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So hey, what’s up with this little guy?
Why, that’s an enlarged detail from one of the drawings by pal Tom Foxmarnick that appears in the February 2012 issue of
ImagineFX, currently on the stands! It has a nice full-color two-page spread of Tom’s work, and well worth checking out.
I’ve featured Tom’s art on this site before, which you may remember from the most terrifying MODOK-variation of all time, or this pic of Swamp Thing and Man-Thing wreaking some havoc. You can also see more of his work on his Deviantart page, or, if you bought that horror anthology Taboo, you can read his story “Check-Out Time in #2, or “39th and Norton” in #7. Or you can catch his work in pretty much any issue of CARtoons from the ’80s through the ’90s.
Anyway, Tom’s a swell guy, and I’ve always enjoyed his fine cartooning, so I’m always happy to plug it whenever the opportunity arises.
• • •
Speaking of pal-plugging, pal Cathy has put together the final word on all you people out there who consistently misspell Spider-Man. Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking about
you. If you’re having trouble remembering if “Spider-Man” requires a hyphen, then print out
this informative cartoon and, I don’t know, glue it to the inside of your car’s windshield or something. And learn well from it, my friends…learn
very well.
So Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull Who Apparently Can Work an iPad with His Little Hooves, knowing of my particular obsession with the classic Dungeons & Dragons monster the Gelatinous Cube, sent along this screenshot from the iPad game Puzzle Quest 2:
Oh, you poor, misguided warrior. There is no defeating…the Gelatinous Cube.
In other news:
- Speaking of Bully, I helped him out a bit with his “366 Days of Alfred Pennyworth” project.
- If you remember this Sluggo Saturday (the one with the wholly-inappropriate Dolly Parton gag I made), the folks at Boing Boing present the strip in full, and come to sort of the same conclusion I had about what was going on there. (Thanks to pal Andres for letting me know about this!)
- ~P~ at Sanctum Sanctorum wants you to put words in Dr. Strange’s mouth! (~P~’s example of what he’s kind of looking for is…slightly Not Safe for Work…but what are you doing goofing off at work and looking at comic book websites for anyway? Well, except for mine, of course.)
- Not comics, but pal Dawn has written a book (FaeMaker: Making Fantasy Characters with Polymer Clay) and I thought I’d point that out to you folks. You might have seen her selling her wares at a San Diego Con or two, and she’s a swell gal…so please pick up her book if that sounds like something you’d be into!
- Pal Dave whips out a long-awaited new installment of “This Used to Be The Future” with…The Secret Story of Ray-Gun 64!
- As pal Dorian says: “Useful.”
- There’s really nothing quite like standing there and feeling the covers to multiple copies of R. Crumb’s Big Ass Comics #1, trying to determine the relative glossiness of the cover stock (which indicates what printing the book is, according to the Underground Price Guide), and then noticing someone is watching you do this with a “what the hell are you doing?” look in his eye. “Just can’t get enough of these sexy, sexy vulture women,” sez I.
- Thanks to DC sticking to their strict new scheduling for the New 52 books, last week was a “skip week,” meaning no New 52 books on the stands. Seeing as how it’s been a while since we’ve had a real skip week, giving the general publishing strategy of “get it out there as soon as it’s ready” that everyone seemed to be following, I’ve had to explain the concept of “skip weeks” several times over the last few days. Not just to folks coming in for the new Action Comics, but to some of the newer employees as well. …At least there was no “fifth week event” to fill the shelves this time around, and some of my customers were grateful for the break.
- Speaking of things that came out last week, the Gumby Arthur Adams Specials trade paperback apparently had some behind-the-scenes shenanigans going on, as it was released with big ol’ color stickers over the logos, replacing them with a logo that reads “Gumby Spring Specials.” (And, as Greg notes, neither of the comics reprinted inside were “Spring Specials,” so…huh?) One sticker on the front cover, another sticker on the back cover, one on the copyright page inside, and “Arthur Adams” inked out on the spine. …Hopefully, this will be returnable, since it was going to be a hard sell at $12.99 as it was for this thin digest. The stickers are just going to make it more difficult. Too bad, as it is absolutely wonderful cartooning from Adams, with scripts by Bob Burden and Steve Purcell, which totally deserves being kept in print. With any luck, a future edition will be sticker-free.
- And this has nothing to do with funnybook retailing, but I wanted to note that pals Dor and Ken have trailer reviews up. Always a good read.
Due to some health issues and other real-world concerns, I don’t have my monthly End of Civilization post ready for today. Sorry about that…it’ll be up tomorrow, with any luck.
Pal Dorian does have his Previews for Gays for last month’s Previews up, so please go enjoy that.
…I’ll see you folks tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.
I was going to save these for my next End of Civilization post, but decided I couldn’t wait. Now, I’m not much of a t-shirt wearer, but I think I will make an exception for these fine items, available in the October issue of Previews:
That’s the cover of the new
Swamp Thing #1 by Yanick Paquette, and here is a plain ol’ logo shirt:
…one of which I’ve been awaiting for a
long time. At last, I can finally retire (well,
more retire)
this worn-out piece of clothing.
• • •
In other news…I picked up five of the new DC #1s this week (minor spoilers ahead):
- Superman #1: lots of stuff crammed into this issue — interesting, but can’t really describe it as “enjoyable” — and the last hope that someone, anyone, could make Superman’s new costume look good is finally dashed…though George Perez comes closest on the cover.
- Aquaman #1: pulls off the nice trick of taking all the criticisms and mockeries aimed at Aquaman over the years and putting them in the mouths of a bunch of folks harassing our fishy friend. Effectively puts reader in position of siding with the hero against all those old jokes, probably a more effective defense than attempts at bad-assifying the character. I wasn’t planning to get this, but picked it up on a whim and, surprisingly, turned out to be one of my favorite relaunches of this whole New 52 hoohar.
- Fury of Firestorm #1: noted just recently that I love the Firestorm character, but I’m not quite sure what I think of this new version. It’s a complete reboot, which seems to be taking things in a slightly different direction, and…I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I’ll keep reading and see what happens. However, I am not down with reboot Cliff Carmichael…sorry, this is “Superman’s new costume” level of tragedy.
- Green Lantern: New Guardians #1: think this may be the “one Green Lantern title too many” series. I’ve said before that I’ve probably had enough of the different-colored Lantern corps for the time being, so it’s probably not you, baby, it’s me. However, totally judging this from just this one issue, this feels like it’s more suited to a storyline in another GL book rather than a series on its own. Then again, you can probably say that about every GL series beyond the first one.
- Justice League Dark #1: only picked it up because of John Constantine, not expecting much…but turned out to be not half-bad. Still in the “let’s get the band together” part of the story, being only the first issue an’ all, but am looking forward to more. And looking forward to any possible Swamp Thing cameos, but that goes without saying.
Also picked up Love & Rockets #4 by those Jaime and Gilbert cats, which is, as usual, a masterpiece of comics storytelling despite its lack of Swamp Thing. L&R, always recommended.
…If you want reviews of all of last week’s DC #1s, pal Dorian has got you covered.
from DC Comics Presents #26 (May 1984) by Mark Evanier, Irv Novick & Dennis Jensen
• • •
In other news:
- So when I was linking up online funnybook-type stuff friends were doin’, I totally forgot pal George and his pal Lance and their forthcoming comic Comic Book Junkies. Of special interest to me, I should note, as its setting is the comic book industry of the 1990s, a time both George and I endured together as fellow comic-book slingers. I’ve read the script, and I’d probably say it was hilarious if it didn’t give me terrifying flashbacks. Anyway, keep an eye out for it over at the official publisher’s site or friend ‘em on Facebook.
- That Chris Sims, he’s got more free comics for you to read: The Hard Ones, with cowriter Chad Bowers and artist Rusty Shackles, is available right here for free download!
- It’s not often I see Swamp Thing on Yahoo’s front page:
…but hey, there he is.
It’s a story celebrating both Heather Locklear’s 50th birthday, as well as her…colorful film career. It refers to her part in 1989′s Return of the Swamp Thing as “her first awful film role,” and I can only assume that was a typo, and they actually meant “awe-inspiring.”
- That prolific Kevin Church cat, along with artist Sandra Lanz, just kicked off their new romance web comic Did You See Me Coming. Get in on the ground floor of a new Agreeable Comics story…”every strip a killer!”
- Speaking of Agreeable Comics, don’t forget to follow the adventures of America’s favorite robot detective, Copernicus Jones, by Matt Wilson and artist of those swell Swamp Thing sketches of mine, Daniel Butler.
- And speaking of both Swamp Thing and Daniel Butler, the former was featured on a t-shirt drawn by the latter for Tribe One (currently on tour with Adam Warrock)!
- And I haven’t linked this strip enough…the fun-for-everyone Troop Infinity by Josh Krach and Sheli Hay!
- And then there’s Awesome Hospital by Chris Sims, Chad Bowers, Matt Digges, and the already-linked Josh Krach, which is always a blast. By the way, Sims is teasing something new. Probably involves kicking.
- Pal Kevin Parks presents…BAT-DOODLE.
…but it’s a good link. So it seems Andrew may have found a possible inspiration for Jack Kirby’s character Flippa Dippa from the 1970s incarnation of the Newsboy Legion.
Yes, “Flippa Dippa.” The kid who wore the scuba gear all the time. Of all the weird-ass things Jack put into his comics, Flippa Dippa…well, may not crack the Top Ten of Weird-Assedness in Kirby’s work, but he’s on the list somewhere. Like, maybe at number 39. But that something very specific may have inspired Kirby to introduce this character…that’s even weirder. Anyway, go check out Andrew’s article and decide for yourself if he’s onto something, there.
So I was not having a good time of it at the shop at one point last week, and Employee Aaron left me a Post-It Note sketch to cheer me up:
Yes indeedy.
And I’ve posted pics of these before, but the originals just showed up in the mail and they’re absolutely fantastic and I wanted to scan ‘em again and show them off:
These are from internet chum Dan, and you can see more samples of his art over at
his Tumblr (like
Omac vs. Omac or
totally awesome Metamorpho), and I’m guessing you can probably contact him through there for commissions of your own.
And before you ask…yes, I’ve been bugging both Employee Aaron and his lovely wife, who is also a talented artist, to start taking commissions. I’ll let you know as soon as they do…and it’d better be soon.
Also, this is the greatest thing out of this year’s San Diego Comic Con.
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