Behind the cool name of this American artist is some even cooler talent. Check out a gallery of his best character work here, including a handful of redesigned JLA pics, Mario beating up Sonic, a gun toting Smurf, and the toughest Woody from Toy Story you’ll ever see.
I’m loving that team of cybernetic adventurers. He’s a character designer for Warner Bros but Marvel or DC need to get this guy doing some covers pronto.
Released last month was this anthology from creator Howard Shum. His name might be familiar to some as an inker for various Marvel, DC and Dark Horse titles over the years as well as the writer of Image series such as Gun-Fu, and Gazillion. Here, he’s the writer of 8 short stories, all illustrated by different artists. That’s a good idea, especially as he’s chosen well (from all over the world), making sure every story is a visual delight.
Don’t be fooled by the kinetic, and charming art though, as it’s not an all-ages book, with its occasional blood letting and profanity.
My favourite tale is Water Lily with art by Antonella Dalena. It focuses on two young, attractive strangers on a plane. She, being the daughter of a wealthy man, gets kidnapped when they land, and he, being a former soldier, grabs his best buddy and sets out to rescue her, guns blazing. It’s a simple story, but the dialogue works well as does the intrigue in the closing pages. The twist from possible romance to tense actioner works well.
LoveQuest with art by Regis Donsimoni is the funnest, and funniest story within Fusillade. Set in a medieval world, bored Zaf wants to impress Sira by fighting village bully Raguur. He soon realises that reading a book on fighting just doesn’t cut it and undergoes training from Master To. He’s a slow learner, and To is most amused by his hapless efforts, but when three monsters tougher than Raguur show up, the real fight begins.
There’s also a gory Western tale, a tense action epic involving super powered cops and government experiments battling in L.A, opening and closing stories involving kid adventurers and more. All are easy to follow and are written well, with Shum showing great skill at creating life-like dialogue and likeable characters. Each story reveals a nice balance in humour and drama and with most of these, I’d like to see what happens next. That is one of the biggest problems though. There’s no “To Be Continued,” or intro from Shum stating that he’ll revisit these tales, and although some have more closure than others, hints from Shum about the future of Fusillade would’ve been nice, especially seeing that this could easily be someone’s first comic.
There is an obvious issue with the extra 25 non-story pages included too. Perhaps it made financial sense to bring the book up to 144 pages for printing purposes, but an explanation would’ve been nice, although I always enjoy seeing character sketches.
Half of the tales involve characters who are, or who dream of, having a career in Hollywood, and since Shum wrote and directed an indie film 5 years ago (The Secret World of Comic Book Artists), it makes sense that he’d have ties to the cinema world. It’d be nice to at least have an introduction as to why there’s 15 pages of interviews with actors Krysten Ritter, and T.J Miller and cinematographer Larry Fong though. They are very interesting reads, particularly the latter 2, but come from nowhere as the interviewees had nothing to do with the tales in the preceding pages, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately the issue of grammar/ spelling mistakes (I counted at least 6) that show up in some of the story’s text also continue in the chats. Yes, I’m being nitpicky, but it is noticeable.
Obviously this is a passion project for Shum, and it is something that could easily be given to anyone new or old to comics, who wants pretty pictures with engaging, stories with equal parts action and character, and the occasional laugh. Seeing as there’s a “1” printed on the spine, I’d only hope that the presentation issues could be resolved before volume 2.
You can check out 3 preview pages from each of the 8 stories within Fusillade right here.
A new character, but he’s not white, as was suspected. Read more at USA Today which includes writer Brian Michael Bendis explaining the motivation behind the new man under the red mask.
Here’s Marvel’s press release plus a few pics from this week’s issue debuting the new Spidey, though I suspect Superman may object Spider-Man being described as, “the world’s greatest super hero icon.”
Marvel Reveals New Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
Meet Miles Morales, the all-new Spider-Man debuting in Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 in stores tomorrow
Pop culture history will be made tomorrow as Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 hits shelves and introduces readers to the all-new Ultimate Comics Spider-Man! That’s right, for the first time ever, someone other than Peter Parker will be Spider-Man! But, after the death of Peter Parker, who will rise up to defend the Ultimate Universe? Meet Miles Morales, a seemingly normal teenager from New York who will soon discover that with great power comes great responsibility…and even greater danger! But just what are the secrets behind Miles’ shocking abilities? What’s his connection to the original Spider-Man? And just why does he wear that costume? Courtesy of superstars Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli,Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 begins the story that’ll have everyone talking for years to come!
“When the opportunity arose to create a new Spider-Man, we knew it had to be a character that represents the diversity—in background and experience—of the twenty-first century,” said Axel Alonso, Marvel Editor in Chief. “Miles is a character who not only follows in the tradition of relatable characters like Peter Parker, but also shows why he’s a new, unique kind of Spider-Man—and worthy of that name.”
With its inception in 2000, the Ultimate Comics Universe reimagined the world’s most popular super heroes for a new generation and has been critically lauded for its bold, resonant stories. In particular, Ultimate Spider-Man #1 is widely considered one of the most important comics of the century, setting records for trade paperback sales and introducing one of the most popular versions of Spider-Man ever. With the death of Peter Parker in June 2011, all eyes were once again on the Ultimate Comics Universe, as mainstream media and fans alike speculated just who Marvel would put under the mask of this beloved hero. Now, the chart-topping team of Bendis and Pichelli begin the next major chapter of the Ultimate Comics Universe with September’s historic Ultimate Comics spider-Man #1, giving readers a chance to learn the origin of the most important new character of the century.
“The chance for the world to join a new Spider-Man as he discovers what that means in this modern world is one of the most challenging and crazy fun opportunities I’ve had as a writer,” explained Bendis. “The Ultimate Comics Universe according to Miles is completely unique. I can’t wait to write every issue and I can’t wait for people to start reading them.”
Pichelli added, “I promise, you will fall in love with Miles– I already did. ‘Nuff Said.”
The world’s greatest super hero icon is about to undergo the most groundbreaking reinvention in comic book history—where will you be when the mask is lifted? Pick up Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 tomorrow at your local comic shop or digitally on the Marvel Comics App for iOS devices.
ULTIMATE FALLOUT #4 (JUN110612)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, JONATHAN HICKMAN & NICK SPENCER
Art by SARA PICHELLI, SALVADOR LARROCA & CLAYTON CRAIN
Cover by MARK BAGLEY
ON SALE TOMORROW!
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #1 (JUL110605)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Penciled by SARA PICHELLI
Cover by KAARE ANDREWS (Cover will be POLYBAGGED)
Variant Cover by SARA PICHELLI
FOC—8/22/11, On-Sale—9/14/11
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #2 (JUL110607)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Penciled by SARA PICHELLI
Cover by KAARE ANDREWS
FOC—8/29/11, On-Sale—9/21/11
Seeing as we’re approaching our one year anniversary, Mladen and I thought we’d do something a little special, so here we have a trailer for our weekly Extra Sequential podcast. As always for the show, the groovy music is by Mladen. It was pretty fun to make this, as I haven’t done any editing in years.
So, now you know what we look like. Some may say we have faces for radio, but I disagree.
I still haven’t finished the first game to do Batman justice, Arkham Asylum and probably never will, but the sequel, Arkham City looks very tempting. It’s out on October 19 and also features Two-Face, Catwoman, Penguin and a few others, and even Robin, in a costume that looks like Tim Drake’s early version. Nice. I was looking at the Coming Soon box at JB Hi-Fi and it comes with some pretty cool extras here in Australia, including Tim’s alternate Red Robin skin.
Batman himself also comes with a slew of skins. Yes, a slew. Unfortunately, different countries get different skins apparently, but I’m sure some eager gamers will find a way around that. Below you can see what’s available and from left to right we have Batman Beyond, The Dark Knight Returns (which Aussies get! Woo hoo!), Batman: Earth One (from the upcoming OGN), Classic Batman, The Animated Series and finally, the standard Arkham City costume.
JB’s collector’s edition also comes with a Batman animated film. Unfortunately it’s the anime anthology Gotham Knight from a few years ago. It would’ve been so much better if they could put in one of the more recent animated films based on the comics, like Under the Red Hood, or even Batman: Year One, seeing as that’s being released at the same time.
This looks great. It isn’t what you think it is.
comicbookjesus 