Free the GHOST RIDER one.

I genuinely wish that one day would go by this month without Big Comics pulling some shitty reprehensible stroke.  Christ, poor Gary Friedrich. $17K is a drop in the water to Disney, but a matter of life-and-death to an out of work freelance writer.

As we all probably know, this blog has a special relationship with Ghost Rider. Just what the hell next? Chasing Alan Vega and Martin Rev down for the royalties from their first album?

Update: if you would like to donate some money to Gary, Steve Niles has started a Paypal link over at his blog, alongside a note from Friedrich expressing his desire to fight on.

Further update: McConnell Art have been running fund-raising auctions.

Do the right thing.

Do the right thing by Jack, people. Click on the link and sign this petition.

Oh, and do yourself a favour and read James Sturm's essay on these matters over at Slate.

On BEFORE WATCHMEN and post-traumatic stress disorder.

I've been gathering my thoughts on BEFORE WATCHMEN since it was announced, and have read many great right-headed (and cringed through many wrong-headed) pieces written on the matter over this last week.  A few people have sought out my opinion on the matter, probably because they remember the frequency I commented scathingly on the subject of the atrocious movie adaptation. This announcement has had something of the inevitable about it, it has seemed to lurk in the ether waiting to materialise since 2007, when I ran this blog entry.  It was prompted by the appearance of this piece by Art Adams (a cover for the defunct trade rag WIZARD, if memory serves).  As I said back then, in the comments section alongside the entry: "It's heresy, but it's also hilarious: it's hilaresy!".

Now, those of you who are familiar with the Northern Irish character know that we have the darkest of humours, probably because all of us born before 1994 have full-blown PTSD.  We make black jokes about bad news, and for us there is no such thing as "too soon?".  Which is why, as soon as this news leaked out, slid out like the incontinence of a octogenarian who hasn't had a decent idea since 1986, I felt inclined to just laugh. But to laugh it off is probably too apathetic, distancing myself from the bomb-blast, immunising myself from accusations otherwise that I'm taking it too seriously, that's its justafakkingcomicforfakksake.  Instead the debate that has arose has been inspiring. Every time, every opportunity comic readers have to witness a hard light being shone on the business ethics of the industry they patronise, is a good thing. Every time I write about work for hire, I drop in the phrase "that gangster shit", hoping it'll catch on.  It never does. In the case of WATCHMEN, it isn't even the usual problems of work for hire that is to blame, it is a new set of problems born of the comics boom of the mid-80s: when is creator-owned not creator-owned after all? Did Dez Skinn die in vain?

One thing made clear reading the day-long explosion of opinion on the matter in my Twitter feed was this is a matter for comic fans, for comic readers, not the comic professionals: the smartest ones realised they were compromised within the argument, that they didn't have a leg on which to stand and join in with the pontificatin'. Of course, the lines are horribly blurred. The audience for Anglophone comics isn't huge, and therefore a fair sized chunk of the readership are creators. Also, comics professionals are invariably the most passionate of fans, and seemingly every comics fan would give their eye-teeth to become a comics professional, every one of them working on a webcomic they want to link you to, or in possession of a pitch for that Dr Strange comic that's really going to work this time. One of the reasons this farrago is going ahead is because DC reckons it's easy to get away with it, because we're all complicit now. Well sod that, Dan. You haven't got my fingerprints on this gun. Leave me out of it.

There's probably an essay to be written on comics becoming just another commodity being squeezed out by corporations that don't give a shit; that the comics crowd are kidding themselves when they blather on about the medium they love being the last bastion for free-wheeling creativity; that buying a Marvel or DC comic is essentially as soul-destroying a gesture of surrender to the forces of globalisation as buying a Big Mac or a Starbucks coffee or downloading the latest single by the winner of last year's THE X-FACTOR. This won't be it. I'm too busy brewing my own beer.

Brendan McCarthy revisits the STRANGE DAYS cast.

Pal (and frequent source) for this blog David Rees recently commissioned Brendan McCarthy to draw some old favourites. When David sent me a scan of the pencil rough last year he said "Brendan hardly ever does this sort of thing". Brendan in fact called this piece "his first commission".  At this rate I'll soon forgive David for outbidding me on that Atlantis page Sean Phillips sold a few years ago.

Nice to see that fakkin' hooligan Martin 'Atchet from SKIN popping up in the bottom right of the finished version.

Chris Weston covers Bolland for 2000AD's 35th birthday celebrations.

I don't often twock a story from Pete Well's 2000AD covers blog, mainly because Pete and I regularly have far-diverging tastes. I don't feel the need to name names. On this we can agree, though: the glory of Chris Weston's update of the classic Bolland design for the fondly-remembered Eagle Comics' 2000AD Monthly #1.  My cousin Geoff had that 'un, and I coveted it mightily.

Here Chris rightly prioritises characters from the last few years who have themselves became classics (Harry Absalom, Zombo, Dirty Frank, Shakara, etc).  I know I regularly make little digs at Current Tharg, but he's largely been steering the old ship in the right direction.

Update: Noticed last night that Chris has drawn himself, dead centre, into his composition as Titus Defoe. Cheeky!

Stuff, and opinions about stuff.

Francesco Francavilla will be doing some covers for Garth Ennis's run on THE SHADOW for Dynamite Comics.  The Dynamite modus operandi is to commission a load of alternate covers by great artists, but have the interiors by someone competent but underwhelming.  I love The Shadow, knowing the property almost entirely just as a comic, and it was always a great looking comic. Going back, you had Kyle Baker, Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin, Frank Robbins, Michael Kaluta.  It was hard enough finding any art by Campbell on't web, and what I saw didn't blow me away. Here's hoping he raises his game for the material.  But hey, this Francavilla piece really sings.

Duncan Fegredo has chosen the next theme over at the What Not, and it's "Cosmic Odyssey". That should give the amazing roster of artists over there plenty of excuses to break out the Kirby Krackle.  Duncan kicks off with this piece.

This couldn't help but remind me of the HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL tribute Duncan did for the ever-impressive Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time! site.

Which in turn got me thinking about his Ballad Of Halo Jones piece.  And his Star Wars covers. Basically, if I was an editor with any sense at a publisher with deep pockets, I'd be throwing money at Fegredo to draw a hard SF comic.

James Hance's Tank Girl/Princess Leia mash-up.

This has been doing the rounds this last couple of days, and you may have seen it already, but it fits the BL-equation, so it runs. The relentlessly cheerful James Hance's Tank Girl/Star Wars mash-up.

Bonus: dig the Fraggle Rock/Star Wars mash-up from a couple of weeks ago.  Doozer is my home-boy.

Hard Times.

If you want to kick it old school like we've crashed the DeLorean in 1983, how's about Walter Simonson drawing a THOR cover again for Marvel?

The Invisible Artist

Dunno if anyone outside of Northern Ireland will be that interested in this, but here's a tight little social history of comics 'round these parts. It brought back a few memories.


The Invisible Artist from Northern Visions/NvTv on Vimeo.

Pete Fowler's Nemesis The Warlock.

Music fans of a certain bent and vinyl toy collectors alike are probably already following the blog of Pete "Monsterism" Fowler.  Here's the two cute-as models Pete has designed of 2000AD's Nemesis The Warlock for Togetherplus. This design is something of a recurring theme for Pete, I remember he put out a t-shirt with this on it a while back, originally for the Zarjaz Exhibition in 2005 (I think). Gorgeous - I look at that "subject to licensor approval" sign and hope that is a mere formality - Tharg, we all need (at least) one of these for our mantel shelves.

Alan Davis draws Captain Britain, again.

I've been in an Alan Davis-y mood all day, since seeing this, this morning.

One of the reasons I love an Alan Davis illustration of Captain Britain above those of any other artist is the fact that Davis draws him with a default facial expression of confusion. And when he's not confused, he's scared. Or occasionally furious. But seldom stoic.

Thank Merlin the original Davis-era costume design is back. That MI:13 Hitch-job was too (inadvertently, I presume) kinky, turning the Union Jack motif into an arrow pointing directly to the wearer's wedding tackle.

Oh, this is glorious.

Henry Flint invents the one page graphic novel. I was born somewhere around the border of "falling skulls" and "rabid geese".

Daniel Krall on DC. "Hope you like our new direction".

My interest in the Nu-52 DC ended with the cancellation of Giffen's OMAC and the realisation that Simon Bisley probably wasn't going to do any more of those hilarious STABBY-MAN covers.  But I do like this illustration Daniel Krall has done on the subject for McSweeney's.

Brendan McCarthy & Pete Milligan's SUMMER OF LOVE

After I mentioned how I'd only ever seen one installment of Pete & Brendan's Sunday newspaper strip SUMMER OF LOVE (in Rufus Dayglo's Comicartfan gallery), David Rees emailed me with a scan of a second.  Here's both, and if anybody comes across any more, email 'em in and I'll post them here, too.

Everyone involved with THE NEWS ON SUNDAY usually roll their eyes when the subject is brought up. It may have been an amateurish set-up, a total misfire and a grand failure, but one thing they got right was commissioning comic strip talent. The second strip that ran there was SCATHA, by Pat Mills and Glenn Fabry - you can see four of the seven published strips at this Bear Alley entry from 2008.

Bat Out Of Hell

Saw this a while ago on Rico Renzi's Twitter fee - Jakob Westman's Batgirl.  A poke around Westman's DeviantArt page reveals an illustrator with a McKelvie-esque line and an attractive way with colour.

I knew the name was familiar, and realised where I'd heard it before - he was the guy who came up with the custom Hellboy Playmobils that were doing the rounds a while ago - remember these?

Milligan/McCarthy's THE ELECTRIC(K) HOAX

Again: for anyone watching my blog but not following David Hine's - and if not, why not? - tonight he's ran a bunch of scans of The Electrick Hoax, the 1978 strip Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy did for long-deceased music weekly SOUNDS. It was of-its-time and fairly terrible, but of hysterical historical interest to a lot of you, I'd presume.  There's a few visual clues there to the later preoccupations of this team. 

Anyone out there got any scans of THE NEWS ON SUNDAY's Summer Of Love by Pete and Brendan, from 1987? I think I've only ever seen one week's edition of that strip, and damned if I could be bothered heading over to Colindale Avenue to view 'em.

Blog watching

The latest theme at the What Not blog has been video games, which is something of a pet subject for Duncan Fegredo.  Normally not the most prolific blogger at the site, he's posted four times in two days - and it's all good stuff.  The last three follow the progress of a commission a few years ago from EDGE magazine. Shame they didn't run with the composition in the original sketch, it's a belter.

And WJC tweeted a load of sketches influenced by RETURN OF THE JEDI last night. Handily, he's published them in digest format at his blog today, saving me a load of copying-and-pasting.

Unclog yer blog.

Time to dump all this stuff clogging up the tabs in my browser by sticking it all here.

Lee Bermejo's cover for Vertigo's adaptation of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.  Bermejo was recently on the receiving end of a rather complimentary discussion of his work on the always-amusing Sunnyside Comics (yes, I'm another one who's still listening). No point complaining about this piece being unnecessarily sexualized, 'cuz presumably everyone on the planet knows by now that the entire, mystifyingly successful, Steig Larsson schtick is built on a queasy hypocritical take on sexual violence. "Ooh, isn't this awful? Let's keep looking!"

Meet Diego Gerlach, he's, uh, like a Brazilian Shaky Kane, I suppose (via Seneca).

That date-stamp at the bottom makes me suspicious. Is he a (*gasp*) secret librarian? SECRET LIBRARIAN is also the name of a new crossover series from Marvel, written by Brenda Bendis and drawn by Probably Mike Zeck, debuting June 2012.

Saw this guy over at Joe Bloke's gaffe: Loston Wallace.

His work clearly wears its influences on its sleeve, but he does a nice line in Joe Sinnotty-inks.  Cheers, Joe.

It has long been stated that the quickest way to get a mention on this blog is draw Tank Girl. But Eric Canete and Jim Mahfood know that's a right load of old bollocks.

Sean Phillips draws Edgar Allen Poe as a guy either trying out as a new bassist for The Horrors, or really in need of a haircut.

Nothing like a day freezing one's arse off on a mobile library in a supermarket car-park to make you dream of escaping to Brazil. That, and the fact that Fabio Moon has left me under the impression that the girls there are in a constant state of undress.

Rufus Dayglo draws Tankie for a Tankie. Rufus need never know what awful Freudian keyboard slip I just made while typing his name (what is a Gayglo anyway?).

Assorted linkery: buy Corto Maltese in English! Watch a proud-looking Alan Moore visiting the Occupy kids (and it's not often BBC's featherlight The One Show beats Channel Four News to a story, but let's remember they got there first a few weeks ago with David Lloyd)!