To round out the week, I decided to draw the response/answer to the last post with J. Jonah J-APE-eson– and so today’s post is of Peter Parker– drawn as a chimp. I always liked the fact that as Jonah’s freelance photographer, Peter had to put up with a fair amount of abuse and derision from his boss. He could get a bit of payback, though, by showing up in Jonah’s office from time to time as SPIDER-MAN and web his mouth shut, or web him to the wall, or hang him out a window. Jonah’s character is a good man at heart– but he gets what he deserves when SPIDER-MAN gives Peter a little bit of revenge. That was one of the things that was so very appealing about Peter Parker (and SPIDER-MAN) early on– that even though, in his costumed identity, Peter had all this power and could do almost anything, he still had a ‘normal’ life that required working, paying bills and generally trying to get by– and he had a lot of trouble in that normal life. He was always broke, worried about his Aunt May’s health and financial situation– and like most young men, he had romantic troubles. Peter Parker was an everyman– and fans could identify with his struggles. It’s what made him so appealing to readers– that this guy had so many of the same problems that they did. And yet, he was also secretly one of the coolest super-heroes in the biz, which served to feed the power fantasies that kids all go through growing up. Unfortunately, I feel as though the character’s lost a lot of that appeal over the years… he’s married to a super model, he’s living in a posh high-rise tower and he’s got no money troubles. He’s kind of lost his core appeal….

But he’s still, even with all that, one of the greatest comic book characters of all time.

This week, Marvel released the solicitations for their books shipping in August– so for those of you who might not have seen it yet, here’s the cover image for FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #11.

Have a great weekend, folks.

This is Entry 229.

Mike

Back in the Silver Age of comics, there was a list of things that, if they appeared on a cover, were considered to be sure-fire attention-grabbers/sellers. The entire list escapes me at the moment…. but one of them was the color purple (oddly enough)– and another one was Apes. It was said that Carmine Infantino, when Editor-in-Chief at DC, would have a gorilla or monkey worked onto the cover of any comic he thought needed a sales boost for that month. That philosophy seems to work for this blog as well. The comments on sketches recently had dwindled (not that I’m obsessed about that– but I’m obsessed about that) recently– but over the past couple of ‘gorilla posts’ things have really taken off. And so I announce here today that from now on, this is a ALL-GORILLA-ALL-THE-TIME blog……! From here on out, nothing but gorillas… gorilla superheroes, gorilla fantasy characters, gorilla……

Just kidding. I could actually see this getting old pretty quickly. I’ll probably do one or two more and then drop it for a while. There’s the saying about ‘too much of a good thing’.

In the mean time– good ol’ Jonah is intimidating enough just as he is…. can you imagine how he’d be as a Silverback Gorilla….?

This is Entry 228.

Mike

I had so much fun drawing the ‘gorilla SENTRY’ the other day that I started thinking about which superhero characters I could do that weren’t ones that Art Adams had already given the ‘ape treatment’. I’ve been a huge fan of INVINCIBLE since the first issue came out some 31 issues ago. Co-created by Robert Kirkman (writer) and Cory Walker (artist)– and now, since issue 8, drawn by the amazing Ryan Ottley– INVINCIBLE is a true independent superhero success story. In a market that is resistant to any comic that isn’t a Marvel or DC comic, INVINCIBLE has made wonderful inroads into the fan consciousness. If YOU haven’t given to book a try, I highly recommend it. There are 5 trades out so far, as well as an oversized hardcover collection– with a second volume on the way. So there’s no reason why, if you’re into fun, intelligent superhero books, that you shouldn’t at least give it a try.

Now…. who else could get the ‘gorilla’ treatment….?

This is Entry 227.

Mike

Frank Cho’s got a brand new message board. I’ve long been a huge fan of Frank’s work– and in recent years I’ve become friends with him as well… so I love to visit his board and interact with Frank and the people there. Recently, Frank asked folks to post some images of the Marvel SENTRY character’s most recent costume for some new big, secret project he’s got in the works at the ‘Big M’. I’m also a HUUUUUUUUGE fan of Art Adams (who isn’t…?)– and I love it when he does the illustrations he does where he turns various superheroes into gorilla versions. He’s done it for both Marvel and DC… as well as some commissions, I believe. I also know that Frank’s a huge gorilla and monkey fan (he has the nickname MONKEYBOY, after all….) so I thought it would be fun to draw the SENTRY character as a gorilla and post it in his thread calling for images of the costume.

It was fun to do– and I hope that Frank and the folks at his forum get a kick out of it.

OK– that’s it for another week… have a great weekend, folks.

This is Entry 226.

Mike

I apologize for not posting sooner. This morning, a crew from the local power and cable companies came by to change out the pole outside my house. They’ve been working on changing out the poles in my neighborhood for the past week or so. The old poles were getting very frail and old looking– very grey and weathered, so they’ve been replacing them with new strong poles. I suppose it’s in anticipation of any hurricanes that might come through this season– and in the future. This morning it was my turn. They told me the power would be out for several hours– so I left to go run some errands. I just got back home, and the power’s back. So here’s today’s post… a bit behind schedule.

Today’s ‘blast from the past’ is a FLASH bookmark that I did for the WIZARD MAGAZINE folks years back. There was a time when they could call me at any point and tell me that they had some sort of contest going on in their magazine, and they’d ask if I’d draw something to donate as a prize for whatever contest they had me in mind for. I would always agree– and draw something for FREE for them to give away. I did many such pieces for them over the years– but that all ended when I solicited them to give my buddy Todd Dezago and I a bit of publicity for our TELLOS comic when we were planning on debuting it back in 1999. They declined. As it turns out, the WIZARD guys only want what they can get from the creative community to serve their OWN needs and aren’t interested in any kind of reciprocation. Unless, that is, that creative person is someone on the level of a Jim Lee, Frank Miller, J. Scott Campbell, Michael Turner or any of the ‘upper level superstars’ in the business. But that, too, is ultimately just to sell more copies for WIZARD. That was a bitter pill to swallow for someone who thought that give-and-take and reciprocal treatment is a good thing as I did. I learned my lesson, however– and I won’t do anything for WIZARD unless they pay for it anymore– and even then, rarely, since their rates for illustrations are rather pathetic compared to other magazines I’ve done work for.

Anyway— enough bile. It doesn’t feel good to rant about past ‘slights’– and that’s not what I intended today’s post to be about. Just trying to show off some stuff that might not have been seen before.

This is Entry 225.

Mike