So Much Work, And Nobody Even Dies

Just got hold of the original art for Firestorm v2 #45 page 12. Aside from a couple of great Hyena shots, I found this one panel really interesting purely for the amount of editorial guidance that went in to it:

First of all, we have the letterer Carrie Spiegle needing to add one of those line thingies (technical term) over the E in CAFE (all red markings are by me to highlight)

Next, the point on Felicity's speech bubble was lengthed. I've roughly drawn in where it originally went, as it's twinked out and doesn't show on the scan. I guess it looked a little too much like the woman in the background was talking, although you'll notice they didn't exactly follow the editor's suggested look (in blue).

The note in the margin reads "lenthen point to Felicity"

Finally, there's a note to change the hairstyles on a couple of figures. The margin note reads "More black in both Ronnie & Ed Raymond's hair, also fix Ed's hair style". Both figures in question are circled.

One small problem though. While that's certainly Ronnie on the left, on the right it's Doreen, not Ed! Ed is the figure with his back to the camera. Editor Janice Race missed that the figure on the right is wearing a skirt, so we're left with a very masculine head on a woman's body.

That's pretty funny.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

Another bit of comparisson of the printed page vs the original art. This is from Bloodhound #5 (by Kirk & Riggs), in a scene where Jason has an attempt to merge with Bloodhound rather emphatically denied. From the comic:

Original:

At the risk of sounding like I have something against colorists, I really prefer it in black and white. Could've been interesting if they still did all the lettering on the page though ;)

Manhunter in 30 seconds

Chris over at the ISB is running his annual "30 second" event, which means more bad art from me. Hooray!

This time around, it's the "Trial By Fire" arc from Manhunter, in which Shadow Thief is put on trial for the murder of Firestorm.











Previous years efforts here and here

If you've got it, share it

Following on from my last post (it's almost like I planned it...), this seems as good a time as any to point out that my entire art collection is all scanned and online right here!

36 pages of both classic and modern Firestorm, an entire issue of Moon Knight prelims, convention sketches, and a bunch of other pages from Blue Beetle, Aquaman, Birds Of Prey etc.

Despite what it tells you when you register a paid account, the pages do not quite display on a 1:1 scale. Shag over at Firestorm Fan has full size scans of various pages on his site, so consider that the place to go for the proper article. As an online collection all in one place though, ComicArtFans serves it's purpose very well.

It won't be up to date for long though, I just won two more Firestorm pages on ebay ;)

Sometimes high tech isn't better

Just had some more Firestorm artwork arrive (4 pages!), a christmas present for myself if you will (well that's my excuse, really it was just because a dealer was having a sale). Of particular interest (well, to me anyway) is the first panel from #6, page 18. As it appeared in the comic:

Cool effects and all, but here's what was actually there originally:

Heh, that's an awful lot of lines and white dots to have a colorist come along and cover up. The printed panel is certainly effective, but I think I prefer the original art (by Batista & Green).

Sailing The Sea's of Geeks

So this year was my first venture to Auckland Armageddon, and what a time to go. Totally awesome 3 days. I flew up from Wellington on Friday, and once settled took a walk to the event as a test to see how long it was going to take. 25 minutes as it turned out, with a McDonalds nicely placed in the middle (or so it seemed. Don't go to Greenlane McD's for breakfast, all the incompetant people work at that time and you'll be standing in a 2 person que for 10 minutes...).

SATURDAY
I rolled up to the event at 8am (doors opened 9am), to be faced with an already-massive line. That didn't last long for me though, since it turned out 95% of the people waiting didn't have tickets, so I pretty much got near the front of the ticket-holders line and when the doors did open us smart ones walked straight in. Shortest line-up of ticket holders I've ever seen, I guess it's trendy in Auckland to not plan ahead.

The venue was HUGE. Such a good setup for the event. Plenty of fun stuff to do outside too.

Hey, almost like Disneyland:


Stuff to do inside too:

Everyone probably took a photo of this, and why not since it rules:

First order of business for the day (other than running around looking at all the cool stuff) was the comic guests who arrived at 10:30. Nicola Scott had to cancel last minute, which I was initially bummed about since she was the one I most wanted to see (she was cool at the Wellington event a couple of years ago). Wound up not being an issue, as the 4 guests they had was plenty. I actually hadn't noticed the Matthew Clark (Outsiders/ Doom Patrol) was attending, but he did and I wound up dropping $370 on his art. First up a Firestorm sketch:

That's such a cool drawing, one of the best Firestorm pieces I have. He also had a huge stack of art with him, and I couldn't resist. Picked up 2 pages from Doom Patrol #2:

Amusing side note: I had these layed out in my hotel room, and today when I checked out the lady on reception, who had happened to clean the room, commented that my "art was very beautiful". Ugh, it killed me to admit that it wasn't me that did it ha (I can draw like that in my dreams maybe...)

I got a bunch of comics signed, here's one from each:

(L to R: Sienkiewicz, Clark, Rucka, David)
Peter David was also selling his scripts which damn it, not enough writers do because I love that stuff.

Bill Sienkiewicz's page prices were a bit steep for my budget, but I still forked out $150 for a sketch:

Sweeeeeeeeeeettttt. And with that, my budget of $500 for the weekend was blown already. Still, the comic stuff is what I came for. Having said that, I didn't attend any of the comic panels, opting instead for the Stargate panels. Bill would've been cool to hear, but I don't follow the other 3 creators so wasn't too worried (plus, y'know, Stargate Atlantis)

I suppose this is as good a time to say it as any: I would go gay for Jason Momoa. He was really really cool. Very likeable and funny. My camera sucks, but if you didn't fork out for a gold or silver pass, this is a little of what you missed:
Jason and Joe Flannigan playing off each other was great (as was Paul McGillion, but my shots with him didn't come out). Real chemistry between them all and possibly the best panel I've seen.

If you're ever in a small panel setting with Michael Winslow, DO NOT leave halfway though and then come back a few minutes later like one woman did, because he will make jokes about you the whole time you're gone.

Oh hey, I mentioned the queue earlier, which apparently was 2 hours long for most of the day. I can believe that, since this was taken around midday:

...and that was nowhere near the main entrance. Crazy bloody Aucklanders :p

Sunday & Monday
Queue problems were sorted by opening the gates early. I rolled up at 8am to find noone waiting (which was actually a little disconcerting at first). Was cool though, I sat in the outdoor area and had breakfast.

Yep, ghost town


This year I thought it could be cool to get the actors to sign things other than the standard glossy photo. There's Stargate toys, so I went with those:


I'm not organised enough to try finding Farscape toys (if they exist), so I went with the comic instead, which was a good choice since Gigi Edgley didn't know about it:

aaaand I went with a couple of standard photos to round things off

Make a decision already

Left

Right

Left

Right

Left

Right

Do Black Lanterns get magical reversing costumes, or can DC not make a simple decision?