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.

Four Color Heroes

Hello Cranboyz!  Just checking in with an update on coloring.  I've been continuing to practice with colors with as much time as I can spare, pushing myself to be better and to work faster.  I've got a couple of pieces I'd like to share here, to show my progress.


First up is a great commission of Invincible and Atom Eve by Joelle Jones.  I saw this piece online and decided to take a shot at coloring it.  This was my first attempt at using the coloring method that Comfort and Adam use, as well as a few tricks I picked up from talking to Simon Gough, the regular colorist on Robert Atkins' work on Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.  Looking at it now, I see things I would fix, but I think it was a good first attempt.

Up next is Justice, the first piece I picked up from Robert Atkins during his Avengers month on his sketch blog back in April.  After seeing the movie, and starting to re-read Busiek and Perez's Avengers run, I was in a huge Avengers mood and decided to use this for my second practice piece.  I felt like something really clicked during my work on this one, and although I made a few mistakes along the way, I am starting to formulate a process that works for me.

Since I picked up Firestar from Atkins as a companion piece to Justice, I decided to color her next.  Again, I have a long way to go, but I really feel like I'm getting the hang of doing this.  And really, it's a hell of a lot of fun to do.  So look forward to more coming in the near future.

I'll check back in down the road with a few more pieces.  Next up, more Avengers and maybe a couple of Turtles...

Bill's Books and Free Comics?

Hey guys. I was at Bill's Books on Free Comic Book Day and got this AWESOME sketch from Darryl Banks! He actually is a huge fan of the character Thanos. He made particular mention of the smirk that he gave him.

Avenger movie

I went to see the Avengers movie this afternoon. I went into the movie with very high expectations and I have to say I was entirely disappointed. Are you kidding!!! The movie was amazing. No I believe it was perfect. It had tons of action, character development and comedy. The two scenes that appear after the credits were great also. Many, many memorable scenes which I will not get into now as to not ruin it for anybody who has not seen it yet but I will say I enjoyed the interaction between the Hulk and Loki very much.
I look forward to more and specific discussions.
Eric

No sleep till Pittsburgh!

Pittsburgh Comic Con 2012 was a blast this year. It was filled with high energy and friendly people while still keeping that small show feel. For the Cranboyz we kicked off our con season with our Dark Cranboyz Villians United theme sporting new swag and collecting a bunch of great villain convention sketches (and maybe a hero or two).  Popa starting with a great George Perez sketch of Ms. Marvel, which from I understand may get a coloring job from our own Andy Varcho (your welcome Andy). Shane started the con by camping out and stalking Barry Kitson’s line, followed shortly after by Popa and well worth the restraining orders I may add, the sketches are stellar. Shane has an awesome album showing the process of Barry Kitson drawing Union Jack, you can check it out on his Facebook page and or Twitter. Popa is now the proud owner of the amazing sketch of Sif.

While Mr. Kitson’s line was occupied by multiple Cranboyz Andy was off doing his own thing getting art from Andy Bennett,  Josh Medors and Dave Watchter.

Shortly after the show opened I was tracked down by Iconograph studios staff. Earlier in the week I won a free convention sketch on facebook and they needed my book and wanted to introduce the artist which was great. Ben Taylor, Stephen Burks, David Hindelang and Mark Peasley are great people and were all willing to take a crack at my sketch, in the end I went with David Hindelang who drew Megatron (Generation 1 of course).  It turned out awesome and I’ll be returning to their table in the future if I see them at more cons. I’ve included their link – http://www.Iconographstudios.com

I was also able to hook James “Q” Nguyen up with a brand new freakin’ Dark Cranboyz Villians United shirt! He was pretty stoked about it.

Meanwhile books are all accounted for in artists possessions and for a Friday it’s pretty darn busy so myself and Kaity check out the Quick Sketch for charity event in the ballroom. Basically, a ton of artist do quick sketches and you buy raffle tickets to win the art. So people were winning huge art for a buck (if they were lucky) Kaity and I weren’t lucky but the art and artists’ generosity was amazing!

Saturday was a mad house thus being the perfect day for all of us to wear our new Cranboyz T-shirts that Andy and Shane designed and tweaked to perfection. 

Shane and Popa after being stalkers in Barry Kitson’s line thought it worked so well they duplicated the activity in Scott McDainel’s table. 

Of course, it paid off, come on people its Shane and Popa here. Popa scored a threating Mr. Freeze while Shane walked away with Ravager I.

Andy was nowhere to be found during most of Saturday after staking a piece of the Kitson line real estate. I think we can all agree his time was wisely spent after seeing his Chameleon sketch. After that he rallied his legs to work again and made it to Ron Frenz’s table to get a sketch of X-Men’s The Beast.

Popa locked an Andy Bennett sketch of The Black Flash, followed up by a Darryl Banks Spider Woman. We love us some Darryl Banks art, he’s an all-around great person and artist.

Shane signed up for a pretty kick ass Juggernaut by Ron Frenz and secured his spot in Dave Wachter’s sketch list for a sketch of G.I. Joe Recondo. Now I don’t know who actually started the trend but most of us walked away with a Dave Wachter piece during this show. It was well worth the wait for an authentic art piece, rather than being one of “those guys” who sport around the knock off versions. You can tell the difference because Dave Wachter authenticates his art with a special stamp, the knock offs won’t have them. (Or the artist forgot. And then your “friend” and fellow Cranboyz forgot to get it stamped for you …sorry Shane). It’s still a great sketch.  Beside that, Shane also scored some great James “Q” Nguyen art of Grifter, which James later colored in the mask and sealed the deal of it being a kick ass sketch. To wrap up Saturday before half the Cranboyz called it a weekend, Shane left his book for Josh Medors to sketch in but, Josh left after not feeling well so Josh Warner stepped in and did a really good job. We of course wish Josh Medors get well wishes and hope he’s on the road back to recovery.

Sunday was just the lone three of myself (Shawn), Kaity and Larry. It was also kids’ day which is probably explains the strategic exit of the first wave of Cranboyz.

 It was a great day filled with costume contests, kids meeting Darth Vader and good times. I picked up my book from Dave Wachter who did a great Two Face and was able to secure Shane’s G. I. Joe book with The Oktober Guard sketch. Finally, I picked up a last minutes sketch of Sonic the Hedgehog for my daughter Aubrey who is a huge fan, Stephen Wittmaak was the artist.

At this point all the books are back, the feet are sore and we are ready to hit the road back to Ohio. It was a really fun Pittsburgh Comic Con. Getting together with friends and catching up with our favorite artists and hearing what they’ve been doing. Great costumes, brief Stan Lee drive bys’ producing cheers and clapping makes it all feel like a great start to a fabulous con season.

With that said I would like to take a few minutes to thank some very special people who stepped up and encouraged my 17 year old daughter this weekend. This past weekend was her first show ever as an artist, seated in section AA across the room from Stan Lee. It was an amazing experience and eye opening for both her and me. She was pretty nervous but was quickly put at ease by the professionalism and courtesy of the other vendors and artists. There was a constant flow of positive comments fired in her direction. 

Other artists there to promote their work stopped and got a convention sketch or just stopped by to say hello and welcome. It really did feel like a family.We met such great people this weekend, Joe Fogle who has a book called “Creatures of War” www.creaturesofwar.net and Joe Kleinman who was promoting his web comic http://wootlabs.thewebcomic.com shared some expertise and are sincerely smart and supportive young people in the industry. Of course, all the Cranboyz.  Jay Fife https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jay-E-Fife-Illustration/215290038586 who I’ve always thought was a great artist and all around cool person. 

Kate Gill  http://www.skullduggerystudios.blogspot.com/ 

who was super supportive being a fellow female in the industry had a lot of valuable information to share with her, thanks again Kate! James “Q” Nguyen stopped by the table a couple of times and picked up a sketch for his daughter, we hope she likes it!

Finally, David DeVera, who was our table neighbor; he is the creator/writer/colorist of his comic NINJABITCH http://www.diamondgoatmedia.com/ he is a cool guy who was willing to send people over from his table to check out Kaity’s art as well as get a con sketch of his character NINJABITCH. 

There were so many people that made a huge impact and we both are extremely thankful. BTW, yes I'm an extremely proud father. We hope to see everyone at the next con!! 

Horror Hound Weekend Columbus

It probably surprises many of you to learn that I've never been to a horror movie convention before. I go to gobs of comic book conventions and Dragon Con in Atlanta covers all angles of geek society but, no, I'd never gone to a straight up horror convention before so I was naturally excited to learn that Horror Hound magazine was hosting a con right here in scenic Columbus, Ohio. (Actually, until Friday morning when I was getting ready to go, I had assumed the con was downtown by the convention center, once I googled the location, I discovered the con was in my neck of Columbus and was, in fact, barely a five minute drive from my apartment.)

So over the past couple months I've excitedly watched the guest list grow on Horror Hound's website, looking forward to meeting some of the people who have made so many of the horror movies that have been part of my strange psyche for a long, long time. And the good folks at Horror Hound certainly did a good job of bringing together a lineup of people from the full spectrum of horror -- from the classics to the new blood.

My friend Paul Greer, who shares the same love of all things horror with me, came down to Columbus Friday night (the shows started Friday at 5 before settling into more traditional con hours on Saturday and Sunday.) This was a hotel con, not one in a convention center.

Of course, it wouldn't be a con without organizers being confused so Friday I saw a large line of people waiting to get in, but I'd already bought my gold pass, which got me early access. So I asked if the one big line was for people who'd already paid or people who were waiting to pay. No, they said, the line's for everyone, if you've already paid, you still need to get your wristbands. I asked about gold pass as we were supposed to get in about ten minutes from then and they assured me just to get into the regular line. So I walked to the end of the line, which was fairly signifcant, only to wait five minutes and have someone announce that gold pass members could go to the front of the line, in the exact place I'd just been standing, and register and head on in. With a laugh, that's what I did.

Paul met up with me a few minutes later and in we went. It wasn't packed at all but there was a crowd and a couple lines were starting to queue up, most notably "Halloween" star Danielle Harris and "Walking Dead/Boondock Saints" star Norman Reedus.

The con itself took some work to navigate there were a couple different rooms, a main one and then another that was around a corner in the hotel. Guests were in both rooms and some were in the hallway outside the ballrooms. There were also a few rooms scattered down another hallway where they'd tucked away some of the old horror hosts and the legendary Pam Grier.

I'm not entirely sure of the order we met people, the nice thing about having a cohort in crime is it made it easier to take pictures with the celebrities, I could get Paul's pic and then he could get mine. Oftentimes if you're waiting alone at a con you have to ask the person behind you to take your picture with the guest and hope they can work your camera. (I've been asked to take pictures a million times at cons, of course, no one ever minds helping out!)

Oftentimes, when meeting celebrities I can come up with an obscure work they did and talk about that, rather than just ask the same old questions but in many cases at this show, I didn't really have much to talk about other than the obvious things. So I opened with a joke, the guests will usually ask where you're from and a lot of people travel a good distance to go to these shows and meet people. So I started by saying 'just so you know, I drove THREE MILES to be here today,' which invariably got a laugh. Feel free to steal that if you're ever at a local con ;

We met Scout Taylor Compton was Laurie in Rob Zombie's "Halloween" movies and was nice as can be. She was also almost unrecognizable as she's sporting a really short haircut that she's dyed black. Tyler Mane, Sabretooth in the X-Men movies and Michael Meyers in Zombie's "Halloween" was next to her and he had some 11 x 17 prints of the original movie posters. So Paul and I bought those and got both of them to sign them (and would later get Danielle Harris to sign as well. Nice things to throw in our original art portfolios!) The nice thing about getting my picture taken with Mane was usually these folks are much shorter than I am but Mane towers over most everyone, including me.

I also had some important business to take care of at the show; my friend Carl is I'm fairly certain the world's biggest 'Escape From New York' fan and he sent his two posters down to be signed by the great Adrienne Barbeau. Barbeau had a decent line herself but, for me, the best part was while she was signing the posters I got to ask her what it was like working with Rodney Dangerfield in "Back To School." She sort of laughed and said Rodney wanted to try and do his entire act in every scene but the poor director had to keep reeling him in.

Somewhere in here, another friend Dave Aikins arrived for to hang out for the evening as well and, shall I say, GUSHED, when he got to meet Twin Peaks star Sherilyn Fenn.

We got a few more autographs from some pretty great people -- Lisa Wilcox who played Alice in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequels was there and, honestly, she looks better now than she did back then.

I also got to meet Tippie Hedren, star of "The Birds" who at 82 years old, still looked as glamorous as ever and was very fun to speak with. I then met Julia Adams, star of "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" and, honestly, if I were to list the most beatiful women to ever be in the movies, both those ladies would be high on that list. Both were sweet as can be.

There was a panel discussion for the 3 actors from Rob Zombie's "Halloween" movies and, since I was a gold pass member, I got to sit in the first few rows. In fact I sat in the front row, about five feet from the guests. Like most panel discussions, it was a lot of laughs and anecdots from the making of the movies -- props not working, Mane trying to break a door with his own brute strength that wasn't a breakaway prop door, but was, in fact, one made of solid wood -- that sort of thing. Danielle Harris, who starred in a few of the previous "Halloween" movies as well as Zombie's remakes, seemed to take the bulk of the questions. All three guests were pretty fun and each showed up with a drink in hand, which isn't something you see at comic book conventions. Harris was particularly sassy and even dropped a 'that's what she said' on Mane at one point. Sorry, I forget the set up for the joke.

After the panel we walked around a bit, I talked to stars of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and met Doug Bradley, Pinhead from the "Hellraiser" movies (who had a drink in hand pretty much every time I saw him.)

As the night was winding down we noticed Danielle Harris's line was finally manageable so we slid in and met her and got autographs -- like most actresses she's tiny. We chatted about this and that -- I've always thought her death scene in "Halloween 2" was unusually moving, particularly in Zombie's movies that are often so brutal, so we talked about that.

And that was mostly Friday night. As we walked out we noticed the line for Norman Reedus was still most of the way down the hallway. Paul, Dave and I went to dinner and then Paul and I went back to watch the midnight movie "Monster Brawl" at the con. Before "Monster Brawl," a tongue-in-cheek movie that's essentially about a pro wrestling tournament between monsters, we had to watch two movie shorts made by independent producers. They were, how do I say ... garbage. On one hand I want to admire them for giving filmmaking a go, on the other hand, the works were so bad, it was tough to be too supportive. "Monster Brawl" was a hoot with Dave Foley playing a commentator who I imagine was pretty much just riffing the entire movie. The movie's complete nonsense but was good for a laugh.

Saturday morning, Paul and I went to breakfast and noticed the line for the con was not only all the way through the hotel but had snaked out into the parking lot noticeably. As I went inside I realized that wasn't the line to get into the con at all -- that was Norman Reedus's line! Reedus was a total rock star all weekend, with people waiting two or more hours to meet him. At his table, he stood up the entire time, engaged everyone with a smile and a handshake and seemed to make sure everyone left his table glad they met him.

Like I said, there was a steady crowd Friday but it wasn't packed. Saturday it was packed. As in, I'm sure fire codes were broken. You couldn't MOVE inside the hotel Saturday. Reedus's line was into the next zip code but everyone had lines, Danielle Harris's was long, Julia Adams's was long, Adrienne Barbeau's was long ... everyone had a line, even people who, at first glance, I thought would be at the show and not get a lot of attention. No one was there being that sad celebrity at a con with no fans. It was cool!

As the afternoon went on, Paul and I decided to hit a couple more panel discussions, the first featuring Julia Adams and Tippie Hedren. For some reason the con had gotten off schedule with the panels so their panel was a little shorter than it could have been, and, after hearing each lady tell their stories of the old days of Hollywood,I know I wanted it to go on a lot longer. Hedren especially had stories about Hitchcock, Sean Connery and Charlie Chaplin that she shared.

Since the con only had one meeting room they cleared the room between panel discussions, except for us gold pass members, we didn't have to budge. So basically I go to to sit down for three hours, something that rarely happens at a con. After the Adams/Hedren panel, there was a panel regarding the cult classic "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon" with the star and director of that movie, who are trying to get a sequel made. And then came the Pam Grier panel, where the great Miss Grier told all sorts of stories from her long career in Hollywood. She was very funny and a very dramatic storyteller, that's for sure. But the audience ate it up.

That about wrapped up Saturday. Again, Paul and I went to dinner and then over to Dave's for a night of r and r -- talking about comicons mostly and other geekery. It's what we do.

Really, everything we needed to do was done. Since Saturday was sooo crowded, I didn't get much of a chance to dig through the dealer room (it had the usual con swag, DVD's and t-shirts and some other things) and I wanted to get another autograph from Scout Taylor Compton so I did go back this morning for a little bit. As with all Sunday mornings at cons, most of the guests were late but I did chat with Scout and walked the dealer rooms before calling it a con.

Something I realized as the weekend wore on: regardless of the theme, I just love the con experience. I always meet cool people, have made countless friends just by standing in lines and being social to the people around me, and always enjoy meeting performers and creators who have made movies and tv shows and comics and novels that are such a big part of my life experience.

And I'm a horror guy so a horror con is that much sweeter. Given the crowds, the show seemed to be a big hit, so I'm already looking forward to next year's Horror Hound Weekend in Columbus!