“Strange Tales” by Steve Garcia

Nick Fury A, B

Doctor Strange A, B

I was also inspired to put one of my own together, derived from the art of Kevin O'Neill...



“We Can Be Heroes”

• Firestorm & Killer Frost @ Firestorm Fan
• Aquaman & Mera @ The Aquaman Shrine
• The Atom @ PotA
• Black Canary, Green Arrow, & Huntress @ Flowers & Fishnets
• Booster Gold @ BOO$TERRIFIC
• Blue Beetle @ Kord Industries
• Captain Atom @ Splitting Atoms
• Captain Marvel @ DC Bloodlines
• Cyborg @ S.T.A.R. Labs Detroit
• Daredevil, Hulk, & Captain America @ Dave's Daredevil Podcast
• The Doom Patrol @ MGA80
• The Flash Family @ Speed Force
• Gotham City @ The Riddle Factory
• Green Lantern Corps @ The Indigo Tribe
• Hawkgirl @ Power of the Atom
• Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
• Black Lantern Martian Manhunter @ Diabolu
• Plastic Man @ Eeyow! It's Plastic Man!
• Red Tornado @ Red Tornado's Path
• Steel @ DC Bloodlines
• Supergirl, Lois Lane & Vibe @ Supergirl Comic Box Commentary
• Swamp Thing @ The BLOG from the BOG
• Thor @ The Hammer Strikes!
• Wonder Girl @ The New Wonder Woman
• Wonder Woman @ Diana Prince
• Zatanna @ Justice League Detroit

1994-1995 Swipe Collage

I am not an artist, so when I draw, it's an unnatural, laborious undertaking. I tried to develop my limited ability for years though, and this was an attempt to gauge my aptitude in a variety of styles. For instance, I grew up loving Jim Starlin, John Romita Jr., and (to a lesser degree) John Buscema, but my hand cannot replicate the contours of their lines. I felt a lot more comfortable when I'd step into the shoes of guys like Gray Morrow, Paul Gulacy and Tim Truman. I think I could pull off Gil Kane, another childhood fascination, with some modest degree of facility. I think his calculated, geographical anatomical construction helped. The Trevor Von Eeden and Keith Giffen stuff isn't too bad, but their work is so spare, it's dancing on a razor's edge not to screw up, because you can't hide anything with gratuitous noodling. I didn't remember having such a fleeting fascination with Jae Lee, but it makes sense, because he's the exact opposite of those two. Lee buried a lot of shitty anatomy and questionable layouts with excessive Bisleyesque details. That Tom Tenney bit makes me laugh, because he was the flaws of Jae Lee dialed to 11. The Christian Alamy is alright, but I did faceplants with the Phil Jimenez and Barry Smith. You probably won't recognize Mike Iverson in the upper right, firstly due to his obscurity, and lastly because I did him no justice whatsoever. It makes me sad that he didn't make a better name for himself, especially since Jamie McKelvie is a constant reminder of his basic style.

Anyway, this isn't any great shakes, but I like looking at it from time to time.

Batgirl Original Art

One of the things that will be changing around here once I get my shit together is more "bloggy" type crap. For instance, while I was trying to find someplace to protect some new original art I bought, I discovered some 15-20 year old Blue Line pages I never did much with, since I fucking suck as an artist. Still, I'm tired and I've allowed this blog to lapse from daily to whenever status, so I figure something's better than nothing. Here's Batgirl battling the Killer Moth, by me, drawn for reasons unknown after all this time. Some of the finer details didn't scan, and virtually none of my blue pencil layouts and text, so count your blesings, I guess.

Crisis On Earth Blog: DC Challenge Preview

Your regularly scheduled post has been preempted so that we may bring you a special crossover event. Today on comic book-themed blogs across the internet, DC Comics characters are being spotlighted in a trivia challenge. Your DC Challenge, if you choose to accept it, involves reading each question, and clicking the link assigned to the answer you believe to be correct. The correct answer will open up a new tab/window on your browser leading to another character's page. The three incorrect answers will do the same, but these pages will likely feature more questions. The fewer the questions, the more likely you will be directed to a goal page featuring a lush scan from an obscure George Pérez pin-up featuring every major character involved in this event. Also, a fifth "E" answer option will lead you to a page that will give you all the information you need to solve the question, and give you a chance to read up on a given site. We all hope you enjoy this holiday season scavenger hunt, and the new comics blogs you'll be exposed to!

SAMPLE QUESTION #1
The Blue Devil kissed which of the following members of the Justice League of America in an early issue of his 1980s solo series?
A) Mera
B) Hawkgirl
C) Black Canary
D) Zatanna
E) I don't know/Error Message

Blue Tale

Once upon a time, there was a wonderfully small village filled with the tiniest, most delightful beings on all the Earth. These Smurfs were just three apples tall, had blue skin, and did their very best to care for one another.



The Smurfs were active and enthusiastic. They typically lived in mushrooms, and took pleasure in the little things.



Sadly, one day, a terrible smurftastophy destroyed the Smurfs' entire community, as devastating swirling blades ripped their houses out at their roots.



The Smurfs were forced to make due in their surroundings, hunting temporary shelter, and fearful of malevolent humans who would pursue them in their most desperate times.



Gutters, dips, plumbing-- the Smurfs sought whatever shelter they could find. Refugees, they were in constant fear of discovery and consumption.



The Smurfs immediately began to work toward a solution to their problems, calculating their needs and abilities against their circumstances.



The mystic of the Smurfs quested after the cause of their problems, and learned they were to be permanently displaced by an air-conditioned shopping center.



Papa Smurf, the wizened leader and chief scientist of the the community, developed a formula to produce new mushroom homes. However, the development was too slow, too sparse, and too fragile for the Smurfs' needs. Also, chemicals had rendered the soil too toxic for farming.



Despite their inherent optimism, some Smurfs were terribly frustrated by their living conditions, and lashed out at their surroundings.



Papa Smurf called a town meeting, announcing his intention to lead his people to a better, more fertile land.



The Smurfs began to gather their most precious belongs; just enough to carry on their backs; for the lengthy journey ahead.



Wearing her garb of mourning, Smurfette baked rations for the sojourning Smurfs in her underground cave.



Lonely, heart-wrenching music could be heard as the village and life the Smurfs once knew was laid to rest.



All together now, the Smurfodus began.



Scouts were sent ahead to insure as best as possible the Smurfs' safety and advise on their direction.



More often than not, they found concrete, glass, steel-- nothing that could sustain their agrarian lifestyle.



With great trepidation, the Smurfs ventured further from the world they knew, and into the unknown wilderness.



Like a wee mazarine Valkyrie, Smurfette was more than equal to the task of defending her loved ones.



Again and again, the Smurfs found themselves in wholly alien landscapes, fending off predators in a path fraught with peril.



Recognizing they were now in a world not their own, the Smurfs did there best to adapt and make their way. Diminutive but industrious, they tried to integrate into the manners of man.



Their good nature was too often abused, as they struggled to find two pennies to rub together.



This urban jungle was a hard place, but the Smurfs maintained their composure, their dignity, and made do with what was provided to them.



A dark, foreboding portal to an entirely unknown sphere was uncovered.



Out the other side, the Smurfs trekked down a steep decline.



Only to find themselves staring over the edge of a treacherous cliff.



Some of the Smurfs raged against their poor luck, but all eventually collected themselves and continued.



Eagle eyes spied a watering hole and small farm ahead.



The Smurfs were jubilant about access to a clean pond and prospects for their future.



The Smurfs were delighted in their new garden, celebrating with much jubilation, and offering up their few possessions to share with their neighbors.



Whether through chores, treats, or merely their gentle company, the Smurfs did whatever they could to ease any concerns about their presence and earn their keep.


However, all was not well in the garden, as their good natures were met by pesticides and traps intended to shuffle them off this mortal coil.


Though they meant no one any harm, and in fact tried to improve every life they touched, the Smurfs were swept out of the garden and off into renewed exile.


Is there no place the Smurfs will ever call home? Must they forever wander this world, unwanted and unloved. Do you know someone who would open their hearts and hearths to these delightful creatures? Won't you...?

Custom Oedi Overpower Chararacter and Special Cards

Despero Custom Valentine Card

For those in search of that most elusive of Valentine's Day sentiments...



I'VE HAD MY EYES ON YOU!

For your love, I am DESPERO!

My bishop will take your queen, placing you in check!

Your people will succumb to my HYPNOTIC POWERS!

Your resistance will crumble at the sight of my THIRD EYE!

YOU WILL BE MINE!

Custom Syzygy Darklock Overpower Chararacter & Special Cards

I've already discussed my custom (and extra cheaply) made Dreadstar & Willow Chararacter and Tactic Double Shot Cards. I managed to progress further into the company with the sorcerer Syzygy Darklock, giving him enough cards to be playable. His 7 in Energy seemed appropriate, though debatable, since the guy often petered out in combat. That was partially due to that 2 in Fighting, because the guy was routinely sucker punched by lesser powers and taken out of combat entirely. The 5 in Strength covers his cybernetic prosthesis, and the 7 in Intellect is again debatable (though a 6 seems like his minimum.) The Mystic Order of Vieltoor refers to where Syzygy turned from a mystic to the deformed powerhouse he would become. I wasn't willing to cut up my copy of "The Price," and its painted art wouldn't have worked here anyway, so I instead turned Vanth Dreadstar into the human Darklock with pens and markers. I are poor, yes? Sister Marion was of course the nun Darklock he loved at the Order, or alternately, Willow in a marked-on habit, taken from an old Dreadstar and Company reprint. Readers may recall that Sister Marion was part of the Price Syzygy paid for his power, along with most of his physical form. The card reflects this, as well as Darklock's regeneration. The art is of a victim of the nuclear holocaust directed by the High Lord Papel in Dreadstar #3. Syzygy defended himself and Vanth from this assault with a Sphere of Protection, used commonly enough to warrant as an Avoid.

I know they're cheap and ugly, but thought went into these specials that amuses me as I reflect on them years down the line. I wished I'd played Syzygy at least once, especially since I xeroxed and glued the non-One Per Decks to actual Overpower cards, making him ready to use...

Custom Dreadstar & Company Overpower Tactic Double Shot Cards

Just as I was sick of having to play with Marvel characters to make my Overpower decks work, I was also tired of their ugly, poorly rendered Tactic cards. I figured while I was busy cutting up old Dreadstar comics, I might as well use leftover panels to improve my view with Jim Starlin artwork. Team-ups mostly centered on Vanth & Syzygy or Darklock & Willow, though the High Lord Papel and his god turned up twice.

Custom Dreadstar Overpower Chararacter Cards

Over at my Martian Manhunter blog, I've been pulling out all of my old Overpower Collectible Card Game stuff, to explain the basics of a pastime I wasted way too much money on. Since I wasn't happy with the character selection, toward the end of my involvement, I decided to try my hand at making some of my own. Lacking a computer or real money to speak of, this was accomplished by cutting up old Dreadstar comics and pasting them onto cards. I've loved Jim Starlin's Star Wars rip-off since I was a wee lad, so those characters were an obvious choice to play with.

The first card is intended to be Vanth Dreadstar as he appeared in the Metamorphosis Odyssey and the first dozen comics in his own series. Overpower rated powers on a scale of 1-8, so his middling Energy of 4 was meant to cover ray guns and projections from his sword. A 6 in Fighting was pretty respectable, comperable to the better fighters in comics. His 6 in Strength is about right, I figure, along the lines of a juiced-up Bane, Beast and Sabretooth. Being a solid planner, a 5 in Intellect placed him with bright combatants like Shang Chi and specialists like Blue Beetle. All those mid-high Rankings would help with Spectrum KOs, but his 21-point total would keep him as either the front man of a low point team or background amongst heavy hitters. Seemed about right.

I never got around to assigning Willow a Power Grid, as I was trying to use her to help design a team around Dreadstar and Company that never materialized. I also meant to give her an Inherent Ability, as the image I cut out of her was light enough to type on directly. Low rent, right?

The second Dreadstar(s) was meant to reflect the version of the character that finished out the Instrumentality war, basically a poor man's Captain Mar-Vell. Because Vanth had internalized his sword's power, and I though the team could use a high baller, he now had a 7 in Energy. That was probably too high, but Overpower was never overly concerned with accuracy, so there was play room there in favor of gameplay. Since Vanth got away from hand-to-hand combat, I dropped his Fighting to a 4. His Strength remained the same, and his Intellect dropped a point, as his plans became increasingly lackluster.

Project Rooftop is Bullshit

As I mentioned a ways back, I offered a submission to the Project Rooftop/Harris Comics Vampirella ReVamp contest. Like the kid who threw together a science project the night before the fare involving Styrofoam cups and glitter, my piece left a lot to be desired...




...so when I failed to be among the nineteen winners and honorable mentions, I was cool with that. My design wasn't even quite what I had in mind when I first considered the project, and if I made it in within deadline, it was by the skin of my teeth. However, this was before Project Rooftop posted a second batch of honorable mentions. That's what turned them into motherfuckers. 40 additional pieces were shown, bringing the total to 59 out of "over 100" entries. Now, that could mean 101 or 125, but likely closer to the former. In effect, Project Rooftop declared that over half of all submissions they received were too worthless and ugly to offer on the site.

It gets worse, as the Project Rooftop editors have always flouted their own guidelines, though never so grievously as here.

3. Keep in mind, the task is not to re-imagine the characters, but to revise their costuming. Think of it as if you’ve just been assigned to the series, and have been asked to redesign the character’s costume, not the character. Try to create a BETTER costume than the one currently in use, not just a variant.

8. If you have to put the character’s name in the image, you haven’t done your job. So don’t even bother with that.

How many entries featured a Vampirella completely unrecognizable, either as a character or even as a generic vampire?

4. Be sure to include enough visual information in your drawing that another artist could draw your costume without having to invent much of it themselves. Generally, a full-body frontal shot is the most easily accepted, but feel free to include multiple shots in one image.

A number of entries featured images of Vampirella that are heavily shadowed or have swaths of her costume obscured.

7. We recommend not trying to redesign Superman.

Unless they're running a Superman: Man of Style month. It seems like a lot of A-listers get attention during their contests, as though they needed to be redesigned.

So in order to cut through the bullshit, let me offer my own addendum to the Project Rooftop guidelines:

10. If you hope for serious consideration, be sure to redesign your super-hero so that they look as much like any random hipster asshole on the street as possible. We are ashamed of spandex, capes, sashes, and most every other mainstay of comic books. Converse All-Stars, hoodies, jeans, and other youthful casual wear are greatly preferable.

11. If you do not have access to digital coloring softwear, do not waste out time. Colored pencils FTL.

12. Unless you are a professional caliber artist, please draw in as simplistic and childlike a manner as possible. Cute rules, but no crayons. See rule # 11.

13. If you are a professional caliber artist with quality coloring softwear, you can totally bullshit your way past offering an actual design. Drip honey/blood/body paint or whatever over the naughty bits, and so long as we can spank to it, you're aces for an honorable mention.

14. Likewise, if you're just a really bitchin' artist who should just be drawing your own damned comics, feel free to turn in lukewarm or highly derivative designs. Especially if you're a cute Asian chick.

15. Elseworlds, people! Fetish and period workings make us cream in our jeans.

Hopefully taking these additional guidelines into consideration will secure myself and my fellow 41+ wastes of space who bothered to submit entries with an honorable mention next time...

ReVampirella Rejected!

A few weeks back, I posted my submission for the Project Rooftop/Harris Comics: Vampirella ReVamp Contest. Now, I had some sour grapes when my entry to Shadowline's "WHO WANTS TO CREATE A SUPER-HERONIE" (sic) competition failed to pass muster.This was mainly due to my having little-to-no desire to read books others suggested. At least one of those has been so solicited. Didn't order it. Phooey.

Anyhow, no such issues with Vampirella. I waited until literally hours before the end of the contest to get started, and hacked mine out. What I came up with was far removed from the general notion I had regarding a more Barbarella-flavored approach. The art style I used wasn't right for what I wanted to accomplish, and the execution was sloppy. My drawing was too dark and grim where, with a time machine, I'd shoot for playful. My effort was piss poor, and didn't rate mention beyond this blog.

Meanwhile, Grand Prize winner Ralph Niese had a much more fun approach, reminiscent of the early days of the 60's "mod" Wonder Woman era where she had no single uniform, but a definite vibe. I haven't bought a Vampirella comic book since the Morrison/Millar/Connor team of what, the late 90's? For Niese, I'd have to throw down for a trade paperback, at least. My only complaint is I hate the feral form, but solely on principle, not execution. I don't like Vampi drinking human blood, either, so that's all personal preference, not a market liability.

Anyhow, 18 runner-ups can be found at Project Rooftop. I admittedly like some better than others, but every single one was superior in art and coloring to mine. I must say though, I'm shocked not a one came close to my initial idea for this project: Tatted-Up Suicide Girl Vampi. It seemed so obvious, I immediately steered clear of it on the assumption there'd be dozens offered. Maybe there were and they were cancelled each other out?

ReVampirella

Contest Announcement: Vampirella ReVamp!


Project Rooftop announced a contest to revamp Vampirella recently, and I of course piddly-farted around until the very last minute. I knocked this out in two hours, with the end result far removed from what I had in mind when I started. I initially wanted something close to Barbarella, the French science-fantasy comic strip and Jane Fonda movie that inspired Vampi's creation in the '60s. I never quite understood the logic of making Vampi more generic by removing her sci-fi origins in favor of her being just another blood-sucking vampire from Hell. Oh well, maybe next time. Certainly I'll try a more clean style next time, as when I tried to color this in Paint, it actually looked worse than it does here (after I broke out the map pencils double quick.) Given my druthers, I'd start from scratch, but no time for that now. Deadline is up either right now, a half hour ago, or an hour 1/2 ahead (damned time zones.) This explains my late post this evening. Now you know why I write more than I draw, eh? But at least the poor dear has something resembling clothing on. Shame about the damned trenchcoat, but I realized I was subconsciously ripping off Milla Jovovich's half-jacket in "Ultraviolet" while referencing an actual still for the drawing. D'oh! Additional reference included a picture of a lovely black model named Yasmine Taylor from the Summer 1999 issue of "Perfect 10" magazine (the first I picked up and tossed through for a pose,) several pictues of the actress Mathilda May, and a lot of Vampi pieces. Proof positive plentiful reference will never replace actual talent, damn it!

The Otherwoman by Franchesco!

While finishing up reading this month's Previews, I found on the very last page (as I was reading it) the last item I intend to order, Contract #0 from A First Salvo. Being only twenty-five cents with art by Dave Ross, it was a given purchase, but made all the more so by the cover. You see, much to my surprise, the piece by Franchesco! just so happened to feature a character bearing a strong resemblence to the my conception of The Otherwoman. Again, this was the failed submission to Shadowline's "Create A Superheroine" contest I've mentioned a time or two. Anyhow, as the actual *mutter*grumble* winner will have their entry drawn and co-owned (HAH!) by Franchesco, I thought I'd do a crappy Microsoft Paint-enabled mock-up of what could have been. The massive rifle isn't completely out of place, but would be more an exception than the rule in my book....

"WHO WANTS TO CREATE A SUPER-HERONIE"?

Sic.

One of my earliest regular posts here at ...nurgh... involved what became my submission in Shadowline's super-heroine creation contest for writers, The Otherwoman. Today, I was at Newsarama looking for "Secret Invasion" spoilers when I spotted a follow-up article, listing the descriptions supplied by the five finalists. Voting closes on the 10th, and takes place here. I won't be voting myself, as I avoid message boards for the most part these days, and I honestly wouldn't read any of the comics spun out of these submissions. Sour grapes much? Let's see...

"1. Challenger
Makaela owns a garage on the east side of town that earns her a meager living. One night while she’s closing up, a car crashes into the lamppost right in front of her shop. Mak watches as a vigilante escapes, leaving his car behind…a 1974 Dodge Challenger! She pushes the vehicle into her garage and starts tinkering with the mechanical miracle. Within, she discovers a briefcase, and inside is a vial filled with a strange liquid and a note which reads: This is my last dose, Dr. Carroll. Use it wisely. On a devilish whim, she drinks the liquid and loses consciousness. Embarrassed at her own stupidity when she awakens, Mak takes out her frustration on the Challenger. She reaches for a monkeywrench and tries to smash the engine…and the Challenger hums to life! Just then, goons break into the garage; they want the Challenger, and more importantly, the briefcase. Using her monkeywrench, Mak battles the goons and makes her escape in the Challenger. The only way she’s going to get some answers is to track down the mysterious Dr. Carroll, and hope he can explain what the liquid has done to her and why she now has ability to fix anything…by smashing it!?"

Lots of details there, something my own submission lacked. I'm not into cars, so strike one. Neither are most girls, nor are many named "Mak," so we can pretty much map out the cliche tomboy personality from here (with an alien heritage?,) so strike two. People drinking mysterious fluids from out of a test tube found in an abandoned jalopy on a whim? That's where I checked out completely. Not my book.

"2. Hope
For the last six years, Tiffany LaVelle has been secretly moonlighting as a masked super-heroine called Hope. However, the delicate separation of her life as a devoted wife and mother versus her exploits as a super-heroine become irreversibly intertwined when she is unexpectedly forced to openly use her superpowers – sans costume – during a terrible car accident that threatens the life of her husband and their eight-year-old daughter. With her secret suddenly exposed, her husband now in a coma and her daughter taken from her by Child Protective Services, Tiffany now finds herself in a struggle to regain custody of her daughter. She must also defend herself and her actions as a super-heroine to prove in the eyes of the public that she's fit to regain and maintain custody of her child, despite having an identity that will place them both in constant danger."


Easily the submission with the most potential, even if it does sound like "Donna Troy-Long: The Series," aside from the unusual amount of public hate tossed her way. Maybe her last name should have been "Vick-Hilton?"

"3. I Hate Galaxy Girl
Gifted with the ability to control the four classical elements, Renée Tempête moves to Clement Harbor to compete in the next Galaxy Girl pageant. When she applies for the position with local superhero guild "The Fellowship of Freedom," they reject her for not being pretty enough. Instead, they give the title to a buxom blonde who possesses no actual powers. Now, as rogue super-heroine "The Tempest," Renée has two missions: 1) Defend Clement Harbor from the forces of evil. 2) Take revenge on the Fellowship of Freedom and the inept Galaxy Girl!"

This one seems the closest to delivering on the editor's stated desire for a companion/contrast book for their semi-popular "Bomb Queen" title. High concept, in a terribly familiar fashion.
Execution would be all important, and it helps this was also the submission most in line with the announced artist Franchesco's prior work.

"4. I’ll Fly Away
College-student Jessica Hopkins lives a normal life, until the day she discovers she can fly. At first she keeps her gift a secret, until faced with a fire where she must reveal her power, or stand by and let people die. She makes the only choice she can, and the world discovers her ability. Now she is faced with all the trials of being an instant public celebrity (“The World's First REAL Super-Heroine!”), and the government begins to get involved and people even start to worship her! The power of flight hardly qualifies her to save the world; nevertheless she changes the world completely. Some people start believing that just about anything might be possible. Given this power, she must now find a way to keep her feet on solid ground and still make a life for herself. Through it all, her best friend Chloe Munroe will be the one person to stick by her. Narrated through Jessica’s journal, we get an in-depth look into this young girl’s mind as she struggles with the moments of awe and terror her new life brings."

Umm, catty I know, but not even the paragraph was well written here. Like, OMG, the MySpace blog hair-ron walks amongst us. ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"5. Incredible Journey!
Journey Dominguez was a normal teenage girl with big dreams living in a world full of superheroes. All she ever wanted was to be one of them. Everything changes one day when she finds a strange necklace on the street. She puts it on only to find out that she cannot take it off, and that it gives her the ability to summon a temporary superpower for whatever situation she’s in. There’s only one catch; every time she uses a power, she is really stealing it from one of the Superheroes, leaving them permanently powerless and the world increasingly defenseless. All Journey Dominguez ever wanted to be was a super hero. Now, she must convince the world she is not a super villain!"

Oh! Pun-ished! I hate that kind of nameplay like a testicle graze. Better still, the entry reads like a Champions™ RPG campaign. Catastrophic range vulnerabilty! Must roll a "9" or higher to overcome!

Just so's ya'll cn rip me to shreds in retaliation...

"0. The Otherwoman"

Obviously an overlong entry and in need of rewriting to match the "Previews" catalog summaries above, but even I were the only one, I'd have read my book. Still might, as I just ordered more reference material and had the idea bulb go off today for a massive expansion of the Otherwoman concept. Her day will come...

Shadowline Contest Entry: The Otherwoman

Ever since Kristen Simon (editor for Image Comics' Shadowline) announced a contest at her company looking for a newly created superheroine, I've be toying with the thought of offering a submission. Being a comic geek, I have plenty of pre-existing fantasy creations I could have tossed out, but we're all a bit covetous, aren't we? Those are my babies, and part of the fine print is that I'd have to share copyright on whatever I submitted with the artist, assuming I might actually win the thing by some longshot happenstance (like no other soul remembering to enter.) Knowing said artist would be Franchesco!, I also wanted to play to his strengths, as well as my own. I think I had the name down that first day, and it started to grow from there. I did some research online, interviewed an acquaintence from Nigeria at work, and then sat on my work for a couple weeks like a proper freelancer. The deadline was coming due, and I didn't want to push it quite to the very end. I sat down and reread the guidelines again tonight, and that helped to narrow my ambitions (which included a mock Previews solicitation page and/or a Who's Who-style page. I'm thankful I was prohibited from supplying graphics entirely, allowing me to hunker down on "a BRIEF one paragraph story synopsis." I failed the criteria on several points (like brief was ever my specialty,) so hopefully I won't be disqualified outright. Anyway, the following is my submission, and you can read more on the contest at Newsarama

"Who is ~ THE OTHERWOMAN? She’s the lovechild of RKO Pictures adventure movie serials and Blaxploitation movies. She’s what would have happened if the white jumpsuit, super-spy version of Wonder Woman had gotten her start during World War II... and had a libido... and a sense of humor... and been African... and, you know, been generally written and drawn well. The story of the original Otherwoman would begin after her retirement in the early 1970’s, when she’s confronted by an obnoxious American capital-F “feminist.” The Otherwoman schools the initially incredulous interloper in what it really meant to be a take charge, kick-ass superheroine through a series of vignettes. We see, in no particular order: her supernatural origins in 1920’s Nigeria; her role in the East African Campaign against the Fascists; her battles with alien invaders in the 1950’s; political intrigues during the Cold War, and so on from a decidedly different perspective than your typical nostalgic/cynical analogue character. We’re talking 6-12 page snapshots, heavy on first-person narrative captions, so that readers would get a couple or three stories per issue. If Franchesco! prefers dinosaurs to tanks or splash pages to continuity—whatever—the Otherwoman’s seen it all, and I’m game as well. The mini-series would end with the American coming away with a different point of view, and allude to the need for an Otherwoman for our time, just in case sales were strong enough to continue on with her legacy. Kings are humbled and empires have crumbled at the whim of ~ The Otherwoman!"

Conquest '07: Huntress vs. Black Canary & Co.

I discovered Patti Page's 1952 hit "Conquest" in a collection last year, and wanted to share it, but I couldn't find an actual video. The line about "the huntress" also ate at the comic geek in me, so I finally caved and decided to make my first fan video(s.) I've liked the Huntress since the first time I read her as a back-up in an issue of Wonder Woman, and in focusing on her I ended up with a ton of great spotlight material of her kicking tail. It didn't work with the Page music, so I set this to the White Stripes cover off their new album, Icky Thump. Also featured are most of the female JLAers and some fellows: Black Canary, Green Arrow, Hawkgirl, the Question, Vixen, Wonder Woman and Superman, plus the villains Roulette and Dr. Moon. Hope ya'll enjoy it. This is a non-profit fan production that is in no way intended to infringe on the various copyright holders for video, characters, and music. Please don't hurt me Warner Brothers/DC Comics!

Huntress/The Question: Conquest '52

I discovered Patti Page's 1952 hit "Conquest" in a collection last year, and wanted to share it, but I couldn't find an actual video. The line about "the huntress" also ate at the comic geek in me, so I finally caved and decided to make my first fan video(s.) I've liked the Huntress since the first time I read her as a back-up in an issue of Wonder Woman, and I've dug the Question since the Denny O'Neil series. I thought it was great when the Justice League Unlimited cartoon made them a couple, and that's the focus of this video. However, I had so much material left over, I decided to make a more action-packed video for the White Stripes' new cover of "Conquest." This also doesn't count my first attempt, which was much different (and sadly, better timed overall, but lacked pizzazz.) I hope you'll check out and enjoy both. This was a real learning experience for me in working with old programs in new ways, so if these go over, I'd like to try making more (and better, and please God faster!) This is a non-profit fan production that is in no way intended to infringe on the various copyright holders for video, characters, and music. Please don't hurt me Warner Brothers/DC Comics!