Dragon Ball Z: The World's Greatest Fighting Manga

For the most part, it's true. I don't think I know another manga as original, beautifully drawn, dynamic and funny as Dragon Ball and DBZ. I'm personally not a manga fan, but only because I'm unfamiliar with them. The truth it manga is a lot like comics. One that certainly stands out is Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. 

It was certainly action packed.

 Full of humanity and personal struggle.

 With dynamic landscapes

 Humor to lighten the mood...

 Great villains...

 and a heroic protagonist.

That's Dragon Ball Z

The Last Comic Book Shop I'll Ever Buy From

I had always been a Newbury Comics fan for the longest time. But I never questioned why that was. It just always seemed to be the most logical choice when when it came to buying comics and graphic novels. However through the years NC has steadily moved away from selling comics as their primary product and focused more on clothing, music, movies, etc.

Which brings me to the inevitable conclusion that NC is no longer the best place for me to buy comics. I'm afraid I'll be buying from New England Comics from now on. not only does NE Comics devote themselves solely to comics, but they also have a great selection of back issues. And I'm all about the back issues. 

Select Pages From My Sketchbook

This was one of my first sketches of DOOM a

 My first HULK sketch. A mixture of the Kirby and Ruffalo Hulks

 Two more Hulks, #2 & #3 respectively. The latter was much more Kirby-ish with a bit of my own inflections, the body was pure Schwarzenegger. 

 Playing with perspective, Red Skull's head came out a little more elongated than intended

 One of my favorite Dr. Doom sketches, he has a lot of attitude 

 My peanut shaped Thing, 'nuff said.

 Started off as a Superman sketch but he looked too sinister so he became Ultraman

Inspired by the morning talk shows of the day. FOX "NEWS" in quotes was an important detail. 

Random leftovers, 2 attempts at Red Skull and my best attempt at Captain Marvel

Comics History Lesson: A Black Spider-Man

Peter Parker Spider-Man #35 Jan. 1999

Written by Paul Jenkins with art by Mark Buckingham. This issue came out around MLK Jr Day of ‘99 and is notable for being the one page in recorded history featuring a black Spider-Man (predating Miles Morales, who’s black and hispanic, by 11 years). This makes it even more disappointing that Donald Glover wasn’t the new Spider-Man, because no one could say it hadn’t been done before.

Jenkins wrote issues #20-#50 of Peter Parker Spider-Man and it’s a very enjoyable run. The best read since the height of the Lee/Romita days (not counting all the various limited series). I used to own this issue and I wished I still did. 

True To The Source Material: Alex Ross

MARVELS was a graphic novel put out by Marvel with art by Alex Ross. It was also a fine example of re-creating an exact scene from the comic it was based on almost perfectly.

Below is a side by side comparison of how close he got. Above is the original lay-out by Jack Kirby for the Galactus Trilogy and underneath is the re-created page by Alex Ross. Pretty faithful to Kirby's original page, huh?

Dick Tracey, Bachelor: A MAD Magazine Comic Parody

DICK TRACEY, BACHELOR

A MAD Parody

Written By Stan Hart and Illustrated by Angelo Torres

Sometimes we forget that MAD Magazine started off as a comic book company and a very adult one at that. Sure in the beginning they did some parodies but it was mostly horror stuff. Stuff they would get dragged into congress for and accused of indecency.

hanks to Tales Calculated To Drive You MAD and others like them, the comic industry had to create the now defunct Comics Code Authority in order to convince congress that they could govern themselves. This was during a time when congress was looking for communists instead of doing things that would help our country. So at the time this was not considered ridiculous.

Now, enough with the history lesson enjoy the beautifully written and illustrated work above and if you're not familiar with MAD you'll soon see why they are the masters of illustrated parody.

Comic Intermission #4: Hulk Say You Buy Cookie-Crisp or Hulk SMASH!

The Mighty Avengers #242

The Mighty Avengers #242, APR '83

Written by Roger Stern and Breakdowns by Al Milgrom

Comic Intermission #3: Don't Get Between The Thing and His Fruit Pie

The Thing shows Torgo how great Hostess Fruit Pies are. What with it's light, tender crust and real fruit filling. How can anyone not like Hostess Fruit pies when it comes in such tasty flavors as apple, cherry or peach? How!?

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, CANCELED

Here I go again, another nerdy freak-out/rant post. But Why shouldn’t I? This was the best Marvel owned animated series (In my opinion) ever put on television and It’s being disassembled (Puns are fun) for really no reason. OK, maybe there is a reason, but it’s not because of something reasonable like not being a critical or commercial success. Because it was and is, the second season is still ongoing. It’s because Marvel’s new TV head, Jeph Leob, and the powers that be want a series that closely resembles Marvel’s The Avengers, you know the 3rd most grossing movie of all time.

Despite all that, I’m not going to go insane and dismiss all things Marvel or send a tweet to Marvel’s CCO Joe Quesada telling him to “die of AIDS”. No, this will be a rather somber post. Reflecting on what an awesome show Avengers: EMH was and what I hope to see in the future.

Let me start with the facts. Yesterday it was anounced that A:EMH would not have a third season and would instead be replaced by a new series called Avengers Assemble. It will be part of a new Marvel TV block along with the return of Ultimate Spider-Man and a new series called. Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and all three shows will share the same Universe. 

Nothing more was said about what to expect from the new Avengers show other than that it will closely echo the movie and Falcon is involved and is soppossed to be the avatar for the audience.

So far this doesn’t sound terrible. But that’s not the point is it? A:EMH was a perfectly good, no great, show. It had everything you wanted in an Avengers animated series. It already established many of Marvel’s well known (and not so well known but just as awesome, looking at you Guardians of the Galaxy) characters to great effect. In the second season alone it took us through the Secret Invasion story line and Hank Pym’s transformation into Yellow Jacket. And the season not even half done. 

My point is, same with the original Spider-Man movie trilogy, what’s the point in getting invested in a series if it’s just going to get re-booted in the near future anyway? Why should I keep watching something if I’ll see a new incarnation of it and I’ll have to re-invest myself into another series? I mean The Spectacular Spider-Man and all those X-Men shows were all well liked and just like that they were gone. Now, those shows at the time were on before Marvel owned the TV rights to thier charecters. But A:EMH is completley owned by Marvel, under the Disney umbrells of course. 

Now as for the other two shows, Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. I don’t get it.

I gave that Spider-Man show a chance. I’ve seen about 5 episodes. I’m not being unfair when I say I just don’t like it. There may be a few things I see from time to time that I enjoyed, but for the most part, it’s not for me. Even with the great Paul Dini as writer/producer on it. Also, if the problem was to get the Avengers show to match the Avengers movie then shouldn’t that be the case for Spider-Man? Because from what I’ve seen I don’t see how it mirrors the upcoming movie nor the previous 3 films.

I know nothing about the new Hulk show other than I know that doesn’t mirror any of the Hulk movies or the Avengers. Unless there was a deleted scene inThe Avengers where the Hulk teamed up with the Red Hulk, She-Hulk, A-Bomb, and Skaar for some reason (maybe to S.M.A.S.H. shit?). 

So back to Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I’ve already said how great it is many times before. I can remember watching episodes where they introduce one charecter after another and all I can think is “OK, they’re building up to something awesome for the finale or something awesome for the next season”. But none of that matters now. All I can do is watch the rest of this great season, enjoy it and re-watch the previous episodes.

I hope the new series keeps some of the charm of A:EMH or at least the same voice actors because I thought they did a great job. I even recognized some of those voices on Marvel vs. Capcom 3. If it mirrors like the movie it’s hard to imagine it will be terrible. It’s the fact that it will be part of the Ultimate Spider-Man TV show universe that scares me. 

Afterward:

I know I’ve been hard on Ultimate Spider-Man but it’s only because I love the charecter so much. I may be spoiling this for some (so stop reading if you want) but in a recnet/upcoming episode of A:EMH Spider-Man makes a cameo. He helps Cap with his reputation problem as well as fighting some bad guys with him. That incarnation of Spider-Man was exactly what I hoped Ultimate would be. He was a kid but he wan’t an anoying wise-ass kid. he was actually a super hero in training, not whatever Ultimate thinks thier doing.

All us Marvel fans may act like assholes and send less than flattering tweets or comments but there’s a reason. We love the Marvel Universe so much. Marvel should be lucky to have fans that care so deeply about what happens to it.

First Official Set Photo From Iron Man 3

The first official set photo from IM3 is here and even if it doesn't reveal any plot details, it's still an awesome picture. Read more here. 

Doctor Victor Von Doom's Greatest Hits