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Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s going on when you look at an ultrasound image of a baby in utero, but in this case the truth is plain to see-this woman’s baby is clearly the supervillain Venom, and he’s coming back for vengeance against Spider Man!
Giving birth to a supervillain might seem like a scary scenario, but really there are a lot of perks-your kid won’t get picked on at school, they will generally be able to take care of themselves, and every time they knock over a bank you’re in the money.
And at least her baby doesn’t look like Green Goblin, now that would have been terrifying!
I’m a certified cake-o-holic, so when I feel like a cake is too pretty to eat it either means I’m running a fever, or the cake is truly a work of art. Enter the newest batter and fondant sculptural masterpiece, an Amazing Spider Man cake that definitely lives up to the hype.
It’s shaped like my Web Headed hero, and look at the linework, oh the LINES! If this was an illustration people would be wowed, but when the lines are drawn with delicious, sugary frosting my stomach starts doing flips, begging for a slice.
But who has the nerve to cut into Spidey’s head and take out a chunk? Better call Venom if you really want a slice of this super cake!
The folks over at ComicsAlliance have come up with a fun way to celebrate the coming of 2012-superhero inspired cocktails! So, if you’re looking for ways to spice up your New Years party, check out these delicious sounding recipes and decide who’s side you’re on.
Note: these cocktails will not give the drinker super powers, nor will they make you invulnerable in any way, so enjoy them in moderation and get home safely! Happy New Years Neatoramanauts!
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With the Dark Crystal, Jim Henson established a fantasy world rich with culture, character and a history we discover little about during the course of the movie. To me, it always felt like it should have been the last in a trilogy, the grand finale for a storyline that could have spanned generations.
If there’s one person who can deliver a prequel that lives up to Henson’s standard of excellence it’s illustrator and creative mastermind Brian Froud, who served as the concept designer for the original Dark Crystal film. The first book in his three-volume graphic novel series entitled The Dark Crystal:Creation Myths is about to be released, and it looks fantastic!
You can scan through a few pages for yourself at the link below. Do you think it looks like a worthy addition to Jim Henson’s fantasy masterpiece?
Comments Off Iconic comic book illustrator Rob Liefeld, aka the Man who Never Ages, and celebrated cartoonist Ty Templeton starred in this enlightening episode of the Canadian TV show The Anti Gravity Room from 1996, which shows what it takes to put together a comic book.
If you’ve ever wondered how a comic book goes from script to store shelf, this ugly VHS rip will fill you in on the particulars, and offers some pretty sweet insight into how much work goes into creating comics.
Link –via ComicsAlliance
He’s known as Supaidaman in Japan, and his live action Japanese tv show from 1978 is way cooler than the cheesy American incarnation. Watch as Spider-Man performs stunts on his motorcycle, battles baddies with duck bills, and tries to stop the sinister plans of one Professor Monster.
–via ComicsAlliance
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Apparently when Russia got a hold of our beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles they decided to go nuts and cross them over with everything from the Predator to Disney cartoons to Batman.
WTF Russia? I thought the Cold War was over?! Please don’t look at these images if you’re a die-hard TMNT fan and have a weak heart.
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Every pop culture character looks funnier when they’re Simpsonized! Awesome toon creator Dean Fraser has taken on the video game Batman:Arkham City via his Springfield Punx blog, where stiff upper lips and yellow skin abound.
Please note that Dean’s illustrations start about halfway down the page linked to below; the drawings on the upper half are done by various fans and aren’t nearly as well done as Dean’s great designs.
Link –via ComicsAlliance
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Batman and Star Wars would be a pretty sweet crossover, with Batman battling the Imperial Army forces while trying to contain his own dark side.
But this fan art mashup by Dean Fraser contains concepts I find a bit strange, like the fact that the Joker is the Emperor and is therefore Batman’s superior, or Nightwing being directly opposed to Batman as Luke Skywalker, but the character designs are spot on and very well done so I guess strange concepts be damned. Funniest character mashup in this series- Penguin the Hutt!
At a glance, it’s a collage made out of random images that forms the shape of Spider Man’s eye. Then you look closer, and you’re drawn into his web of mystery as you try to make out the shape of all the little Spider Man images Pascal Garcin has crammed into this collage. And is that Captain America in the center?
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Anthony Bourdain wears many hats these days-writer, host of 2 travel shows, and chef-at-large, but the fact that he’s been working on a food inspired graphic novel seems like a surprising, and awesome, career choice. Here’s how he describes the 160 page graphic novel “Get Jiro!” he’s creating with co-writer Joel Rose:
…a gourmet slaughter-fest, sort of like ‘Fistful of Dollars’ meets ‘Eat Drink Man Woman’” and “‘Yojimbo’ meets ‘Big Night’ and ‘Babette’s Feast’, an ultra-violent slaughter-fest over culinary arcana
Hilarious, and inventive as usual Mr. Bourdain. I can’t wait to read this culinary crossover when it comes out June 2012.
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These 16 bit character re-designs have so much personality, and were clearly inspired by the character designs in Super Mario Bros. 3, which only adds to their charm.
They were created by Jesus Castaneda, and you can see his take on lots more pop culture icons, such as Doctor Who, Boba Fett Harry Potter and the Ghostbusters, at the link below. These guys should star in a Mario crossover game, and I like that he didn’t skimp on the belly bulge!
Link –via ComicsAlliance
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These cool graphic illustrations with a cutaway look show the differences, and similarities, between superheroes and their alter egos. The simplistic character designs not only illustrate the importance of silhouette in character recognition, they’re also a pleasure to look at!
Ben Balistreri is a storyboard artist and character designer for Dreamworks Animation, so the energy he brings to his Marvel re-designs is fresh and full of cartoon charm.
I would love to see an animated series featuring these re-designed characters, you can see all 50 of them for yourself at Ben’s site below. My faves are Taskmaster and Juggernaut, with his massive frame and little tiny face, but which ones do you like?
Link –via ComicsAlliance
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I try to refrain from posting every cosplay gallery link I come across for obvious reasons, but I thought i’d share this one because it features obscure characters and some seriously well-made costumes.
Among the characters present: a couple of creatures from They Live, Priss Asagiri from Bubblegum Crisis anime, a scary Little Sister from Bioshock, and a strangely fitting female Rule 63 Aquaman. Which costumes did you like?
I know we tend to overlook politics here at Neatorama, but when they are so well combined with comic book art, it’s hard to ignore. Whether or not you agree with what they say, it’s easy to enjoy the art itself.
Superheroes were once ordinary people, and just like you and I they have good days and bad. Sometimes saving the world makes you feel like curling up in a little ball and crying, at least according to these watercolors by Russian artist Lora Zombie. Oh the super-humanity!
Link –via DesignTAXI
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TheBookofBatman tells the tale of The Dark Knight in the style of the bible, showing just how much of a savior Batman is to Gotham City. Finally the religion of comic book nerds has gotten the formality it deserves.
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Apparently Australians love their comic books so much that they’ve decided to start issuing license plates with images of DC superheroes, like Superman and Batman, printed on them. This means that the Australian motor vehicle department is officially the coolest on the planet! When are we going to get license plates that prominently display our geek love?
In my opinion, the Joker is the ultimate comic book villain. From the beginning he has been one badass dude, killing with laughter in a time when comic book deaths were few and far between.
He is the ultimate nemesis, a criminal so chaotic, so insane, that Batman’s logical mind simply cannot keep up. The Joker has seen his character remodeled over the years, but not as much as many of the other comic book heroes and villains that get facelifts, proving that the Joker’s creators more or less had it right the first time.
ComicsAlliance has an interesting and insightful article detailing the history of the clown prince of crime, read on if you want to see just how far the Joker has come over the years.
These freaky paintings look like what you’ll see if you watch cartoons while on acid.
Created by Tina Lugo, they have a pop art flavor coupled with psychedelic melting madness, and yet the cartoon characters that star in these paintings are still recognizable.
Tina creates these bizarre pieces by painting enamel on sheets of Plexiglass, which enhances the vibrancy of the colors and gives them their cartoon cel look. Personally, I would love to see Hanna Barbera characters melt together in her future works!
If you saw this poster outside the theater advertising an upcoming release, wouldn’t you expect the film to be some sort of avant garde silent film with a science fiction twist?
Created by French designer Greg Guillemin, they’re minimalist and moody, and their retro style could be the inspiration for a new alternative universe storyline. Silver Surfer fighting the Nazis in WWII, now that would be an interesting tale to tell!
Link –via DesignTAXI
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This baby just might be the most powerful being in the universe, since she has harnessed the power of all Lantern Corps. emotional color spectrums!
Readers of the DC Comics Green Lantern series (among the many other Lantern Corps. related titles) know that it doesn’t stop with the power of green, but no one has ever harnessed all of the spectrum powers at once, and looked so cute wearing them all!
She even has the dreaded Black spectrum suit, but you’ll have to head to the link to see her scary side.
Zombie Iron Man showed up at the Paris Zombie Walk 2011 looking like a billion bucks. I’m surprised he wasn’t at Occupy Wall Street supporting the 1% by eating protestor’s brains! Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this caught on as a Halloween costume?
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The folks over at ComicsAlliance put together this spooky gallery of artworks featuring various monsters, creatures, and things that go bump in the night as envisioned by some of the world’s finest comic book and animation illustrators. Happy Halloween!
Comments Off Here is an animated short that is sure to delight, or fill you with fright! Watch as Marvel Comics’ M.O.D.O.K., dressed as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark tells “Strange Halloween Tales Of Suspense To Astonish!”
–via ComicsAlliance
Kraven is one of the strangest Spider Man villains, so it can’t be easy for the man in the furry vest to get a date, especially when he’s inexplicably invited to the prom! To read the rest of this wacky Kraven adventure, follow the link to K. Beaton’s site and enjoy the absurdity!
Link –via ComicsAlliance
Ahh NYC, the sprawling metropolis that inspired Metropolis, a gritty gothic landscape that inspired Gotham City, the home of X-Men, Ninja Turtles and Futurama’s Planet Express.
In honor of the New York Comic Con taking place this weekend, here’s a geeky tour guide’s dream map of the city, showing where things would, should and might someday be located, complete with color coded genre so you can tell whether the location is from a comic book, movie, tv show or video game.
Now go forth and see the mundane real life counterparts of these fantastic locations for yourself!
Did you know September 25 is National Comic Book Day? Did you know that the Comic Code Authority (the censorship code that ruled the comic’s industry for over 50 years) is now completely defunct? It’s a big year for comic books and to celebrate National Comic Book Day, let’s take a look at the rise and fall of the censorship code and the rise of comics in general.
If you’ve ever wondered why so many dramatic titles have all been lumped under the title of “comic books,” that’s because the whole medium started out as a way for publishers to put together compilations of their newspaper comic strips. While historians debate what defines an actual comic book, and thus, what the earliest comic book is, one of the earliest American contenders is 1842’s The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, which was a hardcover book featuring an array of chronological stories about M. Vieux Bois.
The earliest contender for a comic book in the format we recognize was The Yellow Kid in McFadden’s Flats, printed in 1897. The magazine was a reprint of the newspaper strip Hogan’s Alley, which starred the Yellow Kid. Hogan’s Alley was already one of the earliest weekly comic strips and when the black and white, 5×7 inch magazine was released on newsstands, it may have been the first real comic book as well and even featured the words “comic book” on the back cover.
The first monthly comic book was Comics Monthly, first printed in 1922. The magazine would reprint a variety of newspaper comic strips from that month and its success was short-lived, folding after only one year in print.
The first comic book printed in a format we’d recognize and on a monthly basis featuring some material created specifically for the magazine was 1933’s Famous Funnies, which many historians believe to be the first true comic book. The original Famous Funnies was distributed exclusively at Woolworths, but was later sold at news stands for the price of ten cents an issue.
With a number of publishers printing existing comic strips in magazine form, it was only a matter of time before someone started creating original material specifically for comic books instead of newspapers. The first comic book featuring all new material was New Fun, which was printed in 1935 by National Allied Publications, which would eventually evolve into a little company now known as DC Comics.
Once comic books got going, it wasn’t long before superheroes entered the picture. While there are tons of contenders for first comic book, practically everyone agrees that Superman, introduced in 1938’s Action Comics, was the first ever superhero. Interestingly, the character almost never made it into the public consciousness. The creators, Siegel and Shuster tried to pitch the idea to newspaper syndicates for years and had pretty much given up on it when DC editor Vin Sullivan dug their story out of a slush pile and decided to run it as a secondary story in the first issue of Action Comics. Despite the fact that he wasn’t even in the lead story, Superman was featured on the cover and he quickly outshined practically all the other comic books DC had published up until that time. In fact, the term “superhero” comes from Superman and before that, heroes were ordinarily called “mystery men” or “masked heroes.”
These days, Action Comics #1 is arguably the most valuable comic book on the market and of the four comics to ever be sold for over one million dollars, two of them were Action Comics #1 issues.
After Superman’s meteoric rise to fame, it wasn’t long before other superheroes entered the fray, including Wonder Woman, Batman, Captain America, Green Lantern and Aquaman. Of all these characters, Captain America was the first to be given his own book without being tested in other stories first. Strangely, while he’s one of the lesser-known of the classic heroes these days, Captain Marvel was actually the most popular character at the time, outselling even Superman.
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Mark Twain was a ramblin’ man, and was so intent on living life to the fullest that he was brought back from the dead and lived another hundred years, according to Michael Kupperman, who selflessly agreed to illustrate Twain’s autobiography so that folks who can ‘t read all the words can stare at the pretty pictures. Click the link and find out a bit more of what Twain got up to after his first death!
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