Friday, February 27, 2015

2005 Comic-Con International: San Diego Souvenir Book art by Theo Tso

From the Phoenix Comicon website:

"Born and raised on a tiny thirteen-acre parcel in Nevada, Theo always loved comics and taught himself how to draw studying his favorite artists’ work. His credits include “Masked Men” and Phil Yea’s “Winged Tiger.” Tso has also served his community as a Tribal Council member, while raising his family. His character “Captain Paiute” will soon be a full-length comic series."

Twitter also states he's a "Native American comic book artist, and creator of Captain Paiute and owner of War Paint Studios."

Monday, February 23, 2015

Podcast: Making Sense of the Martian Manhunter

Episode #5

Look for us on iTunes, or ShoutEngine

This episode, Frank responds to an article on Comics Alliance by Chris Sims where the columnist devotes more time to thinking about the pros and cons of the Manhunter from Mars than most folks would ever spare. Sims felt the Alien Atlas compared unfavorably and unavoidably to Superman and Batman in the Justice League, and that he works best filling their vacuum in instances where the World's Finest duo are unavailable. Frank mostly agrees, but explains that there are a lot more venues available for that service within the DC Universe than might have been previously considered, including adopting orphaned concepts from prior periods of those heroes' library. Remember kids, just because you only know a character from team books doesn't mean that's all there is to know...

We enjoy dialogue on the red planet, so here are our non-telepathic contact options:

Tweet host Diabolu Frank directly, or probe @rolledspine as a group.
Email Diabolu
If the main Idol-Head of Diabolu blog isn't your thing, try the umbrella Rolled Spine Podcasts.

Friday, February 20, 2015

2005 Comic-Con International: San Diego Souvenir Book art by Jason Thomas Smith

A lot of the Timmverse/Justice League Unlimited style Martian Manhunters I've seen have been pretty blatant swipes, so kudos to Smith for adopting a style that reflects the basic aesthetic without shamelessly retracing it, making the work his own. I also like the solid black cape and contrasting interplay with the lettering.

Friday, February 13, 2015

2005 Comic-Con International: San Diego Souvenir Book art by Joshua Franks

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I tried to find one of these "Fiftieth Friday" anniversary pieces that would reflect posting on the eve of Valentine's Day, but nobody thought to include J'Onn's wife or any of his love interests. This one at least has a slight romantic fantasy quality to it, dark as it may be, and it is a Friday the Thirteenth as well. I feel confident that there's a color version of this piece somewhere, and I'm certain the reproduction quality in the SDCC con book was yucky. Unfortunately, while I found traces of the artist online, there was nothing substantial or definite.

Friday, February 6, 2015

2005 Comic-Con International: San Diego Souvenir Book art by Marty Salsman

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Marty Salsman is clearly a Martian Manhunter fan, as his art has turned up on the blog before, a piece that he's since colored. Salsman even co-produced seven pages of a John Jones story, “Searching in the Dark,” linked below. Salsman was published in the SDCC convention book on J'onn J'onzz's 50th birthday, and he showed it off here, but I felt such an involved piece for such an auspicious occasion deserved a larger presentation. Note the cameo by Lil' Archie, who was also turning 50, so I'm not so sure the descriptive should have still applied.

"One of the truly unsung heroes of the DC universe, he's been around since 1955 predating the Silver-Age by just one year. I'm truly heartbroken DC has decided to kill off this character. On a brighter note the young writer and fellow deviantART member Dahila Mockery(give her a shout, she's done a great job) and myself have decided to pay tribute to this awesome DC hero! Set in the mid-1950's before he's even met any other super-heroes, he was a detective for the police and a private investigator par excellant. Page 1 of 15 of our story, I hope you like it. A colorized version will follow soon."

“Searching in the Dark”