A (Comic Book) Page Out of My Past

In 1982 I was 10 years old and really getting into comic books.  I only had a handful and loved reading any the kids on my street had laying around.  I hadn't started collecting yet, I didn't really know that was an option.  Then one day at Stop N Shop, I found Team America issue 1!  Wow!  It was red, white and blue with motorcycles! I loved it!  It seemed like only a few trips later and I found issue 6!  This was like a goldmine!  It was around this time that I discovered there were 2 Comic Book Stores in the area and I could buy Back Issues! So Team America was one of the first titles I really started to collect.

You never heard of Team America? Not a big surprise, it only lasted 12 issues.  Team America started out as the Ideal toy company's plan to remarket their Evel Knievel line due to his bad publicity (punching the paparazzi before it was cool!).  They kept the colors and Stunt Cycle and asked Marvel Comics to work up a backstory, like they did with GI Joe.

I had no idea at the time but the book was really thrown together by Marvel, pretty last minute.  It got a little momentum but to a 10 year old kid, bright stories about motorcycle races and stunt shows along with fighting bad guys (even Hydra!) and a mysterious black clad member (The Marauder!) were super exciting!

The reason for this trip into my childhood is that a few weeks ago on eBay I came across a page of original artwork from Team America issue 5! Actually, I came across 6 pages, all from the same seller.  Immediately, I was interested in Page 10 and I ended up winning the auction!  I was really psyched and the seller let me know he would send my page out right away.  He also wanted to know if I would be interested in a deal for the other pages that didn't sell! 

So, I'm proud to announce that I am the current owner of 6 pages of art from Team America issue 5!  One of the very first comic books that I started collecting and I now own the original artwork drawn to make it!

I've included scans of the original pages (which are drawn at 11"x17").  The dark word balloons are due to the fact that at the time, the dialogue and captions were pasted onto the original art, so that is the glue showing through.
 

 If you search around online, there are a few interesting articles about how the Team America toys and comic book came to be. Otherwise you can just stay here and look at the awesome artwork, with me!

2012 - Dark Cranboyz!

 It's time once again for the Cranboyz to end another year long theme!

The 2102 theme, Dark Cranboyz, was inspired by the villains characters many of the Cranboyz created and played in the game DC Universe Online.  We had so much fun trashing Gotham and Metropolis we decided to keep the ball rolling and see what villain sketches we could knock out!  Now that the year is over, I put together this collection of all of the Dark Cranboyz sketches!

 

Being X-Men fans, it's no surprise that Apocalypse got 2 sketches this year!

Andy's is by Andy Bennett and Shane's is by Darryl Banks.

 

Andy Bennett is moving up in the ranks of Cranboyz sketches! 

Popa's Black Flash is also by Andy Bennett.

 

 

Shane added a couple of baddies to his G.I. Joe book!

Buzzer is by Darryl Banks and Destro is by Joe Eisma.

 

 

Juggernaut is a character that's always turned out well for the Cranboyz.

Shane's is by Ron Frenz and Andy's is by Darryl Banks.

 

 

More X-Men villains!

Andy got Scalphunter by Josh Medors and Shane got Dark Phoenix by Comfort Love.

 

 

Mega villain Thanos got two Cranboy sketches! 

Popa got his from Mike McKone and Eric's is from Darryl Banks. 

 

 

A couple of Marvel villains.

Eric got Kang from Adam Withers and Shane got Sin from Richard Cox.

 

 

Eric added two more Iron Man villains!

Goliath by Robert Atkins and Blizzard by Pat Olliffe. 

 

 

Two major bad guys for Shane's Titans book!

Dr. Light by Dave Wachter and Trigon by Daniel Govar. 

 

 

Dave picked up the classic Spider-Man viilain Man-Wolf by Bridgit Scheide.

More Spider-Man villains!

Karen got Mysterio from Shannon Gallant and Andy got Kraven from Dave Wachter and the Chameleon from Barry Kitson.

 

 

Shawn started a classic Transformers sketchbook this year!

His first sketch is the Decepticon leader, Megatron by David Hindelang.

 

Shane added some key members of the Oktober Guard to his G.I. Joe book!

Col. Brekhov by Shannon Gallant, Daina by Josh Warner, Dragonsky by Jeremy Dale and Horrorshow by Adam Withers.

 

The original Ravager by Scott McDaniel and Superboy Prime by Darryl Banks, both from Shane's Titans book.

 

Andy collected some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle viallains!

The Shredder is from andy Bennett and the Triceraton Warrior is from KEVIN EASTMAN!

 

 

Some of Gotham City's Most Wanted!

Shawn got Two Face from Dave Wachter, Popa got Mr. Freeze by Scott McDaniel and Dave got Poison Ivy by Brendon and Brian Fraim.

It was another fun year of hitting the conventions, picking up sketches and hanging out with friends. You really can't go wrong with that combination!  These are just a small amount of the sketches we brought home, in 2012! Be sure to check out all of our Comic Art Fans galleries to see the rest of our collections!

And Happy New Year!

Collectorz Tool for collections

If you read our blog than you or someone you know, at some point or another, have or had some sort of comic book “collection” or another. For most of the members of our blog I’m confident in saying the collection is a generous size. Trying to figure out a way to keep wish lists and current collection lists current and accessible has always been interesting to say the least. Always allowing my short attention span to kick in when at a con – “oh squirrel, oh squirrel”; and forgetting more than half the books I actually wanted to get. After doing some searching I came across a product called Comic Collector by Collectorz.com They created databases for Movies, Books, Music, Comic, Games, MP3 and Photos. I purchased the Pro edition of the Comic Collector and thought I’d share.

Comic Collector v.5.3 comes in three editions free, Standard and PRO. Free allows trial edition to a limit of 100 comics which is what I started with. Eventually, I purchased the Pro edition. The database is really cake to use but you can get as advanced as you want depending on your technical capabilities, usually simple is best. The database software allows you to catalog your comics automatically including full issue data, creators and character lists, cover art, etc. Now the great thing is the power of having your comics in a database. Say you are prepping for a con and you have 20 long boxes of books, but you only need the books you want signed by a specific creator.  If you search for that creator by name it will produce every comic you own. If you play your cards right and organize your boxes let’s say by number; you can enter your box number where the book is located in the notes field. Let’s look at some features…

First, the online comic database from Collectorz.com provides issue details, cover art, etc containing over 270 thousand comics and growing! They are also receiving a data feed from Diamond Comics, so anything new that is release will be added to the Collectorz online database; which is pretty great to have a live feed of current comic issue information at all time. That’s pretty hot.

Adding inventory is pretty simple too. There are numerous ways to accomplish this. You can manually enter in titles and search. This will show entire run results by volume. This is handy if you have the entire run and you can just add all of them. Have a bunch of “$1.00 bin boxes.” No problem there either (in my TV infomercial voice). There is a barcode app for your mobile device that will read your books into a list, queue them up and enter them all in at once. Also pretty hot! The app isn’t free but the manual title entry is so the choice is yours. I use my phone connected via USB cable and never had a problem with it.

http://www.collectorz.com/comic/features.php#adding

http://www.collectorz.com/comic/manual/scanning.html

Exporting and sharing is also possible via mobile app (also not free) but you can browser your database and wish list and never forget another book at another con again. Sharing is possible with PRO members and I can’t blog too much on this feature because I haven’t used it yet but, I have friends that l-o-v-e it.

http://connect.collectorz.com/comics/syncshare

Of course my most favorite part of the database is the browsing of comics in my database. I personally love the Cover Flow View and lists, statistical facts by publisher, title, creator and how about the total of all cover prices of your entire collection. I know, I know…hot.

http://www.collectorz.com/comic/features.php#browsing

I will include a video from the vendor as well as screenshots but implore you, if you have any type of collection you want to track, try this product. I am receiving nothing from this blog post. I think it’s a great product, that’s all. What can you lose, the basic install is free!

Comic Collector Free Trial - http://www.collectorz.com/comic/freetrial.php

CLZ Barry Barcode Scanning w/video - http://www.collectorz.com/comic/manual/scanning.html#barry

Compatibility:

  The MacOS X edition is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.8 or highter (Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion)

 The Windows edition runs on Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Josh Medors Remembered

 

Yesterday while picking up my new books, Popa text me that Josh Medors had passed away.  I knew of Josh's long battle with cancer and how hard it had been.  I also knew he recently had been back in the hospital due to additional problems, however it still struck me pretty hard.

 

 I first met Josh at the infamous Screaming Tiki Convention in 2008.  Pretty much every creator there was looking for something to do, so when I asked Josh if he was doing sketches he was more than happy to take one on!  We talked about his run on GI Joe: America's Elite and it was very obvious he was a Joe fan!  I couldn't believe he had pages from his run and was pretty psyched to pick up two.  As a matter of fact, I was kicking myself later for not getting more! I let Josh pick any GI Joe character he wanted to draw and after he told me he liked to give some of the second tier characters a shot, I wasn't surprised to see him drawing Barbeque in my book.  What I couldn't believe was the amazing amount of detail he put into it! Like I said, the show wasn't a huge success, so Josh told me that as long as I left my book with him he would keep adding detail, and he did! 

 

Being from the same general area, we had the chance to see Josh at quite a few shows.  Popa and Andy picked up sketches from Josh  the next time we saw him and I had a chance to buy a few more of his GI Joe pages.  Josh and his wife Charlotte were always great to talk with at shows and his name on a guest list was a reason to be more excited for a convention.  Josh was just as much a fan as he was creator.  I last got to see Josh at the 2012 Pittsburgh Comic Con.  He put on a friendly face and chatted as much as he could but it was clear he wasn't feeling his best.  I didn't get to talk with him as much as in the past but I will be always be glad for the visits we did have.

 

 

 

 Josh had to cancel his most recent appearance in Akron, but I was glad to see his pal Sean Forney.  Sean remembered me from shows and let me know that Josh really wasn't doing well.  It's so terrible that anyone should go through what Josh and his family have, made even worse by him being gone now.  As little as I knew him, he was a fantastic person and as you can see, he was an amazing artist!  I'm  thankful that because of his artist abilities I had the chance to know him. 



AKRON COMICON

Yesterday we attended the first Akron Comicon, held at the University of Akron Student Center. This was a one day show with a nice blend of guests and events.  A new show is tough because you are starting from scratch with no actual idea of how things will work out or what to expect.  You can plan the perfect show but if no one shows up, that's it!  This was not an issue for the Akron Comicon!

The show was easily accessable from the interstate and thanks to frequent Facebook updates, addresses were posted for the nearest parking areas.  The Student Center is a nice, clean environment with several places to eat, right in the building!  And as Darryl Banks pointed out, they didn't gouge you with Con prices!  We actually ate at a Penn Station across the street from where we parked, but that was convienient too!  And as any Canboy knows, the FedEx Copy Center a block away was perfect!  The Student Center also provides lots of room for growth with  numerous halls and rooms available to expand into.

The Con boasted a solid guest list feturing Norm Breyfgole, Gerry Conway, Joe Staton, Darryl Banks, Tom Batiuk and many others!  There was a diverse selection of dealers selling the usual comic books, shirts, supplies and toys but also original art, art supplies and other items.   The room was a modest size, a safe bet for a first show, but it was easy to find.  Numerous signs in the building guided people along and the stairs and elevator were both right at the show entrance.  The room got pretty full and it became a tight squeeze in the early afternoon, but that's a good sign because people wanted to be there!

This is an important thing, the show had a fun atmosphere!  People were excited for the show, excited to be part of it! I didn't get the feeling that anyone was there, just because.  They were there to be a part of things!  There was an art contest, a costume contest, panel discussions, the HERO Initiative was set up, ECBI (the Elyria Comic Book Initiative) had hourly seminars on how to make your own comic book, as well as a few more fan groups!  The staff was friendly and happy to talk with people!  The promoter came out a few times and welcomed fans waiting in line before the show!  The con's tag line, "Fans First, Fans Always" felt real!

The artists I spoke with all were busy and had full sketch lists. Norm Breyfogle was busy signing books and talking with fans the entire day.  Dealers I spoke with were happy that people were buying. like I said, everyone wanted to be there! 

I took my nephew to the show and we met with Eric. The three of us were there almost all day and enjoyed ourselves.  We ran into a few of our friends we normally see at these events, but I also ran into a co-worker!  He's been looking to fill some holes in his Silver Age collection but has never been to a show!  We ran into a friend of ours from High School, now a High School teacher, who came to check out some of the panels and meet creators!  Robert Jenkins and Michael Savene really succeeded in making this con a community based event!  They managed to appeal not just to the normal comic book geeks but fans of all sorts, who all came together for a day of fun!

I wish the Akron Comicon all the best and look forward to updates on the 2013 show!

The Darkness

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 Until this weekend I'd never once read a page of Top Cow Comics "The Darkness" series. I've still never read a word of "Witchblade." I suppose it's a little unusual that I never looked at either book, only because Marc Silvestri was always my favorite of the Image founders so you'd think I might have looked at his studio's most popular books at one point or another. Maybe it was the books' reputations for emphasizing titillation over story (which may or may not be justified, again, I've never read any of it) or maybe it was just that the art, while always dynamic always seemed somewhat impenetrable to me. It was almost too much of a good thing -- too detailed, too sexy, too posed. Too much style that I didn't expect there to be much substance.

There were also content issues: "Witchblade" is about a cop and cop stories don't really interest me; "The Darkness" was about a mobster and mob stories interest me even less. There were supernatural elements to both but not enough to really draw me in. Until recently I pretty much expected to go through my life never reading Top Cow books.

Well, a year or so ago my friend Jeremy Haun signed an exclusive deal with Top Cow and was announced as the artist for "The Darkness" as part of a wide-line reboot. Jeremy and I love the same horror movies (namely the bad ones) and he's an awesome artist so I try to pick up as much of his stuff at possible. But I still didn't initially bite on "The Darkness." A month or so ago the first five issues of Jeremy's run were collected in a TPB -- a ten dollar trade, I might add. That's cheap. Thumbing through the book the art was AMAZING -- and I'm not saying that because I'm friends with the artist, this is top drawer stuff even if I'd never met the guy before.

So last week I went into my local comic shop and didn't find a lot that caught my eye, but I saw that "Darkness" trade and the next issue so I could get the whole story. And this time I picked it up. And I gotta tell you -- it's STELLAR. I mean, this is the best stuff I've read off the new racks in a couple years.

 I don't think I've read anything David Hine has written previously. If I have I don't remember it but he's writing a very fast, but very heavy story here. The basic gist is he manages to separate the protagonist Jackie Estacado from 'the darkness,' the evil force that's a part of him and gives him powers from the dark side. Oh, but Estacado also got all his dreams to come true, namely for the love of his life (who was apparently dead) to be back to life, and for them to be married and have a family. Meanwhile, there's a new foreign crime lord in town and a mob turf war is breaking out. Estacado can stay home and run his business during the day and, at night, unleash his doppleganger, The Darkness, his dark side, to get his hands dirty. And, believe me, The Darkness gets his hands seriously dirty. This is a HORROR comic, at its heart.

But what makes the book stick out, to me, are the subplots. They're perfect subplots because they pick at the main story, compromising the main character's actions and intentions. All the good cliffhangers are coming from underneath the main story, namely how The Doppleganger is affecting Estacado's life from the outside, instead of from the inside, which I gather was how it worked before this story arc, before they were split into two beings.

Comics live on great cliffhangers and I can tell you -- and I don't want to spoil anything -- but several issues already have had some of the most F**D up cliffhangers I've read in a long time. And I mean that in a great way -- like the creators are saying 'how can we mess with our protagonist's head in the most disturbing ways imaginable.' In a story that seems to be built on giving him everything he wanted the 'be careful what you wish for' adage is being blown back in his face. Oh, but the book is NOT for the faint of heart. It's definitely R-rated, with violence, sex and other things some people might object to. But it all feeds the story, instead of being for shock value. Well, not for gratuitous shock value anyway.

And the art is off the chains. Haun can draw some crazy monsters from his main character's imagination that are flecked with everything from Lovecract to Clive Barker but he can also draw a sweet little kid having a bedtime story read to her by her dad. And those are sometimes on the same pages. He can also draw some beautiful women and tough-as-nails mobsters, but they're still CHARACTERS. Their expressions matter, they're nuanced and relevant. I haven't recommended a comic in a long time, most of what I read is fine but doesn't make me jump up and down and scream 'READ THIS.' "The Darkness" makes me jump up and down and scream "READ THIS."

 So, read it already.

Mid-Ohio 2012

Here are the sketches I got this weekend at Mid-Ohio con. They are Thorbuster by Bat Hilliard. He is a really cool guy. Also, Mockingbird by Sketchblocked Darryl Banks. Kang the Conquerer by Adam Withers and Iron Man Mark 3 by Alan Davis. Stories and descriptions of each can by found on my Comic Art Fans page. It was a great con. Thanks Shane, Andy and Popa for making it a great birthday weekend! Better scans to come.