My Friends Are Super Cool! or I Can Colour!

So if you don't know the work of Jacob Chabot, you should. He is one talented muthafuckah! I've previously posted a sketch he did for me in one of my Sketchbook Series posts. WELL, I've got more Jacob goodness for you.

Commie Colossus vill crush you!

So a month or so ago, I was proofing an Essential X-Men book and I came across issue #124 which has one of my favourite covers. Mainly because I'm obsessed with all things Russian (since I loved studying the language for 4 years in high school) and it's got Colossus with CCCP overalls on it, but also because it's so silly. It's a Commie Colossus calling himself The Proletarian! Trying to kill his friends! Because he was brainwashed by... well, I won't spoil it. But it's silly and awesome and I love it.

SO ANYWAY, Jacob and our other talented friend Chris Giarrusso have done these aweome X-Babies or Mini Marvels versions of classic Marvel covers in the past, so I emailed them to tell them that one of them should draw a kiddie version of X-Men #124. I honestly did not expect either of them to do it as they are both always so busy drawing for actual MONEY that I wouldn't expect them to take time out to draw this thing for free just cuz I wanted to see it. Jokes were made, it was just a fun thought.

Then, a few weeks later, I get an email from Jacob that said "Hey check out this thing I drew without any sort of provocation." (haha) with THIS attached:

Don't do it Baby Proletarian!

HOW FREAKIN' AWESOME IS THAT!?!?! I was shocked and amazed that he actually did this! And SO happy! I LOVE the li'l baby Lenin on his overalls too... hehe BABY COMMIE COLOSSUS! Too fantastic.

Now to explain the OTHER title of today's blog, I asked Jacob for the high-res version so that I could colour it. I so rarely get to colour stuff, and all the classic stuff is the best b/c it's only flat colouring which is pretty much all I can handle. So without further ado, I present to you, the COLOUR version of this fantastic Jacob Chabot homage cover!

As I've said, Jacob has done other X-Men covers like this, one of one of my favourite X-Men comics of all-time: X-Men #171. (I'll leave you to figure out why.) I have actually started colouring that one too and will post it when I'm done. Now if I can just get Jacob to GIVE me the originals for FREE... hmmmmm... ;-)

Oh and Jacob, YOU RULE! ♥♥♥♥ THANK YOU!


The End.

Those Crazy Comics!

Just a couple of ridiculous comic book panels that I love! Enjoy!

Is this racist? Not sure, but it's definitely hilarious!

You really gotta know your Marvel comics to know why this is so insane. If you've got the time: Cosmic Cube on wikipedia.

So careless, Hellcat!

Please also notice the awesomeness that is Thanos having his name written on the side of his helicopter!!


The End.

Busy Bee Part 1

Holy crap! October has turned out to be the busiest month for me! The last two weeks have completely drained me (to the point of just sitting in my room knitting and watching TV this weekend)! And I've still got more to come!!!

OK, first, last Tuesday I went to see Sam Harris talk about his new book, "The Moral Landscape" at The Great Hall at Cooper Union. It was really interesting and I bought the book and had him sign it. His book is basically about the idea that morals CAN be determined by science. Obviously there's more to it than that, but you can just read the book. haha (I've only just started.)



(After the talk I walked over to Luke's Lobster again...holy jeez that shit is DELICIOUS!)

The next night, my super cool awesome pal, Brian Bendis took me to see "A Life in the Theater" by David Mamet, starring Patrick Stewart & T.R. Knight.


This play was great! Patrick Stewart was so great!! So adorable and funny! Funny thing about this play was that it was running in London when I was there in 2005. I really wanted to see it but the people I as traveling with didn't want to, so we didn't go. So it's really cool that I finally got to see it. Only problem is, instead of T.R., it was JOSHUA JACKSON! Whom I love. (WATCH FRINGE!!!) Ah well. If you like going to the theatre, I recommend this highly! This was also sort of the first night of comicon partying, so I went out after this to hang out with some of the creators that already made it to NYC. I tried to make it home at a semi-reasonable hour and left at around 12:30. However, what would normally have been a 40 minute trip home turned into a nightmare with the Q only going to 57th St. (after waiting 15 minutes for it), then waiting 10 more minutes for the N, which then only went to Queensboro Plaza (first stop in Queens) because of an investigation at the next stop. So then I had to take a shuttle bus home. Ugh! Took an hour and a half. Blerg. (Although I was very annoyed by this, I have to say, the MTA was crazy quick with getting those shuttle buses there, so I was very pleased about that.)

Anyway, the next night I went to City Winery to see Fran Healy (the lead singer from Travis) perform. Oh man, I love that guy!!

City Winery is a really cool place. I had a fancy cheese plate. Soooo gooood.

He was just so cute the entire time. He's awesome. And his new album is great. I'm hoping for a new Travis album too. They're definitely one of my favourite bands!!

I actually got to meet him last year (along with Andy Dunlop from the band) when they did this AWESOME show that was just the two of them going through their catalogue of songs throughout the years, talking about where they were as a band at the time and stories behind how some of the songs came about. It was one of the best shows I'd ever seen. And they hung around after to sell CDs & t-shirts and meet anyone who wanted to! They were total sweethearts and Fran actually took the picture of us with my phone:


Anyway, after that excellent performance, I booked it over to The Village Pourhouse (on Restaurant Row) for the CBLDF Comicon party. I had an awesome time there (helped by all my drinks being bought FOR me! hehe) hanging with all the comic peeps visiting, good friends new and old! As I had taken the day off on Friday, I had no problem staying out all night, I think I headed home around 3:30. I love walking through Time Sq. that late because it's the only time you see it empty. Freaks me out in a good way every time!

The big M&M screen is one of my favourite things in Times Square. :-P So awesome!


While I DID take off from the office on Friday, I actually had a 5-hour shift at the Marvel booth at the con. This ended up being the most time I spent at the actual convention (spent about 2 hours in artists' alley the next day, and that's it). I had a good time at the booth, the best part being the pictures with the Cap shield! :-)



After the con, my super cool awesome pal Joe took me to see the GORILLAZ!!!!! First we stopped over at 5 Guys Burgers & Fries for some delicious burgers (seriously, GO HERE). They have a little tack board where you can write/draw stuff and post it. This was my favourite one (only funny if you know about the terrible interenet sensation "Two Girls, One Cup" which I have never actually seen but have had described to me. I don't want to throw up...):

Anyway, the Gorillaz KICKED ASS!!!! They are touring with Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash! And they had special appearances by Mos Def & LOU FRIGGEN REED!!!

Snoop wasn't there, but they had a pre-recorded video of him on screen.


That's Lou Reed up front in the spotlight. I love the drawing of him they came up with.


So they basically had their videos playing up on that screen the whole time. It was pretty great. They were seriously amazing.

More good times drinking with Comicon peeps that night at The Irish Rogue. Ended up getting home probably around 4AM again, which meant I wasn't getting up until AT LEAST 12PM...


To be continued...

San Diego Comicon 2010

Finally! (Though I think I'm getting this one done a lot quicker than last year...) As you can see, we had Odin's throne at the Marvel booth this year. (If you don't know who Odin is, you need to brush up on your Norse mythology!! He's Thor's dad and in case you didn't know, Thor — the movie — is coming out next May, directed by KENNETH BRANAGH!!!!!) So that's me up there, wearing the InuYasha ears I picked up this year. (I buy some type of ears at nearly every con I go to. I need to stop.)

So, I was in LA for a few days prior to this (and I may post some pics from that portion of my trip as well). I drove down to San Diego in turned out to be a very fun "road trip" (I use the term loosely...it was under 3 hours...) with my friends Zane & Brea Grant (I met them LAST year at Comicon!) as well as new friend Vera!

We rushed over to the con for Zane & Brea's signing (they write a cool comic called We Will Bury You for IDW — check it out!). And THIS was the first thing I see as I near the convention center:


(I added the little titles. :-P) Really?! REALLY?! We need this at Comicon!? There was supposedly a big group of West Baptist asshats protesting on Friday — apparently we worship our comic book heroes as gods, when we should be worshipping god (cuz I'm sure all these fanboys think Superman created the WORLD) — but after I saw this, I figured that was enough for me. Those kids were just a few feet away from her. While I actually think "Fuck God" isn't the BEST way to go about showing how awful this woman is, they're hearts were in the right place and they had the balls and patience to stand there while awesomeness was just through the doors behind them!

Anyway, the NEXT thing I see is THIS and my spirits were immediately perked up! Go Optimus!!!


Here's Zane & Brea signing at the IDW booth, less than 30 minutes after we arrived in San Diego...
And one with my Hipstamatic app on my iPhone! Man I love that app, too bad my 3G is so frakkin' slow and can't handle it (oh man, I can't wait for my iPhone 4!!! My 30th birthday present!), so this is the only pic I took with it.


While at the IDW booth, I learned that The Last Unicorn, one of my favourite animated movies of all time (it's really good, watch it!) is being adapted into a comic! AND the guy who wrote the original novel, Peter S. Beagle, was based on was there signing!!!


He was SOOO sweet!! Talked to him for a little bit, got him to sign the first issue AND I picked up another novel he wrote and had him sign it. It's called Tamsin. I just started it and it's about a girl named Jennifer who lives in New York City and has a black cat!!! WHAT?!?!?! Too weird! AND she moves to England. Granted she doesn't WANT to, but I LOVE England! Coincidences freak me out. :-P

Anyway, the other really cool things that we had at the Marvel booth. Firstly...THESE:


Yep, that's Thor's, Odin's & Loki's helmets. I love how Odin's sorta combines the other two. Loki's looks crazy cool.

Then on Sunday they traded them out for the Captain America shield, which I missed (but I'm sure the internet has pics of it), then swapped that out even later for the Infinity Gauntlet!! So cool! And from a certain angle it caught the light and looked like it glowed!!


Also, at some point, they opened the doors behind the throne to show off the Destroyer!!!



But the best thing I think we had were the actors themselves!!! Here's Loki & Thor:


And Red Skull (ELROND!!) & Captain America!!


The guy playing Thor is Kirk's dad from the new Star Trek movie. He is a giant. And he is beautiful. O_o haha

So aside from Marvel, here's some other random cool things I came across:

This was outside the hotel across from the convention center. They usually have some crazy thing going on. I think last year it was a Heroes carnival thing. I have no idea what this was for, but it was cool.


Another thing outside that I don't know what it was for. Just on some lawn. haha I just liked it.


Technically Marvel, but not at OUR booth...I really rather like the Armored Adventures cartoon!


People dressed as Katamari!!!! Awesome! This was at a demonstration of this dance game. All weekend I walked past new costume people trying to dance. haha


Legos and Harry Potter! What's not to like! As soon as the Lego Harry Potter game is available cheap/used, I'll be playing that (unless it coincides with Fable III, nothing will keep me from Fable III).


A cool Star Wars toy set up over at the Hasbro booth...


Luke's in there!!


I think this was also at the Hasbro booth...sweet.


The Green Hornet car (which I later learned was called Black Beauty) with some hot chicks.


On Sunday night I saw them packing up the Ecto-1!!!!!! This was arguably the coolest thing I saw this weekend! Black Beauty is also in the truck. This drew quite a crowd so the crew put the lights and sounds on for us and it played the Ghostbusters music!!! So cool.


Stopped by Christina Strain & Adrian Alphona's table! One of my favourite colourists and one of my favourite artists! And awesome people! Christina put me & Adrian up in LA before the con this year! She rules!


The last day of the con I saw a ton of these AWESOME fox hat/tail sets. I eventually asked someone where they got them and apparently it was a raffle or something, then she told me where I could buy them online and I forgot. So if you know, PLEASE TELL ME. (Or better yet, buy me one! haha :-P) That dude looks suspicious of my picture-taking...


The other super cool thing at the con was the Walking Dead booth where they had a set up to take pictures in. VERY cool. I can't wait for this show, the comic is so awesome. (Don't tell Kirkman I said that!)


They had like movie screens behind the windows showing zombies walking up. Creepy!


So here are my pics on this set. I'm not sure my photo-acting skills came through, so I added balloons. hehe (I love working in comics!!!)


(Interesting fact, I heard they had "God Forgive Us" written there for preview night but were "compelled" to change it after that. Ridiculous, but not surprising.)

Buffy fans should remember the line in the balloon I added here:


And a pretty famous horror line...


The girl taking the picture told me to lean in to get a close up with this guy. I had to do SOMETHING. ;-)


Outside at Tin Fish, a zombie waits for her lunch...


I think my favourite night at the con was Friday night at the Marvel party. I had such a good time with some of my favourite people in comics. Also, we had a visit from this cutie pie:


The sweetheart that he is, he offered to call my mom (who is a huge Heroes fan) and leave her a message (it was like 3 in the morning in NYC). Needless to say, my mom was thrilled. Better than any silly souvenir I could've gotten!

After the party we made a pit stop at the Subway near there, the only place open 24 hours! Clearly this was also a lot of fun! I tried to take the picture myself...


Then someone offered to do it for me! ;-) That's Lee Douhig in the bag and someone I can't remember, Gerry Duggan & CB Cebulski with me in the front! All great dudes!!!


Had to get a 2010 pic with Brea. We swapped hair lengths from last year!! haha (And we both changed our colours!)


I semi-stalked Steve Niles. If you follow us on twitter you may have seen me threatening to run him off the road as we were both driving to LA at the same time. I'd assumed at that time that I'd actually be able to hang out with him, but this right here is the only time I ended up seeing him at the convention. And he didn't see me. I sent him this picture and stood there waiting to get it for a minute or two before giving up and walking away. I didn't wanna skip all the people waiting in line to meet him and I figured I'd run into him later. Oh well. There's always New York Comicon!!


Gotta get a pic wearing Lee's hat every year now! :-P


I didn't spend the entire time at the con, I walked around a little bit (at one point going on my own private scavenger hunt for Space Invader pieces which I will blog about later). Here's some stuff around town I liked:

I love old run down building signs like this!


And I also like new, modern, cool signs like this! I saw this and wondered what this store could be for:


Then I saw this on the door. How silly of me! Of COURSE it is!


This mural was on the way between my hotel and the con. Cool, huh?


View from the hall window at my hotel.


Some really pretty walkway near my hotel!


Anyway, back to the con. On the last day this chick came by to take pics on the throne. I thought her Imperial Forces costume was SO COOL (and she's VERY pretty), so I took these pics. My co-worker emails me a few days after I get back telling me this is Adrianne Curry, first "Next Top Model" winner and wife of Peter Brady! She also posted pics of herself at this con! I didn't even know who she was. I like that she's a geek!


Then there was the breakdown. I always love watching this. It's kinda sad, but in a cool way...if that makes sense...


I'm sure I missed some cool parts, but without photographic evidence, I probably forgot. Thanks for sticking with this post if you got the whole way through. If you made it this far, here's a treat for you!

On Sunday night, I walked behind these INCREDIBLY drunk ladies on the way to meet up with Marvel peeps. I couldn't help but take a picture. YOU would have to, don't lie. ;-)

Soon I'll post about Space Invaders and possibly some LA pics too! (Then I have to go back and post about some other things I'm still pissed I never posted! ARRGHH!

Later, peeps!


The End.