SyFy Channel Sits Down With Stan Lee To Show Him Long-Forgotten Art

Wow, this is pretty cool. Usually we get the typical huckster, jokey-joke personality from Stan (The Man) Lee. But this time is different. This time Stan becomes almost emotional while looking at comic book page art from long, long ago. Check it out:

Jon Hamm For Superman

I never really saw a photo of Jon Hamm till about five minutes ago... and holy crap if he would not be awesome as an older, more seasoned "Alex Ross" type Superman. WOW! Now I know what all the fuss was about when I read the AICN boards months ago...

One of the Coolest Fight Sequences Ever Animated: Superman Versus Doomsday

I love this. The pacing is great, the action intense and the music behind it really, really well done. Based on the comic book from many years ago, Superman battles the one enemy who stands a chance at actually killing him! Listen to that music — you can cut the drama with a knife!

I almost bought this on Blu-Ray a while back since it was half-off at Best Buy but I decided to pass due to budgetary concerns at the time. In any case, if you've never seen this sequence, now's your chance:

Comic Book Legend Dick Giordano Is Gone (1932-2010)

Some sad news here... one of my favorite comic book artists passed away on Saturday. Dick Giordano is dead at the age of 77.

Giordano completely and utterly helped shape my taste in comics back in the day -- and as a result, he also shaped my style as an artist. In fact I will swear to you right now there were dozens and dozens of times when I would buy a comic book based solely on Dick Giordano cover art. For me, the best was when Giordano's inks were over top of Ross Andru's pencils. I almost always preferred Marvel over DC but like I said, whenever I would see that signature Andru/Giordano combination on the cover, I would be sold. I remember buying an issue of Wonder Woman, literally for this reason. Then I would be sad to see that on the inside, there would be an entirely different artist doing the issue. 

In tribute to this amazing artist, I have posted examples of some of my absolute all-time favorite DC comic covers, works of the legendary Dick Giordano. Enjoy.

Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P., Mr. Giordano.

Superhero Battle Bracket

Heh. This kills me. So many errors you just don't know where to begin. It's obvious that the people who made this superhero/supervillian battle bracket don't fully understand the rationality behind epic superhero battles. Fortunately, you and I do.




Hey if you're like me and would rather debate these battles than some stupid who-gives-a-f#*k NCAA crap, you can check the superhero battle bracket out here.

Leave comments! I must hear what you have to say on this!

L.A. Times Talks To Christopher Nolan About Inception, Batman 3, and... Superman!

If you're wondering about the status of the next Batman flick, or what's going on with Nolan's consultant role with the next Superman movie, this is a great read.

J. Jonah Jameson Was Right: Spider-Man IS A Menace!

This just kills me. Hilarious!

From the L.A. Times:
A Spider-Man impersonator was arrested on outstanding criminal warrants Wednesday after an incident in which he allegedly slugged a man.

The incident began when Los Angeles Police Department patrol officers received a radio call reporting battery by a man in a Spider-Man costume. When they arrived, they encountered four people dressed as the web-slinging crusader.

The funny part is, it was actually Mysterio projecting multiple images of Spidey throughout the city. haha

The full story here.

Did Jack Kirby Have A Hand In Creating Spider-Man?

Contrary to popular belief it appears he may have. I thought this was interesting. From Heatvision:

Comics fans know Kirby's work as intimately as their Spidey Underoos. Even though the Webslinger's origins are generally credited to Stan Lee and reclusive artist Steve Ditko, Kirby was key in the character's early development in Marvel¹s pages. Lee first approached Kirby, with whom he had already created Fantastic Four, X-Men and the Hulk, among others, to help flesh out the concept and initially draw the comic.

The reasons Kirby didn't end up drawing the book are lost in the mists of comic history, with some claiming Lee didn't like Kirby's more muscular depiction and others believing Lee was just too busy. (Kirby did end up drawing the cover to Spider-Man's first appearance, "Amazing Fantasy" #15.)

According to several accounts, Kirby, with his Captain America co-creator Joe Simon, did create a character called the Silver Spider, whose alter ego was an orphaned boy living with two elderly people, and that character was morphed into Spider-Man. 

Fascinating. Click here for the full story!

More Rob Liefeld, The (Con) Artist

Ron Garney, 1995XXXXXXRob Liefeld, 1997

I received some great emails this morning regarding the Rob Liefeld Wizard World PWNage. Here's one from my friend G:

... you just made my year. How Rob Liefeld became popular is a greater mystery than the Kennedy assassination and the Bermuda Triangle. I wish I could've been at [the show].

Years later, and I'm still so angry. You're absolutely right — that Captain America picture puts on display, front and center, so many of the things Rob Liefeld not only has no idea about, but cannot seem to grasp even once it has been taught to him (c'mon; I just assume at some point Jim Lee or Marc Silvestri or Erik Larsen came up to him and said, "Uh, dude, let me show you... people don't often stand on their tip toes all the time..."): perspective, anatomy, proportion...

Not only was the move funny, but insightful. I almost guarantee in his own arrogance and embarrassment Rob Liefeld has never read a drawing manual. But maybe he has, and it's just physically impossible for him to draw correctly. In all these years, I've think I've come to realize why he was popular: it was just that period in comics. Comics were becoming somewhat mainstream and 80s-fied (Jerry Bruckheimer action movie-fied): lots of flash, big colors, etc. The casual new comic book fan had no idea they were looking at art that — and I can't overstate this enough — is in the realm of laughable for even a fifth grader. And a retarded fifth grader at that.

More evidence

And let's not even discuss his supreme lack of unoriginality (exemplified by his Lobo ripoff, "Lone Wolf" or "Blood Wolf" or — see, in my anger I can't even remember it). Every new stylistic nuance that came along, he would rip it off. Stephen Platt became known for drawing huge and complicated veins on muscles. Suddenly, Rob Liefeld did the same. Of course, in a much worse manner.

G goes on to say:

I was reading some of the discussion of the comments section in this site you linked to in your article: The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings. There's a guy, Michael Davis, who seems pretty intelligent and himself some type of insider in the comic book industry, who takes on the herculean and thankless task of trying to defend Rob Liefeld. And his tact is fairly sound: he says Rob Liefeld, despite his obvious drawbacks as an artist, did much for the industry. He says Liefeld's work is "not for everybody." In these points, I actually have to agree with him. He makes a solid and well evidenced argument. However, he also writes that Rob Liefeld is "not the greatest artist." He grossly understates this assessment.

Anybody who has ever looked at another comic book (one not pencilled by Rob Liefeld) or any type of competent figure drawing will know that Liefeld easily is the absolute f#*king worst artist in the history of mainstream comic books. That's not an understatement. You can say that. He not only lacks, but he actively destroys what I mentioned before: basic — BASIC — drawing tenets like perspective, anatomy, and proportion. Lets put aside all talk of big guns and huge muscles — everyone was doing that. He couldn't correctly draw in 2 dimensions the arm holding that gun. I hate chick lit. Its stories are vapid, and it lacks strong character development and themes. But the authors and/or editors can f#*king spell and use correct grammar. If Rob Liefeld wrote a book, his lack of basic drawing technique would translate to him using a period to begin sentences and then throwing a question mark in the middle of a clause because it looks cool. To quote comics: AAARGH!

John Byrne, 1982XXXXXRob Liefeld, 1990

Regarding the blatant rip-off of John Byrne's art, G adds:

Just awful. I took a look at the drawings and I said to myself, "which one is Rob Liefeld? Neither of [the drawings] are nearly close enough to his shitty technique. Then I realized it was the because he ripped it off so exactly. I would almost bet he traced it. Like they said in Chasing Amy: "f#*king tracer." Seriously, someone in the comments section tried to argue that many artists look to their heroes and mentors and giants of the industry for inspiration and often try to imitate their work. Imitation as flattery and exact duplication are two different things. Not only are the poses the exact same, but the style, the proportions, the angles... hell, he even has the secondary character of the robot doing the exact same thing. It's easily the best Rob Liefeld art I've ever seen, and it's because he traced a f#*king John Byrne picture. John Byrne shouldn't be flattered; he should be pissed and preparing a boxing glove with broken glass glued to it to punch Rob Liefeld in the face (obviously I've been burying this stuff deep down.)

Hilarious! G is extremely insightful (not to mention a very gifted writer, but more on that another day.) He's the guy who brought to my attention something so epic (at least in the category of Comics) by showing me — one fateful day, a couple of years ago — just what travesties were taking place at the hands of Ron Liefeld. I never knew until he pointed me toward the mile-high stack of evidence!

Marvel Fan PWNS Rob Liefeld At 2009 Wizard World Chicago

This has been circulating for several days but I didn't find out about it until literally five minutes ago. Needless to say the fact that I am posting about it at such blazing speed should convince you that you need to make one of two choices:

A) IF YOU ARE A MARVEL COMICS FAN, YOU SHOULD READ THIS

B) IF YOU HATE THE ARTWORK OF ROB LIEFELD, YOU MUST READ THIS

First, a quick primer. If you aren't familiar with the artwork of Rob Liefeld, let me give you a crash course:

The pictures don't lie. If you want to check out The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings, you can do that too, but I suggest you continue reading on for now (you can always check out the multiple train-wrecks later.)

Now granted, Liefeld has made big, big money doing what he loves to do -- namely, drawing superhero comics. So no one can take that away from him. But the truth is, Rob Liefeld does not know how to draw. He has also ripped-off drawings from past artists. He doesn't know anatomy either. Just look at that f#@king Captain America for god's sake. Liefeld has become somewhat of a legend in that thousands of comics fans have rallied against his horrible art for many years.

Alright, here's where we're going with this. A few weeks ago during the Wizard World show in Chicago, some dude mustered up the ca hones to approach Liefeld at a signing table -- to hand him a copy of this book:

I had this book as a kid and it is awesome. It's even more awesome now that someone handed a copy of it to Rob Liefeld! Here are some pics taken at Liefeld's table:

The result? Liefeld was PISSED! For the entire story, head over to SuperFunAdventureTime...

Note: Special thanks to my friend G, the first person to point out to me just how terrible Rob Liefeld's art is!

Tomorrow...

Happy Birthday, Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics turned 70 years old yesterday. I was always a Marvel fan. Even as a kid I thought Marvel's characters more vibrant and bold than "The Other Guys." Marvel's art direction was just so ahead of its time. Pure excitement on paper. On the other hand, like I said, I found DC's characters much less interesting and a lot more two-dimensional. I remember thinking to myself "DC must stand for Dumb Comics."

I started reading comics at an early age. I read shit-loads of them. God bless my mother. She never blocked me from my addiction. To her, at least I was reading and staying out of trouble. I am convinced that my overall sense of creativity, and even my willingness to stay open-minded, was directly molded by the comics I read. Marvel Comics, more than any other medium, made me say, "When I grow up, I'm going to be an artist."

I remember vividly — the very first comic book I was ever given was a Marvel Team-Up that featured Spider-Man and Black Panther kicking ass against Stegron The Dinosaur Man. God, thinking back to reading that as a kid is such a sweet memory.

One day my older sister Kathy told me that her boyfriend, a garbage collector at the time, found two large boxes of comic books someone had left with their trash, and that he snatched them up for me. omfg I remember that day like it was yesterday. There were probably a hundred comics, mostly Marvels. I remember there were a bunch of Iron Man issues in those boxes... I was digging those a lot.

Anyway, io9 has a nice little write-up about Marvel's 70th birthday, so head on over.

SDCC Report: Jonah Hex Poster

Jonah Hex!! Oh, BOY!!

(sigh)

At least we get to see Megan Fox's cans again -- this time in an old-fashioned, wild west-style push-up corset lookin' thing (god, I love the clothes those women used to wear back then)!

Why do I get the feeling that we are all gonna O.D. on this chick in no time flat...?

The Bizarre World Of Brad Neely

This is one of my all-time favorite bizarre panel comics done by a man named Brad Neely:

I like it so much I have a copy of it taped next to my monitor at work.

Now I'm the first to admit the above image is not necessarily the most knee-slapping hilarious comic ever but it is just so bizarre and thought-provoking it kills me. Is the shirtless guy the little kid's uncle? Is there some kind of weird thing going on between the kid and the shirtless guy? Is the kid accusing the shirtless guy of molestation? Check out the weird painting on the wall.

You have to love Neely's crummy drawing style. It's pretty unique.

Neely has a website with hundreds of comics, many of them panel-style like the one above. Personally I would rate Neely as a hit-or-miss cartoonist, since a lot of his cartoons are just plain stupid for stupid's sake. But there are some real gems in there. Go see for yourself. Click on "comics" and rifle through a whole mess of craziness.

Bryan Singer Will Direct "Superman: Man Of Steel"

Woah, some hot movie news right here, courtesy of Den Of Geek...

Despite some apprehension on the part of Warner Bros. (Superman Returns was not received well by critics or fans), Singer has the gig for a sequel. Several months ago, the director went on record promising that if he were offered the sequel, he would be going all "Wrath of Khan" on it. Now that's what I wanna hear! Reportedly, Brandon Routh will be reprising his role also.

I don't have a problem with Bryan Singer, I just hope he and/or the writing team come up with a way to ditch the annoying "Supertoddler." Oh, and hopefully they'll have Superman doing more Supermanny things this time, like punching some dude's fool head off or ripping a skyscraper from its foundation and using it as a ball bat.

In fact... you know what? I'm going to post my thoughts on what I expect to see in this sequel, later today, so stop back...

Thanks to Denofgeek.com

Batman Bitchslap!

Batman DVD Boxed Set Makes Me Take A Look Back At Batman & Robin, The Worst Superhero Movie Ever Made

If you have ever had a doubt... if you have ever asked yourself whether or not Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (1997) is the worst superhero-related thing ever put to film... ever... all you have to do is click play on this clip, and you will never have to ask again:

I can't blame you for not wanting to watch ten minutes of that... I can't blame you. But I wanted to make a point.

Don't ever think Daredevil was the worst superhero movie ever made. Don't ever think the Fantastic Four movies were the worst (including Roger Corman's version.) Don't ever think Elektra, or even Catwoman, was the worst. Don't ever think Underdog was the worst. No. There is one movie that could raise all of those to Oscar-winning-performance levels. Batman & Robin.

It would seem that after making a pretty decent Batman Forever, director Joel "Oh-Hi-I'm-Gonna-Open-My-Butt-Cheeks-Now-And-
Take-A-Big-Dump-On-This" Schumacher could not have screwed it up more if someone had a gun to his head. Bad acting, terrible dialog, stupifyingly dumb action sequences, constant zooms on asses and crotches, a fat-faced Alicia Silverstone, and even blatant toy sales pitches. Don't believe me on that last one? Fast forward to 8:09 and listen to Poison Ivy tell Batman about her action figure. For god's sake, do it!!

And ya know... if you're gay, fine, I have no problem with that. If you're a gay filmmaker, I say no worries. But come on. Schumacher ran amok with homosexual overtones in this movie. It was as if someone gave him a license to shoot gay rays! This was not the Batman & Robin that I knew. No, this was more like... more like... Buttman & Rubbin'!

How much do I hate Batman & Robin? Let me put it this way. If I were forced to choose whether to watch Batman & Robin one more time, or call these guys and pay them to do a live show in my living room on a Saturday night in front of all my friends with a camera running...

...I would pick the live show. THAT'S how much I hate Batman & Robin.

Critics destroyed it, and fans wanted to wring Schumacher's neck. Even many of the actors were incredibly embarrassed once the movie was released. Batman himself, George Clooney, jokingly denied being in the movie! At one point Clooney was quoted as saying, "Joel Schumacher told me we never made another Batman film because Batman was gay."

And now, more recently, after being subjected to years of venomous hatred for this awful piece of work (and rightfully so), Schumacher apologizes:


Well, guess what? As of yesterday, if you have sixty bucks laying around, you can buy Batman & Robin, and the entire boxed set of pre-Nolan films! Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997 on regular DVD or Blu-ray, includes Batman (not gay), Batman Returns (not gay, but it had a really dumb sequence where Batman pulled a "wicka-wicka" DJ move... no one talks about this but he really did it), Batman Forever (a little tiny bit gay), and Batman & Robin (gay with extra gay sauce).

Just sayin'.

A Very Strange Adam West Batman Meets Jerry Lawler

Okay, let's see here. Hmm. Oh hell, let's just let BoinBoing.net do the talkin':

"When Adam West appeared on a Memphis TV station to promote a local car show in 1977, he arrived slurring his speech and wearing what can only be described as "homeless Bat-chic." Jerry "The Evil King of Memphis" Lawler then stopped by, prompting West to inexplicably lecture him on superhero sartorialism and traffic safety..."

In any event, here's the tattered video clip:



Thanks to Boingboing.net

Where's My Friggin' Micronauts Movie?!

I'm serious. The Micronauts, one of my favorite action figure/toy lines as a kid, needs to be a movie. No, not the cheap animated one they released straight-to-DVD; I'm talking big-budget, Michael Bay lovin' Transformers stuff here. I am telling you, if they did it right, it would blow minds.

Micronauts Issue #1 by Marvel Comics, 1979

And what's to stop Hollywood from doing it? They've been making movies based on crummy properties for years. We're getting The Land of the Lost and GI Joe this summer, and rumor has it that Stretch Armstrong ain't far behind. There you go.

They made a legitimate film with a serious tone out of toy cars and trucks that turn into robots, for god's sake. If they can do that, imagine what they could do with Micronauts. It is true that back in the day when Micronauts toys and comics were hot (late seventies), they got out of control with some questionable characters (i.e; Baron Karza was pretty much a dollar store rip-off of Darth Vader), but for the most part, Micronauts kicked ass!

Micronauts by Mego

The 3 and 1/2 inch action figures were based on a Japanese toy line called Microman. American toy company Mego imported them from Takara Japan and repackaged them as Micronauts. The figures and play sets really caught on in the U.S. -- for the first time ever, you didn't have to live in Japan to have cool, bizarre action figures!

Many of the toy parts had little holes in various places where you could insert little plastic pegs which connected to attachments and whatnot. This gave a kid all sorts of creative freedom. Kind of like Lego meets action figures, I suppose. I remember having a blast building backpack rocket launchers and crazy armed assault vehicles for my little Micronauts.

So if you're by some chance a studio suit looking for an untapped, kick-ass license to rape... er, turn into a motion picture and you are reading this, go after Micronauts, I say. You could do worse (cough, He-Man, cough...)

Batman Gets Pwned...

... playing a video game.

... and it's quite comical.