Monday, November 29, 2010

More Reposted Images



I've rescanned and reposted a bunch more of my cut paper collage portraits of various cartoon characters. You can follow the links below to the posts. There are only about two dozen left for me to redo.

Again, I'll be offering most of these up for sale. That list should be up in a couple more days. In the meantime, if anything catches your eye, please let me know if you're interested in purchasing it.


Red Hot Riding Hood

Velma Dinkley

Tweety

Bubi Bear

Morocco Mole

Gloop and Gleep

Atom Ant

Hong Kong Phooey

Snidely Whiplash

Yakky Doodle

Martian

Solomon Grundy

Mighty Mouse

Mr. Spacely

Snagglepuss

Dino

Dr. Benton Quest

Felix the Cat

Casper

Magilla Gorilla

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Old Image Files Rescanned and Reposted + Cartoon Collages for Sale





About a year ago I discovered that the images from a whole bunch of posts were gone because I'd stopped using the account that stored them leading to the tedious process of rescanning and reposting those images. Most of these were of cut paper collage portraits I did of various animated cartoon characters which were under the heading of "Fun with Scissors."

Tonight I came across a bunch of these collage portraits which needed rescanning and reposting. They are listed below.

I've also decided that I need to clean house to make room for a large number of new collages that I'll be creating for three group art shows I'll be participating in in 2011. So, I'm putting most of the cartoon character portraits that I have left on sale. Most will be for between $30 --$50, with a few for even less, and a few for a bit more. Shipping will be a uniform $6.00 (in the U.S. only. Over seas will vary by location, but it won't be inflated beyond actual price) no matter how many you buy. The shipping price might seem high, but I find that if I use expedited shipping there tends to be less time for chances of damage to occur.

I'll be putting a price list up in a few days, but if there's anything you're interested in and want to make a claim, or inquiry as to availability and price, please let me know. Most of these collages are on 81/2 x11 inch backgrounds, which in most cases can be matted as 8 x 10. If you check "Fun With Scissors" entries from 2006 in my archives you can see the entire series.




Ookla


Ant and Aardvark


Droopy

Captain Caveman

Inch High, Private Eye

The Phantom Shadow

Blip

Dino Boy and Bronty

Cindy Bear

Tornado Man

Yankee Doodle Pigeon

Bugs Bunny

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Cartoon Network 2-in-1.




Available today at a comic book store near you (and next week elsewhere) is the Cartoon Network 2-in1: Ben10: Alien Force/ The Secret Saturdays trade paperback collection of stories collected from the Cartoon Network Action Pack comic book series. This book contains all but three or four of the published The Secret Saturdays comic book stories, almost all of which I wrote. 

The book is full of great art, writing,  action, adventure and more monsters than can hide under your bed. It makes a swell gift for that kid you know who loves comics, cartoons, cryptozoology, or any of the elements mentioned above. All for $12.99. You can see the front and back covers at the top of this page. 



Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ingrid Pitt (1937-2010)


While stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were the male faces of Hammer studios, Ingrid Pitt was the female face of the studio even though she'd only starred in two of their movies; The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula.

Born in Poland as Ingoushka Petrov, she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp. She later embarked on an acting career with a smal role in Dr. Zhivago followed by Where Eagles Dare. It is her body of horror films for which she's best remembered, which included The Wicker Man and The House that Dripped Blood, but particularly her pair of Hammer movies which pushed the boundaries of nudity and eroticism in horror films to new limits.

While she continued to act she focused most of her talents on writing and has published a number of books and articles.

She died today, two days after her 73rd birthday,  from heart failure after collapsing.

Happy Birthday, Boris Karloff!


Today is the birthday of Boris Karloff, who was born in 1887 and has provided me with endless enjoyment and inspiration through his various film and television appearances, vocal recordings, and even comic book series that he lent his name and image to. He's like comfort food for me.

I've posted about him numerous times in the past and will no doubt do so numerous times in the future. Today I'll be celebrating his birthday no doubt by cracking open the new Thriller: The Complete Series DVD set.

Here's to you Boris!

     

Monday, November 22, 2010

Mad Scientist #22



The excellent classic monster magazine, MAD SCIENTIST has a new issue available to order. Issue #22 has a great cover by Bob Eggleton, articles on Varan the Unbelievable, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Science Fiction LPs, an extensive interview with Larry "Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" Blamire on all of his films, and artwork by Bernie Wrightson, Don Marquez, Jim Garrison and myself. I also contributed a lengthy article on one of my favorite genre films of all time, Brides of Dracula.

All of this and more for $5.00 + $1.00 shipping and well worth every penny. Feel free to tell 'em I sent you. Ordering information as well as the full contents and back issue information can all be found here.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

From the Archives 8



In lieu of any major announcements concerning the forthcoming new XOMBI series from DC Comics, I decided to share a drawing made for me around 1994-1995, when the previous incarnation of XOMBI was in progress. I have a number of sketches of XOMBI characters done by some impressive comic book artists who never worked on the series itself. This drawing of Catholic Girl by Adam Hughes is one of my very favorites. First, it's just an absolutely amazing drawing of her. Nobody in comics is able to depict women like Adam Hughes. Second, it has great attitude and a sense of humor. Third, it is likely the only piece of art by Adam Hughes depicting a flat chested heroine. If Catholic Girl ever gets her own mini-series, I know who I want to handle the cover art.

Regarding the forthcoming XOMBI series, I can offer up a few tidbits. I have now written the scripts for the first two issues. There is an exciting artist working on the series. I can't tell you who it is yet. Because there's been a bit of panic because XOMBI did not appear in the February solicitations as was initially announced, fear not, it's launch has been pushed back to give the artist time to give it his all rather than rush them for a February debut. XOMBI is still coming. You just have to wait a little longer, but it will be worth the wait.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Adam Kadmon

Sean Cloran asked if there was "an actor that provided the spark of inspiration for Adam in Midnight, Mass. (like Famke Janssen for Julia)?"

Midnight, Mass. was my Vertigo comic about a glamorous, famous, married couple of paranormal investigators, Adam and Julia Kadmon who operated out of a mansion in the coastal town of Midnight, Massachusetts. The comic book was published in the early 2000s but went through a number of incarnations going back to about 1988. The earliest versions did not really use any one as models for the characters, but I found as I worked on other projects that using actors, or other known people as approximate stand-ins for characters gave a better sense of what you a writer was looking for from an artist.

When I got to thinking about Midnight, Mass. again shortly before it finally became a reality I had an epiphany of Julia being Famke Janssen which really brought together all of the loose threads and ideas I had for the series and definitely cemented the character of Julia for me.

Her husband, Adam took a bit longer to arrive at.

My initial thoughts were that he should be someone like Peter Weller in his early to mid-thirties. I didn't think he was exactly what I was looking for, but he was close.


I tried a few other people including Bauhaus front man, Peter Murphy, who was also in the ballpark area, but not as close as Peter Weller. He also had some personal style baggage I didn't want imposed on the character. I wanted to stay away from anything Goth, or with any kind of edge that would soon become dated. I wanted a couple that was more akin to Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, but would also be convincing as a couple that could kick the crap out of ghosts and monsters. Peter Murphy was not it.


Then the day came that I was leafing through an issue of TV Guide and came across this page...


I'd never seen Angel (and still haven't) and have never seen Glen Quinn in anything, but this photograph jumped out at me and announced itself as Adama Kadmon. Subsequent photos I've found of Glen Quinn  did not all exude Adam Kadmon like this one did, and I had no idea that in some photos he would seem short, scrawny and kind of weasel-like, which were qualities I definitely did not want Adam to have. This is the photo I passed along as reference.

Below are the initial sketches of Adam Kadmon by Jesus Saiz.



I really like his version of Adam even though it strays from an exact likeness. Because of Jesus's design I would later associate two other actors with Adam Kadmon simply because of the uncanny resemblance, and in imaginary movie casting they'd be my first choices to go to. They would be Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Cillian Murphy.




Here's Paul Lee's initial sketches for the character which definitely are based on Glen Quinn.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Depicting Speed in Comics


Over at my companion blog for kids interested in comics I've put up some new posts including a link to an informative coloring tutorial, and a lengthy two part post on how the idea of speed can be conveyed in comic books.

If you have kids interested in comics take them over there and encourage them to ask questions. Grown-ups might learn something too.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

The Super Hero Squad volume 2 on DVD Today



The Super Hero Squad volume 2 DVD which contains the first episode I wrote for the show, "Night in the Sanctorum" goes on sale today. You can read more about the DVD here.


You can order the new DVD as well as volume 1 by using the links below.



  

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Historic Wonder Woman Document



Letters of Note  has a recent post regarding a letter exchanged between artist Harry G. Peter and lie detector and Wonder Woman creator Dr. William Moulton Marston with drawings and notes on costume ideas for the new character. Their is also a transcription of the exchange. The image comes from Heritage Auctions.

This is really exciting letter in that it gives us a great deal of insight into the visual creation of what is now such an iconic character.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Godzilla vs Gamera


In honor of today being Godzilla's 56th birthday, I thought I'd answer a question posed by Michael Jones, "Who'd win in a fight between Godzilla and Gamera?"

My first reaction is to ask why can't they just get along? My second, as a comic book writer, is to point out that while fighting they'd realize they were on the same side and team-up to battle Gyaos and King Ghidorah and the aliens who control them.

There are many factors to take into consideration, size, speed, stamina, agility, powers, intelligence, which incarnation of each character we're talking about, and so on.

My initial reaction would be that Godzilla would win, he's bigger, probably stronger, occasionally cunning, has his radioactive breath, and seems pretty unstoppable. At a few points in his career arc he's even meaner. He is the king of the monsters after all. And it is his birthday.

Working against Godzilla though are his slow, plodding pace of movement and he's a little slow of mind.

However, Gamera is way more agile, especially considering he's a turtle. He can fly, perform gymnastics, he's got those tusks, he always takes a serious beating in his movies with gushing green blood and everything, put never gives up. He's pretty smart. He's also nicer. If it came down to it, the military of Japan would probably back Gamera against Godzilla.

Working against Gamera are his less impressive fireball breath, the fact that if you knock him on his back, he has a hard time getting back up, and he'd probably have to fight while simultaneously protecting small children.

If it's 60s Gamera vs 60s Godzilla it would be pretty even. If it were 90s Gamera vs 90s Godzilla, I vote for Gamera all the way. 90s Godzilla was the dullest, least interesting Godzilla who mostly stood around shooting beams at his enemies while the human characters watched on tv. 90s Gamera was pretty badass for a giant turtle and took on some serious foes, including hundreds of Gyaos at the end of his final movie. Millennium Godzilla, as aggressive as he looks, is a bit smaller and weaker, and would also probably lose. The Godzilla from Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) would destroy every incarnation named above as well as their enemies and never be stopped.

More interesting to contemplate is how they'd do in some other competitions:

Downhill Skiiing - Godzilla. He has that long tail for added balance and steering.

Toboggan - Gamera. He can lie on his back and accelerate with his leg jets.

Tether Ball - Godzilla. Longer more powerful arms and a better jump would allow him to dominate.

Bowling - Godzilla. Again, the arms, the tail for balance and two foreword looking eyes give him the edge.

Chess - Gamera. Godzilla wouldn't have the patience, or temperment to plan his moves ahead.

Battleship - Godzilla. He's shown his skill at destroying the real thing time and again.

Rockem Sockem Robots - Gamera. The controllers are practically built for his stumpy arms.

Duck Duck Goose - Gamera. His flying saucer jets would easily outpace the plodding steps of Godzilla.

Trivial Pursuit -  Neither monster has demonstrated any intellectual pursuits or interest in current events.



I hope this answers your question.



       

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Coming Next Tuesday



Next Tuesday, November 9, The Super Hero Squad volume 2 will be available. It contains 6 episodes of the animated television show including "Night in the Sanctorum" which I wrote the script for.

You can pre-order it using the link below.

Monday, November 01, 2010

The Comics That Scared Me



As we slide gently away from the Halloween season (which truly is never over around here) I thought I'd post a link to a Robot 6 article in which myself and a batch of other comic book creators were asked about the comics that scared the $#!@% out of us. Here's  Part 1 and Part 2.

Ask Me Anything #4



After a month off, "Ask Me Anything" returns. Use the comments section to ask me anything you want and I will strive to answer them either in the comments section, or in more elaborate posts throughout the month.

Please take the time to view the previous questions so that we don't wind up with a lot of repetition. You can see the previous questions here  here and here. Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month.

"Ask Me Anything" is a regular feature here and appears on the first Monday of every month.

Now ask away.