Random Art: Sunday’s Off For a Few Reasons…

Oof. I wasn’t feeling too well this morning, but that was probably more due to lack of sleep and the weather outside getting more winter-like (Today only! Temperature 20% off!). Anyway, I was going to watch some movies and write about them, but I didn’t get around to it. Yeah, you know something’s off when you blow off entertainment to do other stuff. Actually, I ended up going through some stacks of PC games looking for a few titles for a future article, but got sidetracked going through two hard drives here to see if I had a really old game installed someone asked me about last week. Meh, I didn’t find it (yet), but while online looking up stuff earlier, I did eventually knock out a quickie tree drawing (enjoy!):

Reach for the Sky

Hokay, I’ll be back tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day, as I need to pop up early and see about doing some laundry. It’s starting to get up and walk around, which isn’t a good thing… Eeek.

Random Art: More Waiting Time Follies for Your Perusal…

branch office V
 
More waiting time today at the wi-fi shootin’ range, wheeeee! Anyway, this one took less time, but I ended up not getting to download everything I needed to. Oh well. Monday is time to try again. Bright and earlier, this time. Moooo. Okay, good night now!

Random Art: Picture from the Holding Pattern…

miss october
 
Hmmmm. Spent most of this afternoon downloading a rather large file and had to shut down as much as possible so that download would go as quickly as could be. Yeah, even on a high speed connection, multi-megabyte game files take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to download (one main reason I prefer retail discs over downloads for some PC games). Anyway, I did keep one window open to keep myself entertained while part of that download was happening, so here you go. Not so amusingly enough, my mouse seems to have died (no, I didn’t draw that with a finger on some touch screen!), so I’ll be needing to buy another. If figures. Anyway, back later with some actual stuff to read. Work is kind of backing up a bit, but it’s more thanks to me having a load of drafts that need completing. My helper monkey’s self-freedom has set me back a bit…

Random Art: It’s Back (Finally!), But Don’t Get Comfortable…

on second thought 

Hey, look! I actually found the time to do some (unfinished) art! Thanks to the wi-fi at the other Starbucks here NOT working at all (meaning I wasted a 1.2 mile walk! Thanks, Starbucks!), I got to steam myself into a hot cross bun for a bit because I didn’t get anything done all afternoon before I decided to vent that energy in a more proper direction with a little MS Paint sketch. Oh well – I’ll see if I can finish this piece up this week, but don’t count on it. I have a bunch of meetings to attend plus a few too many articles to write, so my drawing time will be even more limited.

IDW’s Marvel Covers Artist’s Edition: The Next (& Least Expensive) Best Thing To Owning The Originals

IDW Marvel Covers AA
 
If you owned just one of the pieces of cover art found in this latest must-buy Artist’s Edition, you’d probably be able to buy up every copy of the book directly from IDW and hand them out as really awesome holiday or other surprise gifts. Thankfully, you don’t own any of this artwork or it wouldn’t have made it into the book at all, right? Anyway, this excellent 144-page tome of Marvel Comics history (scanned and printed full size) will only set you back $100, which is a STEAL if you love comic art and want to see plenty of key covers from the 60’s onward. If you happen to want to buy me a copy of this tome o’ joy, I wouldn’t stop you at all either, you know. Just don’t tell me you’re doing that, though – I like surprises on occasion…

The Tale of The Princcess Kaguya: Studio Ghibli’s Back With Some Classic Beauty…

The Princess Kaguya MP 
Currently, this one’s only part of a children’s film festival here in NYC, but I’m hoping it at least gets a limited release in regular theaters after that’s all said and done, as it’s quite lovely and yes, it’s Studio Ghibli doing some amazing animation work as usual. Check out the trailer below for some lovely visuals:

(Thanks, Movieclips Trailers!) 

This is one of those films that NEEDS to be seen even if you know the classic story by heart. Let’s hope this gets more notice and that wider theatrical release before it pops up on Blu-Ray/DVD and people somehow forget it exists because it’s not being promoted outside of a niche audience. Oh, wait. OOPS. It IS getting a US release on October 17, so I guess I can see this after all and not have to deal with squealing kids, shushing parents and overpriced tickets. No wait, the tickets will still be overpriced, but one out of three is just fine by me…

Big Eyes: Tim Burton Gets Back To The Really Scary Stuff – Reality!

(thanks, Retina Br & Yahoo Movies!)
 

Okay, clowns of the circus and makeup-wearing movie serial killer variety don’t scare me at all. Those stupid Troll dolls with their wild hair sticking up? Nah, I just laugh at their hideous mugs when I see them. But those Keane paintings? Yeesh. They were SO popular and ubiquitous that as a kid it seemed to me someone was going around and hanging them in every other home or shop window to keep people OUT. Anyway, Tim Burton’s new project takes a look at the rather wild court battle between Walter and Margaret Keane after the mister claimed he did all those famous paintings when in fact, his shy missus did all the brushwork.

While this doesn’t sound like Burton material, the man is actually a keen collector of Keanes, so it’s clear that this one’s a labor of love made for about $10 million (a bargain by Hollywood standards). Still, for some of us, this will be a horror movie. It’s those damn haunting gigantic eyeballs that will seep into your soul and probably age you by a few years before this film is over. Either that, or you won’t sleep right for a week because of those damned BIG EYES burning holes into your miiiiiiiind. Yaaaaaah! Well, if it’s a return to form for the director, I’ll be pleased to see this. I’ll just have to remember to keep repeating to myself “It’s only a movie…It’s only a movie…It’s only a movie…” Yaaaaaaah! Anyway, Big Eyes opens at a theater near you on December 25, 2014.

IDW & Humble Bundle Want You To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before (and Stay For a While)…

 
Yikes. With all these digital books in this great IDW/Humble Bundle teaming, you’d better hope to heck you live long and prosper. Get up to 14 graphic novels based on classic Trek to the more modern movies all for a song. Well, not “Highly Illogical”, but something less catchy and with no words because you can’t sing all that well and it’s a pain in the neck (literally) when your significant other keeps Vulcan Death Gripping you to shut it already. $325 worth of digitally delivered illustrated tomes for a mere $15? That’s like getting a Doomsday Machine visit for free and your planet eaten as a bonus!

Er, well… hmmm. Perhaps a better Trek analogy would be more fitting, but all I can think of are bad ones. It’s that sort of day and my material has been sitting out in the sun so long that it’s all dried up. Anyway, go beam yourself up some deals and crank up those warp engines so the time factor zaps you back far enough that you can read everything here and get back to your normal time when it’s all done. DISCLAIMER: Humble Bundle and IDW aren’t responsible for what the mirror version of you does while you’re away catching up on the fake future.

CREEPY Is 50 Years Old! Dark Horse Comics Is Having A Little Reading Party…

Creepy 18 CoverCreepy 50th DHAnd guess what ladies and germs? You’re allllllll invited! Well, provided you read at home or wherever you’re allowed to these days  and just so happen to buy your very own copy of the upcoming celebratory tome, Creepy #18 (on sale October 8th at your favorite comic emporium in the physical or digital realm!).  Hmmm, now that I think about it for a second, I’m actually creeped out because that damn magazine is as old as I am. Eeeeeeeeyaaaaaaaaghh!. I think I’m more consistent and less scary than that old rag is, but I have my moments. Just you try to get in my way before I’ve had my coffee and you’ll see for yourself.  Er, anyway… This special issue will feature the following content:

Cover: Dustin Nguyen (Batman Eternal)
Frontispiece: Arthur Baltazar (Itty Bitty Hellboy)

The Executor:
Script by Fred Van Lente (Conan the Avenger, Archer and Armstrong)
Art by Alison Sampson (Genesis)
Weird, supernatural goings on surrounding the death of Edgar Allen Poe and the posthumous editing and publishing of his work.

Over the River to Charlie:
Script by Corrina Bechko (Star Wars: Legacy, Planet of the Apes)
Art by Drew Moss (In the Dark)
Young girls are haunted throughout their childhood by a hanged man who’s taken up residence in their dollhouse.

Keeping Up with the Creepys:
Script and art by Peter Bagge (Hate)
Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie’s attempts to outdo each other with their classic rides escalates into neighborhood-destroying hilarity.

The Man Who Walked Through Walls:
Script by Dan Braun (Creepy consulting editor)
A man who discovers a way to become intangible takes his revenge on the neighbors who have wronged him.

Gallery:
Kevin Ferrera (Dead Rider)
Kelley Jones (Batman)
Eric Powell (The Goon)
Pete Woods (Terminator Salvation)
Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man)

Feel free to reserve this at that comic shop near you or just plop in and pick it up. Uncle Creepy will wait for you, you know. He KNOWS he’ll be haunting your dreams at some point, so he’s got all the time in the world…

IDW Gets All Throwback With Its November Lineup…

WIDW AE Covers 

The clever folks at IDW Publishing have wisely figured out that just about any modern professional comic that’s been hand-drawn the old fashioned way just looks more interesting because it’s really intriguing for comic art and illustration fans to see each artist’s technique and style before all that hard work is buried under modern computer coloring. This November, they’ll be issuing a bunch of comics with these “throwback” original art covers, so keep an eyeball out for the following titles:

Borderlands #5
Edward Scissorhands #2
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #208
Godzilla: Rulers of Earth #18
Judge Dredd #25
The Maxx: Maxximized #13
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #25
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters #2
Transformers: Drift: Empire of Stone #1
The X-Files: Season 10 #18
V-Wars #7
Winterworld #5

Enemy Ace AA IDWAs for me, I’m all about the classic stuff, so if anything, I’m closer to drooling over the absolutely gorgeous Enemy Ace Artist’s Edition, as well as some of the other Joe Kubert Artists Editions, Tarzan of the Apes and TOR. There are a couple of other Artist’s Edition books I’m drooling over, but I’ll stop here before my wallet gets the idea and throws itself into my screen a few too many times…