I Think I Broke My Brain

So I was watching the recap section on the latest episode of The Walking Dead, and when one of the zombies appeared it totally reminded me of Felicity Smoak from Arrow.

Yeah, I dunno what's up with that either.

Janice Race, Defender Of Dignity Everywhere

... or at the very least, this one time as editor of a Firestorm comic.

As a collector of original comic art, one of the things I really like is getting hold of a page from the pre-digital age. I really like having the dialog written on the page. I also really like that the editor would request changes to the art by writing directly on the finished art itself. It means people like me can come along years later, and see a little bit of the creative process behind the production, which I think is awesome.

A few days ago, I received Page 7 from The Fury Of Firestorm #42 (1985). Pencils by Rafael Kayanan, inks by Akin and Garvey (I have no idea who did what pages).

The issue revolves around an interesting team-up between Firehawk and Wonder Girl, with Firestorm himself not making an appearance.

In the page margin next to the first panel, editor Janice Race requests a change to "raise neckline a bit".

Obviously the above picture is after the correction, but thanks to the white-out used we can kinda see what it was going to look like before:

That was a pretty low cut. Good thing Donna Troy had Janice Race looking out for her modesty.

Man, we could've used a few Janice Race's in the 90's, right?

Martin Stein Joining The Flash - A Review Of The Graphics

Even if you're not a Firestorm fan, you've probably heard the recent news that Victor Garber is joining the cast of The Flash tv show as Professor Martin Stein, one half of the Firestorm character. News like this always has websites throwing together graphics of the actor next to their comic book counterpart as part of their coverage of the story. I thought we'd have a bit of a look at what people came up with.

The most widely used artwork came from this panel out of Brightest Day #1

Veezo.com went with a generous shot of the comic panel, with Victor Garber a bit squeezed out.

 Variety.com had the same idea, but went for a closer view.

Not to be out-done, comicbook.com cranked the close-up even higher. I've gotta give them bonus points for finding a picture of Victor Garber with a similar pose, rather than just sticking on the first photo they found.

For my money though, the winner when it comes to the use of this panel is comicbookresources.com, who actually spent a bit of time making things look all fancy rather than just pasting two pictures next to each other. Even if it looks like Victor's shoulder is trying to talk.

Next up on the popularity stakes, and the most obvious choice when you want a basic visual explanation of the characters involved, is the cover to the third Firestorm annual.

Wegotthiscovered.com and firestormfan.com both had the same idea.

Starburstmagazine.com took the "Ronnie Raymond who?" route and cropped him out of the picture entirely. OK sure, this is all about the Professor, but that's a bit harsh right?

The "if you only knew how close you were" award goes to tvline.com for this little gem. They got both Firestorm actors in there (nice job!), but gave us "the floating head of Ronnie Raymond" instead of it being the other way around. So close to being (accidental) genius!

Scifi4me.com put in a valiant effort but this looks kinda goofy to be honest. Good idea, good execution, but the wrong Firestorm picture to use for the situation in my humble opinion.

The cover for Firestorm v4 #0 was used quite frequently when Robbie Amell was announced as Ronnie Raymond. Sharetv.com dust it off again for Martin Stein.

Similarly, the variant cover for Brightest Day #2 was used a lot for the Robbie Amell announcement. Here it is from geekynews.com...

 ... and also from deadline.com.

It seems there's a version of this cover with The Atom removed from between Firestorm's hands and replaced by some fancy fire effect. I noticed this when the picture was used for Robbie Amell, but I wasn't sure if it was just a random photoshop one of the news sites had come up with or what. It must be a thing if multiple sites are using it? Here's the original for anyone that's wondering:

TV.com went for the obscure selection with this splash out of Firestorm v3 (the issue number escapes me right now. I know, I know...)

 Thecomicbookcast.com found a nice heroic shot of Firestorm...

 ... while serpentorslair.com went for spooky Firestorm.

To round things out, here's veooz.com with a picture saying "Firestorm who? Isn't this thing called The Flash?". Damn straight.

I hope Firestorm Has A Good Lawyer...

...because Dr Fate totally just stole his sound effect.

(Panel from Future's End: Constantine special)

Song Of The Week: Harley Quinn *

Last year saw the release of the debut solo album by Swiss musician Anna Murphy. On it is this catchy little number called "Harley Quinn", a song sung from the perspective of everyone's favourite evil/adorable sidekick.

Anna is already well established in the music world, playing the Hurdy Gurdy and contributing vocals for one of the wold's leading Folk Metal groups, Swiss band Eluveitie.


*this in no way implies I will be updating this blog weekly ;)

Possibly Not A Great Interrogation Technique

"Princess, please! I do not know anything!"

"You will gaze upon the royal bosom until you tell us the truth!"

"..."

*sound of crickets chirping*

Can't say I'm familiar with the character of Dejah Thoris (beyond the multitude of sketches of her available on eBay), and this doesn't really inspire me to give the book a shot. But hey, maybe I'm wrong and this character is awesome. Judge for yourself with a free preview over on Bleeding Cool of what I'm assuming is the latest trade.