It's a post explosion!
The Wetasaur from Peter Jackson's King Kong, a little off model.
Tuesday 31 July 2007
STCO - Vichama: Part 2
The Second part of the Vichama saga unfolds. Written by Eddy Reynolds and painted/poorly lettered by me.
In it's full glory! See it here!
Unlettered Scrolling version!
Part 1!
Part 1 unlettered!
Monday 30 July 2007
Friday 27 July 2007
Fantastic Four - Stan Lee & Jack KirbyThursday 26 July 2007
Wednesday 25 July 2007
Atlantis Strikes!
Damn you Namor! Damn you and your full body wax! Go back to conquering Manhattan and leave us alone!
Tuesday 24 July 2007
Monday 23 July 2007
Space Feminism: 1996
Girls, tired of all your strong female characters being co-opted by the the manstream?
Had enough of phallic tentacles dripping their slime suggestively over a whimpering woman's cleavage?
Dismayed by artists whose only knowledge on how to represent breasts is that they must be at least as large as the subject's head and need not bear any relationship at all the rest of the anatomy?
well don't give up, there is hope...
In spaaace!
Had enough of phallic tentacles dripping their slime suggestively over a whimpering woman's cleavage?
Dismayed by artists whose only knowledge on how to represent breasts is that they must be at least as large as the subject's head and need not bear any relationship at all the rest of the anatomy?
well don't give up, there is hope...
In spaaace!
Professor Peabody: dashing girl space pilot
Sunday 22 July 2007
Harry Potter and the Torrential Downpour
Last Friday night while some were facing a sleepless night I was at the late midnight opening for the Deathly Hallows*.
Now I wasn't there to buy a book as I don't really like Harry Potter that much, well that's not true I do like it I just think it could be better, instead I was there to keep my friend company. Friend X is a big Potter fan and I was there to stop her getting lonely in the long queue and also to make sure she didn't trample a small child in the rush to get to the book and the mystical secrets it held.
Friend X as we arrived outside Waterstones.
Now considering that it was in the process of pouring twice the usual month's worth of rainfall in twelve hours right over our heads you might expect the turnout to suffer a little.
We got a ticket with a number 80 and went to join the crowds, people were still coming in after us, and there was a queue outside the door by the time we left.
Looking around I found something I coveted much more than the new Potter but, but as I was worried about getting funny looks if I went up with anything but a Deathly Hollows book (and I didn't have £70 handy) I thought better of it.
It certainly has a prettier cover.
Being number 80 we had to wait about a half hour to get called up (by which time I had managed to dissuade friend X from uniting the crowd to overthrow the lone security guard and save the books from their imprisonment).
And with a quick exchange of reservation tickets the prize was won!
Friend X, a blur of commerce motion.
On leaving the nice people of Waterstones gave us glow sticks, in case we fancied hitting a rave on the way home. We decided instead to practice out magic.
The spoils of our battle
*Well if you ignore differing times zones that is.
Friday 20 July 2007
Solomon Stone - Throughout the Ages: 1930's
From the archives.
While it's not immediately obvious, in the golden age of the pulps he fought an Evil, Zombie, Nazi, Pope.
Who knows what Awesome Lurks in the Hearts of Men? - Chris Sims' does
Dan Dare - Pilot of the Paleo-Future
Back at the half way point of the last century comics were getting a lot of media attention. The post war increase of violence and adult content (along with actual maturity) was scaring the parents of the impressionable kiddies. Soon drastic measures were being taken.
In America this consisted of mass public book burning and a special US Congressional inquiry.
In Britain Vicar Marcus Morris was also concerned about the import of American horror comics but he had a different solution. Eagle was an anthology comic set up to other a more moral alternative to the horror imports, and it’s star was one Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare.
In Britain Vicar Marcus Morris was also concerned about the import of American horror comics but he had a different solution. Eagle was an anthology comic set up to other a more moral alternative to the horror imports, and it’s star was one Colonel Daniel McGregor Dare.
England 1996Frank Hampson’ Dan Dare strip was a beautiful piece of work, fighting the horror comics shock appeal with shear quality and craftsmanship. While tales of manly adventuring in space were hardly a novel concept, the fully formed world Dan Dare adventured in was a wonder. The technology fetishism of the stories brought something from the cut-away drawings of spitfires and war ships, there was an inner logic too the 50’s visuals beyond mere fanciful drawings of space rockets. This attention to world building also led to giving the various alien civilisations their own distinctive technological aesthetic, from the Spacefleets curves to the Treens almost Kirbyesque Aztec transport.
The characters were rendered with a mixture of cartoonish exaggeration of facial characteristics and expression with realism that’s pretty rarely seen these days (mainly because it’s so bloody hard to achieve), Dan’s ‘Satanic’ eyebrows are a thing of wonder. Also in the cast is Professor Jocelyn Peabody who avoids all the usual ditsy space bunny troupes and instead tends to be the smartest, most competent, and, well, dashing of the crew, happy to disobey direct orders and dive a rocket into the atmosphere of the planet with a joyous shout of 'Tally Ho'
Dan Dare went on to have as massive an impact on British science fiction and comic as you’d expect from a magazine selling two million copies a week. The near obsessional attention to detail of the technology gave us Thunderbirds and the other Gerry Anderson shows, direct inspirations appear in Doctor Who, and the significantly more down beat Quartermass. And the British comics tradition which descended from Eagle eventually merged with the horror comics it was set up as an antidote to giving us 2000AD and all that followed. Dan Dare’s paleo-future world is also a clear starting point for Warren Ellis and Chris Weston’s Ministry of Space and Ian Edginton and D’Isreali’s Scarlet Traces sequel, not to mention the updated 1990’s political view on Dan Dare from Grant Morrison and Ryan Hughes in Crisis.
So maybe there’s a lesson there for contemporary times. Perhaps those concerned parties in Georgia should stop using legal manoeuvering shenanigans to try and drain the funds of a charity and instead put out a beautiful comic history of cubism without any nudity in at all.
Who knows what it could start.
Thursday 19 July 2007
Wednesday 18 July 2007
Tuesday 17 July 2007
New Young Justice
I'd buy it.
Well considering that I don't buy any of the comics that already feature these characters, I probably wouldn't buy it, but I'd draw it, if I was paid...
I probably shouldn't be the one to market it...
Monday 16 July 2007
I am Matthew's Blog
Welcome to Holy Calamity! The TeamSmithy Blog!
My name is Matthew Allen Smith and I'm an up and coming comics artist in England, waiting to, well, up and come. This blog will feature my occasional crude drawings, irrelevant opinions, and details of my dull dull life. It'll mostly be about comics but who knows what subjects might pop up.
Holy Calamity will also host Panel of the Day, where I post an awesome panel from a comic as cheep content filler.
They'll probably be some other semi-regular features too, we'll see how it goes.
Enjoy!
My name is Matthew Allen Smith and I'm an up and coming comics artist in England, waiting to, well, up and come. This blog will feature my occasional crude drawings, irrelevant opinions, and details of my dull dull life. It'll mostly be about comics but who knows what subjects might pop up.
Holy Calamity will also host Panel of the Day, where I post an awesome panel from a comic as cheep content filler.
They'll probably be some other semi-regular features too, we'll see how it goes.
Enjoy!
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