Deadman

Not much to talk about this go ‘round. Which I’m sure will please those of you sick of hearing, “I’m so busy! Wah!”

Suze and I did, in fact, make time to go see PREDATORS in the theater the other night which was a nice treat. The movie itself was a pretty darned good entry in the franchise. The best one since the first, actually. I was curious to see how they’d handle the “game preserve” angle. The trailer reminded me so much of HUNTERS OF THE RED MOON I wanted to see how similar the movie turned out to be. After seeing it, I have to think the filmmakers were at least aware of the book because of the samurai's katana found by one of the characters and his observations about it. Right out of the book. Adrian Brody turns in a convincing performance as the main badass and it was nice to see Laurence Fishburne back on the big screen in an unexpected role. An all-around good time. I did have two complaints, though. First, there were a few too many homages to the original. It got to be a little distracting. And, second, Alan Silvestri’s score from the original film was practically used note for note but he wasn’t credited at all. At least not that I saw and I was looking. Still, I recommend it but see it soon. It’s not doing well and will probably get yanked in the glut of big summer blockbusters. Suze and I are hoping to see INCEPTION soon, before somebody ruins it for us.

Above is the sketch I’ve been promising. Deadman has long been one of my favorite characters. I’ve always loved the second and third-tier characters at both Marvel and DC and ol’ Boston Brand is no exception. He’s always been unique in that his special ability pretty much means very little “screentime” for him in his own stories. Since he takes over the bodies of the living, it means we don’t get to see him all that much. I guess that’s why he’s never been able to sustain a series for very long. But he’s had some great stories done with him. I’ve always loved Neal Adam’s work on the character but, up until recently, my favorite artist on him was Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. He really gave the character the slick look he deserves. But I did say “recently”. Dave Bullock’s take on the character in the WEDNESDAY COMICS experiment was a beauty to behold. Obviously, the style he used is very reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke, but he does bring a lot to the table. And he has a wonderful sense of design. I drooled over every one of those twelve pages.

With this drawing, I tried to get fancy with the shadows but I’m just not that good at it. It’s an area I hope to improve in before I start drawing THE HAND ME DOWN HORROR as lighting and mood will play a big part in the story. But I did like how using only the brush pen gave it a bolder look. This one was fun. I just wish I’d had the time to lay it out a little more dramatically.

Anyway, I hope you like it. Look for more of Mike’s action figure designs coming up.

Later.