Category: Comics

Palle Schmidt’s Stiletto is Coming!

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That’s the cover to Stiletto a crime graphic novel by Palle Schmidt premiering in March.  I just finished reading  The Devil’s Concubine and was impressed by Schmidt’s great story and art.  My review will be coming soon, but here’s a spoiler, Schmidt’s The Devil’s Concubine gets my highest recommendation.

Stiletto which was nominated for the Danish Pingprisen award, a rarity for crime comics.  Lion Forge is going to release Stiletto, as three 48-page issues, priced at $5.99 each.

Here’s how Schmidt describes Stiletto…

“Stiletto looks like a buddy cop movie at first glance, but you’ll definitely be surprised to see where it goes,” says Denmark-based writer and artist, Palle Schmidt. “This is a gritty neo-noir full of twists and turns, corruption, betrayal, and greed. I spent years working on the book, really pouring my heart and soul into the project.”

You can get more info and see more art for Stiletto at Bleeding Cool.

Jack Carter and John Wick by John Beatty!

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On November 23, 2018, aka Black Friday, John Beatty and I met in his studio to do a livestream broadcast of John’s John Wick / Jack Carter drawing for my Stallone Sketch Collection. Click on the photo above to see a much bigger version.  We were joined in the studio by Ron Wendt who took the photos below.

That’s John…

That’s me…

And that’s John with his reference working on the art.  You can click on the video link below to see and hear how everything went down.  We had a blast with viewers texting in questions and even a couple of call-ins to the studio.

John is considering adding tones to the Carter / Wick piece and if he does I’m sure I’ll join him in studio, so maybe you will consider swinging by as well.  John draws live most Monday through Fridays and loves to interact with those who tune in.  You should give it a go and tell him I sent ya.

Midnight Mystery #1 / Z-View

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Midnight Mystery #1 is part of a four-issue mini-series published by Alterna Comics.

Writer: Bernie Gonzalez
Artist: Bernie Gonzalez
Colorist: Bernie Gonzalez
Letterer: Wes Lochner
Cover Artist: Bernie Gonzalez

*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***

Follow the strange adventures of detective Zeke King as he goes from case to horrifying case. In this issue: King’s latest case goes from freaky to fatal when he’s hired to find the lost son of a deceased horror host! The mystery begins in this new supernatural horror series!

Bernie Gonzalez’s Midnight Mystery is the Alterna series I was most looking forward to and it lived up to all of my expectations.  Gonzalez created a fun issue that quickly introduces us to Zeke King’s world and things to come.  I grew up watching Sammy Terry introduce late night monster movies and love that Count Karloff (a perfect name for a horror host) is used in the first Zeke King arc.  The issue ends with a cliffhanger and left me wanting more.  What better praise for a comic?

Gonzalez’s writing, like his art, is clear and supports the story in a lean, efficient way.  Many folks compare Gonzalez’s art to Darwyne Cooke and I don’t disagree but I also see the influence of Alex Toth and Paul Grist.

Bring on issue 2!
Rating:

Mike Zeck’s Rarely Seen Charlton Comics Covers!

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Today we have a rarely seen Charlton cover created by Mike Zeck for Monster Hunters #9.  Ol’ Groove is right when he says when folks think about the…

…art of Magnificent Mike Zeck, we most often think of Master of Kung Fu (and post-Groovy Age Captain America, Punisher, and Secret Wars).  Like many other super-stars of the late 20th Century (John Byrne, Joe Staton, Jim Aparo, and Don Newton, to name a few), some of Mighty Mike’s earliest professional color comics work rolled off the printing presses at Charlton Comics in Derby, Connecticut.

If you click over to Diversions of the Groovy Kind you can see the covers Mike produced for Charlton Comics from 1975 to 1977.

 

John Beatty Livestream: Jack Carter & John Wick Watercolor on Nov. 23rd!

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This Friday, November 23rd, starting at 1pm EST, John Beatty will be drawing live on YouTube.  I’ll be co-hosting as Big J creates a watercolor painting pairing Sylvester Stallone as Jack Carter and Keanu Reeves as John Wick!  How cool is that?

Just think: You can avoid the Black Friday crowds and have a blast with other like-minded fans as we watch John draw and paint!  We’ll be talking movies, comics, tv, novels and of course Sly Stallone.  John and I will take questions from the folks who show up.  These livestreams are always a blast so we hope to see you there!

Dell Comics Covers for the Classic Universal Monsters!

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Yesterday we got a look at Francesco Francavilla’s classic Universal Monsters posters.  It seemed only natural to follow them up with Dell Comics adaptations of the same.

Above is Creature from the Black Lagoon, but if you click over to The Bristol Board you can see larger versions of it as well as Dell Comics covers for Dracula, The Mummy and Frankenstein!

RIP – Stan Lee

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Stan Lee has died at the age of 95.  Lee was a writer, editor, publisher, creator or co-creator of some of the most popular comic characters the world has ever seen.  Lee began his career in comics in 1939, but it was in the early 1960’s that he hit his stride.  Teaming with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby they created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and so many other heroes beloved by children and adults throughout the world.  Under Lee’s leadership Marvel soared.

I had the good fortune to see Stan Lee at HeroesCon a few years ago.  My wife and I were attending the HeroesCon annual art auction.  It was probably 9 or 9:30 and the auction was well underway when a murmur went through the crowd.  Stan Lee had entered the banquet hall!  The crowd became quiet as Stan took the microphone and said a few words. When he’d finished, the crowd erupted with applause.  I’ve rarely seen a person who so captivated such a huge crowd.

Thanks Stan for the hours and hours of entertainment you provided or inspired.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Lee’s family, friends and fans.

Slots by Dan Panosian

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I think a lot of folks who drop by here would like Slots by Dan Panosian.   Besides being beautifully drawn, the story involves an aging boxer looking for redemption…

You can say this about the life of Stanley Dance: he did it his way. Unfortunately, his way never took getting old into account. Now, the former boxer is on his last legs, looking for redemption… but he’ll settle for going down swinging.

Roll the dice with superstar artist Dan Panosian as he creates a bold and breathtaking vision of Las Vegas, where everything old can become new, and superstition influences just how the chips fall.

I’m putting in my order.  You should consider doing the same!

Frank Miller’s “300” Sequel!

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If you enjoyed Frank Miller’s graphic novel or the movie adaptation that followed, you may want to check out Xerxes: The Fall of Darius and the Rise of Alexander.  That mouth full of title is Miller’s 300 sequel.    Here’s the synopsis:

This historical epic, set in the world of 300, tells of the upsurge and decline of the Persian King’s empire, and the ascent of the Grecian realm through Alexander.

Written and illustrated by comics luminary and legend, Frank Miller (Sin City, The Dark Knight, 300), and colored by Alex Sinclair (Batman: The Dark Knight III: The Master Race), this companion to Miller’s epic masterpiece, 300, brings the historical story of Xerxes to the graphic novel audience with grit and visual style!

The ongoing Greek rebellion against Persian tyranny reaches a turning point after the destruction of the city of Sardis and the later battle of Marathon: on a military campaign to vanquish the city of Athens and silence the Greeks once and for all, Xerxes, Persian Prince, watches as his father, King Darius, falls in battle . . . The mantle of king is passed and while his newly-inherited fleet retreats toward home, Xerxes’ hatred is cemented toward Athens–and his incentive to build the Persian empire is fueled. Xerxes becomes the king of all countries–the king of Persia, ruler of Zion, and Pharoah of Egypt–and his empire is unlike any the world has ever seen, until . . . The mantle is again passed, the god king dies and Darius III continues as the king of all. But then, from the west, a tiger force strikes in Asia Minor and is on a course for collision with Persian forces. This will be the beginning of the end for Persia and the launch of Alexander the Great’s rise to power!

Xerxes: The Fall of Darius and the Rise of Alexander drops on March 5, 2019.  But you can click on the link and get your order in now if you so desire.

11 Legendary Facts About “Enter the Dragon”

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Matthew Jackson and Mental Floss present  11 Legendary Facts About Enter the Dragon. Here are three of my favorites …

2. THE LOOK WAS INSPIRED BY A COMIC STRIP.
Enter the Dragon was made quickly, on a tight schedule, and with a budget much more constrained than what we commonly associate with action movies today. As a result, Heller and Weintraub had to start concerning themselves with getting sets built in Hong Kong even before Michael Allin’s script was completely finalized. To do that, Heller looked to his childhood and to a comic strip about adventures in China that he’d loved, Terry and the Pirates.

“It was high chroma reds, blues, golds, and it just lent itself to this project so closely,” Heller said.

So, with Terry and the Pirates in mind, Heller began working with a sketch artist to design various sets, including Han’s (Kien Shih) underground layer, the banquet hall on the island, and other key areas of Han’s domain. From there, the sketches were turned over to set builders in Hong Kong, and construction was underway

8. THE ICONIC MIRRORED ROOM WAS NOT IN THE SCRIPT.
It’s impossible now to imagine Enter the Dragon without the iconic final fight between Lee and Han, which takes place in a mirrored room that replicates Lee’s movements several times over as he delivers his famous kicks. Once upon a time, though, this was nowhere in the script, and only came about because Heller noticed the effect mirrors had at a Hong Kong hotel where he was eating one day.

“I took Bruce and showed it to him. He thought it was too fragmented, that you couldn’t get any action that would mean anything out of it,” Heller recalled. “Bob Clouse and I really fought hard for it, and we created this mirrored room.”

Clouse and Heller pushed ahead with the mirror concept, and once they showed the set to Lee and he was able to move around in the space, he became a believer. A special “closet” made of mirrors with a hole cut in one side for the camera lens was built, so that the cameraman would always blend into the rest of the scene, and filming of the famous sequence began. According to Hubbs, though, working for hours on end in that environment created a unique set of challenges.

“I remember that I would always have to touch, because if I’m looking at something, they might not be there, they might be over there,” Hubbs said. “I found that I could only be in there for a couple of hours, and I’d have to go out and sit down and look at a wall and real dimension, because it’s like there was a fourth dimension in there.”

9. LEE CHOREOGRAPHED THE FIGHT SCENES HIMSELF.
Lee was not just the star of Enter the Dragon. He also played a key role in how it was staged, as the screenplay would often describe action sequences by simply saying “This Will Be Choreographed by Mr. Bruce Lee.” As Heller recalled, Lee would often walk through the various sets, particularly Han’s underground lair, and look for details and props that he could then incorporate into each sequence, with the help of Clouse. Together, they worked closely to engineer the film’s iconic fight sequences, and by the time early footage from the film was available, Lee was so excited that he didn’t want Enter the Dragon to end. According to Weintraub, he later went back to Hong Kong to shoot the early sparring sequence at the monastery with his friend Sammo Hung.