Captain America Eats His Shield!

I've come across some of my older, ink on Bristol board, artwork. I've decided to sell a bit of it. If you're interested, here's my listing on ebay for Captain America eating his shield. The listing includes a single, comic-sized printout of my mock cover. Bid on it here!

I originally posted this image back in 2010! 

Captain America vs Batman, by Jack Kirby

Sometimes I see pencils by Jack Kirby and I have to ink and color them. I HAVE TO!! I've inked Kirby a couple of times for fun and always stuck exactly to his pencils. But, this time I took tiny little liberties that I felt spiffied it up, such as with Cap's shield. Here's his original pencils--

CATLEN: The Movie!

I've been digitizing old family movies-- When I was 13, I made up a superhero named “Catlen.” (I merely put a “t” in my last name. I thought cats were cool.) Growing up in the county, the character gave me something of my own to draw.

As I aged, I decided to make a movie with our family’s wind-up 8mm movie camera. I was 16 or 17. The quality is very varied. My mom could have filmed it properly, but instead I asked a cute girl to do it. Too bad. You can't tell a spinning car wheel is actually off the ground in one scene.

There's no sound, so I added captions with iMovie. It’s 5 minutes long, complete with “special effects!”

You might suspect that the cape and metal disks were inspired by Thor. But actually, I though Nomad looked cool.

I used the tops off Quick containers for the disks on my costume.

And, no, I wasn't supposed to break the glass on the screen door. Oops.

Comic Panel Mischief

I've enjoyed contributing to Covered Blog. It now has a sister site in Repaneled, where artists reinterpret comic panels, as opposed to comic covers. I've started contributing as of today.

The panel I used is from Captain America's Bicentennial Battles, published in 1976. (Which I've actually written about before.) Here's the original panel, cropped in on a bit...

And here's my tacky reinterpretation...

Look at it here, or check it out on the Repaneled site!

Weird Marvel Comics Ad - Ricochet Racers!

I recently ran across Marvel Spotlight #32 (1976) in my basement. The bottom blurb states "Positively the most shocking ending you'll read this month!"

Well, I flipped through the story and wasn't very shocked. I think the blurb might be referring to the actual last page in the book, an ad. It shocked me in its oddness. Click to enlarge.

I don't know how you feel about it, but in my head, it reads something like this...

Captain America Original Art

I've decided to ebay a piece of John Byrne/Joe Rubinstein art from Captain American #234. Before I sell it, however, I thought I'd list some of the things I enjoy about it. (Edit: No longer on ebay. Sold.) Click on it below if you'd like to see a larger view.

First of all, the inks are truly beautiful. If Joe Rubinstein was never a fan favorite, he should have been.

Second, the cool thing about owning original art, is that you'll notice mistakes that you'd never notice by merely looking at the printed book. For example...

The first panel has been whited out at the top. It was apparently drawn too high on the page. (A lettering issue, perhaps?) In the printed comic, the panel is lower, but slightly crooked. It must have been copied and placed a bit carelessly. (Yes. It's subtle. Have I ever mentioned I art direct for a living?)

Also, one of the panels has the lines of the door frame drawn through Cap's shoulder. When I first compared it to the printed page, I was surprised to find it there too! I shouldn't have been.

Original work, as an artifact, tells a story by itself. You can often see the history of decision-making told by white out, blue lines, or unerased pencils. You can see the "hand of the artist" in the variation of the black inks. The page above has Zip-A-Tone applied to it, which was a cool fad for a while.

I'm going to miss seeing original art, as more and more work is created solely on the computer.

Gas! Gas!

I own two Captain America comics written and drawn by Jack Kirby.












I opened the Bicentennial Battles to a page with the following panel on it...

When I opened Captain America #193, it noticed this panel...

I then (very disrespectfully) wondered why it would occur to an artist, sitting alone at his drawing table, to write about gas suddenly appearing.

I then had a great desire to pull out other Kirby comics to see if I could find more panels filled with gas.

But, following that, I had an even greater desire not to.

Captain Food Storage

Right after I received my Economic Stimulus Check, I decided to spurge a little and ordered a Faux Bronze Captain America statue. It's the most money I've ever spent on a single item like this, but it looks sooooo cool. (I own several Bowen Designs mini-busts, also cool.) I haven't gotten it yet. I will soon, hopefully.

I have a friend, who after losing his job, continued to buy things like this. A thought occurred to me. These kind of collectibles should be made from compressed rice, or such!

It would help justify buying them. If times ever got tough, you could eat them.