Today’s nugget mined from the ore of childhood memories and characters is a bad guy named BUZZ SAW. He had circular saws mounted on his wrists, much in the same way that the GLADIATOR villain character from DAREDEVIL did. I don’t really remember which of my many knock-off good guys I might have devised BUZZ for…. maybe none of them in particular. It’s possible that I just created him in case I needed him for something. I created a TON of these kinds of characters for no particular reason other than the fact that they were on my mind at the time. “OH– it would be cool to have a bad guy with circular saws mounted on his wrists…!” And, WALLAH…. there’s BUZZ SAW. If I didn’t make the file of the childhood drawing TOO small, you might be able to see the faint image of another utility bad guy on the back called THE BLUE DANGER. I’ll probably work him up some time as well. I used to use both sides of the paper I had to work with because at times, it could get scarce, as much feverish sketching as I used to do as a kid. I wish sometimes that I had the energy and drive I had then NOW.

So here’s the original followed by the update:

As you probably saw, if you checked out the HEROES AREN’T HARD TO FIND FCBD mini site from my last post, I had the honor of sitting next to my buddy and old studio mate Casey Jones for our signing and sketching marathon. It was a blast to sit with Casey and joke and cut up (when we weren’t TOO caught up in what we were doing) as well as reminisce about our days in the old studio. Well, Casey just completely redesigned his web site. He’s one heck of an artist, so do yourself a favor and go ogle his terrific sketches and commissions. You’ll be glad you did.

OK… see you next time.

Mike

Well, today’s post is a quick one. I made a long entry about COSMIC GIRL and how she was a derivative of MS. MARVEL…. and somehow I managed to accidently erase the whole thing while trying to copy and paste it to BLOGGER.COM. So I’m a little too frustrated (well, PISSED, actually) with myself to re-create it. So I’m just going to leave it at posting the images.

I’d have to say that FREE COMIC BOOK DAY at HEROES AREN’T HARD TO FIND was a resounding success. There were TONS of enthusiastic folks in attendance for the festivities. It was back breaking work to sit in one place for about 5 1/2 hours straight doing tons of sketches for folks, but I’m happy to do it if it will help to bring in new ‘converts’ to the comic book medium as fans. The folks at HEROES have a great mini-site up about the whole thing with an overview and TONS of cool pictures. I hope they won’t mind that I cribbed one to post here– but here’s a happy fan with a SPIDER-MAN sketch I did for him. I’d have to say that SPIDER-MAN was the overwhelming favorite for folks there…. and it became a running joke for anyone who asked for a SPIDEY sketch to then turn around and apologize to the other folks in line, because they took longer than any other characters to draw. Shelton Drum (HEROES owner) took all the comics pros out for dinner at a great nearby pizza restaurant, and I was crying with laughter at Cully Hamner and Casey Jones going over the more hilarious parts of the day’s experiences. I’m really happy that I took part in FCBD.

OK– that’s it for now.

Mike

I always had a vague unease about eating meat as I got to be an adult. I’ve always loved animals and hate the idea of them suffering in any way. I feel like the animals of the world are the TRUE innocents… not tainted by hidden agendas, dark desires or fetishes; untouched by corruption. When my buddy Todd Dezago and I were flown to France back in 2000 –by the wonderful folks at SEMIC who were publishing TELLOS over there– I was treated to goose liver pate at a local restaurant. I ate it (and enjoyed the taste)– but then later started thinking about how it was made…. and I started feeling guilty. That kind of thing kept happening to me over the next few years– the vague feelings of guilt– until a friend sent me links to a web site that had video footage of the conditions that exist at the massive corporate farms that raise cows, chickens, ducks and pigs. I was horrified and disgusted to see the way these animals were treated in their short lives before they were slaughtered in order to become our food. That was in late September of 2003– and from that point on, I’ve avoided eating meat, fish, eggs or any dairy products. I’m not a TRUE vegan…. but I try to follow that diet as much as it’s possible for me at all times. I’m not going to post links to any sites, or try to preach about the ‘evils of eating meat’ or anything like that. I’m not the activist type. I’m just saying I do this for my OWN peace of mind…. and to set up today’s blog offering.

I recently joined a vegan forum– and some of the folks are involved with a vegan festival coming up soon, and I volunteered to do a t-shirt for them to sell with a superhero theme. I really liked the way it came out– so I thought I’d share it with you. You’ve seen me stumbling into learning Photoshop lately, and I was pleased with the end results here. AND it’s superhero themed, so it fits for the blog.

And as for animals– here’s a picture of my FAVORITE animal in the world, Charlie…. in a shot I took the other day of him in his favorite position for sleeping. I liked it so much I made it my desktop so I can get a chuckle every time I look at the screen.

I’ll be at HEROES AREN’T HARD TO FIND tomorrow (Saturday ) for their FREE COMIC BOOK DAY festivities. I’ll be there with Randy Green, Cully Hamner, Brian Stelfreeze, Jason Latour, Andy Smith and Rick Ketcham. So if you live in Charlotte or the nearby area, come on out and say “HI..!”. It’s going to be a lot of fun– and the weather’s supposed to be great for it.

Mike

My favorite show on television right now is DEADWOOD from HBO. It’s an amazingly complex and intelligent show — brilliantly written, it’s like Shakespeare set in the old west. And one of my favorite movies of all time is UNFORGIVEN from 1997 starring (and directed by) Clint Eastwood. I love a western that is portrayed in a realistic manner with all the grit and dirt and darkness that life on the frontier and in the towns of the time must have been like. I suppose as with a lot of things, I get my love of the western genre from my father. We watched many a Glen Ford and John Wayne western together on weekend afternoons. As a kid, I also absolutely LOVED the cheesy pseudo-superhero westerns that Marvel published in the 70’s. Titles like THE RAWHIDE KID, KID COLT and the original GHOST RIDER (that’s right, he was a white costumed western avenger with a cowboy hat and a cape before he was resurrected as the character we know today). There was even a title called THE RINGO KID, which thrilled me to no end, for obvious reasons. So naturally, I had to have a western gunslinger character of my own, and so was born THE RIO KID. He looked very much like all the Marvel characters, with a colorful vest, peg leg jeans, a gun belt worn REALLY low on his hips, and white kid gloves– y’know, the staples of cheesy western attire that any self-respecting hot shot would need to look good while ‘slapping leather’. Looking back on those old Marvel characters, they really were very campy and silly– but they’re still a lot of fun and I wish someone would do a comic like that again. Maybe I’ll do it myself some day….. just for the fun of it.

Mike

I’m also going to play with Peter/SPIDER-MAN’S supporting cast as much as possible before the book gets started. So with this post, I did a sketch of Peter’s on-again/off-again curmudgeon of a boss at the DAILY BUGLE, J. Jonah Jameson.– and had another go at Mary Jane now that I’m a tad bit more proficient at Photoshop. So I also added a bit of color to them both. I figure since I have the TIME right now, I can play with adding color to the blog posts– because I know that once I get back into the monthly grind, that luxury won’t be there anymore. I just read a short interview in WIZARD with J. Michael Straczynski in which he discusses Aunt May and Mary Jane moving into Avengers Tower with Peter– so I’m not sure that Peter will even NEED to work at the Bugle– or if he’s still a college professor… or what. I haven’t really READ a SPIDER-MAN comic in a long time, so I don’t even know what’s going on with the character. Regardless, it was fun to draw Jonah…. and it’s ALWAYS fun to draw Mary Jane….!

Until next time…

Mike