ROM, Spaceknight

Back in the day, I was a huge ROM fan. My brother was into more sophisticated, philisophical fare like Jim Starlin's CAPTAIN MARVEL and WARLOCK and Claremont and Byrne's UNCANNY X-MEN. But I was always partial to the simpler, plot-driven stuff like NOVA and MACHINE MAN. And ROM. I don't remember if I had the action figure yet but, when our father brought home the first issue, I snatched it up and was hooked. It was drawn by Sal Buscema, my favorite comic illustrator (then and now) and written by Bill Mantlo. I've read online that Mantlo wasn't very...appreciated...by his contemporaries as a writer. Whether that's deserved or not, I don't know. But I've enjoyed an awful lot of his work and ROM was certainly no exception. I bought every single issue as they came out and devoured the tales of the valiant Galadorian on his quest to rid the galaxy of Dire Wraiths. I've always wanted Marvel to reprint the old books in an archive edition with modern printing standards but, with the publishing rights in (heh) limbo, I guess that's not going to happen any time soon.

With this illustration, I tried to achieve that loosey-goosey, carefree inking style that Sal Buscema has. I barely penciled the drawing and skipped the underdrawing stage altogether. I don't think I pulled it off. It ended up just looking rushed and, as someone mentioned in one of their comments, like Gabe from Penny Arcade drew it. I used to be pretty good at mimicking other artists like my pal Sal but I seem to have lost the knack. Oh well. Hopefully, I've at least brought back some pleasant memories.

And, in case my devotion to ol' toaster-head wasn't apparent enough, try this on for size. One of the first projects I worked on upon learning Lightwave was a brief 3D animation of a (clunky) ROM model I created. It's crude and clumsy but it was kind of exciting to see our boy come to life, though ever so briefly. To check it out, just click this link:

http://home.comcast.net/~mafus/romflex.mov

Rom...again.

I’ve been practically living at my desk the last few weeks, enduring long nights and weekends and, while it’s extremely frustrating in that it keeps me from doing the things I’d rather be doing, it’s also very reassuring. Because, in a field that’s bleeding jobs like a hemophiliac, it’s very nice to be needed. At least that’s what I keep telling myself every time I hear the phrase “So, you around this weekend?” Every day, I hear news about another big company in Richmond closing its doors or laying off large numbers of people. Circuit City is probably the most high-profile example. It's getting really scary. Not only that, but I have several friends going through much more difficult situations than having to work too much. So enough whining.

I've been buying most of the magazines put out by Two Morrows. In fact, I spend more on magazines about comics than on comics themselves. Of all the great mags they put out, BACK ISSUE! is my favorite. It sort of took the place of COMIC BOOK ARTIST when that book went to (I believe) Top Shelf and went from a semi-monthly to semi-never schedule. Imagine my delight when I opened the latest issue of BACK ISSUE! to find a retrospective on one of my favorite characters of all time, second only to Nova, Rom: Spaceknight. I excitedly read the article and was thoroughly...disappointed. Sadly, the article was filled with some uncharacteristic proofreading problems (not that big a deal) and some glaring omissions (The writer heaped much love on the covers of Bill Sienkiewicz and Frank Miller but never once mentioned the sublime contributions of the great Michael Golden.) At one point, there was a mention of the debut of inkers Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (something I was very interested in) only to have the article skip (like a needle on a record) mid-paragraph to another subject entirely. All this could be forgiven except for the annoying tendency of some of the interviewees to pile onto ROM writer Bill Mantlo. Mantlo was one of my favorites growing up and since his accident years back (which prevents him from giving his side in interviews) it seems every time his name comes up in magazines or online, people find one way or another find something derogatory to say about him. In this article, Jim Shooter in particular seems to trip all over himself trying to claim credit for any and every aspect of the ROM book that made it a success. Even his compliments were backhanded. Perhaps it's a drawback to reading so much about the creation of the comics I loved as a kid but I really don't like to see someone whose work I loved being denigrated. I think I'm just going to stick my head in the sand on this one. Bill Mantlo's and Sal Buscema's names were in the credit box and that's enough for me. Those guys put out a great book that was ten times better than it had any right to be and I'm grateful.

This post's drawing was done in ten-minute spurts over about five days. I draw in my downtime at work and that has been in very short supply lately. In good times, nobody cares if you sketch while you wait for a render or for something to be proofread. In times like these, doodling away your potential billable time is not a good idea, career-wise. As much as I love Rom, his armor has always been hard to figure out. I have nothing but admiration for Sal Buscema and Michael Golden who could take such a rigid-looking character and make him look so graceful and interesting. Respect.

I'll try not to go so long between posts next time, just for my own sanity. (This drawing was really hard to complete because I've allowed myself to get rusty.) Unfortunately, I can't promise anything.

Later.

Return of the Spaceknight

First, thanks everybody for all the encouragement going into Heroes. I’m determined to have a good time because the Heroes Con was more than just a comic book convention to Mike. It was his home away from home and I’ll be damned if I’m going to bring anybody down. Mike would hate that. So if you’re coming, bring your smiles.

Cully, thank you. I will sign your comic. I would, in fact, do anything for you. Eric, I’d be honored to do a sketch for you. Especially when we’re able to make our announcement leading up to the con. Hopefully Tuesday.

Now, the bad news. Lest everyone think Debbie Downer has gone home for the month, I guess I should mention that my Dad’s brother J.E. passed away this week. He was in his late 70s and it wasn’t exactly a surprise as he’d been in poor health for a while. But it’s yet another blow to my Dad in a short span of time. There was a great line in the latest INDIANA JONES movie. A character said, “We’ve reached the age where life stops giving you things and starts taking them away.” That seems very appropriate right now. J.E. (“Buster” to just about everybody) lived as close to “next door” as you can to where my parents live so, though I guess we (meaning me, not my Dad) weren’t that close emotionally, J.E. and his family were a big part of our lives. We saw him, or at least his house, every day. It’s very strange to think that he’s gone now.

And just so I don’t leave you with another completely somber post, here’s a picture of my old buddy Rom. If it weren’t for Nova, Rom would be at the top of my list of favored superheroes. In fact, I think this is the only established character I’ve posted two sketches of here. I’m pretty happy with this and so, though I could point out numerous flaws with it, I won’t. Drawing Rom has put a smile on my face today and I’m going to enjoy it. I hope you do too.

What...him again?

You'd never know Nova was my favorite character, would you?

The anticipated crush at work has finally landed and, thanks to that and several other unexpected factors, I'm running on very little sleep so I'll keep this short. (Cheers erupt!)

A while back, a very nice man named Jason Leivian at Floating World comics started SpaceNite to benefit Bill Mantlo. I was aware of SpaceNite because I'm a fan of Mr. Mantlo's work (particularly MICRONAUTS, ROM and INCREDIBLE HULK) and was shocked and saddened by the cards he's been dealt. I don't often regret not having a career in comics but when some really incredible artists started contributing mouth-watering pieces to be auctioned off to raise money, I have to admit I got a little envious. I wanted to participate in some way. I just didn't think anyone would be interested.

Enter Todd Dezago. Todd sweetly took it upon himself to mention to Jason that I was a fan of Mr. Mantlo and (let's be honest) a little obsessed with the ROM character. He told him about my being Mike's brother and that I liked to draw and would be honored to offer a piece for the project. I admit to being a little embarrassed because, frankly, who the hell am I? There are incredible guys like Chris Samnee doing mind-blowing pieces for the auction. I nervously anticipated Jason politely turning down my amateurish scratchings.

To my surprise, Jason was gracious and happy at the prospect. I'm still nervous because I'm way out of my league. (Click on the link at right to check out the awesome contributions they're getting.) But I'm so honored and thrilled to be included. I don't have any illusions that anyone will be clamoring for my contribution but if it means even twenty dollars will go to the care of Mr. Mantlo, a man who helped bring quite a lot of joy to my childhood, then it will be worth the time I spent on it. Hopefully, I'm not jumping the gun by posting it here.

I hope you like it.

Later.

The Spectre

Suze and I are back in Richmond and back at work though Suze is working from home with a horrible cold she picked up in North Carolina. Poor girl can't catch a break. I haven't caught it yet but I feel a watery, itchy tickling in my sinuses that can only mean one thing. I guess it will be a while before we'll feel like things are getting back to normal. As her Dad used to say, we've robbed this train before. But every case of grieving is different. And none of them are any damned fun. Our last day in North Carolina was pretty horrible for reasons I won't go into. Suffice it to say a wretched two weeks ended on a really sour note.

Suze has lost her Christmas spirit this year and that makes me sad because she's always been such a Christmas person. She absolutely adores it. And since I'm the Scrooge, I rely on her to keep me upbeat during this time of year. So I'm taking it as a challenge. I vow to get her in Christmas mode by the 25th, even if it kills me. And she just might.

I haven't had time to work much on drawing HMDH lately, obviously. With Christmas upon us, that may have to sit a while longer. Ugh. I'm this close to posting the scripts online and calling it a day.

I've decided to start sketching again. I stopped because work was getting so crazy I wanted to simplify my life and eliminate any stress that I could. But I've realized I've been eliminating all the things that make me feel like I'm more than just someone's employee and that's no way to live. So I'm going to draw when I can and not put any pressure on myself. I need some cheering up myself and this is the way to do it.

That said, I'm posting a drawing of the Spectre I did before Thanksgiving with the intention of posting it over vacation. I drew it, scanned it and saved it. And forgot to send it home. Then, before I got back to work, we got the news about Suze's Dad. I'd almost forgotten I drew it. I like it, especially considering it had been weeks since I'd drawn anything before that. I hope you like it too. In fact, I hope you like it so much that…

…you'll want to buy it. My Rom drawing auction hasn't caused much of a stir so I'm going to throw this drawing in as a bonus to whomever makes me the best offer on the Rom drawing. I'm still leaving the minimum at $50 because it's for a good cause. Come on. You know you want to pretend you want it.

Okay, that's all I've got. Hopefully, I'll have another new drawing soon.

Later.

Bill Mantlo

Yep. You've seen this drawing before. Bear with me.

Thanks to some of Bill Mantlo's other fans at the John Byrne Forum, I was recently reminded of his plight and the struggles his brother Mike has endured in order to care for him. One of the members at the JBF posted this link:

http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2011/11/07/tragic-tale

It's an in-depth article about the Mantlos and the shortcomings of our healthcare system. It's a long, difficult, heartbreaking read but I highly recommend it. Another JBF-er did some research and came up with Mike Mantlo's contact info. I emailed him yesterday and he's an incredibly nice, positive guy. I'd really like to help him in whatever small way I can. Which brings me to the point of this post.

A couple of years ago, Todd got me in touch with the nice folks at SpaceNite, the people that commission and auction off art featuring ROM, SPACEKNIGHT, (one of Mantlo's most popular projects for Marvel) for his benefit. Though I'm basically nobody, they were enthusiastic about me inserting myself into their project and I drew the above picture for them to auction off. It's pen and ink on 11x17 bristol. Through some snafu involving miscommunication, we never did close the deal and the art is still with me. As far as I know, there aren't anymore SpaceNites in the works and I'd hate for the drawing to go to waste.

So in addition to what I'm going to send to Mr. Mantlo myself, I'm hoping someone will offer me something for this piece. Whatever I get will go directly to Mike Mantlo for the benefit of his brother. If anyone reading this is interested, please send an offer to me at DELETETHISmafus@comcast.netDELETETHIS and the art will go to the highest bidder. Though I don't expect the world to beat down my door, I did spend quite a bit of time on this so I'm going to start the bidding at $50. Since traffic's down the last couple of months since I took a break, I'm going to give it a while and close the bidding at noon on December 15th, 2011. If I haven't gotten any offers by then, I'll let you know and will then take whatever I can get. Deal?

Wish me luck and please keep Mike and Bill Mantlo in your thoughts over the holidays.

Astonishingly, I may actually have a new drawing to post soon. Later.

What is this Mickey Mouse $#!*?

I'm not embarassed by my fondness for comics. Really I'm not. In my "office" at work, I have a TALES FROM THE CRYPT calendar on the wall. There's also a shelf holding my Bender, Iron Giant and ROM figures along with all my Harvey Comics bobbleheads. I also proudly display my SUPERMAN RETURNS poster where everyone can see it. But I go to great pains to prevent people thinking that's what I'm about. I don't walk around telling people that "with great power comes great responsibility." I don't spend hours telling everyone who will listen about what Sam Raimi got wrong in the first SPIDER-MAN movie. And, with the exception of my so-uncool-it's-cool Aquaman T-shirt, I don't wear comics-related clothing at work. And I absolutely don't rub people's noses in what's in the picture at the top of this post. (That's my albatross of a comic collection, which resides in my attic/office.)

It's a constant battle. People were shocked...SHOCKED!...when they found out that I hadn't seen SPIDER-MAN 3 after it had been in release for a whole week (and still haven't.) When the Richmond Times-Dispatch started inserting those nifty reprints of Lee and Ditko's Spider-Man run in the Sunday edition, I got two or three of them on my desk every morning for weeks. Every Christmas, friends give me little superhero knickknacks to clutter up my house when all I want is pair of dress socks. When that (admittedly amusing) Comcast commercial came on, the one with the ambiguously gay fellow in the Spidey suit interviewing for a potential roommate, I was horrified. Co-workers immediately wanted to know if I liked it.

"Nope," I said.

"Why?"

"Because I knew, the minute it came on, that everyone I knew saw it and instantly thought, 'Hey, that's Matt!"

"Yeah, I did!"

All this reminds me of a similar situation my first year at VCU. Back then, I had a burning desire to own a Mickey Mouse watch. I didn't know anybody else that had one and I thought it would be kind of retro-cool. So I got one. (And then proceeded to see one on the wrist of every other person I ran into, but that's beside the point.) I had just started dating the sister of my next-door neighbor, a cute highschool senior named Rebecca. She saw the watch and got me a keyring that was a little figurine of Mickey Mouse holding a videocamera. I was majoring in Film and Video Production and I guess she was trying to impress me. And I was impressed. But then it started to snowball. Between the watch and keyring, people I knew started thinking I had a Mickey fetish and started giving me all kinds of crap. I got T-shirts, sweatshirts, underwear, posters, notebooks, pencils...anything you can think of with Mickey Mouse on it, I probably had it. I got so I hated that f***ing mouse! I ended up getting rid of everything, including the watch. Just pitched it all out. The only thing I kept was the keyring, for sentimental reasons. Finally, I lost even that. And I wasn't really sorry to see it go.

That's how it's been with the comics. I read them. I draw them for fun. I enjoy the movies based on them. But it's not who I am. I have other interests. I run. I work out at the gym. I work on my house. I read mystery novels. So, please. If there's a God up there, and he's listening...no. I absolutely do not want that Spider-Man Mr. Potato Head for Christmas.

Wouldn't mind a new Mickey Mouse watch, though.

The Fund

I forgot to mention in my Baltimore recap that I had the pleasure of meeting a very nice lady named Emily who is a friend of inker extraordinaire, Nathan Massengill. Nathan introduced us in the lobby of the hotel and she asked if she could stop by the booth the next day and have me do a sketch card for her.

I’m usually uncomfortable doing that sort of thing because I feel like it’s a bit of a bait and switch. As I mentioned, I was at least twice mistaken for Mike this time around and I don’t want people thinking they’re ordering Classic Coke and getting Big K Cola instead. I’m not yet over feeling like an imposter sitting in Mike’s spot. It still feels like I’m keeping his seat warm for him until he gets back. It’s not a pleasant feeling and I’d give anything for him to be sitting there.

Still, I’m pretty sure Emily knew what she was getting and it was free so I agreed. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she’d sent me a scan of the card through my Facebook account. I think she wanted a Deadpool (She’s apparently as enamoured with Deadpool as I am of Nova or Rom.) but I didn’t have any reference and the Choopie I started wasn’t working out. I realized I felt like drawing the Hulk and just did that. She seemed happy with it so there you are.


Not to be a big downer today but there was one more thing that happened in Baltimore that’s been gnawing at me for a few days. A lady was walking by with her fella and he’d noticed our scholarship banner. As he made to move over, she put out a hand and stopped him. She said something and all I caught was “...and it’s not even the school he went to.” He said, “Oh!” and they walked off.

That really took the wind out of my sails.

I’ve covered this before but it bears repeating. A lot of people have asked me why we chose to start the scholarship fund at S.C.A.D and not have it at VCU or at the Kubert school. Or even a free-floating award. Those are valid questions and Suzanne and I discussed them at length and sought advice from many of Mike’s best friends before we settled on S.C.A.D. Here’s why.

S.C.A.D. has a sequential art curriculum with actual comics pros teaching and speaking there. Mike had connections with the school in that the chairman of the Sequential Art Department was a member of Artamus Studios for a while and they’d discussed Mike becoming an instructor. And they had the machinery in place to handle the legal and financial gobbledigook Suzanne and I didn’t want to have to deal with. By making S.C.A.D the fund’s “home”, we avoided having to hire lawyers and accountants that would leave the fund completely broke and, thus, pointless.

Why not VCU or Kubert? VCU is a great school and a huge presence in Richmond where I live. It’s growing by leaps and bounds and is a much different place than when Mike and I attended. But it still doesn’t have a sequential art curriculum and, in fact, Mike was actively discouraged from working in comics when he was there. I’m not holding a grudge. It’s just a fact. They have a great art program (which I attended) and I highly recommend them. Just not for comics. As for the Kubert School, I guess I thought they had enough going for them having a living legend at the top. I wish them nothing but good things and wish I could afford to attend classes there. (Well, maybe fifteen years ago.) I just felt S.C.A.D. was a better “fit.”

I also get the sense that some people think Suze and I are in this for the money. Yikes. I can’t stress enough that every single penny that we bring in through donations and the sale of Mike’s original artwork goes directly to S.C.A.D. Suzanne and I spend quite a bit of our own money in travel expenses to go to these shows. Marc and Shelton have been incredibly generous to us but we do incur costs that come out of our pockets. Sometimes it costs us almost as much to go to a convention as we take in. Then, why do it?

Because it gets the word out about the fund, it gives us a conduit through which to distribute Mike’s artwork (which, as much as I’d like to keep it all, I cannot) and it keeps us connected to Mike’s world a little. I miss my brother very much and getting to see his/our friends and talk to Mike’s fans makes him seem a little less...gone. If that makes sense.

But, most importantly, we do it to honor Mike. This fund was born during a tear-filled conversation between Suzanne and me in Mike’s driveway back in August of 2007. We wanted to do something to express how much we love him and miss him. Mike often expressed a desire to teach, to share what he’d learned with others. Unfortunately, he can’t do that now. So, hopefully, in some small way, we’re helping him achieve that goal. If there are folks out there that disagree with that but still would like to do something to express their appreciation of Mike and his work, then I wholeheartedly suggest giving to the ASPCA or the HERO Initiative.

Okay, next time, not so glum.

No way am I calling this post "Fisting it."

My last post got me thinking about all the cool B- and C-tier characters at the Big Two that I loved as a kid. Even more came to mind. KOBRA, DEADMAN, GHOST RIDER, THE DEMON...a few others.

It occurred to me that Mike was the same way. We used to trade titles back and forth all the time but it was usually the large collections like SPIDER-MAN or AVENGERS. Once a creative team moved on and Mike lost interest, he'd start eyeing what I was buying to see if one of "his guys" was working on it. His guys were John Byrne, Jim Starlin, Mike Ploog. Even then Mike was becoming a student of comic art, studying people he thought he could learn from. (My "guy" was Sal Buscema and though Mike appreciated his work, he wasn't necessarily sparked by it creatively. So he never traded for THE INCREDIBLE HULK, ROM or NOVA.)

But Mike rarely gave up the small books. The only one I can remember was SPIDER-WOMAN. He read it, wasn't impressed and turned it over. Somehow, I ended up trading it for something else later on. When he got his hands on one of those little gems like Joe Kubert's RAGMAN or OMEGA THE UNKNOWN or MS. MARVEL, however, he held onto it for dear life. He read CAPTAIN MARVEL, WARLOCK, THE CHAMPIONS and IRON FIST to tatters. He'd let me borrow them, which I often did because I wanted to see why he was so fascinated with them. I knew the books were quality but I was five years younger and much more appreciative of the the more simplistic rendering of my beloved pal Sal. It wasn't until much later that I realized what I was missing out on but by then Mike had those books bagged, boarded and under armed guard.

Thank Crom for reprints. Marvel and DC have gone reprint crazy lately and, unlike horror movie remakes and the 3D crap going on, I'm actually enjoying this trend. It's enabled me to read all those great old books and soak in the artwork that I didn't get a chance to when I was a stupid kid and jumping up and down at the latest issue of HUMAN FLY, US1 and TEAM AMERICA. One of those books is IRON FIST. It was one of those books that seemed to scratch so many of Mike's itches at once. Great John Byrne art, fantasy elements, mature (not to be confused with adult) stories, martial arts (Mike loved Kung Fu movies and took Karate lessons) and had those great Dave Cockrum covers. Best of all, since it was written by Chris Claremont, it had close ties to the X-MEN, Mike's favorite book at the time. I didn't get to spend much time with the books but I remember the incredible art and coloring (Byrne brought out the best in his colorists back then) but I never actually sat down and read them cover to cover. My only exposure to 'Fist was his appearance in MARVEL TEAM-UP, also drawn by Byrne but somehow allowed to remain in my possession. It was enough. His iconic appearance (including his Spider-Man-style eyes) and the great story in that TEAM-UP two-parter were enough to cement him on my list of all-time favorite B-characters.

As I was drawing the above sketch, it occurred to me how great it would be if Marvel had a book set in the Marvel Universe of the '70s, not tied to any modern continuity but with fun, self-contained stories and a rotating cast of B-listers in their classic costumes. Mike would have been perfect for a book like that. It seemed to be his curse that every time he was assigned to a book, it would get sucked into some stupid crossover that would change the character's look (Iron Spider, anyone? JEEZ!) and he wouldn't get to draw the "classic" design. He probably wouldn't want to draw the book because it wouldn't be tied into current continuity and he was very career-conscious but I would have loved to have seen it.

_______

I often bitch about the hours I work and the past two weeks have been no exception. (70 hours last week.) But it does have one beneficial side-effect. When I have down time while I'm waiting on someone else to do their bit so I can do mine, I get to draw guilt free. Who's going to give me grief for sketching at 9:00 at night (or even 2:00 in the afternoon) when I'm not going home until 3:00 in the morning? This sketch was finished in record time. I was very surprised at how fast I managed to draw it, even though I don't think I spent more than five consecutive minutes on it at a time. I wasn't even going to ink it. I was going to just go over it in traditional pencil, but I'm trying to get comfortable with inking my work in preparation for THE HAND ME DOWN HORROR, assuming I ever get to go back to work on it.

I really like how it came out. I'm getting more confident with drawing legs and feet, something I've struggled with in the past. And I think I'm finally starting to like the hands I draw. I was recently telling someone who e-mailed me through the blog that I read a post on Mike Manley's site that really helped with that. He mentioned that, if you're struggling with a particular body part, spend an entire day drawing only that, over and over, from every angle. Before you know it, you'll know how to draw it. I'm no expert by any means, but that bit of advice really came in, um...handy.

Since I really hate the way I draw women, I may start doing more of the female B-listers to get over that hump. But first, I have to do a drawing for my buddy Christian's little girl Lilah. I won't say which character it is that he's asked for but I can say I've never drawn him before and I'm really looking forward to the challenge. That will probably be my next post. Okay, gotta go crawl into bed. On top of all the hours, I'm working, Todd has somehow given me his cold from 300 miles away. Have a great weekend and I hope you like the sketch.

Later!

Kickin' and Creepin'

Suzanne and I went to see KICK-ASS this weekend. I was really expecting to not like this movie. I greatly dislike movies that make fun of geek culture. Granted, there’s a lot to make fun of but it’s such an easy target, it almost feels like bullying. (It’s the same reason dwarf jokes always set my teeth on edge.) But in the case of KICK-ASS, it felt like the filmmakers were laughing with us. Not at us. The geeks (including Kick-Ass himself) are all portrayed as earnest, well-adjusted and pretty darned likeable.

We had a great time and laughed almost constantly, despite the brutal violence, most of which was being committed by the 11-year-old Hit-Girl. I wasn’t sure what to make of a homicidal, pre-pubescent, cherub-faced kid but the whole movie is tongue-in-cheek, so I just went with it. And, let me tell you, Hit-Girl steals the show. I don’t usually like precocious kid actors. (Dakota Fanning, for instance, has always given me the creeps. She was like a forty-year-old woman trapped in a little girl’s body.) But the kid playing Hit-Girl is different somehow. Despite the fact that she kills almost everyone she meets and spouts four-letter words without batting an eyelash, she still maintains an air of adorable sweetness throughout. And I like the fact that her mask is always slightly askew, making her look slightly cross-eyed.

Her dad, the strangely permissive “Big Daddy”, was played by Nicholas Cage, who also tends to grate my nerves, but he was very good in this, doing a riff on Adam West that had me in stitches.

There was also some nice John Romita Jr. artwork on display (given a neat 3D treatment in spots) and the soundtrack (despite being a compilation album and not a score) was, well, kick-ass. All in all, it was a great way to spend an evening. I highly recommend it.

This post’s sketch, I suppose, should have been of Kick-Ass (love that name!) but I was already well into the Creeper drawing before seeing the movie and decided to take advantage of having some art ready to post.

I was inspired by the recent hardcover compilation published by DC of all the Steve Ditko Creeper stories. I was always a big sucker for all the third-tier characters put out by the big two. At Marvel, I loved Nova, Rom, Omega, Deathlok, Nighthawk, Shroud, Black Panther, Vision...If there was a character without his own book or one that lasted less than 25 issues, I was a fan. At DC, it was Firestorm, Black Lightning, Eclipso, Metamorpho, Steel, Blue Devil...and The Creeper.

His origin was standard Ditko fare. Reporter Jack Ryder gets injured and happens to be near a doctor who has created a special healing serum that bestows superpowers. The doctor, upon supplying the serum to Ryder, is shot and killed by mob gunmen. This was very similar to the character The Destructor that Ditko created for Atlas Comics a bit later. Even I admit that The Creeper looks ridiculous in his slapped-together Halloween costume (assembled from odds and ends at the last minute to sneak into a mob costume party), including a red sheepskin rug (!) but somehow it works. Steve Ditko had a real knack for designing compelling characters. (Spider-Man, anyone?) Maybe they wouldn’t have looked like much in real life but, on paper, they were wonderous.

When I still had comic-book artist aspirations, I put together a couple of sample pages featuring The Creeper but never finished the samples. But I’ve always enjoyed drawing him. The new hardcover gave me the perfect excuse. I really liked where the drawing was going but ran out of time last week and ended up rushing it at the end to finish up this weekend. So the background didn’t quite come out like I’d hoped.

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Later.

Eamon

The other night, I was waiting for Suzanne to finish working so we could leave. Things have evened out a bit at work and I've been able to get in some training time on the various software packages I need to know, albeit self-teaching through online resources. My head was swimming after staring at my monitor for so long so I decided to take a break and try to bust through that artist's block I've been suffering from. I tinkered with a few things, not really into it and then it dawned on me. Why am I wasting my time drawing my fourth ROM illustration when I have a project to work on?

Excited, I grabbed a fresh sheet of paper, sharpened my Col-Erase pencil and it just flowed out of me. This was what I needed! I started doing character sketches of one of the characters in my story. (The working title, which will most likely change for various reasons, is THE HAMNER'S MILL HORROR.) His name is Eamon Ferguson and I think he may be my favorite character in the story. Actually, his contribution to the plot is minor but, for some reason, I've taken a shine to him. He's the most fully realized character in my head and his arc is the one I have most figured out.

One of the problems I've noticed with most of the stories I've written (yes, I've actually finished some) — and this is a crutch and the sign of a crappy writer — is that my main characters are usually based, in large part, on me. Which unfortunately means they're effing boring! I'm working on giving Johnny some more interesting, plot-related character traits so he's not just a cypher. You can spot those a mile away. My one complaint about the Harry Potter novels (which I loved) is that Harry was hard to root for. J.K. Rowling populated her stories with so many interesting, unique characters that Harry was just blah by comparison. Maybe she intended him to be an "Everyman" that the reader could identify with but personally, I'm still trying to figure out if I even like Harry. I don't want that to be the case with Johnny.

Though you wouldn't know it from his expressions above, Eamon's not a bad kid. He's what Mike would have called "a little firecracker." He's just an earnest kid who was full of joy and enthusiasm and spirit who suddenly has his world turned upside down and has to find a new way of looking at things. The one thing he thinks will save him is denied him and he'll do anything it takes to get it, including...well, hopefully, I'll write the damn thing out and we can all find out together. Eamon's the kind of kid that just says what's on his mind without considering the consequences. There's no firewall between his brain and his mouth. His good friends realize this but for others...

Eamon is based on a couple of kids I knew growing up, one of whom was and is one of my very best friends and has posted here before. I took a little bit from both of them, threw in a new backstory and some red hair and got Eamon. I like his first name but though I wanted an Irish surname for him, Ferguson is just a little...obvious. So I'm going to rethink that. Any suggestions?

Tomorrow, we have the 10K race to run. Or, in my case, walk. This will be my first time not running. It's a disappointment but my back is feeling better than it has in months and I don't want to mess that up. I've got to work the rest of the weekend so there won't be any recuperating time. Still, with all that going on, I'm hoping to get in some more sketches or even some writing time. I'm pretty excited again and would hate to lose momentum.

Oh, be sure to check out Christian's blog. He's posted some character sketches of his own. It seems we both broke through our blocks at the same time (though I think he beat me by a day or so) and under similar circumstances. Christian's got his own project in mind and I have to say, I'm pretty excited to see what he does with it.

Have a great weekend.

Chris Samnee, Sherlock Holmes and Atomic Comics

Schedule, unrelenting back pain and a wicked cold have conspired to prevent much drawing this past week but I’m not letting that get me down. The weather has been simply glorious and I had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend with my parents and finally got to hang out with Christian at Legend after a month of trying. A false alarm at work early this morning did give me the chance to nail down a layout for the drawing I’m doing for my Cromdaughter, Lilah so, work permitting, I may be able to post something later this week.

While looking for reference for the character, I came across the blog of one of my new favorite artists, Chris Samnee. I first noticed his work when he took over drawing THE MIGHTY from Peter Snejbjerg who has a similar style. I love guys who draw with bold lines and have a gestural, almost cartoony quality to their work. My love for Darwyn Cooke and Bruce Timm is well documented. There’s also Cameron Stewart, Javier Pulido, Cliff Chiang and Marcos Martin. These guys all seem to come from the Alex Toth school of comic art and I’m torn between absolutely loving them and being driven insane with envy at their talent. Chris Samnee in particular drives me nuts. I stumbled across a Rom sketch of his a few months back that made me just cry. Like Darwyn Cooke, his drawing style makes it look like he just throws the ink on the page in a frenzy. But it always ends up so perfect. And he combines that with an awesome design sense and a Frank Miller-esque grasp of positive/negative space, not feeling the need to draw a solid line around his figures. Check out his blog HERE. I’m sure you’ll dig it.
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Every once in a while, the cover of a comic will catch my eye and I’ll just have to buy it. Unfortunately, that rarely happens with first issues. This usually results in a frantic search for back issues. Sometimes, that search is fruitless (as was the case with NORTH 40 recently) and I end up waiting for the trade. Last week, after about two weeks of searching, my friends at Nostalgia Plus hooked me up with the complete run of VICTORIAN UNDEAD, the Wildstorm series billed as “Sherlock Holmes versus zombies.” I confess to not being a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and only recall reading the story about the Redheaded League or some such in high school and I enjoyed the Peter Cushing version of HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. That’s about the extent of my experience with the character. But the series was about zombies, after all, and the art was really nice, including some enticing cover work. So I gave it a shot. Sometimes, it seems, you can judge a book by its cover. VICTORIAN UNDEAD was a real hoot. It’s well-written and the writers seem to have done their Holmes-work (heh), as there are quite a few references to Holmes canon. I didn’t realize it was a miniseries until I got to the end and was very saddened to see the story end. It’s left me with a taste for Sherlock Holmes stories and I think I’ll seek out one of the ubiquitous hardcover collections at Barnes and Noble. If you haven’t read the series, I highly recommend you try it. (Rod Hannah, this seems to be particularly up your alley.)

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During my parents’ visit this weekend, we got on the subject of cities with really bad traffic. New York and Los Angeles came up, of course, but when Virginia Beach was mentioned, it sparked some comic-related memories. I lived in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area briefly after college when an old school friend of mine invited me down to help him start a video production company under the umbrella of his father’s market research firm.

The whole thing ended up being a disaster but I do have some pleasant recollections. I was completely unfamiliar with the area but managed to find a tiny (and I mean tiny) apartment just off the ODU campus. It was my first time living by myself so, through the friend of my aunt, I adopted Toonces, my now-19-year-old little buddy. Sometimes Suzanne would come down from Richmond and visit us and spend the weekend. (Those weekends were the only times I could really be said to eat well.) The job paid less than peanuts so my disposable income was almost non-existent. I did manage to get back into buying a few comics, though, after having to give them up almost completely during college. During our school years, I would go with Mike (who was much wiser with his money) to Nostalgia Plus but only occasionally would I be able to actually buy anything.

Now that I was working for a living, my priority in my new home — after locating the nearest grocery store and laundromat — was finding a comic shop. I got out the Yellow Pages and found one called Atomic Comics that seemed to be somewhere nearby. I didn’t have a map so I ventured out in my car on one of the rare Saturdays I didn’t have to work and drove all around the neighborhood, trying to find the place. No luck. Disappointed, I went home, figuring the place had closed down. I’ve found, whenever I move to a new location, it’s easier to get a feel for a place on foot, rather than behind the wheel of a car when you have to worry about running stoplights or hitting a parked car. So, one evening, when I got home before sundown, I set off on foot to walk the area, not particularly worrying about Atomic Comics. Astonishingly, without really intending to, I stumbled onto the place...about two blocks from my apartment!

It’s hard for me to express the elation I felt. For me, at that point, getting to a comic shop had always been dependent on Mike. There were no decent shops in Lynchburg so, once the comics industry went direct sales only, I relied on Mike to drive us to Roanoke, fifty miles away, once a week, for our fix. In college, though I wasn’t buying much, I’d ride with Mike on his trips just to keep up with what was coming out. Now, here was a shop I could walk to, maybe a hundred yards from where I slept. I was giddy. Thinking back, it wasn’t much of a shop. About the size of a small barber shop. But it had all the new releases and a few boxes of back issues. And the proprietor, a young guy about my age, was pretty friendly. I don’t remember exactly what I bought. This was 1991, so I was probably buying THE FLASH by William Messner-Loebs and Greg Laroque and I was pretty into the SUPERMAN books. But I do remember buying THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN which was being drawn by Sal Buscema. Until college, I’d had a complete run of the title and it was particularly painful when I had to stop reading it. Now I had the chance to catch up. I think the shop had a few months worth of issues and I picked them up cheap.

I took my haul back to my apartment. The luster had started to wear off my new job and I was starting to feel a little depressed, away from home and far away from Suzanne and my family. But something so simple as having an armload of new comics really boosted my spirits. It sounds ridiculous but it was true. It was something to cling to. I curled up on the couch in my tiny living room and savored those books, reading well into the evening. I’ve rarely enjoyed reading comics as much as I did that weekend.

The next week, I got paid and decided to head on out Saturday morning to see if I could scrounge a few more back issues of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. Arriving at the store, I was shocked to see the place locked up tight, a “GONE OUT OF BUSINESS” sign taped to the inside of the glass on the door. I was devastated. I couldn’t believe my new comic shop was gone...after one week! The empty-handed walk back to my apartment seemed much, much longer this time than it had a week prior. However, to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum in JURASSIC PARK, comic readers will find a way. I eventually located a new shop a few blocks down from where I worked but the walk from the office was along-side a freeway and a little treacherous. Driving was an unpleasant option because crossing the traffic was difficult unless you wanted to pay tolls (which I didn’t.) It was a much nicer shop than Atomic Comics, large, well-stocked and, I don’t know...shiny...but the same thrill just wasn’t there.

It was all moot, anyway. After only three months or so, it had become apparent that my friend’s dad had no intention of following through with starting the video production company and I’d ended up doing low-end focus group videos and designing brochures for the marketing research firm. Not bad work but the hours-to-salary ratio was unacceptable and, frankly, I didn’t care much for my friend’s father. So Tooncie and I packed our bags and back home we went.

My little affair with Atomic Comics only lasted one visit but it made one hell of an impression and it remains one of my more vivid comic book memories.

Six Months

I’m still feeling saddened by the passing of Steve Gerber, a writer whose talents I didn’t come to fully appreciate until recent years, though I’d been a fan since childhood. With all the bad news coming out of the comics industry the last couple of days, I was a little worried about posting this but today is an important day and I didn’t want it to slip by without comment. As of today, it’s been six months since Mike died. The last half year has gone by in such a blur that I was barely aware it’s been that long. People use the phrase “seems like only yesterday” a lot but, in this case, it’s nearly true.

Not a single day has gone by since August 12 that I haven’t thought about Mike a dozen times a day, but today has been particularly tough. With Suzanne out of town, I’ve been alone with my thoughts a lot and I’ve been feeling the loss keenly. But rather than posting some morose testament to that loss, I thought I’d try to cheer myself up and wax nostalgic. So, bear with me.

The sketch above, though it didn’t really take long to draw, is based on an image that’s been popping into my head for a few days now. It isn’t a specific moment in time but, rather, representative of many similar moments. I probably needn’t explain that the two kids in the sketch are Mike and me. (Mike’s the tall one; I’m the one with the wavy blonde hair. Still got the wave. The blonde...not so much.) Mike and I were roughly 13 and 8, respectively, around the time this picture represents. We were buying our comics at a bookstore called, I believe, Peter’s Newsstand. Despite the word “newsstand” in the name, it was more of a brick and mortar bookstore. The kind of Mom ‘n’ Pop place that dotted the landscape in the days before the big chain bookstores took over the world. The direct sales market was still a twinkle in the industry’s eye and, if you wanted to buy a comic book (which still cost just 30 cents...it said so, right on the cover: “Still Only 30¢!”) you merely had to walk into any supermarket, convenience store...or newsstand.

Each Tuesday, Mom and Dad would meet us at the bus stop after school. Dad would be driving his big Volare station wagon (which I would end up driving after I stupidly wrecked my ‘67 Mustang Fastback) and we’d pile into the back seat and off we’d go into Lynchburg so Mom could do her weekly grocery shopping. This operation was a bittersweet affair. On the plus side, we’d be getting our weekly fix of new comics. On the downside, Mom hated grocery shopping and didn’t want to have to cook dinner when we got back, usually around 7:00. So we’d always stop off at K-Mart on the way home and she’d pick up these godawful submarine sandwiches at the snackbar up front. She absolutely loved them. But, by the time we got home and put away the groceries, the meat would be kind of gray and the cheap bread would be all soggy and limp from the juice from the sliced tomatoes that had leeched into it. And I...absolutely...hate...tomatoes. But you couldn’t get the damned things without the vile red mucousy disks because they were prepackaged and wrapped in cellophane. But Mom loved them and she worked hard. So we made do. There was also the drawback that, by the time we finished eating dinner, we had to rush to finish our homework before our TV shows came on. I don’t remember what was on the tube on Tuesday nights back then but it really didn’t matter. We considered just about anything a must-see.

Mom did her grocery shopping at King’s on Timberlake road. (Years later, she would switch to Food Town on Ward’s Road, which became Harris Teeter, then went away altogether.) King’s was in a shopping center with Don’s Barber Shop, where we got our hair cut and...Peter’s newsstand. It just occurred to me that every place of business back then was named after a guy who worked there. Anyway, when Mom went into King’s, Dad would pull out his wallet and give us our allowance. Over the years, it had crept up from 50¢ to 75¢ to a dollar until, at this point, we’d reached a lucrative $2.00. Looking back, the $2.00 was pretty generous of Dad. That was a lot of scratch back then and neither Mike nor I did much to earn it. I had no chores at that age and Mike only had to clean off the table after dinner. I took over for him when he got a job. And that was it. With that much money, we were able to get a handful of comics each and still have money left over for a snack or, if we saved it, we could buy back issues at the flea market on the weekend.

We'd thank Dad and run down to the bookstore. Sometimes he'd join us but most of the time he'd stay in the car and read the newspaper. The comics were in the back of the store, at the end of an aisle of paperbacks on a couple of spinner racks. (Later, they were moved into the line-of-sight of the register, presumably due to shoplifters.) Being the oldest, Mike got to spin the racks. He had a strange rule that, even then, never made any sense to me. Though we kept separate collections and guarded them with our lives, he wouldn't allow me to buy the same books he did. He thought it was a waste of money to buy two copies of the same book. If I wanted to read one of his books, I had but to ask. I pointed out repeatedly that there would come a time when we didn't live under the same roof. Besides, he already had the collector mentality by then and didn't like me touching the books. He had much more sophisticated tastes than I did. He bought books like MASTER OF KUNG FU, Jim Starlin's CAPTAIN MARVEL, Claremont and Byrne's X-MEN and Kirby's ETERNALS. I was left with MARVEL FUN 'n' GAMES, SPIDEY SUPER STORIES, MARVEL TEAM-UP, CASPER and RICHIE RICH.

Mike was also starting to become the artist we all loved and was following particular artists from book to book. It drove him crazy when one of his favorite artists switched over to one of the books I was collecting. When John Byrne was drawing MARVEL TEAM-UP, Mike talked me into trading the series for one of his books. I don't remember which. Eventually, this sort of thing became a habit. We'd trade collections back and forth constantly. I usually came out on the short end of this, ending up with books like SPIDER-WOMAN, STEEL or FIRESTORM. Then again, I did wind up with hefty collections of THE INCREDIBLE HULK, CAPTAIN AMERICA and ROM that I never gave up. But the only time I ever regretted a trade was when I started buying FANTASTIC FOUR because Marv Wolfman was using the book to wrap up his NOVA series. Mike noticed it was being drawn by Byrne and initiated a lengthy negotiation to get his hands on it. I don't remember what I got out of it but I remember getting more than one series in the deal. Unfortunately, I never got to read the book before giving it up and still haven't to this day.

Eventually the direct market emerged and there were books we wanted that were not available on the newsstand like MICRONAUTS and DAZZLER. (Yes, I bought every issue.) I ended up subscribing to MICRONAUTS until Mike got his driver's license and started driving us to shops like Coin World, downtown which carried these direct-only books. We stopped going with Mom and Dad on the grocery runs, now on Saturdays, and Peter's Newsstand eventually closed up shop. The entire shopping center is gone now and I think there's a hardware store in it's place. Whenever I'm in Lynchburg and I drive down Timberlake, I give the old place a mental tip of the hat. Mike and I ended up buying our comics from many different places through the years but I think Peter's Newsstand is my favorite, if only because we did it together.