I got an email yesterday from my brother to tell me that Basil Poledouris has passed away. His CONAN soundtrack was, I believe, the first CD of movie music that I ever bought. I remember going to see the movie– and while sitting in the theater, I was completely caught up in the film as the images….. and more importantly, the MUSIC… washed over me. His dramatic use of drums, strings and horns was so thrilling and powerful– and the choral infusions were stirring to the soul. The score literally sent chills up my spine– it’s that good. I had to rush out and buy a copy of the music immediately upon leaving the theater. And Poledouris’s CONAN soundtrack has seen me through so many pages of artwork over the years, it’s incredible. Any time I’ve ever needed a kick in the rear to get going, all I have to do is put that disc in the player, and I’m immediately inspired. His music for every scene of the film is so perfect… so evocative. As someone pointed out in the AICN talkback thread, CONAN was a good movie– but it was Poledouris’s score that made it GREAT.

Poledouris had an amazing career and leaves a wonderful body of work. His scores for such other films as ROBOCOP, STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER are great achievements. But it’s his moving and absolutely inspired music for CONAN that will always live in my heart– and still, every time I listen to it, gives me those very same chills I felt the first time I heard it.

Thank you, Basil Poledouris, for so much wonderful music. You may be gone– but your work will live and inspire forever.

This is Entry 301.

Mike

>

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been maintaining this blog for over 3 years now– and I’ve come to the 300th post. I was looking at the archived posts on BLOGGER, and they only allow for viewing 300 total posts, so I can’t really tell when I started the blog, exactly. But the exact date I started this thing isn’t really important. What is important is that I’ve really enjoyed maintaining it up to this point. It’s been very therapeutic at times– and it has been fun and gratifying to watch the stats of how many folks that visit here day to day grow so much over the years. I want to thank all of you for taking the time out of your day to stop by and see what little trifles I might post 3 times per week. With so much that’s offered on the web vying for attention every day, I’m grateful that you make this one of your stops.

I wanted to show you all this amazing piece. I woke up Sunday morning and checked my email first thing as I do every day. Imagine my surprise to find an email with this image of the DARE-GORILLA sketch I did inked by none other than PAUL SMITH….! I was absolutely blown away. Paul’s work has always been an inspiration to me since I first saw it on DOCTOR STRANGE and UNCANNY X-MEN at Marvel. Paul’s LEAVE IT TO CHANCE with writer James Robinson is one of my favorite comics of all time. It’s one of those books that I would give anyone as an example of how great and beautiful comic books can be– one of those shining representatives of comics at their best that can appeal to everyone. I’ve been honored to get to know Paul over the years, first meeting him at HEROES CON several years back. He’s a kind, gracious and wonderful fellow– as well as being one of the premiere artists in the comics world. The fact that he inked this just for fun and sent me a file of it is just so thrilling. Thanks, Paul…!

The organization HERO INITIATIVE — formerly known as ACTOR– is a non-profit that raises money to help older comic book creators who are in need. Comic book creators of today enjoy the rewards of a business built by the many that came before us– and I try –as often as I have time for– to contribute to this cause that helps these older creators who might not be getting the work they used to and are in need of some aid from time to time. Recently, Marvel celebrated the 100th issue of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, and they’re working with HERO INITIATIVE by printing up some blank ‘sketch cover’ editons. HI asked 100 folks who have worked on SPIDER-MAN over the years to contribute sketches on these– and they’ll be offered up for auction in the near future. I don’t have the details of the when and how– but I’m sure you’ll be hearing about it. I wanted to show you the sketch I did for the auction so that those of you who might be interested could get a ‘sneak peek’.

OK– that’s it for another post. Again, thank all of you so much for reading.

This is Entry 300.

Mike

About a month ago, I did a post about my love for the E-MAN comic and character… and my adoration for the work of Joe Staton. After writing about that, I decided to go try to buy a run of those original CHARLTON E-MAN books on eBay. I got a run of the original 10 issues. Although I already have them in my collection somewhere, as I’ve said, it would take an effort the equivalent of searching through the Amazon rain forest to find ’em, so I got a duplicate set. Most of my original copies are in a lot worse shape than the ones I just bought, so that’s another plus.

Looking through them, I was also pleasantly reminded of the fun and quirky back up stories that appeared in the book. There was a wonderful and enigmatic character called KILLJOY (I’ve always loved that name) that was created by the legendary Steve Ditko. These stories were very odd and bizarre and have a feeling (to me, anyway) or flavor of PLASTIC MAN or THE SPIRIT– only weirder. Ditko also worked on a LIBERTY BELLE backup story with writer Joe Gill. LB is more of a traditional, patriotic-styled superhero. It’s fun– but not nearly as much fun to read as KILLJOY. The crown jewel of these backup stories, though, was the ROG 2000 character by Nic Cuti and John Byrne. Anyone who’s a long-time Byrne fan knows ROG 2000 and still has a soft spot in their heart for the character. He was created during Byrne’s fanzine days, and made the jump to professional comics with Byrne. This was the beginning of some wonderful stuff from John Byrne at Charlton– books like DOOMSDAY +1 and SPACE 1999 were some of his more serious efforts at the company– but ROG 2000 was the most fun (at least for me). There are other backups in E-MAN, like Cuti and Tom Sutton on THE KNIGHT– a kind of superspy story– as well as a time travel story called TRAVIS by Cuti and Wayne Howard, who does a pretty decent Wally Wood riff. Those stories don’t appeal to me, however, as much as KILLJOY, LIBERTY BELLE and especially ROG 2000.

This is Entry 299.

Mike

For today’s sketch, I decided to go back to the LEGION well. Back when I was in discussions with DC about going over with Mark Waid to work on their planned LEGION relaunch book when Mark was removed from FANTASTIC FOUR by Bill Jemas, I went out and bought a bunch of the LEGION ARCHIVES books. The ARCHIVES books are wonderful things to own (as are all the wonderful collections that are coming out these days… ESSENTIALS, SHOWCASE and the many trades)… particularly if you have a huge collection of comics like I do– and especially when that collection is so big and buried under boxes and ‘stuff’ in your junk room that you’d never be able to find any specific book again if your life depended on it. I have many years worth of LEGION comics as well as so many other titles that I’m now buying in collections because I just don’t have the energy or desire to go through that mass of singles. Yesterday I was looking through the 12th edition of the LEGION ARCHIVES with all those issues from the mid-70s that were drawn by Mike Grell. He was taking over for Dave Cockrum, who had moved over to the UNCANNY X-MEN at Marvel… and he was working with all those great costume designs that Cockrum came up with. It was very cool to see back then. Grell’s work was raw, but very energetic and exciting to see. It was only the beginning of what would coalesce into the work he did on THE WARLORD., the ERB-inspired fantasy epic he created, which was a huge favorite of mine back then.

So anyway– here’s a sketch of LIGHTING LAD in his Cockrum-designed duds. It’s a hoot to draw the character– and especially with the hair styles and mutton chops that were so prevalent in 1970’s comics characters. Fun stuff.

OK… that’s it for yet another week. Have a great weekend.

This is Entry 298. (NUMERO 300 HITS NEXT WEEK….!)

Mike

Yesterday in the comments section, my brother suggested that I draw a ‘gorilla-as-BULLSEYE’ sketch as a companion piece to Monday’s GORILLA WITHOUT FEAR entry. I thought that was a great idea, and so today, I offer GORILLA BULLSEYE. Yesterday when I got home from the gym, I had an email from Matt (aka Mafus) with a jpeg of Monday’s sketch colored. I really enjoyed what he did with it, so I’m including that with today’s sketch for all to see. Thanks for taking the time to do it, bro!

OK… I gotta stuff my cat Charlie into a crate and take him to the vet for a booster shot. Have a great day, all.

This is Entry 297.

Mike