Comics

Punks – the comic

Following on from the insane God Hates Astronauts from last month it seems now is the season for really very silly / funny / un-PC comics as Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain bring you ‘Punks – The Comic’.

Essentially a series of scenarios involving four housemates – Skull, Abraham Lincoln, Fist and Dog – in various surreal episodes that recall the Young Ones mixed with the irreverence of Tank Girl more than anything else.

The difference here is that the artwork is all rendered in a beautiful sepia collage style which is what drew me to it in the first place. Skull seems intent on punching Dog in the balls but is thwarted by his protective Wunderpants, Dog is whacked through the ceiling and has to fight for his life after accidentally killing a roaming garden gnome.

There’s also a few pages of games with a cut out card game which ends with the winner getting a punch in the nuts and a page of puzzles which have no easy winners. Any comic that can include the lines “Your balls will be mine! For me to smash with my hands!… That came out wrong” is fine with me. Out now from Image, very silly and NSFW, my new favourite comic, can’t wait for issue 2.

Posted in Comics. | No Comments |

Mike McMahon Judge Dredd Cursed Earth commission

These are the pencils for a Judge Dredd commission I’ve been waiting on for between 18 months and 2 years from one of the greats – Mike McMahon.

I asked for a full-on Cursed Earth scene, basically a recreation of either the cover or inside spread of Prog 61, the first issue of 2000ad I ever bought and he’s knocked it out the park.

I’ve enhanced the pencils in Photoshop here as Mick uses a very light grade – you can see the original plus many more commissions both penciled and inked on his excellent tugging your coat blog.

Now to wait for the inked version…

Posted in 2000ad, Art, Comics. | No Comments |

2000ad Prog 1900

Big ‘jumping on’ issue out today from 2000ad and another milestone reached at Prog (short from programme) 1900. This is to entice new readers to get on board, all new stories begin and to make it even easier for newbies they’ve released a free 97 page pdf featuring primer stories for the characters in the latest issue. Sure enough Dredd swallows half of it but it’s all good material and you can’t complain when it’s free.

I see so many people coming back to this comic after leaving it and after 37 years of weekly issues they’ve got to be doing something right – roll on Prog 2000. I also chuckled at the cover of the recent sister publication the Judge Dredd Megazine which arrived the same week as the Scottish Independence vote – classic Dredd from Glenn Fabry. Actually for all the great press 2000ad gets ‘the Meg’ is actually firing on all cylinders at the moment and well worth a look too.

 

Posted in 2000ad, Comics. | No Comments |

Sandman ‘Overture’ #3

Sandman Over1-3JH Williams III is currently knocking it out the park on the art for the revitalised Sandman series, ‘Overture‘. In issue 3 he manages to somehow channel parts of Moebius, Bernie Wrightson and Drulliet into his own painterly palette.

A real visual treat to behold in every issue with special Dave McKean variant covers and ‘extended’ versions where they strip away the colours and give behind the scenes peeks into the making of each episode.

Other honorable mentions for decent series’ running at the moment: East of West, Black Science, B.P.R.D. and Prophet – which has just ended its current arc and looks like it will be going into a new phase called ‘Earth War’.

Posted in Comics. | No Comments | Tags: , ,

DKW comic by Sergio Ponchione

DKW DitkoThis is an interesting comic I picked up the other week out of curiosity. It’s a one-off ode to the masters of the art – Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood – by Sergio Ponchione who’s a new name to me. He manages to give a brief overview of each artist’s career, contributions to the medium and personal life whilst channeling a little of their style as he explains their importance to a budding young illustrator who’s not familiar with their work.

It’s an oddity whose only weakness is its shortness, this could have been expanded to 3 issues easily. As a love letter to the three creators it’s charming though, search it out as I will be doing for his 4 issue comic, Grotesque from Fantagraphics. Annoyingly it seems he was in London at Gosh Comics not 10 days again discussing the comic but I missed it.

Grotesque

Posted in Art, Comics. | 1 Comment | Tags: , , , , ,

Inky Fingers blog and podcast

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I post original comic art alongside copious amounts of comics news and such. This is because I’ve collected it since the late 90’s, mainly from artists who have drawn for the British comic 2000ad. The original art collecting community is a growing one but the 2000ad-centric one is still small enough that most people know or know of each other.

A couple of collector friends of mine – Simon Beigh and Julius Howe – have started a regular podcast and Facebook page called Inky Fingers that talks about all things related. This can mean interviews with the artists themselves and collectors or musings on pieces currently on eBay and collecting tips. I was recently asked to chat about my collection on their latest podcast and I share time with the great Carlos Ezquerra in another interview. Check it out here...

Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food. | No Comments |

Moose Kid Comics launches today

This is excellent – a free 36 page comic aimed at kids by 40 artists with the intent of promoting unique characters with non-brand tie ins to a new young audience. Anyone with small kids will know that there aren’t that many weekly comics out there for the under 10s that don’t tie in to some sort of franchise whether that be a computer game, a toy line, a film or TV show. The days of weekly creator-owned comics for kids are largely a thing of the past save for The Beano which struggles on and The Phoenix which has gone from strength to strength over the past two and a half years.

Jamie Smart is one of the regular contributors to The Phoenix and has put together Moose Kid Comics as a statement about what British kids comics can be with the intent to open up a debate and introduce new audiences to the medium. Read more about their intent here and download the first issue free here. I’ve not read it yet but had a quick flick through and it looks excellent with a Young Tank Girl strip written by Alan Martin and work by Mark Stafford standing out immediately. All I know is that my kids are going to freak when they see this.

Posted in Comics. | No Comments | Tags: , ,

Simon Roy’s ‘Jan’s Atomic Heart & other stories

Fans of Brandon Graham and Simon Roy‘s ‘Prophet’ (which is apparently ending soon) could do worse than grab a copy of this. A collection of short sci-fi stories from the last four years or so, some new, some not. They all have that off-kilter look at a future we’ve come to recognise in the pages of Prophet where the everyday mundanities of life are seen through deadened eyes and it’s a dog eat dog world.

Posted in Comics. | No Comments |

Bolland references Bolland (and McMahon)

The Judge Dredd Megazine issue 350 sees Brian Bolland revisit his classic 2000ad Presents cover of old (which is nearly 30 years ago now) with a new version, updating friends and foes alike. This is a fanboy’s wet dream with all sorts of references and characters that Bolland has never drawn before.

Note that Judge Hershey (top left, black bob haircut) is virtually identical to the original version. Whilst Judge Anderson, (bottom left, blonde) who was smirking at Hershey’s straight-faced-ness in the original is now giving a ‘don’t even think it’ kind of look to the other blonde, bottom right (this character’s name actually escapes me).

He’s also had a go at realising Mike McMahon‘s Howler character but it really only comes off like a 2D cardboard cut out against his 3D figures. I’m hoping it’s a wraparound cover too, what with Judge Fire‘s shoulder pad just in shot half way up the left hand side. Both scans taken from Comics Alliance.

Posted in Art, Comics. | No Comments |

Hellboy In Hell 6 – out this Wednesday

I could just look at Mike Mignola‘s art forever and never get bored. This is out on Wednesday – he’s averaging one issue every 6 months now. If you like your Hellboy universe a bit more regular then I recommend the B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth series which is monthly and has just gone into full gear after treading water for a good 18 months.

Posted in Art, Comics. | No Comments |