Craig Zablo’s Zone

Archive for September, 2009

It’s Marshall Rogers Week: Day 3 and we have a pinup that Marshall pencilled and inked for Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan #44 [September 1979].  I’ve always really liked this pin-up.  Marshall didn’t draw Conan as the traditional musclebound brute.  I also liked the all black winged creatures.  It would have been interesting to see Marshall draw a Conan story — the younger Conan when he was a thief.   

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at a redesign on a classic DC character that Marshall did for a con cover.  It is one of my favorite Marshall Rogers pieces ever.

Empire Magazine has posted up a larger version of the photo above as well as a teaser of a longer interview with Sly about “The Expendables” that will appear in the next issue. Click here to see the it all.

That’s the poster for the remake of George Romero’s “The Crazies”. While I’m a HUGE fan of Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”, I felt that “The Crazies” wasn’t in the same league. The idea did have a lot of potential though, so I’m hoping that the remake will be even better. As for the poster, it ain’t bad. Let’s hope we can say the same thing about the movie.

It’s Marshall Rogers Week: Day 2 and we have a pinup that Marshall pencilled and inked. The piece appeared in Rampaging Hulk #2 cover dated April 1977.   Although Bloodstone is a pretty cool looking character, he’s never been a major player in the comics world and after reading his origin you’ll probably understand why. 

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at a character that has been a major player in the comics world, not to mention novels and movies — well, I guess I did mention it, but you know what I mean — at least you will if you come back tomorrow!

Marshall Rogers seemed to just burst on the scene with his work [along with Steve Englhart and Terry Austin] on DC’s Detective comic series featuring Batman.  Marshall, at about the same time,  did a couple of really well done issues of Mr. Miracle.   From there he went on to do Detectives, Inc., a graphic novel that he pencilled and inked [written by Don McGregor, his co-creator].  Other favorite favorite Marshall Rogers projects included the Demon with a Glass Hand graphic novel [with Harlan Ellison], his run on Doctor Strange for Marvel, his Strange portfolio, his Batman portfolio, and Coyote for Eclipse Comics.

The Batman pinup above appeared in Visions #2 which was a fanzine published in 1980.

Sadly, Marshall Rogers passed away in 2007 at the age of 57.   Luckily for fans, his work lives on.  Join us here tomorrow for Day 2 of Marshall Rogers Week at the ZONE.

Bill Marimon provides his take on Sly as Jack Carter. I’ve known Bill aka “The Raytrix” for years. He’s humble, funny, and a talented artist. Bill showed up on Saturday at Mini-MegaCon. He wasn’t set up as a guest, but I was able to persuade him to do a couple of Stallone sketches. This is the first. I’ll post the second soon. In the mean time check out Bill’s home on the web. There’s plenty there to hold you over.

We come to the close of John Beatty Week with Day 7 and a piece that John did for a series he toyed with doing back in the early 80’s.  It was going to be a creator-owned series about a former soldier traveling through an apopalyptic future.  I really loved this piece and John allowed me to print it as the cover of a letter-zine [called ZONE] that I mailed out to friends back in 1985.

Click here to see a bigger version of the piece.

I’ve been a fan of Rick Remender’s work for years.  It seems like I’ve been looking forward to his “Last Days of American Crime” for almost as long.   You can imagine how satisfied I am that it’s finally seeing print.  After looking at this preview, presented by the good folks at CBR.com, you’ll also know how excited I am that Greg Tocchini is on board for the art.  My guess is you’ll be excited as well.

John Beatty Week: Day 6. Brings us the third and final portfolio piece that John created in 1978. Mike Zeck was a major influence on John’s growth as an artist, and Mike had recently done a really nice Sub-Mariner story, so…

Tomorrow, we’ll finish up John Beatty Week with a piece that John pencilled, inked and toned back in the early 80’s.

Here’s the latest trailer for “The Book of Eli”. I want to see this movie NOW.