If Ted Kord comes back to life and gets a solo series, I want this guy drawing him

It's pretty rare when I find art so good that I'd actually print it out and hang it on my wall.  But this. is. gorgeous.

Everything works in this piece: the composition, the inking, the coloring, the perspective.  It all dovetails so nicely together, and I love to see this much skill applied so effortlessly to a piece of art.  It's the kind of piece that's done so well that the techniques become invisible and I can't even analyze it.  If I could understand a quarter of what's going on in this piece technique-wise, I'd be happy.

The icing on the cake?  It's a drawing of Ted Kord.

The artist is Miketron2000, the DeviantArt alias of Mike Norton.  The colors were provided by Keiran Oats.  Mr. Norton is currently doing the art for the new Young Justice series for DC, and his website is here.

The Question multi artist jam!

I found this at Comic Art Fans.  I'm trying to figure out if the owner went around to different artists and have them do a sketch, or if this was all Photoshopped in later.  (I'm pretty sure it's the former.)  If so, what a great idea!  Any of you going to any Cons should try this out.

Click to enlarge.  Your mind might be blown.  You've been warned!

The artists represented are: Norm Breyfogle, Dan Fraga, Doug Mahnke, Tom Lyle, Roderick Thorton, and Georges Jeanty.

When John Jones was younger...

Back in his Silver Age heyday, the stoic, gentle Martian of integrity we know and love today was a bit more snarky.  What's our Martian hero to do when he's wrongly imprisoned in jail?  Meditate and wait out the situation?  Reason with the guards?  Pfft.  Why do that when you can cause all sorts of trouble and make outrageous demands of your jailors?

I'm going to go steal a toilet made out of gold while I'm at it, too.  Be back in a jiffy!

And what about his servitude to the public?  His stoic, noble goal of protecting his adopted homeworld, of making sure its citizens can live a life free of worry?

When you got it, flaunt it, Jonesey.

Well, there goes that.  Don't worry, that lady will be fine when she gets wiped from history in the next Crisis.

Booster Gold sketch by Mike Wieringo

I was searching through Google Images for a picture of Booster Gold to show my non-comics-reading-but-Smallville-watching best friend what he really looks like and I came across this.

It's fun to look back at past spectulation.  This sketch if from 2006, right in the middle of the year-long series 52.  Well, Booster met an untimely fate in the middle of that series, and here's what Mike Wieringo had to say about it:

The carnage continues, it seems, over at DC, with the death of BOOSTER GOLD in the latest issue of 52. I’m beginning to think that ‘DC’ should start standing for ‘DEATH COMICS’. That’s a little harsh, I know. Both DC and Marvel make a regular habit of killing characters these days– and for all I know, there will be a new person stepping in to become a new BOOSTER and launch a new series, like they’ve done with BLUE BEETLE. Hmmm…. there’s someone high up at DC who’s got something against the color blue, maybe…?

The fact that an industry professional was convinced that a character was dead and gone makes me feel a lot better for taking things like J'onn J'onzz's "death" so seriously.  I guess I'm not the only one to take things too seriously.

Booster Gold cast for Smallville

For those of you who enjoy seeing live-action superheroes, or for you Smallville fans, or just you shameless Booster Gold fans (I know Frank is jumping up and down with glee) here's a tidbit of news you will enjoy.

It looks like they've cast Booster Gold for the upcoming Smallville episode.  He's a soap star.  In some strange way, I think that works.

Here's the Boosterific.com article, which was picked up from soaps.com.  I don't watch soap operas, but do all the male actors hang around with their shirts half-off like that?

What I'll be REALLY excited for is if Skeets will show up on Smallville.  In all his sarcastic, shiny glory.

Goodbye Comics Code Authority, Hello DC Ratings

As I was reading the April solicitations over at The Idol-Head of Diabolu, I noticed that each comic had a rating after it. Whoa. When did this happen?

Well, just recently, it turns out.

Here's DC's new self-rating system:

E – EVERYONE
Appropriate for readers of all ages. May contain cartoon violence and/or some comic mischief.
T – TEEN
Appropriate for readers age 12 and older. May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes.
T+ - TEEN PLUS
Appropriate for readers age 16 and older. May contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes.
M – MATURE
Appropriate for readers age 18 and older. May contain intense violence, extensive profanity, nudity, sexual themes and other content suitable only for older readers.

Overall, I think this is a good move. As one who's always looking to seduce another innocent get children reading more comics, I think the kid-friendly "E" rating will put parents at ease that their kids can read comics without warping their little brains. Current kids' titles, like Super Friends and Batman: The Brave and the Bold have trended into Sesame Street territory.  Compared to the Batman: Animated Series tie-in book from fifteen years ago, which was not only steeped in a bleak tone but featured gambling, drinking, smoking, and scantily-clad women, the current Johnny DC titles make kids' comics of yesteryear look like Watchmen.

But that could be a potential problem. The so-called "kid's" books of yesteryear featured deep themes beneath their cartoony exterior, and could be enjoyed by readers of all ages, 7 to 70. Today's children's comics are decidedly aimed towards kids. I can't see too many adults plunking down the $2.50 to read them. (Okay, I do occationally, but granted I have the mentality of a five-year-old.)  It's too bad there isn't a "T-minus" rating for pre-teens who might enjoy a darker story, albeit without any swearing or graphic violence.

Which leads me to the current mainstream DC superhero books.  Most of them at rated T, such as Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors.  I know I'm a little conservative when it comes to things like this, but just based on the covers alone, 12 years old seems a little young to be reading that book.  And that's not even considering the language.  I wish they could retroactively apply these ratings just so I could see how Blackest Night would rate.  Licking a corpse should get you an automatic "T+".

Automatic T+ granted for bleeding out of your eyes?

So where does this leave DC?  Are they going to tone down the language and violence in their mainstream superhero books so they'll meet the "T" rating?  Or will they use the "T+" rating more often?  (Green Arrow receives the T+ rating for April, for example.)  Or will they just use the "T" rating on most books and assume that twelve-year-olds can handle this kind of material?  Should comics be toned down to appeal to a wider audience?  Should they be fractured into separate categories to appeal to different demographics?

Only time will tell how or if this will have any effect on how comics are created.

As a final note, the nostalgic part of me misses that litte CCA seal as it was a direct tie to the past.  It was entertaining to see it shrink in size as time went on.  I was hoping that one day it would get so small that only Ray Palmer could see it.