Judge Dredd vs Stan Lee, round 1

In August of 1986, 2000AD bestowed upon the world one of comics greatest fight scenes with issue #484. Judge Dredd vs Stan "Deathfist" Lee (some random ninja guy they came up with for the issue).

Lee opens things up with a kick to the face:

Dredd hits back with the deadly "midrift kick and mockery" combo

Keep in mind this is all happening after Dredd had taken a ninja star to the chest, and Lee had been winged by a bullet from Dredd.

Things are pretty even for a while.

Then it starts to go wrong for Mega City's finest.

I bet Batman never had days like this.

Hey, who put that brick wall there?

Ooooh, Dredd just got owned.

There's so much more to this fight, I just limited the scans to the major body shots. It is awesome, and making it even better is the normally invincible Dredd getting his ass kicked. The story closes out with him in a hospital bed, and since it's only an 8 page story, he can only grit his teeth and promise himself next time will be different. But will there be a next time?


Oh yes.

How not to treat girls, featuring Firestorm

No matter how good you think you are at hiding it, one day your girlfriend will find out your secret, whatever it is.

And she will be pissed.

Art in close-up: Blue Beetle #8

Blue Beetle #8
Page 9
Breakdowns - Rob Haynes
Finishes - Casey Jones
Colours - Guy Major
Writers - Keith Giffen & John Rogers
Letters - Jared Fletcher

Quick summary: In an effort to learn more about his powers, the new Blue Beetle and his friends pay a visit to the granddaughter of Dan Garrett, the original Blue Beetle.

The full pages:


A brief one this week, since this is pretty much a splash page in form, if not function.
I love the page layout. A really clever way to give action and development to a static scene. There's a cool progression on the papers she's holding, starting off with her reading them, and ending up with them on the floor.
I love Brenda's reaction.
Also a nice touch with the panels, the top left and bottom right being out of alignment. Makes it more interesting than four even panels.

Rob Haynes isn't credited in the comic, but I bought this off Casey Jones (via eBay, $36US), and that's what he said, so I think I'll trust him ;) The actual page is quite a bit smaller than the standard comic art board, but it makes sense for the art style. Having to draw it at full size would've required too much space in the line work. Casey was selling two pages, one with Beetle in full costume, which I did bid on, but this was the page I was really after (I had to fight off one challenger for it). As always, a cheap page since there's no costumed stuff happening (but you know that by now, right?).

Firestorm - the equal opportunity hero

It's Millennium Week 5, and Harbinger, Captain Atom, Firestorm, and Green Lantern find themselves thrust together.

It's not any normal Green Lantern though. This particular one is named Driq, and is actually an animated corpse! He used to be living, but he died (as tends to happen...). However, his power ring is not letting his soul leave his body, so he's stuck as an undead member of the Corps.

Firestorm likes him alright, though Captain Atom is a bit of a dick about it.




"He's dead!"
"So? That doesn't mean he's not a nice person!"

That's brilliant writing.

How not to treat girls, featuring Firestorm

Time for some situational comparisons, demonstrated by our crash test dummie Ronnie Raymond, to save you the danger of getting hit in the head with a cusion.

Saying "I love you" is a good move.

Choosing the TV over your girl is a bad move.

If you have a habit of letting your girlfriend down, sucking up to her occassionally is a good move.

Letting her down again, just after you tried sucking up, is a bad move.

Simple enough, really.

Art in close-up: Ghost Rider 2099 #18

Welcome to another installment of 'art in close-up', where I take an original page from my collection and take a closer look at it. This week:

Ghost Rider 2099 #18
Page 2
Pencils - Ashley Wood
Inks - Jim Daly
Letters - Richard Starkings/ Comicraft
Colours - Christie Scheele/ Malibu
Writer - Len Kaminski

Quick summary: An evil robot called L-Cipher has taken over an amusement park with his minions (gotta have minions). The place is ablaze, and SHIELD has called in the Ghost Rider of the future to help out.

Kicking things off, the full page:


There's a lot of unique elements to this page, in terms of the rest of the stuff I have. First off, the art goes all the way to the edge of the original page. The bleed area (which you usually don't see printed, but is there just incase) is half an inch or so in from each page edge, the bleed area itself being half of that size deep. So, there's usually a consistent 'frame' around an original page of art. In the printed version, there's no margins on the page at all, and the original reflects this.

This was quite a big purchase for me, I had to fork out $96US for it, not including shipping. I was going to be charged $50 to get it delivered via Fedex, but screw that! Thankfully I have internet friends in America, so got it sent to one for a fraction of the cost, then they sent it to me. Much cheaper. GR2099 is a pretty obscure character, I guess what drove the price up was that it was promoted as an Ashley Wood original. He certainly did the pencils, but it's the ink work that makes this page, and the comic credits Jim Daly with that (no mention of him in the auction...). Wood's GR2099 art regularly goes for the amount I paid, whether or not they feature GR at all, so this is a case where I had to take a hit simply for the name of the artist, when I was after it primarily for Ghostie. Them's the breaks.

Panel 1:


The lettering is all pasted on. The cool stylised text up to is for L-Cipher (Lucifer, incase you didn't get it :p). The whole cyber-speak thing is dated now, but back in 1995, Len Kaminski was the man.
The vertical white dotted lines on the sillouette are actually nicks out of the paper, not white-out. I'm not a major fan of this type of art, though I do like this. Hated the way Jae Lee used to do things, and I preferred Wood's work in this time period when he was inked by Daly. I was already familiar with Daly's work, he did art for a few cards for the Rage CCG (that I'm a fanatic for), and liked his odd take on things. Still don't think this is a particularly good style for action and fighting, but it's good for setting mood.

Panel 2:


The colourist adds a nice extra dimension to this, with the light on GR's back. There's a fair bit of white-out in the flame, can't tell what it's covering. I'm guessing that's a satellite dish at the top? More of those vertical white lines that cut into the page. I wonder what was used?

Panel 3:


There is so much detail in this. More cuts on GR's body, the white marks on the SHIELD guy are white-out, as are all the larger blobs. GR's eye's were whited out heavily after the ink splashes were done. I'm guessing Daly used a brush for this, since the ink's all nicely even, no different shades, or the marks you get when blacking out large sections with a marker. Lots of really fine lines on GR's head and chest, and the SHIELD's hair. I love how the panel almost seems to fade out down the bottom. I can't decide if I like the flame more on the original (which is nicely stylised), or what the colourist did with it.

Panel 4:


Feels more like a space filler (not in a negative way) than an actual panel, but what else am I gonna call it ;) This is one of the reasons I went after this page, because I wanted to see just what the hell was going on in this bit. It's been inked fully black, and then gone over in white ink (paint? Is there such a thing as white ink?). Also a touch of white-out to make some parts heavier. Also a fair bit of work put in by Christie Scheele. The flames are a nice scene-setting touch, showing that the characters are outside a huge fire, without actually providing an establishing shot.

Great minds

Wonder Man poses a question we've all had to ask ourselves at some point.




Are you turned on by artificial men?

Well, are you?