Welcome, test subjects. Nathan Town here.
Just a quick word to let you know that there’s a new Excelsior comic up, with Johnny Storm A.K.A. The Human Torch.
Not the one that appeared in the first Marvel comic, or had a little gotch wearing, Mini Me sidekick in WWII. Apparently THAT Human Torch was put down for child endangerment or something creepier. It’s also possible that he was a robot and bits of him went into making the Vision as well as that continuity nightmare called Wonder Man. It’s damn confusing.
Anyway, saw a movie or two with this Human Torch in it. I dunno. Looked a lot like Captain America if you ask me. Maybe all those movie star pretty boys are starting to look alike, or Hollywood has a sudden shortage of blonde, blue-eyed actors who want to appear in super hero films.
The comic makes fun of a hair style choice the Torch made in the 80s in and around Secret Wars II, which was grim, grim stuff. Cost Jim Shooter his job. It was downright horrible. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there a scene where the all powerful Beyonder was lining up a pimp’s hookers to clean them of any on the job diseases for their next fun filled night on the street? I’m thinking a thirteen year old me didn’t make that up. There was also a Fantastic Four issue in there where the Torch was ready to hang up his unstable molecules ‘cause a poor confused little boy lit himself on fire and tried to fly.
Talk about grim (as in dark rather than horrible). Sure it’s a laugh when Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtin joke about it in a SNL halloween skit, but this was deep and thought provoking subject matter for a fanbase who couldn’t pick up on the hints that Northstar was gay. Admittedly, back then it took everyone longer than usual to realize those boys from WHAM! were as well.
So, no reading webcomics on the job, but if it isn’t done by this time tomorrow you’re fired! Also, take note of the single name on the bottom of the strip. That’s right world! Did that whole baby all by my lonesome. Don’t need no Tammy or Chris anymore.
…That’s a complete lie. I totally need them.
Thought I’d post this one early on a count of Monday being a holiday. No, I haven’t travelled a week into the future. The 21st is a Canadian holiday. The next strip’ll be on the 28th, which only Canadians will see as that’s American Memorial Day. Whenever you see that damn thing, stay tuned next week for my favourite Marvel character, and the possibility that I’ll be able to stop mimicking Cave Johnson in all aspects of my life.
My wife’s getting pretty tired of it. I can tell you that.
Every comic geek likes Spidey. I can’t think of one who doesn’t. Most love him.
Stan Lee just hit on something primeval and universal inside of us when he came up with Peter Parker. What’s more, each of us tends to relate most to the Spidey era we discovered him in, whether it be the comics, the 60s or recent cartoons, or the first two movies (nobody connected with that third one. Maybe this new one will be better).
For me (as I’m kinda old) it was one of those oversized collections way back when that did that wacky “Six Arm Saga.” I was hooked. I did both series, Marvel Team-Up (including the awesome one where he teamed up with the original SNL cast), the works. I rode the first bit of the McFarlane run, but got out before it was over.
Sometimes I wonder how different the connection to the character is for people who came in through the movies, or the poor souls who read that clone crap or that nonsense about selling his marriage to the devil. No less worrisome would have been starting during the “Kraven’s Last Hunt” crossover storyline, which WAS pretty dark in the 80s. It just so happens, when McFarlane brought back zombie Kraven was when I quit reading Spidey comics. Character death was a pretty big deal back then, as opposed the minor inconvenience it is now, and I felt somehow cheated. Turns out it wasn’t really him, but they found a way to bring Kraven back eventually.
And now, there’s a new kid spinning webs over at Ultimate Spider-Man (where they killed that version of Peter Parker). It’s very interesting and new and different. I can’t wait to see how it all pans out.
The strips are still coming pretty constant. I may have buggered up my hands this judo season, but if I lean on Tam and Chris enough, and just take it easy, they should get better. Plus, I’ve got something planned for August that’s a little different.
Something Doom-ish.
Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of How Long Were You Dead? and the most obnoxious member of the FF. Seriously, his girlfriend once chose to become the herald of Galactus rather than spend another minute with him.
Norah, you’re very pretty and super talented, but you should really get the hell out of my head. There’s barely enough room for me up there.
Who doesn’t love Dum Dum Dugan? Nobody. That’s who.
Damn. Double negative.
Regardless, Nicky Fury’s second-in-command former circus strongman is a national treasure. Agent Coulson might be the new flash in the pan with his Bullseye-esque doughnut attacks and Captain America stalkery, but Dugan has always been there, and always will be.
Just to let you know who’s all working on Excelsior, I’ve carefully spent 5 whole minutes photoshopping this 1989 grad photo of me and Tammy (before we realized ginormous glasses were completely ridiculous and we would be much happier finding other people to spend the rest of our lives with). Tam’s done a bunch of inking and colouring. I basically just copy her previous lettering now for new strips. She’s also the Queen of Typography (a title held nearly as long as her 80s McDonald’s fries award).
Ever so cleverly included in the pic are Curt Wachs on the left, who helped put the page together, and Chris Phillips on the right (added through the miracle of modern technology to a time before he was born), who’s done inking and colouring.
Stay tuned next week for your Friendly Neighbourhood Renewable Franchise.
Just posted the strip with Luke Cage, and some pretty Marvel Comics specific gags.
I know it wasn’t THAT sudden, but it just seemed like one minute he’s bragging to Daredevil about how much control he has over crime in the entire apartment building he lives in, and the next he’s standing around in a wife beater, dispensing commands and street level wisdom to every world class A-lister in the Marvel Universe. This was without a doubt a result of writer Brian Bendis and his often mocked obsession with the character.
Don’t get me wrong. I respect the heck out of Brian Bendis. While I couldn’t get into Ultimate Spiderman until recently, about 80% of his 347 Marvel titles have been consistently solid. And I’ve been a fan of Powers since day one. I know him and Oeming just released a recent issue, but that was way after I wrote this strip. Quite often over the last years the wait for a new Powers comic was on par with the wait for Ultimates #13 or Planetary #27.
If you don’t collect comics, just assume it was a long time.
For this strip, I put brush to pencils for the first time since Curt Shoultz’s comic art class over 25 years ago! Inking’s just never been my thing. It’s not fantastic work, but I’m pleasantly surprised with the results. I did the amateur hour colours too. Tam still helped with the lettering (not to mention the logo).
Stay tuned next week for my very favourite agent of S.H.I.E.L.D (sorry Agent Coulson)
I’ve read a ton of comics, and when you look back at all the convoluted history and back story of the big two companies, it’s hard not to find things worth making fun of. Marvel was the first to earn my recent mockery with its big, silly events and “NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN” til next month, when it was. Then DC took its beloved icons and rebooted with The New 52, and something so across the board horrible I don’t even want to acknowledge its presence by badmouthing it.
So, when I realized I needed to be drawing to hone my skills, I chose Marvel to parody. There might be alot to make fun of, but I still cherish pretty much everything they did before the 90’s, and respect the hell out of a bunch of their stuff that’s hit the stands these last ten years. Excelsior might be all gags and parody, but it comes from the heart.
Regardless of how much easier computers have made them, I still suck at inking and colouring. Tammy McKinnon has helped me out with this, and holy crap she just takes my sketches and makes them her own. My huge frickin ego demands that I include pics of my pencils to show that I artistically contributed in any way (and ‘cause I was kinda impressed to see that I still had the stuff).
The Watcher and Hank Pym.
Tell me these two guys don’t need mocking.
Uatu’s always been one of the sillier creations to come out of the Marvel Bullpen, and he just feels sillier the more adult oriented the writing and themes become.
The shit that guy must sit through… I suspect the Thing’s a chutcher.
And Hank Pym… Oh Pym. They’re trying to make him out to be a good guy nowadays, but I’m afraid Millar’s Ultimates was closer to the mark. He’s always just been such an unheroic loser. I prefer to imagine a Pym who relishes in what a scumbag he is and that despite this has remained a mainstream hero for longer than most of the readers have been alive.
These strips are loads of fun to make and I’ll try to get one out there every Monday. Real life can be a cruel bitch, so we’ll see how it goes.
If you like them, tell me/us.
It’s not like we’re making any money.
Okay, okay. Not ALL of The New 52 are bad. I really like Aquaman and Batwoman, but I still think it’s statistically sound to say The New 52 sucks.
I do luvs me some OK GO. More than once I’ve considered gathering Aid and some of his pals to do an adorable rip off of GO’s “This Too Shall Pass” marching band video, and if I ever completely lose my effing mind, I might just do it.
Gave the site a new coat of paint (the only downside of which is that now Curt Wachs hates my guts… I dunno… more). Lots of housework and some neat little changes…
1. Excelsior. I had a pretty damn cool comic idea last summer, but really need to dust off some skills to handle anything with even a hint of quality and consistency. To this end, I came up with a little webcomic project called Excelsior. More about that tomorrow. 2. Fanfilms. Juggled around the page to accommodate a new fan(ish)film I’m really excited about called SitRep. It’s not specifically a fanfilm per se, but more of a tribute to a genre. It’s a fun and funny little number we’re gonna do in the next month or two. I know there’s still tons of Magellan and Meridian to do, but you gotta let these cool, new ideas breathe, or your creative life becomes one crushing defeat after another until you just wish Flanders was dead. 3. YouTube. Tidied up the channel. It’s got copies of most everything on there. 4. Books? What books? Had a bit of a falling out with the industry a couple of years ago regarding self publishing. We were once quite close. I know it’s moved on and is seeing lots of other people (in fact, some right around here), but I’m just not ready to let go of the past. Vaguely amusing analogies aside, it ended up being a ton of work for very little. It’s easy enough to make money at, and I still absolutely love the stories I was able to tell (and definitely have more), but it’s a boatload of time and energy away from family and other endeavours for an industry that doesn’t really want you around.
Ha! Suck it, iTunes! I got my Black Keys back from your grubby cybernetic mentally handicapped clutches. Huzzah!
So, Derek and I recut that pain in the ass fanfilm Star Wars: Myth & Legends the other week and I just got around to putting it back up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad fanfilm. Just take a look at this rare glimpse behind the scenes.
Alyssa, Mike, and Kel all did really good jobs, and Bob and Dave pulled my ass out of the fire with the CG. The problem was that I managed my time like a punk ass kid, and the closer to the wire things got, the more my computer slowly succumbed to some horrible wasting disease. It was awful. If it wasn’t kind of funny in an outsider looking in sort of way, I might be upset about the years that came off my life.
Fer instance, check this out. There was one point in the last couple of days before it was due that sleep stopped being an option, and my computer would only render one shot at a time, of a diminishing length, without crashing. This meant (and I shit you not) my second sleepless night was spent curled up under my desk wearing headphones (as to not wake my brother in law in our spare bedroom) so every twenty minutes or so I could hear the ‘ding’ of the completed file, sit up, check it, and inevitably have to re-render or, if I was lucky, set the next one up to go. I know. I’m a loser.
Anyway, tightened it up and put the two parts together into something that I no longer wince at.
Vimeo has this super keen replacement feature, so no problems there. But YouTube…
Oh, YouTube…
I have to delete and re-download the clip (which takes forever) only to find that now it’s got ads all over it. I currently have things set to block them, but there they are. A Star Wars fanfilm is a HUGE copyright infringement. Hanging ads off this thing is likely to get me shot. So, I fall into this painful, rage inducing loop of deleting and uploading and waiting and tweaking settings and losing valuable, valuable inches of hairline. In the end, near as I can tell, Sony has some way to sense the John Williams tunes on there and automatically monetize off the ads. Or maybe it’s Fox. Not sure. I figure as long as I’ve made sure I don’t make a dime off it there’s somewhat less chance of me getting ventilated. It’s annoying that it took three days to end up with an ad riddled copy of worse quality than beautiful, beautiful Vimeo. I know. Vimeo is for creators and YouTube is for the masses. And sure, it’s nice to be able to find and link to pretty much any song I can think of on here, but geez…
The world certainly loves teasing dogs.
Oh, one last trite bloggy type thing.
I started reading a bit of a fantasy classic today.
“Thunder rolled…
It is said that the gods play games with the lives of men. But what games, and why, and the identities of the actual pawns, and what the game is, and what the rules are – who knows?
Best not to speculate.
Thunder rolled…
It rolled a six.”
Sometimes I forget. I forget what a perfect, beautiful, magnificent bastard Sir Terry is.
It’s nice to be reminded.
iTunes won’t give my Black Keys back, and I find myself wondering how many iTunes related deaths occur over the course of a year. It’s in these dark times of tragedy, woe, and waldosia that I give my head a shake, take a calming breath, and wonder…
What Would Nathan Do?
Been gone a while. Got alot of changes and updates to do over the next few months. I’ll post as they come up and try to avoid the sad trite fluff that this was.
Excelsior #6 – How Long Were You Dead? The Human Torch
