Prince Street News: Night of 100 Stars

The new BACK ISSUE! (#133) is out, a tribute to comics' many STARMEN (and women), giving me an opportunity to take Prince Street News back to Julie's Bar for the Night of 100 Stars! This is another one packed with inside gags for the longbox crowd, so don't feel bad if you don't get it.  I will give a few footnotes: The big guy flying into panel one (and in the background on panel six) is Fletcher Hanks' Golden Age character, Stardust the Super Wizard. The woman with the eye patch is Bronze Age Supergirl enemy, Starfire (DC had at least three of them). The guy talking to Commander Steel in panel three is The Shield, comics' first star-spangled patriotic superhero (predating Captain America by a year). Wonder Woman's outfit on page two panel one is from an aborted 1990s animated series / toy line, The Star Riders (one mini comic made its way into Kellogg's cereal boxes in 1993). The Tony Stark joke being made by Marvel villain Blastaar to Shooting Star on page two panel four refers to Iron Man's bronze age drinking problem.  Oh, and that's Batman in the costume with the fin on his head (in case the punch lines didn't make it clear). 

NEXT UP! It's the 40th episode and one of my favorites of this strip I've done: The Lost Oddities of the Bronze Age! If you've ever thought that Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn should've appeared in DC Comics in the '70s, then this will be the PSN for you! 

Another Round of Spidey!

More Spider-Man recreations, this time the cover to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #76 (after John Romita), MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 (after Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia), and the splash page to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #122 (by Gil Kane, John Romita, and Tony Mortellardo) sans word balloons and captions. 

STRANGE TALES 128 Redux

Another commission, this time a reworking of the cover of STRANGE TALES #128, repurposing a Steve Ditko pinup of Dr. Strange from the interior as the main image for the cover, with the Jack Kirby Thing / Human Torch / Quicksilver / Scarlet Witch piece as a secondary image. Man, those Ditko backgrounds are fun to draw. 

Strummer

 Joe Strummer's guitar (with "Death or Glory" lyrics). Done for a friend for Christmas. Prints are available in the Tough Guy Etsy Shoppe! 

Magic Lasso

Filmation Bat-Rogues

 

More Colorforms Redux

 Not sure why these Colorforms Playset boxes have grabbed me of late, but here are two more recreations. Note how elongated Snoopy's left arm is in order to do the classic disco point! I guess I could've moved the arm down and had it be shorter, but where's the fun in that? 
Also, Pac-Man, a game I never played! Well, not regularly, anyway. 

More Spidey!

Two new Spider-Man cover recreation commissions, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #2 (repurposing the splash page as the cover) after Steve Ditko, and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #135, featuring the second appearance of the Punisher, after John Romita. 

Starting Monday!

 Another Superman #POOC, based on a 1939 panel from the Superman comic strip by Joe Shuster. 

Batman Colorforms

Original art by Carmine Infantino 

Flying Fiend Comics

After Ernie Bushmiller. 

 

Wonder Woman Hand Puppet & Super Powers

 Two new commissions, redrawing some classic Wonder Woman merchandise (with some tweaks to the Ideal Hand Puppet package)

Spider-Man '67 Redux

 Here's another series of animation cel recreations, this time images from the 1967-70 SPIDER-MAN cartoon, produced first by Grantray-Lawrence animation, then Krantz films. One of the great things about the Krantz seasons was the gorgeous background paintings, rivaling those of the 1960s PEANUTS specials. Oh, and sorry for the earworm of the greatest superhero cartoon theme of all-time I've now put in your head. Actually, I'm not sorry at all. 

Black Light Galactus

 After the great Jack Kirby, of course. 

The Empire Strikes Back Wrapper Redux

Another Wrapper Redux (or Wredux, if you will). 

More PEANUTS recreations...

Some more PEANUTS cel and panel recreations. All of these (the originals) are available at the Tough Guy Goods Etsy shop. Prints of one or two may pop up on there as well. Hope your holidays were merry and bright (or at least as much as modern times can allow!)! 

 

In her satin tights / fighting for our rights...

Two recent Wonder Woman pieces, featuring two different iterations of the character, both beloved by me!

Prince Street News: More Ben Cooper!

 The new BACK ISSUE Magazine (#131) is a look at Jack Kirby's post-Fourth World DC Comics. Which is nice, but has nothing to do with the Prince Street News comic therein! This is a rare off-topic episode, a seasonal sequel to one of the more popular things I've done, superheroes wearing their own Ben Cooper (et al) Halloween costumes. 

For this installment, I confess to doing some cheating. Previously, I hand-drew the costumes in all their tiny detail. This time, I more simply Photoshopped the screened imagery onto most of the figures (the exceptions being Mr. Fantastic and Supergirl). If I ever revisit this theme, I'm probably going to go back to doing the whole thing by hand. Because, you know... not cheating. 

Nosferatu

 

NERD ALERT!

 My pal, Matt Caputo and I are having an art show at the 313 Gallery in Jersey City NJ, with an opening reception Saturday, October 23 from 2-7pm. NERD ALERT! is a show of mostly pop-culture-inspired art, both originals and prints for sale, many priced to move! So come on out and geek out with us! There'll be snacks!