Detective Comics #843

Here's a book I lettered that's coming out this week. I think the book looks great and I think I did a bang up job too. I'm always happy to work on Detective Comics when i get the chance, which isn't often enough, so, be sure to pick this one up! Easily worth it for the cover alone, which I'm not going to show you, but here's the title page.

Street Fighter Tribute Art: Blanca VS Vega

Here's a jam peice me and my good friend Mike Fiorentino did, he pencilled it and I inked and colored it up. We sent it for consideration in UDON's street fighter tribute contest and hopefully it gets picked for publication. So keep your fingers crossed.

Suburban Folklore: Graphic Novel Review

Awhile back I got this Graphic Novel from Steven Walters, I read it that weekend and really dug it, Now over a year later I re-read it in order to review it for this blog. It's still as good as the first time i read it, the characters are extremely well written, the art is fun, clean and the simple grey tones add depth in all the right spots. The book doesn't waste time on forcing any character development, it happens naturally, the characters are all individually expressed in their dialogue which seems to stem from each character and not from the writer. The story is about a bunch of suburban kids and how they grow up and apart from each other, it's sincere, and heartfelt. I think if you're into graphic novels about real things and real emotions than you should give this a shot. Do I have any complaints? Only two very minor ones: One, being that I'm a letterer, the lettering suffers from some aesthetic elements, although it's quite readable, and Two, it's over too quickly, nothing is rushed, but I feel like i want to follow these characters around a bit more. Ya get me? Later.

The Road: A Book Review

I was leery to pick this book up at first, due to the cover sticker stating Oprah’s book club recommended it, but I picked it up anyway and couldn’t put it down. It has been by far one of the best reads I’ve had in a long while. It’s a post-apocalyptic world, so, already I’m all about it. There are roving cannibals; an American wasteland full of ash, corpses rotting in their homes and the sun is blocked by a grey sky. Cormac vividly paints some of the most disturbing imagery in my mind using the choicest of words and most terrifying of situations. This is the first book I’ve read by Cormac McCarthy and it certainly won’t be the last. I have not one single complaint about this book, except that maybe it was over too quickly. I highly doubt that any book I read this year will compare.

Character Designs/Sketches

Here are some character designs for my buddy Jeb, he wants me to do a pin-up/cover illustration for him of these three characters. These are the initial designs and will most likely vary from the final versions, it was a lot of fun and I wil be starting the pencils for the illo this week, so look forward to that, I'm going to try tp post all stages of the piece at some point--till then later.

Podcasts of Note

CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast:
An excellent podcast delving into DIY ethics and methods, tons of information and discussions on indie music, the changing face of music distribution and tons more, a must download for any indie musician.

MADPOD’S Amityville Horror Podcast Documentary:
A very cool podcast on the famous Amityville Horror. A little too short but very interesting for any fan of the Amityville mythos. I haven’t checked out any of the other MADPOD’S casts but I will eventually-hopefully they are as good as this series was.

Pod of Horror:
A good host with a booming voice, reminds of real radio, focuses mostly on horror literature, being that I haven’t read as many books as this guy, I feel left in the dark, it’s a bit too specific for me but I’m still downloading the episodes and think it’s worth checking out. The more you read, the more you will enjoy this.

Real Time with Bill Maher:
Basically it’s the HBO show without having to pay for cable, if you like Maher, you’ll like it, it’s a very good quality show and heavy on sarcasm, bush bashing, and general politics and news bits.

Reel Horror Podcast:
By far my favorite cast of late, I found it a few weeks ago and have been trying to catch up ever since, they are very entertaining, full of good content, funny stories and good reviews. It’s mostly horror talk but often they get off topic and end up talking about whatever, which is cool, I enjoy the spontaneity. Definitely check it out.

Talking Metal:
These guys are serious about metal, they are too metal for me--running the gamut from hair metal to mall metal to kids rocking out in the garage. They are sincere and have some great interviews with everybody, Rob Halford, Dave Mustane, etc. They are so good that fuse gave them a tv show and they haven’t put out a cast in too long, but they have a ton of older cast's which are awesome.

Mindhunters: Movie Review

An entertaining thriller, that I had no expectations of prior to viewing it. I found it to be a decent flick and worth a renting, it had a few good twists, some decent acting and a number or interesting deaths. The movie suffers from poorly fleshed out characters and an unoriginal plot/scenario. The movie is filmed well, having a very blue palette for much, if not all, of the movie. The pacing is where it needs to be, as is the action. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—it’s no Flight of the Living Dead.

Salvation Run #5: A book I lettered this week.

Salvation Run, a series I've lettered from the start, and have enjoyed reading as well has had it's fifth issue come out this week, I'm currently working on 6 and am looking forward to this series coming to an end in 7, it's been a fun ride but i need to know what happens, i need to see some more villians get offed and hopefully they do. If you haven't checked out this series, catch up or pick it up when it comes out in trade.

Street Fighter Art: Balrog Jam Piece

Another jam session, this time "Famos" Amos sketched up a shot of Balrog of Street Fighter fame and I inked it up.

Green Lantern: Black and White Line Art

This here is a pin-up style drawing of a very obscure GL, whose name I cannot recall, it's done with pen/brush and ink on bristol.

Pan's Labyrinth: Fan Art Collaboration

This here is a little jampiece that I did with Corey Breen, a bit of Fan Art for Pan's Labyrinth. I digitally painted his pencils and voila, done. This is not the first time we've jammed on a piece, for more go check out my comicspace page and Corey's website, both are linked over at my favorite links section.

Lions should eat people

Here be a sketch of a lion i did sometime last year, I like animals, animals are better than people, lions should eat people.

WTAF: News

About a year or so following the release of When They All Fell's Emergency Broadcast, Brian Mathis (Drummer/WTAF/Forgetting Tomorrow) wanted to remix the whole album and basically experiment with some ideas/sounds. We ended up scrapping the idea and focusing on Passengers. However we all liked what Brian was doing, and being that he had finished Bender's Apartment, we figured what the hell--let's just put it out there as a single. So we did, and it's currently on available at my lulu storefront, if you click on the title it'll link you to the page, or you can scroll down to my favorite links and find it there. So, please, go check that out, it's only 69 cents and worth every penny.

Dying Snowman

Here's a painting i did a few weeks back, nothing fancy, just some acrylic on a piece of cardboard.

Thursday: Kill The House Lights

So, I picked this up while perusing the shelves at Vintage Vinyl, having been a fan of thursday since they first came around I figured what the hell, I'll give it a shot. It has a good mix of songs ranging from demo versions to three new tracks, live songs and different versions. I didn't check out the dvd, so i can't say anything about that. The quality of the live and demo tracks were pretty decent, standard fare as far as live stuff goes, and demo tracks were slightly better quality than demos I'm used to hearing. I'm slightly biased, favorably, to the recording of the new tracks being that WTAF worked with a few of the guys involved in our Emergency Broadcast EP and at Big Blue Meenie, they always manage to get good sounds and some of my favorite albums were recorded there. The new tracks are very similar to Thursday last cd: A City by the Light Divided, not well received by many, but i enjoyed it quite a bit, i think it harkens back to Weezer's Pinkerton. All in all, if you are a fan of the band this is a must, if you are a casual listener this will easily be forgotten.

esc Plan: a short writing

Screaming at a keyboard
The Joke’s on me
delete doesn’t work
Can’t make you disappear
No matter how many times I strike the key
You’re still standing right there
Like a shadow puppet with a mean streak
What does it all mean
Don’t I get a piece of the pie
I bought in to the American dream
Like a robot that doesn’t work right
Thinking outside the box
delete
delete
delete
esc
esc
esc
It never works
There is no
esc
Why doesn’t it work
Fuck my life
This dreams a nightmare
Where nothing really bad ever really happens and everything is just mundane

A Happy Frankie Sketch

Yep. The title to this post pretty much sums it up. I did this last year sometime.

Nightbreed: Peloquin Sketch

I said a few posts back that I'd be doing some Nightbreed sketches, well i started doing some, Peloquin, one of my favorite characters from the film, was on the top of my list. So here he is.

Spider-Man and Robin: Paintings for Charity

I never posted these anywhere, so why not here and now, i did these last year for a charity event for my soon to be wife's school, i liked how they came out, it reminded me of when i used to draw on desks in class and get bitched at for it.

Wolverine

I did this one way back in school, but i found it when i was looking through my art files a moment ago, i still kinda like it, he's smokin' a stogie, i also sold this one, i miss him.

Wildcat: Ink wash on cardboard

Here's a sketch i did one day, I later sold this sketch, and now all I have is this jpeg.

Alone in the Dark: A Movie Review

I'll keep this review brief, cause there isn't much to say about this steaming pile of dookie. I couldn't even make it to the end of this music video of a movie, it was boring, poorly shot, poorly lit, poorly acted, poorly scripted, the poster was nice and I like Christian Slater as an actor but that's about it. Even if Slater saved the day at the end of the movie on a skateboard it couldn't save this film. This movie made Cabin Fever look great and I can't be bothered wasting any more of my time talking about it. Don't see it. Ever.

Hostel 2: A Movie Review

Ok, so I felt bad about ripping on Eli Roth and decided to give Hostel 2 a shot. Overall, I enjoyed it, I did however find it an irritating movie in terms of a sequel. It was very formulaic and unoriginal, unlike the first one. There were a few moments were i was pleasantly surprised with how the characters turned out in the end. Major points i didn't like were: How they wrapped up the surviving character from the first film, how the "Hostel Ring" was even bigger and badder in the sequel which really only served to enable future sequels. Roth seemed to put a lot of thought into ways of bringing about a third film and creating a franchise, much like the SAW movies, instead of creating a good follow up to Hostel, which could have been done, it seems he opted in for the quick buck instead. Which, I guess i really can't blame him--I'd shit on camera for a paycheck too. All kidding and Roth busting aside, I dug it and thought it was ok, it's no Flight of the Living Dead, but it had moments that made me squirm so he did something right. If you're a fan of the first you'll probably like it, and if you buy a bunch of the DVD's, Roth will make another one, and I'll probably see that one and right a bunch of run on sentences about it.

Flight of the Living Dead: A Movie Review

After an outing to Best buy, I came across this dvd, Flight of the Living Dead, of course, I had to add this to my collection. I was with my little brother, and he gave it the greenlight as well. So, we went back to my house and popped it in and watched, my sister was over too and popped in for the last half. It was enjoyable, and surprisingly not terrible, there were some decent washed up actors in it, nice looking flight attendants and people i wanted to see get bitten and moidalized. It delivered in all areas except one, not an ounce of nudity, and that's on the unrated version! This movie was geared for fans of Snakes on a Plane, and if you enjoyed that movie than certainly you should enjoy this one, I know my little brother and sister did, and so did i. Unlike Snakes on a Plane, Flight of the Living Dead leaves itself open for a sequel--count me in.