Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Frank Miller fans, especially those who dug 300, will love the promotional art for Miller‘s 300 prequel, Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander coming from Dark Horse in 2018.
Source: Bleeding Cool.
How cool is this War for the Planet of the Apes poster by Eric (The Goon) Powell? It is available from Mondo as a limited edition print.
If you’re going to order one, I wouldn’t monkey around too long. My guess is that folks will go bananas over it.
Fans of the Dan Brereton interview we posted earlier this week will love Dan’s interview with Vince Brusio for Previews. The main focus of this interview is Dan’s The Noturnals!
The Mister Monster piece above was created as a commission for some lucky person at HeroesCon 2017 by Karl Slominski. I met Karl for the first time at the same convention because I had requested Karl’s take on Jack Carter and John Wick (which will be posted in the near future).
When I picked up the sketch, my buddies LittleJohn and Mike Cross were with me. They both liked my sketch so much they commissioned sketches of their own. LittleJohn got John Wick and John McClane, while Mike asked for Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) and Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau).
This encouraged me to go back for another “Jack Carter and…” sketch, this time getting Carter and Raylan Givens from Justified. I post that in the near future as well.
At any rate, you can see more of Karl’s art at his Instagram. Check it out!
I first learned about Kristian Rossi through a Kickstarter. Kristian was providing the art for a story written by Justin Ryan called Trespasser which looked pretty cool. I got on board for an autographed copy with a piece of custom art.
Kristian came through with a real winner. He nailed Carter’s look and attitude. I hope this won’t be my last piece from Kristian.
Dan Brereton fans will want to check out the interview below.
This amazing watercolor was created by Joshua Greathouse. When I saw that Greathouse was taking pre-show commissions for HeroesCon, I contacted him about a Get Carter piece. Man, did he nail it!
The funny thing is, when I picked up the art, Greathouse told me it was the second piece he’d ever done for me. I was sure it was the first. Greathouse went on to say he’d done a Rocky sketch for me at another show several years ago. That night I checked my online posted art and there was nothing by Greathouse. Of course I have many pieces that have not been scanned and posted yet. When I returned home I found the piece Greathouse was talking about. You won’t believe his growth as an artist. I’ll post the Rocky piece soon.
In the meantime, if you’re a sketch collector, check out Greathouse on the web. You can find him here and here.
What a fun morning! About every six months I try to pull together a group of folks to get with our buddy Jim Ivey for a marathon breakfast session. This time we belatedly celebrated Jim’s 92nd birthday! That’s Jim Ivey to the far right, me, Mike Sikes, Bill Black, John Beatty, Cliff Weikal and Jim (missed his last name). Taking the photo was Steven Martinez.
Jim Ivey is one of my oldest [as in been a friend the longest], oldest [as in age] and dearest friends. I first met Jim in the mid 1970’s when he was running The Cartoon Museum in Orlando, Florida. At the same time Jim was working as a syndicated cartoonist [The Thoughts of Man], a political cartoonist [The Orlando Sentinel], a publisher [CartooNews], teacher [UCF cartooning class] and even a comic book convention organizer [OrlandoCon]. I was just graduating high school and into collecting comic books and later original art. Jim’s shop was like heaven.
Going to The Cartoon Museum became a weekly trip [almost always accompanied by my best friend, John Beatty]. When I moved to Orlando to attend UCF, my trips to Jim’s Cartoon Museum became even more frequent. We’d spend the day shooting the breeze and playing cards [blackjack, gin, hearts, poker] and would occasionally stop for lunch or Jim to make a sale. Jim hated it when business got in the way of fun!
You never knew who would come through the store. Sometimes it was other buddies like Bill Black [pictured in the photo above with Jim and I], Mike Kott, Rafael Kayanan, or Robert Smith. Sometimes it was established artists like Mike Zeck, Bob McLeod, Bruce Stark or so many others.
As the years have gone by and we’ve all gone in different directions. Many of us correspond via e-mail, but Jim doesn’t mess with computers. So it’s snail mail correspondence for us. I love getting my letters from Jim. Just like when we’d go to his shop and you’d never know what would be waiting; it’s the same experience opening an envelope from Jim.
Getting back to today’s breakfast…
John Beatty, Cliff and I went in on stogies for Jim — got him some really nice cigars individually rolled ones from a specialty shop. Other gifts included a nice Prince Valiant book, a Bill Black movie, a homemade carrot cake and more. Jim was truly touched that so many old friends made the trip to honor him. Old stories followed faster that our ice tea refills. It was a wonderful time for all. My guess is that our next get-together will be more of the same. How could it not be when old friends make a point to re-connect?
Fans of the John Wick movies may want to check out the new comic series coming from Dynamite Comics. Written by Greg Pak with art by Giovanni Valletta, the series will delve into John Wick’s world and even feature stories about his origin adding to the John Wick mythos.
(On a side note, I’ve commissioned Valletta for a Jack Carter & John Wick sketch! And if John Wick’s father ever makes a movie appearance he should be played by Sylvester Stallone.)
Souce: SlashFilm.
Fans of John Carpenter’s The Thing are gonna love this very clever poster. For my money, it’s better than the one used for the movie’s release!
Source: Vic’s Movie Den.
Yesterday we took a look at Classic Universal Monster Movie Posters. Today we have The 50 Best Monster Movie Posters of All Time presented by IndieWire.
When I was a child I loved horror movies. I still do. Back then we’d stay up late on weekends to Sammy Terry (Indiana’s Horror Host) present a monster movie double feature. It was a great time to be a kid. Especially when Sammy presented a movie like Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. Two of the big Universal monsters in one movie. Truth be told, I still get a bit of excitement when I cue it up.
Matt Wagner has announced that Mage: The Hero Denied, the conclusion to his Mage trilogy will be a 15 issue series coming from Image later this year. Wagner describes Mage as…
… the archetypical Hero’s Journey told as a modern, urban fantasy. Our unlikely protagonist, Kevin Matchstick, is a cynical everyman until he encounters a ragged and beguiling street wizard named Mirth who soon reveals that Kevin is heir to a heroic destiny that he had never imagined. Along the course of his adventures, Kevin gathers a posse of comrades who all aid in his struggle to defeat the dark magic of the villainous Umbra Sprite. At the end of the first volume, The Hero Discovered, Kevin accepts his role and finds himself the wielder of an ancient and mythical power. In the second volume of the Mage trilogy, The Hero Defined, Kevin finds himself paired with a whole new posse of companions, all reborn heroes based on the mythic cycles from a variety of cultures. As they track down and battle supernatural threats together, Kevin is pursued by a befuddled vagrant, Wally Ut, who claims to embody the next stage of Matchstick’s mystical mentorship — his second Mage. Eventually, Kevin’s own arrogance and stubbornness leads to devastating consequences that threaten to undermine his entire struggle against the forces of darkness. The new series, The Hero Denied, is the third and final part of the trilogy. The storyline takes up, as I said, about ten years after the conclusion of the previous series and finds Kevin at a very different place in both his personal life and his role as the reborn Pendragon. The Hero Denied #0 kicks things off in July and is a half-sized issue that features the third “Interlude,” a motif I’ve traditionally used to bridge the gap between the various Books of the trilogy. It’s a great jumping-on spot for new readers and an exciting fresh return to the world of MAGE for longtime fans.
If you’re so inclined you can read a short interview with Wagner and see Mage: The Hero Denied preview pages at Previewworld.
Indiewire has posted their choices for The 50 Best 1980’s Movie Posters. It should be no surprise that Drew Struzan’s First Blood poster made the list. It was nice taking a stroll down memory lane.
