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