Elsewhere on the Internets...

I've been fighting a cold the last few days and unfortunately I'm losing. The Friday Night Art Show will have to be a Saturday Night Art Show this week. In the meantime, lemme catch up with a couple of other things, like what else I've been up to online lately. (Not much, actually.)

Five for Friday



In honor of Veteran's Day, last weekend's Five for Friday assignment was to Name Five Good Characters With A Real Or Fake Military-Style Rank. I almost missed the "Good" qualifier and had to redo a couple of answers before sending them in, but here's who I ended up with:

1. Lt. BD
2. Captain America
3. Col. Steve Trevor
4. Sgt. Frank Rock
5. Cobra Commander

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs



Taking a break from Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, this week I spent some time with Al Williamson's version.

I grew up reading Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson’s Star Wars strips and I was always impressed with how real Williamson’s characters looked without looking exactly like the actors. His use of models sometimes meant that figures looked posed and static, but it also leant credibility to the fantastic stories he and Goodwin were telling. As did his talent at creating lush, detailed worlds. It was almost like these were the real adventures of my favorite Rebels and Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford were just actors playing the parts.

I’d never read Williamson’s Flash Gordon stuff before this collection, but the same traits are all there. If you like his Star Wars stuff, there’s no reason you won’t enjoy this too, especially with Archie Goodwin joining in on some of the writing. But what surprised me about the book was its diversity. All the stories share some common Williamsonisms (giant mushrooms and alien animal life decorating the landscapes, for instance), but it’s interesting to see the different ways of doing things that Williamson employed depending on the particular project.

More here.