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Comic Art Friday: Can’t touch this

July 13, 2018

I’m just going to put this out there:

I don’t think the Human Bomb gets enough love.

Rogue_HumanBomb_Derenick

Sure, there are many factors that contribute to the Human Bomb’s unfortunate situation.

  • He’s got a dorky name.
  • He wears what might be the least sexy costume in the history of superheroes.
  • He hearkens back to comics’ Golden Age, when heroes often had gimmicky, poorly thought-out superpowers — like those of the Human Bomb.
  • He was created by a second-rank publisher that went out of business 60 years ago (Quality Comics, also the original home of such characters as Plastic Man, Blackhawk, and Phantom Lady), and has been used only sporadically by the company that now owns his rights (DC Comics).
  • In the modern world, the term “human bomb” conjures up unpleasant associations with terrorist violence.
  • For a while during his original run, the Bomb had a comedic sidekick named Hustace Throckmorton, who made things explode with his bare feet. I kid you not.

Despite all of the above, I always thought the Human Bomb was kind of awesome. After all, who hasn’t fantasized about blowing up everything you touch?

Okay, maybe that was just me.

Anyway, here’s the Bomb’s deal. Roy Lincoln was a scientist who created, alongside his father, the world’s most powerful explosive. To keep the family brainchild out of the hands of Nazis, Roy swallowed the chemical — like you would — and as a result, developed the ability (or incurred the curse, depending on your point of view) of causing everything he touched to explode.

To keep from bursting his environment into smithereens, Roy had to live inside a cumbersome suit made from a special material that prevented his skin from accidental contact with things he didn’t wish to destroy (presumably, most everything). He would remove his gloves when he wanted to lay the smack down with his potent barehanded touch.

It’s easy to see the limitations of a character like the Human Bomb. For one thing, you can’t depict him outside of his costume very often, so he’s not terribly relatable — aside from his eyes, visible through the window in his helmet, what does his face even look like? Plus, it’s difficult to have normal human interactions and relationships when everything (and everyone) you come into contact with detonates like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

These very limitations, however, make the Human Bomb one of comics’ most tragically heroic figures — a man doomed to permanent isolation who finds a way to adapt his horrific personal circumstances to the benefit of others.

I can dig a guy like that.

I don’t know whether longtime X-Men guru Chris Claremont had the Human Bomb in mind when he conceived Rogue back in 1981, but the parallel is undeniable. Like Roy Lincoln, Rogue (who still doesn’t have a full name after all these years; we’ve been told since 2004 that her given name is Anna Marie, but her surname remains a mystery) is forced to cover her body to shield the world from her mutant power — she drains the life force from anyone with whom she makes skin-to-skin contact.

Of course, Rogue being an attractive woman and this being the comics universe, she manages to cover herself usually in clothes far more form-fitting and face-revealing than the Human Bomb’s containment suit.

In recent times, Rogue has either developed some degree of control over her powers or found an effective workaround, given that she’s enjoyed a handful of romantic relationships (most notably with Johnny Storm, better known as the Human Torch of Fantastic Four fame, and her X-Men teammate Gambit, whom she recently married).

If only she could have hooked up with Roy Lincoln.

That would have been — wait for it — the bomb.

Sincere thanks to Tom Derenick, who created today’s featured Common Elements artwork. Tom’s classic style represents everything I love about comic art — it’s clear, easily readable, packed with power and crisp in detail. If I were asked to identify an example of a contemporary comics artist whose approach would have been equally at home in the Silver or Bronze Ages, yet is totally fresh and relevant today, Tom’s art would be one of my first stops.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

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Comic Art Friday: Between rock and a hard place

July 6, 2018

In my previous Comic Art Friday post about this year’s Silicon Valley Comic Con, I noted that artist Ryan Sook had taken ill during the show and was unable to start the Common Elements commission that he and I had discussed. I also mentioned that I hoped to approach Ryan with the same request at a future convention.

As luck would have it, Ryan was in attendance at San Francisco Comic Con (which is now being staged in Oakland, while retaining the previous name — even though “Golden State Comic Con” is not only available, but comes with reflected cachet) in June. He immediately recalled the project we had talked about previously, and quickly set to work creating it.

You can see for yourself that the end result was well worth the wait.

Tesla Strong and Valda the Iron Maiden, pencils and inks by Ryan Sook

While I always enjoy seeing favorite heroes appear in Common Elements scenarios, some of my favorite pieces in the series involve less prominent characters. Here, Ryan Sook brings together Tesla Strong, the daughter of Alan Moore’s science hero Tom Strong, and Valda the Iron Maiden, the companion of Arak, Son of Thunder.

Okay, so, a little background may help.

A pastiche of pre-superhero pulp characters such as Doc Savage and Craig Kennedy, Tom Strong grew up on the island of Attabar Teru, where he was raised to be the embodiment of human physical and mental perfection. Tom and his wife Dhalua, princess of Attabar Teru, have a daughter, Tesla, named for the famed inventor. Thanks to their partaking of the root of the mysterious Goloka plant, Tom and his family age extremely slowly. Tesla, although in her 60s during the time period in which most of the Tom Strong stories are set, still possesses the appearance and attitudes of a teenager. (Similarly, Tom and Dhalua are both well over a century old, but look as though they’re forty-something.) In addition to participating in a number of her father’s adventures, Tesla also starred in her own one-shot book, The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong.

Tesla Strong, pencils, inks, and markers by comics artist Phil Noto

Valda the Iron Maiden was a knight in the service of Charlemagne (and may also have been his daughter) before meeting the Native American hero Arak. Together, they set off on a series of fantastical adventures. Valda and Arak constantly ran afoul of sorcerers and their minions as they battled their way across medieval Europe. Written by Roy Thomas (who was instrumental in bringing Conan to comics) and drawn by Ernie Colon and later by Tony DeZuniga, Arak, Son of Thunder managed to avoid most of the embarrassing tropes assigned to fictional Native American characters, while offering a unique spin on the sword-and-sorcery genre. If you like that sort of thing, Arak is likely to be the sort of thing you like. Check out some back issues in your local comic shop’s discount bin.

Arak and Valda, pencils and inks by Tony DeZuniga

If you’re puzzling over the common element between these two stalwart heroines, both share their names — parts of their names, anyway — with hard rock bands: Tesla and Iron Maiden. I’ve never seen Iron Maiden perform live (they’re not my cup of tea, really), but I’ve experienced Tesla a couple of times, most recently six years ago when they opened for Scorpions. You can read my review of that concert, if you’re inclined.

TeslaBanner

One of the many qualities I appreciate in Ryan Sook’s art is the deftness with which he conveys so much with a few perfectly placed lines. In today’s featured piece, I’m especially pleased with the treatment that Ryan gave Tesla’s hair, and the way her features delicately but clearly denote her biracial heritage. Too often, comic artists draw women of color in exactly the same manner that they draw Caucasian female characters. How many depictions of, say, Storm (to cite one frequently egregious example) have you seen where, if you were looking only at the pencil and ink linework, you’d never know that she’s of African descent?

(Then again, how many comic artists are guilty of drawing nearly all their female characters, regardless of ethnicity, with the exact same facial features? You know who you are.)

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Comic Art Friday, Getting Racial Up In This Piece, Hero of the Day, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

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Comic Art Friday: Redheaded queens

May 4, 2018

I have often contemplated the fact that women artists are severely underrepresented in my commission collection. My efforts to remedy this problem — and it is a problem — are complicated by the fact that women artists are underrepresented in mainstream comics in general, and in the superhero genre specifically.

Although this situation is improving ever so slightly — with the advent of such talented creators as Amanda Conner, Nicola Scott, Babs Tarr, Becky Cloonan, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Sara Pichelli, Joelle Jones, and Afua Richardson, among many others — there are still far too few women comics artists, and even fewer who are regularly available to do commission projects.

But I keep trying.

Medusa and Mera, pencils by Cross (Lori Hanson)

I’m especially intrigued by the concept of women artists drawing female characters. Not because I wish to fence women artists into a virtual ghetto where women only draw “girls’ comics” (whatever that implies), but because the objectification and hypersexualization of female characters in mainstream comics is real, and I find it refreshing to see these characters depicted by artists who view them through a more personal filter. (In the same way, I don’t want to see African-American comics creators limited to writing and drawing black characters, but I often find something unique in the mix when they do.)

Which brings us to today’s spotlight artwork. The pencil-wielder behind this beautiful piece is the artist known as Cross (a.k.a. Lori Hanson). When I first saw the graceful, swirling lines that typify Cross’s work, I immediately thought of hair. (The body accessory, not the Broadway musical.) I also observed a certain regal quality in the way Cross portrays people. Putting those two characteristics together brought me to this Common Elements concept matching a pair of royal ladies with distinctive red hair: Medusa, queen of the Inhumans in the Marvel universe, and Mera, queen of Atlantis in the DC universe.

Speaking of Medusa… man, that Inhumans series Marvel ran on ABC last year was terrible, wasn’t it? It was shocking to see a creative enterprise that has succeeded beyond expectations at almost everything they’ve attempted fail so spectacularly. Almost nothing about the show worked, from casting (I felt sorry at times for Iwan Rheon, who was so compellingly evil in Game of Thrones, but here seemed to be constantly looking for the exit) to scripting (did any of the writers actually read any Inhumans comics?) to general concepts (what’s the point of having a character whose superpower is prehensile hair if you’re going to shave her head in the first episode?).

Fortunately for us, we always have comic art to come back to. Cross reminds us of the glory and greatness that Medusa’s hair was meant to embody.

And just in case we needed an additional post-TV-bomb palate cleanser, here’s a nifty portrait of Attilan’s royal family — Queen Medusa, King Black Bolt, and their faithful canine companion Lockjaw — by animator Steven E. Gordon that restores our faith in Inhumanity.

Medusa, Black Bolt, and Lockjaw, pencils by Steven E. Gordon

Hopefully, Mera will fare sufficiently well in the upcoming Aquaman feature film that we’ll have no similar need for catharsis. Then again, it’s a DCU movie, so I’ll trust it when I see it.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, SwanStuff, Teleholics Anonymous, That's Cool!

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Comic Art Friday: The Mystery of the Suspicious Surnames

April 13, 2018

I didn’t decide to attend this year’s Silicon Valley Comic Con until the week before the event. Having kept an eye on the show’s website for guest announcements, I didn’t see much opportunity to acquire new art commissions. But when artists Ryan Sook and Matt Haley were added to the guest list shortly before the show, I decided to bite the bullet and go, just to get pieces from those two talents.

As it turned out, Ryan took ill on the second day of the show, and didn’t get around to the piece he and I discussed on Friday. (It’s a fun Common Elements concept that I hope to revisit with Ryan at a future con.) But Matt — an entertaining guy I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and chatting with — completed his assignment in the waning hours of the show: this pairing of Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman (there have been three others introduced since Jessica made her debut in 1977), and the modern-era Black Cat, Felicia Hardy.

Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) and Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), pencils and inks by Matt Haley

I’ve long wanted to match these two characters in a Common Elements scenario because of their surnames, which reminded me of those classic detectives of juvenile literature, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I had always supposed that the names were purely coincidental, but a random conversation at SVCC revealed that they are not.

As Matt Haley was finishing up this artwork, I stopped by the table of longtime comics writer and editor Barbara Kesel, another guest at SVCC. I wanted to show Barbara my recent Stephen Foster-themed Common Elements by Carlos Rafael, which features Ultragirl, a character Barbara co-created. Barbara was intrigued by the Common Elements theme and asked what other pieces I had in the works. I explained the pairing that Matt Haley was working on just a few tables down the row, with its related-surname connection.

At that point, Marv Wolfman, the veteran comics scribe who’s written everything from Tomb of Dracula to Crisis on Infinite Earths — and who happened to be sitting at the table next to Barbara’s — chimed in: “I named both of those characters, and that’s the reason why I gave them those names.”

Which makes this, I suppose, a particularly historic Common Elements.

Speaking of history, when it comes to comics characters named Black Cat, I’ve always had a fondness for the original. Artist Steven E. Gordon had this appealing pencil drawing of the Golden Age Black Cat, Linda Turner, in his for-sale portfolio at SVCC. She somehow managed to follow me home. Cats will do that if you’re not careful.

Black Cat (Linda Turner), pencils by Steven E. Gordon

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

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Comic Art Friday: Foster children

March 30, 2018

I’ve made the observation numerous times that ideas for my Common Elements commissions are sometimes triggered by the least expected stimuli. Today’s featured artwork makes a prime example of this principle.

Beautiful Dreamer, Jean Grey, and Ultragirl, pencils and inks by Carlos Rafael

Several years ago, I was channel-surfing late one night when I happened upon a documentary about composer Stephen Foster on the local PBS station. Foster, for the benefit of the non-history-buff segment of our audience, was perhaps the first American popular songwriter to achieve major commercial success. Many of his compositions quickly became staples of American music and remain familiar today, more than 150 years after Foster’s untimely death at age 37.

To the extent that I ever thought much about Stephen Foster, it was in the context of the not-terribly-subtle thread of racism laced through many of his lyrics. Foster wrote a considerable number of songs intended for minstrel shows, in which performers wearing blackface presented mocking caricatures of African Americans. These caricatures, and the epithets associated with them, find a home in such Foster songs as “Camptown Races,” “Old Black Joe,” “Old Folks at Home” (more commonly known as “Swanee River”), and “My Old Kentucky Home,” although these elements are frequently altered when the songs are performed today. (One of the most surprising facts I learned from the Foster documentary was that, although Foster’s oeuvre is filled with ditties about life in the antebellum South, Foster was born and raised in Pennsylvania and lived much of his adult life there, as well as in Ohio and New York. He may have actually visited the South only on a couple of brief occasions.)

As I viewed the documentary, though, it occurred to me that Foster also wrote quite a few songs that fall into a less controversial category: romantic ballads. This class includes some of Foster’s most enduring works — i.e., “Beautiful Dreamer,” “Jeanie (With the Light Brown Hair),” and “Oh! Susanna.”

That observation set off a lightbulb in my comics-attuned mind. Legendary creator Jack Kirby appropriated the name Beautiful Dreamer for the female member of his Forever People. One of the most enduring superheroines since the Silver Age is original X-Man Jean Grey. (I know, I know… Jean’s hair is usually depicted as red, not light brown. But that’s nothing a bottle of Miss Clairol couldn’t fix.) I had to ponder a while before I recalled that the adopted human name of Ultragirl, Marvel’s short-lived Supergirl riff, is Susanna Sherman, but with that realization, the picture was complete.

Or would be, maybe a decade later, when I finally got around to commissioning this project from Brazilian artist Carlos Rafael, best known for his work on such Dynamite Entertainment titles as Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris, and Battlestar Galactica.

Thus, another Common Elements concept wings in from left field.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, Soundtrack of My Life, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

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Comic Art Friday: Panthers and Tigers and bucks, oh my

March 16, 2018

I’m going to presume that if you have even the remotest interest in comics and comics-related media, you’ve seen the Black Panther film by now. Because, you know, it’s grossed over one billion (with a B) dollars in worldwide box office to date, and I’m guessing that you’ve contributed to that staggering total just as I have.

As a fan of the Panther for nearly a half-century — I don’t remember the first T’Challa-featured comic I read, but it would have been one of his appearances in The Avengers sometime in the late 1960s — I never would have dreamed in my most fevered moments that we’d someday be talking about a big-budget, major-studio, live-action Black Panther movie raking in a billion bucks. Maybe, back in 1992 when Wesley Snipes was pumping the idea of playing the King of Wakanda himself, I might have hoped that we might someday get a modest, in-and-quickly-out-of-theaters Panther flick, something on the level of that terrible Elektra movie with Jennifer Garner that followed Ben Affleck’s pitiful cinematic turn as Daredevil.

But this? I honestly never saw it coming.

And if you’d told me it was, I’d have told you to lie down with a cool compress on your forehead until the demons went away.

Yet, here we are. Black Panther is headlining marquees in metroplexes around the world, the hottest property in motion pictures. People who mere weeks ago couldn’t have distinguished Wakanda from Walt Disney World are tossing words like “Dora Milaje” around in casual conversation, and T’Challa’s super-smart little sister Shuri is America’s sweetheart. And I’ve lived to see it.

Pardon me while I grab a tissue.

So, there couldn’t be a better time than now to showcase a Common Elements artwork starring everyone’s favorite heart-shaped-herb eater.

WhiteTiger_BlackPanther_DiVito

That’s the Black Panther himself stalking another big-cat themed superdoer, the White Tiger, in this jaw-dropping creation by Italian superstar artist Andrea Di Vito, who not exactly coincidentally can be seen at this very moment drawing T’Challa’s adventures in Marvel’s Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury. Check it out at a comics retailer near you (or on your favorite digital device, if that’s how you roll with your comics in this tech-savvy age).

The White Tiger identity has an interesting legacy all its own. The Tiger shown here, Angela Del Toro, is the fourth of five discrete characters to have worn the code name White Tiger in the Marvel Universe. Angela is the niece of the original White Tiger, Hector Ayala, who in the 1970s was one of Marvel’s first attempts at a Latino hero. After Hector was killed, Angela, an FBI agent, inherited Hector’s amulets that imbued the wearer with the White Tiger’s powers. Angela’s adventures formed the basis of a six-issue miniseries in the mid-2000s. (The fifth and current White Tiger is Ava Ayala, Hector’s younger sister.)

Aside from the obvious feline-plus-color thematic element, there’s an additional link that ties the Black Panther and the White Tiger together. Both superhero identities were assumed at different times by the same character — Kevin Cole, better known by his nickname Kasper. Late in his run on the Black Panther comic book in the early 2000s, writer Christopher Priest transferred the Panther’s mantle from T’Challa to NYPD officer Kasper Cole, whom Priest envisioned as a satiric spin on Peter Parker’s Spider-Man. When the Black Panther series ended, Priest moved Cole to his new project, a superhero team called The Crew, and gave him the White Tiger identity.

You know, all this Black Panther talk has me hankering to see the movie again.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Cinemania, Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, Ripped From the Headlines, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

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Comic Art Friday: Four divided by two

January 5, 2018

By any measure, superheroing makes for a tough lifestyle choice. You’re fighting bad guys all the time, you usually have a secret identity to protect, and the annual cost of replacement outfits alone must be astronomical.

Which is why I’m surprised more heroes haven’t taken up job-sharing.

Of course, having an identical twin would help.

That’s the unifying factor between the two heroines in today’s featured artwork from the Common Elements series — an artwork that is both the last commissioned piece I received in the just-concluded 2017, and the first to land its own Comic Art Friday post in the just-begun 2018.

Ladyhawk and Crimson Fox, pencils and inks by Sanya Anwar

Both Ladyhawk (standing) and Crimson Fox (crouching) are heroic identities shared by pairs of identical twins: the Morgan sisters, Rosetta and Regina, in the case of Ladyhawk; the D’Aramis sisters, Vivian and Constance, in the case of Crimson Fox. Ladyhawk made her/their mark primarily as an ally of Spider-Girl, the alternate-universe daughter of the amazing Peter Parker. Crimson Fox was best known as a member of the 1990s-era Justice League Europe.

Comics aficionados of a certain age will note that Ladyhawk’s costume bears a striking (and non-coincidental) resemblance to the original kit worn by Captain America’s longtime associate Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the high-flying Falcon. Before Sam gained the winged red-and-white uniform in which he’s most familiar, he wore a green get-up trimmed in orange that had no wings, aside from the ones on the falcon medallion he wore around his neck. Ladyhawk’s gear precisely matches the old Falcon design, right down to the medallion, because of course it does.

Sadly, both halves of the Crimson Fox duo met with untimely ends relatively early in their crimebusting career. Vivian D’Aramis was murdered by the supervillain Puanteur; three years later, Constance was done in by the female version of Mist. More recently, another woman (presumably just one) has taken up the Crimson Fox mantle. One hopes that her long-range prospects end more favorably than those of the D’Aramis twins.

Our heroines are drawn in this scene by Canadian artist Sanya Anwar, who — so far as I am aware — is not an identical twin. Although it would be awesome if she was.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

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Comic Art Friday: Common Elements Sesquicentennial

December 1, 2017

When I began my Common Elements commission series back in 2004, the thought never really seeped into my consciousness that one day I would own 150 of these custom artworks. And yet, 13 years later, here we are.

Mary Marvel and Isis, pencils and inks by Ramona Fradon

From the beginning, Common Elements has been a labor of love. (Or maybe obsession.) Not only has it afforded me the opportunity to interact with more than 100 individual comic artists — 111 at present count — but it’s also served as a unique testimony to my spider-web-like thought process.

People who know me in the real world will attest that I have a bizarre knack for mentally tying disparate things together. Mention a movie, a book, a song, or even just a word, and I immediately think of a dozen other items that connect in some way to whatever you mentioned. (If you want to know the secret to my dubious success as a Jeopardy! champion, that’s two-thirds of it right there.) Sometimes those connections are obvious. Sometimes they’re ties that almost no one else would identify. And that, of course, is Common Elements in a nutshell.

(Which reminds me: I really need to get Squirrel Girl into a CE. And yes, I already have a couple of ideas.)

When I realized that the next Common Elements piece I commissioned would be #150, I wanted to do something special to mark the anniversary. Then a note scrolled by on my Facebook feed indicating that Eisner Hall of Fame artist Ramona Fradon was celebrating her 91st birthday. Since I don’t know of any comic artists who are 150 years of age and still drawing breathing, I figured that the legendary Ms. Fradon was as close as I was likely to find. Toss in the fact that Ramona also penciled Common Elements #91 (featuring her co-creation Metamorpho alongside Hourman), and the appropriateness could not have been more clear.

Knowing the lovely lighter tone which with Ms. Fradon depicts characters, I assigned her the pairing of Mary Marvel and Isis. Those of you of a certain vintage will remember that Mary’s brother Captain Marvel (called Shazam in more recent DC comics, mostly due to trademark conflicts involving the several Marvel Comics characters known as Captain Marvel, all of whom postdate the Big Red Cheese) headlined his own live-action Saturday morning TV series in the mid-1970s.

Originally, Filmation — the studio that produced the program — wanted to pair Captain Marvel with his sister Mary. Depending on whose account you believe, either DC wanted more money in broadcast rights fees for the use of Mary Marvel than Filmation wanted to pay, or DC refused to offer Filmation Mary’s broadcast rights in order to keep her available for future TV/movie projects. Whatever the particulars, Filmation decided to proceed without Mary. Instead, they created a new character called Isis, who shared several of Mary’s attributes — an ordinary young woman (an adult schoolteacher, unlike the teenaged Mary) gained a costume and superpowers (based on figures from Egyptian mythology, whereas Mary’s derived from mostly Greco-Roman deities) by speaking a magical incantation (“O mighty Isis!” instead of “Shazam!”). Thus, The Secrets of Isis became the companion series to Filmation’s Shazam!

DC published, concurrent with the TV show, a comic book series featuring Isis. They didn’t hire Ramona Fradon to illustrate it, but as you can judge from our featured artwork, they would not have been wrong if they had. (No slight intended to the talented Mike Vosburg, who drew most of the Isis comics and did a fantastic job.)

Interestingly, a retooled version of Isis recently joined the cast of the TV series, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. The new character, played by actress Tala Ashe, goes by the code name Zari instead of Isis, for reasons that you can easily surmise if you’ve read or watched the news anytime in the last decade. And though she doesn’t transform, she does wear an amulet resembling the one originally worn by Isis.

In honor of Common Elements’ 150th, I’ll share a few random facts about the series to date:

Most prolific pencil artist: Ron Lim, with six Common Elements credits (CE #’s 48, 80, 100, 111, 118, and 124).

Most prolific inker: Bob Almond, who has inked 15 Common Elements projects thus far, and will doubtless ink more in days and years ahead.

Characters most frequently represented: Wonder Woman and Vixen, with four appearances each (although none together). Six characters have made three appearances: Storm, Valkyrie, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Black Cat (that’s Linda Turner, the Golden Age Black Cat; the modern-era Black Cat, Felicia Hardy, appears only twice, counting one commission that is currently in progress). A total of 39 characters appear twice each.

Characters who appear in multiple guises: Four — Jean Grey (as Marvel Girl and Phoenix), Steve Rogers (as Captain America and Nomad), Michael Jon Carter (as Booster Gold and Supernova), and Greer Nelson (as Tigra and The Cat).

And the saddest list of all — the artists who have passed since contributing their Common Elements creations: RIP Herb Trimpe, Rich Buckler, Ernie Chan, Dave Hoover, Tony DeZuniga, and Al Rio. I’ll extend an honorary mention to Dave Simons, who was working on a Common Elements commission at the time of his passing. The concept Dave was assigned was later commissioned to, and completed by, Dave’s longtime collaborator Bob Budiansky (CE #92).

Questions I’m asked:

What’s your favorite Common Elements commission? I’d never be able to narrow it to just one. Even if I chose a Top Ten, I might pick an entirely different group if you asked me on another day. Thus, my standard answer: “The next one.”

If money were no object, who’s the “holy grail” Common Elements artist? It would be difficult to top a Common Elements piece by Adam Hughes, Alex Ross, or Mark Schultz. There are several others close to those three, but whom I realistically think I might be able to land someday.

Are there artists who are no longer with us whom you regret not commissioning when you could have? So many… but at the top of the list (limiting the scope to artists active since I began Common Elements) would have to be Mike Wieringo and Darwyn Cooke. My all-time dream would be Dave Stevens, but Stevens would have been unattainable even when he was still alive and working.

Name three artists from any period in history you’d resurrect to draw a Common Elements commission. Titian, Alphonse Mucha, and Albert Joseph Moore. Add one from comics history: Matt Baker.

How many Common Elements concepts are still on your to-do list? Probably another 150… and the list grows all the time.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Comic Art Friday, Dead People Got No Reason to Live, Hero of the Day, Listology, Reminiscing, SwanStuff, Teleholics Anonymous, That's Cool!

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SwanShadow Gives Thanks 14: As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly

November 23, 2017

Each year, since this humble (in the classic sense of “low to the ground”) blog began in 2004, I’ve paused on Thanksgiving Day to take stock of the many things in my life and in the world about me for which I’m grateful. If I took the honest measure of my blessings, I’d be typing nonstop between Thanksgivings, and I’d never get much life lived. (Plus, these posts would get even more unbearably lengthy than they already are.)

So I hit upon the idea of choosing just 26 items, sorted alphabetically, to represent by means of metonymy the countless people and things for which I am grateful.

It’s been an interesting year. The Pirate Queen began a new job, which she enjoys, and where she is appreciated and fulfilled. I landed one of my most daunting voiceover projects this summer, survived a hectic busy season with my largest client, and checked a box off my career bucket list by booking a gig for one of the most recognizable companies on the planet. We traveled a bit, as we are wont to do.

The Daughter hit a pair of milestones: she, like the Pirate Queen, began a new job — one that she’s been chasing hard for a few years — and she and her beloved (formerly The Boyfriend, now The Fiance) got engaged. They’ll be married next May, prompting yet another nomenclatural change. The Daughter is  thrilled to begin these new chapters in her life, and I am thrilled — with a father’s wistful trepidation — for her. She wishes her mother was here to share her joy. I wish that too. But as the old saying goes, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. So walk on, we shall.

2017 will be forever remembered in the North Bay as the Year of the Firestorm. If you live hereabouts, you know — and perhaps lived through — the devastating wildfires that destroyed thousands of structures across Sonoma and Napa counties. The Daughter and her Grandma were evacuated from their home for a week. Many longtime friends and acquaintances don’t have homes to which to return. The city of Santa Rosa and the other hard-hit communities will rebuild, but the lives that were lost will never be restored, and the precious possessions of thousands of people will never truly be replaced. I can’t put into words the sadness I feel for those I know — and so many others I don’t know — whose lives were irrevocably altered, even as I also can’t express my relief that my precious Daughter’s life was spared.

Walk on, we shall, indeed.

But enough preamble. Here’s the fourteenth installment of my annual Thanksgiving list. Next year, should we all live to see it, I’ll have to add a whole new table in the Word document where I keep track of each year’s offerings. (The chart is seven columns wide, and this will fill out the second chart.) For now, here’s what I’m grateful for… among so much else.

Almond butter. The Pirate Queen brought a jar home the other day from Trader Joe’s. In a world awhirl with chaos, the simple pleasure of an almond butter and blackberry jelly sandwich is an amazing comfort.

Blue Öyster Cult. This year on LearnedLeague (the world’s toughest online trivia league, and why haven’t you asked me for a referral yet?), I was privileged to write a quiz about a band whose music I’ve grokked since my high school days. (Yes, we had music then, you young punk. With electric guitars and everything.) I’ve still got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.

Cabo San Lucas. Neither the Pirate Queen nor I had ever been to Cabo before our weeklong vacation there in February. We enjoyed our stay immensely. It’s not Hawaii — this was the first year in the last five that we didn’t visit my childhood home — but it’s lovely nonetheless. We’ll return, no doubt.

Draymond Green. He may be the third or fourth best player on the Warriors. He might also be the most irreplaceable. No one plays defense at a more intense level than Money 23. The Daughter has a picture of herself with him from a photo op before he rose to NBA All-Stardom.

Electricity. Thank you, Ben Franklin. (I’m still annoyed about that $100 bill question from Millionaire, though. Just so you know.)

Firefighters and First Responders. They couldn’t save every home and storefront in the North Bay, but they worked tirelessly and valiantly to save as many as they could, and to rescue and help as many people as possible. The community will never forget their efforts and dedication.

Gal Gadot. As a lifelong fan of Diana of Themyscira, I wasn’t fully convinced when the little-known Israeli actress landed the role. I’m convinced now. I’m glad Gal is our Wonder Woman. Change our minds, and change the world.

Hamilton. We had the opportunity to see the smash hit musical in San Francisco this summer. We did not throw away our shot. Few popular entertainments live up to their hype, but Lin-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece gets as close as you’d imagine.

Ice hockey. I know, I know. I’m the guy who refers to hockey as “soccer on ice with sticks.” But thanks to the largesse of a good friend who’s a San Jose Sharks season ticketholder, we saw our first in-person game last season. It really is a heck of a sport to watch in person, in ways that don’t translate well on television. I’m a believer.

Jetways. I’m old enough to remember… okay, slow down; not the Wright brothers — but the days when you actually had to walk out onto the tarmac and climb a mobile staircase in order to board a plane at many airports. Give me the stretchable hallway any day.

Kilimanjaro. She rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.

Linseed oil. Also called flaxseed oil, it’s the stuff that keeps the insides of my cast iron skillets silky smooth and nonstick. Liquid gold, it is.

Monet and Munch. We toured a pair of spectacular art exhibitions this year: Claude Monet: The Early Years at the Legion of Honor, and Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed at SFMOMA. In general, I’m not especially partial to Expressionist art, but seeing the work of these two great masters up close was powerfully impactful. I’m already looking forward to the next Monet exhibition here in two years.

NextDraft. Every day, I check in with several news sites and aggregators to keeptrack of what’s going on in this crazy world. Dave Pell’s NextDraft stands as one of the best curated aggregators I’ve come across. Dave skillfully mixes links to the day’s hard news with items that are merely fascinating. Always topical, always informative.

‘Oumuamua. “Strange visitor from another world” used to just mean Superman. Now, it’s the first object officially identified by astronomers as having traveled into our solar system from interstellar space. A cigar-shaped asteroid estimated at around 500 feet in length, its Hawaiian name means “scout” or “messenger.”

Patek Philippe. I narrated the first-ever full-scale North American exhibition by the world-renowned Swiss watchmaker this summer. In the process, I learned a ton about the craftspeople who design and build these incredible (and incredibly expensive) timepieces that can not only tell time, but in some instances play symphonies, display lunar cycles, and calculate dates hundreds of years into the future — all using mechanical, analog functionality. No microchip, no battery, just precision clockworks.

Quesadillas. Because hot, melty, delicious cheese.

Red Special, the one-of a kind guitar built by Brian May in his garage when he was a teenager, and which has lent its unique tone to Queen albums and concerts for more than four decades. I recently saw Brian wield his legendary axe in person for the first time in 35 years, and both guitar and guitarist amaze me still as much today as they did back then. If Brian and the Red Special had never given the world anything besides “Fat Bottomed Girls,” it would have been gift enough.

My Steel Will 1505, a.k.a. the Gekko, has featured as my everyday carry pocket knife for most of the past year. Solid, sturdy, and wicked sharp, with its maroon Micarta handle scales and black D2 steel blade, it’s both a workhorse and a creature of quiet beauty.

Thumbtack. The online service offers access to all kinds of local professionals, from electricians to mobile disc jockeys to personal trainers. Plus, they keep the Pirate Queen gainfully employed, for which we are enormously thankful.

“Unwritten”
Feel the rain on your skin.
No one else can feel it for you —
Only you can let it in.
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips.
Drench yourself in words unspoken;
Live your life with arms wide open;
Today is where your book begins —
The rest is still unwritten.

Vision. Last night, I stood on a BART train next to a blind man accompanied by his golden retriever guide dog. Even with my acute myopia and astigmatism — easily remedied by contact lenses — I am blessed that, unlike that unfortunate gentleman, I can open my eyes and see the world. Today, I’m not taking that for granted.

Women — and I have some wonderful ones in my life: the Pirate Queen, The Daughter, her Grandma, and more treasured friends and colleagues than I can list, along with the memory of KJ and the three decades we shared together. Our culture is currently awash with a tsunami of women finally feeling emboldened to speak out against the abuse, harassment, and disrespect they’ve experienced, and I applaud and support them. Be heard, sisters. Your voices matter.

XTC. Quirky, edgy, and impossible to categorize, Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and company formed one of the most underrated bands in the history of pop music. “Generals and Majors,” “Senses Working Overtime,” “The Mayor of Simpleton,” and the controversial “Dear God” — even if you didn’t understand all of the ideas (or didn’t agree with them), you had to admire the style.

Yeast — fueling bakeries and breweries for thousands of years. Except during Passover.

Zapper — that’s what I call my racket-shaped electric wand that strikes fear into the hearts of flying pests that dare disturb the sanctity of my abode. I’m perfectly content to let buzzing bugs buzz outdoors in their own environment, as long as they don’t attack me. But if you come into my airspace, critter, I’ve got some voltage waiting for you.

And as always, friend reader, I’m grateful for you, and the time you take to peruse my rambling prose. May you and yours find much for which to be appreciative on this Thanksgiving Day.

 

 

Categories: Aimless Riffing, Celebritiana, Cinemania, Food Glorious Food, Hawaii, Hero of the Day, I'm a Warriors Worrier, LearnedLeague, My Home Town, Ripped From the Headlines, Sharp Objects, Soundtrack of My Life, SwanStuff, Thanksgiving, That's Cool!, The Swan Tunes In, Trivial Pursuits, What's In My Pocket?

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Comic Art Friday: I’m tho Thor I can’t even potht

November 10, 2017

Have you seen Thor: Ragnarok yet? In a word: Go!

The two previous Thor films were my least favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe entries — that is, aside from The Incredible Hulk, for which I give Marvel Studios a pass because they were still figuring things out at that point. (Also, Edward Norton.) But Thor: Ragnarok totally makes up for its two predecessors by abandoning their ponderous tone and going all-in on fun, humor, and visual bombast. I hope director Taika Waititi gets to make a few more Marvel movies, because he hammered this one out of the park.

My Ragnarok afterglow had me looking back at Thor’s representation in my comic art collection. One of the very first artworks I purchased — I think it’s the fourth or fifth longest-tenured piece in my entire collection — was this dazzling portrait by Geof Isherwood, later inked by Bob Almond.

Thor_IsherwoodAlmond

Purely by coincidence, the very next piece I bought also featured Thor, this time alongside his Ragnarok costar, the Hulk. Dan Jurgens penciled this one, and again, I commissioned Bob Almond some time afterward to complete the piece in ink.

HulkThor_JurgensAlmond

Thor has made, to date, two appearances in my Common Elements theme. In Common Elements #12, penciler Trevor Von Eeden and inker Joe Rubinstein pit the Odinson in a “Showdown!” against another hammer-wielder, Steel.

ThorSteel_VonEedenRubinstein

And in Common Elements #82, Thor meets his fellow demigod-turned-superhero Isis, under the creative auspices of the great Steve Rude.

Isis_Thor_Rude

The Valkyrie makes her cinematic debut in Thor: Ragnarok, portrayed with grit, grace, and swagger by actress Tessa Thompson. Here’s the comics version of Val with her trusty winged steed Aragorn (who also makes a brief cameo in Ragnarok via a flashback sequence) as envisioned by Geof Isherwood.

Valkyrie_Isherwood

Just for good measure, one more Valkyrie image, this time by Phil Noto.

Valkyrie_Noto

Again, if you haven’t seen Thor: Ragnarok already, I highly recommend it. Pro tip: It’s worth the extra few bucks to see it in IMAX 3D (or just regular 3D, if the IMAX option isn’t available in your neck of the woods), for the astounding visuals.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

Categories: Cinemania, Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

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