Author: Craig Zablo

Heroes Here I Come!

Tomorrow I’m heading to  Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina. Most folks refer to it as the best comic convention on the East Coast.  Most folks would be right.  From Friday, June 19th to Sunday, the 21st I’ll see if the praise still holds true.  My guess is, it will.

I plan to tweet updates from the show and post a major con report next week.  Until then…

My Three Amigos

It was pretty cool to get home to find that three of my buddies made the news today and not a single one in the courthouse docket.

John Beatty has this little interview about what he’s been up to posted at Comicon.com.

Gene Gonzales made a new sketchbook and it [rightly] rated a piece at Scoop.com.

Ron Salas is the artist on a new comic, Existence 2.0, coming from Image and CBR.com posted a 12 page preview.

Dead Zombie Ratings

According to this site, the ZONE should be rated PG-13 due to using the word “dead” 9 times, “zombie” 4 times and “death” once.  Well, I do write, on a fairly regular basis, about how great the comic “The Walking Dead” is… and it is about zombies.

I guess if I’d been talking up “Hellboy” I might have gotten an “R” rating??  Oops.

Gene Gonzales’ Ray Tango

Gene Gonzales did this quick sketch of Sly as Ray Tango from “Tango and Cash” as a bonus for buying his new sketchbook.  He offers this deal to anyone picking up a copy, so check out Gene’s art and if you like what you see put in your order. You won’t be disappointed.

UFC 99 Results

UFC 99 are in.  Let’s see how my predictions held up…

Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis Vs. Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy: What made this fight interesting was a real dislike stemming from Hardy calling Davis a “fake Irish man”. I went with the fake Irish Man over the fake Outlaw.  Unfortunately, at least for Davis and me the “fake Outlaw” won via split decision.

Spencer Fisher Vs. Caol Uno: Fisher eeked out a unanimous [29-28 on all three cards] decision.  I thought it would be an easier win, but I was right in picking Fisher.

Mike Swick Vs. Ben Saunders: Swick won via a second round stoppage defeating Saunders who I had picked to win.

Mirko Cro Cop Vs. Mostapha Al Turk: I picked Cro Cop, who won via a first round stoppage [which turned out to be caused by an eye poke].  Surprisingly, the finger poke wasn’t the most controversial aspect of Cro Cop’s night.  You can read how Cro Cop pulled a fast one on Dana White here.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Cain Velasquez:: I thought that Cain would have his way with Congo and it would end before the final bell.  Cain did dominate the fight, but it went the full three rounds with Cain winning on all cards 30-27.

Rich Franklin Vs. Wanderlei Silva: I predicted an entertaining fight with Franklin winning.  It was and he did.

UFC 99

UFC 99 is tonight.  Although there are a couple of good fights on the card, there aren’t enough to tempt me to get the PPV.  Let’s take a look at what they do offer…

Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis Vs. Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy: Both men come in with similar records [21-5 vs 21-6].  What makes this fight interesting is that these guys seem to have a real dislike for each other stemming from Hardy calling Davis a “fake Irish man”.  Whew!  Talk about insults.  I’m going with the fake Irish Man over the fake Outlaw.

Spencer Fisher Vs. Caol Uno: Fisher has the much better record and I’ve seen him fight before.  You guessed it, I’m taking Fisher.

Mike Swick Vs. Ben Saunders: This may be the fight of the night.  Swick is 13-2 and Saunders is 7-0.  Both men are strong, fast, and skilled.  I’m going with Saunders in what I expect to be a fast paced and brutal fight.

Mirko Cro Cop Vs. Mostapha Al Turk: Cro Cop is working his way, he hopes, back into contention.  I predict he’ll win by knockout.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Cain Velasquez:: Congo is 6-4 and a solid 240 pounds.  He has a record of 24-4Cain is 6-1and 240 with a 5-0 record.  On paper it should be a tough fight.  I think that Cain will have his way with Congo and end it before the final bell.  Cain appears to be the real deal.  We shall see.

Rich Franklin Vs. Wanderlei Silva: The main event pits two of the most popular former champions in the game against each other.  Both men need a win to get back into the title hunt.  Silva is going down in weight and Franklin up.  They’re fighting at a catch weight of 195.  I think that Franklin will win.  It should be an entertaining fight.  [As crazy as it sounds, I think we’ll soon see Wanderlei Silva fighting Anderson Silva even if Wanderlei looses to Franklin tonight.  They don’t like each other and Anderson worked with Franklin for tonight’s fight.  Of course if Wanderlei wins, there’s even more reason for them to fight… I just don’t see it happening.]

Florida SuperCon

I spent last Saturday at the 4th annual Florida SuperCon and had a blast.  It was my first time to the FSC, so I really didn’t know what to expect.  I’m happy to report that the show was well run, and contained plenty of media guests, artists, activities, and panels to keep fans of all interest levels entertained.

If you like checking out convention photos, then you can click on the individual links in the post or here to see a slideshow of photos [with additional ones not linked below].

I walked onto the convention floor just a bit before the doors opened to find Pat Broderick setting up.  It was cool talking to Pat, and refreshing to hear that he still collects art.  In fact, Pat was disappointed to learn that legendary artist Gene Colan wasn’t going to be able to make the show due to health reasons. Pat had hoped to get something from him.

Dick Giordano was surrounded by fans the entire day.  Dennis Calero was set up and sketching.  I had hoped to get him to sign my copy of Duane Swierczynski’s Severance Package novel [Dennis did art for it] and it was the first place I ever saw his work.  Can you believe that I accidentally left my copy at home?  [I didn’t forget my Walking Dead hardcover and was able to get Tony Moore to sign it.]   Still, it was nice to meet Dennis.

Another artist that I met for the first time was Mitch BreitweiserMitch was twittering from the show and cracking me up with some of his tweets.  It’s also possible that Mitch has some magical powers, since I took at least one photo of him and when I got home none were on my camera!

Sean Shaw was set up and drawing when he wasn’t talking up the UFC!  In fact artist alley was hopping with folks like: Saint James Comics, Derrick Fish, Chris Darden [who was painting], Alex Ferrer, Austin Janokowski, Richard Green and so many others.  I picked up two Stallone sketches at the show: Andrew Charipar gave me his take on Deke from “Nighthawks” and newcomer, Cayce Moyer took a shot a Rambo.

It seemed that every third person was in a costume and man, there were some really good ones.  Like this one, or this one, and especially this one.  I taken more photos of the costumed guests and you can see them here.

Brian Thompson, Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell were the main media guests Ted Raimi did a one hour panel where he talked to the audience and then led folks chosen from the crowd to join him in a skit of “How a Movie Gets Made in Hollywood.”  Bruce Campbell won the crowd over with a one hour session where he simply took questions from the audience.  Talk about rapport with the fans, stage presence and great sense of humor.  I enjoyed that panel more than any I’ve ever seen and I’m not a HUGE Bruce Campbell fan… or maybe I should say I wasn’t…

As you can probably tell, if you’ve read this far, I had a great day at the Florida SuperCon.  I expect that next year will be even better since I’m going to try to make it for more than one day.  If you can, you should too!

Heroes Once Again

I missed out on Heroes Con last year.  Normally, we plan the family vacation so that we’re in Charlotte the weekend of the show.  It just couldn’t be worked out last year.  Up until a week ago, I thought I’d miss the convention again.  But thanks to some buddies who’ve invited me to join them, I’ll be there when the doors open on Friday, June 19th and plan to hang around until they throw us out on Sunday, the 21st.

I’m excited because I’ll get to hang with a group of friends I haven’t seen in a while – “The James”, Hal, Will, Matt, Jason, Gary,,, I’ll get to see some artists/writers whose work I love – Ed Brubaker, Otis Frampton, Chris Brunner, Eric Canate, Evan Bryce… aw, you can check out the guest list here for yourself.  Then if you get the urge, make plans to come to the show.  [ I’d hate for you to miss out.  Trust me, I know how that feels, and it ain’t fun.]

Francesco’s Zombie Jack Carter

Francesco Francavilla is a talented artist.  I visit his art blog and pulp blog regularly.

Here’s Francesco’s take on Freddy from “Cop Land.” The sketch was free since I purchased Francesco’s Chiaroscuro sketchbook.   Chiaroscuro is 70 pages full of Francesco’s black and white work.  It features everything from quick sketches to more detailed work of characters like Hellboy, Batman, Kong, Marv, and so many others.  It arrives securely packaged [which is a major plus knowing my mail carrier] and the last page contains the quick sketch.

Francesco has another sketchbook available.  Schermoscuro is a classic horror movie guide in artbook form.  Francesco offers the same deal on it.  How could I pass up such a bargain?  I couldn’t.  I love that Francesco tied my drawing to the sketchbook’s theme by making Jack Carter a zombie.