Treated Self to Comic Store

I treated myself to the comic book store today.  It's called the Comic Cave, and it really was a cave.  It was not a big place and every bit of wall space was covered with statues of one type or another... comic characters, movie characters, TV characters, etc.  There were 6 or 7 spinning racks with trade paperbacks and one spinning rack with new comics.  All US comics.  The store mark-up was $1= €1.20... not cheap, but I don't begrudge the store wanting to make a bit of money off of the book (1 Euro and 1 Dollar are almost at the same value right now).  It was pretty clear that the guy's main business are the statues.  The owner is probably a bit younger than me, but still knowledgable about US comics and comic creators.  I'll probalby go back some day soon.
When I was a kid the "weird adventure" (horror) comics were all the rage.  I collected House of Secrets, Ghosts, Plop!, The Witching Hour and Werewolf by Night.  I was aware of Tomb of Dracula, but Colan's art didn't appeal to me at that age.  Now I find it pretty wonderful, and I think Tom Palmer is Colan's best inker.  I've always liked Marv Wolfman's story telling, so this should be a fun read.

Who wants to "open" for Marty?

OK, all you ROCKSTAR TAGsters, who wants to occupy Marty's prime seat next to Eric Shanower in Artist Alley during the first two days of SD Comic Fest (when he can't be there)?  That's the Friday preview night (6-9 pm, with setup at 4 pm) and ALL day Saturday (setup at 9 am).  Call me to discuss. 619-318-0234

Trying to be a Better Citizen

Just for laffs: a shot of the marker monster mash-up in progress:

And a qwik-sketch demo from my animal drawing class. I use a purple Tombow brushpen 'cuz they are very visible. I'm drawing on a giant 24" x 36" newsprint pad--it's this new oversized pad they sell, and they've got an oversized masonite drawing board to go with it. It's the coolest thing, great for demo'ing in front of the class--except the damn clips aren't worth a crap (just like all masonite drawing boards nowadays...). And my arms are so short, I can't fit the thing under one arm--even using the handhold hole (pictured above).

How far I take a painting and then move to the next

I use the streaky brush with no attempt at detail.

So I get painterly because I can't be any thing else.

I consider this close to finish.

I have more EN World freelance coming. So you'll be seeing that.

Improved fishbowl. Jack o lantern wip

Unseen Frazetta

From a Frazetta FB group

One comment said it lead to the Lil Abner gig.

Anyone want to shoot the Fest?

Peter (my bro) is looking for still photographers to help cover SD Comic Fest next weekend (Feb 12-15).  If interested and available, even if only part of the time, please e-mail him at pacsanadi@gmail.com ASAP.  Fest info is at http://www.sdcomicfest.org/

San Diego Comics Fest 2016...?

They asked me to do the program cover this year. Said it was dedicated to Forrest J. Ackerman. Only vaguely knew of him before hand, but once I learned he was the Famous Monsters of Filmland guy, this vision came to me and I knew I had to pull out all the stops (in my mind honoring Basil Gogos, too).

All marker with Photo Shop tuning....ran out of time to really finesse Ackerman's head. I'm only attending Sunday, sadly...but then, hardly any of you, my T.A.G. brethren will be in attendance. For shame!

Superman Artists

Al Plastino

Wayne Boring

Curt Swan

Kurt Schaffenberger

I was so intrigued by Rick talking about the Superman artists of the 1950s that I had to pursue it on my own.  So I looked in my archives and found that there were basically four Superman artists during that period: (from top to bottom)

1. Al Plastino - I was not a big Plastino fan. There didn't seem to be anything particularly outstanding about his style and his depiction of Superman's physical appearance was the least appealing to me.

2. Wayne Boring - Boring's Superman seemed the most "old-fashioned", and was also the most stiff and awkward at times. But his Superman also seemed very "solid", like he was really made out of steel. I also thought he had great style in his depictions of outer space and alien worlds. Like Ellis I loved how his Superman "ran" through the air. One of my favorite Superman stories which he drew the interior art for was "Superman's Return to Krypton".

3. Curt Swan -  Curt Swan was the standard for so many years after Plastino and Boring started to drop out. I liked his physical depiction of Superman, and with a tight inker like Murphy Anderson or John Forte (who drew a lot of the early Legion of Super-Heroes issues) I loved Swan's work. With a more casual inker, he was just passable, I thought.

4. Kurt Schaffenberger - Schaffenberger was my personal favorite of the four.  His Superman was the most fluid and graceful with the best proportions.  Also, drawn by him, Superman's face was very handsome... almost "pretty-boy", though never effeminate.  I loved the way he drew women too. This made him the perfect artist for the Lois Lane comic which was always half-romance book, and he was the regular artist on it for many years.  I'm guessing he did his own inking, which was always excellent.

I'm betting that Schaffenberger is the artist that Rick picked out as being the superior artist. Rick, are you there?  Did I guess rightly?