Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
I was digging through the Zablo Vault this morning and came across this vintage Zeck/Beatty Punisher piece. Look at that beauty. This is just one reason Zeck/Beatty are one of the finest teams to ever work in comics.
Write It In Blood by Rory McConville (writer), Joe Palmer (artist) and Chris O’Halloran (artist) along with Declan Shalvey (cover artist) is set to premiere on March 2, 2021. After seeing the preview pages, I’ve already placed my pre-order. Click on the preview pages below to biggie-size them. Then if you’re so inclined, you can too by using the link above.
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Cobra poster by Salvador Anguiano
Would you like to see the original cut of Sly Stallone’s Cobra? J.D. Harlock would and he’s started a petition to get it.
Many Stallone fans know that there was initially a much longer and more violent version of Cobra than the one that ended up being released. Click over to J.D. Harlock’s RELEASE THE X CUT OF STALLONE’S COBRA to get the full details and if you’re so inclined, sign the petition.
I’m not usually one for petitions, but if we can get another version of Cobra, then deal me in.
Lee Weeks created the iconic Batman art above. It was just too cool not to share. You can see more of Lee Week’s art on his Instagram!
Mike Kunda is a super Rocky fan, the #1 Rocky impersonator in the world and the owner of the Yo Philly! Rocky Film Tour. Recently Mike posted several seldom seen LeRoy Neiman sketches from behind the scenes filming of Rocky movies. They were too good not to share.
LeRoy Neiman is considered the most famous sports artist in the world. His painting of Rocky used in Rocky III is without a doubt his most famous Rocky art, but it isn’t the only Rocky art Neiman created. In addition, to finished paintings, Neiman created preliminary sketches like the ones above of Drago slugging Rocky and Rocky in a defensive stance.
I love this sketch that Neiman labeled, Face Hit Two, Rocky II, c. 1980. It was created using felt pen, acrylic, ink and pencil.
Neiman titled this Round XV, Rocky IV created in Vancouver, BC. May 1, 1985.
As you can see above, even the movie call sheet was material for a quick sketch of Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed!
LeRoy Neiman was always a dashing figure (and seldom seen without a cigar). Here he is seen creating more prelim sketches for Rocky IV art.
The photo above was turned into a Neiman Rocky IV painting that is rarely seen!
I love the amount of details that appear in this loose LeRoy Neiman prelim that he labeled: Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV, May 1, 1985. felt, pen and acrylic on paper. 20 1/4 x 26 in. 51.4 x 66 cm.
Above is a Neiman sketch he titled, Sly, Rocky II, March 13, 1990.
Thanks again to Mike Kunda for sharing these finds. If you’d like to see more of LeRoy Neiman’s amazing artwork, please check out his official site.
Wow! Eric Powell’s take on The Grinch is flat out scary! If you only know Powell’s art from The Goon, then you might want to swing by and check out the gallery of Eric’s pencil art at The Bristol Board.
Check out this cool alternative poster for Tango & Cash created by Caesar Moreno! I like Moreno’s version better than the original. You can see more of Moreno’s alt posters (including new versions for Rocky and Creed) at his AMP archive.
Sources: AMP and Bruno Leon.
How cool is this Jack Carter / John Wick piece that my buddy, John Beatty drew for me?
John has created several Stallone pieces for me over the years, but this one is perhaps the most creative. Using the Jack of Spades… with each J standing for Jack (Carter) and John (Wick)… the spades suit symbolizing death… the Carter and Wick figures mirror images of the other. The drawing can work from any position – Carter or Wick on top or viewed from the horizontal angle that I’ve used (and prefer). I also have to give John Beatty props for the research he did to make sure both Carter and Wick have their preferred guns.
You can see a bigger version of the art by clicking on the image above. You can also find John at his Twitter, his website or even his Facebook page.
I like the old-time, horror movie feel to Matthew Gallagher’s Dracula poster. The extreme close-up of Lugosi’s face is effective and props to Gallagher’s color and font choices. Well done, Mr. Gallagher.
If you’d like to see more of Matthew Gallagher’s work, you can at his site or at PosterSpy.
Happy Thanksgiving! Greeting above created by John Rivoli of Icons In Art!
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Marv the lead character from many of Frank Miller’s Sin City yarns. We don’t get enough drawings (let alone stories featuring the big guy), so when we do, I like to share them.
The one above is by Ben Oliver. You can see it and more of Ben’s art at his Instagram.
Isn’t this Psycho poster by Ignacio RC one of the most creative and beautiful posters you’ve seen lately? I love it. Here’s what Ignacio had to say about his inspiration for the piece…
I always loved Atari box art (Cliff Spohn, Steve Hendricks…) and particularly Steve Hendricks art for ‘Haunted House’ Atari 2600 game, so wanted to play with the same concept for ‘Psycho’, just for fun and practice.
Ignacio RC is an illustrator from A Coruña in Spain. If you’d like to see more of Ignacio RC’s art, you can check out his gallery.
Source: Poster Spy.
Check out this amazing animated short, Dernier Round (Last Round) created by a talented group of student filmmakers from France. Dernier Round felt like the set-up for a wonderful full-length movie that I’d love to see!
“In a Parisian suburb, a promising young boxer must find a way to finance the future of his little sister, a piano prodigy.”
The cover above is to Barry Windsor Smith’s Monsters. As many of our readers know, BWS is considered to be one of the greatest artistic geniuses to have ever worked in comics. Smith’s last comic work was in 2005 and many thought he had retired. Little did we know that he had been working on Monsters for 35 years.
35 years in the making, the most anticipated graphic novel in recent comics history!
The year is 1964. Bobby Bailey doesn’t realize he is about to fulfill his tragic destiny when he walks into a US Army recruitment office to join up. Close-mouthed, damaged, innocent, trying to forget a past and looking for a future, it turns out that Bailey is the perfect candidate for a secret U.S. government experimental program, an unholy continuation of a genetics program that was discovered in Nazi Germany nearly 20 years earlier in the waning days of World War II. Bailey’s only ally and protector, Sergeant McFarland, intervenes, which sets off a chain of cascading events that spin out of everyone’s control. As the titular monsters of the title multiply, becoming real and metaphorical, literal and ironic, the story reaches its emotional and moral reckoning.
Monsters is the legendary project Barry Windsor-Smith has been working on for over 35 years. A 380-page tour de force of visual storytelling, Monsters’ narrative canvas is both vast and deep: part familial drama, part political thriller, part metaphysical journey, it is an intimate portrait of individuals struggling to reclaim their lives and an epic political odyssey across two generations of American history. Trauma, fate, conscience, and redemption are just a few of the themes that intersect in the most ambitious graphic novel of Windsor-Smith’s career.
Monsters is rendered in Windsor-Smith’s impeccable pen-and-ink technique, the visual storytelling with its sensitivity to gesture and composition is the most sophisticated of the artist’s career. There are passages of heartbreaking tenderness, of excruciating pain, and devastating violence. It is surely one of the most intense graphic novels ever drawn.
Black and white illustrations.
Monsters by Barry Windsor Smith will be released on January 19, 2021. It is available for pre-order now. Deal me in.
If you’re into crime stories, then you might want to check out Catch & Release: A Murder Book Story by Ed Brisson & Lisandro Estherren. What’s it about, you ask? (And I’m glad you did.) I’ll let Ed Brisson take it away…
CATCH & RELEASE: A MURDER BOOK STORY is about a thief who concocts a plan to sell a stolen car not once, but several times, by luring unsuspecting buyers to a remote location and robbing them at gunpoint. His plan hits a snag when he encounters a student, who needs a fresh set of wheels to travel to his new life out West. When things go south, they go south hard, and now our car thief stands on a precipice where he has to make a choice that will affect not only his life, but that of his co-conspirator and their two victims. The story is an examination of one man’s guilt and how far he’s willing to go to stay out of jail.
Below are a couple of pages from the story.
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Catch & Release: A Murder Book Story is running on Kickstarter. Click on the link for more info or to pre-order. If you want to get a copy, you have until December 16th to get your order in. I did and look forward to it!
