An Animated Hyperkinetic Cover Illustration

The warped circular reflection on this cover art is wonderfully cartoony, something that you don’t see often enough on comic book covers today. This illustration is by Matteo Scalera and Howard M. Shum for Hyperkinetic #3 published by Image Comics (which will go on sale on October 15th).

Opus to End (Not That I Noticed He Returned!)

The 80s were the perfect time for Bloom County as Doonesbury hit a high point in the 70s — the time was right for a comic strip that was sophisticated and geeky yet silly. Berkeley Breathed wasn’t afraid to have a Star Trek reference yet his work was very “user friendly” at the same time (sort of like Pogo). But all good things come to an end and Breathed pulled the plug on the strip in 1989 — so along with New Wave music the strip sort of represented the 80s to me.

Now sadly since about the year 2000 I’ve stopped reading physical newspapers — I get all of my news via the web. Around NYC the only paper who has a decent comics section is the Daily News, and the few times when I’m looking at the Sunday papers in print the New York Times just sort of sucks you in. So I was pretty surprised to learn that five years ago Breathed brought back Opus as a strip!

To me bringing back Opus was a mistake so I don’t feel like I’ve missed anything. It’s sort of like going to a reunion show for a cherished band from a previous era — you just know in your heart it’s never going to be quite as good the second time around. Of course a more fanboy example of this would be the poor job Lucas has done on the last trio of Star Wars — no matter how much work is put into special effects, it just won’t feel the same as the first time you watched it. So I salute retiring Opus:

Berkeley Breathed says goodbye to Opus: ‘I’m destroying the village to save it’

“Berkeley Breathed is putting his penguin on ice. The 51-year-old cartoonist said he will pull the plug on his comic-strip career and “Opus” after Nov. 2. In an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times, the 51-year-old Breathed wrote, “30 years of cartooning to end. I’m destroying the village to save it. Opus would inevitably become a ranting mouthpiece in the coming wicked days, and I respect the other parts of him too much to see that happen. The Michael Moore part of me would kill the part of him that was important to his fans.”

“Opus,” a 5-year-old Sunday comic with a madcap political bent, stars the pudgy penguin from Breathed’s classic “Bloom County” strip. It will end just before the presidential election.”

Film Version of Tintin Deaddead?

To be fair to Universal I’m never liked the idea of Tintin as a 3D animated film, and even then I’d trust Pixar to get that right but I’m not sure about Spielberg and Peter Jackson:

Studio says no to Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson
Squeezed by rising costs and leveling revenues, Universal Pictures declines to finance ‘Tintin.’

“Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson don’t hear “no” very often. But after they submitted a final budget of $130 million for their 3-D animated movie “Tintin,” based on the Belgian comic strip, to Universal Pictures, the studio balked. The decision has left the two powerful filmmakers scrambling to find another financial partner.

When even Spielberg and “The Lord of the Rings” director Jackson, who have made some of the biggest blockbusters in history, can’t get their movie made, you know something is up in Hollywood. Universal’s refusal to finance “Tintin” underscores how in today’s tough economic climate, bottom-line concerns trump once-inviolable relationships between studios and talent.”

Marvel is Off to See the Wizard

I love the work of illustrator Skottie Young, shown above is a cover for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz #1 which is an 8 part series that is starting in December. I’m impressed that Marvel is tackling such a classic story instead of the same old superhero stuff — and it’s nice to see that Skottie from both the imagery from the film and the original Edwardian book illustrations. Just look at this detail of Dorothy in action:

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A Lush Cover for the Saga of the Swamp Thing

Shown above is a wonderful detail from the cover art for Saga of The Swamp Thing Book One (the hard cover edition which is due out in December), the illustration is by artists Stephen Bissett and John Totleben. What makes this cover stand out is that it reminds me of a classical painting, not only that but the artists managed to make swamp thing look beautiful too! Here’s the full cover:

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Lisa Petrucci Draws ’em Kuties

Lisa Petrucci is obsessed with pin-up gals from the 50s and 60s — not the mega-stars but the unknown ladies who appeared in low-budget nudie flicks. Her work is also inspired by a healthy dose of kitsch and crafts from that era. In February of 2009 her first book will be hitting the shelves and it can be ordered in advance on Amazon:

Kickass Kuties: The Art of Lisa Petrucci

“Walk through a sparkling world of make-believe, a cotton-candy-colored dream world of hearts, flowers, and switchblades, of dewy-eyed cartoon pinup gals, kutie-pie kowgirls, leopard-skinned sweeties, hatchet-wielding honeys, and the cuddliest devil kitties Hell has to offer. The art of Lisa Petrucci is a honey-coated maelstrom of contradictions–the innocence of lost Americana, childhood nostalgia, and traditional feminine iconography all presented with a rebellious spirit. Kickass Kuties: The Art of Lisa Petrucci is the first collection of the artist’s remarkable catalog, a hallucinatory tour through an emporium of cultural chaos, a bipolar gallery of imagery both sacred and profane.”

The Apple ][ Computer Manga

Shown above is a page from a manga that tells the story of the founding of Apple Computer — you can see Woz in the first panel, Jobs in the center and the Apple ][ flying through outer space at the bottom! From my crude Google translation it looks like manga is from 1984 and was titled Korokorokomikku and included as a separate booklet which was inserted into a computer programming magazine of that era.

Special thanks to Chris Liendo for finding this link.

Batman Cosbaby

Aren’t they too cute? National Console Support is now accepting pre-oreders for the Batman Cosbaby collection:

Batman Cosbaby

“Hong Kong’s Hot Toys has announced the Batman Cosbaby collection which features seven characters as follows: Batman (Classic), Batman (Modern), Joker, Batgirl, Catwoman, Robin the Boy Wonder and one secret character to be revealed.”

A Labor Day Comic

Leif Peng has scanned in a comic on the life of Samuel Gompers from an issue of Boys’ Life magazine from 1958. In an era of outsourced jobs it’s some what sad to look back at just fifty years ago when someone with a blue collar job could earn a decent living.

Cold War Chinese Propaganda Cartoons

I just came across an treasure trove of Anti-American political cartoons from China which date from 1958 through 1960. Shown above is a cartoon making fun of NASA after the USSR launch of Sputnik in 1957. What’s interesting about this selection of comics is that you see references to President Eisenhower but also references to those out of the scene like General Douglas MacArthur and Winston Churchill.

Found via cartoonist Rob Tornoe (you can find him on Twitter too).

LEGO Batman: Alfred and Batgirl Trailer

It’s funny how remaking the dark knight in LEGO makes him so darn cute! This game looks like quite a bit of fun…

Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos vs. The Thing

I always love watching talented illustrators take on classic super heroes! In this case Chicago based artist Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos has brought his version of The Thing (also known as Mr. Benjamin Grimm) to life. Quite dapper chap, no?

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

I just love the retro styling of this Batman Alarm Clock Radio with Bat-Signal. The killer feature of this alarm clock is the ability to flash a bat signal — although I can’t figure out what sort of dark knight fanboy would require a snooze time (lazy slackers not worthy of Batman I tell ya!).

Found via geekalerts.com.

Edgar Allen Poe Goes Moe

On sure anyone can churn out a Lovecraft comic book! But revisiting Edgar Allen Poe takes it to the next level — and what I like about Edgar Allen Poo is that the team behind the book does it with a sense of wit. The second book in the Edgar Allen Poo series is due out this week and you can pre-order the tomb – err tome – from Amazon:

The Surreal Adventures Of Edgar Allan Poo: Book 2
Story by Dwight L. MacPherson
Art by Avery Butterworth

“It’s a clash of the titans as the forces of the Nightmare King collide with the armies of Terra Somnium in a battle to decide the fate of the Dream Child! In the end, Edgar Allan Poo must stand alone to rescue his mother and prevent the dark lord from trapping him in the realm of dreams… forever.”

Holly Hobbie Meets the Thing

I was looking through the Marvel offerings for August 27th and come across the above detail from the cover of Fantastic Four: True Story. The first thing that hit me about this cover that I liked is that the coloring technique looks so much different than everything else out there. It looks like illustrator Horacio Dominguez is using some combo of water colors and colored pencils which really allow the drawing to pop out in a way at a saturated Photoshop glob job would hide. The other thing I like is the subject matter: There’s the stark contrast of the Victorian ladies standing in front of the Thing beating up creepy looking monsters:

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A Killer Kill Bill Illustration by Sarah Mensinga

I’m such a Quentin Tarantino fanboy that I immediately fell in love with this cartoony illustration by Sarah Mensinga which was done for the website drawergeeks.com on the theme of Samurai.

Liquid City Looks Lavish

Liquid City looks pretty interesting: It’s a collection of comics by artists from South-east Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. This book will be out in November (published by Image) and it looks like a nice collection for those of fanboys who like our comics to be a bit off the beaten path:

Liquid City
By Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, Gerry Alanguilan, Lat, Jon Foster & Others
Cover Shelly Wan

“The full-color Liquid City anthology brings together creators based mainly in South-east Asia: From Leong Wan Kok’s distinct post apocalyptic landscapes and alien creatures to Lat’s unique and charming take on Malaysian life, from Mike Carey’s meditation on colonialism to Ken Foo’s dark tales of regurgitations and bodily transformations, Liquid City presents an edgy vision of lives in cities past, present and future.”

Gurihiru Charms Wolverine

The one thing I’ve always loved about manga over American comics is that in Japan comic books are for everyone and cover every damn subject — from baseball to sex. American comics on the other hand have been stuck in a super hero rut for about 30 years. Now of curse I’m excluding all the great indie work, but I’m talking about the big boys: Marvel and DC.

But I’m happy to say that I’m starting to see the trend reverse. Believe it or not the above detail is from a cover published by Marvel — the first thing you notice is that “damn that’s soooo cute!” The issue is Wolverine and Power Pack #1 (whichis due out in November) and the illustration is by Gurihiru and it’s an example of Marvel getting it right:

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Strange Love: Illustrated by Gray Sapphire

The charming illustration above is by Gray Sapphire. The main draw of this illustration is the contrast of the alienesque monster with the cute little girl offering a flower — although in addition to the subject matter I like what the artist has done with her color and lighting which furthers the content.

Face Your Manga: The latest Flickr Meme

The latest meme in comic book circles on Flickr are artists creating icons of themselves using the website faceyourmanga.com. Of course not being a poor artist myself I just screen grabbed an image and cropped it in Photoshop. Other than costing too much my problem with the service is that look of the artwork isn’t very manga like.

DIY Iron Man Rocket Launcher

I think this one of those collectables which I wouldn’t mind destroying the value of by taking it out of the box:

Iron Man Rocket Blast Launcher

“Go on a flight with Tony Stark! Blast off with the armor-wearing, comic-book hero as he takes on air-powered rocket form. While Iron Man may be most well known for the armor that gives him superhuman strength and his extensive, built-in weapons system, its his ability to fly across the sky at supersonic speed that inspired this awesome air-powered rocket launcher. Made of cushiony foam, attach the included glider to the superhero-shaped rocket. Load the rocket onto the launch pad and build up some force using the pump. Then, press the launch button to send Iron Man soaring up to 40 feet in the air! When the rocket reaches maximum altitude, the glider will detach and soar away. Watch where it twists and turns as it makes the descent back to Earth. Reach for the skies with this awesome flying figure!”

Found via gizmodo.com and geekalerts.com.

Rapunzel’s Revenge: Stjepan Sejic’s Secret Invasion Cover

This wonderful lavish display of red hair is a detail from the cover of Secret Invasion: Inhumans by illustrator Stjepan Sejic. This issue will hit comic shops on August 13th:

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Special Forces: Kyle Baker Blasts Mickey

This Kyle Baker cover for Special Forces #3 is brilliant for the sheer comedy value, it’s like something from the golden age of Mad magazine. That or I love seeing Mickey get it…

Joker Kubrick and Bearbrick

I got to see the Batman character that Kubrick did in this series and he wasn’t half as impressive as the Joker. I guess that’s because bad guys are always more interesting character studies than caped crusaders:

Joker Kubrick and Bearbrick

“Whereas the Batman is straight-laced and numbingly sober, the Joker is loosey-goosey. If he were candy, he’d be two packs of Twizzler. Jokey doesn’t need libations to get the party started and you can always count on the former Arkham inmate to sport a big red smile. Medicom’s upcoming Joker Kubrick measures 7cm or 2.75” in height and is dressed in a green vest that’s covered by a purple trench coat. Thick eye shadow gives his face the raccoon look that Goth girls strive for while bright green hair provides a vibrant contrast to Joker’s pallid complexion.

The Joker Kubrick figure is accompanied by a ghastly Bearbrick with a bloody smile and a body that’s charred in select spots. The words, “Why So Serious” are etched across its chest in jagged red letters. In the Dark Knight movie, the Joker recounts a story from his childhood where his father says those words to him before performing minor surgery.”