WEC Predictions

Posted on by

The top three fights on the WEC pay-per-view card tonight should be excellent.  Here are my predictions:

Mike Brown Vs. Manny Gamburyan. Both of these fighters come in with just five losses.  The difference is that Brown has 23 wins compared to Gamburyan’s 12 wins.  Brown shocked the world when he upset  Faber to win the title.  I don’t think the world will be as shocked when he defeats Gamburyan tonight. 

Prediction: Brown by TKO.

Ben Henderson Vs. Donald Cerrone. This could be the fight of the night.  Both of these guys are tough.  They fought before and Henderson came away with a unanimous decision.  There’s an old saying that past performance is the best predictor of future performance.

Prediction: Henderson by Decision.

Jose Aldo Vs. Urijah Faber. The title is on the line.  Just a couple of years ago Faber was unstoppable.  Then he was upset by Mike Brown, who was in turn TKO’d by Jose Aldo.  Almost everyone see Aldo winning by TKO or KO.  One thing I’ve learned is that the race doesn’t always go to the biggest or fastest dog, but that’s the way to bet. 

Prediction: Aldo by TKO.

The Raven

Posted on by

Peruvian filmmaker Ricardo de Montreuil made this teaser for a potential film trilogy.   The Raven aka Chris Black possesses a unique power that threatens the current power structure…

The chase is on as Chris runs for his life in this sci-fi thriller set in an alternate and futuristic Los Angeles.

This has a lot of potential.  I hope we see more soon!

Frank Mir Speaks

Posted on by

Frank Mir is one of my favorite MMA fighters.  In this short video interview Mir tells what happened in the Carwin fight [no excuses], his thoughts on a potential fight with Anderson Silva [he’d welcome it] and does he still want to fight Brock Lesnar [he does].  It’s a nice little interview brought to us by the good folks at MixedMartialArts.com.

Chaykin Draws Down on Jonah Hex

Posted on by

What with all the talk lately about James Brolin playing Jonah Hex in the up-coming movie and Darwyn Cooke providing the cover to Jonah Hex 56, I’ve been thinking about my favorite artists who’ve drawn the deformed gunslinger.

This is Howard Chaykin’s prelim for the cover of  Jonah Hex #4 which was cover-dated February 2006.  It’s interesting to note that this appears to be an older Jonah Hex than we normally see and the powerlines in the background would indicate that the story takes place later in Hex’s life.  Chaykin said that…

“My inspiration for the image – and this is based on memory, as opposed to actually looking at the artwork in question – was a cover for a MAX BRAND paperback by an illustrator named Roy Andersen – who did a beautiful series of covers for Warner books back in the seventies or eighties…”

The artwork appeared in Rough Stuff magazine #4 and can be found in back issue bins in most comic shops.

Miller Visits Jurassic Park

Posted on by

If you’re a Frank Miller completist, then you’ll want to pick up the first issue of Jurassic Park: Redemption since Miller provides the cover.  The mini-series from IDW will run five issues and is written by Bob Schreck with art by Nate Van Dyke.  Tom Yeates is also providing a variant cover to the first issue, so be sure to let your comic shop manager know which cover you’re after should you decide to get one.

Future issues will feature covers by Arthur Adams, Paul Pope, Bernie Wrightson and Bill Stout.

Brolin is Hexed

Posted on by

The Entertainment Weekly Summer Preview issue takes a look at 96 films coming out this summer.  Guess that’s why it’s called the summer preview issue, right?  Anyway, one of the films covered is Jonah Hex.  The picture above is the first clear close-up that I’ve seen of Brolin in character.  I thought it was pretty cool.  Hope you do too.

3 Title Fights, 3 Upsets

Posted on by

Strikeforce: Nashville was held last night and aired on CBS.  Three titles were on the line and all three fights were exciting examples of an underdog going into a fight well prepared, with a plan that he stuck to that led to a win.

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal vs Gegard Mousasi.  In just his seventh fight, King Mo was a huge underdog going in against Mousasi, who held the title.  From the first round on, King Mo was able to take down Mousasi at will.  Early in the fight it appeared that King Mo was going to gas out.  At the end of the second round, Mo appeared to have trouble standing and walking back to his corner — he was that tired.  Yet, Mo continued to score takedown after takedown and ended up winning the decision.

Gil Melendez [Strikeforce Champion] was the underdog when he entered the octogan against Shinya Aoki.  Most experts thought that once the fight went to the ground Aoki would submit Melendez.  It seemed that even Melendez thought that a possibility when the fight started — so his plan was to make this a standup war.  And he did.  Each time Aoki attempted to take Melendez down, Melendez punished him with hard punches.  Melendez had a beautiful fight plan, stuck to it, and won a unanimous decision.

The biggest upset of the night was Strikeforce Champion Jake Shields scoring a unanimous decision against Dan Henderson.  Early in the first round it looked to be lights out for Shields when Henderson rocked him with a punch that dropped him.  Shields recovered enough to keep the fight going, but was dropped again in the first.  Again it looked to be an early night for Henderson.  Shields didn’t see it that way.  From the second round on, he scored takedown after takedown and dominated Henderson.  Several times Shields even achieved a full mount to rain down punches on Henderson, who to his credit, each time was able to avoid a ref stoppage.  Shields earned a well deserved unanimous decision.

Re-Imagined Marvel Covers

Posted on by

Re-imagined covers and posters are popular.  Recently we checked out Laz Marquez’s cool redesigns of classic Hitchcock movie posters.  Marquez followed that up with some re-imagined Stephen King book covers.   Turner Classic Movies offered up some re-imagined classic/iconic movie posters that were also very popular.

Designer, Steven Finch recently posted five re-imagined Marvel comic series that he recreated as dime store paperback covers.  It’s a cool idea and he promises more are coming.

Thanks to io9.com for the original link.

Ray-Anthony Height’s Rocky

Posted on by

I had the good fortune to meet Ray-Anthony Height at MegaCon this year. I was talking with a con buddy who had a table near where Ray was set up and I saw him knock out one cool sketch after another. It didn’t take long before I checked to see if Ray would be interested in doing a Stallone sketch. He was, and created the nice Rocky piece that you see above.

You can see more of Ray-Anthony Height’s art here and here. And if you’re so inclined, tell him I sent ya!

The Rawhide Kid Rides Again

Posted on by

When I was a little kid first reading comics, one of my favorite characters was the Rawhide Kid.  In 2003, Marvel decided to bring back the Rawhide Kid in a mini-series called Blaze of Glory.  It was supposedly a humorous take on the Kid as being gay.  I said “supposedly humorous” because I didn’t read it.

Marvel is bringing back that Rawhide Kid in a new mini-series called The Sensational Seven.  Although the change in the Rawhide Kid’s character still bugs me, I might give this series a shot.  Written by Ron Zimmerman with art by Howard Chaykin the story will bring together some of the most popular Marvel western characters along with real western legends.

When Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp are taken prisoner, The Rawhide Kid sets off to rescue them.  Along the way he meets up with The Two Gun Kid,  Kid Colt, Red Wolf, Doc Holiday, Annie Oakley, Billy the Kid and others.

If this sounds like something that you’d like, then you might want to check out Zimmerman’s interview at CBR.com where he talks about his plans for the series.

Andrew Robinson Hulks Out

Posted on by

Here’s a pencil sketch of the The Hulk for a Marvel trading card set.  It was drawn by Andrew Robinson and appeared [in much smaller form] in Rough Stuff #4 [April 2007]. Yep, the same Andrew Robinson who drew The Punisher and Nick Fury cards.  Here’s what Andrew said about the piece:

“I think this is the only time [for publication] that I’ve drawn the Hulk, and man, did I have a good time.”

Looking at the drawing, I can’t help but smiling.  The funny thing about the Hulk is that I’ve never really cared for the character.  Outside of his “guest appearances” to fight Ben Grim or Spider-Man, or the X-Men, I probably have read less than a handful of Hulk comics.  The best of those being Hulk drawn by Jim Starlin and Alex Nino in the Hulk’s own magazine.  But, although I’m not a fan of Hulk stories, I am a fan of Hulk drawings.  Perhaps it’s because there are so many ways that artists can draw him.  Andrew Robinson’s take is one of my favorites.