This piece wasn’t a commission, but I felt I still needed to highlight it as a “bonus feature” for the one I DID commission from Matt Bellamy: The “Striker” Darkhawk version based on the final issue of War of Kings: Ascension. The original of this on can be found on DeviantArt in Matt’s Gallery.

This little guy hearkens back to the earlier Darkhawk suit design but loses the grappling hook and adds the perma-wings. I’d say this guys closest to the League of Losers version done a few years back (2005) by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester.

How could I NOT collect all this info here? I’ve been hit with a flurry of news on this topic in the last 10 minutes and wishing some of the cool stuff was all in ONE place. So here it is, the short of it is that Disney has acquired Marvel Comics and its portfolio of 5000 characters for $4 billion buckaroos by the end of the calendar year. The acquisition highlights from the press release: Disney’s strategic focus on quality branded content, technological innovation and international expansion to build long-term shareholder value.

It all sounds like madness on the surface because, if you’re like me, it’s initially hard to NOT connect Mickey and crew with the grim-and-gritty world of the Marvel Universe. It’s hard to picture a world where Disney doesn’t force Marvel stories to tone down on the violence and turn out more child-friendly comics. One the plus side, this brings new readers into comics, right? If ANYONE can create leverage when it comes to targeting children, it’s Disney… right?

I’m not sure why I’m still mildly weirded out though. Disney wants to provide Marvel properties a broader audience reach. It has the marketing power, it has a strong footing in entertainment and world distribution, what could go wrong? Warner Bros. bought out DC Comics and it’s all fine and dandy on that side. Warner Bros. owns the Loony Tunes and I don’t have Bugs Bunny popping out in my imagination with a Green Lantern ring… but then again WB also gave us the Batman Animated Series–so that branding innately made sense.

But Disney… and Marvel. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Disney mostly has the girl market covered and booming… but what do they have for boys nowadays? Not saying comics are just for boys–but you get what I’m saying, I hope–comics have a larger boy demographic. Plain and simple. If Disney can reach out to young boys again AND young girls, then it’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned! With that said, I’ve gathered some awesome points brought up by fans thus far. Enjoy!

Awesome Fan Points gathered from the iFanboy community:

• Will we see a Donald Duck/Howard the Duck teamup?
• Will we see a Little Mermain/Namor teamup?
• Will we see an Increadibles/Fantastic Four teamup?
• Will Kingdom Hearts be mixed with Marvel supers as well as Square Enix? (Cause = totally awesome)
• Will we finally get Darkwing Duck in comics? (please)
• Will we finally see Gargoyles in comics? (pretty please)
• What happens to the distribution deals with Paramount?
• What happens to the BOOM! Studios Disney license deals?
• Wait. So WHO owns the right to Marvelman?
• Will the Marvel MAX and Icon lines shut down by Disney execs?
• Disney owns the CrossGen Comics portfolio: Will these old characters join the Marvel Universe now?
• Anyone else seeing an animated future for Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers? Will Pluto join the team?
• Will the Superhuman Registration Act be expanded to include talking animals?
• Will there be a Disney Zombies miniseries?

Original Wolvie/Mickey art found at: The Wolverine Daily

Swamp Thing

Joel Silver hopes to make a new Swamp Think movie in 3D. From Joel Silver: “I’m developing a picture now that I’d like to do. I’ll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D. There are a couple of projects I’m thinking about (for the format) but not everything. Maybe I’m going to do it. I like it.”

Green Lantern

After some budgeting issue came up with the film being shot in Australia due to the value of the Australian dollar having risen 16% higher since the spring. It was no longer attractive to shoot there and take advantage of tax benefits. The studio is now scouting Louisiana for some of the possible production.

Powers

Brian Michael Bendis’s Powers series is confirmed to be coming to television. From Bendis: “What made ‘Powers’ special in a culture filled with superhero stories was that we never left the cop’s point of view. We don’t go flying around with the superheroes. We always stay on the ground. ’Powers’ is not a superhero story. We mention all these cool fantastic ideas but it’s a cop story. It’s ‘CSI’ and not ‘Heroes.’”

X-Men Origins: Magneto

David Goyer to MTV News: “They’re still thinking about doing it. They’re definitely looking into doing other X-Men spin offs. I’ve been in touch with them. I’m sure that project will move forward in the next year or so.” So 2010 folks!

Queen & Country

Ryan Condal is writing Queen & Country for Fox. The script will be based on Greg Rucka’s Oni Press comic which follows a female Special Ops agent who finds herself on the run when she carries out a high-level assassination in Eastern Europe.

Spawn

From Todd McFarlane’s Twitter: I’ve officially begun writing the Spawn movie screenplay. The story has been in my head for 7 or 8 years. Will continue to update. The movie idea is neither a recap or continuation. It is a stand alone story that will be R-rated. Creepy and scary. The tone of this Spawn movie will be for a more older audience. Like the film Departed.

Batman 3

Magan Fox is Catwoman! Holy crap! Please say it ain’t so! Alright: “It ain’t so.” Thankfully this was nothing more than a prototypical example of Internet-provoked rumor. Warner Bros. has confirmed that no casting has been done for Batman 3 because there IS no Batman 3 yet. No script. No Casting Calls. We can all breathe normally again.

I was going to take a break from commissioning more pieces of Darkhawk for a while. Then something came up that made it impossible for me to head to the Toronto Fan Expo over the weekend. I figured I was going to spend money to get in and on gas, right? So why not filter it back into comics somehow?

I was scanning DeviantArt and came across a guy who did chibi-styled Guyvers and Iron Man versions. I was instantly hit with the image of Darkhawk on War of Kings: Ascension #4 all decked out in arsenal and manga-esque flare. I quickly discovered Matt was taking commissions so I jumped on board anxiously. You can see Matt Bellamy’s (GuyverC) art on his DeviantArt Gallery page. You can see what I mean.

There was an amazingly quick turn around time. Thankfully for me Matt was a Darkhawk fan and didn’t need me to dig up my nerd-knowledge and Google-fu on him. He was good to go and turned out this piece! He took some liberties in the design but it’s still pretty true to the concept of “decked out DH”! I love this little guy and I love the idea of Darkhawk being an artist’s dream come true–screw continuity of design–just make it up if you think it’s cool and now it fits!

It’s amazing the bizarre stuff that you can come across when researching any number of topics. While I was doing research on Aquatic comic book heroes, I discovered the book, “The Science of Superheroes” by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg. This book primarily deals with the scientific plausibility of superheroes/superpowers (seriously I’m not making this up). Since I was only looking at this work for the sake of the League of Aquatic Heroes, I only read the chapter on Aquatic Heroes, but I’m sure the rest of the book is equally intreaging!

So how possible is Aquaman or Namor, the Sub-Mariner? Gresh and Weinberg, bring up the theory that mankind could’ve possibly spent a period of its evolutionary track as a semi-aquatic species. I’ve stumbled across this theory before in my schooling (as a History and Archeaology major), and it’s surprisingly plausible. Many of the traits that separate human beings from other primates can be explained by mankind evolving in a heavily flooded area for a period of time. I suppose it’s not much of a stretch for the human imagination to wonder if people could’ve continued evolving from a semi-aquatic to a fully aquatic species. I guess the idea of fishmen is not as crazy as it sounds.

The chapter also deals with a number of topics related to our Oceanic heroes including: Atlantis, breathing water, ocean pressure, and how to communicate with or command fish. Unfortunately, the chapter contained no logical explanation as to why Aquaman wears an orange shirt with green pants.

Chapter Preview on Google Books:
“The Science of Superheroes”, Chapter Four, Under the Sea: Aquaman and Sub-Mariner, by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg

Buy Book at Amazon.com:
The Science of Superheroes

Here we go again with speculation before self-motivated research. The new tale is that the Loch Ness Monster has been spotted by a dude named Jason Cooke with the Google Earth application (The image can be seen by entering coordinates Latitude 57°12’52.13″N, Longitude 4°34’14.16″W in Google Earth.)

You know, I get it. Some of these sites that spring this type of news as exclusive press want eyeballs–not literally of course–unless their goals are darker than perceived! But seriously, after the scenario I went through with the mystical 100-foot-snake from Nabau, I surely wasn’t going to get duped by this nonsense news.

Again, I wish SOMEONE could actually prove its existence and be over with it–I mean the damn creature has been reported since 1933 folks! I think there comes a time when awesome stories of extinct dinosaurs actually being found in today’s world can be put to rest.

Researcher Adrian Shine, of the Loch Ness Project, told the newspaper: “This is really intriguing. It needs further study.”

I’ve gone ahead and posted some screenshots grabbed from my Google Earth. I’ve zoomed in to show the close up image. It’s terrible but it’ll suffice. The next is the same image but with some details added by yours-truly.

• Notice the shape of the main white mass? Nessie is an organic creature as far as I can tell–unless the Beast Machine Transformers are also real in our world and I’ve just been a noob about it.
• The arrows indicate where a motor would be placed at the back of the more OBVIOUS possibility, which is that of a BOAT.
• The red lines outlining the white “legs” and “tail” are the WAKE of the boat, not limbs, unless the presumed plesiosaur Nessie is more akin to a massive developing tadpole of a large squid missing half its legs.

Once again… a disappointing reality to a guy who wants nothing more than a real-life Jurassic Park to become reality through DNA reconstruction, revitalization and cloning technology advances.

[Johan Krauss, Liz Sherman, Hellboy, Abraham Sapien, Roger the Homonculus]

I’ve been getting into custom toys lately. News of these customs got to me, and WOW, are these not the coolest things ever! The mastermind behind these toys is Swedish artist Jakob Westman. He used Playmobil officers as the base and then did a free-for-all on the customizing.

The story is an intriguing one which makes this whole set that much more kick ass. After doing the first four figures Westman was contacted by the Mignola family and commissioned to finish up the set! That’s right, folks, these one-of-a-kind custom figures are currently in the private collection of Mike Mignola and family and regretfully unavailable to the general public.

You can see detail shots of all the figures on this site here (follow link).

[Ilsa, Rasputin, dr. Krönen and Leopold]

I’ve been reading old golden age western comics for the last week. It started, in part, because I am “researching” for a possible new project on the horizon. On a secondary level, I was curious and have been reading superhero or war hero golden age stuff off and on for the last few months–again a bit out of simple curiosity, and a bit for brain food to chew on later.

The below page is from Capital Stories Inc., or otherwise known as “Charlton Comics”, in a one-page “story” titled “Trip to the Moon“. It’s not REALLY a story because it’s actually an informative piece that discusses the future of space travel and–oh hells yes–the reality of man traveling to the moon. Not just men like Neil Armstrong over a decade later, but ANY man!

[View Larger Image]

After reading it I chuckled at some of the awesome enthusiasm in the narrative. I had to step back so that I could put into focus a time when this was actually released–and then I read it again. It was the kind of thing that COULD have come out of a creative story-teller’s mind. It was REAL possible and presumably TANGIBLE science fiction come to life! This would have been a phenomenal experience to have as a teenager back in the 50s!

Below is a list of observations I had during the first reading, thoughts I had after I was done reading the page, and then thoughts I had after reading it again to ponder further what has come since the time it was written.

1. The Hayden Planetarium was taking applications for people to take trips to the moon in 1953?!? WHAT?! Awesome, right? Except that, as we know half a century later, this never happened, or is even PLANNED to happen anymore. At least not with the support from the Hayden Planetarium. That’s right folks, they now have a website and are more focused in bringing the frontier of astrophysics to the public via exhibitions, books, public programs and online resources. They couldn’t take you 75-year-olds to the stars, but they sure as hell do their part to bring knowledge of the stars to you! I really hope 25,000 never PAID to fill out those applications though. Dreams destroyed by a shredding machine.
2. Having an possible endorsement in a comic book calling out would-be astronauts in 1954 is WAY ahead of its time… and reality. The first scientist astronaut selection process began in 1964 in which NASA received 1400 applications (most of which by men). In 1977, during the third selection round, 8000 applications were reviewed (this time 1/3 were from women). Even during this round only a few hundred were deemed fit for the challenge. The fact that this comic page could have helped at least start the youthful American enthusiasm to start studying to be an astronaut is very exciting to me.
3. The comic page mentions interplanetary trips within 25 years. The truth of the matter is that it came 16 years later in 1969 with Apollo 11. There have only been 9 manned missions to the moon, 6 of which actually landed, with a total of 12 men having walked on the surface. All this happened between 1969 and 1972. That’s it. The vision and dreams in the panel were and still are commendable, but alas now we have everyone focused on the next big thing: Mars. Imagine that 56 years later!
4. Apollo 16, in 1969 dollar currency, cost up to $25 billion–that’s about $135 in 2005 dollar value. I think the dream of nuclear fission rocket engines turning this dream into possibility is pretty much out the window… especially during “today’s economic crisis”.
5. In 1953 it couldn’t possibly have been known how long it would take to even GET to the moon–so they didn’t even bother guessing in fantastical ways that would likely have been a humorous attempt looking back at it today. Apollo 17 took about 3 days to travel the 400,000 km. The comic panel wasn’t too far off as to the top speeds though. According to Harrison H. Schmitt’s report on his Apollo 17 mission, they eventually reached about 25,000km/h. So, “well over” that amount was a bit of another dream fulfillment–but for a 16-year-away estimate. That wasn’t too bad!
6. Although many geological studies were done on the spot and plenty moon rock samples collected and thousands of photos collected, the last panel was once again a bit too eager in its prediction. Many future trips equalled exactly 6 landed explorations within 3 years before funding was cut and the program was shut down. Cost is still a major factor 55 years after this comic–even if you ignore the required selection process and requirements individuals need to pass. No other exploration trips have been attempted by governments much less funded, organised, executed and made profitable by Google Microsoft corporations.

Dakota Fanning is rumored to be playing the lead in a new Wonderful Wizard of Oz movie co-produced by Spawn creator, Todd McFarlane. The story is said to take place in modern day time, following Dorothy’s grand-daughter. The original novel was written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum so it’s already an interesting build on the classic work.

UPDATE – September 2nd, 2009: McFarlane has confirmed that Dakota Fanning was never contacted or confirmed to be a part of the new Oz movie! This may have started considering she acted in a Wonderland movie a few years ago.

A past film, regretfully unnoticed by most is Tin Man. It’s a story about a grownup Dorothy who gets called back to a steampunk-future Oz to save it once again from a new tyranny. I won’t go into more details because I do not want to ruin this film–just go out and BUY it!

Back to McFarlane’s connection to Oz… I was reminiscing a week prior to this rumor’s announcement, late one night, clicking through all the toys on the Spawn.com site and I came across the Twisted Land of Oz toys and thought: Whao, holy hell!

That being said, I’m faced with this news days later so I can’t get connecting the two outta my head! As much as I’d like to see a Twisted Oz made in some form–only because of how morbidly original a take it could be on the classic–I just cringe when I realize Dakota is only 15-years-old… so visually… or legally… this isn’t making me feel right.

Reading McFarlane’s quote describing the film didn’t help: “You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley character from Alien [Sigourney Weaver] than a helpless singing girl.”

UPDATE – September 2nd, 2009: Todd McFarlane has also stated: ““I think my ‘Twisted’ version is a little scary for Warners to embrace.”

McFarlane Toys: Twisted Land of Oz – Spawn.com Toys Link

Just to get some perspective on Todd McFarlane’s ability to come up with morbid re-imaginings, let me highlight the following toys! Back in 2003 McFarlane toys came out with a series of toys unconnected to Spawn, but with the same exceptional detail that the toys where known for. The Second Monsters Series was designed around a re-interpretation of the characters from the Wizard of Oz if they existed in an alternate universe (the Toddiverse as I call it)–darker, more grotesque, visually violent, and NOT FOR CHILDREN!

Dorothy - Captured and bounded and blindfolded by two evil Munchkins in all her Gothic-design flare, it’s easy to accept that the story you knew as a child is long and over! This kinda took me back to one of Iron Maiden’s last stage performances in the mid-90s… with that crazy mage-macabre… sorry I forget the dude’s name, but his assistants (or one of them) had industrial tape over her nipples. I was a teen at the time. It was painfully absurd to me. And awesome.

Lion - Here we have Lion with guts spilling everywhere–poor bastard can barely hold himself together! Anyways, the idea of a reanimated Cowardly Lion just sounds like it could work… what with all the zombie-madness going around the mediaverse nowadays. The massive bear trap is a cool prob too. But if he just stopped playing with it, he might not have to struggle from having his parts all lyin’ around. Just saying. (PST: There a joke in there. Can you CATch it? Not, lyin’, it’s purrfectly in front of you.)

Scarecrow - AH, my favorite of the bunch–lanky, comic relief, determined to do right, forever fighting fear of failure… and hanging onto life… er… or death… or animation… FRIG I don’t know but it’s cool alright! Looks like some crazy backwoods farmer decided it was a good idea to use a mummified corpse as the base for building a new scarecrow–then, well–it came alive, brain or now brain, he at least demands some respect now! “Hey Dorothy… I got somethan in ma eye!”

Tin Man - Come on! Cool right? A bit of spawn coming through here. Bit of Frankenstein. Bit of Ironman. Bit of an atomic sub. Toaster. broken down car. Terminator. Jason from Friday the 13th. There’s just awesome designed all over this bugger. Who needs a heart anyways right? Not when you can AXE someone to love you. Get it… AXE… forget it.

Toto - I am not sure what the HELL happened to the black little Yorkshire terrier? In this alternate universe he’s a bet you’re sure terror! Get it… you’re sure terror? Yorkshire Terrier? No. This thing on? tap tap… He’s nasty, but that half-amputated pygmy freak riding him reminds me of Luna on Thundercats and that’s good enough for me!

Wizard - And here we have the great wizard, all steampunked up in his Neo-Victorian gettup and Sandman-esque gasmask. With that alien tentacle thingy coming out the back of his head I can’t make up my mind whether it’s just a body modification or that he is, in fact, an alien ghoul. His makeshift oxygen regulator (yes, that’s what I’m calling the thing on his chest) and the Splinter-gone-wrong sidekick/henchmen will take the rest of his re-animated pain away so that he can go on focusing on being awesome.

In a world concerned with its carbon footprint and ever-striving for new ways to reduce environmental impact, hemp is one of those products that comes up time and again with new alternatives. This time around it’s “Hemcrete”–a new concrete-like substance developed by U.K.-based Lhoist Group, Tradical® Hemcrete® made from hemp, lime and water.

Here’s a new building material that is not just carbon neutral, but is actually carbon negative. What makes it carbon negative? There is more CO2 locked-up in the process of growing and harvesting of the hemp than is released in the production of the lime binder.

Hemcrete® is 100% recyclable, is seven times stronger than concrete, weighs half as much, and is less prone to cracking. It’s also waterproof, fireproof, insulates well, and does not rot. Demolished Hemcrete® walls can actually be used as fertilizer.

Hemcrete® has been available in the UK for years but it’ll take a while before it hits North America since it’s currently illegal to grow the species of hemp used in the mixture (although I’m not sure if it’s illegal in Canada… hmmm). If the market in Europe becomes profitable though, it’s likely that lawmakers might re-access their own laws to consider this alternative building material as well.