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Superheroes, the Richard Mullins Way

Our pals over at Fanboy.com recently posted some really great work from artist Richard Mullins featuring Batman, Robin and a few other familiar characters. I’d love to have any one of these pieces hanging in my office, to be honest.

Since I’m probably the last person you want to consult when it comes to describing art (I’m more of a "I know it when I see it" sort of guy), I’ll let Fanboy.com’s Michael Pinto handle the synopsis:

What I like about his work is that in addition to be inspired by pop art subjects, his style of painting and bold use of vivid colors reminds me a great deal of the Fauvism of Henri Matisse.

Yeah, I agree. I think he summed it up there.

(Psst Between you and I, I had no idea what "fauvism" was before I read this.)

Darth Vader Gets Drunk, Attacks Jedi Church

darthvader-9314371To be filed under "Sometimes This Stuff Really Writes Itself," Newsweek.com is reporting that a 27-year-old man who dressed up as Star Wars villain Darth Vader (complete with garbage-bag cape)  and attacked members of a British group calling itself the Jedi Church, has been officially spared any time in jail.

According to reports, Arwel Wynne Hughes attacked church founders Barney Jones (a.k.a. "Master Jonba Hehol") and Michael Jones (a.k.a. "Master Mormi Hehol") with a metal crutch two months ago. The cousins created the "Jedi Church" after a 2001 U.K. census reported 390,000 people (0.7 percent of the country’s population) who claimed "Jedi" as their religion.

Here’s the best part, though:

Hughes claimed he couldn’t remember the incident, having drunk the better part of a 2 1/2-gallon (10-liter) box of wine beforehand.

Seriously, there’s nothing worse than a drunk guy who can control The Force. If I had a nickel for every party that ended when someone force-pushed another guest through a wall…

Happy Birthday: Brad Anderson

Born in Jamestown, New York in 1924, Brad Anderson started cartooning as a child. He attended Brocton Central School for high school, and while there sold his first cartoons (to an aviation magazine).

Anderson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then attended Syracuse University’s School of Fine Arts. After graduating college, Anderson focused on advertising for a few years, but in 1953 decided to turn his full attention back to cartoons.

A year later, he created the cartoon strip Marmaduke. He still draws the strip today. In 1976, Anderson received the National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Panel, and in 1999 Syracuse University honored him with the George Arents Pioneer Medal.

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Review: ‘The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard’

leotard-1710289Eddie Campbell has always done comics his way, without worrying about other people’s expectations or preferences — one of his two major series has been a fictionalization of his own life as a comics creator, and the other, a superficially more populist sequence about Greek gods in the modern world, was itself about storytelling more often than not. So it’s no surprise that his latest graphic novel — co-written with Dan Best — is more about telling its story than it is the story being told.

The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard
By Eddie Campbell and Dan Best
First Second, August 2008, $18.95

[[[Monsieur Leotard]]] will be published by First Second — who published Campbell’s last book, The Black Diamond Detective Agency, and have been putting together an impressive list of graphic novels for adults and younger readers for the past few years — in August, and the first thing to note is that it’s not the story the reader expects.

You see, the famous acrobat Jules Leotard lies dying of smallpox on page 12. So, we think, the book will be a series of flashbacks showing his life? No, he’s dead by the bottom of page 13, and the story moves on. So far, so very Campbell.

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Can You Build Your Own ‘Iron Man’ Suit?

So what would it take to build your own Iron Man suit? Given enough money and access to scientific equipment, could you become a superhero?

The good people over at The Chicago Tribune posed exactly those questions to James Kakalios, a University of Minnesota physics professor. Kakalios weighed in on the likelihood of building various elements of Iron Man’s armor, including jet boots, cybernetic helmet and, of course, repulsor rays:

It’s that power thing again. If you want to send lightning bolts — or laser beams, more likely — shooting out of your palms, you have to carry along a power source big enough to generate them. To make a beam "powerful enough to melt a fist-size hole through a half-inch steel plate," Kakalios says, "would require an energy pulse of over 2 gigawatts of power, greater than the output of a nuclear power plant."

The verdict? Well, let’s just say that you might want to hold off on making any superpowered arch-enemies for a while.

Read the full article over at The Chicago Tribune website.

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ComicMix Six: The Worst Supervillain Names in Comics

  • Uncategorized
  • May 14, 2008

bushmaster-wonder-woman-x-6670236A while back, I gave you "The Worst Superhero Names in Comics," but now it’s time for the other end of the spectrum. Yes, it’s time to give the supervillains their due. (Well, those of them with horrible names, that is.)

Oh, and before anyone mentions folks like "Mr. Banjo" and "Captain Nazi," I didn’t include those characters because they were created to fight Captain Marvel back when that character’s adventures were still very much aimed at younger readers – so I consider them to be an entirely different animal. The same goes for any villains created with intentionally silly names (i.e., Howard the Duck’s nemesis, "Dr. Bong").

Ready? Okay, then I give you the ComicMix Six list of The Worst Supervillain Names in Comics…

6. BUSHMASTER: Yeah, I know it’s the name of a deadly snake. But honestly, guys and gals, when you see Wonder Woman (of all people) fighting a telepathic character called "Bushmaster," and then you read her thought bubble proclaiming, “Great Hera! I — I cannot resist the telepathic commands of the evil Bushmaster!” … Well, you can’t help but laugh and cringe at the same time — which is painful, believe me.

Congratulations, Bushmaster. You just barely edged out "The Growing Man" and "Bi-Beast" in the award for names with ridiculous innuendo.

(more…)

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Devil’s Due and Capcom Partner for Videogame-Based Comics

  • Uncategorized
  • May 14, 2008

ddplostplanetsmaller-1987325Devil’s Due Publishing, the Chicago-based home of comic book titles such as Dungeons & Dragons, Demon Squad and the cult favorite Hack/Slash, recently announced that it will be teaming up with noted videogame publisher Capcom to launch four new comic book titles based on the company’s successful videogame properties.

Two of the four titles announced as part of this deal will be comics based on popular Capcom titles Bionic Commando and Lost Planet.

According to Devil’s Due President Josh Blaylock:

Not only are these awesome games, but they have great stories behind them ripe for comics, including a vintage classic with Bionic Commando that’s been revived along with the new sequel.

More details about DDP’s plans for Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and the two other new Capcom comics are expected to be announced in July at the San Diego Comic-Con. Be sure to check back here at ComicMix for all the details.

In the Pink, by Elayne Riggs

I visited my mom’s house for Mother’s Day, which always seems to include watching baseball, as Mom and I are both fans of the game. No, honest, this isn’t another column about sports! It’s about pink.

You see, every year on Mother’s Day, Major League Baseball provides its teams with pink bats, pink ribbons and so forth. It’s all Komen-driven, of course.  The Susan G. Komen Foundation has become the country’s largest breast cancer charity due largely to its habit of painting things pink.

And so we watched not only pink bats, but pink-ringed bases and pink home plates and pink wrist bands and pink caps in the crowd and Jose Reyes even had pink shoelaces for the occasion. It was, as always, very cool.  It would have been even nicer if the Mets announcers had actually noted the real reason for the pink; instead, the disappointingly misogynist Keith Hernandez said it was for Mother’s Day. ‘Cause, uh, Moms like pink, I guess, Keith? Seriously, do you know the difference between "for" Mother’s Day and "on" Mother’s Day at all?

I was surprised to find out that Komen isn’t the only charity focused on pink. Apparently a number of other less reputable places engage in "pink washing," where it’s not as clear where your breast cancer charity money’s actually going. In fact, Breast Cancer Action has a website called Think Before You Pink which reminds folks that "breast cancer is about women’s lives, not a marketing opportunity," and that there are a lot of places riding the bandwagon just to make a profit. (more…)

M.O.D.O.K. and Genocide = M.O.D.O.G.?

Marvel.com, which recently cleaned up in the Eagle Awards as “Favorite Comics Related Website,” has posted some new art today featuring one of my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe: M.O.D.O.K.

Or, more accurately, M.O.D.O.G.

Yes, everyone’s favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing seems to have found himself a new hobby, as well as a new home, in Invincible Iron Man. The new version of the big-headed bugger has taken a shine to genocide instead of just garden-variety killing, according to information released about the villain’s upcoming appearance in the second issue of the Matt Fraction/Salvador Larroca series.

Marvel.com has posted samples of Larroca’s new M.O.D.O.G. art, including this great image of Iron Man dragging the ever-creepy creature around by his hair.

The thing is, I’m not sure if the decision to shift his focus from “Killing” to “Genocide” makes him more or less dangerous. With a M.O.D.O.G., at least you have a good idea of who’s on his hit list, right? But a M.O.D.O.K. – that’s a different story. He wants to kill everybody.

Unless, of course, he’s discovered the sweet serenity of regular meditation.

‘DC Universe Online’ Needs Senior Artist

Comic book and videogame fans’ cyberspace dreams were crushed when Microsoft confirmed that the Marvel Universe Online videogame was canceled last year. The superhero-themed massively multiplayer online game, playable between computers and Xbox 360 consoles, could’ve been a serious contender to World of Warcraft. However, the developer is carrying on with that effort, sans Marvel license.

But don’t give up hope yet, fanboys. Evidence shows that Sony is still going forward with their planned DC Comics Universe Online MMO. This week, Rich Johnston noticed in his Lying in the Gutters column a Craigslist ad from Sony Online Entertainment looking for Senior Levels Artists to work on the game. Before you start assembling your resume so that you can work with game consultant Jim Lee, be aware that the position has some steep requirements:

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent development experience.
• 5+ years experience in game development using Maya and the Unreal Engine.
• Must have shipped at least two titles with heavy 3D content as a senior Artist with management responsibilities.

DC Comics Universe Online has been long in development with very few details released. It was announced for computers and the PlayStation 3 but it’s unknown if cross-platform play will be allowed. It’s not likely to come out any time soon, either, since no mention of the game was made at Sony’s recent 2008 media event in London last week.

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