Saturday, October 12, 2013
Mile High Comics
I am in Denver,CO for a wedding and had some free time so I went to Mile High Comics. I have seen their adds in comic books since I started reading a million years ago. It is billed as the world's largest comic book store. Here are some pictures. They do not do it justice. A true comic book store Mecca!
Monday, May 6, 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
Iron Man 3
I just got home from seeing Iron Man 3 (Who new they had 9 p.m. showings the day before the opening?) I had been looking forward to writing a review but now I don't want to ruin it for you. I will say that if you are an 18-24 year old who only knows Iron Man from the recent movies you will probably like this movie (The majority of the audience applauded at the end). If you have knowledge of Iron Man Comic history before the year say 2000 (maybe even much later) then it may be a toss up. I will end this post with one positive and one negative. The positive: I enjoyed Don Cheadle's performance as Rhodey much more in this movie than in IM 2. The negative: I am so upset about how The Mandarin was portrayed (Nothing against Ben Kingsley. He did the best he could) that I am not going to have Darryl Banks draw him for me Saturday as I had originally planned. There is a lot more I would like to say but I will save it for a few days until everyone has had a chance to see the movie.
Eric
Eric
Monday, April 29, 2013
Ready to start the season!
It's 2013 and our Con Season is a mess!
With Pittsburgh moved back to the fall, it feels like we'll never get to a Con!
This weekend is Free Comic Book Day, which is a start! Two weeks later is Motor City and two weeks after that is Heroes Con! There will be a lot of Cranboyz at Heroes this year, which only makes our favorite show even more fun! After that is the chaos of Dragon Con! And being as we are mostly in the North Eastern Ohio area, it seems like we have access to a Con every weekend in September and October! We're still trying to figure out what to do about all of that!
Keeping with tradition, we have a new Sketch Theme for 2013, Out of This World! Any character from Space, another Reality, another Dimension, whatever we can think of!
Even though there's not much that's "typical" about this year, we are excited to get things started, collect some sketches and visit with as many of our Con-attending friends as we can! See you on the Con floor!
With Pittsburgh moved back to the fall, it feels like we'll never get to a Con!
This weekend is Free Comic Book Day, which is a start! Two weeks later is Motor City and two weeks after that is Heroes Con! There will be a lot of Cranboyz at Heroes this year, which only makes our favorite show even more fun! After that is the chaos of Dragon Con! And being as we are mostly in the North Eastern Ohio area, it seems like we have access to a Con every weekend in September and October! We're still trying to figure out what to do about all of that!
Keeping with tradition, we have a new Sketch Theme for 2013, Out of This World! Any character from Space, another Reality, another Dimension, whatever we can think of!
Even though there's not much that's "typical" about this year, we are excited to get things started, collect some sketches and visit with as many of our Con-attending friends as we can! See you on the Con floor!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
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!
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!
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!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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