YouTube Clip Of The Day: John Daker Sings

I wish there was a shot of him looking straight down the camera at the end, but it's still gold.

Comictwart DC Love

I know I've mentioned these guys before, but I just had to share a couple of this weeks pics, because they are so sweet. With the whole DC relaunch hype in the air, the guys decide to do their own DC tributes.
This first one is by Declan Shelvy, see original post here.



The next one is by Tom Fowler, one of my favourite artists on the blog. Check his original post here.


It's a site worth checking out, so do yourself a favour and head over to ComicTwart.

Hungerstrike-Temple Of The Dog

I knew this song from some early Pearl Jam bootlegs, but didn't know where it was from. On the live track you could hear Eddie say, "We played that for Chris, he'll be real proud." Obviously that's Chris Cornell, but I didn't know that at the time. I never got into Soundgarden, so never paid much attention. I knew Temple of the Dog was the precursor to Pearl Jam, but never realised that Eddie Vedder actually sang on the track until I saw the Pearl Jam Twenty film and they featured this film clip in it. I since bought the album, and am quite enjoying it. I never really heard too much Soundgarden that interested me, except for Black Hole Sun, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should give them more of a listen. Anyway, I like this song.

Batman/Darth Vader Mash-Up

Original Source:http://residentsoftherabbithole.tumblr.com/post/10461192139

Superman In A Photobooth

Original Source Unknown

"BIRDKILLER" Work In Progress 5

Not too much has changed. I put the white borders in, but my eye was off so now it's at angle. Also, it seems some paint got lifted up or something in the process, so there's a speckling of white in my green now in certain places. I don't want to use tape for that very reason, but it seemed to happen anyway.
One more thing to fix.


I worked mostly on the figure, and I'm pretty happy with it. The shirt in particular. The face is an ongoing battle, trying to work at that size with paint on this surface is a challenge, but I think I'll get what I'm after, though I may have to ask Richard to pose again, but just focus on his face. The next challenge is to paint a couple of birds hanging around his wait, as if strung up to his belt.
Then I need to remember to put the panel with bird skull in it back in. So a little way to go still.


Thanks for the comment Brad, wasn't sure if anyone was paying attention.

Return Of The Jedi: Panel Of The Week

"BIRDKILLER" Work In Progress 4

So I did what I had to do, and abandoned representation in the background, and I'm much more happy with it now.
I felt I needed something more in the lower section of the painting though, so have gone for the dribble effect, bleeding out from the rocks. The plan is still to have a clearly defined white line separating them and bordering the whole painting, so that brown has probably gone too far down on the left there, but I plan to bring in some blue dribble as well, so I'm hoping to mask that somewhat when I do that.
I would have taken a better photo, but the camera battery ran out so I had to settle for the lighting in this one, and I wanted to try rescue the figure from the background, so didn't want to wait any longer.
Thanks for all your feedback and comments, it's been................................................

"BIRDKILLER" Work In Progress 3

I find the process of painting is a constant process of rescue and restoration. I have something I like, that I'm happy with, but then as the rest of the painting is dragged kicking and screaming to a place I want it to be, the parts i'm happy with invariably get "damaged", they're the collateral damage of the rest of the painting. The central figure is the victim as I struggle with the background, he is covered in paint as I try to get consistency or clarity around him, and he bears the brunt of my frustrations and scorched earth policy in applying paint to the background. But this seems to be my method, I get my figure where I want them, then rescue them from the background as it overtakes them.




I'm happy with my hand, and I'm happy with my figure and composition, the idea of what I'm trying to accomplish. It's just I picked the wrong idea to explore the painting method I want to explore with this painting, so I struggle with the background. I think I may get a larger paintbrish. The clouds seem more like mountain tops, and I think I need to abandon representation.
But it's been fun.
What have you been doing?

"BIRDKILLER" Work In Progress 2

Return Of The Jedi: Panel Of The Week

"BIRDKILLER" Work In Progress

Inspired by a post Richard made concerning the saying "killing 2 birds with 1 stone", I bring you the latest in my line of unfinished works.


"BIRDKILLER" (W.I.P.)


"BIRDKILLER" (Detail)

Return Of The Jedi: Panel Of The Week

Comic Review For Release Date 31/9/11: The New DC-Justice League #1

So I’m a bit behind on my regular schedule of comic book reviews, but I’m going to skip roughly the last months worth of comics I haven’t read yet, because I want to concentrate on something new, something that came out this week, and I feel is pretty important. This week, DC Comics only put out two comics, Flashpoint #5, the end of their event, and in effect, then end of the old DC Universe; and Justice League #1, the start of the new DC Universe. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, but DC Comics is re-launching 52 new titles, starting at #1s for all of them. And this week was the end of one and the start of something new. So for this week, I’m just going to look at Justice League #1.


This book has heavy hitters on it, creatively speaking. Geoff Johns is probably DC biggest writer, and is important enough that he’s been promoted to Chief Creative Officers or something like that. Jim Lee is a legend, and one of the best pencillers in the business. and personally speaking, he represents an evolutionary step in my comic reading, when I discovered his work on X-Men in the early nineties, and brought me into reading Marvel comics. So expectations are high. And Justice League is DC’s big hitters, characters wise. I mean look who’s on the cover, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman are probably three of the most recognizable comic characters in the western world. And if you’re a bit more familiar with comics then you’d probably recognize Green Lantern, Flash and Aquaman. I find it a bit odd that Cyborg is in the mix, but whatever. Anyway, what I’m saying is, this team, both creatively and the actual team, bring big expectations, and it’s a new number one, launching a whole new chapter in DC’s publishing history, so that’s an awful lot of expectation for one little comic to bear. So what did I think?
Well, I really liked it. I’ve already read it a couple of times, and I imagine I might read it again. And the thing that’s got me coming back is the characters. We get to meet four of the seven from the cover in this issue, but we mainly spend most of the comic with Batman and Green Lantern. And this is their first time they’ve met. They’ve heard of each other, but this is the first time they’ve actually met, and the interactions between them is pretty enjoyable. You’ve got Batman being Batman, confident, slightly cocky, very aware of what he’s doing and experienced, and then you’ve got Green Lantern, who seems younger, more cocky and self-assured, but not necessarily with the experience to back it up. Which leads to some nice interactions between them. These are a couple of my favourites.



So this is very early on in everybody’s respective careers, they are not a known quantity yet, the band hasn’t gotten together. So this first series is going to be getting the band together, obviously having to deal with the threat that is being set up in this issue. And it works. We get to know the characters as they get to know each other. And I can’t wait to get to know them more. It was pretty smart not to start this series with Batman meeting Superman, it makes us hungry for next issue, It was also smart to start with Batman, who I think it could be argued is the most popular and recognizable character in DC history.
Anyway, I’ve talked enough about the story, kind of, what about the art? As I said earlier, Jim Lee’s art had a big impact on my comic reading life. His art sucked me in and is still some of my favourite stuff I’ve read. But, as time progressed and he moved over to Image Comics, I feel like it lost a little something along the way, and it was never as good as in the golden time I discovered him in X-Men. Except for his Deathblow work, that I really liked. So I was curious to see how I would react to this Jim Lee, since it’s kind of rare to get actual page content out of him these days. Well, I wasn’t disappointed. Certain panels leap out at me, some images are have a certain iconicness to them. Take this panel for example.


It’s a great shot of Batman, but it’s not as ostentatious as another shot of him just about 10 cm to the left. He’s not as large in the panel, there’s not as much detail, but I really like it. I think it shows him in motion, that kind of use of speed-lines in the background and in the lower half of his body. Also, being zipped through the flames adds a nice dynamic touch to it, and adds a bit of colour to it.
Anyway, let me just show you a couple more of my favourite panels, which I think are good examples of Jim’s art and Geoff’s characterisations of them.

Return Of The Jedi Panel Of The Week

How I Spent My Saturday Afternoon, Between 4pm And 5pm

Just a little something I threw together with Clay on the weekend. This is just a work in progress, hopefully Clay will use it and put FX in there, like muzzle flashes and blood and impact hits on the walls etc., but in case he doesn't use it, at least we got to see it here. But when he does, I'm sure we'll post it on youtube for all to see.

Youtube Clip Of The Day: A*P*E Trailer

Ah, if only I could make a movie that good.

Return Of The Jedi Panel Of The Week

Comic Review For Comics Released 3/8/11

Batman Retroactive 1980’s – So I picked up the next one after last weeks 1970’s Retroactive, I think mainly because I enjoyed the last one, and because it looked like it might be fun, and I was curious about the Alan Davis art in the second story, from the 80’s. And it’s got thought balloons. Jason Todd is still Robin in this timeframe, and Batman still hates crime and calls Robin “chum”, which seems a little odd, like a leftover from the Adam West TV show. The story was pretty cool, the return of a masked avenger who hates crime as much as Batman, but takes it a little bit further, killing the criminals rather than just roughing them up. Also , the narrator asked us if we could solve the mystery. But anyway, what I really want to show you are these panels form the original 80’s story. I like this Batman.



Caligula #3 – This issue wasn’t as depraved as the last few issues, but got a little more into the supposed God-like qualities of Caligula. I’m not sure if I’ll keep buying this, but I probably will. I think I find it more interesting than entertaining, but I’m not sure how interested I really am. We’ll see.









Hero Comics 2011 - Apart from the obvious appeal of the Adam Hughes cover, I picked this anthology comic up because it had a few stories from a few series I follow, namely Chew and Elephantmen. Other stories of note were a Neil Gaiman story and a Sam Keith story chronicling the journey of the Neil Gaiman piece. Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg collaborated on the art for the Neil Gaiman, which is significant because they all worked on the original Sandman issue. It’s a nice painted kind of art, neither strictly one or the other. The Chew story was just a nice little filler, without any real place in the larger story, it could happen anytime. The Elephantmen story was a nice little piece, with a bit of a comment about public health access and the treatment of returned veterans. Sam Keith’s story and art was pretty and somewhat informative.

World of Flashpoint #3 – So this wraps up this short little Flashpoint mini, and it’s pretty much just a Father and Daughter arguing about destroying the world or saving it. We don’t really get to zip around the world and meet different characters like we had in the previous issues, but I guess I didn’t mind, I must’ve gotten invested in the story, because I wanted to know how it turned out. I’ll let you in in on a little secret, it turned out ok.







Flashpoint Batman Knight of Vengeance #3 – The conclusion to this story was pretty good, with Eduardo Risso’s art being the main attraction. Which is not to say Azzarello’s story isn’t good, because it is. It had some great moments, I think my favourite was when Thomas Wayne/Batman is explaining to Martha Wayne/Joker how there’s an alternate reality where Bruce lived. Martha asked him what Bruce did after they died, and Thomas says he follows in his Father’s footsteps. Martha asks if he means doctor, and he says no. Martha realises what he means, and freaks out. It’s like she doesn’t want to wish that on anyone. Anyway, it was pretty good. I suppose I could just show you what I was talking about, instead of telling you.
So here you go.




Flashpoint #4 – This was ok, but I guess the problem I’m having with it is I don’t care about the Flash character and how he wants to put things back the way he knows them, and that’s pretty much the core of the story. But for being the core of the story, they also seem to spend a lot of time not dealing with that. In this issue, we spend a lot of time with a bunch of kids who make Shazam. I thought in the regular DCU it was just one kid who turned into Shazam, but in this one it seems to be about 5 kids. And everybody’s trying to decide if they help with the war between Atlantis and the Amazons, and there is much hand-wringing and back and forth, and it tends to drag the story down somewhat. I’m sounding like I didn’t enjoy, but I did, it’s just I don’t really remember anything about it, and apart from the moment I’m reading it, I don’t really care.

Moon Knight #4 - I think 4 issues is enough of a chance for a book to make an impression on me, and for all I’ve liked it so far, I don’t think I need to keep reading this. Maleev’s art is good, but it doesn’t wow me anymore. But maybe that’s the fault of Bendis, who’s far more interested in character than story. I think it’s the first few pages that did it for me. Echo calls the Avengers to check what the deal is with Moon knight, is he ok or just crazy, and that’s fair enough, it makes sense, but it turns into this whole big thing, who are you? Would you date him? Blah blah blah. And that’s fine, some people want that, but I don’t need it, so I’m just going to walk away from you Moon Knight.



The Punisher #1 – I was a little confused with how this comic opened. If you’re starting a new series, and you’re introducing us to new characters, you might want to give some indication if these panels are happening at the same time or who is who or even where, just something so that I’m not just scratching my head till halfway through the comic. I got it the second time round though. Ok, so a new Punisher series, written by Greg Rucka, whose work on G.C.P.D. I’ve enjoyed, and illustrated by Marco Checchetto, who I’m not so familiar with, but maybe I read some of his Daredevil stuff. Anyway, he’s got a nice style for this kind of book.
So there’s a wedding happening, and some guys with guns bust in and shoot it all to hell, and some cops start to investigate, but one of them seems to be in contact with the Punisher, who’s taken an interest in the case, and he goes shoots a bunch of guys in a bar, but leaves one alive. Pretty basic story, not much happening, and I was kind of wondering, is that it? But no, it wasn’t. There’s a second story, set-up like a police report done via interview, but really showing us the reader the way the events really went down, and it gives us a bit of back story to the younger cop from the main story, and gives a lot more insight into his motivations. It kind of made the whole thing better, and I went back and reread the first story, and it made a lot more sense, because I knew who was who now, but also because there was more depth to the cop. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.


Severed #1 – A new horror comic, co-written by Scott Snyder, who we know and like, and Scot Tuft, who no one’s ever heard of. Set mainly in 1916, it starts in the late 50’s with an old man watching Elvis on TV, who receives a mysterious letter, which kicks off our flashback to when he was a young boy and decides to ride the rails in search of adventure. It’s a bit of slow burn, but I’m looking forward to it. There seems to be some kind of vampireish or serial killer element, but we don’t really know what’s going on just yet.






Snarked #0 - I guess this was an introductory issue, but it felt just like an issue 1 to me. Taking Lewis Carrol’s poems and characters as the start, Roger Langridge is setting up a world and story. Lots of ancillary material in the back, like the original poems and activities for kids. It was fun, but a bit too General Audience for me, so I don’t think I’ll pick this title up in future.

Return Of The Jedi Panel Of The Week