MEANWHILE AT THE MOVIES... Grinding on GRINDHOUSE!!

Got to see GRINDHOUSE for the second time last night, it was as much of a treat as the first time, the damn thing throws so much cool shit at you, a second viewing is practically mandatory (or third, fourth, etc).

It's visual nirvana.
The thing I really keyed in on the second time was the soundtrack. Both RR's Planet Terror score, masterful 80's synth echoing that blistering theme throughout, and of course QT's best soundtrack since the remarkable Pulp Fiction collection. I bought the Death Proof soundtrack, and can attest it's really great (I'll have to pick up the Planet Terror too).

So speaking of visual nirvana, and my obsession with all things Grindhouse, here's a collection of fan arts for the movie/s, complete with links to the creators. A fine assortment of interpretaions of the films array of inspiring and iconic characters!!!

Please share any cool one's you've seen that I might have missed!

First, we have a selection of CHERRY DARLING's:

Josh Howard

Cameron Stewart

Grant Gould

Cristian Navarro

Lubasa

And then we have some of the other characters:

Machete by Carlos Lerma
Quite possibly my favorite!

The Babysitter Twins by Don Ramon Sierra

Dakota (aka Doctor Block) by Cameron Stewart
I just love how Cameron captured sooo much about the character here!!

Lee (aka The Cheerleader girl) by HC Noel

Also, be sure and check out this great GRINDHOUSE FAN SITE on MYSPACE (and not just because they made my fan art their avatar ;)

CON SWAG: Emerald City Comicon 2007

Just off my fourth con in the span of 6 weeks, it's time, no past time to share some of the treasures I've unearthed cruising through the artist alley exhibitors. But since the most recent swag is freshest in my mind, I'll start with that, and some of the stuff I grabbed at this past weekends Emerald City Comicon (a great show, that's back on track this year).

First up is the latest work from Super Real friend, Edward Pun. Edward you may recall turned in the slick variant cover of participant number 3 for issue 2, and also contributed 5 pages to the recent Super Real Special. In the meantime Edward put the finishing touches on his first issue of BETSY MAE BITE, a full size black and white comic featruing a mysterious farm girl, her cow, ufo's and men in black.

In BMB Ed weaves a light, fun, and pulpy tale centered around the titular cute girl Betsy, and the events that transpire one evening on her farm. With Ed's clean and ultra smooth storytelling, he could make a book about paint drying a fun read. Here though, he plays with some much cooler material and the result is one good comic book yarn that's a little bit manga, even more "animated", and a whole bunch of fun!

You can check it out HERE for now, but I'm sure Ed will be adding it, along with his latest group venture ATOMIC LEAD, to his website store found HERE

Next we have a heady concoction from James Stokoe, SNACK COMIX issue 1.

James is a friend or current/former roomey (or sumthin like that) of the incomparable comic kids Brandon Graham and Corey Lewis, and their influence is all over Stokoe's work that I've seen (or ya know, his influence is on their stuff, it's all mixed in ya know?). That said, it's a good thing, as Graham and Lewis got enough style and crazy ideas to fuel a line of books each, and the work I've seen of Stokoe is equally impressive. This however is the first time I've been able to pick up a book of Stokoe's. (I know he's got something due soon from ONI PRESS too, of which I'm down for and eager to see)

Snack Comix is 40 pages of black and white goodness. Stokoe presents 2 stories here, the first longer story centered around a visored biker dude hangin back to watch giant monsters throw down and tear apart a city, as the rest of the population heads for the hills. His writing and work on the page are fresh, cool, and most of all fun. His stuff, again as with Graham and The Rey, exudes a unique spirit that's contagious. The second shorter story is a simple tale behind the scenes of an Orc army.

Very cool goods here.
Check out his website or DA page!

Stay tuned kids! Much much more good, "You have to see this shit!" stuff to come...

DeviantArtists - Adam Warren

I've been meaning to add some features to TSL for some time, regular series' that highlight various topics on the web, the main one being artists found in the DeviantArt.com community.

Well, with the addition of one of my all time favorite creators to DeviantArt, it's high time to kick things off. I'll be back on the regular (read: as I get time, weekly, monthly, who knows) to offer artists that have impressive works to view on DA.

This time, we have none other than Adam Warren.


Yes, the godfather of American-Manga, the man at the forefront of the crossover manga hybrid style that's in full force today with millions of pre-teen kids aping their beloved anime/manga influences. Adams had a well informed, natural, and keen taste for Eastern flair since way before it was fashionable, a precursor to Joe Mad and devotees of the 90's, an innovator along with Ben Dunn and other early adaptors, but built on the solid foundation of the Joe Kubert School. Adam's perhaps most known for his Dirty Pair comics that came from Dark Horse through the 90's, and later moving to some high profile gigs on Gen13 and Teen Titans: Rock Paper Scissors. Since then he's taken several projects to Marvel, from Mangaverse Fantastic Four, to his own creation, the brilliant LIVEWIRES series from 2005. Currently Adam can be found rocking Iron Man's world with the visionary Hypervelocity series, and better yet, his March debuting EMPOWERED original graphic novel from Dark Horse.


Adam's not simply content to start a DA page, he's throwing in full speed ahead, by offering regular journal entries and weekly behind the scenes features, but also providing tons of artwork updates. From cover illustrations, convention sketches, commissions, commercial work, roughs, pencils, inks, colors, you name it, he's sharing it. It's paradise for a fan like myself, getting a glimpse at many works you'd otherwise never see, and a peek at the development of the art itself.


From last week's FAILED-PROJECT FRIDAY journal entry, we're treated to 4 pages from a never published KILL BILL comic book pitch...

featuring Adam's take on Tarantino's Bride in a scissor fight against an imaginative adversary!

Or unused illustrations from the SSX video game screen shots...

There's no shortage of things to take in, with 38 deviations, and 22 scraps (and he's only had an account for a little over a week!!)

You can check it all out HERE
Go on! Get Deviant!!