Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Smallville's Jor-El!


Kryptonsite has released a first look at Jor-El, Clark's father, in the upcoming episode of Smallville. Jor-El will be played by Julian Sands (Warlock). The episode, entitled Kandor, will premiere on November 6th.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Interview with Jamal Igle!


Me: Can you tell me what a day is like in your work schedule?
Jamal: My work day starts around 830-9am depending when my wife wakes me up and my baby hits me on the head with a bottle. Then I usually work until from 10am to 5pm and then cook dinner, hang out with the family until about 10pm. Then I’ll work from anytime from 10pm-4am.

Do you give yourself a work schedule? Or do try to get as much work done as you can in a day? For instance, do you designate a set amount of panels?
Um no, I try to get at least like a page done per day maybe more. It’s usually around a page and a half a day. Sometimes two, sometimes one. It really depends on, not just my work schedule but what’s going on. Like if I have like real life stuff going on.

You’re currently penciling Supergirl is that correct?
Yes.

Can you tell me what’s currently going on with that story arc?
Well actually right now, I’m taking a quick breather off of Supergirl and penciling an issue of World’s Finest. But I’m still drawing Supergirl. I’m penciling World’s Finest, which is the first meeting between Supergirl and the new Batgirl: Stephanie Brown. I’m still working with sterling gates and I’m still drawing Supergirl. I’m just not drawing the main book.
World’s Finest is a four issue miniseries that I believe comes out this month. I usually only do about one book a month. I’m taking a break from the series for three issues and in November I’ll be doing Supergirl 50.

A pretty milestone issue.
Yeah. I haven’t seen the script yet, but I get an inkling of what’s going to be happening. We’re shooting for 38 pages, so we need the next time.

And when is that coming out?
That should be out in February. The last week of February.

For Supergirl, do you have an idea how long you’ll be staying on the title?
Um. No, not really. I mean initially, when I first got on the book, I said I was probably going to do a year and see what happens. And I’ve done a year already; I may be on another year. I haven’t decided yet.

So it’s up to you if you stay?
Yeah. Usually. Unless something happens and they want me to move onto something else.

I remember your work from about ten years ago. You worked on Green Lantern.
I did about five filler issues on Green Lantern, over the coarse about ten years. I used to joke with people that I was a regular artist, I was just really slow.

I remember that was one of the earliest books I’ve ever picked up. The Ion series.
Oh wow. Thank you. I mean, that was really fun stuff. I like the Green Lantern; I liked the whole concept of the Corps and everything. They’re always fun characters to work with and I had a lot of fun working on those stories.

Do you think you’ll ever return to the title?
Whoo. I don’t know. I mean they got Doug Mahnke and Pat Gleason on it now I think. I think they got that pretty much locked up at the moment.

How about the main series.
Oh, I don’t know. The thing is, I’m on contract so I go where I’m needed. So depending on what happens, there’s always stuff being planned and things in flux. They could decided to create a whole new initiative and create a whole new Kyle or whatever and they might ask me to do it and they might not ask me to do it you know I could just stay with the Superman books and keep going with that.

So you’re exclusively contracted with DC comics right now?
Yes. I just signed on for two more years.

Any plans on moving to Marvel after that?
Um. Haha. No, I don’t really think about it actually. I don’t know. There isn’t much that I would want to do creatively over at Marvel right now. So I don’t know if that’s something that is really interesting to me at the moment. I mean, I’ve done some stuff for marvel in the past, but it just never worked out that way that I would end up doing something with marvel. So I don’t know.

Can you tell me how you started in this business?
I started as an intern at DC when I was in high school. I did a 6-month intern ship when I was 17 years old. After my internship, I went to college, I dropped out after two years. I sort of wandered around aimlessly for a while.

Around 1991 or 92 I started putting a portfolio together. I didn’t approach anyone at DC at first because I didn’t think I was ready for that, so I started doing some work for a company called Majestic Entertainment. This was back towards the tail end of the comic flood when you know; everything was chromium covers, number one issues, and trading card comics. I did that for about 8 months or so and then that company went belly up.
I ended up taking the work that I did for them, sending it around to a bunch of people that I knew from different companies.

And Kevin Dooley called and asked me if I wanted to do eight pages in the new issue of Green Lantern. And that’s sort of how I got my foot in the door as a penciler.

People have said that you are the nicest guy in the comics industry. Do you have anything to say about that?
They’re all liars. They are liars they are fools. I am an ogre. I am evil. I am, I don’t know (Laughs). I’ve met a lot of nice guys in this business. It’s nice to be thought of that way though. I appreciate it; I’ve been very lucky. I’ve run across so many good genuine people in this business and very few negative influences. But its nice to be thought of that way.

Well, thank you for taking the time sir.
No problem man.

How Transformers 2 Should Have Ended

Friday, October 23, 2009

The Real Terrorist


So this strip hits a pretty hot topic. It was an assignment for poliSIX.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Buddies


This took me the better part of three weeks.

Monday, October 12, 2009

WWBN Alun Trucker Hat for Sale!


Designed my first Which Way Back North product. Thanks to Mike J. for the idea! Buy Now!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Freshman Vol. 1

I Found this great series earlier this weekend called The Freshman. The premise is that due to overcrowding in the dormitories, a group of college freshman are forced to dorm in a science center. Though a freak accident, they are all granted powers based on what they were thinking about at that very moment. A vegan can talk to plants, an Amish boy can cause earthquakes with this stomach, a socially awkward girl can make people fall in love with her, and there's also a talking beaver. What's not to love about a talking beaver?! Written by Seth Green and Hugh Sterbakov, this series follows this rag-tag group of fledgling heroes as they take on evil.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Scandinavianville

In 2006, the now defunct WB made an unaired pilot for a television series based on the youth of Arthur Curry, also known as Aquaman. This follows the grain of the then, and now, still successful show Smallville. Although the Aquaman show, known then as Mercy Reef, did not air, a trailer was released. This is a spoof I found a few years back about it. I still love it to this day.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Review


Fans of the storyline will not be disappointed. The movie follows the core of the plot almost word or word. When I say core, I mean that some things had to be trimmed down for the movie. The subplot with the Kingdom Come Superman was obviously taken out as well as the storm the White House scene with Superboy, Steel, Supergirl, Batgirl, Robin, and Nightwing.

In terms of animation, the overall designs of the characters were faithful to Ed McGuinness' style. This was very pleasing to my eyes. While the movie was rated PG-13, it did not push the boundaries of said rating as did previous DC animated features (Green Lantern: First Flight, Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight...). It was for the most part pretty tame.

Public Enemies was pretty much an hour long fight scene with Superman and Batman kicking everyone's butt. It was awesome. It was great seeing all these characters from the DCU that have never been animated before. It was even greater to see Supes and Bats punch them in their faces.

4.5/5 (Go Buy it!)

Monday, October 05, 2009

SyFy Phantom

The trailer for the SyFy re adaptation of the comic book series The Phantom has been posted.

Foxtrot

A strip from my favorite cartoonist of all time.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Green Lantern to Start Shooting Next Year!


During an interview on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" Ryan Reynolds mentioned that the blockbuster Green Lantern movie will begin shooting in approximately "four to five months." Any other details on production have been kept secret according to Reynolds for the time being. The episode can be found here on Hulu.

Superman: Secret Origin #1

This issue was absolutely amazing. Geoff Johns (Writer) and Gary Frank (Pencils) team up once again for a definitive retelling of Superman's Origin.

The two had previous worked on Superman and the Legion of Superheroes and Superman: Brainiac.

This story combines elements of the Silver Age adventures of Superboy, the John Bryne Origin from the Post-Crisis 1990s, and the Smallville TV show.

The story follows a young Clark Kent as he struggles to fit in with his peers all the while knowing that he will always be different. As his powers develop, he discovers his true alien origins.


Some highlights from this new continuty include: (SPOILERS)
  • Lex Luthor also grew up in Smallville.
  • A specified reason as to why Clark wears glasses at such an early age.
  • Lena Luthor exists once again.
  • Smallville's Chloe Sullivan seems to exist in this universe as well (not shown however).
Overall, this was a very satisfying Superman story which Johns and Frank seem to be delivering alot of these last few years. I'm really looking forward to the second issue.