Smilin Stan Lee, co-creator of everyone from Spider-Man to
Striperella, is teaming up with Arnold Schwarzenegger for a comic and cartoon called
The Governator. According to the article,
Athe Governator will have a fleet of super vehicles at his disposal, a closet full of “Super Suits” that allow him to fly and perform other super stunts, and a team of colorful sidekicks, such as Zeke Muckerberg, the precocious 13-year-old computer whiz who acts as the Governator’s cybersecurity expert. Naturally, there will also be recurring supervillains — including an evil organization called Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men, for short).
There's an
excerpt on the EW site. Excelsior!
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn
on Mar 31, 2011 -
54 comments
In 1989, Bill "Calvin and Hobbes" Watterson gave a famous address at Ohio State U.'s Festival of Cartoon Art:
"The Cheapening of the Comics" (transcript). Twenty-two years later, successful webcomic artist Dave Kellett (of
"Sheldon" about a boy and his non-imaginary talking duck, and
"Drive" a sci-fi comic with a convoluted premise and funny aliens) offered a new-generation response at the same venue: "The Freeing of the Comics" (YouTube part
1,
2,
3,
4,
5). While Watterson told how and why newspaper comics were (and are) dying, Kellett explained how webcomics can (and do) replace them (although not necessarily for Watterson).
[more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop
on Mar 11, 2011 -
28 comments
To mark it's fifth anniversary superhero fashion blog Project Rooftop announced it's ultimate challenge:
redesign Aquaman. With
the winners in did they succeed in restoring some dignity to the King of the Sea after years of Superfreinds jokes?
posted by Artw
on Mar 1, 2011 -
88 comments
"Gerhard and I spoke to each other over the course of a few hours on Boxing Day, December 26th, 2010. On each end of our respective phone lines we both had an intimidating stack of books — the almost five thousand pages that Sim and Gerhard created together over the course of those 20 years. We flipped through the books chronologically, with the idea of
discussing the evolution of Gerhard’s process and techniques, focusing on his development as an artist and a craftsman."
posted by Brandon Blatcher
on Feb 24, 2011 -
36 comments
Dwayne McDuffie
has died. If you recognize the name, odds are you already know his resume, but here goes: founder of Milestone Media, creator of Static, executive producer of
Justice League Unlimited, writer of many comics and perhaps the most visible advocate of
minority engagement in comic books. Details are non-existent at this point, but McDuffie was said to appear healthy and happy within the last week at appearances for the just-released
All-Star Superman DVD.
posted by Etrigan
on Feb 22, 2011 -
62 comments
"
Welcome to the Zion Archive. You have selected Historical File #12-1: The Second Renaissance."
So begins the short film of the same name by Mahiro Maeda
[Flash: 1 2 - QuickTime: 1 2] -- a devastating yet beautiful work of animation.
Originally produced to explain the backstory behind the
Matrix trilogy, Maeda's project ended up telling a story far darker and more affecting than any blockbuster.
Using a blend of
faux documentary footage and
visual metaphor, his serene Instructor relates in biblical tones the saga of Man and Machine, how age-old cruelty and hatred birthed a horrifying, apocalyptic struggle that consumed the world.
Packed with striking imagery and
historical allusions galore, this dark allegory easily transcends the films it was made for.
But while "The Second Renaissance" is arguably the best work to come from the
Matrix franchise, it's hardly alone -- it's just one of the projects made for
The Animatrix, a collection of
nine superb anime films in a
wide variety of styles designed to explore the universe and broaden its scope beyond the usual sci-fi action of the movies.
Click inside for a guide to these films with links to where they can be watched online, along with a look at
The Matrix Comics, a free series of comics, art, and short fiction created for the same purpose by
some of the best talent in the business.
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Feb 14, 2011 -
54 comments
"Until about 1964 most comic books in the Middle East were in either English or French.... Then a forward-looking editor began to wonder why comic books could not be translated into Arabic."
Illustrated Publications, a Beirut-based company, did just that, starting with Superman. As
a reporter for "Al-Kawkab Al Yawmi" he swooped into the Middle east from distant Krypton on February 4, 1964. The mild-mannered report, Clark Kent, became Nabil Fawzi,
whose name roughly translated to "Noble Victory". The text of the comics was translated, but the rest of the comic looked an awful lot like the Superman of the United States, except
the covers lacked context, Superman's S logo was reversed, and some of the colors were skewed in odd ways.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 31, 2011 -
5 comments
"There was a night, maybe sometime around 1993, when
I [Joe Matt] was working on an issue of my comic book,
Peepshow and I was using some xeroxes of
Peanuts strips from the collection, “You Can Do It, Charlie Brown” as blotter-paper. Anyway, there came a moment when I was using white-out and to remove some excess white-out from my brush, I wiped it on the blotter paper beneath my hand. And that’s how I came to idly white-out the words balloons on a few
Peanuts strips. Once I saw the balloons whited-out and forgot what they originally said, I began filling them with the first
perverted thing my brain thought they might say. It was so much fun and I was so happy with the results that I brought the pages out to show to
Seth and
Chester [Brown] the next day. Seth was eager to try it and immediately suggested we each go home and produce a set number of pages for a mini comic.
Less than a week later, Chester brought out his original take on the concept and put Seth and I to shame."
[more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand
on Jan 20, 2011 -
56 comments
Four Color Process is a blog which reposts magnified details from old comic book panels. The images become semi-abstract and very striking (and surprisingly non-Lichtensteinian). Some favorites:
Ruined City,
Steranko's Strange Tales,
Ghouls,
Swirl Lamp,
Kirby's Silver Surfer,
Romance,
Novelty Magic,
Ditko's Dr. Strange,
Man at Conference Table,
Homo Comicus,
Easy to Do and finally
a comparison of contemporary printing with the old four color process.
[via The Front Section]
posted by Kattullus
on Jan 3, 2011 -
21 comments
Jessica McLeod draws incredibly cute, funny, awesome cartoons. Cartoons about educated pigs, space rabbits, bad yetis, and rude flowers. You should be warned, they are
very cute.
Mungo Bean: Adventure Pig!,
Book 2,
Book 3 Part 1,
Part 2
Bad Yeti,
Yeti Party
Space Rabbits:
In Space,
Planet Of,
Battle for the Planet Of,
Tea With A
Miscellaneous comics:
The Indefatigable Miss Manners,
Working Class Elf,
Ghost Farm
She has a webcomic,
Activities For Rainy Days [more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Dec 30, 2010 -
10 comments
"Cablegate Comix" is a series of comics "recounting true stories that came to light on November 28, 2010 — when WikiLeaks published confidential documents of detailed correspondences between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world."
1,
2,
3,
4 [more inside]
posted by brundlefly
on Dec 29, 2010 -
17 comments
A 3 hour podcast interview (
part 2 here) with British comics legend Pat Mills, most famous for the anti-war WW1 strip
Charley's War, the creation 2000ad and many of the most enduring characters within it, superhero hunter
Marshall Law and
numerous other comics. His work usually combines combines dark humour, a dash of left wing politics and ludicrous amounts of violence, now as much as ever with puritan zombie hunter
Defoe. Subjects discussed in the intreview include the death of artist
John Hicklenton, being Irish-English,
Sláine and the comparitive lack of celtic heroes in modern popular culture, Oliver Cromwell and the
Levellers. Bonus link:
20 pages of Metalzoic, Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neills "lost" story.
posted by Artw
on Dec 19, 2010 -
18 comments
