Purveyor of Nerdstalgia / Nerd & Geek Culture Representing Many Worlds. Many Fandoms. Many Genres. One Passion.
I am really enjoying the knockoff / mashup heroes that I’ve been drawing lately. It’s been fun. Some have been more creative than others but even these more straight forward designs have been fun to play with. Commander Ultra is a combination of DC’ Superman and Tsuburaya’s Ultraman. Inspired by an Alex Toth pose of Superman from the 70s cartoon, the Superfriends.
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Baby Kal-El’s rocket ends up on the Kree home-world. He is brought up by the Supreme Intelligence to be the champion of the empire. This is an older idea I had from back when I was a frequent contributor to the “Super-Buddies” message board.
So this started out as something else. I was inspired by a panel by José Luis García-López. When I think about it now, I am just as confused as to how it got to this point as you may be.
I REALLY wanted to capture the dynamic feel of José’sSuperman coming in for a landing. There is so much energy in this pose. The cape gives the feeling of movement.
I began by doing some rough sketching to no satisfactory level of success. Then I “light boxed” the original piece to get the feel. I played with the proportions and some positioning and I just wasn’t feeling it. After a few passes, I put it away for a while.
When I came back to it an hour later, I decided to just let the original piece inspire me. Just to let go and see where my mind went from the starting point I chose. I was really surprised at the results.
The end result is by no means, my best work. What it became was a journey of self-discovery. I would like to think that this journey will continue in more of my work.
Some of the best comic book-related entertainment has to be DC’s Showcase. One-off episodes of some sometimes obscure characters and groups. While not really tied to any singular continuity, all are very entertaining. I would love to see Challengers of the Unknown given the DCS treatment. The format would make a great anthology series for television or a streaming service. Perhaps they could roll out one or two of their mystic characters to host each episode.
Kamandi almost knocked my favorite down a peg but it has to still be the Sgt. Rock short where Rock loses Easy Company and is assigned replacements for a new mission. The new team was a wonderful homage to the Creature Commandos. The CC first appeared in Weird War Tales number ninety-three. The chances are slim of seeing the full line-up but you never know.
As of the time of this blog post Sasha is just about my favorite Comic Book Reviewer on YouTube. Her wit and insights are fun and informative and I am here for it all. Being an old man in the comics realm, who is pretty knowledgeable about pre Y2K comics, I find that I have new ways to look at old comics along with a different viewpoint that I can appreciate. Her videos have help to deepen my comics palate. While your mileage may vary with her style, I can watch her videos all day. If you are looking for a strong reviewer who comes with all the receipts… watch Casually Comics on YouTube.
Grab a cup of coffee, Sasha’s Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane series has a lot of a lot to unpack. Enjoy!