Today we’ve got another character from Angel Lite’s space cowboy series “The Ballad. I put a little extra work into this with color and a background because it was late and I missed a deadline….
Don’t forget, new Violent Blue tomorrow!
In Defense of He-Man
One of the quickest ways to raise my ire is with the following words:
“He-Man is gay.”
It’s not just the insult….it’s the ignorance behind it, and the tenuious reasoning that brings one to that conclusion.
The thing is, there’s a whole generation that has a very different idea of what fantasy is than what it used to be. Tolkin and Dungeons and Dragons really laid the groundwork for when Dragonlance would come in and change everything (tell me I’m wrong. Go on, tell me.) He-Man doesn’t come from that school, and it’s one of the reasons he been so hard to update. He-Man’s look and a lot of the premise is grounded in an older heroic Fantasy arch type. He comes from the same linage as Conan and Tarzan. Wagnerian in nature, the same kind of strapping hero as Doc Savage or Captain Kirk, neither of which could keep their shirts on for more than half an hour.
It’s a kind of fantasy that isn’t created much anymore because it’s been labeled too “homoerotic” (there’s a scene in Family Guy where Stewie plays with Lion-O and He-man and makes that comment…and I just wanted to punch him in the face)
“But he wears Purple!”
Seriously?
“And Pink!”
so by that logic, Miami Vice must have been the gayest show on the planet in the 80’s.
(for those of you without historical context, let me assure you that you will NEVER have more women than Don Johnson did)
The remarkable thing about He-Man is that despite the barbarian exterior…there’s something gentle, kind about him. It’s the same quality Superman has – you look at him and something in his demeanor just makes you trust him.
He really is Superman in so many ways, in his morality, his ethics, in the way he doesn’t need to show off his power. It’s just there when he needs it. This is a good hero, one we need more of really.
Check out the DC comic series that started last year. Maybe you’ll see what I mean.
The Adventures of Mr. Kidzpointe part two
Part two of The Adventures of Mr. Kidzpointe! And don’t forget, new Violent Blue tomorrow!
The Devil’s Rain
The Devils Rain from 1975 starring – get this- William Shatner, Ernest Borgnine, and Tom Skerrit. This is a post Star Trek Shatner, but still a pre-TJ Hooker one. Interestingly enough, Skerrit is really well groomed in this. I always assumed that the look he had in Alien was his normal look for the 70’s and that by the time Top Gun came around he’d gotten older and trimmed everything up. Apparently I was wrong.
This is also John Travolta’s first film role, but don’t strain your eyes looking for him, he’s hidden under a black robe most of the time.
From IMDB : A bunch of Satanists in the American rural landscape have terrible powers which enable them to melt their victims. However one of the children of an earlier victim vows to destroy them.
A good enough description. Tom Skerrit comes to town trying to solve the 
mystery of the satanic killings and wondering what happened to Captain Kirk. It’s standard Satanist fare, and if you’re a fan of that kind of movie you’ll like this. It’s mostly made notable for the cast. Earnest Borgnine’s devil makeup really has to be seen to be believed.
This was a discount title for the longest time, but it’s mostly vanished off the shelves (if it was ever on them). Take your chances on Amazon or eBay.
Kathleen Gati
I got this address from another autograph blog – Cliff’s Autographs. It’s been fun checking his feed and seeing who he’s gotten, and finding new faces to send requests to!
Kathleen is one of those background faces in a lot of movies you’ve probably seen like Meet the Fockers, Transformers and Jakob the Liar. Happy to have her in my scrapbook!
NightMask
This month we’re taking a look at an old favorite of mine, a title called Nightmask.
You may have seen a newer version of Nightmask floating around a few years ago as part of a series Marvel was referring to as “New Universal”. This was a re-imagining of it’s old “New Universe” where the superheros weren’t quite as super….
The New Universe was separate from the Marvel 616 universe. Technically it’s universe 555, but then again, back in the 80’s when this was being published, Marvel hadn’t really come up with the concept of a multiverse yet. Powers in the New universe were usually PSI based, grounded more in reality (or at least our current understanding of the paranormal as opposed to the fantastic nature of Spider-Man or Thor)
Of the New Universe titles, I always found Nightmask the most compelling. Keith Remsen and his sister survived an explosion which killed their parents and put Theodora in a wheelchair, but also helped unleash their telepathic powers to enter other people’s dreams. They spend the eleven issues helping people through dreams (where Keith appears as a superhero – Teddy is more an anchor – like Professor Stein in Firestorm) and occasionally unraveling mysteries.
This was during Jim Shooters era where most stories had to be resolved in one issue so it’s easy to pick up one of these and get a good feel for the character. I can see why it didn’t last, but it still intrigues me. I was disappointed that the reboot completely left these characters behind, I’d like to see more of them, especially now, grown up in the 21st century.
I found almost all of these in the fifty cent bin at Astonish! comics back in the 90’s. They may be harder to track down these days, but I almost guarantee you they’ll be bargain priced. The next time you do some online shopping at a comic site like Mile High, check a few of these out and ad them to the order. They’re great light reading and a really interesting comic alternative.
Frakenstien
Today we have a Frankenstien picture. Maddie was watching the munsters and decided to try and draw Herman!
The Iron Man project part two
The shoes for irom man actually fit over my real shoes. They have no bottom, just a littel elastic, so we had to first create a kind of outer shell to know how big they needed to be.
Detail work comes next. A strip along the bottom, some ridges on the back.
Finally a few finishing touches, in particular a triangular shape on the top that fits in places with the blast shield on the lower leg.
Next month we’ll work a little more on the leg and build the upper part. but for now, remember, there’s new Violent Blue tomorrow!
Argo City Comics 