I did this special strip last week late at night when my brain wandered into places that didn’t involve going to bed early. It was a guest strip for Dutch buddy, Mindcaster Marc’s Amsterdam-based bicycle blog, Amsterdamize.com. I even got to do a word play with “I Amsterdam” that fit so perfectly that I pondered what comes first with these strips–the subconscious wordsmith concepts or the strip’s written content. It’s hard to tell sometimes…

I was bored last night. I was listening to John Siuntres’ Word Balloon podcast interviews from January (ya, still catching up)–Heard another four hours of Brian Michael Bendis Tapes (always inspiring to the “n”th degree), listened to an interview with Ed Brubaker (of Incognito, Captain America fame, amongst other stuff), listened to the near continuous (but helpful) rants of B Clay More (of Hawaiian Dick), the hilerious energy of Scottie Young (of the new and awesome Marvel’s Wizard of Oz comics), and heard animator lead Jake Hughes talk about his experience with taking Watchmen into the new medium of motion comics.

Between 7pm and 9pm I put it into my head to start working on an idea that’s been floating around in my ethereal “to-do-one-day” list. Since about mid day I was downloading old pulp horror golden age comics and that was the first step. I did a two hour attempt to “restore” the old page digitally, felt confident about it, and closed the test without saving (intentionally) because I was trying to convince myself I didn’t need any new projects rolling around in my head.

But as the Word Balloon audio kept streaming, I kept thinking… then I heard Brian Michael Bendis say something along the lines of “if you want to do something, do it!” … this isn’t the first time his advice to wanna-be writers is simply, “Fuck thinking about it–screw concerning yourself about HOW it needs to be done or if anyone will read it–just FUCKIN do it!” — Sorry, BMB swears when he gets enthusiastic; I had to preserve that same sense of energy.

So–well–between 9pm and 1am–I just effin started doing what was on my mind. I figured I was bored anyways and I wasn’t driven to write anything else I had on my queue, so this restoration attempt was bumped up the list! The goal was to try one full page and see what the results would be–then I’d go from there–but still keep it as something I will now do when all I want to do is drone out and listen to podcasts without any other distractions. Let me tell you I was actually pleased with the experience, AND the results. Figured I’d put it up here for preservation’s sake in case I never actually do a whole short tale.

In order to get this first minibook collection out by a certain date I had to cut down the project’s scope. Writing four extra funny things per page was just taking too much out of me. I’m still happy with the final and it’s at the printer. I’m free again to continue coming up with some more and hopefully collect another 40 strips into a minibook by the end of summer.

I’ve just gotten through the trade paperback “Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis”, written by Len Wein and art by Bernie Wrightson, which collects an 8-page origin story of Swamp Thing that was first printed in House of Secrets #92, which was a short tale never intended to be fleshed out any further or continued as an on-going series, as well as the first ten issues of Swamp Thing, Volume One, including the retold origin story, restructured to anticipate a larger tale. This was a book I owned for a couple months but sat on the “to read” pile longer than I wish it had. I was pleasantly entertained by the dramatic B-Horror style monologue and story telling of Len Wein and captivated by the blast-from-the-past pulp horror art of Bernie Wrightson.

This trade is self-contained and as much as I’d like to have seen it go on longer to possibly flesh out and wrap up loose ends, I think perhaps the benefit of Alan Moore coming on board allowed for the Lein version to just “be what it is” and not transcend to the meta-physical, existential, philosophical deconstruction brought to the character Swamp Thing by Moore (which with no doubt is absolutely wonderful in its own right). The fact that the book ends without proper resolution between Matt Cable’s non-relenting desire to bring down Swamp Thing (Doctor Alec Holland) because he believes it killed his friends Alec and and Linda Holland, not realizing that Swamp Thing is the mutated resurrected form of said Dr. Holland, was mildly disappointing. The fact that Cable starts to have self-doubts though was enough to make satisfy me.

I’m a huge fan of pulp horror so getting a tale centered around a swamp-imbued monstrosity which then tells stories that introduce a Scottish werewolf, a Balkan Frankenstein monster and mad scientist, an Salem-inspired witch tale, a Cthulhu haunted settlement, Swiss manufactured clockwork doppelgangers, an alien in full on astronaut-like space suit, and a horde of vengeful Louisiana zombie-like spirits… I mean seriously, how can I NOT like the book?! Hell it even handed me a moment in Gothem with an appearance of Batman to go with it! I also couldn’t help connecting the story-telling framework to the likes of Robert E. Howard (creator and author of the early Conan the Barbarian short stories). Each issue would start off with a moment of action to suck you in, then it would give you the exposition as to how Swamp Thing travelled from point A to point B, then pitch you right into the complication wasting no time on convoluted set up.

If I have one complaint about the compilation and the psychology and development of the Swamp Thing character, it would be this: Swamp Thing was created when Doctor Alec Holland got caught in a lap explosion and covered in restorative formula that was to be used on plant life. Falling into the bogs of the boyou he rises again as a silent plant construct. My problem then is that he is STILL a doctor, and supposedly brilliant, and even thinks like one at times when confronted with science. It pulled me out of the established reality when Swamp Thing would act irrationally like an ignorant… well… monster… exactly what the supposedly ignorant mobs of frightened simpletons were being described as–at least within the sub-text of the narrative or in Swamp Thing’s thoughts. Many of the times proper restraint was described effectively–but once or twice it was a grinding experience. Because I love the whole “ignorant humans” versus “misunderstood monster” scenario, it becomes hard to ignore this particular criticism.
I know with all the Alan Moore hype nowadays it’s easy to pass up taking a look at this collection, but I still think it’s a worth while enjoyable ride, especially if you have a small, or even curiosity, towards 1950s classical horror tale story-telling. Even if you came onto this title because of Moore’s run, find this trade and giver a read!

War of Kings: Darkhawk #2 came out today–and of course I devoured it! I am going to try to keep this short and sweet and keep my enthusiasm down enough to actually create a “unbiased” review (if that is possible). The premise is pretty simple: Darkhawk is confronted by a new Darkhawk called Talon who is part of a Fraternity of Raptors who basically manage the balanced expansion of galactic cultures. Ya, kinda upper-brow and conceptual at this point–what is important is that there is something great and grand that Chris-Darkhawk gets called on to face and leave everything he knows and loves behind.

In this issue Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning come onboard to co-write with C.B. Cebulski. I felt it was a little heavy handed with the anger management situation that Chris Powell is dealing with and why it’s there in the first place. I enjoyed this story mechanic when it was more subdued. We discover in this issue that the anger is tied to content stored inside the armor that Chris is rejecting. It was therefore a full comic of Chris coming to this realization. There’s a bit of character closure between him and his support group friends in The Loners, his “long term girlfriend” Micky (Turbo), and his hospitalized mother and two brothers. From here on, it seems helmet head is heading to space with his new mentor Talon with a whole new destiny ahead of him.

With all my positiveness about this series in general, as well as the anticipation for War of Kings: Ascension mini-series that will also feature Darkhawk and Talon, I do have more concerns or complaints. The highest concern was with the art by Harvey Tolibao. I just had NO clue what was happening during the fight scene early in the issue with some tracker droid hunter thing. It was just fields of color. Finally as an uber-fan I have to wonder about what happened to some of Darkhawk’s previous continuity: There is mention that Talon and Darkhawk are the last surviving members of this mellenia-old fraternity–so I wonder, huh, what happened to Null Space and the creation of the five Darkhawk suits by intergalactic crime lord Dargin Bokk, otherwise known as Evilhawk? Or what about the Darkhawk that was killed in self-defense by Charles Little Sky, otherwise known as Portal, the guy who now wears his armor? There was a reference to “Null” as an expression of concern by Talon, so it’s not completely forgotten about… and the two Darkhawks–er–Raptors are heading to The Negative Zone which almost sounds like it could be the same place…

Frig… I never kept this review short–I knew this was going to happen. Conclusion: Pick up the book, support Darkhawk’s return to the main stage of the Marvel Universe. He deserves another chance is all I’m saying! I’m thinking I need to read an Abnett and Lanning take on this whole thing before making up my mind about the new direction.

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This creative Greenpeace video on the importance of clean air in our environment is amusing and entertaining. Without being prolific in its obvious connotations, it succeeds in being controversial enough to become viral based solely on the audio and visual cues. The audio definitely does not make this “safe for work”. It’ll have the whole office looking at you with puzzled curiosity as your face turns red like a ripe tomato!

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This creative Greenpeace video on the importance of keeping our oceans clean captures a soothing, yoga-inspired, moment of reflection. The stop motion video captures are varied and all represent the awesome nature of our oceans. Unlike some of there more controversial videos, this one does the trick without being in your face.

Every year Canada prepares for its annual seal hunt; now activists also set forth to protest against it on March 15th: International Day of Action Against Seal Hunting. Nuno Teixeira gives you the lowdown on events, from Russia’s ban on the hunting of young seals to Spain’s 100-nudist protest to raise awareness.

Greenpeace has hit the waters again and flagged down another pesky pirate ship. Okay, maybe that’s too dramatic, but here’s the actual current news on the situation. Greenpeace has uncovered evidence that the Spanish company, Vidal Armadores S.A. is receiving government subsidies equalling over 3.5 million Euros, and is still securing contracts and licenses to [...]

Here’s a piece by Toronto-based artist Marcio Takara (DeviantArt gallery). I just got this in the mail about two weeks ago and it’s happily added to my collection portfolio that one day will be framed for my uber-geek-fanboy “Darkhawk Gallery”… No, I’m not kidding–when I move: I WILL have a wall dedicated to Darkhawk art! Also, Takara is currently the artist on the Boom Studio’s comic “The Increadibles”–Increadible as well isn’t it?

I didn’t know Marcio Takara even lived an hour away from me when I commissioned this piece. That’s the craziness of the internet I suppose. You’ll have to ignore the watermark, some low-life out there was using Marcio’s art to create t-shirts without his permission. In any case, his animation style is what captured my eye. He created these “mini heroes” that just made me giddy–so much iconic detail in such small designs–just wonderful. But they were missing Darkhawk… shame Marcio, shame…

Marcio’s clean lines and dynamic energy is captured in all that he does and I’m proud to be the owner of his (possiblly first) Darkhawk piece. It seems like Marcio Takara and a few other artist friends are going to be gathering every Wednesday in front of the Silver Snail for an evening of Drink and Draw. See, moments like these are what make me wish it wasn’t a one hour drive. I’m not sure I’d be confident enough to just draw with strangers–but I’d sure as hell be willing to drink with them! I hope these nights go well for all of them; looking forward to seeing what comes of it! If you live in Toronto and are an artist, show up and have fun!