The King is Alive - Long Live the King

If you have read any of my postings here, you will already know that I am a big comic book fan and I especially love good comic book art, although I really consider myself a bit of a "writer"(sort of), I just love seeing purty pictures.

Just today DC released an image with gorgeous David Finch art that tells us that "The King is Back, Long Live the King." Aquaman The King of the Seven Seas is back !!

I have always been a major DC fan and as a kid got in the usual kid arguments of "Who's better DC or Marvel" and although many fans often think of Aquaman as the superhero with the silliest power ever (dude, he speaks to his fishy friends) I always thought if handled properly he had the potential to be a star.

In the early 90s Peter David was tapped to chronicle the adventures of Aquaman and a star was born. David infused the character with a real personality and purpose and populated the series with interesting characters that complimented and also provided conflict for the main character. King Orin was a leader of his people and his bearing took on the arrogance of a King and the excess baggage and problems that went with such responsibilities. He also radically changed Orin's personality and had his hand eaten off by piranhas (ouch) and replaced with a hook (Arhhhh, me maties), got him involved with Dolphin ( a girl named dolphin, not a real one) and had him communicating with various aquatic lifeforms fishes, dolphins, etc. (the dolphin Pom - his adoptive mother, and sharks - damn, they are pretty dumb you know)

Fans either loved it or hated it, they accused David of making Orin a carbon copy of Marvel's Namor the Submariner, but David just seemed to gleefully go off on plots that stretched for issues on end and plot twists that had fans laughing menacingly like evil dictators trying to rule the world.

Eventually irreconcilable creative differences between himself and the editor (was it Dooley or Raspler) led to his departure and a wretched 12 issue run written by Eric Larsen, followed by a wonderful under-rated run by Dan Jurgens and Steve Epting could not prevent the series being cancelled against the doldrums of low industry sales in 2001.

Since then Aquaman fans have had to get their thrill from Orin's appearances in books like JLA and on Warner cartoons. There was a revival of the series in 2003 by writer Tom Veitch which ran for 39 issues before morphing into Aquaman:Sword of Atlantis which gave us a blond blade wielding Aquaman who was certainly not the original character (if you dont ask, I promise not to tell), but the series fizzled and really couldnt hold on to its readers.

Aquaman was eventually killed of in some silly "event series" that DC and Marvel seem forever wanting to heap on fans every couple months, and it has taken Geoff Johns' runaway hit Blackest Knight and the upcoming Brightest Day to restore a character that has so much potential, but which nobody seems to be able to get a proper handle on (except Peter David).

I have been on a break from buying comics as I try to get certain things in place for 2010, but rest assured I will be following the adventures of one of my favourite character to see how he's being handled and whether someone/anyone has finally gotten a proper handle on him. (PAD ! Where are youuuuuuuu ?)

The Aquaman covers shown were all accessed at the Grand Comic Database and are the copywrite of DC Comics Inc.

12 more days before its back to the daily Grind

I have been on vacation since the 3'd of January. I decided late last year that despite all the important issues that are demanding immediate attention in my life, I needed to make certain lifestyle changes that would ensure that I live beyond the age of 4o, and the main one was to eliminate stress. I loved my job and the career path but I also know it is important to balance my work life with personal time, hence the change. I just signed my contract with my new employer and come February 1st will be off on a new adventure.


One of the advantages of having 3-4 weeks of down-time is that it makes you think a lot, and I been thinking of various ways I can go into business for myself. While brainstorming over the past few days I hit up on an idea and after consultation with a couple of my friends, we have decided to take the plunge. We all work full-time and the business will demand very little in the way of Capital to start up but we think it has enormous potential and will meet on the weekend to finalize everything. This will have little or no effect on my main job as the other partners in this venture will be available to help guide and grow the company.

Being on vacation also gives me a lot of time to catch up on my reading and movies and also comic books. I havent been buying for the past 8 or so months but I still read a lot inline and look at pretty pictures.
Today I ran across someone who had uploaded pages upon pages of DC Style Guide artwork of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and I just had to share it with you all. Why would any of be interested in this ? well if you have ever bought your son, nephew or cousins Batman or Superman PJs or Wonder Woman t-shirt for your daught or neice or Super Friends bedsheets then you alreay know his art. JL's art has been used on millions of licenced products world-wide.


JL is a Spanish born Argentine artist who lives in the US and works for DC Comics. He has been acknowledged by many of his peers as a master draftsman and is admired by millions of fans worldwide. I consider him my favourite Superman artist and have yet to see any work from him that I dislike.

Its my hobby and I am excited to discover these pages, and I am determined to own a copy of DC Style Guide in the future (the cost be damned)

I did not ride this weekend, for some strange reason I woke up with a pretty bad headache and my wife felt so nice and warm and cozy that I just couldnt resist snuggling back into her arms. I also have the constraint of having to watch my money as I have another month or so before I get paid plus I have to attend classes on Sunday. I will be making a real effort this weekend to hit the road.

All characters in this post are the copyright of DC Comics Inc.

I Love Comic Books

I read a lot

My earliest recollections of reading is with my Grandmother, she's a Jehovah's Witness and she used to read My Book of Bible Stories to me as a kid, and I read along with her. Mom fed the habit by buying comic books for me everytime she went to the grocery store, and I just read everything that I could get my hands on.

Hardy Boys were book produced to be read by 10-14 year olds or so it said on the back of the book, I had read most of them by age 11 and had graduated onto more "meaty" material, but I still read comic books. I found that the graphic interpretation of a story fascinated me to no ends. I love movies and music but I loved reading more and will miss watching the latest blockbuster if my subscription comes in on the same day. Of course this love affair with comic books also led me to a love affair with art and comic book art in particular.

I am a "DC" guy, most of my friends are "Marvel" zombies and swear by their books, but my first comics were Superman and Batman, and that just stayed with me, I love a few Marvel book - Daredevil and Captain America to name a few and years ago when it still made sense I was an avid fan of The Uncanny X-Men.

I have never hid my love for comic books from anyone and laugh to myself when I see people going crazy over movies like 300, The Road to Perdition, Men in Black, Wanted, The Mask (ok, maybe nobody's not going crazy over this one), Constantine, V for Vendetta, Blade, Time Cop, From Hell, etc. I read them years ago when they were originally produced in comic book form.

Television shows like 24, Heroes, Smallville all use comic book style of writing, (well they are inspired by comic books) and comic book writers are now invading mainstream television shows (Ed Brubaker, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller).

The move is actually both ways as movie/tv writers like Jeph Loeb (Commando), JM Straczynski (Babylon 5, Changeling) Bob Gayle (Back to the Future) and Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Mallrat, Dogma) have been very succesful writing comics

A recent word that has entered the vacabulary of everyone is "graphic novel", I hate that word. A graphic novel is a name used to try to "de-ghettoise" the fact that a graphic novel is just one fat and meaty COMIC BOOK.

So what is the point of this post ? (you might be asking while scratching your head)

There is none, I just felt like ranting a little, work has been stressful as usual and I start back school on the weekend.

I love comic books, I love reading, I love art (comic book, life drawing, Rockwell, Wyeth, etc)

I love it !!!