art
Amanda Conner’s Power Girl toilet seat cover
Jimmy Palmiotti recently posted a bunch of pictures of Amanda Conner at conventions. They’re a lot of fun, but sitting there amongst the photos of Conner with Wookiees and Black Canaries is a picture of a weird and hilarious piece of original Conner art: a Power Girl toilet seat cover on which the character discusses why she’s there and the impracticability of her costume.
There’s no real nudity, but its subject matter makes it possibly NSFW, so we’ll put the picture below the jump.
[Update: A commenter points out below that this is part of the Comic Rockstars Toilet Seat Museum at Isotope, which includes other lids from artists like Brandon Graham, Darwyn Cooke, and Ben Templesmith. Thanks, Brian.]
- February 7, 2012 @ 01:00 PM by Michael May
Monday art break: Philip Bond draws women astronauts
Sci-fi fan and space shuttle astronaut Janice Voss
Vertigo artist Philip Bond started drawing portraits of women astronauts and cosmonauts a few years ago. “Working for months at a time just penciling a comic book I started these portraits to get a bit of inking and colouring out of my system,” he writes. Although his original plan was to do one a week, his output has ended up being more irregular. No matter. He just added a few more, which is as good an excuse as any to take a look at the whole series of 25 drawings.
Via the Forbidden Planet blog.
- January 23, 2012 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Todd Klein and Dave Gibbons explain what ‘It Is’
It Is
Designer and letterer Todd Klein continues his artistic trek through the alphabet with another art print, as he and Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons team up on one called “It Is.”
“Dave has written a poem focusing on the ever-changing nature of our internal perception, that which makes up our own personal ‘I.’ I’ve designed and hand-lettered it,” Klein says on his blog. The print can be purchased from his website for $20 plus shipping.
- January 17, 2012 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Keron Grant shares exclusive art inspired by movie Chronicle
From "Heist," by Keron Grant
Superhero movies are certainly nothing new, but director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis are taking a different approach to the genre. Described by some as “Paranormal Activity meets superpowers,” the “found footage” film Chronicle follows three high school friends who gain superhuman powers only to find their lives spinning out of control.
In anticipation of Chronicle‘s limited release on Feb. 3, the filmmakers asked several artists to interpret the movie’s central question: What would you do if you had superpowers?
Artist Keron Grant (Iron Man, Fantastic Four) was one of those asked, and he shared one of his illustrations exclusively with ROBOT 6. Titled “Heist,” it came about from Grant dreaming up a bank robbery if he had those powers. “Wonder what that says about me?” he said with a laugh.
Grant created several illustrations for Chronicle that will be released shortly, adding they will be “a bit more noble.” Some of the other commissioned art also cropped up recently on Bleeding Cool.
Check out Grant’s “Heist,” and the film’s trailer, below.
- January 13, 2012 @ 04:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Is this logo the new look of DC Comics?
Less than seven years after replacing its long-established “bullet” logo with a 21st-century “swoosh,” DC Comics appears ready to make another change.
Bleeding Cool noticed that just last week the company submitted two versions of a new logo to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The design, which you can see at right, depicts a D flipping back to reveal a C below; one version includes the words “DC Comics” below, the other “DC Entertainment.”
Although the “flipping” aspect of the logo may not be obvious in its static form, it’s likely designed with animation in mind, for inclusion at the beginning of movies, television shows and video games. How that design might translate to comics remains to be seen.
Comic Book Resources has contacted DC for comment but received no response.
The publisher’s current logo debuted in May 2005 as part of an effort to emphasize the DC brand across all media. Designed by Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studios, the “swoosh” replaced the Milton Glaser-created “bullet” the company had used in one form or another since 1977.
- January 13, 2012 @ 02:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Happy Holidays from Robot 6
from Matthew Petz
It’s Christmas Eve, and we’re winding down here at Robot 6 to go spend time with family and friends. Before heading off to celebrate, though, you’ll find a collection of holiday-themed links after the jump, along with this year’s collection of holiday cards we received.
On behalf of all of Robot 6, have a great holiday and stay safe. We’ll see you next week.
(Above: a Christmas showdown by Matthew Petz)
- December 24, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Ilias Kyriazis’ merry marching Marvel society
The Marvel 100
Earlier this month artist Ilias Kyriazis shared a 52-inch long image of his favorite DC characters that was filled with all sorts of fun details.
Well, Ilias is back, this time with his top 100 favorite Marvel characters and with the same level of detail and humor displayed in the DC image. For instance, in the sequence up top, you’ll see multiple Madroxes, one being eaten by Venom, who is having a bad reaction to Banshee’s sonic scream. You’ve also got Nightcrawler “bamfing” in for a moment before he lands at No. 3 on the list. Elsewhere you’ll see Silver Surfer stealing the Infinity Gems from Thanos, Dead Girl showing up in two halves and Mystique bringing a little DC flavor to the mix.
You can see it in its entirety over at zoom.it, which will let you scroll through it from 100 on.
- December 23, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | More on Stuck in the Middle library challenge
Stuck in the Middle
Libraries | An editorial in the Lewiston, Maine, newspaper praises a local school board’s decision last week to leave the 2007 comics anthology Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age in the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School library following a parent’s complaints about “objectionable sexual and language references”: “American culture can be graphically sexual and explicitly foul and it’s important that young people learn how to navigate that world in a responsible way. The best possible way, of course, is for parents to steer their children through that process, but not every parent does and many children are left adrift. So, the next-better place to learn is the school library, where a responsible adult can help educate children about their hormone-charged emerging feelings in a confusingly sensual culture.” [Sun Journal]
Business | Wizard magazine founder Gareb Shamus, who resigned earlier this month as president and chief executive officer of Wizard World Inc., will sell most of his shares in the company to his successor, who’s expected to be named next month. [Bleeding Cool]
- December 19, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Chris Schweizer shows his True Grit
Chris Schweizer just read True Grit, and as often happens with Chris, it has inspired him to pick up his drawing materials and start doing his own version. Check out the character sketches at his LiveJournal, and stay tuned for more: He just saw Sherlock Holmes …
- December 16, 2011 @ 02:15 PM by Brigid Alverson
Before Bunker, there was ‘Mega Arm Guy’
Over on his blog, Teen Titans artist Brett Booth shows us some of his early designs for the character who eventually became Bunker. Originally the character was “going to transform into a monster,” Booth says, and the character went through several other iterations before they landed on Bunker and his bricks. “Scott wanted to do bricks so we did bricks.”
- December 12, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
I’d be careful about opening some of those gifts, Batman …
Christmastime in the Bat Cave isn’t as lonely as you might think, at least as imagined by artist Ulises Farinas. He sent the above print out to his family and friends as a Christmas gift, and he’s also selling it for $25 on his site. And if you like that, you might also like his “Batman is a Hoarder” print or his “Batman Loses” comic that was featured on ComicsAlliance last year.
- December 7, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Ilias Kyriazis brings us 52 inches of merry marching DC characters
Comic artist Ilias Kyriazis, creator of the comics Blood Opera and Manifesto in his home country of Greece and, on this side of the Atlantic, Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression and Falling for Lionheart from IDW, has posted a 52-inch (heh) drawing of his 30 favorite DC Comics characters. And there’s a lot of fun stuff going on as the heroes and villains march forward … you have the Flash running in the background to make it to his #7 spot; meanwhile, #10 Alfred Pennyworth has a plate of Oreos and unfortunately found himself wedged between Martian Manhunter and Blue Beetle. And #19 Guy Gardner doesn’t miss the opportunity for a sneak attack on #2 Batman. It’s fun stuff; go check it out.
- December 5, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Graham Annable tackles the Muppets for Jim Henson tribute
Gallery Nucleus showcases Graham Annable’s lovely and melancholy watercolor contributions to “The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me,” an upcoming tribute art exhibition to the late visionary Jim Henson.
“Clearly Kermit, Ms. Piggy, and Gonzo don’t know what to make of their beginnings,” the post on the gallery’s blog states, “but what we can decipher from this is Graham’s bold wit for introducing us to an unusual scenario we never expected the Muppets would run into.”
The exhibition opens Dec. 10 with a reception at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California, and continues through Jan. 2.
- November 30, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Chris Weston paints the heck out of the Rocketeer
Chris Weston's Rocketeer
Over the past few weeks artist Chris Weston has been working on a Rocketeer painting, his first time using an airbrush, and he shared his progress along the way on his blog. He finished it up last week, so you can see it now in all its glory. Great stuff!
- November 28, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Artist examines secret identities of superheroes (in clear plastic bags)
"Peter Parker," by Simon Monk
Daily Design Discoveries spotlights Secret Identity, “an ongoing series of paintings” by U.K. artist Simon Monk featuring plastic figures of superheroes in clear polythene bags.
Monk explains on his website: “Superheroes are icons of male power and potency whose comic book and film adventures see them engaged in epic battles across the universe, yet these mythic figures have another life as consumer objects to be found in commercial and domestic contexts. Placed in carrier bags and hung on a hook in a domestic space they become recently purchased objects, robbed of the enormous power they wield in their narratives, their dynamic energy stymied. Despite this reduction they remain irresistible in their cartoonish rage and pride.”
Check out more from Secret Identity below, and on Monk’s website.
- November 2, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose