Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 20, 2009 in Comic Books
At first I was struck by the fact that this cover for Runaways #12 had a bit of an anime flavor to it, you can tell right away with the look of the huge reflecting eyes and the high level of attention to the hair. Although the composition gives away that it isn’t Japanese, however I was still surprised to find out that the artist Sara Pichelli is in fact from Italy! So you’ve got a European illustrator influenced by Japanese manga working for a very mainstream American publisher like Marvel. If you step back this is amazing because twenty years ago in a pre-net era you would never have seen this — in fact my thinking is that more and more international borders will mean less and less in the world of comics. Read more…
I really love the latest rage of kit-bashed character universe games that are coming out — shwn above is the latest video for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and below is a preview of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. And why are these videogames so cool? Because there’s a silly sort of honesty top them! Let’s face it: Every fanboy has always had those X-Men vs. Superman type of arguments, granted they’re silly but we all love that at heart. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 16, 2009 in Comic Books
I love Skottie Young’s work, but I’ve been wondering just when Marvel would allow him to take a pass at one of their more well known characters and it looks like for Wolverine First Class #19 they’ve let him run with the ball. The first thing I love about this cover is that it has a sense of humor, too often Marvel covers (or DC) take themselves too seriously. Yet you get right away who Wolverine is despite Young’s cartoony approach. In addition to the usual great draftsmanship and page layout the coloring here is A+: The added zip-a-tone as a texture is nice homage to comics books of the past: Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 27, 2009 in Comic Books
It strikes me as amusing that Kitty Pryde, the girl who can’t be touched, is being used to touch all of our hearts. I’d complain, but she phased through the soft spot of my soul years ago. In Full of Pryde over 70 artists created new fanart of Kitty Pryde as a part of a fundraiser for the Oregon Hemophilia Treatment Center. Shown above is a purrfect illustration by Aleks Sennwald and below are just a few highlights from the show: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 20, 2009 in Comic Books
I was looking through the latest stack of Marvel covers due out in August and one artist leaped off my screen time-and-time again: Skottie Young! Most of the Marvel covers have that flat photoshopped color look to them, but with Skottie I love how the power of his drawing comes out to dominate the page. Also Skottie isn’t afraid to be cartoony, and his illustrations always have a small amount of humor that brings the characters to life without the need to show them in some super stretched position or battling to the death with some super villain. Shown above is a detail from the cover of Iron Man & The Armor Wars #1 (Of 4) — what’s great about this cover is that it’s a homage to every previous Iron Man character design: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 5, 2009 in Comic Books
Marvel has has released a series of comics based upon classic books which have been unimpressive on every level, but a wonderful exception to this has been the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which features illustrations by Skottie Young. It’s hard to reinvent the universe of Oz because the visual style of the story has been so defined by the 1939 film — but Young manages to reinvent this world while staying true to the story. Issue #5 in the series comes out this Wednesday, above is a detail of the cover art and it just looks great. I also love the powerful palette of colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu who brings Skottie’s drawings to life. Below is another wonderful panel: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 26, 2009 in Comic Books
It’s going to be hard to top Watchmen for movies based on comic books this year, but that said X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t looking too shabby. The film hits theaters on May 1st and if you’d like to decorate your desktop in anticipation here’s some wallpaper to get you started: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 20, 2009 in Comic Books
Looking at this grim cover of Daredevil #117 (which hits the street next week) my thoughts that the economy is more of a threat to the world than any super villain! This cover is by Marko Djurdjevic who usually does some amazing work, but like the stock market this isn’t his highest point. By the way for you purists, here’s the unblemished cover: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 24, 2009 in Comic Books
On February 2010 we’ll find out what happens when you mix up Spiderman, Bono and a Broadway musical together. The website for Spider-Man, Turn Off The Dark has gone live and come June you’ll be able to sign up for tickets for a show that promises a new take on the story of Peter Parker, whose life is turned upside down when he’s bitten by a genetically altered spider. Read more…
From a fanboy point of view one of the coolest exhibitors at Toy Fair 2009 was the Attakus Collection booth which was packed with highly detailed collectables that take your breath away. The Star Wars Probe Droid above first caught my eye due to the huge scale (and loving detail), but they also had a an amazing collection of smaller scale figures based on everything from Marvel Comics to AstroBoy: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 17, 2008 in Comic Books
In March of 2009 Marvel will be featuring two versions of the comic Spiderman & The Human Torch in…!Bahia De Los Muertos! — one in English and one Español. What I love about this concept is that each book has a different cover by the talented illustrator Jaun Doe. What I love about his artwork is that instead of a typical muscles bulging superheroes cliched cover, Doe’s style reminds me of a highly stylized art deco film poster. Even his use of color is superb with Doe using a slightly washed out palette instead of the usual over saturated Photoshop look we see so often these days. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 14, 2008 in Comic Books
We just stumbled over this leaked trailer of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on the net! I have to say that I had my doubts about this film, but it looks like it’s going to be action packed. Although the bad news is that when you see it in theaters there will be the same idiots who get to their seats late just like you see in this secret trailer!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 3, 2008 in Comic Books
You know you’re doing bad when you can’t figure out at a casual glance if something is a parody or not — and such seems to be the case with issue #1 of Hulk Family which hits newsstands this week. To their credit Marvel has had Marko Djurdjevic do an amazing job on the cover, but this concept just seems so silly to me. Anyway you be the judge, here’s the description of the plot: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 26, 2008 in Comic Books
This cover by Juan Doe for Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #3 (which is due out in January) has a nice poster quality to it. The contrast between the art deco coloring of the Blue Marvel in the foreground makes for a nice contrast with the post-psychedelic hypnotic swirling backdrop.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 24, 2008 in Comic Books
In January 2009 Marvel will be putting out the second issue of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which features cover art and pencils by one of my favorite artists Skottie Young. One of the nice things that Skottie did with this cover is that he’s reinvented the visual look for Oz which has such a well known history – by ignoring the books and the famous MGM film he’s given the title a fresh start. It’s also great just how cartoony this cover looks too, which is something that you don’t associate with typical Marvel comics which seem so obsessed with Photoshopped realism. Speaking of Photoshop notice how good the coloring is? Young has a very washed out water-colored looking palette instead of the over saturated primary tones you see too often today. And all of this is just the background to the character designs which have a wonderful whimsy to them. Read more…
