Batman: Under the Red Hood REVIEW

I decided to watch this title because it was at my local Red Box and because I happened to have read this story arc in the comics. Due to reading the story arc, I was piqued at how they could make a story that relied on reading so many books and required such a great deal of knowledge of continuity to understand.

Thankfully, they decided to take out most of the convoluted stuff that plagues comics these days and kept it to the batman universe. While knowledge of the comics is helpful, it is not nearly as important as it was while reading the book.

While the details in the story are drastically different from those shown in the comics, the major twists are mostly the same. Unfortunately, while I knew the identity of the Red Hood from the get go, it is very obvious who he is throughout the movie, so I’d know about it 10 minutes in. This wouldn’t be an issue if the commercials didn’t make it look like it was a big mystery.

For the uninitiated, what is the plot of this movie? Batman, 5 years after the trauma of having the second Robin (Jason Todd, not Dick Grayson, who grew up and got his own spin off series) beaten to death by the Joker. This side plot is told mostly in flashbacks, where we see Batman’s relationship to Jason. The main plot revolves around the new vigilante in town, The Red Hood, who is trying to stop organized crime by both regulating it and blowing the heads off of people who disagree with him. This pisses off the current head of crime in town, “The Black Mask” who seems to serve the purpose of having a comic relief villain that isn’t nearly as awesome as the Joker. As seen in the nearby picture, The Joker wasn’t amused by his antics.

I'm sorry, this bag of chips is more interesting than you

I can’t really decide whether my favorite part of the movie was the fight scenes or the scenes of the Joker being a jerkwad. While during the first half of the movie Mistah Jay doesn’t do much exiting stuff, in the second half he really shines. I love it when the Black Mask tries to deal with him. Plus, the way he likes to remind Bats about what he did to Jason reminds just how much of a sadistic bastard he is. On the other side of things, the fight scenes are fast paced, and manage to recreate a lot of the parts shown in the comics. We get lots of awesome bro fights, including a fight where Batman and Nightwing team up and a fight where bats and the Red Hood fight some of the Black Mask’s thugs. The presence of Nightwing in this movie amuses me, seeing how he’s my second favorite DC character outside of Hal Jordan.

One thing that miffed me was that during this movie, I had a lot of trouble believing that the characters were not super powered. During one fight scene, bats and the red hood are slamming each other into walls hard enough to smash the ceramic tiles or to bust through a sink and neither of them gets a scratch. During this I was going “wait, WHAT?” since I know that any person would at LEAST have their face smashed up, but these guys actually shrug it off and keep going. It separated me from the movie a bit, since Batman is taking hits like Superman.

Voice acting is good in the movie, although Nightwing has some cringeworthy moments and gets a bit annoying. Mark Hamil is still the Joker, despite how much the current cast tries, but the guy who plays him does a solid job delivering lines.

The movie is worth a rent, but not nearly as great as other Batman animated movies such as “Return of the Joker” While the plot lacks mystery like the commercials say it has, it makes up for it with nice fight scenes and the Joker providing some twisted jokes to keep the mood dark. While it works for the PG-13 rating, I really wish it upped the gore factor, especially in scenes where a person is BEING BEAT TO DEATH WITH A CROWBAR, or when somebody is being slammed through the kitchen sink. Although nitpicks like this exist, it is a fun ride, and that easily makes it worth a rent, especially if you’re a fan of the Bat.

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Artist Profile: Dan Goodsell (Mr. Toast)

 Previous Artist: Andrew Dickman

Today's artist is Dan Goodsell, creator of Mr. Toast

While I was Anime Expo I saw a booth for the most obvious artist that I never posted about: Dan Goodsell, creator of the Mr. Toast. This is silly, because I’ve had his plushies on my shelf and a mountain of his comics saved onto my hard drive.

I originally discovered this artist back in 2008 before I actually took the blog seriously, so I guess it makes sense how it never occurred to me to write about him. I’ll start with the website logo

This features an image of Mr. Toast, the walking, talking slice of toast, and his friend Joe the egg, an equally walking, talking egg. These two go on cute yet interesting adventures with such friends as Shaky Bacon, who always appears to be suffering withdrawal symptoms, and Lemonhead, a moronic Lemon.

We also get schenanigans with Mope the Onion, who always seems to get the short end of the stick.

It should be noted that Dan Goodsell does a lot of visual puns on his website, such as this one of a “Rolling Stone

Dan has a large variety of comics on his site, most of which are adorable and give out a giggle. It should be noted that most of his stuff is entirely G-rated, making his stuff entirely safe for work while somehow appealing. Kind of like Domo.

It should also be noted that Dan sells plushies of a good portion of his characters. I myself purchased a Mr. Toast plushie at Anime Expo 2009, and have it on display in my room. While his comics do seem to lack bite, they are pretty safe, and have a certain appeal to them. I’ve found that it’s definitely worth the time to check out.

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Next Artist: Probably some person from Expo, or a Person I found in Mr. Toast’s myspace friends. He has a lot of good ones.


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Getting the most out of an anime convention

 <-Unless your dad acts like this guy, you should have an easy time having fun at an anime convention

With the onset of anime expo and myself being surrounded by convention n00bs, I believe it is time that I share my sage like wisdom on the ins and outs of making the most of an anime convention. After all, one of the most important things to having fun in one of these things is knowing exactly what you want to do.

1.)    Planning: Yes, in order to party as hard as possible at a convention, one must plan in advance exactly how they wish to accomplish partying, lest they wind up wandering around not knowing what to do. At that point, they wind up doing nothing, resulting in a watered down experience. Hence, look at the schedule before the actual con before you go there, so you have a general plan on what must be done

2.)    Don’t let others hold you back: Well, normally I’d say bromance is the key to success, but not in this case. Often, my friends will just sit around and discuss what they should do and not actually do it. One year, the group just sat around in their hotel room and played their Nintendo DS’s all day. What does this tell you? RUN! Ditch the morons as they squabble over petty details. If you do it right, maybe some of them will follow you. Most conventions are only once a year, and why should you spend the whole time standing around

3.)    HOTBLOOD: In order to REALLY make the most out of a convention you must enter a trance like state and let go of the logic you normally live by. Really, do you really need more than 5 hours sleep? Is eating on a regular basis THAT important? Or would you rather get to a really important panel or movie premiere? Allow the general energy and excitement in the convention to consume you, and allow your own excitement to sustain you as you make your journey through the convention. This will allow you to reach new heights of performance, on much less fuel. Fear not, you can eat and sleep when you get home. (You’ll immediately crash though… oh well)

4.)    Bromance: Ironic considering the previous point mentioned above. Bros can actually be very helpful in increasing your enjoyment of the convention, as long as they don’t hold you back. Doing exiting things alone isn’t nearly as exiting as doing them together, so make sure you try to drag one or two friends to an event assuming they aren’t too busy deliberating what to do. People who DON’T enjoy standing around and deliberating are lots of fun to drag around cons, or be dragged around by.

Unfortunately, one of the most important things to becoming an expert at enjoying conventions is experience, and that doesn’t come freely. I suggest that new people attempt to team up with an experienced conventioneer, and follow them. It’ll help you find good events. However, the ever important experience does not come unless you actually go to these conventions a lot, such as Anime Expo, and gather this experience first hand.

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Civil War (Marvel Comics) REVIEW

Ah, remember that big comic book event back in 2006? I found it in my not so local library and decided it was necessary to read it.  Overall it’s a pretty solid plot, and it’s a step above most of the other Marvel books I’ve read (Aside from Planet Hulk, of course)

The overall plot is when some n00b superheroes attempt to take on a high tier super villain for the sake of promoting their reality TV show. This results in the super villain creating a gigantic explosion, taking out the superheroes, the film crew, and an entire school full of children. This gathers a large amount of media attention, causing the public to demand super hero reform.

Things are going well, some people create a bill to be sent to Congress in order to force all superpowered people to register with the government. This goes well until S.H.I.E.L.D is asking Captain America what he thinks about the plan, and how many people would oppose it. The big problem with S.H.I.E.L.D’s plan is that they assumed Captain America would be on their side. This is proven wrong when Captain America bails out on them and starts a team in order to resist the bill.

This then goes on about a civil war between superheroes, featuring Iron Man leading the heroes who demand that the superpowered people register, and Captain America leading the Rebels. While it is hard to argue with Captain America, I find that the registration side just makes more sense.

Commentary provided by Iron man in this comic I found a while ago: (click to enlarge)

Overall, I think if they were trying to portray a political message, they did a really crappy job. That’s not what’s really important though to me, because I strongly believe sending a political message is not more important than good writing. Fortunately, the writing here is pretty solid, although the overall plot feels skeletal. I assume the fleshing out occurs in Marvel’s side books about the Civil War, detailing the effects and consequences it has on individual characters. This is the mainline book however, which does not focus on the characters, but the overall conflict of the registration act, which is an interesting read. The plot twists and turns quite nicely, people die (nobody I cared about though) and people change sides throughout the book. Unfortunately, a lot of higher powered superheroes, such as the Hulk (who is busy in his own series, Planet Hulk, much better than this book) who have gone off to do other things, preventing their opinion from invalidating the opinion of the people fighting. I suppose this keeps things fair, but it looks kind of silly when you look at it from a universal scale.

Art in this book was very nice. Faces were expressive, and you could easily tell what was going on in the scenes. Colors were vibrant, and they kept the production values in line with the amount of hype the book received.

The ending is sort of okay. It could lead to an interesting aftermath story, but it really didn’t fulfill anything as presented in the book. Ending left more questions than answers really.

Should you read it? If you like Marvel, you probably should. It did kind of change everything in the universe for a while. Plus, a lot of high profile Marvel characters are in it, like Spider Man. I wouldn’t consider it worth going out of your way to get if you aren’t into Marvel though, because past familiarity with characters is incredibly important in this book.

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Wolverine: Prodigal Son (manga) review

Like X-Men Misfits, this series got canned, so this is the only book in the series. Kinda sad, since I liked the book.

You know, after watching that absolutely horrid movie in 2009, you’d think that I’d be permanently turned off from Wolverine. Alas, I decided to pick this book up from ye not so local library, and was actually quite surprised by it. An important thing to remember is that like the introduction says, you really shouldn’t hang on too much too you’re previous knowledge of the character.

This story starts with a rebellious teenager in a martial arts school somewhere in Canada. We see him beating the crap out of pretty much all of the other students, with the exception of one who breaks his leg. He manages to pin her just like all the rest of the students, just  with more trouble. We find out that the girl is known as Tamara, the headmaster’s daughter, and the guy with the long black hair is Logan, which as we all know is Wolverine’s real name.

After a bit of angst about how Logan’s a freak because he healed that broken leg up in a few minutes, then a major trial that Logan and Tamera have to face, and Logan and the sensei wind up in New York City. This leads to Wolverine realizing that the world is much bigger than he thought it was. Finally, some ninjas break things up leading to Wolverine hunting them down.

The first thing that struck me was “WHY is there a hardcore Japanese martial arts school in the middle of Canada?” something just felt a little shoehorned to make it feel more “manga.” Another thing, if Wolverine has lived his whole life at a martial arts school, how come he knows how to hotwire a car and is a great driver? Little things like this frustrate me a bit, but they don’t necessarily ruin the book.

Overall, this is an interesting alternate take on Wolverine, without worrying about about a million years of continuity. Along with that, the author’s wouldn’t have had to worry about stepping on anybody’s toes if they continued the plot, meaning Wolverine’s actions could have larger consequences than they do in the Marvel universe. They haven’t even made any references suggesting that the X-Men would be involved in this book.

While the plot takes very few risks, I did not find myself wanting to put the book down, which is a solid sign. The art style is a bit rougher than X-Men Misfits, although Wolverine looks a little too bishounen for my tastes, since Wolverine is the paragon of manliness in the Marvel Universe. However, this is an origin issue, so it is quite possible that they could have planned to turn him into a much gruffer, beefier Wolvie we know and love. Alas, without the universe binding the authors, they could go any direction they would like, creating this thing called SUSPENSE, which every project involving Wolverine lacks.

Since this series did not get continued, I would only suggest the book if it was on sale, or checking it out for the novelty of it. Definitely better than that atrocious movie that came out in 2009 though, so I will give it that.

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X-Men Misfits (manga) review

Please note that although this book says volume 1 on the cover, it got canned due to sales not being high enough. It actually sold a lot, but not enough to make the greedy moneygrubbers at Marvel happy.

This one I found at my local library. After about 10 pages in, I began to question whether this was a new take on the X-Men, or a really elaborate practical joke. If not for the production values, I would simply assume that Marvel had released this on April Fool’s day just for the sole sake of pissing off comic book guys everywhere.

Alas, upon checking up online, this is not so. So Del Rey went out and made a shoujo Harem using the X-Men cast, and stripped everybody of any signs of masculinity. My first reaction to some characters was just “Wow… what have they done to you man?” This double true for Magneto (shown right) who is a physics teacher who likes to go on about Human rights and hangs around with the juvenile delinquents known as the “Hellfire club”

Before I discuss plot, it should be noted my familiarity with X-Men mythos extends to having seen the first X-men movie (loved it btw.) and a couple of O.K. comics I read at the library. Anyhoo, this book is about high school student Kitty Pryde and her getting transferred to a new school because she doesn’t seem to fit in at her old one. This is because a few people seem to have noticed that she has this weird ability to phase through objects. (although her skills are unrefined) This has garnered her the attention of a recruiter for Professor Xavier’s academy for “gifted” youngsters. Anyway, being a mutant has forced Kitty Pryde to be transferred to one of those rich kid schools where everybody wears a fancy uniform. Oh yeah, and she’s the only female student in the school. This garners her the attention of a whole bunch of incredibly pretty male students, such as Pyro, Angel, and Alex. I was about to gouge my eyes out from all of the bishounen. Oh yeah, she doesn’t get any attention from the Icy-demeanored Bobby (Iceman,) but seems to get along well with all of the other students. Furthermore, the book seems to focus more on the day-today life of the high school students, such as Kitty Pryde’s relationships and fitting in, with a small thing about mutant rights during the last chapter.

Of course, the bishounen who irritated me the most was MAGNETO, the physics teacher. He generally looks too young to be the holocaust survivor he is in the comics, and just lacks that aura of badassery he seems to possess in almost any other representation.

This book does have its plus sides, aside from making me want to gouge my eyes out from all the bishounen. (Seriously, what about women like Ohno from Genshiken? She’d love it if they took the time to make Proffessor X and Magneto look like the masculine older men that they are) Due to generally throwing away all the old continuities, you never get that feeling of missing some details you get with the mainline X-Men, which lets you relax a bit. Furthermore, there is no sign of the rest of the Marvel universe, which makes me breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they can do what they want with the plot (if they went somewhere) The artwork has a lot of detail put in it, although I would greatly appreciate more character variation, and I would love it if some people managed to look a lot rougher. (This is a bit of an issue in Wolverine: Prodigal son, which I will be reviewing next, but they got character variation better there.) Unfortunately, there is no second volume to this plot, so all we have is an introduction to characters, which will never be fleshed out. Might be worth checking out if you’re into shoujo stuff, but since it wasn’t finished, I have an easier time recommending it to people if it continued, so it’s much easier to show to comic book guys to make them RAGE!

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Artist Profile: AndrewDickman

Artist Profile: AndrewDickman

Previous Artist: ArionHawk

Today's Artist is Andrew Dickman from DeviantArt

I found today’s artist while I was loitering around on Deviant art, when I saw a comic by him that I felt compelled to read. Upon looking at this person’s site, I realized it made logical sense for me to do a feature on them, mostly because I like the work he’s done.

I suppose the logical course of action would be to start with the comic that originally caught my attention here…

It’s a little thing about the Marvel/Disney buyout. He was trying to make a comparison and demonstrate that DC was fine after Warner Bros. bought them, and that fans really don’t need to worry so much about Marcel being bought by Disney.

However, that wasn’t what kept me on his page. Along with that little comic, he has a large variety of American style comics, such as people’s avatars, and some interpretations of classic characters, such as Mario here:

Also, here’s an alternate universe Mario and Luigi…

The only thing that would make it better is if one ot them had an EVIL Goatee.

It should be noted that Andrew is capable of doing more serious stuff as well, such as this picture of Samus from the Metroid series….

His caption said he was trying to capture her loneliness, and why she winds up talking about as much as Link from Legend of Zelda.

Overall, Andrew is quite good at what he does, and appears to consistently do this work. If you go farther back on his deviant art, you can see he has been improving by producing more art consistently.

Hm, I’m thinking for my next artist I’m going to report on a musician I met at work who likes working on underground stuff. Should be interesting.

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Climax of Small Press Idol round 3

Well, sad news. The people I was pushing to win Small Press Idol round 3 did not win. The cure came close though. In light of this, I have decided instead to attempt to continue to manipulate the poll results in the little way I can, despite not knowing any of the people running. I will now take the same stance as the judges and push titles based solely on how much I think they would sell if they were in a comic book shoppe.

Curse of the Vessel, The People that melt in the Rain, and Clown town were both featured in my previous small press idol post HERE

Personally, I’d prefer Curse of the Vessel or The People that melt in the rain to win, for I feel they have the most potential for a good plot in comparison to the other plots. However, reading on the Small Press idol forums, Clown Town may or may not have some good potential. Alas, to decrease Bias, I will discuss a new contender, Monkey quest:

Monkey Quest: This project managed to steal third place from The People that Melt in the Rain at the last minute, putting it in a weakly held spot. The story follows a group of thieves who have achieved a map that leads to a relic that will spell the undoing of some empire. While this premise has been done to death, this project has a respectable spot in the competition, probably due to character designs being very clean, and everything being very easy on the eyes.

Overall, while the original projects that I was pushing for did not achieve a position in this contest that would assure victory, since I have done all this research, I feel compelled to see the contest through to the end, and possibly have an effect on the results. Hence, I may attempt to get a look at the material released for round four, and at that point, I will report my opinions on who I think should win. MAY THE BEST COMIC WIN!

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Artist Profile: ArionHawk

Today’s artist is ArionHawk, on DeviantArt

Previous Profile: Shira Oka: Second Chances

Well, now that I started advertising with project wonderful, I get full and complete dictatorship over a couple adslots on my site. Furthermore, I can go investigate the people that advertise me with no chance of retribution from google, leading to a much better connection with the community and type of people who sponsor the site.

Upon realizing that I now can research my ads entirely, I occasionally use this ability, ESPECIALLY since webcomics and such are actually quite ripe for making posts about here. This lead me to discover ArionHawk, the perfect person for a new artist profile segment.

ArionHawk is an artist who mainly works with pencils and photoshop, but also does some CGI stuff. While he has some interesting shots, there is a small lack in quantity. Fortunately, I believe there to be enough to write about. Let’s start with his most recent picture….

Looks quite nice, good choice to be placed first on his ad on this site.

Second shot is definitely my favorite picture he did,

Because I think platemail is awesome, and Legend of Zelda is awesome, so the obvious combo makes its appearance. It should be noted that Link wear chain mail under the tunic, so this outfit would probably be VERY difficult to put on/take off.

Finally, I’m going to exhibit one of his CGI pieces of a dining room

Looks really nice.

It should be noted that ArionHawk DOES do commissions, and would probably do one for you if you went and requested on his page.

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Coming soon: I’m thinking of this one artist I met on Digg.

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Convention Trances: Drawing on the essence of an anime convention

 <- While many scientists believe that this giant Pikachu is the source of people's miraculous amount of energy at events like Comic Con, I believe that the actual nerds that brought the Pikachu there are the source, rather than the Pikachu

I’ve come to realize that at conventions, nerds are highly capable of superhuman feats of endurance. During these times, the average nerd does not need to sleep, and suffers no ill consequence for it. I hypothesize that this it because the coalition of nerds present actually creates a type of energy in the air capable of sustaining people, much like the miracle product powerthirst, seen here This presence allows the excess energy from each person to go off to another person, sustaining them bit longer than necessary, while that person outputs a extra bit of energy to be used by another. Furthermore this allows a nerd to enter what will further be referred to as a “convention trance.”

This creates an interlinked network of nerds outputting energy in order to ensure that they all stay awake much longer than they would normally be able to do. This is a useful ability, only possible when great multitudes of nerds have gathered in the same area. Thankfully, during this time, it is quite possible for many nerds to enter a convention trance.

I myself have entered a convention trance before, and have found it to be quite useful. It allows me to do superhuman feats such as go on three hours sleep for multiple nights. It should be noted that this is not the zombie like state that is normally obtained from staying awake three nights in a row. Instead, this is a state of near perfect awareness, as long as you stay on the convention premises. Indeed, this state is ideal for convention activities, for without entering a convention trance, one would be able to encounter the entirety of the convention experience, and only see a few things. However, thanks to a convention trance, one is able to see an interview with their favorite artist at 9:00 AM and then go to rave parties till approximately 3:00 AM. This allows a small amount of time for transportation and breakfast, although the former is only absolutely necessary while performing a convention trance. 

The Point? When preparing for a convention such as Anime expo, do not worry too much about sleep, for you will be able to sustain yourself on about half the sleep you normally would. Just take in the essence of the convention, and let the convention trance do the rest of the work.

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Overview of Small Press Idol round 3

Go on down there and vote for Egg Finger, he needs it!

Go vote for the cure, he's almost there!

Alright, while I have said that Japanese comics are usually better because of competition, this does not mean that American comics cannot apply the same principal and become successful. Hence bringing us to the Small Press Idol competition, where a bunch of small time artists duke it out for a publishing deal. This amuses me, due to the simple fact that it forces new talent to show their best work for the slim chance that they MAY get their dreams fulfilled.

Now then, this contest works a lot like the American Idol system, except only for comic book artists, and a better fanbase. There are three judges that talk about the persons work, although we are deprived of Simon’s jackassery, and then the readers go and vote for the project on a daily basis. This helps show fanbase loyalty and a projects staying power. Plus its lots of fun.

While I have talked to a few of the artists and found that their work appears to have potential, it does show a bit of bias. Because of this, I will talk about the top three projects, along with my current faves.

Clown Town: Currently number 1 one in the contest, holding a strong lead. This is the story about a town being harassed by a large assortment of clowns that like to torture and maim those who victimize the children they were meant to entertain. It certainly looks sadistic, and will most likely appeal to fans of shows like Death Note, at least when the clowns are around. On the other hand, the plot will be featuring am unlikely group of heroes trying to fight back against the psychotic clown invasion, including a retired rodeo clown. Looks like it has potential to be an interesting psychological horrors that plays on every child’s worst fear….

Curse of the Vessel: Currently the only story to be competing with Clown Town on a serious level (and by serious I mean votes.) This project is based around the story of a man who has been cursed to be possessed by the spirits of the deceased. This causes him to take on missions of vengeance given to him by the recently deceased. Unfortunately, our lead cannot actually control when or what the dead do when they possess him, getting him into severe legal trouble. The book appears to be based both around the spirits possessing our lead, and the journey to release him from the curse he has fallen under.

The People that melt in the Rain: While this project is holding third place, Curse of the Vessel has a significant lead on it. This project is about a town cursed to melt in the rain, along with irregular types of rain such as dogs, cats, and sausages. The story revolves around some of the townsfolk’s journey to figure out the mysteries of WHY this occurs, how to predict it, and how to stop it. Although it has the most simple concept, I feel that it pushed out one the strongest first few pages in the competition, along with possibly the best art.

Now then, you’ve also seen me write about a couple other competitors in this contest such as:

The Cure: One of the few major superhero stories in this contest, complete with the main character getting his superpowers from radiation. This project is currently at 6^th place, although its votes are starting to catch up with the project immediately above it. It should be noted that the art in this story is some of the best in this contest. This is the story of a post apocalyptic world filled with filth and corruption, where one man wants to stand up to the tyranny that rules the people. This man is… THE CURE!  Read more here

Egg Finger: This comic is about a cartoon mascot’s dissent into darkness, and his quest for vengeance against the mascot that replaced him. Unfortunately, he’s a bit behind on the votes, and needs a lot of help in order to catch up. Fear not, for that is what we’re here for, right? Anyways, this is a dark comedy about corporate greed and the things that people do in desperate situations. Read more here.

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And go vote in this contest!
Find some people YOU want to win.

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Egg Finger comic preview

Egg Finger is still looking for your votes HERE (sign up to vote now, and vote daily)

Complete project

Well readers, I have some good news. Egg finger was able to make it to round three of the Small press idol competitions, and the article on this site boosted votes greatly. Unfortunately, Eggy was a bit late on submitting his comic for round three, and needs more votes to make it on to the final round. So here I am bringing more attention, featuring a preview of the official Egg Finger comic, if it were to win the contest.

Basic Premise: Well, Egg finger is the mascot for a soft drink corporation who has been down on his luck ever since his rival Awesome Aid man has been taking his business as the world’s largest soft drink icon. I elaborated further on the characters in my last post on Egg Finger, so you can check that out over there…

Here’s the first three pages (click to enlarge):

As predicted, it is most likely going to be a dark comedy featuring cartoon characters, which will most likely be fun to read. We’ll be seeing Eggy’s descent into darkness and him learning the various ways of the world in future installments, and hopefully get to see Awesome Aid man act like a total idiot later on. Strangely though, I’ve only seen two named humans with normal skin colors in the series, which greatly sets the tone of the series. I personally hope the project maintains the hilarity of Eggy’s facebook posts. However, for the time being, Eggy needs YOU to help him win this contest!

Vote here, and please comment and subscribe!

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Complete Project 

Previous Artist: SabreTooth Fox

I know I’m a bit late on this week’s artist profile, had final exams and a minor Pokemon addiction. Alas, I did manage to locate a pretty good pair of artists for this week’s segment. This week’s feature is on The Cure, a comic being created by Eric Lebow and R.G. Rubens, sent to me by Egg Finger.

This is the story of a post apocalyptic world, where people are forced to live in domed cities where everything they eat or drink needs to be purified. One particular dome known as Salvation canyon, is being run by Reverand John Stone, leader of a church telling people that this is the only place left in the world, while running a criminal organization. Now, one man emerges in attempt to bring this people to life. In this festering pit of disease and wretched filth, people need…. THE CURE!

Here’s a black and white cover shot, featuring The Cure and Reverand Stone.

(click to enlarge)

On another note, we have a profile of our main,

Now then, while I like the concept, (particularly the three dimensional logo on his chest)

I’m not too fond of the font used in the bio thingies. Radiation is a common source of superpowers, however, I like how the radiation has been incorporated into the actual powerset, rather than say, giving him spider powers.

And on the flipside, We have a bio of Reverend Stone, our local totalitarian dictator/ fascist priest

I particularly like the fact that his sword is all broken up. I hope they’ll explain that if the book gets released, because that has the potential to be cool. 

Now then, this project has released its first three pages, which look very nice: (probably need to click them to read)

These sort of set up the premise, and most importantly show how it will look in action if it gets done. Furthermore, it shows that the author has the potential to go through with their premise, and isn’t all talk.

Third page is available on the small press idol page. While you’re there, why not stop by and give it a vote? We must support small artists, and prevent America’s comic industry from becoming stagnant and run by two or three large companies who rarely produce new characters!

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Next Artist: Tsuranga

Related Stuff:
Clean Livin' (A series made by the same Artist)

Artist Profile: Egg Finger
Overview of Small Press Idol Round 3