Pumpkin bombs away

"Rockwell Spiderman" by Luke Radl, a superhero/Halloween take on Norman Rockwell's "The Runaway."

Illio logical

Did Spock have a daughter? I don't know. But I do know Phil Noto is a pretty awesome artist. [via Laughing Squid]

Gen 13, suburban glamorous

The Gen 13 crew by Jamie McKelvie. Uninked version here.

Now that's winning!

Lex Luthor and the Joker hanging out, Calvin and Hobbes style. From Superman/Batman 75, by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo, who discusses the piece here.

Love the old-school Legion of Doom swamp HQ. [via BuzzFeed]

Sidekicked

"Teenage Sidekick" by Paul Pope. This was from a short story in the Pope issue of D.C.'s Solo series. Scoop it up if you can get your hands on it.

Marvel vs. DC: Late Night Wars

In case you didn't catch it on Conan the other night, here's a Taiwanese animation describing the whole late night talk show imbroglio, which steps up the action quite a bit from that Tiger Woods animation. If our news was like this, I might watch it more often.

Also, last Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien tonight! Go Team Coco!

Majestyk

Bronson in Mr. Majestyk by Sean Phillips. This looks like art for an essay in the back of a future issue of Criminal.

Cover artistry

There may come a time when the comic book single issue ceases to exist, giving way to trade collections, graphic novels and digital formats. But comic book covers remain a singular art form and, when done right, an eye-catching selling point for the single.

Complex magazine offers its 50 Best Comic Book Covers of 2009, and while I'm not feeling some of these, there's some good stuff on display here.

Just walk away, and he will spare your lives

Ben Templesmith will be at Comic-Con. This is how he chose to announce that fact. I approve.

Ashro Boy

How rad is this Ashley Wood variant cover to the first (?) issue of IDW's Astro Boy Movie Prequel miniseries?

I guess I saw the old-school Astro Boy cartoon a couple times, but I don't really care about the upcoming Astro Boy movie. This painted piece, however, would make a great litho. I like it with the dead space at the top, too.

Dillon in Philly

The Old City branch of my comic book store, Brave New Worlds, will be hosting artist Steve Dillon tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. Dillon — artist on little projects like Preacher, Hellblazer, Wolverine: Origins and Punisher — will be signing and doing $15 head sketches to raise funds for the ComicsPRO retailer organization. Which I assume look something like the below:


Dillon pretty much rules, so I'm going to try and make it out. You might want to as well.

UPDATE: Money was actually being raised for The Hero Initiative, and Dillon was appearing at stores that are a part of ComicsPro, which makes more sense.

Anyway, Steve Dillon was a cool guy who sketched well past posted hours and explained what a "spacker" was, George treated to drinks, and fun was had by all despite a parking ticket for me (never a doubt) and some bad karaoke we were all submitted to in an otherwise pretty cool bar.

Then again, as Dillon pointed out, awful karaoke is probably more entertaining than good karaoke.

Now when Paul Pope was a young boy, at the age of 5 ...

Harmonica Man print by Paul Pope.

Aye Karimbah

Box art by Paul Pope for The Masked Karimbah toy to be released via Kidrobot. Yet another thing I would kind of need to have, if it weren't going to be sold out in two minutes.

One of the good ones

Just because ... another cool Ben Templesmith piece.

The Hoxford files

Looks like Ben Templesmith has a new project in the works called Welcome to Hoxford. No idea what it's about, but it looks like it won't be too much of a leap from Templesmith's other work. Maybe we all should print out the photo, take it to a comic shop and put in an order, and be surprised. Could be fun. You can follow the linky and print out a poster-sized version too.

Orange On the Aisle: 30 Days of Night

Checked out 30 Days of Night, the horror flick based on the hit comics miniseries by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith.

I never read the original series (I read some of the Bloodsucker Tales series, one of many follow-ups), but the concept sounded great and the trailer looked badass.

The concept: A crew of vampires descends on the town of Barrow, Alaska, which we're told is the northernmost town in the U.S., and which is about to descend into its annual 30 days with no sunlight. Vampires in a town with no sun for 30 days — a horror concept genius in its simplicity. And the head if the vampires thinks as much, saying, "We should have come here ages ago."

A repeated theme/criticism in the reviews I read noted there's no back story on these vampires — we don't know their story, where they're from, how they exist, anything. They just hop off a boat and get to killin', basically. Supposedly there's more back story in the comics, which saw the vampires starting out from New Orleans. Niles and the other screenwriters left this out of the film, wanting to maintain the notion of isolation with everything being set in Barrow.

The New Orleans story was the basis of a series of short episodes available from FEARnet On Demand. I watched them last year when the movie was about to come out, but I don't think they'll appease anyone looking for more back story.

But aside from wanting to know what was up with the boat that got the vampires to Alaska, the lack of back story didn't bother me. I was content knowing these vampires were just out for a good feasting opportunity, and ready for the gore. Of which there was much. This movie is damn bloody — these vampires aren't recruiting an army of the night, or brooding emo-style over their predicament — they're out for blood. A town's worth. Some of the carnage aspires to the creativity of recent zombie movies, including the excellent Dawn of the Dead remake.

But while the carnage is commendable, there are some problems with 30 Days. There are a few instances in which action on the part of characters we're led to believe would be very dangerous is handled off-screen. Early on, there are vampires all over town killing people in the streets, but a group of survivors moves from the diner to a house without being seen. I was expecting a scene with the survivors sneaking from point to point, relying on their town knowledge — one of the only advantages we're told they have — but no, nothing, they're just in the house all of a sudden. Pheww, I was worried.

Now huddled in the attic of this house, days pass by in large chunks — as we're told by the Day 15, etc. graphic. And while we were told the vampires were going house-to-house looking for survivors, they apparently got tired of doing this before hitting the hideout house.

And is the heat on this house? If not they'd freeze over the course of a month.

Oh yeah, 30 days? From the way the film was presented, this easily could have been set over two or three days and not lost anything storywise. There are so many jumps in the time, the whole 30 days thing is lost. If they didn't put up the graphics informing you of the day, you'd think the movie took place over a weekend.

If it was 30 days, what were the vampires doing that whole time? We can assume the survivors were trying to keep quiet and un-eaten. We know the vampires got tired of searching houses, so what, Wii Sports?

On a positive note, the cast was good, and the direction and look of the film was pretty slick. Pretty good overall if you can ignore some plot holes and are in the mood for some vampire gore.

Notes:
* Ben Foster looked like a dirty, bug-eyed Ben Templesmith drawing come to life.
* Stay away form little girls in horror movies, unless an axe is handy.
* Maybe the eeriest images from the movie is right at the beginning, when we see the vampires' freighter boat in the distance as Foster's character heads into town to prepare for their arrival. (A boat of vampires traveling the seas looking for blood is pretty cool, and the basis of a Sean Phillips comic — possibly with writer Ed Brubaker, can't remember — that never happened. Shame, looked cool.)

— 3 out of 5 dives through kitchen windows

Game controller as MP3 player?

Paul Pope. Interesting music player. He explains complicated instruction from art director here.

Leap tall legal hurdles in a single bound

Superman's not dead, but DC's copyright to the character took a hit this week. Interesting stuff.

James Jean has it covered

Just taking a moment to spotlight the awesomeness of artist James Jean, probably best known for his painted covers of the DC/Vertigo series Fables. I don't read it, but I want to buy it every time I see his latest cover.

Below: Batgirl #45, Fables #8, Fables #71, The Escapists #2 and Fables #64.

Start it in a supermarket

Archie comics mixed with lyrics from Pulp's "Common People." Pretty good. Via.

Also surprisingly awesome is William Shatner's version, along with Joe Jackson. Joe Jackson?!?