Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
That sweet Reverand Dave Johnson cover will kick off a four-part mini-series by writer Victor Gischler and artist Goran Parlov. Titled “Welcome to Bayou” begins in “Punisher: Frank Castle” #71, in stores June 10th. Gischler describes the mini-series as
‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ meets ‘Devil’s Rejects’ with a little ‘Deliverance’ thrown in,”
You can get a six page preview thanks to the good folks at CBR.com simply by clicking here.
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. I can’t wait for Rick Remender’s “The Last Days of American Crime.”
“Here’s the best advice I can give you – – if you ever get a chance in your life to die, make sure you do!”
Talk about an opening line that makes you want to see more! Ron Salas has posted up a five page preview of his comic Existence 2.0 which is coming soon from Image/Shadowline.
Here’s another gem from the ZONE vault. I dug it then… and I digs it now. This is a spot illustration created by Doug Hazlewood back in 1977. It’s of course a drawing of Oliver Reed from “Curse of the Werewolf.” What, you didn’t recognize ole Oliver under all that make-up?
Growing up I always thought that the wolfman was one of the coolest of all monsters and that the “Curse of the Werewolf” werewolf was the version of the wolfman that I liked best… and I still do!
The extremely talented, extremely nice, Gene Gonzales created his take on Sly from “The Lords of Flatbush” at the recent FX show. Big John Beatty had requested that he have a table near Gene and it was a great move. Gene is funny, knowledgeable and really nice. [Did you hear that somewhere before?]
Although many artists said the FX show wasn’t as busy as they’d hoped, Gene was constantly signing autographs and sketching for fans. At one point Gene even surprised me by singing the promotional song for “Lords of Flatbush.” That sealed the deal — I asked him if he would draw Sly as Stanley and Gene came through with flying colors.
You can see more of Gene’s work at his blog where he posts art DAILY! Gene is also available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.
Thanks again Gene!
Here’s another item from the ZONE vault. This time we have a rarely seen Steranko sketch of Nick Fury. It appeared as the back cover of a fanzine from around 1978. Steranko was [and remains] one of my favorite comic artists so finding the, until then, unknown fanzine with some of his art made my day.
I can remember my excitement when I found the zine at a little comic book store in Tallahassee… or was it Gainesville? John Beatty and I had driven up with Bill Black or to meet Bill or something… Big John, do you recall the specifics of that trip?
Do you have two minutes and 19 seconds to spare? If so you can check out this really cool [and really short] film by Adam Berg. One of the things that make it worth checking out is that NOTHING moves but the camera.
I guess in an effort to make full disclosure I should tell you that the film is also a commercial for the Phillips Carousel which is a new really widescreen tv [as in wider than other widescreen sets]. But don’t worry about the commercial — the set is never shown or mentioned and the movie really has a neat twist… if you’re paying attention!
Enjoy!
IDW has posted up a 19 page preview of Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Richard Stark’s The Hunter. Man, I want this book now!
Here’s another item from the ZONE vault… at first glance it appears to be a publicity shot of Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken from John Carpenter’s “Escape from New York.” But it’s not… not really. The photo is actually a pre-production still meant to help nail the look for Snake Plissken.
Look closer and you’ll see that Kurt has a snake tat on his arm — in the movie he had a huge snake tat on his stomach. Also Kurt’s arm isn’t as big as it was in the movie — he hadn’t yet pumped up for the role. Even though this photo of Snake isn’t quite the Plissken of the movie — it shows that Carpenter had a handle on the character’s look from early on.
After all that talk yesterday about how cool Mike Zeck’s Hulk and frontpieces were, I decided to dig into the ZONE vault and see what I could come up with. So today we have a Mike Zeck frontpiece that appeared in The Hulk magazine #14 dated April 1978.
A couple of interesting tidbits:
The frontpiece originally was published flipped horizontally so that the Hulk’s left hand appeared to be in a fist [to the viewer’s right]. Because it was flipped, Mike’s signature appeared to be SECK. So, 31 years later, I post the art the way Mike meant it to be seen… but unfortunately my scan cuts off his signature… : (
I may be remembering wrong, but I believe the taxi driver is meant to be Mike Zeck his own bad self.
I was going through some of my old files and came across this xerox of a Mike Zeck Conan sketch that has to be close to 30 years old. Mike is best known for his work on The Punisher and Captain America, and this sketch gives us a little taste of how cool Zeck’s Conan could be.
That’s me and horror host Lon Midnight at the FX show on this past weekend. I’m the mug on the left.
One of the fun things about comic conventions is the number of people who show up in costume. Here are pictures of a few. John Beatty posted some nice photos of some of the artists at the show.
As you look at the photos sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s in costume and who’s simply dressed as they usually do!
I first discovered Jeff Wamester on his ComicSpace page. I really liked Jeff’s art and thought his concept pieces for a futuristic bounty hunter graphic novel had a ton of potential. I’ve continued to follow his postings at DeviantArt.
When Jeff recently offered his sketchbook [along with a free headsketch], I immediately put in my order. Jeff was quick to respond that he got my request. The sketchbook arrived in no time at all and was securely packaged. [If you had a mail carrier like mine, you’d appreciate that!] The sketchbook rocks and contains a nice cross section of Jeff’s work. I’m not sure if it’s still available, but if so, you can’t go wrong by ordering one.
Sometimes, it’s not if you win or lose, but HOW you win or lose. The results of the co-main event fights at tonight’s UFC 97 prove the truth of that saying.
Chuck Liddell was knocked out in the first round by Shogun Rua. The fight didn’t last long, but was fast paced with both fighters throwing bombs. Liddell was pressing the action and landing some good shots. At one point Rua almost put in Liddell in a leglock, but Chuck escaped and continued to move forward. Suddenly Rua landed a hook and Chuck went down. Rua followed and started dropping hammerfists until the ref stepped in to stop it. Although Liddell lost, the crowd was still cheering him when he returned, beer in hand to watch the main event. Later it was announced that Chuck Liddell was retiring.
Anderson Silva, on the other hand, easily defeated Thales Leites in a fight that should have exciting. Both men are skilled martial artists and were fighting for the title. The fight went the distance and before the first round was over, fans were booing. Leites had no intention of standing and trading punches with Silva so he would intentionally drop to his back each time it looked as if a serious exchange was about to take place. For his part, Silva refused to go to the ground with Leites. Imagine watching THAT for five rounds. Silva ended up with the unanimous decision and a recording breaking streak of wins… a many, if not most of the fans in attendance booing him.
Liddell has had a great career. He’s still a fan favorite and will continue to work with the UFC even if he never steps into the octogan to fight again. If Liddell did decide to fight again, fans would turn out knowing that win or lose, they’d see a plenty of action. Silva is perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Despite the longest win streak in UFC history and being the Middleweight champ, it’s going to be hard to get fans excited about his next fight because sometimes it’s not if you win or lose, but HOW you go about doing it.
