Or is it?
Artist Peter Nidzgorski adds suggested phrases to old romance comic panels as social commentary. Hilarity ensues.
Bob McLeod Draws Spider-Man
Bob McLeod was another comic artist I admired in the Eighties. I got to meet him at the first Memphis Comic Con, way back in 19 and 82.
He autographed my copy of New Mutants number 1, and somehow refrained from killing my spazzy friend who almost spilled a glass of water on a commissioned piece McLeod was working on at the time.
Anybody?
I wasn’t planning on getting into The Umbrella Academy, especially after reading a meh review or two. Then my daughter (and a couple of friends with tastes similar to mine) watched it and said it was worth a look.
And it is! I’m three episodes in and really digging it. I have heard the season finale is divisive, however.
When it rains, it pours.
From the minds of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy is the story of a super-dysfunctional family of superheroes who have eight days to get it together and save the world.
Thanks!
Whichever one of you bastards sent this, I appreciate it.
My Moebius Obsession
Besides creating a shitload of brain-melting comics, Moebius (Jean Giraud) contributed storyboards and concept designs to numerous science fiction and fantasy films, including Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element and The Abyss. I’ve been on a big Moebius kick lately, and I’ve settled on “The Long Tomorrow” to share with you bastards.
According to the man himself …
I drew “The Long Tomorrow” in 1975, while I worked with Alexandro Jodorowsky on a film adaption of “Dune.” Originally Douglas Trumbull was to do the special effects, but that was not to be so Jodorowsky hired Dan O’Bannon to replace him. Dan came to Paris. Bearded, dressed in a wild style, the typical Californian post-hippie. His real work would begin at the time of shooting, on the models, on the hardware props. As we were still in the stage of preparations and concepts, there was almost nothing to do and he was bored stiff. To kill time, he drew. Dan is best known as a script writer, but is an excellent cartoonist. If he had wished, he could have been a professional graphic artist. One day, he showed me what he was drawing. It was the story board of “The Long Tomorrow.” A classic police story, but situated in the future. I was enthusiastic. When Europeans try this kind of parody, it is never entirely satisfactory, the French are too French, the Italians are too Italian … so, under my nose was a pastiche that was more original than the originals. A believer in parody, Dan continued that tradition. As the story was very strong, I immediately asked if he would allow me to play around graphically, with complete freedom, without conventional pyrotechnics, to refocus on the floating point of view. Pete Club’s costume, for example, was almost ridiculous, far from the traditional raincoat of Bogart. It was the same for most of the visual elements. I scrupulously followed Dan’s story. One day I wish we could publish our two versions side by side. As the strip has pleased everyone, I asked Dan about a sequel, but it did not get his attention, so was simply an adventure I never designed.
This story heavily influenced everyone from writer William Gibson (Neuromancer) to Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) to George Lucas (Empire Strikes Back). If the launchpad sentinel looks familiar to Star Wars fans, it’s because Lucas lifted its design in toto for the probe droid. O’Bannon did a ton of stuff later on, but is perhaps best-known for writing Alien and directing Return of the Living Dead.
John Byrne’s Studio
Okay, so I have a John Byrne obsession, so what? He’s still got some pretty cool shit in his studio …
John Lindley Byrne (/bɜːrn/; born July 6, 1950) is a British-born, Canadian raised, American writer and artist of superhero comics. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on many major superheroes, with noted work on Marvel Comics’ X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise, the first issue of which featured comics’ first variant cover. Coming into the comics profession as penciller, inker, letterer and writer on his earliest work, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also served as penciler and inker). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He scripted the first issues of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing. In 2015, Byrne and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.
The Muck Monster
When I was a kid, my mom would take me grocery shopping. I would practically run to the magazine stand and then she’d collect me after check out. What she still doesn’t know is that I read TONS of inappropriate shit, from Creepy to Creem and whatever else you can think of. On one of those trips, I came across this story. Me being me, it had a profound effect. Unfortunately, I could never track down a copy as an adult, not knowing the artist, story name, or publication. Occasionally, I would ask other horror fans about it, but no one ever knew what I was talking about.
Of course, after I gave up looking, I accidentally found it online. According to some comic historian with a blog, “The Muck Monster” was originally published in the September 1975 issue of Eerie (#68) as a color insert. Comix International then reprinted it in October 1975, and then, a few years later in November 1979, it was reprinted in black & white for issue 113 of Creepy. (Which is when I must have initially read it.)
So here it is, pretty much as I remembered it. I uploaded the color version because it’s higher resolution, but the black & white version is much more impactful. I should have guessed Berni Wrightson was the artist and writer.
Check Out These Early Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Animatics
So sayeth animator Alberto Mielgo …
As I mentioned before, I was hired to direct the animation test for the new Spiderman film.
Here you can see my original storyboards and animatics that I produced for such a test. My main intention was to explore the language of comics and cinema and merge them together. We finished only 4 of this shots. And everyone ended up pretty exhausted!!!
The shots that we produced with an incredible technical team were some of the most amazing thing Ive seen, and Im extremely proud of them and the team involved. With those shots we open a door to a pipeline and possibilities and help to estimate the overall film.
I hope Sony will allow me to share the finished shots some time in the future .Im really happy to see that most of my shots on this early boards made it to the final film. Again I would like to congratulate the whole team that finished the final film for preserving the compositions and the original intention of these shots. It shows that everyone felt inspired and that they really cared for this particular vision.
As you can see the 3 versions are very different in tone. It was early and I was not too sure yet what would be the final mood of this film yet.
I work with pencil, photoshop, I do the comp in After FX and my edits in Premiere, with my own sounds and all bunch of crap in Audition… Did I ever say how much I love adobe?
Music on this obviously temp score just for the edit.
My pick temp track artist:
v1: SON LUX
v2: LEFTFIELD
v3: MAXIMONO
Action, Figures
Marvel Comics 7-Eleven Slurpee Plastic Cup Set
Originally posted to Facebook, but I’m deleting all my shit over there and wanted to hang on to these. Marvel Slurpee cups, one more pop culture item that makes me nostalgic for the Seventies.
Four sets of these plastic cups were produced — three for Marvel Comics characters and one set for DC Comics characters. This is the first of the three Marvel sets issued. Marvel’s more popular characters — Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and The Thing — each received three cups.