Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction Book One. Part One. Page Six

         I think I need to letter smaller.  I hate how much of the image I lost.  Or keep paring down my wordy script.  The inspiration for part of this story was young men growing up without fathers.  Instead of Madonna and child we have Widow and child.  I was a little miffed when I saw how much Female Trinities are being played up in the recent issues of Thor.  But thats myth.  What can you do. 

Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction Book One. Page Five.

  Tentacles have been spiraling thru my art for the last decade taking form in this reality as my Locks.  I'm still working out what that means.  This page and the last are meant to be viewed as one spread.   Sometime after I stop posting Part One I'm gonna show ya'll the Digital Art Omni made from some of these images.  Listening to alot of Pandora lately.  Right now its on the Kanye West Station.  Yesterday i was listening to Bowie all afternoon.  Man I'm loving this cyber age.  Thanks William Gibson and them. 
Addicted to Fringe and reading Jung voraciously.  Oh and reading comics reading comics.

Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction Book One. Part One. Page Four.

  Every film has opening credits.  The Pantheon of this story.  The young fantastic beings  around which this story rotates.  Diana, Lord Lizard, Dzr, Lady Orb and Lord Lyonmane.

Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction Book One. Part One. Page Three.

Start slow and with introductions.  Building a mystery.  Story and Art by Kevin L. Patrick.  Copyright 2011

Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction. Book One. Part One. Page Two.

I must admit reading alot of the Naghammadi Library while writing this story.

Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction. Book One. Part One.

It’s a myth. It is a parable. It is a reflection. From a footnote in Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand faces: “ …(a god outgrown becomes immediately a life destroying demon. The form has to be broken and the energy released.)”

Story and Art by Kevin L. Patrick The Abyss

In and Out of Boxes: An American in Paris

In and Out of Boxes: An American in Paris


A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book. A panel consists of a single drawing depicting a frozen moment.


If you know me or have talked to me in the last couple months you would have heard from me, ad nauseum, thst the highlight of my year was my trip through the United Kingdom and France this summer. I visited Galleries and Museums in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Paris. I was moved and inspired.
I saw a lot of impressionist in person that taught me about color and brushwork. And I took a bunch of pics. Many are earmarked to become parts of paintings.



Like this one

Marcus said this would make a great comicbook cover. I agree. It was one of my first attempts to take a self shot of myself so popular on facebook. It was the last full trip of the journey and I was exhausted but excited. We sat in the courtyard of Notre Dame waiting for our whole group to get back together. Deonte playing on his Ipod and me listening to mine…


So part of Art is process. This is mine. This is the first in a series narrative painting inspired by what has been happening to me over the last year. I want to mix observation with sequential storytelling. Essential to the sequential narrative is the panel. The panel is the doorway into the constructed reality of the storyteller. The panel introduces the concept of time to the twodimensional world. The gutters(white spaces) are as important as the information in the panels. This painting is about attaining dreams and goals without losing connection to where you have been. This painting is about coming Out of the Abyss.

Stage One: Rendering

Up until recently I would not use black when make representational work but I have become very interested in a lot of more illustrative thought; envisioning watercolor and ink drawings. A hard-edged but color rich space.

Stage Two: Value Placement/Creation

At this stage I am mixing what I see of light with what I see as tone and create some constructed light source to move through the composition. Oh yeah in the right I improvised a monochromatic fever dream. The internal dialogue to the external world represented on the left. Magical Realism with Constructivist tendencies from a post-Post-modern intention direct the compositional choice. Oh yeah and comics. PANELS.

Stage Three: Color Washes/Building Layers

Putting down areas of primary colors and browns. Working out background darks on Notre Dame. Keeping it simple.







Stage Four: Final Color Under painting

I have my color buildup and undervalues. Leaving some white and a hint of pencil on canvas at the bottom of the left panel. Finished with the right panel. Very happy with it.

Put in my finishing touches and tryin' to leave it alone. I like it. My students like it. I'm content. For the Impressionists.

Building a Mystery: Self Absorbed Series: The Box/Red Fugue

FUGUE

:a musical form in which a theme is first stated, then repeated and varied with accompanying contrapuntal lines

:a disordered state of mind in which somebody typically wanders from home and experiences a loss of memory relating only to the previous, rejected, environment.

I love words.

My art is Sequential.
It is about mastering forms and processes, to communicate a narrative. It is observation, meditation and communication.

Self-Absorbed is about ME. The reflexive self and all that entails. I am the subject matter. What I see , feel, and my presence are the recurring components of this series of paintings.

Self-Absorbed: The Box/Red Fugue
Acrylic on canvas. July 2011

The Owner’s Box has been my hangout in Montgomery since it opened a couple years ago. Run by a good friend last summer, I began painting at the club on the slower Thursday evenings. Sometimes it was Reggae Night or Karaoke or Comedians were the entertainment, giving a nice group of night lifers to watch and a nice place to create.
The Box began as a stream of consciousness painting, attempting to relate the atmosphere of the Owner’s Box.

Unhappy with this stage I let it sit unfinished for a number of months. My trip to Europe at the top of the summer gifted me with great inspiration and understanding of how the Western European Masters worked. I studied the brushstrokes of art I previously only experienced in books and online.
I learned a lot.
I returned to The Box a few weeks ago and let it free. I shadowed the face as it was distracting and turned Me* into an object in the painting as opposed to the viewers conduit into the world of the painting. Everything else is all in my/His* head.
Of course my love for Mondrian’s structure comes into play in this work. I see and communicate reality in a modular manner. The use of panels is a nod to Sequential Art and the language of Comic Books.
Red is Carnal.
I always leave a little pencil evident.
Painting is a process. I always try to leave a trail.

This crimson dream is the source and drive of the Abyss, the potent darkness; the place all creations emerge from.

Building a Mystery: Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction. Lord Lizard.Transmutations.Kronn Lord of the Dead.

Lord Lizard in Repose. Acrylic on Watercolor paper. 2011


So the Idea for this character came from The Dawn of the Dragons Campaign created by Paul DiNunno back when I was an undergrad at St. Mary's College of Maryland two decades ago. One of the major antagonists of our adventuring group was the shadowy leader of the swamp nation of Nilth, Kronn. As described by the Gamemaster he was a huge necromantic Lizard man whose body was deteriorating. A decade or more later, after my experiences as a profesor and my journy into Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, i began wondering where Kronn came from. What makes a villian. The tale of Lord Lizard came from these musings. Discovering and creating his story turned into a long story that explained for me my experience with young male students without father figures, the transformation of the godpower for good into a monster, and the destiny of two characters in that first campaign: Arrak the Archer and Dwayne Lyon.
As presented in this first painting he is the leader of a nation having recently betrayed his bloodbrother and looking upon his destiny.

Kronn Ruler of the Snake Clann, Lord of Nilth, Heart of the Behemoth.
Acrylic on Watercolor, 2011.

I have not created the definitive image of Kronn as a enemy of the Crimson Guard, but this is him at the height of his rule.
In the end it all went bad. But all of that is in the details.

thumbnails, Thumbnails, THUMBNAILS

Thumbnail of Immorals pg 1, Origin of NV


I'have begun to really embrace the use of thumbnails in preparing my sequential art ideas. Its a good high but small vanishpoit to best plan out the page. Now I've begun scanning the small pencil thumbnails, blowing them up to half 8"x10" and roughing out my blacks with sharpies and micron pens.

Painting as therapy...

Self Absorbed:MidLife Crisis. Acrylic on canvas 1/11


Turned 41 at the end of last year and it hit me hard. I started this painting painting just before New Year and finished it the first week of 2011. Taken from a photograph where i give the Lil' Lo salute. This is my mentalyy for facing this new stage in my life. Embracing the shadow, creating a foundation and accepting as true my own thinking. A Toast to the Scumbags.

Work in Progress.....

Self Absorbed:TheBoxx/RedFugue
Acrylic on canvas
in progress....

Trying to share what I felt in the Owner's Box. Using carnal color to encompass the intensity of sensation it can be at its best. Began painting this one on Thursdays at the Owner's Box. Close to finish. I'm really learning some things about value. Standard Mondrian homage.

Sketches and stuff......

A character for a story Omni and i are putting together. This is NV.

And this is The Horror.


I'm inking those images now and will color them later. looking to make strong visual stuff.

Back to coloring OMP:Extinction. Thumbnailing the second book now. Being productive...

OMP: Girl Trouble

Infinity slays Behemoth.2010. Acrylic on canvas.

It took me awhile but I finished this painting. I worked on it in front of my students on a Free Day. It was inspired by a short comic story that came to me. It stars Lady Orb from Omp:Extinction after she leaves Lord Lizard The story explains where Lady Orb's descendants come from.
I was also interested in connecting the Women Issues(meaning trying to understand them) I went through in my thirties and the problems Elias Infinity has with women later in his life.
I'll post some thumbnails and sketches from the comic strip as soon as I can.

Art is Doing.

Edition Two: Of Ninja, Samurai &Sensei

TELLIN’ STORIES
The We Back Edition
Edition Two: Of Ninja, Samurai, and Sensei…



Sketchbook Page: Micron pens and sharpie markers


Deljuan has been riding me all semester. Tellin’ me he can outdraw me. Explaining to me that while I am an artist he is an artiste’. Whatever that means… Still I am not surprised so much by his bravado. No all teachers and so called masters of the arts are called out and tested. From Ogami Ito to the Iron Chefs to Billy the Kid to Bruce Lee someone is always ready to test the skills of an artist. No I was shocked by his youth. Deljuan is a seventh grade student of mine. For two quarters I have listened to him tease and try me. So at last on the second to last day of school I accepted his challenge. A drawing contest to decide once and for all who was the best artist in first period Art I7. He chose the subject: Ninja. I laughed. I been drawing Ninja twice as long as this boy has been living. I grinned. I recently returned to sketching Ninja in preparation for illustrating Blak Fox. I smirked.
Of course Deljuan did a very nice pencil drawing of a ninja with a ripped tunic and rippling stomach muscles, arm foreshortened, throwing a shuriken. Good range of value considering he was drawing on newsprint. I chose to draw using pens. Ive been thinking a lot about blacks and finding planes of dramatic shadow from fluid form. More importantly it was an opportunity for a teachable moment. I learned that I must warm up my hand as much as my thoughts. I gestured out three thumbnails using a XS Micron pen. My fourth gesture produced an arch typical Frank Miller inspired Ninja. By this sketch I had moved up to an F (fir Fine)Micron to get some fuller and varied outlines and contours. Finally I came in with the B Micron (for Brush) and blacked out deep shadow and dramatic form. The final sketch I did as the character Assassin Ninja created as a foil for Blak Fox by my brother decades ago. Just a good ninja squat pose.
Well Deljuan looked at both our works and told me I had tools in my favor. I told him no I have Process. And process is learned from observed repetition and adaption. Though he didn’t understand what I meant he understood I knew and understood something he did’t about drawing and he needs that knowledge from me. He found humility and drew silently for the next two days, stopping only to get my comment on his progress. A student is born.





Reading this joint for Book Club. First twenty pages have given a incredible narrative voice to the declining faculties brought on by dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. But I love the cover the most. A visual that typifies the scattered days as the mind looses cohesion. I watched my Grandmother succumb to dementia before she passed. We were reintroduced repeatedly until I simply was the young man looking after her that day. But I also learned that she played basketball in high school and that she was good too. Walter Mosley continues to impress me.

Oh Shit Almost Forgot!!!
Went to the Atlanta ComicCon two weeks ago. More about that next time. And John Byrne’s NextMen are back!!!

We Back Edition One... no seriously.

TELLIN’ STORIES
The We Back Edition

It takes a Crisis to find focus. Necessity is the spark of production. So let us stop bitchin’ and get to producing!
I have been inspired by the diverse and high quality of art coming out if American comics lately. I think my voice can fit in there. So how do I get there? Producing. Art is doing.
First, Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction, Book One. The pages are drawn and inked. The script is written and the coloring process has begun.



This is page 2.

Second, is Self-absorbed: In and Out of Boxes, a biographical piece covering a Magical Realistic look at seven years of my thirties. It follows after the style of WAR: In the key of JUNG. I have up on this sight. Go head look back a bit I’ll wait………




Page two of War: In the key of JUNG.

Third is Dawn of the Dragon: the Crimson Guard, a fantasy joint inspired by the games in college. Uptown Forever!!!





Thumbnails from Crimson Guard.




General Bergen.




Ael “Flick” Flicksten


And Finally the fourth tale is one of the first characters I created Blak Fox. It’s an origin piece set to music structures.





Sketches for BLAK FOX: GUNS, BLADES, GREASE, BLOOD & SWEAT
CHAPTER I: REVENANT


Big PLANS, and lots of work to do. Stay tuned.

ghettoManga: DC Announces All-Star Superman Adaptation

ghettoManga: DC Announces All-Star Superman Adaptation

Shit I dig: Comic Reviews for early July

So they got me at my comic shop. They had a big sale on back issues (50% 0ff!!) and a buy two trade paperbacks(tpb) get the third for free. So of course i avoided the back issues like the plague but that back issue deal gave me a chance to add some tpbs to my library that were must haves. No really... necessary! Just don't tell my wife until she thinks they have always been on my bookshelf...shhhh. So I picked up about two or three weeks worth of books and three trades.

Necessary evils:

First Seven Soldiers of Victory Volume One. Anyone who gets to know me us a comic book junkie knows one of my favorite writers/creatives in the comic game is Grant Morrison. I won't gush here but i let it be understood i love his work...mostly. Some things he does is weakened by weak visual storytellers while others are so deep in the the waters of the exploring auteur i have to come back to understand. Seven Soldiers of Victory is one of his absolute successes and bench mark in the comic industry. Seven heroes must work together to save the world but they never meet, while commenting on the meaning of existence on the comic book reality(a theme Morrison OFTEN returns to and I love). i have the individual issues but i wanted to read it in the order the books came out to get a the singular thread connecting the books. Beautiful read with artist who have become some of my favorites because of their work in the individual minis. Frazer Irving grabbed me with his haunting but strangely light hearted work on Klarion. Ryan Sook's fluid line and dramatic understanding of contrast executes Zatanna powerfully. Cameroon Stewart grows into the urban action while Simo Bianchi brings a completely dizzying art aesthetic to Shining Knight. JH Williams begins the series with his expected masterwork. Can't wait to pick up the other volumes.For more Frazer Irving check out the second issue of the Return of Bruce Wayne. A Puritan good time!
My next NECESSARY purchase was Justice League: Another Nail by Alan Davis & Mark Farmer. A collection of the the Elseworld mini The story followed the Nail, an elseworld story created to look at the DCU if a flat tire keeps the Kents from finding young Kal-el. Really i got this book for one reason: the work of Alan Davis. i have seen the influence of his work on some of the come up kids in the biz( Bryan Hitch, Carlos Pacheco, Ivan Reis, to name a few) always love to look at the inspirational source. A visually beautiful book and Davis still does some of the most beautiful and sinuous super women in the biz. Check the scenes with PowerGirl, Black orchid and Star Sapphire. Not to mention Black Canary!! Lots of heroes and villains, lots of big things happening all drawn perfectly. I'll be studying this book for years.
Finally i picked up Young Avengers: Sidekicks, which collects the early issues of the YA series. Again I got this for the art. I like Heinbergs writing enough but I'm most interested in the work of Jim Cheung. i;ve watched his work evolving since his days on Scion for Crossgen and love the very individual direction he has gone. Great layouts and camera angle choices are connected to a very distinctive and disarmingly simple draftsmanship. But his work moves. it has direction and impact. i got this book while picking up Avengers: Children's crusade not so much for the characters but for the art. Also the covers of Secret Warriors Cheung has done tell as story. and don't forget his work on Avengers Illuminati. I even got caught up in the story through the art.
And now that the necessary is out the way, time too look at the other stuff....

TOP TEN Books for early July.

10. Irredeemable #15
While i have enjoyed this story it reads better as a trade as opposed to the individual issues. Just seems slowed unnaturally. The art is okay but this is my last issue. I am not a huge fan of Wid but I can enjoy his stuff and do here I just felt lost in this issue and watched another character i wasn't invested in die. HooHumm. Just hated it was a crippled brother that bought it. But then at least his punishment is over now. i think I'm finding Incorruptible a more interesting read.
9. Justice Society of America # 40
Willingham finishes thi arc and everyone loses there individual voice. Obsidian, Mr Terrific and Powergirl have the same voice cadenced as they deliver the MESSAGE of this story. i was just getting to enjoy Merino's artwork but I'm thru. DC needs to decide what role JSA will pay in the DCU and stop treating it as a background title. i know Johns has moved on from his launchpad but somebody has to have an interest in finding a workable niche for the old guard.
8. Brightest Day #5
I don't know why I'm getting this book. i love i van reis's art and I love all the characters but its more nostalgia than an appreciation for there place in the DCU. I hope some series can come out of this but i quit on the weekly thing before and i gotta do it here. I'll read the trades. but I am interested just the story is rotating in an odd way and I'm loosing narrative threads from book to book.
7. Avengers: the Children's Crusade #1
Picked this up for the art as I explained before. I also have to comment on the inking of Morales. Between him and Dexter Vines, they have made great artists look phenomenal with their inks at Marvel. Now we begin to see what Magic is doing in marvel and look after the trigger of the New Marvel Order: Scarlet Witch.
6. Green Lantern #55
While this is a book I have been dedicated to since the beginning I am exhausted with everything going on. I'm afraid the cast of GL has gotten as large as some team books. Too many characters. Art is beautiful and its always a pleasure to see Lobo make a cameo. I think Johns may be spreading himself too thin.
5. Jonah Hex #57
My guilty pleasure. One day I'm gonna draw my cowboy story Innocence Massacre. Until then I'll keep enjoying the adventures of Jonah Hex. Good storytelling a brutal world. if you dig the HBO show Tombstone you'll love this book. I'm scared to see the movie but the comic delivers every month. And we get a cameo of DC's stable of Cowboy heroes.
4. Scarlet #1
Bendis is trying hard to be my favorite bald white comic writer. I'm just interested in this book. Looks beautiful and has that clever breaking of the fourth wall I've loved since being introduced to Bertolt Brecht in Joanne Klein's class at St Mary's two decades ago. I won't comment to much, so far I'll just say I'm down for the ride.
3. Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War #2
i been getting this mini for the art of Jason Pearson. I am not a fan of Deadpool and have never tried to follow any of his books, but anytime i can follow the visual mayhem that is Jason Pearson i do it. And i am enjoying this ride. i have been a fan of Pearson since his work on the LSH Five year gap years ago. Great cartoony storyteller. Swierczynski writes a great black ops story.
2. The Invincible Iron Man Annual #1
A surprise treat. I have to find the digital comic and download it now. Invincible iron Man has become one of my favorites lately and this annual is a beautiful companion piece. i must admit as i read it i thought it was bit overlong, but realizing it has a digital comic component makes the length make sense. Beautiful art and a heart wrenching story. The Mandarin is rat$#%t crazy and evil. reminds me off All-star Superman when lex Luthor is sounding completely rationale while drawing an eyebrow across his face. Good villains make sense, crazy villains... i mean truly insane master villains are a work of art. This issue made Mandarin into that.
1. Batman and Robin #13
Everything coming together in the batbooks. Morrison is pulling taut the narrative strands he has weaved thru the DCU the last couple years(like Johns is doing on his part of the DCU) and it makes for great reading. Irving's art is delicious and anyone who didn't enjoy the sequence with Robin/Damian and Joker didn't hate how they did what they did to Jason Todd back in the day. Lovely. i love it when a plan comes together.

keep reading comics.

Process: Elias infinity slays Behemoth

Been a minute but Tuesday is now Tellin' Stories Day. I have been very productive as i have dedicated myself to following a process to completion. So i have been working on a graphic novel for the last five years: Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction, and it has made connections throughout the shared universe of characters stories and ideas that have inhabited my brain since childhood. I won't explain the narrative behind this image but i will explain the process. and I'll post the final piece on Tuesday.

So my guidelines for this piece was four heroes and a great dragon. the dragon was being "erased" from existence by Elias Infinity in his earliest form(thus the khufi and no locks.). The idea came out of my current reading of The collected works of C G Jung Volume 9, Part 1: Archetypes and the Unconscious. Trying to understand the concepts of the Shadow, Anima and individuation is what this work represents.

So I had a sketch in my book as the composition. I then redrew the idea on a canvas sheet in pencil. At this stage i work out my object relationships and value relationships. The background is inspired by the strange comic energy backgrounds prevalent in the work of Jack Kirby and Walter Simonson. A representation of chaotic energy potential and the fractal nature of reality in my life and my stories.



Next I put down my background washes after redraw the work using washed out Dioxazine Purple and Hookers green Acrylic, cause i don't like using black except as an illustrative tool in painting. The sky is purple to set it back and the distant mountains are to be reminiscent of the southwest. I try to paint objects from background to foreground so that they overlap naturally.



Once I have a nice value painting i start moving in with local color. In this work i want the dragon to look like it is being erased so i use rubber cement to protect the surface of the painting from acrylic. Leaving these areas with less buildup. From there i just start painting the fun stuff.

More next week.

Shit I Dig: Comics Review for late January 2010

Greetings comic fans. another two weeks of comics. I'm only gonna focus on my top ten though i picked up thirteen books last week. Sigler is inspiring me with is desires to keep his weekly purchases to twenty bucks a week. Inspiring me but I'm not yet following so......

First a Special Mention: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (DADOES) #8 based on the novel by PK Dick.
i picked up this book because the inside states,"This series the complete text of philip K. Dick's DADOES, presented in graphics form." For the sci fi ignorant this novel is the source material for Blade Runner, the dystopic cyberpunk film from the eighties. This and other films based on his material forced me in the late nineties o search out the author. he has become one of my favorite authors. Not to mention the liberal sourcing of his Valis trilogy in Grant Morrison's Invisibles (the greatest comic series ever written.) That said i've jumped into the story right in the middle and the art is okay. It looks like early Barry Kitson back when he first drew L.E.G.I.O.N. good figure work but sparse simple background and simple panel to panel story telling. i found when i read the novel it was a totally different environment than the film. The dedication of the book to that world opens up a whole experience left out of the film. One is the android hunter Decker's obsession with getting a real animal. Another is his wife being lost in a virtual reality internet where she becomes addicted to the experiences she has there. Interesting commentary on the internet before it existed and fascinating questions of what makes a soul. It took two readings and an acceptance and remembrance of the novel setting to get me into this story. I'm hoping Boom studios collects this into trade cause while it has a nice cardstock cover the content is not worth 3.99 a pop on its own. Still and interest distraction and reminder of a great author.

Didn't make it into the top ten:
Counting DADOES i picked up thirteen books last week. These two did not live up to expectations. Astro City Dark Age Book Four was just uninteresting. Too long since the last arc, i could not rediscover the strand of the story and the brothers featured in the book are so bulked up since accepting their "mission" it was confusing who was who. I got Avengers Initiative #32 on a recommendation from Sigler. though our tastes often vary I trust his oservations. On this one... not so much. i am an old school fan of Taskmaster. i remember the first Avengers book he appeared in( I remember because my mom used it to kill a fly and promptly threw it away as I looked in wide eyed and shocked) and loved the idea of his being able to mimic and physical action he saw. I loved how he rationalized the attack on Asgard as an opportunity but conflicts with the logic simple desires of taskmaster- get money get women. And I really don't see any of these mooks being the equals to anyone but children in Asgard (maybe Taskmaster but c'mon some of these cats don't stand a chance with warriors born and bred.) So it fell just outside of my top ten.

10. Detective Comics #861
i miss JH Williams. Rucka is a very sparse writer. The detail, fascinating compositions and visual imagery added layers to Rucka's uncomplicated writing style. Jock just loses me. Too stylized for what's past and any since of subtle emotion or scene is lost in the overwrought forms and faces of people i have come to know. saving grace is the Question co-feature. While i don't feel a strong "bottom" to the overall arc of the Question i feel the fun and the energy. i hope this co-feature continues somewhere it won't die with the principle story. and i hope Jh Williams III shows up somewhere else with Ruck and batwoman in tow,

9. Justice Society of America #35
SO I was gonna drop this joint, but i had to see how Mordru was gonna be screwed this time. I have to say that the position of this book on my list in know way takes away from the enjoyment i got from this issue. mostly i was sold on the framing device of Doc Fate recovering and narrating. Everything else was indicative of the way JSA stories were told in my youth: Enemy splits up group, group finds its way back together, enemy is defeated. I'm interested in the new Doc Fate but i think this may be my last journey to the JSA brand for awhile. i feel I'm leaving it on a much better note than last month.Oh and Judo master is pointless.

8. Batman and Robin #7
Love the art but grant what the hell is happening. i hated the art in the last run but i think the plots of each issue are so streamlined I'm not getting a sense of a character arc for Dick and young Wayne. the most interesting character throughout Morrison's whole run on this Batty experiment is Alfred. Something important is happening with him. i just don't know if i have the patience to wait until it comes to the fore. I'll get the miniseries Morrison is doing this summer on the batman traveling thru realities to get home. Why would Dick use the Lazarus pit??????

7. Captain America Reborn #6
Its like getting an old Authority or Ultimates fix. i do it for the art. I really don't even care much for how they are resolving steve Rogers return i just love the art.

6. Secret Warriors #12
Finally i find out who the big bald guy is related too. That alone place this book ahead, but the art is also striking and how they make monsters in Hydra is the coolest and the sickest. I'm just down for the ride Hickman has me on.

5. Blackest Night/The Power of Shazam #48
i enjoyed the Shazam family part of 52 and i thought this special issue was a nice coda for the Black Adam family. And the mythologist in me loved that osiris rose and was heroic in the end. Kramer's art continues to improve since his stint on JSA and i love how it looks in this issue.

4. Green Lantern #50
I really never liked Doug Mahnke's artwork prior to the work he did on Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, so his run on GL has been a treat during this Blackest Night(as long as i got my reis fix on the Blackest Night proper book) I liked what Johns did with Hawkman, loved his growth during JSA, and I'm sure he's doing big thangs with Flash Rebirth, but this book is the Blueprint. i told ya'll Hal Jordan green Lantern was the shit and now years later he'stopping the heights he reached with the Sinestro Corps event from the past. Recognize. i'm saying just recognize.

3. Dark Avengers #13
I enjoy payoffs. I've felt since his first appearance The Sentry was an interesting idea that couldn't fit in the Marvel U... could it. I've read a couple different explanations of where he came from but now we get what i hope will be the definitive origin of the Sentry. i can say i'm scared and impressed at the level of madness Osbourne will play with. You can see his fear and excitement. and i love that the origins of sentry comes from the lineage of the creators of the modern superhero: Schuster and Siegel creation of the greatest immigrant ever( Superman) and Lee and his crew's creation of the feet of sand hero template of the sixties. This dark Avengers series has been a journey into how bad it can get, And with the implications of this issue things go from bad to worse.

2. Blackest Night: The Atom and Hawkman #46
I am a baby of the silver age of comics. i was reading JLA when these cats were still incredible pertinent. I was amazed by Gil Kane's work on the Sword of the Atom mini back at the end of the eighties. I picked up this book with the Shazam book and was looking for the Question book to take a nostalgia ride. This was a triumphant story and a perfect character sketch of what makes the Atom cool. Geoff Johns again!! Ryan Sook knocks it out the book visually with the help of Fred Pasarin. and i know Ray Palmer is gonna do what he says.

1. New Avengers #61
Steve rogers is back and he's kickin it with his sidekick Captain America? Hood juices up the d-list villians and they go on an Avenger's hunt. my boy Immonen is aided by the talented Acuna in scenes involving a date/stakeout with Spiders man and woman. Clever conversation not just between Spiders but also stalking villains like Living Laser, Mandrill, gryphon, and the Corruptor make everyhtin worthwhile. plus the reappearance of my favorite Cap Shield. In this issue we have a chance to see why d-list villians are d-list. bendis rocks.

Shit I Dig: Comic Reviews for Mid January 2010

Gotta write gotta comment gotta write. Gotta get it done.


Comics are my passion. I have a group of readers who have been trading observations about comics and related media for the last half a decade so I thought it would make sense to put it on my Blog.

9. Justice Society of America #9
This title lost me about a year ago. Geoff Johns I think was stretched thin and told the story he wanted here so he seemed to have been treading along until the takeover by Bill Willingham. Well I'm not interested. The cast is too large(ironic sense DC split this team into two books) and the conflicts seem repetitive. The art is serviceable and its nice to see Mr. Terrific is back on his feet. Still another spy in the midst story and another Mordru the Merciless epic is a little much after his excellent use and disposal by White Witch in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds. I'm not excited. I'm done with it.

8. SuperGod #2
My boy Marcus mentioned this book so I picked it up. i used to follow most of the mainstream stuff Warren Ellis wrote, but the finale of Planetary(which was, among many other things, incredibly satisfying) and the disappearance of the striking Desolation Jones his work hasn't grabbed me so i thought I'd give this one a chance. So far I'm titillated but wary. We are given a history lesson of the superhuman arms race of the last half of the 20th century by a almost cliched haggard scientist in the midst of a decimated London. Shades of Spider jerusalem and Elijah Snow, but nothing new yet. Lot of exposition. My attention has been held by the use of mythology and religion as the inspiration in some countries for the creation of superhumans but of course everything goes tragically wrong. i can see why Marcus likes this book. I'm not impressed... yet but I'll give it a chance. i don't pick up a lot of books from Avatar but I'll give it a chance until something starts happening. I mean it is Warren ellis.

7. Adventure Comics #507
Now this is what I'm talking about when i look for a good Geoff Johns story! Which is funny because I thought I was sick of Superboy Prime. I think this issue, and the one that follows which I read first and went back to get this one, is a good use of the meta-context poor SuperboyPrime exists for. This issue made him tragic for me for the first time since his prominence during the first great Crisis on Infinite Earths. Blackest Night comesa calling and Clark Prime is put through it. The dependable artwork of Jerry Ordway don't hurt either. I also picked up this book for the co-feature Legion of Superheroes. I love its the Adult Legion, because this is the legion I grew up on, before the aforementioned Crisis and weak sales subjected the LSH through a series of revamps that were painful in that each one a gem in repeatedly crushed. And my four favorite character were used and there endless love conflicts finally resolved. Wildfire got his girl,Dawnstar, in the LSH of 3 worlds and now Blok, my favorite minority in the 31st century, gets his tragic love Whi- er Black Witch. Loved it. The art was good and I love Blok's healed look. I hope these characters appear when Levitz starts writing the LSH again. i gotta find out why Alan Scott is trapped in stone on the Sorcerer's World.

6. Secret Warrior #11
Loving this book. Things got a little confusing with the Ares/Phobos storyline but I'm back in stride now. Nick shows or refuses to show but alludes to more layers,some character moments for Yo-yo, Tomi and Daisy. The art is back to its past standards and Leviathan shows up. Super hero intrigue. Marvel has gotten hella complicated and fascinating!

5. Blackest Night #6
I Love IT!!! This is Johns at his best. A fitting sequel to the Sinestro Corps epic from last year. Ivan Reis has entered into my list of top ten superhero artist. And i love the reserve Lanterns. Nekron doesn't do much for me as the heavy but the surrounding villains and undead are well executed. I think at the end of this summer the big three(just like at Marvel) will be back!!!

4. Siege #1
I just love Olivier Coipel's work. His collaboration on House of M with Bendis screamed for him to get a Spidey book, but his run on Thor and this mini will do. He has mastered what I thought was a tendency toward strangely structured panel progressions but this stuff is tight and clear. And the final page with Cap was almost as strong as Cap's reappearance in New Avengers last month. If shit is gonna hit the fan I look forward to the beautiful shit Coipel is gonna show. And Bedis can finish his third act. Marvel has woven a tail tthat begs for an ending unlike anything before. If they deliver I'll be a fan for life.

3. Invincible Iron Man #22
Why won't Tony get up!!!! The last two years of this book has made me care about a character I felt was hopeless. Like Bendis did with Daredevil, Fraction didn't get rid of the dickness inherent in Tony Stark he uses it to help define the character. Potts put it best a few issues back, why don't gods and heroes come to her rescue. Caause you ain't Stark!!! But he won't get up!! Fraction takes his time and elevates all the characters he chose for this run. Maria Hill has depth, Pepper Potts has become worth more than a featured character now and even crazy-ass Whitney Frost has layers. Larroca's art remains incredibly done I can't wait for the next issue. Nice appearance by Doc Strange, but WHY WON'T TONY GET UP!!!

2.New Avengers #60
Bendis and Immonen. Anyone who has read any of my reviews over the last few years is aware of my man love for this team. In the absence of good stuff by Grant, Bendis has become my favorite bald white comic writer. The Wasp(I still have problems with that) Hank Pym comes in with Doc Strange to save the day. And didn't it seem like a updated Defenders reunion in this camp. Loved it. And comeuppance, they destroy Osborn's summer home. Hoods back and its coming to a head. Visually the best team book out now.

1. Detective Comics #860
I only looked at Rucka's stuff in passing. He caught my eye as part of the "band" during 52 and his Checkmate was S.H.I.E.L.D. done right(until Secret Warriors came out)but this book has been a work of art. I'm a student of Williams III so there is nothing to add about the art, except every issue is a joy. Rucka has paced the introduction of Batwoman with style. Rucka and Williams are leaving Detective but I'm sure they and Batwoman will land on their feet... I'll be there. The Question co-feature is a treat. Special guest star Huntress reminded me of the best episodes of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. The Question and Huntress just work together. I hope they throw Batwoman in this so she and Renee can have a reunion.

I love Girls girls girls girls.....

So the most important tool in any artists arsenal is the sketchbook. A year ago I dedicated myself to study the human female form. here are the fruits of that labor.








In 2010 I promise more to come from this blog and me. Happy New Year!