Steve Manale is the artist behind the strip Superslackers, and here is his rendition of everyone’s favorite pint-sized floating head, MODOK! You can see all kinds of cool stuff from Steve here.
I’m still recovering from Thanksgiving dinner! Here’s a sketch of the new Flash Thompson Venom that’s been popping up in the Marvel Universe by writer Dan Slott. I know your probably confused, why did I get the writer to draw a sketch?
Aside from it being unique, a lot of writers draw some funny stuff and are very creative on the fly. I like how Dan made Venom not only look angry, but the little quote added so much to the sketch.
This is going to be the only post for the day, and we’ll get back on track for tomorrow!
Our next two heroes are a team that guard the New York New Jersey area, Nick R Bakker and Brooke Lynn Netz!
ORIGIN: Bakker and Netz are two government black ops agents who have set their sites on New York City. After getting the green light from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the duo went ahead with their plan to serve as the areas top paramilitary agents, keeping the area safe.
POWERS: They would tell you, but then they’d have to kill you. They can take care of themselves and the city just fine.
OTHER: Why a duo? Because both teams play in NYC. Why the silly names? Because there is nothing you can do with the theme of a super hero being a pair of shorts or a net. This was the best that I could come up with.
What would happen if the Red Hulk met Superboy? Tiny Titans co-mastermind Franco Aureliani assumes it would go something like this.
Superboy would wind up annoying Rulk. Lets face it; poor Red Hulk isn’t necessarily the life of the party and wouldn’t take to kindly to Superboy flyring around and annoying him like a gnat.
Check out Franco’s website to keep up with his projects.
How awesome is Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy? This sketch was from Art Baltazar of Tiny Titans and Patrick the Wolf Boy fame.
I love how Green Arrow just looks like his usual tall, regal awesome self. Speedy looks really happy to be with his mentor, with that optimistic look that we all had when we were younger. This shows a happier time in his life, before he had problems that were caused by drugs or cats.
Check out Art’s other projects here.
I think one of my highlights from New York Comic Con was getting a chance to meet and speak with Whilce Portacio. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time, and I consider him to be one of the best comic artists from the 1990s. His runs on the various X-books and his own Wetworks projects are some of my favorite stuff from that era.
I got to talk with Whilce at the Marvel booth about a bunch of things, including his favorite projects, some ideas he would like to pitch and even his upcoming run on Incredible Hulk. After such a great pitch, I’m sold. That said, I was super excited to get this Hulk sketch from him. I love that it was a quick sketch and his style permeates it.
Check out Whilce’s website to see some of the current stuff he’s working on. His run on Hulk starts in January.
At New York Comic Con, I also got this quick head sketch from everyone’s favorite archer Hawkeye! It’s by Tom Raney, who is currently working on Marvel’s Avengers Academy.
I’ve been a big fan of many of his stuff over the years, so I was super happy to not only get the chance to talk comics with him but he was generous enough to get this sketch! Super fans of my blog will remember that he also is responsible for the first sketch I ever got at a convention!
One of the best parts of going to any comic comic book show is the chance to get sketches or original art. I was lucky to get this awesome picture of Uncle Travelling Matt from Fraggle Rock at the New York Comic Con 2011!
It’s by Katie Cook, who we’ve mentioned before. I thought it was awesome that she had this for sale in her portfolio, since we all know I’ve been on a bit of an Uncle Travelling Matt kick now and again.
Matt’s sitting down–excitably–to a pizza. Under normal situations, I’d be happy for pizza. I would be doubley excited to see him hanging around a pizza parlor.
What kind of soda do you think he’s drinking? I think I would assume that he would be a big drinker of ginger ale. It fits his character very well.
I don’t remember him eating pizza on the show, but this clip does the trick. He’s so right about barbecue gender politics, with the ladies on one side and dudes on the other.
So New York Comic Con 2011 has come and gone. Let’s talk about all the fun I had in the Javits Center. But first lets talk about this picture of the Marvel section. Yes, that’s an actual set piece from the upcoming Avengers. They used it as a backdrop for their section on the convention floor.
Anyway, the convention itself was fine. I went on the Friday and Saturday. Friday was awesome; Saturday not so much, mostly due to it being over crowded. Let me get some gripes out of the way:
Captain America's costume/armor was pretty cool to look at.
The exclusive Metron from Mattel looks wicked. Love the Moebius chair!
But I did have a whole lot of fun at this show. The artist’s alley section was huge and it was great getting to look at so much awesome comics art, whether it be original pages or just interesting sketches and prints.
Legendary had an interesting assortment of props, including Night Owl's antarctic helmet and the baby from the Hangover.
Artist’s alley is such a weird and awkward social construct. All you see are comics creators of all levels waiting for someone to talk to them, with sad puppy dog eyes. The worst is that you feel obligated to purchase something. As soon as you make eye contact, you wind up having an awkward conversation about whatever their project is and they try to hard sell it to you. So not fun.
The other weird thing is the arbitrary pricing you see from table to table. At one table, you had Sara Pichelli of the new Ultimate Spider-Man charging a decent amount for a sketch of someone of her stature in the industry. And then, across the way you would find another artist, who’s never had anything not self published CHARGING THE SAME. Head meet desk. It’s just that certain people have a name value that they can use to justify charging more for than others. Just because Adam Hughes’ sketches and convention work starts at $400 means that you can charge that much.
She-Ra? A new Swiftwind? Sign me up!
I did have a lot of fun in the artist alley’s section, getting a bunch of really cool sketches and signatures. I’ll be sharing them later this week. Any who, it’s always nice talking to Walt Simonson about comics. NYCC also had ROB LIEFELD~! as a guest, so I was really happy to chit-chat with him. And for all the internet outrage he generates, he always has a decent line and is super nice to his fans.
The new Mattel Voltron series does look really cool. Maybe one of you could get your favorite blogger some for Christmas?
As for the goodies I picked up, there weren’t too many purchases that I made. I kept it relatively small, as taking the train in and out of New York makes it more difficult to buy, say a longbox full of post Crisis DC stuff. But I did get some stuff that I’m happy about.
So yes, I had an awesome time and glad that I had a chance to go. How were your NYCC experiences?
The New York Comic Con was certainly adventure time! Photo by Steven Leung (www.flickr.com/gluetree)
So the 2011 New York Comic Con has come and gone. I made the trek up this past Friday and Saturday. I certainly had a much better time then last year’s. Not that I didn’t enjoy myself last year, but I just wasn’t having it.
There are a bunch of pics, purchases, sketches and such that I’d love to talk about, but I’m really pooped. So I’ll just leave you with this.
Jem is totally outrageous. In hindsight, I really should have gotten my picture taken with her. Picture by Edward Liu (www.flickr.com/edwick)
One of the weirder things that I found myself intrigued with is Jem. After stumbling across the cartoon this summer on the Hub, I’ve become totally smitten with this totally outrageous character. Seriously.
I’ve wound up staying waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past my bedtime to watch the show because it is surreal. Anyway, they had a display case of vintage toys and marketing stuff. I wonder if there will be some new Jem stuff in the future. Or, at the very least, a re-release of the cartoons on DVD, so I won’t have to leave my girlfriend’s DVR filled with it.
So I’m going to leave you with this.
We can make a difference.
Ridiculously Awesome 