subhumanzoids

Oh, look at that, I’m reading comics again. Well, I’m always reading comics, but I’m actually getting current on a bunch of series, mostly superhero stuff, now that I have my hands on an iPad. I originally posted the below impressions on a forum, but you lucky ducks get a slightly spruced up, marginally less lazy version. Also, as a bonus, here’s a drawing I did inspired by the recent Daredevil series.

Moon Knight – I might be done with this one. It’s ok, but the villain is one of the worst and, ultimately, Mark Spector isn’t a very interesting character. Even Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man) hasn’t been able to crack the code of making this hero intriguing, and I’ve always kind of rooted for Moon Knight for some odd reason. Making him a somewhat schizo amalgamation of various Avengers—namely Captain America, Wolverine, and Spider-Man—isn’t doing it for me so much.

Daredevil – This comic is the jam. I love it. The art is fantastic—I’m especially fond of the emphasis on sound effects and how Daredevil/Matt Murdock perceives the world around him—and, most importantly, it’s a lot of FUN. This is the man without fear, for sure.

Animal Man – I almost wrote this one off after an issue. I was worried it was just going to be Animal Man fighting crime, and if that’s the case, forget it, because Animal Man is kind of lame! He has the power of all animals! He can fly like a bird and fart like a dog! But then the series got just weird enough for me to stick around, and I’m liking it for that reason. The art is ok. I still think the lead, Buddy, is uninteresting overall, and he makes some questionable parenting decisions on a regular basis, but I like the bizarreness of the series so I’ll stick with it.

Batman – I’ve yet to read the new Detective Comics, but so far this is my favorite of the New 52 Batman comics. I really like the focused story on the Court of Owls, and the labyrinth issue was probably my favorite individual chapter so far. Looking forward to issue 8.

Batman & Robin – This one’s average. I had no idea Batman had a son, and had to ask someone about that, so that kind of threw me off right away. Anyway, Damian/Robin is Batman’s son, yeah, and the story centers on him kind of rebelling against Batman’s morally rigid ways. Not a bad Batman story but not the best. Robin’s a brat. It also seemed a little convenient that Robin turning against Batman lasted a whole issue at most. Come on. Ready for the next arc.

Batman: Dark Knight – Just caught up on this one last night. It’s enjoyable, but it’s also one of those “let’s throw in as many villains as possible right out the gate” stories. That’s fine, but it doesn’t feel as focused as Batman, and I’m not a Bane fan. If anything I’d compare it to the game Arkham City or something else along those playfully dumb lines.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. – Holy ham, Frankenstein, where’ve you been all my life? I feel spoiled between this and having recently read Punisher: Franken-Castle. Of all the DC Comics, this one is most suitable for a rad Saturday morning cartoon. I could picture the toy commercial when they busted out the WAR WHEELS, with kids slamming them into makeshift playsets that would make the most spoiled bambino shriek with jealousy. Lots of fun!

Prophet – Speaking of fun. Boy oh boy, this comic is a treat. Brandon Graham’s run is great sci-fi world exploration, like a tour through the imagination, as it should be. Not much emphasis on dialogue, very pulpy vibe. I love it. If you’re not already keen on Graham (King City) you should follow his posts.

That’s it for now. Sorry for the semi-lazy post, but it’s better than nothing!

Fellow comicker Joe Shieh and I decided to start doing improv comics a year or two ago, switching off panels and basically trying to one-up one another in weirdness to see what direction the stupid thing would go in. Since we’re finally about to do another one, I thought I’d put together the first in whoppin’ vertically-scrolling fashion.

Be warned: it’s mega-stupid (read: awesome)! The order goes Me, Joe, Me, Joe, and so on:

Unfortunately for everyone in the world, most of January and the entire month of February doesn’t exist in the subhumanzone. As a result, I wasn’t able to make any blog posts for some time, despite my hosting company insisting on charging me during this black void of existence.

That’s ok, though, because I’m back thanks to the power of comics. Recently, manga artist Yūsuke Murata—best known for his work on his and Riichiro Inagaki’s Japanese comic about American Football, Eyeshield 21—posted a particularly rad comic to Twitter. The result is the perfect example of why comics are really exciting, especially the possibilities when they’re presented online.

You should really read the whole thing, which my good friend Emily helpfully translated into English for me, but here are some of my favorite panels.

“Aaahh!”

WHAM!

“Don’t take Jump editors lightly! X-Ray Mangaka Search!!!!”

SLASH!

“Hergh”

I could go on. As soon as I started uploading favorites I realized I was tempted to just keep inserting pics, so I’ll stop here. You get the picture(s). It’s not that Murata is the first person to mess around with this kind of visual play in online comics, but he does it so well and so creatively that it’s a wonder so many webcomics are satisfied with being traditional, static pictures.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Shoehorning FX into comics with zero inspiration would be just as bad as doing nothing interesting with them at all. Another example of someone who does it right is Zac Gorman over at Magical Game Time. While no one should be allowed to make a Mario comic/joke/video ever again, he’s doing some good things over there.

So yeah. I’m really excited about comics right now. I’ve been drawing a lot and have a big project in the works that I haven’t really mentioned to many people yet except in passing. Part of me doesn’t want to say anything until at least the first leg of it is finished, but there’s also that fueling, added pressure that comes as a bonus of making something known and announcing its impending existence. I think I’ll hold off for now and go read more One Piece instead. 

I’ll post some unrelated in-progress artwork soon, though.

I don’t draw fan art much, but a recent trip to a figure drawing class made me realize I could use some practice. What better way to practice than to draw your favorite characters in different styles? Thus I present to you two drastically different takes on Mega Man AKA Rockman AKA whatever you prefer to call him.

The first is Mega Man X sporting a power-up that would make Dr. Wily smash his beakers in frustration: Arthur’s armor from Ghosts ‘n Goblins.

Of course, it could be just as bad for Mega Man if this means one hit’ll put him in underoos only.

The next takes the loathsome Mega Man US box art and spins it in the style of mangaka Buichi Terasawa (Space Adventure Cobra). Ok, now he looks cool. And he smokes.

I have a version of this with a background over at the subhumanzoids tumblr, but I thought this one went better with this post.