Steve Rogers: Super Soldier No. 2
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Dale Eaglesham

This mini-series is unfortunate. Unfortunate not from poor product but that it is a mini int he first place. I love Bucky as Cap and the direction that title has gone for the last several years. But I'm also enjoying this tale of a cowl-less Steve Rogers on a semi-espionage mission (yes, yes, in uniform) that feels both true to the character and fresh in it's own way. We've followed Steve Rogers as he explores the resurfacing of someone using the Erskine name, the same name as the Professor who developed his super-soldier serum. In this issue, Rogers meets the villain behind the plot. Set in Madrippor, the story really does feel exotic in that regard, with little details like Rogers grabbing banners to slow his fall but the fabric tearing because of 'poor Madripoorian quality'... to the vaguely Indonesian-slash-Moroccan vibe of the interiors and cistyscapes. I quite enjoy it.


Gah! retro Kirbyesque android face!

This is all about Dale Eaglesham. I LOVE this guy. i liked him on JSA but I LOVED him on Fantastic Four, and same again here, with the broad chests and chiseled jaws and smaller eyes, like everyone is a member of the same family of bullies that kicked sand in Peter Parker's face. It's glorious, consistent artwork, with retro flourishes and modern framing. I can't get enough of it. And add to that Carlos Pacheco covers? What a win.

9/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Steve ‘Fighting American’ Rogers
2. Review: Captain America No. 603
3. Cap Event in Summer 09?

Invincible Iron Man No. 29
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Salvador Larroca

This title is a tough nut. Fraction is attempting to tell a story like you would see in a feature film, one not about superheroes, very much in the Iron Man film vein. We see Stark meeting with potential investors, in a red and effing gold suit. We see him setting up his secret cabal of engineers to pull a Tucker-style concept car scheme (but one that actually runs. Well TWO). We see developments in his relationship with Maria Hill and Pepper Potts, as the after-effects, or lack thereof, from his mindwipe are explored and denied. And we see more of Stark sussing out what's going on with the Hammer women, including identifying the younger one as the girl behind Ezekial Stane's terrorist attack on Stark Industries in the book's first arc.


Tony and Pepper discover their repulsor batteries...repulse each other. Which calls to mind OTHER positions...

I'm loving almost everything about the storyline, from Rhodey going to the Army to volunteer his services again in the hopes that they will abandon the Detroit Steel program (a moment of such obvious naivety I have to wonder if it was a fact-finding mission) to watching the Hammer women work their scheme, to the new Detroit Steel unmanned war drones in the hands of gadget geeks with iPhones, to the continuing evolution of Stark and Pepper. My only gripe is that the 'unlimited power source' concept feels both too timely and too dated. We're in the throes of an energy crisis today, and sustainable design is all the rage, so it feels a bit too on the nose, while at the same time, reminds me too much of the universal battery scheme in WildCATS. We'll see how it plays out.

I've grown very familiar with Larocca's use of familiar character models in his work, most obviously Lost's Josh Halloway as Stark, so much so that when I don't immediately recognize Halloway, I'm thrown. He's doing a pretty good job of realizing Pepper too, though I don't know the model. The armor is looking great, though I'm not as much a fan of the bigger eye slits. But still, one of the best books of the month, month after month. The golden age of Iron man stories continues...

9/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Review: Invincible Iron Man No.11
2. Review: Invincible Iron Man No.11
3. Invincible Iron Man!

Daredevil No. 509

Writers: Andy Diggle / Antony Johnston
Artist: Roberto De La Torre

De La Torre, who I first became familiar with in the pages of Thunderbolts, is a good fit for this book, if you can't have the murky, sketchy work that we had a few years ago with the dream team on the book at the time. His is half way between that style and superhero art, and frankly, a story with Luke Cage, Iron Fist and 3,000 ninjas involved probably wants that. But man, I'm really struggling with this arc. I love Andy Diggle, primarily from his Losers work with Jock, but what the hell. I can't even imagine the planning retreat that led to Shadowland. Someone actually thought you could do something like putting a castle prison full of ninja in Hell's Kitchen and put Daredevil in charge, but have it devoid of intrigue or plot development, and it wouldn't get old? The only thing interesting about this arc was leading up to it, not knowing if it was really going to happen, if Matt would go down this road. And then he did. And now, we learn, he's possessed. BORING. Characters making dodgy choices of their own free-will are interesting. Characters having excuses for erratic behavior, less so. But especially when everyone else in this story has glowing green eyes and is obviously influenced by dark forces, and Matt did NOT, it was at LEAST interesting when it seemed like he was surrounded by bad influences and manipulated down a dark path, taking the final leap himself. But no. And given how long the series will continue while Shadowland is ongoing, we have plenty of MEH to look forward to, before the inevitable character replacement int he role of Hell's Kitchen guardian, the worst kept secret at Marvel.


Points for Typhoid Mary's Dead Kennedys jacket. Did they get the rights for that? Hmmm... we'll see if it's gone by the time the trade paperback is out...

It really underscores a growing concern with Daredevil. It's always been a book, when in it's good arcs, with a noir pedigree, with a tragic lead making troubled choices and carrying terrible burdens. But look at characters like Batman, who suffer but are clinical and intelligent. Meanwhile, arc after arc, Murdock is manipulated, loses his marbles, goes into denial mode until the latest girlfriend is eviscerated, whatever. Don't you pine for some stories where Daredevil is being tested and manipulated, but he turns the tables on them, playing THEM, because he's that good? I for one am hungry for some COMPETENCE under the cowl.

4/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Review: Daredevil No. 505
2. Daredevil #56
3. Daredevil #50-52

Adi Granov Cover

Tom Raney Cover

Black Widow: Deadly Origin No. 1
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artists: Tom Raney /John Paul Leon

For the record, I got the Tom Raney cover, which stung, not because it's Raney, but because I loves me some Adi Granov. So I show you both, up top, for science.

This was a mini-series I was looking forward to, for a few simple reasons: I like espionage stuff, and Black Widow, when divorced from all the superhero stuff, is Marvel's coolest spy; John Paul Leon would be working on the book; and it's set in the world of the spy game, not the Avengers. This is an origin story, and it'll be interesting to see how Cornell folds in some disparate elements of Widows past, such as her brief first appearance with magnetic powers, for example. So far, he's already tackled, in one issue, the circumstances of her adoption, her training, her mentorship, murder and intrigue, her agelessness, and both Logan and The Winter Soldier. Very nice! This is one of those blast-from-the-past stories, where ghosts haunt the present that yield revelations about how the character developed. Unlike MANY mini-series these days, it doesn't feel like a shoe-horned, out-of-continuity story. I'm enjoying the narrative so far.


This shot, of Widow's old mentor getting ventilated, was equal parts Michael Mann and Akira. I love it.

The art is a mixed bag, to be fair. I think Tom Raney is producing some of the best work of his career, and I've been a fan since his Stormwatch days.


An example of Raney's combat sequences. Great panel flow in the vertical stack format.


His combat sequences are getting more detailed and technical, and I liked a lot of his framing choices.


An example of those googly-eyes. And this is one of the better ones!

Unfortunately, he's STILL producing faces with eyes that don't focus, and it may be a pet peeve for me alone, but it completely wrecks the composition of each panel when I see those googly-eyes. Drives me nuts! And I know what i'm talking about, as an artist, because it's something you have to be consciously aware of, and I just can't decide if he doesn't know, or doesn't care. But what's right here is very right. The really unfortunate thing for Raney, however, is sharing a flashback-based espionage book with John Paul Leon.


John Paul Leon's page work, and last page of the issue. Dig Winter Soldier's old-school cyberarm!

Not JUST because JPL is one of my favorites personally. But his style is murky and evocative and works with this material so wonderfully, it pushes a hard juxtaposition with Raney's more contemporary comic art. There are definitely scenarios where this works, namely books that explore flashbacks in the comic styles of the period being flashed to. This isn't one of them. I found myself hoping, with every page turn, that the next would continue the flashback narrative. That's just not fair to Raney, who has paid his dues and is putting out some solid work here.

8/10 clicks



See what I mean about Granov's work? Man,that's neck tattoo worthy...

Related posts:

1. Winter Men #1
2. Is This Black Widow?
3. Review: Avengers The Origin No 1 – 2

Otherwise known as 'A Sentimental Journey' but without the big band.

I used to get hives at the prospect of going to Toys R Us as a kid. I mean the GOOD kind. It was glorious. The shelves reached to the heavens, the aisles were a mile long, and the greatest torture was being told: pick ONE. Torture then, because I wanted three, and torture now, because the memory makes me feel like I was a selfish child. But anyway, that's youth. And that was Toys R Us. For this action figure kid, there was no better.

We went to Toys R Us this weekend to source a ride-on wagon type Radio Flyer for our sick toddler, Wee Z, who loves pushing and being pushed and wifebot(tm) wanted to cheer her up with a little surprise. While we didn't find the toy we were looking for (Amazon got it to us one day later, and cheap, too) I did take some time to walk around and just flash back to being a kid, but WITH my kid in hand, who was cranky and not in the mood but liked a few things. But here's what caught my eye.

We start with a line of licensed toys called 'Imaginext'. The designer in me was delighted. These are aimed at younger kids so the toys have less choking hazards, are more durable, and have a cute squatness to them. Not as cute as superdeformed Japanese toys or the rad arthouse hipster figures you wouldn't be finding here anyway. But I was still pretty jazzed. it's like these are the Scions to regular action figures being Toyotas, like training wheels for future me-type kids.

It's the subject matter that got me the most. i would have KILLED for some of this. I think. Or, I like that it exists NOW, at any rate, given my current tastes in fantasy and illustration.


See, dino action...


The Penguin...


Effing vikings!


Serpent attackeds...


Skeletal dino backs up the first dino...


Oh yes.


And where, and where, is the Batman?
Right here.


Two-Face, both menacing and coy.


I just don't know. Puberty?


The first Batmobile to strike my fancy.


Then I found this Mr. Potato Head, randomly stuffed in front of some other products. We've noted this one before around here. I just think that's a clever name.

Here were the highlights of a toy line on Terminator. Had it been SCC there might have been a bunch of salacious Summer Glau figures, but no.


I LOVE the Terminator torso attackeds. Now you can have one in the playroom (or office)


This T-600 has a removable yuckface of zombie skin.


I told wifebot(tm) they had sex toys at Toys R Us.

Then I turned the corner and was hit with the effing Iron Man section. Of course, of COURSE this exists, but I just didn't really parse it until now. I spent my childhood with one Iron Man figure (Secret Wars) and pining for more, and even through adulthood would watch for good ones here and there, of which there were few. But now...


I present the good, the bad and the whytheface.


You know I would have worn the HELL out of these... for about 3s until my coke bottle glasses fogged up.


These have a name, like giant Kubrics, but not as cool as the ones I have in the cloffice/TRDL Studio. But I liked the paint.


A superdeformed old school armor.


Most awesome figure seen.


Second most awesome figure seen.
And there were many more. Even Nick Fury!
Black Widow was long sold out, presumably. And no Peppers for big pervs.

At this point I was overstimulated with youthful craving and adult financial concerns, so I backed away.


And then I stumbled across a big Tumbler, and had to hurtle myself through the plate glass window to avoid buying it. Sure, all of these are available online, it was just seeing it all inone place, I was 10-12 again.

Pretty fun!
And documented, for science.

Related posts:

1. Jonah Hex Toys Cause Me Hypocritical Rumblings
2. Gary Kurtz Toles the Star Wars Fail: It’s the Toys!
3. 3 Rad Toys Seen this Weekend

I can't get enough of this. Enlarge it so you can be adequately educated.
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/ ... e_date.php

Related posts:

1. Awesome Typeface Selector Infographic
2. Stuka Carpet Sculpture
3. Dating Game WInner Convicted as Serial Killer

In the immortal words of the One who Toles:
I want to go to there.



http://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/the-l ... 9148219/1/

Dude! Even a Snackb0y11 style specimen!

Related posts:

1. Becknauld Owns in a Steampunk Manner
2. Video Game Burlesque Show at Bordello
3. Star Wars Burlesque Parody Tradition Continues

I came across Madonna's work while researching a new direction I'm thinking about for my TRDL retro pin-up series, incorporating typewriter style text into a neutral composition. he did some sketchbook pieces that involved an object and some type (hand lettered) and it was a good stylistic note. Anyway, from there, I explored his amazing sketchbook pages, and then found his All Over Coffee series of watercolor/india ink renderings which have been published weekly in the Chronicle. I mean, GUH: I don't have artist envy that often, but in all my architectural rendering, I've never come CLOSE to this natural grace and flow in found object/scene sketches. Add to that his wonderful text juxtapositioning in these pieces, and it's a profound trip. I love it.

Two of my favorites:






http://www.paulmadonna.com/

Sketchbook section: http://www.paulmadonna.com/sketchbook/cats_smoking.php

All Over Coffee: http://www.paulmadonna.com/all_over_coffee/

Also, dig this detail:


This isn't progress work. This is three different hand drawn pieces in the field over time. It really illustrates, so to speak, how consistent he is in proportion and perspective accuracy. AMAZING.

I am hereby motivated to resume my field sketches in the 25th hour of my days.

Related posts:

1. Fine Art Reproductions… in COFFEE
2. Wrong: Paul Chooses World Cup Winner
3. My Next Project in Our Deck Beautification Program

If you aren't up on Mad Men's current season, I won't spoil anything, but at the very least know that they moved offices, and in keeping with the times, interior styles as well. So all the original office set material, as well as some costumes etc have been put up for auction for charity.

Very cool! The starting prices were modest but it's getting going. Fancy a shag in Don Draper's office couch? It's going to cost you (but not as much as it costs his secretaries)...

I do find it unfathomable that Betty Draper's blue dress is already up to $1900 and Joan's AWESOME office dress is only at $800. I mean, if you're going to buy the costumes of actresses for your sex play, and I have to hope thats why you're doing it and not to shove it on a chrome dog statue and do wrong things to it in a dark solitary corner of saddddt, then I would think you'd want that Joan dress! Hotchaaaa! But hey, different tastes... so to speak...

Anyway, check out the auctions at the link below...
http://gawker.com/5612441/mad-men-furni ... on-on-ebay

Related posts:

1. Ferris Bueller House Still For Sale
2. Wrong: The Keys That Doomed the Titanic For Sale
3. "casual friday." WHY?

edible ice PISTOLS.

the only thing more full of win than this is angelina jolie's womb.

Related posts:

1. Edible Chairs
2. Keeping Salt Salty
3. Edwin[A] A. Salt?

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