Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 11, 2009 in
Comic Books 
Introduction: The graphic novel One Model Nation will come out at the end of November and as fans of both comic books and music we throughly enjoyed this book which takes place in an alternate universe version of Berlin in 1977. We were lucky to get an interview with Donovan Leitch, the official historian of this tale who collaborated with writer Courtney Allbritton Taylor and artist Jim Rugg to bring this illustrated rock epic to life. Read more…
Tags: Image Comics, Jim Rugg
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 3, 2009 in
Comic Books 
Sky Pirates of Neo Terra #2 will be out on Wednesday and the previews for this issue look grand! All the art in this series by Image Comics is by Camilla D’Errico and she gives her all to each page. Her style owes a great deal to anime, but if you look a bit further you’ll see other influences at work. I also love the use of lighting in each panel, and on top of that D’Errico palette does a nice job of contrasting subtle pastel colors with just a splash of more vivid colors here and there: Read more…
Tags: Camilla D’Errico, Image Comics
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 7, 2009 in
Comic Books,
Tech 
Eventually life imitates art, or is it the other way around? The first issue of Forgetless by Image Comics features Twitter tweets on the first page intermixed with the rest of the action. This ties into the story which starts out at a nightclub in New York City and features a struggling model turned professional killer (although that sounds more like the type of stalker you’d meet on MySpace). Here’s the page from the issue: Read more…
Tags: Image Comics, Social Media, Twitter
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 8, 2009 in
Comic Books 
With the story by Richard Starkings and the art by Boo Cook I’ve got to say that I’m impressed with the contestant high quality I’ve seen in the Elephantmen series from day one. Firstly the challenge of making cartoon elephants get past their Dumbo heritage and into ass kicking mode is an amazing challenge on its own. And here Boo Cook passes the test with flying colors as elephants are turned into action heroes. Cook does this with a combination of stellar draftsmanship, dramatic layouts and packing the page with loving detail. Issue #21 of Elephantmen is out this Wednesday and looks like it’s worth the price of admission: Read more…
Tags: Image Comics
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 7, 2009 in
Comic Books 
Published by Image Comics Olympus #4 comes out this Wednesday and once again I find myself surprised that I’ve overlooked a really good book. Illustrated by Christian Ward Olympus is a boldly modern take on ancient Greek mythology. The art direction of the book vaguely reminds me of Bill Sienkiewicz in terms of layout and color, although his illustrational technique is much more sketchy. And of course the story by Nathan Edmonson is very very violent, which means that this is not a book for the little tykes — although for us adults it’s an intense trip: Read more…
Tags: Image Comics
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 11, 2009 in
Comic Books 
One Model Nation looks like a captivating graphic novel about a fictional revolution set in 1977 in an alternate reality Germany. What I love about this book from little I’ve seen is that there is no dialog at all, thus giving you a page turning silent movie experience. The story is by Courtney Taylor who is best known for his musical career as Dandy Warhols, normally I’d hold this against an potential author but I like what I see here. And in terms of what you see the book is illustrated by Jim Rugg who has done some amazing work in the past — and he’s done a nice job here: Read more…
Tags: Image Comics, Jim Rugg
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 10, 2009 in
Comic Books 
I always get excited when I get to see a preview of a Rob Guillory cover illustration, unlike so many other artists his work always features a wonderful sense of humor (and he’s not afraid to get cartoony). But when I came across the cover of Chew #5 I was a bit let down once I started out of the box: I mean yeah there’s a cannibalism joke, but it’s not that funny and the picture is a bit stark. But then I looked just a tiny bit closer, and what I found made me realize that this was perhaps the best Guillory cover to date: Read more…
Tags: Image Comics, Rob Guillory
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 19, 2009 in
Comic Books 
The cover art from Gemini #4
In astrology Gemini is the sign of the twins, and in this case the comic
Gemini #4 stays true to the symbolism of the sign. Firstly the comic is drawn by the team of
Jon Sommariva and
Fco Plascencia, and they do a good job of blending their talents in this book. But what really impressed me is that in most comic books you get the “bait-and-switch” routine where the cover art is brilliant and the interiors are average at best. In this case I found the cover to be underplayed, not bad but rather held back — and the interiors of the book were nothing short of amazing (thus my featuring of an interior page above). Sommariva and Plascencia have a fluid cartoony feel to their work with just a small dash of humor. The results make for a very animated comic book even though the layout is confined to traditional block panels:
Read more…
Tags: Fco Plascencia, Image Comics, Jon Sommariva
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 27, 2009 in
Comic Books 
I’m just not sure how I overlooked The Perhapanauts which is published by Image, shown above is issue #6 which just came out. I have no clue why an issue that comes out in June has a Halloween theme, but that doesn’t matter — what does matter is that this book looks great inside and out. Most publishers pull the bait-and-switch cover routine, but I have to say that the draftsmanship and character designs within this book are A+. Read more…
Tags: Craig Rousseau, Image Comics, The Perhapanauts
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 26, 2009 in
Comic Books 
Shown above is a nice gory detail from a cover illustration by Rob Guillory for the comic book Chew #1 which will be released on June by Image. But what makes this cover work so well for me is the sense of humor, which you only notice when your eye moves off this scene of carnage: Read more…
Tags: Image Comics, Rob Guillory
