That’s a wrap!

Stuck moved to hiatus a week or so ago. Today, Vito and I are interviewed by Chris Arrant over at the Chemistry Set.

Judging from the interview, it’s uncertain when Vito will come back to it. Probably not until next year at least. Read on.

Monday Morning "Guess the Artist"

How about we take a break from the color pages and look at a nice black and white page? Guess away:

(click image to demonize)

(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007, 5/21/2007)

"Anda’s Game" inked page

A couple of weeks ago, I gave you a sneak peek at the pencils for the adaptation of “Anda’s Game” that I’m doing for IDW. Well, here’s a finished page:

Brainbot update

I’ve been neglecting to let you know when the new issues of Melt magazine have been coming out, so just head on over to the official Brainbot, Jr. site and catch up on the monthly strip.

Bring Me the Head of Gilbert Gottfried

The missus and I thought we had our backsides covered when she went on maternity leave since she had been paying into Aflac coverage through her employer. Things went pretty sour, however; they took a month and a half to process her claim, adding some hefty late fees onto our rent that month, then delivered about half the amount she was told she could expect when she purchased the policy. As a result, June will be a tight month while we play catch-up now that she’s returned to work, and I need to drum up some extra $$ to get us by. Which means, regretfully, some old comics are being put on ebay, starting with:

a bunch of Byrne X-Men

They’re priced to sell, so tell all your friends. I might include our mac & cheese box tops with multiple auction wins. More goodies will follow shortly.

Come this fall I start re-collecting some comics.

Monday Morning "Guess the Artist"

This one is from an obscure comic that I don’t even know why I ever bought…

(click image to SubLevelize)

(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007)

Batman: Grant & Breyfogle

Here’s a very long interview with the quintessential 80s/90s Batman team of Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle. Lots of interesting behind-the-scenes stuff, like the story of how Grant was fired off the bat titles after a 13 year run, or that Batman #500 sold around 4.5 million copies.

“AG: I was sent two Batman stories before Wagner and I started writing the Ventriloquist story and one of them happened to be Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, which I thought was vastly over-rated. Reading it from a British point of view it seemed to me like at least 30 or 40% of the ideas in it had been stolen from 2000AD.”

Ashley Wood’s got a gorgeous preview of the 24-7 vol.2 cover. It’s weird and exciting to see my name on the list of contributors.

update: Image has it being solicited for August 1st. I’m sure Ivan will have some copies ready to go for San Diego.

Local boy/ CCAD alum Steve Hamaker’s got a new interview over at the Pulse. Talking up Bone, Shazam and his work on Flight.

Way Back Machine

This comic didn’t make much of an impression on me when I picked it up as a kid. It’s the third part of a four-part story which offers little in the way of rising action or resolution, and brings only the barest synopsis to a reader just coming into the story to understand or care about what the heck’s going on. In other words, Super Villain Team-Up #11 was about thirty years ahead of its time.

It’s not so bad reading it now, having been desensitized to inaccessible storytelling in superhero comics, and I actually quite enjoyed it this time around. I was most struck by Bob Hall’s great looking artwork in this issue; I picked this up with a pile of other issues in the series, and his work doesn’t look this good in any other book. He was either having a breakthrough of sorts when he was working on this single issue, or, as I suspect from a careful study of these panels, Gene Colan pitched in with an uncredited layout assist. I’ll never know for sure.

Super Villain team-ups are apparently (and logically) the opposite of superhero team-ups; villains have a misunderstanding early on which causes them to work together, before later degenerating into a free-for-all death duel. Such was the case with Doctor Doom and the Red Skull, who together had hatched some plan for world conquest before the Skull deposed Doom as ruler of Latveria and shrunk him and Captain America to the size of field mice, setting them loose in the garden outside the castle. Namor’s presence is never really explained, but he proves key to restoring the protagonists to normal size (showing loyalty to Doom, rather than his fellow Invader as one might expect), and there’s a new guy called the Shroud who’s present mainly to get slapped around by everybody—Skull, Doom, and Cap alike. The guy actually cries after Cap belts him.

Writer Bill Mantlo redeems the issue on two points: the first, a single page showing once again that Doc Doom is the coolest villain in all of western literature. As Mini-Doom and Mini-Cap sneak back into the castle, Cap is surprised by Doom’s display of affection for those that serve him out of genuine loyalty. By the end of the page, however, the Doom we know returns when he gets pissed off at the sight of someone else sitting on his throne. The exchange in those last two word balloons is priceless.

The second saving feature of the issue is a great cliffhanger: everyone had ganged up on the Skull and apparently beaten him, but the Nazi’s secret teleport device sends him to his hidden base on the moon, where his finger now rests on the trigger of the dread Hypno-Ray. With the enslavement of all earth only minutes away, our heroes (and villains) can only stare at the Skull’s gloating image on a view screen in Doom’s Latverian castle. I didn’t care about much of this book when I was seven, but I did want to know how this was resolved.

Proud Poppa

I was hurrying through the grocery store a few days ago with my 22-month old belted into the cart when she pointed to something behind me and started yelling excitedly.

“Pider! Pider!”

I had no clue what might have drawn her attention; looking around, I finally saw a big display featuring a prominent movie tie-in.

“Yes, honey. That’s Spider-Man.”

I’m sure we’ll both always remember this sentimental moment of father/daughter bonding.