dirt enthusiast
noise dept.
YOU ARE THE REASON
Andulka
⁂
PR's Tumblrdome
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
if i look back, i am lost
AnasAbdin
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
oozey mess
almost home
★
ellievsbear
Sweet Seals For You, Always
RMH
One Nice Bug Per Day
No title available
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Monterey Bay Aquarium
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Switzerland
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
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@thepanellist
Started working on another Astronaut Ninja illustration last night. At left is the original sketchbook image, and the first go through in paint in Procreate on my iPad 2 (hoping to make that an iPad Air 2 in the near future). I'll post more when I have it, which may include a video of the process. As always, thanks for stopping by! J. Schiek
Free Comic Book Day
I'm in line at Ryan's Comics for the 6th (at this location, at least) Free Comic Book Day event. There is a drone flying overhead, ostensibly recording the wayward souls currently gathered in the shade behind the building. The line, at present, wraps around the whole of the building, moving forward at the breathtaking pace of about a foot per minute. I wasn't able to convince my wife to join me this year. Last year, we spent an overly long period of time standing around in the 90 plus degree heat, waiting to join the throng gathered inside the store. Added to that, my wife's brother made an appearance with two of his children and harshed her good time by doing what he does best, which is simply being himself. So far, things have been pretty mellow this year. I just got off the phone with my sister, who is still in the hospital after delivering her first baby, Hazel. So far I've encountered black costume Spider-Man, who gave me a "I Got A Free Comic Today!" sticker, and a woman--who has clearly paid attention in her yoga classes--dressed up as Cat Woman. I'll post more as the day develops, but just standing here, I needed something to do with my mind and hands. And honestly, I've spent more time fixing this post than actually writing it. Thank you, and fuck you, Autocorrect. So long for now!
Picked up a couple pieces of awesome from the $5 and $10 bins at Ryan's Comics this week. On our left we have The Amazing Spider-Man #47, featuring an appearance by Kraven The Hunter and Peter's first date with Mary Jane Watson. On the right is The Mighty Thor #179, which features Jack Kirby's last work on the title. Though it's not a comic book, I also happened upon a first edition first printing of Ayn Rand's 1957 classic, "Atlas Shrugged," complete with dust jacket. I took it home for $1.99 and currently have it listed on eBay for $500. We'll see what happens. In other news, I got my iPhone 6 Plus today, which I'm using to make this post, and upgraded my Mac to Yosemite. I called out sick from work today with stomach trouble, so that's what I've been up to. As always, thanks for stopping by! J. Schiek
Grabbed that copy of Ka-Zar (Jack Kirby and John Romita being the responsible parties for the artwork) for fifty cents at--where else?--Ryan's Comics in Murrieta. The rest are a bit more current.
Somehow, I missed the third installment in the "Death Of Wolverine" four part series, but as I still haven't read issue #2, I'll worry about that later. EBay usually has my back on stuff like that. Like anything else, the death of Superman, or Spider-Man, or Ultimate Spider-Man, or whatever, there never seems to be any permanence to the death of a character, especially if there is any fanfare about it when it happens. As I understand it, Wolverine sales have been down, so it was time to shake up the thermos and empty it before filling it again--sometime down the road when the bring Logan back--with fresh,Marvel Kool-Aid. Sparing my concern for the character or the story, I've been picking these ones up just as a collector.
Next up, The Amazing Spider-Man #8. Haven't read this one yet, either, but it continues the Edge Of The Spider-Verse story arc, which would have me declaring chapter 11 within the week if I went out and bought every single comic connected with it. Still haven't read this one yet, but I've enjoyed the side story stuff in the lately released Superior Spider-Man numbers 32 and 33. Who'd have thought I would have missed Doc Ock as Spider-Man?
Lastly, and I have read this one, is The Amazing Spider-Man #1.5, which concludes the retro, post spider bite woes of the young Peter Parker and his run in with another local teenager--albeit one who is bankrolled enough to buy all those Edge Of Spider-Verse issues I mentioned--who, obsessed with the newly emerged Spider-Man, decks himself out as a sometimes hero, sometimes villain (always a misguided @$$hole) called "Clash." The Alex Ross covers commissioned for this set have been pretty awesome. I don't know what popular sentiment is like for Mr. Ross these days, but the covers are just pretty. And inside, the story is pretty decent also. Earlier this year, I began reading the original ASM series, starting with Amazing Fantasy #15 and plowing through (I took a pause around issue 50 and haven't come back yet) the earliest story lines. While modernized a bit--Clash helps Spider-Man go viral by recording his first wrestling match with a video from his cell phone--it holds pretty true to that original tone, while scaling back on the stilted, expository dialogue perpetuated by none other than Stan Lee, back when that was just how these things were done.
What has been consistent and inconsistent with this subset is the internal artwork, done up by Ramon Perez. At first I thought it was just a disconnect between penciller and inker, but as it turns out, Mr. Perez appears to be responsible for both. The last two photos in the set I've uploaded today, feature two of the frames that gave me some pause while reading the story. The ink work is laid on pretty thick throughout, but it causes a lot of congestion, as we see with Aunt May in the first of the two. The anatomy, coupled with the thick lines made me squirm a bit when I saw it. Also, the placement of Peter's eyes in that particular drawing--way, way too high--make him look kind of Gumpy. Also, Aunt May appears to have had some troubles with her pituitary gland at some point in her life, probably around age 10 or so when she topped out at about 4' 8". The second frame shows something that has been bothering me throughout, and looking back at a couple of my earlier posts, you'll see the same thing, and that is the Picasso-esque placement of facial features. Just put them anywhere, Ramon. As long as the mouth is under the nose, and the nose is under the eyes, the eyes under the eyebrows, etc, it shouldn't matter, right?
Well, as juxtaposed to some of the other drawings--and some of them are really good--it feels less like a stylistic choice and more like a mistake.
But, that's just my gripe. Once upon a time, I thought Rob Liefeld was the end all be all of comic book artists. Then I took some figure drawing classes and had probably the biggest "Oh" moment of my life.
I'm going to wrap up there. I came into this, thinking I'd make a short post, and here I've gone and made another Russian novel that will probably never even get read. But if you're reading, and you like, let me know.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
J. Schiek
It has been a rough week to say the least. Lots of doctors visits and other frustrations such as someone in the neighborhood knocking over our mailbox with their car and not having the strength of character to fess up, or even put the spilled mail back into the box after jamming the post into one of the empty holes in a nearby cinder block and leaving it for good. And to top it all off, my grandfather's mis-diagnosed allergy problem turned out to be a mis-diagnosed sinus infection which turns out to be a very rare form of malignant cancer that has left a plum sized tumor in his nasal cavity. So emotions have been running high, and it's all I can do to stay busy and try to keep a clear head. I've been doing errands around the house all day, and made a little visit to Ryan's Comics in Murrieta, California to pick up some reading material.
Recently, Ryan has made an effort to clear out a formidable amount of back stock, most of it dating back about three years to the launch of DC's New52 relaunch in 2011. There were at least fifty copies of Batman #2, all of them first printings, when I left the shop half an hour ago. In addition, he's thrown in a lot of older stock that would normally occupy his $1 bin, though that particular area of the shop has been greatly diminished since Free Comic Book Day back in May (when Ryan ran out of the supplied free comics, he threw up his hands and let everyone take their free comics from the $1 bin). I've hit the fifty cent bins at least three times in the last week and a half and keep coming away with awesome stuff I somehow missed on the previous visit. Today, my finds were various installments of Dark Horse's The Star Wars, a sort of reinvention of the Star Wars saga as based on one of the original drafts of George Lucas's screenplay for the films (think I might throw those on later for background noise). I also got a fairly recent issue of The Walking Dead, which I've been kind of on the outs with after the events of issue #100. I also got the two comics pictured above. The second issue of The Drawing Of The Three came out today, but as I hadn't purchased the first one, I went ahead and did that, and if it's any good--which the original novel certainly was--I'll say something about it here and pick up the new one on payday. Also, Superior Spider-Man #33, which picks up shortly before the end of that particular series run, and opens it up for the new Edge Of Spider-Verse thingy that's going on. There was a Gwen Stacy: Spider-Woman comic that came out today, too, and I'm thinking I might just have to roll back out in a little while and grab that before it's gone...It looked pretty good.
Also pictured is the reading space in our guest room, aka, "The Blue Room," which features the leather chair and Les Paul as pictured, along with colorful circus, comic book, and piratical wall hangings on the adjacent wall. You can't see them because the door is open, but behind that door are replica's of Bilbo's sword, StingI, and Gandalf's one and a half hand long sword, Glamdring. It's an awesome place to go and get your nerd on. My parents will be staying in it this weekend, though I think they'll mostly be using it for sleeping in the queen size bed (bottom edge of photo 2).
Okay. So I have borne my soul and my mind for what I think is a pretty lengthy little entry here. I don't think there is much of a readership for this blog yet, if there ever will be, but I find it therapeutic to put these words and thoughts out there. If you enjoy what I've done here, I'd encourage you to follow, or click the heart button, or reblog, or whatever, but that's entirely up to you. If you've read up to this point, I owe you thanks for hanging in there, and as always, thank you for stopping by.
Yours Sweatily,
J. Schiek
SUPERIOR IRON MAN #1
Want!
I recently received an email from myself, dated in the near future and warning me of some very from portents that shall come to pass...If I don't complete a painting with some very specific elements. While I cannot disclose here (until the painting is finished) a complete description of what I am honor and duty bound to depict, the above lady is definitely part of it. I will post more as the work continues. As always, thanks for stopping by. J. Schiek
Batman 75th Anniversary Giveaway! One winner will receive a brand new Batman Zero Year hardcover. All you have to do is follow PANELOIDS and reblog this post. A winner will be chosen by random; contest will close August 1st.
Batman 75th Anniversary Giveaway! One winner will receive a brand new Batman Zero Year hardcover. All you have to do is follow PANELOIDS and reblog this post. A winner will be chosen by random; contest will close August 1st.
Art Sins & Art Wins
Starting at the top, we've got a pretty decent shot of the vulture, similar to some the early (and original) Ditko work from the early to mid 1960s. What gets me on this one is the head construction, and the expression. This is a Vulture who has yet to understand how much Spider-Man is just going to dismantle his game. The left arm is freakishly long, but that's who and what this character is: A creepy, lanky old man who resembles both the scavenger bird for which he is named, and also has a bit of the Max Schreck/Nosferatu thing going on. (Image taken from The Amazing Spider-Man #1.3)
That's the win.
Now for the sins:
Images two and three take us back a few months to Detective Comics #27, which saw a partial re-release today in a free version specially published by DC Comics to celebrate Batman Day, and incidentally, Batman's 75th birthday, which was back in March, but hey, who's counting? Anyway. The image:
This may be just an issue with line weight and how the comic was inked, but the third image in this collection has the same thing going on. Both of these characters look like my grandmother-in-law who has had more plastic surgery and face lifts than the entire cast of Sex In The City combined. It's not that these are necessarily poorly drawn--they really aren't--but if I'd been editor on this one, I would have have had the inker adjust his digital brush size and give these two a second pass.
Which leads me to images 4, 5, and 6, all of them from this months The Amazing Spider-Man #1.3 Learning to Crawl. I have been enjoying this series enormously, especially since I have been concurrently reading digital versions of the early ASM (I'm up through issue #48, so far, and all of the annuals that went along up to that point) and this sub series is like really nice grout between the larger tiles that are the original issues and story lines. And most of the artwork has been excellent as well, but there are a few panels here and there where I wonder whether or not the artist--in this case, Ramon Perez--had time or money to use or purchase an eraser. Panel 4 shows Aunt May sitting on the edge of Peter's bed, about to confront him about some money she found in his room. Her scrunched up little Yoda face isn't so bad here, but it comes to a head in panel 5 where it looks like her teeth have been ripped out and her lips violently sewn shut. Peter is smiling in that frame, but the way he blocks his sightline with his hand, I've gotta think the boy is terrified but is too polite to say anything.
And then we come at last to panel 6, which I alluded to a couple of posts back this afternoon; the image where it looks like the facial features are about to take a swan dive off the chin. This is that drawing. Look at it. Just take a look. As good as the head and facial construction was on the Vulture in panel 1, this one makes me wonder if it was even drawn by the same artist. There are things that happen in the human mind when drawing the human form on paper, or cave walls, or whatever, things that the figure drawing classes that one takes at any reputable art school seek to destroy and replace with what amounts to a new way of seeing. The old way involves symbols, or shapes that add up and can be interpreted by the eye and the brain as a face. Scientific studies show that people try to find people in everything they see. If you doubt it, stare at a stucco wall for a a few minutes and tell me that a few of the globulous shapes you're looking at don't start to kinda sorta resemble faces after a while. Anyway, back to the point: The face in panel 6 is more symbol than form. The artist has made a vague construction of the head, with a slight arch for the brow, curving out into a very large cheekbone, but nose, eyes and mouth? They've just been drawn on in this instance so they'll make it through roll call, but they have no interaction with any sort of underlying structure. It's the equivalent of painting a face on a lumpy pillow and trying to pass it off as human. And it doesn't really come off in this panel, but it does in a few others, but doesn't the girl look like Jean-Ralphio's twin sister (played by Jenny Slate) on Parks And Recreation?
I think I've gone on long enough for everyone's own good. Time to kick back on the couch under the air conditioner and read a comic book or two.
To those of you at San Diego ComicCon this week...I hate you. Just kidding. But not really.
Thanks for stopping by!
J. Schiek
I made the return trip to pick up my free copy of Detective Comics #27, which I had apparently left behind in my earlier excursion to Ryan's Comics in Murrieta. Though free is always going to be a good value, this one proves to be pretty solid, for the price tag, especially if you missed DC's release of Detective Comics #27 in the general line-up of titles they reset in 2011 to begin the current New 52 story lines. That comic, the actual Detective Comics #27, released in March (which coincided the original release of the original Detective Comics #27, in March of 1939) had the much larger price tag of $7.99. While the new, free version does not include all of the stories from the bigger anthology, it does contain a reprint of the very first Batman story ever told, "The Case of The Chemical Syndicate," along with an updated version of the same story--which was in the $7.99 version--written Brad Meltzer and penciled by Bryan Hitch. The writing is pretty solid in this latter, but the pencils and layout suffer from some unclear dialogue bubble attribution, and a heaviness in line weight on the inks that have some of the characters coming across--visually--like they've been, well, I've got another post plan to tackle the art sins I encountered this week. But to wrap up on the freebie, it's totally worth swinging by and picking one up. The Meltzer/Hitch story is pretty good, and the editors of this "lite" version also saw fit to include my absolute favorite story from the larger collection, a little tale called "Twenty-Seven," by Scott Snyder, and drawn very well, if not to perfection by Sean Murphy. If you'd like a copy and aren't sure where you can go to, who you can trust, just click on the link below, type in your zip code, and you're off to the races:
CLICK HERE!!!
The second one pictured here is Trees #3. And to be fair to it, its creators, and anyone who has picked these up or plans to, I still haven't read numbers 2 or 3 yet (I know, I know, but I went on vacation and knocked out the new Stephen King novel, Mr. Mercedes--which was ok--and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, which was truly excellent) so I don't want to befoul, besmirch, or otherwise befuddle and bebother anyone with a review that is not based on any accurate form of reality. Looking back over previous entries though, you may note that I looked favorably upon the first issue and have decided to follow this one until it finishes its route. The whole thing feels very Avatar/War of The Worlds/Independence Day/Pacific Rim, sort of...You know, alien invasion leads to modified way of life for earth's inhabitants, yadda, yadda, yadda...No?
Well, I can't read it if I'm sitting here typing. I've got a couple of art sins to cover, and then I'll put the Mac to sleep and kick back on the couch with a book or two.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
Made my rounds to Ryan's Comics in Murrieta again today (like I ever go to any other comic book stores) and picked up a pretty solid haul of stuff. The bottom most image, of The Amazing Spider-Man #1.3, was something I actually picked up and read a few days ago--not that that matters--but the incremental number ones that Marvel has been releasing have been great fun. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I'm enjoying them more than the regular series since its relaunch back in May. The Alex Ross covers, for one thing, have been amazing, and the stories fill in the gaps on those early issues of the original ASM (which I have also been reading in digital format on my iPad) with some modern touches and flourishes. Perez's art, I think, is the only inconsistent part, and that may have more to do with the inking and coloring than with the pencils themselves, but there are those panels here and there that rub my inner art student the wrong way. Misplaced faces, for one thing, where it looks like all of the facial features are squaring up to do a swan dive right off the chin, etc.
But enough about all that. I also picked up Rocket Raccoon #1, not because I'm a huge Guardians Of The Galaxy fan (I'm not) and not because the movie is coming out soon (it is), but because damn it, that cover is amazing.
Also in the heap is The Amazing Spider-Man #4, which has a pretty solid cover as well, and takes up part of the Original Sin storyline, which I'll need to find out more about before I shoot my mouth off about it here. And then there's Batman #33, which joins my unread copy of Batman #32, which I picked up a couple of days ago, so I've got a Batman double feature planned for later this afternoon.
I'm going to have to wrap it up at that without much meaningful info on the above titles. I did read Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #36 while I was at the store, which is a title I've taken a renewed interest in (I say "renewed" because I haven't read a TMNT comic since the late 80's/early 90's when it was still being pumped out by Archie Comics), and that was a fun little outing. The Rat King made an appearance, or re-appearance, as it were.
And here I go again, talking more and more, and more. I should commit to submitting this later, and maybe I will, but I've got to dash back out to pick up the free copy of Detective Comics #27 (free today because it's Batman's 75th birthday) and I've got an acupuncture appointment that I don't want to be late to.
As always, thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting my reviews of the comics probably a bit later today.
J. Schiek
I've been making more frequent stops to Ryan's Comics in Murrieta, California, as of late. Some of it has to do with indecisiveness, but I think it is more the way my personal battle with boredom and inspiration presents itself. While my wife is somewhat frustrated by the constant, tiny expenditures, I'm fine tuning my comic mind with the incremental bits of awesome I am able to pick up.
Earlier this week, I snagged the comic seen at right of frame, The Amazing Spider-Man # 01.2. Since the return of Peter Parker a couple months back, I've been going back through my digital collection and reading (some of them for the very first time) the original run of The Amazing Spider-Man, from the early 1960s. I'm about 47 issues in on that trek, and have passed through the beautiful, if not entirely awkward Steve Ditko years into John Romita land. While I've lost some of my initial momentum, these new sub-issues to the new run of ASM, with beautiful cover art by the incomparable Alex Ross, are so deliciously Ditko-esque, while maintaining the more personal introspection that has come with the increased literacy of comic books in the 51 years since Spidey first swung his way into American pop culture. With so many of those early issues so fresh on my mind, reading the Learning To Crawl story arc has been like watching deleted scenes from an epic film. The emergence of new characters (Clash) alongside villains and story lines that hold true to the ASM canon of scripture is tremendously entertaining, and insightful. In these issues, Spidey is every bit the dickhead he was in those early issues of the original series, as he struggles to maintain his identity, public and private, and manage to scrape up enough cash so he and Aunt May can live in the weeks and months following the murder of Uncle Ben. The internal artwork, by Ramon Perez, also hearkens back to that era, with an economy of line and shadow work that simplifies it from the edgier work being done in the ongoing series, by Humberto Ramos. Too, Ian Herring's color palate lends a subtle sepia tone to everything that evokes nostalgia without the entire event being an overly campy flashback. Of course, I'm biased because this is Peter Parker as Spider-Man, but I like to think that I know when it's done right and when something has gone horribly wrong. Though it took me a long time to get on board with it, Dan Slott's removal of Peter Parker from the series and the forced insertion of Dock Ock in the person of Spider-Man (if that last sentence sounds like a side-stepping description of rape, that is only because that's what I felt was going on) did prove to be an interesting, if not entirely pivotal storyline. But as with all major deaths and resurrections on the comic book world, so much of it seemed to be created to shake stragglers from the tree, perhaps usher in a new type of readership, and of course, ensure a paycheck for the Marvel team. No fault in that. But I said all of that to say this, I'm happy to see Parker back and to have this opportunity to take a deeper dive into Spidey's illustrative past. Even if it means I'm spending an extra $8 a month to get it.
Also pictured is the first issue of Trees, written by Warren Ellis and pencilled by Jason Howard. Ryan recommended this one to me directly as one of the better independent books (if Image can be described as "independent") to hit in the last few months. Like an actual tree, there is the part that you see above the ground which hints at a deeper, stabilizing root structure beneath, and one gets the feeling that that is exactly where this is heading. Without spoiling too much of the plot for anyone who might be thinking of picking this one up, the story picks up ten years after an alien invasion event in which these giant shafts, or "trees" as they're called, make their landing on planet earth and immediately destroy the surrounding ecosystems. Then they just sit there. Life goes on, but there's this elephant in the room, so to speak. I'm curious to see where this one is going, and with only one issue out and having not looked into the details of forthcoming issues, all I can say is that this one definitely has the feeling of weight to it, as in, once collected, this will make a fine graphic novel for people (myself included) who often like to have the whole thing down in front of them so they don't have to wait for the next issue, and also, so they don't forget or lose sight of what came before. This was exactly what happened to me when I got into Walking Dead a few years ago. I plowed through the first sixty or so issues by reading the trades and then had to lower my dosage to one issue a month. It didn't take long before I finally stopped reading so that I could let the thing build for a while, then come back and just read an eff ton all at once. By point of comparison though, I wouldn't say that this one is necessarily in the same vein as Walking Dead, but does remind me a bit of Y - The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. Incidentally, and between classic issues of ASM, this is another title that is currently on my reading list.
I've gone on a little longer than I'd planned on, but if your hashtag search has brought you to me, I would like to first thank you for taking the time to review all of my words, and I'd also like to encourage you to pick these ones up. Learning To Crawl is on its second installment in the arc, but the first part was by no means a sell-out, insomuch as I can tell, and was readily available alongside issue number 01.2. Other issues not pictured that may or may not require your attention would be The Amazing Spider-Man #2, featuring a not untimely appearance by Electro, and Batman numbers 30 and 31, which are polishing off the Zero Year arc, so unceremoniously interrupted and I daresay strangled by Batman #28. Or was it 27? Doesn't matter. If you're not having a good day already, have one, and if your day is already good, do some "Hey Jude" stuff and make it better.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
J. Schiek
The Human Spider
Among other projects, I am currently working on writing a short Spider-Man series, or rather, a series of Spider-Man shorts that focus on the human elements of Peter Parker as he struggles to balance superhero life with his own personal troubles in modern times.
As an effort to get myself work as a sequential comic book artist and writer, it is fun to come up with material for existing characters while also working on my own short series, one being Jed The Flying Head, and the other being a more personal introspective work about myself and the things that move me, piss me off, whatever.
So stay tuned. I've got some work, and probably a few confessions to make in the offing, but I'll be posting a lot of my unsolicited work here at this site for the world to see as it becomes available.
Thanks for stopping by!
J. Schiek
peter parker’s job is literally selling his selfies to the daily bugle
Yup.
I was reading the copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #211, this morning, and short of the page where the Submariner saves the lives of some other...submariners (never mind that they both probably got the worst case of the bends in human history) and stumbled upon this gem of a panel.
Looking at Spidey in proportion to the room he is awkwardly escaping--think about it like this; if Spidey was a piece of pizza, is this the direction you would face the fold to get the whole thing into your mouth? If Spidey was to unbounce, and stand up, the doorknob would be at approximately chest level.
With that in mind, I took the panel into Photoshop and did some amateur tweaking to suit the thought bubble to the image.
Hope all is well out there. I'll be heading to the comic book store in a little while to get a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #1.1, because I'm that guy.
Thanks for stopping by,
J. Schiek
Historical footage of the last T-Rex serving his country.
