Frankenstein Goes Underground with Mignola!

 

I Just read the brand new first issue of Frankenstein Underground that just came out today by Mike Mignola & Ben Stenbeck. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Frankenstein’s monster in a Mignola story, nope he originally appeared in the Hellboy story “House of the Living Dead” back in 2011. A great little story where Hellboy has a short career in Mexico wrestling monsters and yeah Frankenstein’s Monster is one of his opponents/buddies.

 

That’s what I enjoyed so much about this first issue, it really ties in with a few stories from the ever expanding Mignolaverse. Don’t worry though this story is a simple one so far, it follows The legendary monster into the 1950’s where he’s helped by a witch and hunted by a familiar face from a classic BPRD adventure. It also appears that the title of this book should be taken quite literally as it’s clear the  creatures adventure is headed far below-perhaps to hell?

This is a nice weird ass first issue with a great cover by Mike himself. Let’s face it how can you turn down a solo Frankenstein story written by Mignola that takes place in the 1950’s? I’ll be there for issue two because these days I’d rather spend my time in the unique world of the Mignolaverse than the generic confines of the Marvel Universe….

Bat Girl #41 Variant Cover Controversy: Did They Really Go to Far?

First let it be known, I’m not a dedicated reader of the latest Bat Girl series, but I’ve obviously read “The Killing Joke”, arguably the greatest Batman story ever. In that classic graphic novel The Joker became one of the most frightening villains in all of comic book history. We saw a Joker that was far more dangerous, insane and sick than anything we ever witnessed before and this all involved what he did to Barbara Gordon (Bat Girl). The Joker kidnaps her, shoots her, strips her naked and then photographs her for her father to later see. This was a chilling sequence in the original comic book, and it left you wondering just what else the Joker may have done to her that was not shown but rather implied by a few of the panels.

Flash forward to present time and we have a newer Bat Girl series, with a lighter tone and delivering a positive message of empowerment to women. Then along comes this very different feeling variant cover by Raphael Albuquerque….

It was meant as a throwback cover to The Killing Joke and has caused loads of controversy. DC has received threats of violence and harassment for the image. People have deemed the cover as too inappropriate because of it’s clearly dark imagery a frightened, crying and bleeding Bat Girl with the Joker’s arm wrapped around her, gun in hand. It’s a variant cover so it really doesn’t need to have anything to do with the story inside the comic and most often these covers are meant for die hard collectors. I’m thinking a few things as I view it, first it’s an incredibly creepy cover, mostly if you know exactly what happened to Barbara Gordon back in The Killing Joke. Second it’s clearly a awesome piece of artwork portraying an excellent clearly insane Clown Prince of Crime. Third it’s maybe one of the most powerful comic book covers I’ve seen in years, it clearly strikes a nerve and leaves you with a feeling of utter dread.

 

I don’t think the cover is so offensive that it should be cancelled, but it may be tonally wrong for the series at the current moment in time. People in an uproar however also need to realize that this is fiction, not every story is going to an uplifting experience, some of the best stories do at times involve tragedy, in fact that’s what makes The Killing Joke so powerful in the first place. I agree, this cover may just be too disturbing for the current Bat Girl series, it does show a Bat Girl in a state of pure fright, some may view it as a women portrayed as weak, it brings back some those bad vibes of the Alan Moore tale but I also can say as a fan of The Killing Joke, if this was the cover to an actual Bat Girl story that was related to 1988 classic, DC would’ve have me picking up Bat Girl on a regular basis for the first time in my life…

 

The Outer Space Men: Those Groovy 60’s Aliens!

Let’s take a second to look at some cool action figures way back from the 1960’s! The Outer Space Men by Colorforms!! You may know Colorforms better as those little plastic stickers of your fav cartoon characters you’d stick on and peel off the backgrounds way back when. But Colorforms also put out these totally radical bendy alien action figures as well!

They had kick ass names too like Commander Comet, Xodiac, Colossus Rex, Electron+, Astro-Nautilus, Alpha 7 & Orbitron. They wasn’t much to their backstory just a gang of groovy aliens you could collect and play with all day, unfortunately I wasn’t born yet when the hit the stands and the chances of finding one in good shape of the original series is pretty slim. Also the bendy figures with the wire inside them had a limit to their lives normally, you’d often break the wires and get a bunch of limp wristed bad asses- not a good combo!

 

Phototracing and Lightboxes: Real Comic Book Art?

I’ve been questioning some of the ways comic book artists are doing their “artwork” these days. Lets face it art has changed quite a bit from back when comic books were printed on newsprint and cost a mere sixty cents. Today our comic books cost four bucks and are full of computerized gloss. Hell I’m not even sure what they are printed on is actually real paper. But it got me thinking a lot on just how comic book art is produced these days for the bigger companies out there. It turns out a lot of artist out there are phototracing, meaning gathering photos online, shot from a digital camera or even other artists actual artwork, uploading them onto the computer or light box and tracing them, adding costumes different hair etc.

It seems this trend has a small debate forming on what exactly is real art in comic books these days? Is it real art when Alex Maleev uses a light box to do all of his city back grounds or David Mack tracing pictures of his characters? Or when an artist simply takes some celebrity photos and traces over them giving the characters their likeness? To me I’m a little disappointed to hear that this trend is becoming even more popular these days. I guess you don’t have to spend much time with perspective if you’re merely tracing a photo.

I guess the “Artist” these days has maybe actually become the inker? Don’t get me wrong there’s still good degree of skill and talent needed to make a trace job look real good. People have been photo referencing for years but tracing to me just doesn’t really make the cut. I love for a comic book to look good, heck if the comic has shitty generic artwork (as most do these days is seems) I flat out just won’t buy it.

Art is very important to me when dropping 4 bones a pop on a comic book these days the art and story better be top notch. What do you think? Do you care how the artwork was made in your comic book? Here’s a great video from IFanboy on the great debate of phototracing!

 

Big Man Plans #1: A Little Ball of Serious Rage!

I just finished reading issue #1 of the new four issue limited series from Image called “Big Man Plans” and it’s quite a debut! This one is a full on mean and dirty little story about a little guy named ‘Big Man’ who’s lived his entire life being made fun of, beat up and bullied. When Big Man finally hits his breaking point he goes bat shit crazy bringing revenge to those who’ve wronged him. Kinda like a smaller version of Michael Douglas in Falling Down. We get an in depth look at just what has pushed Big Man over the edge and it really ain’t pretty. He’s like a dog that’s been teased it’s entire life, all he knows the world to be is a rotten place and now he pissed.

Big Man has had quite a life, spending time unofficially working for the United Stated Army in Vietnam as special type of solider who can fit in to places no other can and get the dirty work done in the dark. He’s been to prison, kicked the shit out white supremacists, punched out cocky kids and even had the time to be a bit of a ladies man. He’s quite a guy, an angry little bastard who’s got clearly quite a story ahead of him. Issue #1 is said to be the tamest of them all and if that’s true the next few issues are going to be quite wild ride.

 

Fellow Portlander Tim Wiesch and Eric “The Goon” Powell have done a great job building the intrigue here for this new character. Powell as usual shines as the artist on this title, bringing the grit and dirt in every panel. I’m curious to see where this little mystery is headed and hope that ‘Big Man’ at the end of issue number four can find a little happiness in his thus far miserable existence. Check this one out if you’re looking for something that’s bound to pull out some serious shocks! Get the full scoop with a great interview with the creators of the series right here

Odd Moments in Comic Book History: Incredible Naked Angry Showering HULK!!

I love those weird ass moments in comic book history that catch you by surprise (especially as a kid) and kinda make you chuckle! Today I wanted to add an odd moment from The Incredible Hulk #294, this was back when the Banner could “control” the Hulk and he dressed like banner and even combed his hair the same way. The most nerdy version of the green goliath off all time for sure. I love it. Well this Banner Hulk didn’t last long soon he would lose total control again only to be banished to a different dimension by Doctor Strange. But I digress, well in this issue they are doing some gamma tests on an injured dog and at first the testing appears to have some nice results. After Banner decides to take a nice hot shower, only problem is he’s been having some intense nightmares lately. The over tired Banner starts having a waking nightmare and well, in mid shower transforms into a very naked but squeaky clean Hulk!! Good thing for well placed shower steam! Right after this happens he squares off against Boomerang, a truly classic story line well worth revisiting and of course wonderfully drawn by perhaps the best Hulk artist of all time Sal Buscema!!

Sorry Ladies & Gay men all over the planet you’ll have to keep on wondering about the Hulk’s other incredible big green asset!

Let’s Head to The Void and Help Make Some Old School Monsters!

I love that people these days are using online avenues to make cool movies. Nothing satisfies me more than knowing people are getting things done with the help of true fans. In the end it means that most often times people are really getting what they want rather than a big studio pushing its influence on directors and turning a good idea into a load of bullshit. So we’ve got to take some time out from covering the glossy, over hyped, fully bloated flicks that Marvel & DC are cranking out and give some smaller projects some hype here. One such project is called “The Void” which you can help fund directly on Indiegogo if you’re a fan of old school monster movies, the kind we used to get back in the 1980’s back when life was a little more simplistic and the movies were a bit more of an art form. It’s pretty clear just by this amazing poster for the project that these guys are on to something awesome!

 

Here’s a little more info on the pitch:

“Cult indie directors Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie (Manborg, “W Is for WISH” from ABCs of Death 2) and producer Casey Walker of Cave Painting Pictures (A Little Bit Zombie) have launched an Indiegogo campaign to get a head start on pre-production for THE VOID, an original horror film that pits a small-town police officer against all manner of otherworldly creatures in a derelict, rural hospital.

“We’re launching this campaign early in order ensure that the film’s special effects are achieved practically. It’s important to start building our film’s creatures immediately to ensure we can realize them on set and in-camera,” said Kostanski and Gillespie.”

This sounds like my kinda movie, the type I’m always hunting down, whether it be a lost 80’s flick or a new one this is the kind of stuff I want to talking about here at Universal Dork. This trailer looks like a damn fine time and the effects look quite impressive already-so imagine what could be done with a little more funding. Check this shit out and if you have a few bucks to spare throw it their way! I’ll be watching out for this one!

 

 

Comic Book Cover of the Week: Wolverine Vs. The Vermin!

You just can’t judge a book by it’s cover,  that’s certainly the truth for the 2001 Wolverine annual! Yeah I love this cover, it’s super spooky and it’s got Wolverine finally squaring off against another crazed berserker, one of my all time fav villains- The Vermin!! What we have here is a comic that I honestly really couldn’t finish simply because the interior artwork just sucks so damn bad! Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s you sometimes got some really shitty comics with terrible art and awful stories to match! Anyway this one has a dynamite cover by J.H. Williams that always makes me try and read the actual comic book with the same outcome…you can most likely find this one in the 25 cent bin!

The New Marvel Movie Spider-man and the Great Race Debate!

So the controversy continues to grow around Spider-man and his introduction into the Marvel Universe films-now what we’re hearing is that Spider-man may not be the skinny white dude he’s been in the comic books for, well ever…We’re being tempted with him being African American instead and that he may not even be Peter Parker in this movie universe. Instead we hear he may take on the Miles Morales Ultimate universe persona of the character. So I’ve been thinking what’s the motivation behind mixing things up?

Well first it seems to me that the Marvel Universe films are lacking some awesome black characters. I personally don’t think they need to make any changes to Spider-man. In fact I just want to see Marvel take the character and do it right, showing Sony how to do Spidey the Marvel way. And can we PLEASE get a true representation of the damn Green Goblin already? Pleeeez?!!  I do think it’d be great to get some more characters in the mix of different races focused on-so don’t change Spider-man just give us some cool existing characters of the Marvel universe. Let’s see now, we already have Black Panther in the works, we’re getting Luke Cage and possibly the Falcon donning the Captain America duds after the upcoming third movie. If they really want to bring a little more besides a bunch of white dude superheroes bouncing around all over the place here are just a few ideas:

It’s time to bring back Blade-Give Snipes his role back! He doesn’t always need to fighting Vampires either!

A Brother Voodoo movie would be fucking awesome. Case closed. Better than Doctor Strange.

 

Bring the Bill Foster Goliath into the Avengers! They already fucked up the Hank Pym character, so have Foster take the role again!

 

Yeah a Deathlok movie would be pretty damn awesome…nuff said!

 

Bring Jim Rhodes in to take over for Tony Stark as he did way back in the 80’s. He was Iron man for well over two years!

 

Can we please get a hyper-action superhuman kung fu extravaganza with some Shang Chi on the big screen already?!!

I think it’s a big mistake to put Miles Morales in place of Peter Parker at least at first. Spider-man isn’t broken(besides in the Sony movies), he doesn’t need to be changed. If he is well so be it, maybe it’ll be an awesome movie regardless I’ll be there to check it out either way. But the fact of the matter is that I’m a comic book fan, I want to see Parker, the original Spider-man. I hope to see him first don the suit, then when his time is up feel free to put Miles into the role of the legendary webslinger. In the mean time let’s choose some great superheroes to come to life who deserve a shot, ones that us comic fans spent years following.. what do you think?!  

Hey Jared Leto….The Joker isn’t Fat or Muscular!! Uggh…

What the hell is up with Hollywood and The Joker?! It seems that they just don’t have any real clue on how to go about bringing The Joker to life on the big screen! This new Suicide Squad movie is giving me bad vibes and Jared Leto’s at it again trying to gain weight for yet another role. Apparently this time we may be getting a “fat” or muscular Joker, in a recent interview in Billboard he went to say this about his upcoming role as The Joker-“I’m trying to gain weight,” Leto told his interviewer, while munching on vegan tacos. “It means I have to eat every couple of hours — and I’m terrible at eating a lot.” Does he even know who The Joker is and what he looks like?

Just add some white face paint and there we have it another Joker wannabe!

I’ll go on record saying that I enjoyed Nicholson’s pudgy Joker and Heath Ledger’s normal guy Joker with a painted face and yeah I loved Cesar Romero’s look with his mustached Joker (probably the closest looking to the comic book of the mainstream) but none of those Jokers got it “right”. When I see any of them I have to say “he did a good job but he really didn’t scream classic Joker to me”. I have said it before the only one who truly nailed The Joker’s comic book look was  Andrew “Boner” Koenig from the brilliant Batman “Dead End” short film.

Andrew Koenig, Growing Pain’s “Boner” nails it as The Joker!!!

What’s up with Hollywood? Why would Leto need to put on the pounds to play The Joker? Hearing this news make me pretty disappointed. The Joker is the most iconic comic book villain of all time, so why can’t they give us the classic Joker already? I often wonder why these movies have to tweak a machine that is clearly not broken! Give us a comic book Joker, no face scars, not fat or muscular, just a rail thin freak of man who’s completely bat shit crazy! Maybe Leto should have played the Penguin?! This, Hollywood, is what the Joker looks like…

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if you somehow missed Batman: Dead End check it!