A symbol of truth and hope..

So this guy I work with told me to draw Bart Simpson's head on Superman's body.
I got a little carried away.

So, long, long overdue, but here are the rest of the pictures from Tara and I's trip to Cleveland to see Sloan.
Enjoy!

Have some fun for a bit.

I'm going to try to make a long story short.
I love Black Bolt.
Also, he's my dad's favorite comic character, which is pretty cool.
I was looking for an awesome picture of Black Bolt on the internet.
I just realized because I'm not telling you why I was looking for it, this story isn't very long at all.
So I found quite a few great pictures.
I also found this entry at Snark-Free Waters that can help you understand why you should like Black Bolt too.
It's called : Black Bolt : King of Kickass.
Go check it out.


And, of course, since it's all over the national news and everything, I have to mention Marvel's bullshit PR stunt of "killing" CAPTAIN GODDAMN AMERICA!
I mean, we all know he's coming back eventually (and I mean, Steve Rogers, not just someone in the Cap costume), but until that happens, I'm boycotting all Marvel comics.

...with the exception of Runaways, collections of really old stuff, and comics that have absolutely nothing to do with current continuity.

You hear that, Marvel?!
Boycott! BOYCOTT, I SAY!
(PS I continue to hate Joe Quesada.)

Anyway, Wizard has a nice recap of some classic Cap highlights that's a fun little trip down memory lane. Especially exciting to me was the fact that the first Captain America story I ever remember reading, Blood on the Moors, is mentioned. Cap and Union Jack versus Baron Blood! Comics don't get much better than that. I swear I'm going to try and draw Baron Blood tonight.

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was the late, great Will Eisner's birthday.
I just did not want this to go unmentioned by me.
I'm sure plenty of other people were making note of it, but it's actually on my Simpsons' wall calendar, so there was no way I wasn't going to know.
I want this comic. In a frame. On my wall. A lot.

Jumping and leaping.

So here's a sketch of Supergirl that Darwyn Cooke did (at a con, I assume) that I vectorized and colored for fun.
That's the kind of thing I do sometimes.

Saturday was the 5 year anniversary of this blog.
Crazy, right?
I had a different website I was running even earlier than that, but it stopped working so I jumped on what was at the time a fledgling online publishing site.
I wanted to try to do something big and special on Saturday in celebration of this milestone, but instead I was preoccupied with packing everything up in my apartment and getting ready for our GuitarSuperHero party.
The party was a lot of fun, so maybe I could consider it a Hip Today 5 Year Anniversary Party as well when I post the pictures.
Maybe not.
If anyone has anything special they'd like to contribute as an anniversary present of some kind, please feel free.
I'll be touched.

That's super!

Something I don't hate is that the Supergirl April and I designed for the big meme Dean started has made it to the highlight list!
I'm proud of myself, I'm proud of April, and most importantly, I'm proud of our little Supergirl!
Look at her up there.
Way to go, kiddo.

I hate Joe Quesada.

I don't feel like I'm supposed to agree with a Hydra goon.
This was from New Avengers #23 (the Spider-Woman spotlight issue) and when I read it a few months ago, I remember hoping that Iron Man wouldn't survive the crash of the SHIELD helicarrier.
Pardon my language, but dubya-tee-eff?!
I was hatin' on Ol' Shell Head! I used to LOVE Iron Man!

Love him enough that I had two of this awful figure when I was a kid. He was naked underneath the chestpiece for some reason, and had a weird elongated neck and sunken chest. How great is that?
So I had a reservoir of goodwill for Mr. Stark, and yet here I was hoping he'd die.

This is why I hate Marvel Comics and Joe Quesada.
Why can't he ruin Ninjak or Painkiller Jane or some other character no one gives a damn about instead of all of Marvel's big guns?

Wow, now that I think about it, let's do the checklist of who Civil War has screwed over...
Spider-Man? Unmasked and life-ruined. Check.
Captain America? Made out to be a nut job and imprisoned. Check.
Iron Man? Made out to be a borderline evil nut job who has no problem hunting down and/or killing his friends. Check. (BTW : The back half of Frontline #11 where they interview Tony does a great job of really spelling it all out. It's worth reading that part if nothing else.)
Fantastic Four? Broken up like a high school kegger. Check.
I could go on, but what's the point?

I'm extremely curious as to what kind of train of thought leads the current Marvel administration to think ruining all the characters that people know and love and are immediately recognizable to the public at large, while trying to force B-List (as far as the real world is concerned) and supporting characters like Black Panther, Iron Fist and Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, Spider-Woman, Moon Knight etc. into the spotlight (or down our throats) is a good idea.
I don't have a problem with B-Listers. Know this.
I love (Jack Kirby's) Black Panther and Daredevil and Iron Fist and Nova and Moon Knight and Jessica Drew and all of that ilk more than I probably should, okay?
This is ridiculous though!
The Avengers (New or otherwise) should not be Spider-Man, Wolverine, and a bunch of also rans that Bendis has a boner for! Maybe I'm being simple or naive or some such, I mean, "comics are a business" and I'm sure Not Avengers : starring Spider-Guy and Claws Man sells better than the Busiek/Perez issues, but is it really worth it?


Neither did anyone else, Bendis.
Did we just witness some kind of weird, metatextual thing where the characters were speaking to their creators of their own accord?
Is the Marvel U. alive too?
Is Morrison here?


You wanna talk some jive? New Ronin will talk some jive like you never heard.
Any guesses?
Falcon? Night Thrasher?! (Note to Marvel : Stop being all racist.)
Surely that's the worst of it though, right?


Sorry. Nevermind.

I should be dead.

Rachelle has posted pictures from her trip to my favorite place on earth, Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida.
It made me want to do the same, but this one of Victor and myself (from 3 or 4 years ago) was all I could find. I'll have to look for more when I get home from work.
As you can see from the photo (which has notes if you click on it), I'm alive today only by the grace of Doom's rarely seen mercy.
Also, I think he swiped my wallet.

On the other hand..

So, if I'd waited a day to post that Ed McGuinness picture of Captain America, I could have put it up to coincide with this link to 2 Guys Buying Comics doing another great Better Know a Hero.
Since I didn't do that, you'll have to settle for this sketch of Cap I did on the back of an envelope I mailed to my mom.
Sorry.

All those who chose...

As much as I hate that Ed McGuinness is Marvel exclusive now, I'm really glad that I'm getting to see him do awesome covers like this.

So this is the cover to Captain America #25.
Are we all pretty sure The Punisher is going to be the new Captain America?
The 5 o'clock shadow on this picture really just sinks it for me.
Maybe I'm being stupid and taking the bait.
I guess we'll see.

Maybe tonight..

So, unless I'm forgetting something, I've liked every Danny Boyle movie I've seen.
If you're unfamiliar with the name his two biggest movies were Trainspotting and 28 Days Later.
If you weren't interested in where this was going before, I bet you are now.
SUNSHINE

Manamana.

Matt Fraction is my hero.

Just days after learning that I needed to keep my eye on Matt Fraction, I read this quote from an interview with him at Newsarama on what he learned in 2006.

“Most of all, I feel like I’ve learned that if you treat whatever readership you’re blessed with like co-conspirators, rather than passive consumers, rather than slack-jawed yokels aching for spoon after spoon of bloody obvious, you’ll find that almost all of them that bother to contact you — 95% of ‘em, at least — will love you for it. I’ve learned comics audiences are tired of being treated as if they put the low in lowest common denominator.”

I think we've found a winner with this Fraction fellow.

Some people get it.

From Punisher War Journal #1.

Wow.
Why couldn't Marvel let Matt Fraction write Civil War?
These two panels by themselves were enough to sign me up for the Fraction Fan Club... not the one the other Mathletes are in though.

I plan on talking about (shudder) Civil War #7 sooner than later, but I think Chris (not me) over at 2 Guys Reading Comics has already said it pretty well. Plus, I think he's even going to do a more in depth (read : page by page) commentary tomorrow... so.. you know, keep an eye out for that too.

I know you, but you don't know me.

"Let a frown be your Roman numeral." - chrishaley

I like making up quotes that don't make any sense.

Supergirl Meme '07

So here's my entry for the big Supergirl meme.
So the story on this is on the first day the meme kicked off (sometime early last week I think), April and I looked at the 10-20 that were already up and then I asked her what she thought a 16 year old with superpowers would wear.
April immediately had ideas and excitedly wrote them down in my sketchbook.
I started sketching while she watched and explained her ideas.
This was what we came up with, and I really like it. As far as I can tell, April does too.
So I tightened up the pencils a bit and then began my worrying about ruining it with ink.
Fast forward to my Sunday artist group meeting and I still haven't inked the thing.
Thankfully, Diana agreed to ink it for me since I added a cute Nightcrawler to her ridiculously awesome collection.
Scanned it. Vectorized it. Handed it off to April.
April then proceeded to work her color magic.
It scares me how good she is for how short a time she's been doing it.
So that's the story.
Collaboration at it's best.
Whaddaya think, sirs?

He's the goddamn Batman.

2 Guys Buying Comics want to help you get to know Batman better.
If I were you, I'd go do it.
I mean, I did, and it inspired me to not only tell you about it, but to post this old Batman I did with Steve-O waaay back when.

It's just how it sounds...

Easy does it, easy does it..

Sleestak offered up this reality check a week or so ago that made me laugh, so feel free to check it out.
His take on Superman also amused me.

Whoo!

Another 5 Reasons Toy Fair 2007 Was Rad : MINIMATES Edition!


1. Multiple Spider-Man centric lines, including our first Todd McFarlane Spidey.


2. BACK TO THE FUTURE!




3. DC MINIMATES ARE GO!


4. Marvel Zombies! Our first Minimates with exposed brains and bones.


5. For A Few Dollars More. This means I'm actually going to own a Clint Eastwood Minimate. I cannot tell you how exciting that idea is to me.

Overcome by the need..

Oh, I almost forgot!
The most jaw-droppingly awesome thing I saw in a comic this week.


Luke Cage ain't afraid to kick a chick in the taco.
For real.
Wow.
This actually happened in a Marvel Comic with Avengers on the masthead.
The stones on Bendis, right?

Oh, also, no group of people or super-people even remotely resembling "The Avengers" appear anywhere within the pages of New Avengers #27.

I mean, these guys look like a fun bunch, but they are in no way anything like "The Avengers".
So, you know, just an FYI kind of thing.

If you wanna do it, do it right..

Let's talk about Black Panther.
The Reginald Hudlin-New Marvel's Trying Too Hard To Make Him Important By Constantly Shoving His Total Badass-ness Down Our Throats-Black Panther as featured in Marvel Comics' Black Panther Volume 4 Number 24.
(This "down our throats" strategy is also working out great for DC with Supergirl, btw.)
I hate this comic, and I hate how it makes me hate Black Panther.


Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Carlton. Now do that stupid dance.
You can have him be a "badass" without writing every other character he runs into like a sycophantic fanboy/girl.

You know what else this comic taught me about Black Panther?

GROSS!
So he's into old ladies (Storm's grandma in this instance) and dirty underpants?
So what does he do with dirty underpants?


Oh.

But it's just girl's underpants, at least... right?


Wow.
So he's using his incredible flexibility and agility to flip face first into Captain America's ass?

Bravo, Marvel. That's certainly a more surprising character revelation than the phony affair with Photon you tried to fake us out with in this issue.

Risin' up...

Just messing around in CS2 on my break at work.

Christmas in February!

5 Reasons Toy Fair 2007 Was Rad


The best animated Joker figure ever.


Aquaman says, "Just let me throw an anchor at it!"


Space, it seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you.


SHAZAM!


Finally a Madman figure that's worth a damn. Snap!

There'll be more of these Toy Fair 2007 awesomeness updates.

Also, it's worth noting/mentioning that I've replaced Thor's Playlist with a much grander in scope chrishaley approved! playlist. I hope you enjoy it.

It bears repeating.

About as good as comics get as far as I'm concerned.
I don't really feel like I need to go into too much detail, as I'm sure anything I'm going to say has already been said by someone else out there in the comics-blog-o-verse... I'm still going to though, because I loved it so much.


Bully really has the right idea. Go read about it and then do your part.

Ain't talkin' 'bout love.

So, it's St. Valentine's Day yet again.
Back in 2004, I believe, I cut all ties with this holiday, opting instead to celebrate Daredevil's Day every February 14.

The idea being that it's still got the same red color-scheme and getting and giving Daredevil related presents is a lot more fun than flowers or stuffed bears.
Also, I try to wear a Daredevil shirt if at all possible... and I mean, I've got two, so it's usually possible.
Feel free to jump on this bandwagon before it gets away from you.


I mis-saw one of those candy hearts in a box and thought it said this.
A lot more fun than what it actually said.
Anyway, for those of you who'd prefer or more traditional Valentine's Day sentiment from me, I suppose I can oblige that as well.

Imperius, etc.

Paul Maybury has done an awesome redesign for Namor over at Project Rooftop.
Go look at it.

Love is all around.

Joel has made probably the best Valentine's Day comic present ever.
Even cooler is the fact that I got to watch him draw most of it.

Wait, you're not Superman.

DH over at CapVsBats has put up a pretty funny parody of The Return.
Check it out.