After the pulse-pounding cliffhanger of Liberty League #1 now, finally, the action-packed 2nd chapter…
The Crimson Chaos here in all his glory. What a bad ass.
I used to love covers that had those little corner blurbs telling you about a guest star or new character appearing inside. My brother and I lived for first appearance issues.
I spilled hot chocolate or something on the back cover and carefully glue-sticked a piece of paper over it. True craftsmanship.
The year is 1987. The comics industry reached a new plateau of mature superhero storytelling with the release of The Dark Knight Returns, Kraven’s Last Hunt and Watchmen…
…But no one was prepared for the Liberty League.
Yup. Eleven years old and I finally hunkered down for a day or two to create my own superhero comic series. I think there might have been 3 issues total but I could only find the first two while rifling through boxes my parents dropped off at the house.
I like the rainbow red-orange-yellow on “The” and the puffy bubble letters that encapsulate a real sense of “Liberty”. The logo really helps sell that sense of heroism and power. I knew that real superhero teams like the Avengers and Fantastic Four were American so I put that US flag up in the top left corner.
This 5.5″ x 6.5″ beauty, all lovingly rendered in Laurentian pencil crayons, is an epic beyond measure. Follow along with me as we engage 400% pure adventure…
Ray’s at it again and I couldn’t be happier. Back in 2005 I told you guys about the series he wrote for Vertigo.
Now, with a couple years of making waves writing role-playing material for White Wolf’s Vampire: The Requiem line he’s unleashing his creativity in comics once again with two new books coming down the pipe:
“It’s the freaks who always change the world.”
“We brought down the genome patents and open-sourced the medical profession. That was us. We crashed the plastic surgery business. We paved the way for parasite chic. The body became a new kind of playground and we, celebrating the future, we became the Neumod.”
In the near-future Neumod culture of parasite addicts and hardcore one-upmanship, Dirk Brody has found love. He’ll do anything to prove himself to the woman of his dreams – even if it means blurring the boundaries of his flesh with the radical, illegal Junction True procedure.
Once he starts, he can never go back…
An ugly tale of beautiful people written by Ray Fawkes (MNEMOVORE, SPOOKSHOW) and illustrated by Vince Locke (DEADWORLD, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, CANNIBAL CORPSE, & SANDMAN). — 128 pages, a FULL-COLOR graphic novel.
Mark my words: Sooner than you expect Ray will be one of those untouchable hot-shit writers who look like they appeared out of nowhere, but actually made it on pure hard work blood, sweat and tears.
| Went to go see Grindhouse on Friday night. Overall, it was a really good time. Some friends I hadn’t seen in quite some time ended up sitting down right beside us by complete coincidence… cool and strange.
Planet Terror is a crowd-pleasing romp through B-movie conventions with rampant gore, zombies, ridiculous scenarios and over-the-top action. It’s got breakneck pacing and manages to up the ante on itself several times with an explosive payoff. The adrenalized opening night crowd was cheering and clapping by the end. Great stuff. Inbetween the films were some fake trailers that kept the energy high and freaked us out. Hearing Ray moan “I’m not a horror writer…” during the stomach-churning Thanksgiving trailer and watching Chris take off his glasses to wipe his face because he was crying tears of pure laughter was almost as good as the footage up on screen. |
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Then Death Proof unbelievably sucked away all that built-up momentum…
Buried inside the bloated hour and a half of Death Proof’s running time is a half hour of shocking and unexpected exploitation film. The unfortunate part is that it’s buffered by an excruciating hour of sheer nothingness; paint-drying worthy dialogue and characterization that steals away any excitement you have for the action-packed ending. It’s anything but the advertised “white-hot juggernaut at 200 miles per hour”. Seriously. It’s so boring that they show an extreme close up of a character typing a text message on her cel phone. This isn’t some crucial plot point, it’s a nothing throwaway message, but we get to watch her scroll through each letter on screen… mind-numbing. Tarantino is a capable film maker but that doesn’t mean every single masturbatory indulgence he generates is greatness. This flick needed an edit, badly. When I perused reviews for Grindhouse on Rotten Tomatoes, one critic lauded Death Proof as “defying expectations”… if by “expectations” you mean “entertainment and patience”, then yes, he did defy my expectations. Anyways, the package as a whole was very good, don’t get me wrong. Planet Terror is fantastic, the fake trailers are a hoot and Death Proof ends with decent thrills. If you head out for a leak and some fast food after the intermission, you’ll come back just in time to see the worthy parts of Tarantino’s mess and end things on a decent note. |
Perusing my regular rotation of websites for news and geekiness this morning, I was ecstatic to come across a new review for Makeshift Miracle on Ain’t It Cool News’ Comic Column… scroll down to near the bottom:
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MAKESHIFT MIRACLE OGN
UDON Comics
Jim Zubkavich has made a wonderful surprise of a comic book. This stand alone story is a fantasy adventure that could entertain children as a cautionary tale, yet is intelligent enough to entertain adults. The story follows a young boy whose life is interrupted by a mysterious young girl falling from the sky. Not knowing what to do, this resourceful young man takes the girl home with him and all of a sudden his boring life becomes nothing but. This is a sensitive story about the development of identity and the sacrifices one must make in order to grow up. It is also an inspirational story about taking risks and making the best of what life has to offer. Calling this a “feel good” book has too many negative terms attached to it in this apathetical society we live in, but when I put this book down I felt just that. This tender read looks great too. The panels are animation cell quality and literally pop off the page. Each panel has a crisp three dimensional cartoony feel that gives the book a look all its own. – Ambush Bug
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A good start to my day.
My pal Eric Kim held the first (of hopefully many) Throwdown events on Saturday night. It was ridiculous and childish, which is why it kicked so much butt.
There’s hundreds of photos at the Flickr Photostream, but here are a few of my highlights:
Eric Kim, mighty Throwdown Commish, and Zub, overconfident dork.
What event could satiate these crazed contestants?
Go-Karting!
Zippy
After the event I’m confident I’ve got the gold.
A-Train and Justina are… happy to be a part of the festivities.
After all the scores were tallied…
Michael Slattery came away with the belt.
I wasn’t too happy about losing…
thus branding myself as a villain, WWE style
Good times.
Yay! I can finally talk about one of the secret projects we’ve worked on!
UDON artist Arnold Tsang contributed a custom-console paint job design to the Art of Wii website. If you’re Canadian and you head to that site and register, you could win one of 6 custom-painted Wii consoles.
I had a lot of fun working with Nintendo Canada and the Henderson Bas ad agency on this promotion. Both companies were excited to have us on board and enthusiastic about our design ideas.
I owe Scott Robbins a pint or two for helping set the whole thing up. Thanks Scott!
Articles:
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Kotaku
NOW Magazine
The Torontoist
Joystiq
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