Ed Hall: No Reference Needed

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The “Fatman” art above is by Ed Hall. Although I first met Ed five years ago, I’ve been a fan of his work for much longer. Ed is an award-wining political cartoonist with a wit to match his artistic talent. He also has the uncanny ability to draw caricatures from memory. I first saw him do this when I asked for a sketch for my Stallone gallery. Although I had reference available, Ed said that he’d drawn Sly before so the reference wouldn’t be needed. He then proceeded to draw this right before my eyes. Amazing.


You can check out Ed’s work here at his blog. You’ll find that he does a lot more than just political cartoons, and my guess is you’ll like it all.

UFC 88 Predictions

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Let’s take a look at tomorrow night’s UFC 88 Pay-Per-View Card.

Nate Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann: This should be a good fight. Kampmann trains out of Randy Couture’s camp, and has a four fight win streak running back to 2006. Marquardt is a hard case whose only loses in the UFC have been to Anderson Silva and a split decision lost to Thales Leites [who Kampmann has beaten]. Kampmann may be a slight favorite, but I’m picking Marquardt to come out on top after a tough battle.

Rousimar Palhares vs. Dan Henderson: Six of Palhares’s wins have been first round submissions so you know he has mad BJJ skills. Henderson is a former two time MMA champion. He clearly dominated Anderson Silva for the entire first round when they fought, so you know he’s dangerous. Henderson has more experience, is bigger, hits harder and needs the win to get back into contention for a title shot. Everything should point to Henderson winning. Yet something says that’s not going to happen. I‘ll go for the upset and take Palhares.

Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill: Rich Franklin has moved up in weight after two devastating losses to Anderson Silva. He’ll face Matt Hamill who has less experience, but better wrestling skills and freakish strength. How that will play out all depends on how well Franklin can avoid being taken down. Hamill will want to force the fight to the mat and Franklin will look to knock out Hamill as he shoots for takedowns. I think that experience will prevail and give the nod to Franklin.

Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell: This should be interesting. Up to this point, Rashad Evans has been able to rise to every occassion and keep his unbeaten streak alive. Evans is a skilled wrestler who continues to improve other facets of his MMA game. Liddell is the Ice Man. The Knockout King. Everyone knows that Liddell plans to keep the fight a standup slugfest — he will want to stalk Evans and throw bombs until one lands and puts him to sleep. So where does that leave Evans? He has two choices and neither are that great. He can try to beat Liddell at his own game by slipping punches and landing his own. I don’t see that happening for long. Or he can try to take Liddell to the mat and wear him down with his superior wrestling skills. The only problem is that Liddell is famous for avoiding takedowns. My prediction: Liddell by TKO.

Karo Parisyan was scheduled to fight on the card, but had to cancel due to a bad back. Funny that he pulled out on the day before the fight. I like Parisyan and hope it is nothing more than a bad back, but after listening to this interview, I have to wonder.

Couture vs Lesnar

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Wow. Really. Wow. Randy Couture vs Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight Championship Title. Talk about a dream match.

Randy Couture is considered a MMA legend. Couture is the only UFC fighter to be a five time champion. [Never mind the fact that it means that he’s lost the title a few times along the way.] He’s the only man to hold both the UFC Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Titles. Less than a year after retiring and being inducted in the UFC Hall of Fame, Couture came back to win the UFC Heavyweight Title once again. [Never mind the fact that was over a year ago and Couture has been tied up in legal wranglings with the UFC.]

Brock Lesnar is 6 feet two inches and 280 pounds of solid muscle. He moves as fast as a middle weight. [Never mind the fact that he lacks depth in his MMA skills.] Lesnar is a former wrestling champion [NCAA and WWE] and now he is going to fight for Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Title. [Never mind that he’s had just 3 MMA fights and lost one.]

Folks in the Couture camp think that his wrestling/MMA skills will be too much for Lesnar. They point out that Couture has fought bigger, stronger [?] and much more skilled opponents and come out on top. Those in Lesnar’s camp think Couture’s too old and that the year layoff will hurt him. Or that Lesnar is simply too quick and strong.

The funny thing is none of that is going to matter the night of the fight. It will probably be the biggest Pay-Per-View in the history of MMA. Fans and critics of both fighters will tune in. People who’ve never watched an MMA fight will tune in. It’s the fight people want to see.

So never mind the never minds.

RIP: Don LaFontaine

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Don LaFontaine died yesterday at the age of 68. You might not know his name, but I’d bet you would recognize Mr. LaFontaine’s voice. He was consider the voice-over king, and rightly so. What else would you call the man behind over 5,000 movie trailers, the in-studio announcer for the Academy and SAG awards, and whose voice could be heard on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network?I’m going to miss hearing his iconic voice booming, “In a world where…” and I have to tell you movie previews are going to be a little less fun… “In a world where Don LaFontaine no longer resides.”

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.

Crossed #0 Review

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Crossed #0 [written by Garth Ennis with art by Jacen Burrows] is available now. That’s the wraparound cover by Jacen pictured above and it should give you a good idea of what to expect. At first glance, you might think it’s another zombie comic, but it’s not… at least not exactly.

An event happens which causes a good portion of the population to go crazy. Normal folks in a small town are suddenly surrounded by friends and neighbors killing each other and worse [much worse in some cases]. This introduction by Ennis is smart in that it places us in the middle of things as the insanity spreads. There are enough inspired touches that we understand that this is not a limited event and the world will never be the same. The most frightening scene in my opinion wasn’t any of the attacks by the infected, or the bomb blast, or the widespread shots of carnage all around. To me the most creepy shot was of a plane crashing — we see it strike a clock tower as it hurtles to the ground and then Jacen gives us a close up of the cockpit. In it we see two flight attendants in the background fighting, an infected passenger with an evil grin killing the co-pilot as the infected pilot laughs maniacally as he dives the plane into the ground.

Crossed was definitely good enough that I’ll be back for more. Jacen Burrows provides the pencils and inks and this is his best work yet. Greg Waller provides the colors and did a great job in capturing the mood of the book and complimenting Burrows’s line work. Garth Ennis’s story leaves me wanting more. He knows how to hit all the right notes but be aware that he’s not afraid of going over the line when it comes to shocking gore and violence.

Crossed isn’t for everyone. However fans of horror and the zombie genre [although the infected aren’t zombies… at least traditional zombies] might want to check it out. Issue 0 would be a great place to start. It’s only a buck and available now.

Wolverine Roar

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Duane Swierczynski posted a link to the full art above. Don’t ya just love how the drawing sets up the story. Logan, all alone, walks into a small town wanting nothing more than a cold beer and a place to rest. Instead he learns that a savage creature is on the loose killing everyone in the town… and now that Logan is in town…
It’s interesting how Duane got the inspiration for the story and cool that several pages of preview art are available. I pre-ordered my copy last month. If it’s something that you think you’d like, be sure to let your local comic shop manager know.

Big Beatty Commissions

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My buddy, John Beatty has opened up his commission list. John is best known for his work on Captain America, Secret Wars, Batman, and my personal favorite, The Punisher. John’s commission prices are very reasonable, there’s something for every budget, and the turnaround time is pretty quick. I’m thinking that it might be time for a new Beatty Stallone piece… although I am partial to his take on Hellboy. 

Zodiac Killer Unmasked?

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If Dennis Kaufman is right, his stepfather was the infamous Zodiac Killer. Kaufman has turned over evidence including handwriting samples, a [potentially blood] stained knife, rolls of undeveloped film, and DNA from his step-father. If Kaufman is correct and his step-father turns out to be the Zodiac, then it may also be true that his mother was one of potentially many victims that were never attributed to the Zodiac. You can read the full story HERE.

[Thanks to Neatorama for the link.]

 

One Shot the One Shot

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It’s hard to believe it’s been a little over three years since my last post about Jason Pearson’s Body Bags. I guess if Jason did more issues, I’d talk about them more often. At any rate, he’s got a Body Bags one shot aptly titled One Shot coming soon. CBR.com has a preview [not suitable for all ages due to language and comic book violence] that you can see [if this sort of thing is suitable for you].