KRAKRACKKLE!!!!

Readheads are more Super

Red appears to be the favorite hair color for super powered women in comics, according to my non-scientific survey.
X-men Pic by Paul Renaud



7 Days till the Emerald City Comicon.

Redheads and Echopacitors

 I always say it is not a good idea to piss off the redheads.  Lucky for me, my favorite redhead has short hair.  Oh, and watch out, the redhead's husband just might have an Echopacitor (or a Thunder Echo...).

Echoes:
Pics from Marvel's War of Kings #5 (which didn't have nearly enough Guardians of the Galaxy in it)
Where King Black Bolt, with his echo weapons, and his redheaded wife Medusa are at war with the evil Emperor Vulcan.  And is that a bit of Kirby Krackle in the background of that cosmic explosion build up?  Sure enough.  4 color process is dead--long live Kirby!

Kirby Krackle = Dark Matter

Who knew Jack Kirby was such a visionary?
Those of us who grew up reading his comics knew he was weird.
But apparently he also predicted the phenomenon known as Dark Matter,
when he invented a graphic method for illustrating cosmic powers while staying within the limited range of 4-color presses on cheap newsprint (aka, comic books): Kirby Krackle.

Personally, I think "dark matter" is just an algebraic variable being used to hold the place of phenomenon we have not discovered or explained yet.  And I also think Kirby just liked to draw circles.  Have you seen Thor's costume (and the costume of every other Asguardian, Celestial, Inhuman, etc Kirby ever invented)?
Any way, It is very possible that Kirby was aware of the latest astrophysics theories, but I doubt he would have predicted that Kirby Krackle would one day become the name of a nerd rock band.

Winter is still in full force

I'm looking forward to March's Lion to Lamb transformation. Right now
February is going out like a Polar Bear.

Echo Weapons?

Came across some Echo Weapons in Marvel's: War of Kings
Black Bolt's voice is famous for ripping apart entire cities.
Now his followers carry echoes of his whispers as cannons.
Who knew?
The Thunder Echo will not be used as a weapon.  Fear not.

10 days till ECC

Airship Officers Hat and Goggles

Eve found the hat. I made the goggles. We are almost ready to fly on
the Free Ship Thunder Echo.

My New Aviator Bag

Evelyn sewed on the patches and doodads. I designed and made the
airship patches. A fitting dispatch bag for a Zepplin pilot, I think.

Comics and Movies, Yes. Comics and Broadway, No.

Echoes:
Spiderman Ballet by Lora Zombie
Captain America the Musical by Jack Kirby
14 days till the Emerald City Comicon

Good Code, xkcd style

From: http://xkcd.com/844/

Silent Sound

Well, wordless sound anyway.
If you draw it right, the reader doesn't need any "Crash Bang Boom"
words to tell you what is happening.
Like this image from Ultimate Comics Avengers VS New Ultimates #1
where a train meets Thor's hammer.
I can hear the train wreck.

Ex Splang It To Us Iron Man

How Adults Think About Copyright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qkyt1wXNlI&feature=player_embedded

Above is a link to Neil Gaiman showing how easy it is for adults to think about posting things on the Internet, not as stealing, but as lending.
He points out that the people who are going to buy your books (music, art, etc.) are going to buy your stuff.  The people who see (hear, etc.) your stuff on the Internet are being lent that material to see if they like it or not.  The people who like it, will then buy it and other stuff from the same author (artist, etc.).
He points out that most people who have a favorite author (artist, musician, etc) did not first learn to like that person's stuff because they walked into a store and purchased it.  They were loaned a copy by a trusted friend who said, this is one of my favorites--I think you will like it.  Then they started buying that artist's stuff.
That is the function the Internet is serving today.  We are given the opportunity to borrow content to see if we like it or not.  If we like it, we are much more likely to buy it.
Reading, listening, seeing stuff on the Internet is not stealing.  It is borrowing.
It is finding potential future favorite artists whose stuff we will then be proud to purchase and own.
It is not stealing.  It is advertising.

Unfortunately, most corporations do not view the Internet this way.
They are taking the unsupported and immature view that reading, listening, and seeing stuff on the Internet is somehow robbing them of sales.  A hypothesis they have never been able to prove, by the way.  A hypothesis that artists like Neil Gaiman, Phish, and most comic book producers have proven to be wrong.  The more material these artists post online, the more material they sell.  And the more other people post their materials online, the more the artists sell.

Thanks to http://www.boingboing.net/ for the repost.

Even Asgardians Take a Day Off

Burgers and TV, otherwise known as Yon Viewing Box.

Happy Valentines Day

I think these valentines speak for themselves: Zip, Boom, <3, Sproing, Twack!

21 Days till the ECC Comic book Convention.

Sauce with that?

Even the chickens get sauced in Dallas.

Dawn in Dallas

Finally a room with a view.

Making Ricky Nervous

The dogs get nervous whenever I start packing my bags for a trip. I'm
heading out before the dawn for Dallas.
Don't worry Ricky, I'll be back in a couple of days.

Boom

Here's a fun sound art from Batman & Robin. Alex Sinclair doesn't add
sound words to the illustration. He litterally makes the explosion out
of the words Boom Boom!
Love it.

A Cool Presentation about Empathy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g&feature=player_embedded

Go watch this 10 minute video by Jeremy Rifkin abut Empathy.
I love the topic, the content, and the comic-style illustrations that illuminate the topic.
This 10 minutes puts together separate elements I have been exploring and trying to put together for the last 10 years or so.  There must be something in the water that so many people in so many different fields of study are reaching such similar conclusions all at the same time.
Or we are all empathic beings mirroring each others thought patterns due to technologies that allow us to obliterate time and space...

Trippy stuff.  But very hopeful.  And it rings true to me.

Captain America Movie

Marvel is purchasing a Super Bowl Ad spot for their upcoming movie: Captain America which comes out next summer.
The movie stars the guy who played Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, Chris Evans, as Captain America and more impressive, in my opinion, Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull.  I guess you need a big voice when the character has a big red skull for a head--not a lot of facial expression in a skull.  But Hugo pulled off V-Vendetta with that big plastic mask on, so he will do alright.
Cap has always been one of my favorite comic heroes.  He is patriotic but not blindly obedient.  Some writers and artists have treated him well, some not so much.  I'm hoping they don't do America's greatest Avenger a disservice with this movie treatment.

Graphic Onomatopoeia

I'm still musing over Sound in Comics.
Onomatopoeia is an overly fancy word for a word that imitates the literal sound it is describing: like "Boom" or "buzz".
So when comics artists make graphic images out of onomatopoetic words, is there a fancy word for that?

And what if the artists is making a graphic onomatopoetic double entendre (something with a fully intended, but thinly veiled naughty or subversive meaning)?  Do we need a word for that?
Like the image above.  The doorbell just rang "Bong", yet the placement of the smoke makes you wonder what kind of "Bong" just got hit by Wong and the good doctor?  Hope it's not the cops at the door.
---------------------
Echoes: Stephen Strange and Wong from "The Mystic Hands of Dr. Strange #1" Marvel Comics.
Drawn by Frank Brunner

More Mystical Machine Gun Fire

I love the visual representation of sound in comic books.

Rat-a-Tat-Tat!!!

I like the sound of machine guns in comic books.
But not in real life.

Steam Punk Dalek

Apparently, this has been on the Internet for years, but I just found it.
Totally cool Steam Punk Dalek by Alex Holden.