Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Once a week Joblo.com posts Awesome Art We’ve Found Around the Net. As you can imagine, they post awesome art that they, well, you get the idea.
I always enjoy seeing what JoBlo has found because with each post they list the artist’s name and a link to more of his/her art. That’s where I saw this Assault on Precinct 13 (by Martin Ansin) poster.
Goran Parlov is an artist most fans of this site will dig. If you’re not already a fan, click on the link and you will be.
I’ve been a fan of Chris Conidis’ art for some time now. When I saw the opportunity to get his take on Jack Carter, I pulled the trigger. To see a bigger version of it, click here and to see more of Chris’ art, check out his instagram page.
Ace Atkins is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated novelist who has written 23 novels. Perhaps best known for being selected to carry on Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series, Atkins has series characters of his own (Nick Travers and Quinn Colson). If you dig his Spenser yarns, then you ought to give Travers and Colson a go.
Crossroad Blues is Atkins first Nick Travers novel.
The disappearance of a college professor investigating rumors of previously unknown recordings by renowned blues musician Robert Johnson, murdered more than fifty years earlier, leads football player-turned-blues historian Nick Travers along a dangerous trail as he seeks to unravel the dark truths behind an old mystery.
Crossroad Blues has been adapted into a graphic novel by Atkins along with artist Marco Finnegan.
Talk about rare! Check out the pencils for a Barry Windsor Smith unused Tomb of Dracula cover! You can see a graveyard-sized version at Cool Comic Art.
If you’re not familiar with Thrillkill by Jim Stenstrum and Neal Adams, you’re in for a real treat. Originally published in Creepy #75, by Warren in November 1975,
Thrillkill is one of Neal Adams’ most beautifully illustrated stories and Stenstrum was ahead of the times looking at mass murders. (You have to remember that they were almost unheard of in 1975. These days, they happen regularly.)
Click over to The Bristol Board to see the full Thrillkill story in a format that’s easy to read.
Matt Childers is back with his riff on Sly as Jack Carter. This is my second sketch from Matt. You can see my first here.
If you’re a sketch collector, Matt gets my highest recommendation.
Laurent Durieux was named as one of the world’s 200 best artists. His poster for The Godfather is an excellent example of why.
Source: Andreas Grabe.
Matt Childers is “comic book artist, illustrator, designer, sometimes writer and most of all a storyteller.” I first became aware of Matt through a story that he drew called Dick Ruby and the Case of the Little Green Men (written by Brett Harris). That led me to other of Matt’s comics and commissions. I was hopeful that Matt would be up for a Stallone sketch. As you can see, he was.
I liked it so much, I immediately requested a Childers’ Jack Carter. You’ll see that here next weekend.
If you’re a sketch collector, Matt gets my highest recommendation.
Spaceship Rocket recently posted six of Frank Miller’s Sin City covers. Of the six, the one above is my favorite. Following closely behind is the cover to Dark Horse 51. You can see all six by clicking over.
Man, I miss Miller’s Sin City yarns. If you know of any great crime comics that I may have missed, please respond in the comments.
Mort Drucker’s drawing of Stars of the 1980s cried out to be shared. How many of the stars can you name? If you’d like to see a much larger version, click over to The Bristol Board.
Jarrod Alberich aka The Yard Sale Artist explains how he got started in independent comics. It’s an interesting listen.
Mars Attacks trading cards came out in 1962. The set consisted of 55 cards telling the story of a Martian invasion of Earth. Although designed for children, the cards depicted humans and animals being killed by the Martian invaders in graphic detail. If the only Mars Attacks you know is Tim Burton’s comedy, then you’re missing out.
Josh Weiss, from Syfy.com, recently interviewed Len Brown one of the co-developers of the Mars Attacks cards. Check out ACK! ACK! ACK! MARS ATTACKS CO-CREATOR LEN BROWN LOOKS BACK ON THE ICONIC TRADING CARDS.
Abraham Riesman recently spoke with Frank Miller to discover why Why Frank Miller Is Revisiting the World of 300 With His New Xerxes. Here are a few tidbits…
Did you go back and reread 300 in preparation for Xerxes? I know a lot of creators don’t like looking at their old work.
Oh, I have to refer to it. I’m very, very proud of 300. I look at it and I don’t think, Well, what would I do differently? I simply accept it as what it is. It was very much a product of the time I did it, but it was the best story I ever had my hands on, and I did my very best by it.But the Athenians can hold their own in the battlefield. Honestly, in junior high, I mostly just learned about them as paragons of democracy and culture.
They were brilliant in battle and they were a culture that succeeded on every level. The Spartans, essentially, became so culturally paranoid that they kind of ceased to exist because they didn’t read. They built for war while the Athenians built for progress. What we have from the Greeks is basically Athenian: the art, the learning, the culture, the sense of democracy.
Any interview with Frank Miller is worth a read especially when it contains (more) preview art.
John K. Snyder III has adapted Lawrence Block’s Eight Million Ways to Die into a graphic novel and it is looking great! There have been 17 novels about Block’s unlicensed detective, Matthew Scudder, and Eight Million Ways to Die is a great place to start. Here’s the skinny…
In crime-ravaged 1980s New York, a troubled ex-cop turned unlicensed detective takes on his most dangerous case, hunting down a serial killer-hitman, and ultimately coming face-to-face with his deadliest enemy…
Matthew Scudder is dying, one bottle at a time. A young prostitute named Kim Dakkinen is dying too, her life measured out in tricks. She wanted out, had asked for Scudder’s help, but suddenly she wasn’t dying anymore, she was just dead. The former cop turned P.I. promised to protect her, but he failed. Now his atonement is to find her killer. But the secrets in the dead hooker’s past are dirtier than her living, and searching for a killer in a city where everyone’s a victim is a good way to make the role permanent.
I’m a huge Lawrence Block fan and his Scudder novels are my favorite Block yarns. I’m looking forward to Snyder’s adaptation. If you’re still on the fence, check out this interview with Snyder where he talks about bringing the novel to life!
Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block
Eight Million Ways to Die adapted and illustrated by John K. Snyder III
