Burnhamania!

I always liked the Defenders… could they be any more ready to fight each other?  This was just a warm up that I ran out of gas on before Valkyrie… but hey.  Fun stuff, eh?

I’ve been thinking a lot about Steve Gerber’s passing the last couple of days.  Never met him.  Only knew him through his work.

But I am bummed I’ll never get to see more Howard the Duck as written by his creator.

Howard touched me as a character.  Cynical.  Borderline manic depressive.   Definitely mad as hell and not about to take it anymore.  I liked that and enjoy reading the Essential Howard.

It was - and is - an oasis of oddity in the world of comics.  And you can tell when you read just how personal an interest Steve was taking in this little yellow duck.

Again, I regret that his voice has been stilled.

RIP, sir.

(For those of you missing the reference to the headline - Howard ran for president in 1976.  I may vote for him this year, if these are the best candidates that can be managed…)

 Thought I’d share one that turned out better than I’d expected… man, I love me those prismacolor markers…

Y’know, I shouldn’t like Cyclops as a character.  He’s never really been portrayed as all that strong of a guy - most writers don’t even seem to know what to do with him besides putting a bigger stick up his… er, or killing off Jean Grey again.

Even Whedon, who did the best in ages, was hit and miss.

So yeah.  I don’t know why I like Cyclops - but he remains one of my favorite X-Men, if not my favorite, and very fun to draw.  Hence, today’s experimental piece.

I want to come up with a great way to promote the Down Side’s eventual (Feb. 25) exodus from the thrice weekly format.

So I’d like to see what can be done, so I’ve decided on a contest — with two winners!

So here’s the deal:  once again, On Monday, February 25, the Down Side will be going daily - that’s right, DAILY! - and I want to get the word out in a big way.  So the contest is about promotion.

I’ll have one prize for the person who comes up with the best [workable] promotional idea and one for the person who refers the most folks to the strip (as signified by mentions in the comments section of the Feb. 25 strip.)

The prize is winner’s choice of an original sketch of winner’s choosing or an original, unique Down Side strip.
What say ye?  Feel free to make your intentions know at the comments section, the Down Side message board at Comic Related, or by email.

The day before my birthday.

That’s when it’ll happen: the Down Side will go M-F, with one or two non-storyline, non-sequitur jokes on the weekends.   That’s six to seven days of content per week.

It’ll be a present to my readers, it will! (;

I hate the new Captain America look.  Well, actually, that’s putting too strong a point on it — I don’t hate it — I just don’t particularly like what Ross brought to the table here.   Still, I love how Ed Brubaker has brought back Bucky Barnes and wanted to give his Cap uniform a go.  So here we are… I muted the tones of the blue, which helped, and gave him… well, definable pants.  (And yes, I changed my mind on the shade of blue after a bit of coloring on the shoulder.)

It’s not my strongest piece, but it’ll do.  I may take another crack at getting BuckCap right.

If only he had ears…

My sister loves these things…

Anyways, I went ahead and drew up (and then colored!) a JLA pic in the “puppethead” style. That’s a lotta round little characters. Still, I’m amused at the personality I was able to eke out of ‘em… even if I wasn’t able to make the scan do the markered color … uh… justice.

Think this one may end up on eBay — whaddayathink?  (click for a larger version!)

Okay, bad pun. Sorry.

From Sean Taylor, who doesn’t want me working on what I should be working on:

Okay, so if you’re a true film aficionado you’re aware that Citizen Kane is considered the shining pinnacle of achievement by many in the film industry. Agree or disagree, the fact remains that it’s highly regarded.

So what we’re going to do it cover a lot of genres that don’t normally get covered, and a few that do, and choose the “Citizen Kane of [insert genre here].”

So that’s Sean’s game. Well, I’ll play, though some of these genres I’m woefully behind standard on. And for the sake of my deadlines *ahem* I’m just going to do whatever comes to mind first. (That’s why WordPress has an edit button!)

What’s the Citizen Kane of:

Vampire movies - Dracula. Bela Lugosi’s role has segued into THE iconic interpretation (Shreck be danged.)
Ghost stories - I’ll go with The Gift since ghost stories are not my forte.
Werewolf films - American Werewolf in London AND The Wolf Man — yes, a tie!
Slasher films - Psycho
Zombie flics -Night of the Living Dead
Creepy atmosphere films - Pan’s Labyrinth
B-Movies - Big Trouble in Little China
Bio flics - Walk the Line
Stupid Comedies - Wedding Crashers, Spaceballs
Intelligent comedies - The Life Aquatic and Duck Soup
Rock and roll movies - Eddie and the Cruisers.
Concert films - Oh, Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip.
Animated films (general audiences) - Snow White and Spirited Away
Animated films (mature audiences) - Taking a pass, haven’t seen any to qualify
Sappy romance - Sabrina (original) or The Barefoot Contessa
Revenge movies - Payback (original cut)
Martial arts movies (serious films) - Does Yojimbo count? Then that.
Martial arts movies (kung fu theatre type) Kung Fu Hustle. (;
Blaxploitation - Shaft, the daddy of ‘em all (Shut yo mouth!)
Films with a redemptive storyline - The Quiet Man
Subtitled dramas - City of God was one of my favorites, as was A Very Long Engagement. Tie.
Subtitled art films - Amelie.
Musicals (serious) - Music Man. Seriously.
Musicals (off-beat) - The Blues Brothers and you dang right it counts!
Uncategorizable strange films -This Film Is Not Yet Rated. Sure, it has a category, but it deserves a place!
Silent films - I’ve got a million Chaplin movies and Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera in my head.
Monster movies - King Kong and Godzilla, and no, not the remakes or the “vs” movie!
Mysteries - The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man