Friday, February 7, 2014

The writing is on the wall


Here's some fan art that came my way recently. Unfortunately there's not much I can tell you about it other then that the artist's name is Frankie B.Washington and even though Rom's right foot is a bit overly large I over all really like this piece. Rom is drawn really well here in terms of figure composition and body proportions which gives this fan art a very non-amateurish look. Also, you can't help but be intrigued with that giant maw he's facing and is he summoning his analyzer or sending it back into subspace in exchange for his neutralizer? Now it sounds like I'm talking about a Choose Your own Adventure book.

Left click to enlarge
I recently picked up for a couple of bucks a beat up but still readable copy of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine 27 (1976). It has White Tiger (or El Tigre Blanco if you prefer) story by Bill Mantlo in it. I liked that character from what I've read of him in a couple of Human Fly issues that I have which he guest starred in. Anyways, it looks like Bill had some fun with this story. Aside from what you can clearly see it also says Bill + Karen which is partially hidden in this panel but can clearly be seen in another with this wall. I haven't read this just yet I'm saving it for a road trip to Monterey (CA.) this weekend which is a couple hours south.

16 comments:

  1. That ROM is sick!! I love it !!_!___!!!

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  2. trying to figure out who RON WILSON was, and what the last name of TOM might be that's also hidden under the caption box. cool to see bill sneaking in pieces of his personal life (in collaboration with the artist, natch).

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  3. The original White Tiger, nice! "Bill Mantlo is great."
    That's a legacy-character, there... His daughter is even in the current Spider-Man cartoon.

    Speaking of magazines- that Six From Sirius is a straight-up, hard-core Science Fiction story. The type of story and art that would appear in an old Sci-Fi magazine from the mid-eighties... I enjoyed it- but then- I like that sort of thing. The first issue was basically a heist story.

    That ROM does have some clown-shoes, but it is great otherwise!

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    1. eeesh yeah i've seen bits and pieces of that cartoon. Marvel just can't seem to stop pandering their animated TV stuff exclusively to a kinder garden age audience. but i have seen some of his daughter as White Tiger in some Avengers Academy issues i've read that guest starred Hybrid. i had some issues with that story line but it had nothing to do with her she was cool. thanks for the feed back on Six From Sirius.

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    2. Oh, come on! You hate that too??? That shows not bad at all! Paul Dini, man!
      I only dislike the episodes where that "Ultimate" crap seeps in- because I think those comics are trash... But they have been doing less of it. The episode with Nick Fury's Howling Commandos was great! You had Blade and Man-Thing... so was the Guardians of The Galaxy episode. "Sandman Returns" was really good- talkin' about the Frightful Four over on Morbid's. The Deadpool episode was INSANE! I could not stop laughing as he was "un-alive"-ing people. Because- you know, kids show: can't have him say he's killing the bad-guys. There was even a Spider-Ham episode! But I don't think it's pandering or aimed at kindergartners at all! I mean- I'd love it if I was in Kindergarten... but kids love Spider-Man! It's not like that stupid Marvel Super Hero Squad Show... Now THAT'S just for little kids.

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    3. oh yeah I guess we haven't had that conversation yet. in a nut shell I hate all the animated marvel TV shows in the last 20 years. they just can't get anything right it's always dumbed down for the kiddies as far as I'm concerned. the Paul Dini Batman, Justice League Unlimited and especially Young Justice are light years ahead of anything marvel has come out with since the early 90s. that new Thundercats cartoon was pretty disappointing as well. great animation, but again it just had too much stuff geared toward kiddies. DC has had some great animated movies the last thing I saw was Justice League Flash Point Paradox. that was awesome you just can't beat Aquaman getting his arm severed by Superman's heat vision.

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    4. Holy shit- you're nucking futs, bro! -Hahaha! How hard are you to please??? Seriously, though- I don't get this whole "dumbed down for kiddies" thing... almost ALL cartoons are largely for kids, that and selling toys. -But not all are bad just because of that. Real quick here- I'ma just focus on the 2000's:
      Spider-Man Unlimited was more than just Batman Beyond for Spider-Man. -High Evolutionary, dystopian future, class-wars... I loved it.
      X-Men: Evolution, and especially it's sequel series Wolverine and the X-Men had wonderful character development, and over-arching plot-lines... Not dumb in the slightest. Nice animation and excellent voice-acting too!
      Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes had very awesome animation and stories ripped from the comics.
      The Spectacular Spider-Man, well- I don't need to even say anything. It took its cue from one of my favorite comics ever.
      Black Panther was not even for kids. And it was awesome as fuck.
      The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes had almost too much plot! So many characters- so much going on- layer upon layer... it was a handful to keep up with. Not even close to pandering...
      I already talked about Ultimate Spider-Man above... I mean when you have Deadpool killing dudes and a "Check out my giant-sized Man-Thing!" joke, you can't say these are JUST for kids.
      None of these cartoons are/were dumbed down in the slightest. They are all-ages but that does not mean they are bad!
      Batman, Superman, and JLA/JLU were all about kids and toys too! Jesus, their toy-lines outlived the shows... And you can't compare any of these to the DVD animated movies- those are straight-up aimed at teens/adults. So was Young Justice, really...

      Let's get some other opinions on this- anybody?

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  4. I love those old oversized mags. What a great find.

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  5. Oh, and I would not say the new ThunderCats cartoon was a disappointment. It had a lot to like... but I had some problems with it. I gave my thoughts on it in an old video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg01jPPmZtE if anyone is interested.

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  6. Frankie B. has done a bang up job on ROM (overlooking the big foot) He's captured the Space Knight quite correctly.

    On the animation topic, It seems like they could have thrown us a bone. Remake or expand one of these shows JL/JLU , BAS, Static, Batman Beyond, Young Justice, Johnny Quest, Battle of the Planets, Spiderman, Superman the animated series.

    Marvel just doesn't seem to be able to get it right; with the exception of Blade the animated movie, Spiderman and 1990's the X-Men.

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    1. -See, now I thought the 90's Marvel cartoons were terrible. I'll agree with Shlomo 100% there. -They were poorly written, bastardizations of the comics... S2 of the Fantastic Four cartoon would probably be the best one- once it's animation improved. Incredible Hulk was not too bad either- Luke Perry as Rick Jones, She-Hulk was always hitting on her cousin and every line of dialogue she spoke sounded like she was cumming... plus The Leader was amazing.
      But Iron-Man, Spider-Man, and X-Men were downright abysmal. Silver Surfer was a huge disappointment as well. Don't get me wrong- I watched them all at the time... but even then I had problems with them- not to mention they don't hold up even a little bit.
      But check out any of the ones I mentioned in the above comment- because they are fantastic! -All in completely different ways, too... There's bound to be something in there you'll gravitate towards.
      -For instance: I don't much care for the Marvel Anime stuff like Blade... (X-Men was okay...) but if that's a style you like then check out the French Fantastic Four cartoon (if you like the FF at all) because the animation on World's Greatest Heroes was fucking awesome! The "My Neighbor Was a Skrull" episode is a favorite of mine. If you want more plot than you can handle: Avengers EMH (try "Emperor Stark" to see if you would like the series). If you want a straight-up adaptation from the comics: BET's Black Panther. If you like the Buffy:TVS-type shows: X-Men: Evolution ("Walk On The Wild Side"). If you want a MUCH better X-Men cartoon than the 90's one: Wolverine and the X-Men. And if you liked the Spider-Man 2099 comic or Batman Beyond cartoon: Spider-Man Unlimited ("Steel Cold Heart").

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    2. ya know i gotta tell ya Tiger so far i've seen the anime X-men and Iron Man cartoons and they haven't impressed me. the animation is good and i don't feel like they're geared to the kiddie crowd but some how they just don't grab me. the Blade anime could be better for all i know.

      anybody remember Gargoyles? that was a pretty good cartoon. it had it's lame moments here and there but over all it had good character development and fairly well written episodes.

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    3. Yeah- I hear ya... The X-Men one was was the best of them. The only good thing from the Iron-Man one was that Punisher. -Best animated representation of the character EVER. Madhouse does a good job with the animation... but they are weak in the plots.

      Gargoyles was sweet! It was basically a Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion. Yeah- it had cheesy moments- but, you know- Disney. That's to be expected. Very good story-line though...

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    4. praise the lord we see eye to eye on Gargoyles. i'm heading off to bed i've got a very very long day tomorrow but i want you to know K.o.T i emailed you something special just now.

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    5. Ahhh, but still- as good as Gargoyles was- it had way more "kiddie" moments than ANY of those Marvel cartoons I've been talking about.

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  7. I really love those Bronze Age black-and-white magazines, and this one is no exception. The artwork here is just fascinating to look at. I've never seen this one before, so you posting it here is a real treat!

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