Art Show: Zoinks!

Scooby and the Gang



By The Fake Henry.

There Wolf!



By Francesco Francavilla.

Frank



By Sam Hiti.

Elsewhere... adventure never looked so good

Fanta



Last weekend's Five for Friday assignment was to Name Five Favorite Projects/Books From Fantagraphics Not By Charles Schulz, Los Bros, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes Or Peter Bagge. I'm always glad to poke holes in the perception that Fantagraphics publishes nothing but impenetrably artsy comics for snobs. It's just not true. Here's my pick of five great adventure comics they've put out (after forgetting that they also used to publish Usagi Yojimbo).

1. Delphine, Richard Sala
2. Interiorae, Gabriella Giandelli
3. Black Hole, Charles Burns
4. Almost Silent, Jason
5. Castle Waiting, Linda Medley

Death-Day



And speaking of artful adventure comics, this week's Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs was about Sam Hiti's latest graphic novel, Death-Day, Part One.

Art Show: Stay Alive on the Terror-Planet!

Sea Monsters Attack!


By Frank R Paul. [Illustrateurs]

Ariel



Artist Unknown [Cruel Fairytale...]

ERBdom



By Larry Ivie. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Jungle Girl



By Bruce Timm [Pink of the Ink]

Korg: 70,000 BC



By Pat Boyette. [Illustrateurs. Check out other, lower res Korg covers here.]

Black Canary, Black Widow, Hulk, Dune, a space girl, and Frankenstein meets Twilight after the break.

Comics News: He talks to fish

Geoff Johns discusses Aquaman



Johns keeps his Brightest Day cards hidden really well in this interview, but he does talk a bit about why Aquaman is cool:

He's a character that everybody knows. He has had successful runs in the past, and I guess he's probably more well known to the general public than Green Lantern even is at this point...

And defends him against those who think he's lame:

The whole thing is, they always say, "Well, he talks to fish." It's part of who he is. I think there are some inherent things that may be there, but every character is like that. I think the key is to embrace what Aquaman is and not turn away from it. So often, we turn away from the core of what Aquaman is. I think the key to success is embracing exactly who Aquaman is while adding some dimensions to it, building off the strong foundation that's already there. There's a reason the character is popular. There is a reason that people like that character. If you look at the mainstream DC t-shirts that they sell in stores, Aquaman is always there. He definitely has an audience.

I understand the need for secrecy about story details, but I do wish he'd said more about who exactly he thinks Aquaman is. That "iconic interpretation," as Dan Didio calls it, is going to be what makes or breaks this relaunch of the character. Surely Johns could've talked about that without revealing Brightest Day story details?

A masked Nazi-fighter, a Daring contest, and the Day of Death after the break.

Friday Night Art Show: Achtung, Squiddie!

Excuse me, Madame



By Jeremy Vanhoozer.

Squiddie



By Kyle Hunter. [Sketchy Business]

Triton



By Monsterpocalypse.

First in the Future



By Frank Frazetta [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Marrina



By Jesse Hamm. Lots more Alpha Flight art in that link. I especially dig his Heather Hudson and Sasquatch.

The Sea Girl



I don't recognize that signature. Anyone know? [Galactic Central]

Aquaman, Anyone?



By Jesus Saiz. [DC Universe: The Source]

Aquaman vs. Nazi Fish



By DC Stuelpner.

Spawn of Space



Artist Unknown [American Pulps & Magazines]

First Wave



By Rags Morales [DC Universe: The Source]

Catwoman



By Alex Ross. This will always be Catwoman's costume to me.

Golem



By Patri Balanovsky. [Sketchy Business]

Play Time



By Sam Hiti. Check this one out too. It's sort of a sequel.

Don't Feed the Bears



By Mel Milton.

Wooden Ninja



By Eric Zermeno.

Odin



By Pere Pérez. [Victor Santos]

Ride of the Valkyrie



By Tony Mayoh. [Sketchy Business]

Zoom Quilt



By lots of people. You have to click through and watch this. It's a Flash animation that zooms inward, taking you deeper and deeper through a continuous series of paintings and eventually looping on itself. Amazing.

Space Lion



By Jeremy Vanhoozer.

Teeth



By Scott Burroughs.

Space Squadron



By Sol Brodsky (maybe). [Collectors Assemble]

And Now the News: Try to control the panic

Cave Girl vs. Skull Heads



Those skull-headed guys are the coolest jungle villains ever. [The Comic Book Catacombs]

Given enough prep time...



The old maxim goes that given enough prep time, Batman can defeat anyone. Diamondrock proves though that Batman doesn't need no prep time. He's always ready.

Drake Bacula: MonSTAR



Brandon Terrell (Horrorwood) has found a new way to combine his love of horror with his love of Hollywood in a new chapter book about a child-star vampire. It's targeted at grades K-3, which means that I'm totally getting this for the boy.

Death Day



Sam Hiti (Tiempos Finales) is serializing his new graphic novel Death Day on his website before offering it for print. I say this as someone who loved Tiempos Finales, but from the first two chapters, this is the best thing Sam's ever done. It's eerie and mysterious and exciting. And free. Please go give it a look.

Aurora of Jupiter



Go get that space monster, Aurora! [Pappy's Golden Age]

Friday Night Art Show: Batman should be this weird...

Sunken City



Not sure who the artist is, but it was found during the travels of Admiral Calvin.

The Boats of the Glen Carrig



By Lawrence [Poulpe Pulps].

Creature from the Black Lagoon



By John Richards.

Jungle Girl



By Steve "SKE" Ellis.

The Lost World



By Joseph Clement Coll [Golden Age Comic Book Stories].

Dryptosaurus



By Charles Knight [Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs (a blog that Siskoid introduced to me) and Golden Age Comic Book Stories. It takes a village to find a link.].

Kim Possible



I'm not sure who the artist is, but this is another one found by my other half, Admiral Calvin.

Batman and Robin



By Sam Hiti. Batman should be this weird all the time.

Tommy Gun



By Gene Gonzales.

Zatanna



By Hoa Phong [Admiral Calvin again].

Uchucaesar



By Yasushi Torisawa [Giant Monsters Attack!].

Adventureblog Gallery: Frankenstein and Friends

The Addams Family



By Sam Hiti.

Mr. Hyde



By Dave Malan.

Frankenstein's Womb



Art from Warren Ellis' Frankenstein project by Marek Oleksicki. I love how faithful it is to Shelley's description.

Wake the Dead



Concept art by Gino Acevedo from the film based on Steve Niles and Chee's modern-day retelling of the Frankenstein story. Another faithful depiction.

Happy Birthday, Dear Monster



Today's not an anniversary for Mary Shelly or her book or any of her creations, but this picture's too cool not to share anyway. It's Boris Karloff celebrating the 150th anniversary of Frankenstein's publication in 1968. (Found in Life's photo archive.)

Oh, and as long as we're talking Frankenstein, check out this short interview with actor Doug Jones (Abe from Hellboy) about Guillermo del Toro's planned Frankenstein film. Jones wants to play the Monster and there's a strong chance that this version's depiction of the creature will be yet again faithful to Mary Shelly's description. Turns out that del Toro is a big fan of Bernie Wrightson.

(I feel like I should mention that my preference for this look on the Monster doesn't have nearly as much to do with fundamentalist demand for faithfulness to the source material as it does with the design just looking really really cool.)