10.31.2008

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Have some cosplay!

I'm getting most of my Halloweening out on my Golden Age Heroes blog. So I was trying to think of something to do here. I decided that wearing costumes is a Halloweeny thing. So here are a bunch of pics I found on Flickr of people dressed as comic book characters. It fits the Halloween theme and the comic book theme. Success!! LOL

Have a great Halloween!!


Starfire, Nightwing & Donna Troy
Originally uploaded by MargieC1022

Robin, Black Lightning & Superboy
Originally uploaded by prometheus445

?, Deathstroke, Kid Flash, Starfire & Speedy
Originally uploaded by israphael

Batgirl, Raven & Robin
Originally uploaded by the3rdrobin

Superman & Namor
Originally uploaded by hawkeyevsgirl

Captain America
Originally uploaded by walkerspace

Superman meets "Superboy"
Originally uploaded by manofsteel25

Justice League
Originally uploaded by profundis

Wolverine
Originally uploaded by Steam Pirate

Wonder Woman & Flash
Originally uploaded by Steam Pirate

DC Folks
Originally uploaded by IcyBrian

Donna Troy & Dark Mary Marvel
Originally uploaded by MegaRed

Kyle Raynor, Hal Jordan & Wonder Woman
Originally uploaded by Mafu

Some of the 300

Originally uploaded by Hueyatl

Robin, Superboy, Raven & Supergirl
Originally uploaded by walkerspace

Robin & Superboy
Originally uploaded by walkerspace

Superman
Originally uploaded by Fonzie's cousin

Power Girl
Originally uploaded by heath_bar

Green Lantern Corps
Originally uploaded by walkerspace

Roy Harper & Green Arrow
Originally uploaded by walkerspace

Superboy
Originally uploaded by alecscudder69

Captain Marvel Jr & Captain Marvel
Originally uploaded by daisylind


Observations:
  • There are actually people in the world who can pull off the super-hero look!
  • There are some who should not even make the attempt.
  • Gerard Christopher has aged well.
  • There ought to be more super-heroes who dress like the guys from 300! ;-)

10.29.2008

Fanboys Against Genitalia are going strong!

I'm sure everyone remembers the hubba-dubba surrounding Alex Ross' Citizen Steel cover on JSA. Even I talked about it. I even talked about how "the fear" surprisingly didn't apply to artists who aren't Alex Ross.

Well, apparently, the frightened fanboys are still out there!!!



Over at Comicbloc, a guy posted a warning: WAR HEROES #2 - Spoilers! NOT FOR CHILDREN!!
Never mind that the book carries a "Mature Readers" label. I guess it's okay for kids to read a book intended for adults, he didn't bring that up.
Never mind that every. single. page. contains "f*ck," "sh*t," "ass," or "c*ck" in the dialogue. I guess it's okay for kids to read that type of stuff, he didn't bring that up.
No. The problem was the book contained (warning! if you click the NSFW-link you will see) full frontal male nudity.
To the Comicbloc community's credit, every follow-up comment to the original post was along the lines of: "Dude, what's your problem?"
When you think about it: The majority of comics readers are male. And I'd guess that for a war comic, the percentage of male readers is even higher. D'ya think that maybe, at some point in their life, they may have seen one of those?



Over at the Dynamite Entertainment boards we've got a problem with Alex Ross covers...again.

Here we have a guy who posted the cover to BLACK TERROR #3 saying: "Someone might want to tell Alex to relax a little on genitals, looks kind of gross for a comic book cover; might want to darken a bit some of that happy brightness there big boy :-)"
Gross?
He then takes it upon himself to fix the problem: "Imagine how far just 20 seconds of photo editor smudging can go into improving from an embarrassing situation [sic] ..."
"NOW THAT LOOKS GOOD!
"Since Alex Ross likes alternative covers, maybe he can honor us with an few seconds of his time to also give us a not so happy to see me cover...
"If not, then, I'll settle for an alternative cover by an other artist, or just a blank page. Maybe Dynamite Entertainment should put their company logo over the problem spot that month :-)"
Problem spot. LMAO!
Someone else points out that Alex Ross has "been doing this more and more lately, and it's striking me as kind of immature."
Who is immature?
Have these guys never seen a real life male-gendered being before. Do they not realize that male-gendered beings have genitalia that extends from the body? That when clothed, especially with tight material, that it causes a bulge?
WTF? Are they only comfortable around Ken dolls? Have they ever seen themselves in underwear?
Do they think: "I can tell the difference between a male and a female by looking above the belt! If it has boobies, it's female, if it doesn't have boobies, it's male. I don't need to see that!"



When was the last time you saw rabid fanboys complain about the state of female anatomy in comics? When was the last time someone felt compelled to "correct" an artist's "mistake?"
"OMG!! Wonder Woman has boobies!! Fix it! FIX IT!!!"
"So much better!!"


I'm just saying...

10.28.2008

Archie's Everything...

Well, okay, we really don't see all that much "everything" of Archie (here in one of his very early appearances), but his buddy there...hoo, boy!

from
PEP COMICS #24 (February 1942)
art by Bob Montana



I wonder...if they ever do an Archie Archive, will this panel get censored?



Now we're going to steal an idea from Adam @ Comics Make No Sense:

Fun with Dialogue Out of Context!
(See how I moved the words around to avoid trademark infringement, lol, nifty!).
From the same above comic:





Dang. Sometimes I'm just a bad man...

I love Lisa Hartman.

Oh gosh, this is just...wow!

I already have the original 1987 release, having bought it just months before it ended up in the cut-out bin. But still -- This is the awesome!sauce! I may have to buy another copy!!


Sorry, I know this is completely unrelated to comics (hence the "n things"), but my love for Lisa Hartman is kinda fanatical.

Now if only she'd record some new music...


[Having just proofread this post, I cannot believe this album is over 20 years old!! That blows my mind. Sometimes I guess I forget how old I am, LOL!]

10.27.2008

O Jericho, Where Art Thou? Oh brother...

Back in the days leading up to INFINITE CRISIS, continuity was (supposed to be) at an all-time high in the DC Universe. Pretty much all the storylines in all the books were reflected back on each other. It was so bad, that if (ha, when) a book shipped late, you had to backtrack your thinking to keep it all in order. Everything was tied together. Dan Didio said in an interview (and I'm totally "quoting" this from memories that are a few years old) that it was important for the continuity to be tight, so that the importance of INFINITE CRISIS could be felt, that it was affecting the entire DCU, and some other crap like that. But that after IC, the reigns would be loosened a little.

Well, the reins were loosened a lot. So much that it was impossible to follow any one character, as they'd be appearing all over the place with no discernible connections from appearance to the next.
  • Supergirl was in the present and the future.
  • Power Girl was running around with the JSA while apparently adventuring in Kandor with Supergirl.
  • Giganta was simultaneously romancing Ryan Choi in THE ALL-NEW ATOM and pounding the crap out of Donna Troy in WONDER WOMAN.
It was just this side of ridiculous. But at least you could "justify" it as different writers and editors just playing around without checking up on one another. But...
Backstory:

Waaay back in THE NEW TITANS #83 (February 1992), Deathstroke ran a sword through his son, Jericho, to save Jericho's soul from the Trigon-tainted Souls of Azarath who were possessing him.

Between 2003 and 2007, in TEEN TITANS, it was revealed that Jericho had been inhabiting Deathstroke's body since his "death." He was then trapped onto a computer disk (what?), and eventually grown a new body and made whole and good. He took possession of Match (the evil clone of Superboy) and stayed in him to keep him under control at S.T.A.R. Labs until they could figure out how to deal with him.
But...what if you have the same writer and the same editors working on two different books, using the same character, but in no way connected to one another? How do you justify that...?
Two weeks ago:
TITANS #6
writer: Judd Winick
editors: Rex Ogle, Elisabeth V. Gehrlein and Dan DiDio
release date: October 15, 2008
artists: Julian Lopez, Prentis Rollins & Bit

The Titans return to Titans Tower, after rescuing Raven from the influence of Trigon (again), to find Match waiting for them. But his speech patterns are different. He cries out: "It's me! It's Joey! I'm Joseph Slade! I'm Jericho! Please, I need your help! I can't get out!"

So now we know that Jericho has been keeping Match under control since...
Oh. Wait...
DC UNIVERSE: DECISIONS #3
writers: Judd Winick and Bill Willingham
editors: Rex Ogle, Elisabeth V. Gehrlein and Dan DiDio
release date: October 15, 2008
artists: Rick Leonardi and Dan Green

Our heroes can't figure out why presidential candidates are trying to kill themselves, other than they are being controlled by somebody. Of course, the first person they suspect isn't even a super-villain, it's (as far as anyone knows) another hero! And they're right!

Jericho has been possessing the candidates and planting bombs so they'll be blown up!!

Except that he's still keeping Match under control at S.T.A.R. Labs. Isn't he...?

WTF? I'm so confused.

And why is Jericho suddenly a bad guy? Even in the solicitations for TITANS #9 it says: "With Jericho around, no one is safe. He can hide in plain sight, and he's far more powerful than he's ever been before." Yeah, he was bad when he was possessed by the evil Souls of Azarath. And still tainted from spending so much time living in Deathstroke's head (apparently he's so messed up that he can't even remember his name!). But Geoff Johns fixed all that before Joey took over Match. What up?

I know that Judd and Dan loved the Wolfman/Perez NEW TEEN TITANS. That's why they brought the line-up back together. But do they have to love it so much that they keep retelling the old stories? Raven under Trigon's influence, check. Jericho as a bad guy, check. I suppose the next storyline will be Cyborg getting a new flesh-and-bones body that rejects him... Or Donna Troy searching out her past...

C'mon guys, fresh, please. Fresh!

If anyone but Winick and DiDio were working on this book, I'd think the "Joseph Slade" slip was a clue. That maybe we're dealing with an alternate-earth Jericho. But neither of them are that clever, so it was just a stupid mistake that no one caught.

On the other hand, Julian Lopez's art has been a breath of fresh air!! I really wish he was sticking with the book.

Okay, the end.

Oh wait...

P.S. This is why I almost never write lengthy posts. They ramble and make almost no sense. And I don't have an ending to wrap it up pretty. Oh well, I guess you'll get over it. LOL

10.25.2008

Project Superpowers: DYNAMIC MAN!

Today's PROJECT SUPERPOWERS Flashback Spotlight is on: Dynamic Man!

Dynamic Man has been one of the main forces of villainy in the first issues of PROJECT SUPERPOWERS, along with Dynamic Boy and their company Dynamic Forces.

Dynamic Man debuted in DYNAMIC COMICS #1 (October 1948) from Dynamic Publications, one of the many Harry "A" Chesler imprints. He was an android created by Dr. Moore to fight the forces of evil. Unfortunately, the good doctor died at the hands of black magic just as Dynamic Man was born.

Dynamic Man appeared in every issue of DYNAMIC COMICS #1-3, 8-24 (October 1941-March 1948) (There were no issues 4-7).

from
DYNAMIC COMICS #1 (October 1941)
story & art by ?
[the faux-cover features art from DYNAMIC COMICS #3 by Charles Sultan]




I'm glad Dynamic Man was able to rub out the Yellow Spot!! Just the name inspires fear!! I wonder if he'll be turning up in PROJECT SUPERPOWERS?

The real question is: How many times can I use the word "Dynamic" in single post...?

You can read a whole bunch more
old-time super-hero goodness at my other blog:
GOLDEN AGE HEROES!

You can download DYNAMIC COMICS #1
and many other golden age comics
from Golden Age Comics Downloads!

10.21.2008

Because it never gets old...

Well I found it at Sea of Green's Hoosier Journal of Inanity. But Dwayne started it at Matching Dragoons. So it's all his fault.

He wanted people to dialogue Batman. And I'm gonna play!!

Also, me being me, I decided that you just can't beat an old horse into the ground enough...


Get over it. It's kinda funny.

10.19.2008

13 Days of Halloween!!

If you'd like to see some old-time super heroes battling supernatural creatures like witches, vampires, ghosts, etc...

You should head on over to my Golden Age Heroes blog. For the next 13 days I'm celebrating Halloween, not with horror stories, but heroes fighting things that go bump in the night!!

If you've got a minute, you should go check it out!!!

13 Days of Halloween

10.14.2008

Alex Ross does modern day Wonder Woman!!

I never thought I'd live to see the day when Alex Ross would paint anything but his own personal version of Wonder Woman. But I made it!!
He did it on the cover for the Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Kollector's Edition video game:
Too bad he couldn't have been bothered to do this costume for the cover of JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA #12. I so would've bought that poster...

Here's a video from Comic Book Resources that shows, in time lapse, Alex creating the artwork. It's interesting to note: The couple of times that the art/photo reference is shown for Wonder Woman, the picture is blurred out. I didn't notice that on any of the others. Things that make you go hmmm...

10.12.2008

DC ELSEWORLDS - Live-action fan webseries

Chris Cowan and Lex Randleman have put together a great little webseries based on DC Comics characters. ELSEWORLDS, as the name implies, uses familiar characters, but tells a story from an alternate reality.

Considering this is a "no-budget" production, it looks pretty good. Most of the casting works. They have some neat special effects. And they do a pretty good job of adapting the costumes to "real-life."

Here's part one of the five-part series. You can catch the rest on You Tube. They have had some technical difficulties which have resulted in part four being delayed. But I can't wait until it comes out!! I really think this a fascinating webseries !!


DC Elseworlds Webseries Blog

Part One: "Fair Play"

Part Two: "Titans"

Part Three: "What's in a name?"
"In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places - some that have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist. The result is stories that make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow."