Catching Up with Andrew Robinson
Newsarama.com has a nice little interview with Andrew Robinson that’s worth a look!
Category: Comics
Evan Bryce’s Stallone
I’m a big Evan Bryce fan. I’ve been following his work for a few years now and we’ve become friends via the internet.
When I saw that Evan was going to be at this year’s Heroes Convention, I knew that I’d want to get a sketch from him to go with my other two. We talked and Evan asked what character I wanted. I told him it was his choice and handed him the reference photos. I had high expectations for what Evan would come up with. He exceeded them all.
Evan is an exciting artist and one to keep an eye on. You can see more of his work at his blog or his Deviant Art site. Plan to spend a while.
A New Existence
Ron Salas [artist] and Nick Spencer [writer] discussed their new mini-series Existence 2.0 with the folks at Newsarama.com. You’ve heard me talking up the series, but now you can hear what the creators of it have to say simply by clicking here.
Heroes Here I Come!
Tomorrow I’m heading to Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina. Most folks refer to it as the best comic convention on the East Coast. Most folks would be right. From Friday, June 19th to Sunday, the 21st I’ll see if the praise still holds true. My guess is, it will.
I plan to tweet updates from the show and post a major con report next week. Until then…
My Three Amigos
It was pretty cool to get home to find that three of my buddies made the news today and not a single one in the courthouse docket.
John Beatty has this little interview about what he’s been up to posted at Comicon.com.
Gene Gonzales made a new sketchbook and it [rightly] rated a piece at Scoop.com.
Ron Salas is the artist on a new comic, Existence 2.0, coming from Image and CBR.com posted a 12 page preview.
Dead Zombie Ratings
According to this site, the ZONE should be rated PG-13 due to using the word “dead” 9 times, “zombie” 4 times and “death” once. Well, I do write, on a fairly regular basis, about how great the comic “The Walking Dead” is… and it is about zombies.
I guess if I’d been talking up “Hellboy” I might have gotten an “R” rating?? Oops.
Gene Gonzales’ Ray Tango
Gene Gonzales did this quick sketch of Sly as Ray Tango from “Tango and Cash” as a bonus for buying his new sketchbook. He offers this deal to anyone picking up a copy, so check out Gene’s art and if you like what you see put in your order. You won’t be disappointed.
Florida SuperCon
I spent last Saturday at the 4th annual Florida SuperCon and had a blast. It was my first time to the FSC, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I’m happy to report that the show was well run, and contained plenty of media guests, artists, activities, and panels to keep fans of all interest levels entertained.
If you like checking out convention photos, then you can click on the individual links in the post or here to see a slideshow of photos [with additional ones not linked below].
I walked onto the convention floor just a bit before the doors opened to find Pat Broderick setting up. It was cool talking to Pat, and refreshing to hear that he still collects art. In fact, Pat was disappointed to learn that legendary artist Gene Colan wasn’t going to be able to make the show due to health reasons. Pat had hoped to get something from him.
Dick Giordano was surrounded by fans the entire day. Dennis Calero was set up and sketching. I had hoped to get him to sign my copy of Duane Swierczynski’s Severance Package novel [Dennis did art for it] and it was the first place I ever saw his work. Can you believe that I accidentally left my copy at home? [I didn’t forget my Walking Dead hardcover and was able to get Tony Moore to sign it.] Still, it was nice to meet Dennis.
Another artist that I met for the first time was Mitch Breitweiser. Mitch was twittering from the show and cracking me up with some of his tweets. It’s also possible that Mitch has some magical powers, since I took at least one photo of him and when I got home none were on my camera!
Sean Shaw was set up and drawing when he wasn’t talking up the UFC! In fact artist alley was hopping with folks like: Saint James Comics, Derrick Fish, Chris Darden [who was painting], Alex Ferrer, Austin Janokowski, Richard Green and so many others. I picked up two Stallone sketches at the show: Andrew Charipar gave me his take on Deke from “Nighthawks” and newcomer, Cayce Moyer took a shot a Rambo.
It seemed that every third person was in a costume and man, there were some really good ones. Like this one, or this one, and especially this one. I taken more photos of the costumed guests and you can see them here.
Brian Thompson, Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell were the main media guests. Ted Raimi did a one hour panel where he talked to the audience and then led folks chosen from the crowd to join him in a skit of “How a Movie Gets Made in Hollywood.” Bruce Campbell won the crowd over with a one hour session where he simply took questions from the audience. Talk about rapport with the fans, stage presence and great sense of humor. I enjoyed that panel more than any I’ve ever seen and I’m not a HUGE Bruce Campbell fan… or maybe I should say I wasn’t…
As you can probably tell, if you’ve read this far, I had a great day at the Florida SuperCon. I expect that next year will be even better since I’m going to try to make it for more than one day. If you can, you should too!
Heroes Once Again
I missed out on Heroes Con last year. Normally, we plan the family vacation so that we’re in Charlotte the weekend of the show. It just couldn’t be worked out last year. Up until a week ago, I thought I’d miss the convention again. But thanks to some buddies who’ve invited me to join them, I’ll be there when the doors open on Friday, June 19th and plan to hang around until they throw us out on Sunday, the 21st.
I’m excited because I’ll get to hang with a group of friends I haven’t seen in a while – “The James”, Hal, Will, Matt, Jason, Gary,,, I’ll get to see some artists/writers whose work I love – Ed Brubaker, Otis Frampton, Chris Brunner, Eric Canate, Evan Bryce… aw, you can check out the guest list here for yourself. Then if you get the urge, make plans to come to the show. [ I’d hate for you to miss out. Trust me, I know how that feels, and it ain’t fun.]
Proof of Viking Zombies
We were just talking about The Walking Dead yesterday and today Newsarama.com posted a preview of the latest issue. And to sweeten the deal, Newsarama also posted previews of the latest issues of Viking [you are reading Viking, aren’t you??] and Proof. Click on over.
Who Will Join the Walking Dead?
The Walking Dead has been one of my favorite comics since it first appeared. Now, 62 issues later, The Walking Dead is still the first one I read each month when I pick up my comics. Although not many members of the original cast have survived the zombie apocalypse, Kirkman hints that more are about to meet the grim reaper in this interview [with potential spoilers] at CBR.com.
Francesco’s Zombie Jack Carter
Francesco Francavilla is a talented artist. I visit his art blog and pulp blog regularly.
Here’s Francesco’s take on Freddy from “Cop Land.” The sketch was free since I purchased Francesco’s Chiaroscuro sketchbook. Chiaroscuro is 70 pages full of Francesco’s black and white work. It features everything from quick sketches to more detailed work of characters like Hellboy, Batman, Kong, Marv, and so many others. It arrives securely packaged [which is a major plus knowing my mail carrier] and the last page contains the quick sketch.
Francesco has another sketchbook available. Schermoscuro is a classic horror movie guide in artbook form. Francesco offers the same deal on it. How could I pass up such a bargain? I couldn’t. I love that Francesco tied my drawing to the sketchbook’s theme by making Jack Carter a zombie.
Rogers & Beatty & Batman & Manbat
Here’s another vintage piece taken from the ZONE vault. Legendary Batman artist Marshall Rogers did the pencils and John Beatty worked up the inks. Man, this brings memories… good times.
Mike Zeck Hulks Out
While diggin’ in the ZONE vault I came across this cool Mike Zeck spot illustration of the Hulk that appeared in a fanzine over thirty years ago. Like a fine wine, it just gets better with age.
Bring Back Black Cross
The drawing above is of a character created by Chris Warner called Black Cross. He made his first appearance [Black Cross, not Chris Warner] in Dark Horse Presents #1. DHP #1 was an anthology and the first comic published by the folks who would go on to give us Frank Miller’s Sin City, Eric Powell’s The Goon, Hellboy by Mike Mignola, and on and on and on.
Black Cross was popular enough to spin off into a mini-series, a couple of stand alone short comic stories and a one-shot. At one point, Black Cross was close to becoming a big screen feature with Howie Long in the title role. At about the same time another Black Cross mini-series was in the works called “My War.” Neither it or the movie ever happened.
I always hold out hope that one day Chris Warner will bring back Black Cross.
