recent Readings

I've realized over the last couple years that the only things I'm reading and enjoying from either Marvel or DC are limited series that usually fly under the radar, get little to no marketing push, and are generally ignored by most of the comic book population. So to do my part, I'm going to occasionally feature some of the ones that I think are exceptionally good.

But first, an image from one that I probably would have enjoyed if it had ever actually been published. Unfortunately Marvel decided not to pursue it, probably because they needed yet another Avengers or X-Men book on the racks. Maybe it would have made it if they had called it "Some Avengers and X-Men DESTROY Some Other Avengers and X-Men" Oh well...

Color My World

One of my hobbies is coloring black and white comic book art. Occasionally I'll be posting some examples here just for the fun of it (and to falsely inflate my massive ego.)  As I've been reading comics for about a 100 years, I tend to be fairly "old school" in my approach to coloring.  Not only is it what I grew up with, I also think it just looks better. So if you're a fan of flashy computerized coloring tricks or an over-rendered painterly look, I'm probably not your cup of tea - just look the other way and move briskly along. If you feel the need to critique, keep in mind that I mostly do this for fun and probably don't really care what you think. Unless of course you have the power to offer me a coloring job that pays. Then you have my full attention. First up, a nice Elektra piece by one of my favorite artists, Art Adams.

Imaginary Comics That I Would Buy In A Heartbeat

Occasionally, in my random wanderings around the internet, I come across covers for imaginary comics.  Some look good, some bad, but I always admire the artist's commitment to something that doesn't (and probably never will) exist.  Every once in a while, I come away thinking, "Wow - I would pay real money for that..."  This is one of those - probably #1 in that category at this point.  I love the concept and I love the art, especially all the "parts" from other superheroes.  I count eight - Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom, Flash and of course Luthor. Am I missing any? Let's admit it, this would be better than 95% of what DC is publishing right now. If anyone knows the name of the artist who did this, please let me know so I can give them the credit they deserve.

Comic Book Covers MY Way

For some reason, certain comic book covers really bother me and once they do, I have a hard time forgetting about them. This is the first one I remember really having a problem with. About 35 years later it was still bothering me so I changed it - not much but I think it makes a huge difference.

The original -

 My version -

More consistent, more dramatic. Am I right?

One More Bit of Fine TV

I almost forgot this one and it was one of my very favorites -

Favorite Television Shows

This one is much easier than music or movies - mostly because the huge majority of TV shows SUCK. Here are some of the very few that don't.

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW

KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER

CHEERS

CRIME STORY

NEWSRADIO

And that, my friends, is all the quality television you will ever need.

Maybe It's Not Tomorrow...

Image by Massimo Carnivale

... but it's still about MOVIES!

So that counts for something, right?

No? Eh, what do you know?

Personal favorites -
Blues Brothers - I hate Illinois nazis, too!
Blade Runner -  "... but who does?"
The Thing - Howard Hawks or Kurt Russell - they're both great.
American Graffitti - Thank goodness George Lucas hasn't felt the need to revisit and "improve" this movie. Amazing cast of relatively unknown (at the time) young actors and actresses.
Big Trouble In Little China - "It's all in the reflexes."
Joe Versus The Volcano - Far and away the best Hanks/Ryan movie. A brain cloud - heh.
Shawshank Redemption - "Hope is a good thing..."
The Green Mile
Unforgiven - "We all got it coming, kid."
The Natural - Which is sort of odd because I don't like baseball at all.
Pulp Fiction - BMF.
Unbreakable 
Alien - I even liked Alien 3.

Favorite Classics -
A Touch Of Evil
It's A Wonderful Life
From Here To Eternity

(Fairly) Recent Favorites -
Zombieland - Effing Bill Murray!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Stop comparing it to that other movie and you'll be fine.
Elf - Now THAT is how you do a Christmas Movie.

Favorite Types of Movies -
Classic Horror and Sci-Fi 

Favorite Movie City -
Chicago (The Untouchables, The Fugitive, Thief, Ferris Bueller, Risky Business, Blues Brothers, About Last Night, Sixteen Candles, Planes Trains and Automobiles (sort of), I could go on and on and on)

Best Movie That I Hated At First But Now Actually Like Quite A Bit -
As Good As It Gets - Always thought this would translate into a really good television series with the right casting - think "The Odd Couple" updated.

Worst Movie I Have Ever Actually Watched -
When A Man Loves A Woman - I have never wanted to slap two people around as much as I wanted to slap Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan during this movie.

Movies I Will NEVER Watch -
Footloose - Crazy dance-obsessed ex-girlfriend. 'Nuff Said.
Platoon - Because one too many persons told me, "You just HAVE to see it, it will change your life!"  No, it won't. Because I am NEVER going to watch it just to spite you.

Strangest Movie That I Have An Unexplainable Love For -
Neighbors - Belushi/Akroyd. Just plain weird.

Best Made-For-TV Movie -
A Christmas Carol - The one with Patrick Stewart - authenticlly English in all the right ways.

What Do You Want For Nothing?

...rubber biscuits?!? So sue me, I've been busy. But now I'm back, baby! (said in my best Frank Costanza voice) In celebration of my return, I've decided to give you a little insight into some of my favorite things. So, you know, you can see what good taste I have.

Where to start? How 'bout some music since I'm such a big, big fan.

Groups? Cracker, The Hold Steady, Spoon, Rolling Stones, Del-Lords, Ramones, AC/DC, Big Dipper, Replacements, Jason and the Scorchers, Old 97s, Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy.

Singer/songwriters? Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, Peter Wolf, Ian Hunter, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty,  Eddie Money.

Styles? 50s and 60s Soul, Chicago Blues, 80s Alternative, 80s Funk

...and given all of that, my favorite song right now is...
Black Eyed Peas "Where Is The Love?" That only makes sense right?

Tomorrow - movies!

Things I'm Really Looking Forward To

You cannot go wrong with "The Dude". And no, I'm not talking about anyone named Lebowski.

This Guy Is Amazing

 

If you've never seen or heard of R. Kikuo Johnson, you ought to head over and check out his website at http://www.seabread.com/. Some really cool stuff.

Behold the Wonder!

Next. Best. Comic. Book. Cover. Ever.

 

Of all the "horror" comic books I read and loved as a kid, this is the one that both fascinated and scared the heck out of me the most. It still has some kind of weird hypnotic power over me when I see it.

Best. Comic. Book. Cover. Ever.

Without a doubt the best (or at least my favorite) long-term rivalry in comics is Hulk vs. Thing and this is the best of all their big battle covers. Can you get anymore iconic, any more "comic-book-y" than this? It's simple, it's to the point, it's two heavyweights getting ready to just beat the heck out of each other. Even the colors are perfect - the orange Thing, the green Hulk, the dramatic black background. Just great, great stuff. No distracting details, no silly marketing ploys, no "Part 13 of 32" to clutter it all up. Compare this to some of the goofy looking covers out there now days and try not to get too depressed. 'Nuff Said.

It's Not "All-Star Batman and Robin"...

As anyone who follows comics on the internet knows, there have been a thousand and one takes on All-Star Batman and Robin, from the outraged to the confused to the admired. I think most people are missing the point because this isn't really the comic book they think it is.

This isn't the companion book to "All-Star Superman", as the name implies. It's not an iconic look at Batman for the ages. No, it's something very different but no less admirable. It is quite simply, as each new issue continues to confirm, the prequel to "Dark Knight Returns". It is "Dark Knight: Year One" (as opposed to the equally impressive "Batman: Year One", which dealt with early "mainstream" Batman.) I'll be the first to confess that I didn't get this when it first came out. I was expecting Miller and Lee's mirror version/companion piece to Morrison and Quitely's outstanding Superman book. But, to each team's credit, they are as different as night and day.

Whether this was the initial plan (I doubt it) or just how it happened to work out, isn't really important. And, although I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, it seems like a premeditated return volley from Miller in response to the reception of his "Dark Knight Strikes Again", which I think suffered from many of the same things this series does - massive pre-misconceptions as to what it would and should be, confusion over what it actually was and what it was saying. From experience, I can say that both series benefit greatly from re-readings, without the pressure of personal expectations. Try reading the first 5 issues of "All-Star" again with the assumption that it is "Dark Knight: Year One" and tell me it doesn't make a whole lot more sense and that it isn't a whole lot more enjoyable. Go ahead, I dare you.