Category: Movies

“Black Friday” Stallone

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The art above was drawn by my buddy, John Beatty. It’s his take on Sly as Cosmo Carboni from “Paradise Alley”. John has done quite a few drawings of Sly for me over the years and he’s about to do another this coming Friday. Only this time he’s drawing it LIVE on UStream and you can tune in to watch it being drawn.

As an added bonus, I’ll be co-hosting the event. We’re calling it “Black Friday Stallone”. While our wives are out dealing with the holiday crowds, we’ll hopefully have a small crowd of our own watching as John gives us his take on… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it? We’ll be talking about Stallone, movies, tv, art, comics and more. We plan to get things started at about 11am. John will have a direct link on his site. Hopefully you can join us and add to the fun.

Meeting Frank Stallone, Part II

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On Sunday, November 8, 2009, Frank Stallone dropped by City Line Pizza in Edgewater, Florida. Store co-owner, Joe V, is a SZoner, and gave me advance notice so I made plans to be attend. It was a totally cool experience. Frank was down to earth and spent the time talking with fans, signing autographs and CDs. You can read part one of my report here.

That’s Mike Tourney getting Frank to autograph his ultra-rare Valentine record album cover. [Valentine was Frank’s band back in the early 70’s.] Mike is a long-time Frank Stallone fan who collects autographs and guitar pics!

That’s me, Frank and SZoner Stephen Isaia. Stephen sent in the photos used last week and has provided us with photos before. He’s a true Stallone and StalloneZone fan and I was pleased to meet him!

We close out with a final shot of my wife, Doralya, Frank and me. It was great meeting Frank and I want to thank him again for all the support he’s provided the StalloneZone over the years. Frank is a great guy, an amazing artist [singer, song writer and actor]. It was a true pleasure to meet him.

I also want to thank SZoner Joe V. of City Line Pizza [great food!!] for the “heads-up”. Hopefully, Joe will be able to have Frank back again some time. If so, we’ll report it here!

“The Goon” in Thought

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Friday night I watched my dvd extras for “The Mist” and was surprised to see Eric “The Goon” Powell on set with Frank Darabont.  I’ve been an Eric Powell fan for years. So has Frank Darabont.  In fact, Eric Powell did one of my favorite Stallone pieces [thanks again, John Higashi!].

Eric’s work on his creation, The Goon is required reading for all comic fans.  And since we’re speaking of The Goon [okay, technically we’re not speaking and I am writing, but…} did you know that Eric has created an issue of The Goon without word balloons?  The entire comic is made up of silent panels or just shots with thought balloons.  The story involves the Goon, a stolen necklace, a fem fatale and a crazy killer… oh, and no word balloons.  Sounds cool, right?  You can read more about it, here at CBR.com.

All Time Best 1 Man Armies

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EmpireOnLine.com recently posted their list of The Top 25 Best One Man Armies in the Movies.  Of course, Rambo came in at #1.  Who could argue with that?  The rest of the list can [and should] be debated.  Isn’t that the purpose of lists?  Here are my suggestions for the top ten:

  1. Rambo played by SYLVESTER STALLONE in FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, PART II, RAMBO III, RAMBO
  2. Lee played by BRUCE LEE in ENTER THE DRAGON
  3. Bryan Mills played by LIAM NEESON in TAKEN
  4. Geno Felino played by STEVEN SEAGAL in OUT FOR JUSTICE
  5. Creasy played by DENZEL WASHINGTON in MAN ON FIRE
  6. Walker played by LEE MARVIN in POINT BLANK
  7. El Mariachi played by ANTONIO BANDERAS in DESPERADO, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO
  8. John Matrix played by ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER in COMMANDO
  9. Blade played by WESLEY SNIPES in BLADE, BLADE II, BLADE TRINITY
  10. John Preston played by CHRISTIAN BALE in EQUILIBRIUM

Otis Frampton’s Jack Carter

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Otis Frampton is an extremely talented artist who loves drawing for his fans. Every Sunday [okay, ALMOST, every Sunday], Otis has a live UStream broadcast that he calls the 7×7 Sunday. Lucky fans can get a headsketch of ANY character drawn live by Otis on a 7X7 inch bristol board for 7 bucks postage paid. It’s the best deal going.

I’ve been lucky enough to get four pieces from Otis and the Jack Carter shown above is just one of them. I’ll be showing the rest in the coming weeks. In the mean time, check out Otis’ Gallery. Most likely, after seeing more of his work, I’ll be competing against you in Otis’ next 7×7 Sunday.

Meeting Frank Stallone

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On Sunday, November 8, 2009, Frank Stallone dropped by City Line Pizza in Edgewater, Florida. Since the store co-owner, Joe V, is a SZoner, I was given advance notice and made plans to be there. Talk about a cool experience. Frank was totally down to earth and spent the time talking with fans, signing autographs and CDs. Frank has a new reality tv show in the works. Of course we’ll keep you updated as it moves closer to production.

Although Frank and I had exchanged e-mails over the years, it was my first time meeting him in person. Frank was very gracious and thanked me for my efforts with the StalloneZone. He explained that Sly doesn’t mess around on computers much and at first had reservations about someone using his name and creating a website about him. Frank explained to Sly that “Craig is one of the good guys” and the StalloneZone is a positive place for Stallone fans to gather. Frank also wanted to make sure that all SZoners knew how much he and Sly appreciated our support.

I also met a couple of other fans at Frank’s appearance. The first, Stephen Isaia, is a huge Frank Stallone / StalloneZone fan. Stephen flew down to Florida to attend a Frank Stallone concert and come to the store appearance. It was a pleasure meeting Stephen. I also met Mike Tourney who collects autographs and guitar pics. Mike had an original Valentine record album for Frank to sign. Valentine was Frank’s band back in the pre-Rocky days. Talk about rare!

I’ll post more on Frank’s visit next weekend along with a few more photos. The pictures today come to us from Stephen Isaia!

Rambo Changes Course

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Hey SZoners – I just received an e-mail from Sly for all SZoners:

From Sly

Hi Craig,

This is from Sly to your followers:

To all the loyal SZoners out there,

I’m letting you know that Rambo has changed course and the story about hunting the man/beast will be done using another character in the lead. RAMBO himself will be heading over the border to a violent city where many young women have vanished .

There will be blood.

Best,
Sly Stallone

This is great news since it means that we should get two Stallone movies – a new “Rambo” [back to the concept everyone seemed to dig] and what sounds like “Hunter” based on the novel written specifically for Sly by James Byron Huggins. It’s no secret that I and many SZoners have been hoping that Sly would adapt the novel for the big screen. – Craig

John Beatty’s Quick Carter

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My buddy John Beatty recently did this quick sketch of Sly as Jack Carter. Not too long ago John began doing a weekly Wednesday Night Sketch Session live on UStream. These are full figure pieces and fans have the option of getting them with or without gray tones. Here are a few of examples [with tones /without tones / and again with tones]. Fans get on his list, John let’s them know the date he’ll be doing their piece and they can tune in [along with others] and interact with John as he completes the art. This has been going over so well, that John is booked through the end of the year.

In addition, John set aside a monthly time [usually a Saturday midday] that he goes live on UStream and does Ten Dollar Head Sketches. Because these move at a much faster pace [usually 20 to 30 minutes] and the turnout is so great, I serve as co-host. Here are two of my favorites – Captain America and Two-Face from the last session.

If you’re interested in getting in contact with John, just click here!

Robbi Rodriguez’s Rocky

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I first saw Robbi Rodriguez’s art at a convention. Robbi was set up selling his sketches, and sketchbooks. I didn’t have a clue who he was, but I really liked his art. Since my sketch budget was already shot, I couldn’t hit Robbi up for a sketch. I decided if I ever saw him at another show, I’d definitely try to get on his list.

Lucky for me, Robbi was at this year’s Heroes Convention. Luckier, still was that he agreed to do a Stallone piece for me. I really love the loosenes of Robbi’s style. The kid is talented. You can see more of Robbi’s art here and hopefully again here at the SZ in the future.

Mike Zeck’s “Demolition Man”

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My buddy, Mike Zeck sent me the scan above as well as this one. That is of course, Sly in his role as John Spartan from “Demolition Man”. Here’s what Mike had to say about his involvement with DC’s “Demolition Man” adaptation:

DC asked for a pencil image of these two characters. I delivered, got paid, and that’s the total extent of my knowledge. No idea if they were ever used for anything, ever inked, or anything else.

Site map

Interesting unseen art though for the ‘Zone‘.

I thanked Mike and said that I wondered how much Stallone-related art is out there that hasn’t been seen. I told Mike that when Joe Kubert was a guest at an OrlandoCon several years ago he told me that he had worked up some dailies for a potential “Rocky” newspaper strip that never sold. Mike wrote back to say that he’d been approached about samples for a potential “Rambo” newspaper strip, but because the pay was so low, he never got around to doing any.

At least we have these two previously unseen pieces of Stallone art to enjoy. Thanks to Mike for sharing.