Best Comic Book Cover of the Week

Wednesday is the glorious day of the week on which new comic books hit the stands. Although I’m not able to buy too many these days, I still love seeing what’s coming out. There’s a great comic book website called ComicBookResources.com, and every Wednesday they post previews of the comics coming out for the week. I decided it would be fun to every Wednesday do a quick post on my favorite cover of the week. This isn’t about which artist or characters I like best, but about the artwork that draws me in the most. Yes, it’s a totally subjective concept, and yes, I’m drawn to certain artists and characters. But I’ll try to be objective. This week there were actually two that really caught my attention, and I couldn’t pick. So two it is! (this was supposed to be up on Wednesday, but I got behind on stuff. Oops)

First up, Ryan Ottley’s cover to Invincible 81. Yes, I’m a huge Invincible fanboy, and Ryan is an incredible artist. But this cover is just gorgeous. I love the dark clouds and the feeling were milliseconds away from a huge, shattering impact as the two characters meet. The color palette is perfect and adds to the intensity of the moment.

 

 

 

The other cover that really stood out to me is Jock’s Detective Comics #880. Jock has quickly become one of my favorite artists. Not only is he insanely skilled, his cover art is always striking, and always feels like nothing I’ve seen before. That’s saying a lot when you’re working on a comic that’s been in publication for over 70 years. Yet each issue is something to behold. I don’t know if there’s ever been a creepier version of the Joker done, and that’s also saying a lot. The use of the bats is ingenious and is an example of the way Jock brings a fresh look to things.

Thanks for reading! Come back next week for another round!

Comic-Con 2011

The annual “celebration of the popular arts” known as the San Diego Comic-Con was this past week, and I was able to go again this year. Unfortunately, because of work I was only able to make it one night, but it was still awesome. This year I went with my brother-in-law Ryan and my oldest son London. We dressed him up as Aang, from the amazing animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and he was a big hit with the crowd. As always, the main convention hall was filled to the brim with people, both in costume and not. This video Ryan shot will give you an idea of what it’s like:

It was hard to tell who was more excited about some of the displays, Ryan or London. London wanted pictures of pretty much every Lego thing, of which there were plenty, and Ryan was stoked to see all the Star Wars and different geek things there.

When we first got there, we made a quick round of the convention hall, taking in as much as we could. We saw tons of cool displays, and even saw the original Hulk, Lou Ferrigno. We had to sneak a picture of him though, since I really couldn’t justify spending $40 for a Poloroid(!) with him. Dude is still incredibly ripped though. I was impressed. I didn’t get to meet as many creators as last year, but I was still able to meet a few. First I met Robert Kirkman, writer of Invincible (which I love) and The Walking Dead, among other things. He was super nice. Then I met Ryan Ottley, who is the artist on Invincible and is also from Utah. He was awesome, and might even be related to Ryan’s wife. We also got to meet Derek Hunter, a rad comic writer/artist who knows a bunch of folks I went to high school with. I bought this Invincible print and Robert and Ryan were both nice enough to sign it for me.

     

The other creator I was able to meet was Stan Sakai, writer and artist of Usagi Yojimbo. If you were ever a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan, you probably know who the samurai rabbit is. But you might not have known that both TMNT and Usagi Yojimbo started out as comic books. Anyway, Mr. Sakai has been doing this for years. I think he’s up to about volume 25 now.  I’ve been meaning to start reading the Usagi Yojimbo comics, so this was a perfect chance to buy the first volume. Mr. Sakai and his wife were both incredibly nice and I can’t wait to start reading. I also got to see Jim Lee, one of the best comic book artists ever, but I wasn’t able to meet him. Maybe next year.

        

I mentioned London’s love for Legos, so when we got to the Lego booth and there was a huge pile of yellow Legos for the kids to play in, he was in heaven. Something pretty cool happened while we were there too. A guy named Brian Tong, who works for a technology website called CNET.com, approached us and asked if London could be in a video he was making for their site. He had London climb into one of the huge swag bags they give us, then carried him around. It was a short video and London was kinda nervous about it all, but it was fun to be a part of. You can watch the whole video here. London’s part is at about minute 2:45. I also taped it though, so if you just want to see that it’s below.

After a few hours of wandering around we were all pretty tuckered out, so we headed home. Overall it was an awesome experience, and I can’t wait to do it again. One of the best parts is I didn’t leave the camera on top of our car like last year Below are a few more pics of the displays and such. Can’t wait for next year. Hopefully you can make it too!

        

Optimus Prime, us as action figures, big hairy guy.

   

Perry the Platybus! Not sure…, and another Optimus Prime

   

Batman, Dark Knight costumes, and Tron

New Arthur Christmas teaser

The movie I’m currently working on, titled Arthur Christmas, just came out with a new teaser trailer. Once again, it doesn’t show anything from the actual film, but gives you a fun look at the main character. The teaser was shown before Harry Potter 7.2 over the weekend, so about five kajillion people saw it. Hopefully at least some will want to go see it when it arrives this Thanksgiving

Midway Checkup

This post is quite late. I had planned on posting it the last day of June, since my new baby girl was supposed to be born June 2nd via C-section. She decided to come early though, and at 8:33 PM June 30th, our new little girl arrived and made our family complete. She’s a doll and we love her. She’s a good sleeper too, which is fantastic.

The point of this post was that I wanted to do a mid-year check-in, and take a look at how I’m doing on my new year’s resolutions/goals. So I’ll list them again, as well as how I’m doing with each one.