I know this blog is a little later than usual but I've had a pretty amazing week! I got to create something special for an amazing little boy! I got to meet Anthony Smith, a real hero!
Here's his mom's original letter to editor supreme, Bill Rosemann:
Hi there -
I am the mom of a super hero mad 4 year old. He lives and breathes superheroes, he also has been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder- mosaic trisomy 22. The good news is that his physical challenges areworkable, he is mentally perfect, and while he will be having a heartsurgery this summer - he is on the mend. The challenge that he will facefor his entire life are his hearing impairments. He has no ear, and acomplete hearing loss on his right side and mild loss on his left. Hecurrently wears 2 hearing aids.
Today as he was getting dressed I was putting on his "Blue Ear," the aidhe wears on his left ear. He did not want to put it on, he told me superheroes do not wear blue ears. To get myself out of a bind I told himthat sure they do - in fact Captain America has one under his mask.After repeated questioning he believed me - but I was wondering- maybe you have an intern, or someone who would like a challenge - couldyou make a little guy's day by drawing him a hearing impaired super hero?
Thanks for considering this - I am likely to get stuck in your spamfilter - but you never know - have a great day - I am attaching apicture of Anthony so you can see one of your dedicated customers.
Best, Christina
Then another superstar editor, Lauren Sankovitch passed the letter on to me asking if I wanted to come up with something.
I was so moved by the story, there was no way I WASN'T going to draw something! As I was reading Anthony's story, the name for his device just kept sticking out to me. "Blue Ear." It just sounded like a super hero name. All that was missing was the, "The" in front of it. So I went home and drew out a few sketches of what "The Blue Ear" would look like. From the story, I knew Anthony didn't want to wear his device, so I wanted to make sure that The Blue Ear's listening device was very prominent and very important to his ability as a super hero. I even tried to write all the captions in a way which would focus on how important it is for the Blue Ear to wear his device. Hopefully, Anthony would also realize how important it is for him to wear it everyday as well! Here was my drawing:
I was so happy to find out that Anthony liked the piece of artwork I created for him. He was the person I was most worried about pleasing. If everyone at work liked it but he hated it, then I would've felt like I let him down. And I don't think my artwork has had as much an impact on his life as he had on mine. He is a four year-old little boy who has to deal with such a hardship everyday, and his first thought was he didn't want to wear his device because he wanted to be a super hero. He wasn't even worried about his hearing condition, he just thought super heroes didn't wear hearing devices. That to me is what makes Anthony amazing because now that he knows that, yes, there are heroes who wear hearing devices, he doesn't see any other obstacles in his way of achieving his goal to be a hero. But being able to face his situation with such courage, already makes him a hero to me!
This story then got picked up by the media. It made it in to some news sites and even on TV. While it's been a bit crazy seeing something I created on TV, it's completely awesome seeing Anthony's story being broadcast to the world.
I'm so fortunate to work at MARVEL, the place that creates the greatest comic book super heroes. It's a great place to spend the time between meeting REAL life heroes like Anthony Smith!
And since Marvel is THE #1 place for comics, just because I was on the news DOESN'T mean I get a break! So here are this week's featured trades:
MARVEL UNIVERSE SPIDER-MAN: AMAZING FANTASY ISBN# 978-0-7851-5259-0
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL.1: BEHIND THE MASK ISBN# 978+0+7851-5357-3
MOON KNIGHT BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS & ALEX MALEEV VOL.1 ISBN# 978-0-7851-5170-8
AVENGERS: THE MANY FACES OF HENRY PYM ISBN# 978-0-7851-6206-3
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL.7 ISBN# 978-0-7851-5935-3
UNCANNY X-FORCE VOL.3: THE DARK ANGEL SAGA BOOK 1 ISBM# 978-0-7851-4661-2
THE STAND VOL.3: SOUL SURVIVORS ISBN# 978-0-7851-3523-4
And Check Marvel's Release calendar (LINK) for even more upcoming TRADES.
Special thanks to Bill Rosemann, Lauren Sankovitch, Manny Mederos (who also provided a great piece of art: LINK), Arune Singh, MARVEL, Christina D'Allesandro...and especially to Anthony Smith for inspiring so many of us!
What better way to celebrate MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS passing the $1 BILLION mark, than with a little trip to WALT DISNEY WORLD?
And when I got there it seemed like EVERYONE was celebrating the success! In fact, I even got to ride in the AVENGERS MONORAIL!
I spent so much time dancing with all the Disney characters on Main Street that I completely fell asleep on the flight home and didn't have time to read this week's MARVEL TRADES!
But here's what's on my reading list: THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES: THE MIGHTY THORCULES ISBN# 978-0-7851-3677-4
CABLE VOL.3: STRANDED ISBN# 978-0-7851-4167-9
And Check Marvel's Release calendar for some upcoming featured TRADES: LINK
ALSO and most importantly I'd like to give a BIG thanks to all of YOU! It's all our great Marvel fans who helped make MARVEL'S THE AVENGER #1, and it's your continued support that's keeping it at #1!
THIS IS THE WEEK. The week where comic book movies will change forever! Where characters from 4 of the BIGGEST movie franchises; IRON MAN, HULK, THOR & CAPTAIN AMERICA, come together to for the BEST super hero movie of all time: MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS!
And to celebrate, a certain leather-jacketed man wearing a eye patch, named Nick was nice enough to give every MARVEL employee a ride around the city unlike any we've ever taken before!
Here I am. We were up so high I could actually see my house in the Bronx!
This movie is GOING TO BE HUGE!! And what's also sure to be huge are the lines!
SO if you haven't got you tickets you can get them here : LINK
And if you have your tickets, HERE IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST THING to read while you're waiting on line: MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS PRELUDE: FURY'S BIG WEEK ISBN: 978-0-7851-6341-1
And Check Marvel's Release calendar (LINK) for some upcoming featured TRADES:
Last night the Marvel employees were treated to an advance screening of "Marvel's The Avengers."
I've retyped this sentence like 50 times because there aren't enough adjectives to describe how mind-blowingly-AWESOME this movie is! Even before I got in to the theater, I was blown away by AWESOMENESS. I mean just check out these 3-D glasses I got:
All I can say is this, this is BY FAR the most ACTION-PACKED SUPER HERO movie I ever saw! This is the first time I'm practically speechless on this blog! No bad puns, No photoshopped pictures, just this one simple message:
Everyone knows Marvel is always at the cutting edge of all things comics. Heck, I’ll even go as far as to say Marvel is always at the cutting edge of all things that are AWESOME!
By now I’m sure you’ve heard all about how Marvel has brought comics into the future with the launch of Marvel Augmented Reality. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, well, you’ll just have to click this link to learn all about it before you proceed with this week’s Blog!
Anyway, as you know, your humble TradesJanitor never likes to fall too far behind on current trends. That’s why I’m proud to announce that I’m taking this blog into the future with… MARVEL’S BLOGERNATE REALITY! Or MARVEL BR!* And all you need is the computer you’re already on we've done all the work for you!
Why take a look at an image from this week’s featured trade: ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN VOL.4: DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN
Now simply scroll down using MARVEL BLOGERNATE REALITY and watch this image come alive like never before (and hopefully never again!) . . . . Wait for it . . . .
TA-DA! MARVEL’S BLOGERNATE REALITY has revolutionized blogging FOREVER!
How AWESOME is the cover to this week's featured trade: BLACK PANTHER: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE - THE KINGPIN OF WAKANDA!
It reminded of being a kid. "How?" you ask. Well, every Wednesday I'd feverishly run to the local store to buy whatever comics they had, then I'd read them all right away. When that was done, I'd read them again! Then I'd look through them again admiring the art. Then I'd look at the clock and think, "UGh! Now I gotta wait a whole MONTH until the next issue comes out! What am I gonna do until then?" And this was long before the Internet and video games so I did what every other kid did to pass the time…shadow puppets! And boy was I good! I could make all types of animals, and vehicles. So when I saw the cover to BLACK PANTHER, it brought all that back and I even worked up a NEW shadow puppet just for this week's blog:
Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive - The Kingpin of Wakanda TPB ISBN #: 978-0-7851-6037-3
To kick off the month of April and just for THIS BLOG, I decided to pull out my paints and do an original, painted piece of ALL the Avengers past & present hanging out on the lawn in front of the Mansion. In fact, I put in so much work to this painting that it actually took me a little longer to finish than I thought!
I was hoping to have it posted by April 1. I hope once you see it you'll forgive me and see that all the extra detail I put in was well worth the wait! (The screen just doesn't do it justice. The original canvas was over 6 feet long!) I hope you enjoy it! Happy April everyone! Also, don't forget to check out our featured MARVEL Trades listed under the painting!
This week's featured Trade is: THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z VOL.4. And like I've said before, the handbooks are very near and dear to my heart. And Volume 4 has an even extra-speicaler place in my heart! This was the volume where I was allowed to do all sorts of art tasks! (Huge thanks to Jeff Youngquist and John Denning for that!)
For example, I was allowed to start coloring some of the main images. The very first one I got to do was HOLLY-ANN EMBER. Since this was my first one, and she has cool powers, I wanted to use all my former Hollywood Movie Special FX experience to the fullest and throw everything except the kitchen sink in there! Here's a side-by-side of the original artwork done by Greg LaRocque and my finished coloring. What's also special about this piece was this was the first, "What are you crazy?" look I got from Jeff Youngquist! So due to the space constraints of the page, some of this stuff had to come out. But I'm not telling what! You'll just have to buy this trade and see for yourself!
Also, just to show you how much work goes into the smallest of details, here's another side-by-side for you! (Actually. this one is more of an up-to-down.)John Denning gave me this comic scan, with the instructions that they needed all the smaller headshots deleted so that they could have a 'clean' piece of Galactus artwork.
Now contrary to popular belief, you can't just delete something in Photoshop and what's supposed to be behind it just magically appears. Nope! You gotta roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty and redraw it the old fashioned way! Sooo, after I had a piece of Galactus-swiss-cheese I went in and tried to re-draw & re-ink it to look as close as possible to what John Byrne might've originally drawn. This image is my finished piece. Then I remember thinking, "MAN, I wonder how this is going to get used in the book? It would be awesome if it was the main image or something."
I ALSO remember my jaw dropping when the finished book came in, "WHUh?! All that work for something sooooo small?" Now, being a much wiser TradesJanitor, I can answer my own question… YES! All that work for something so small! This is MARVEL! We don't take shortcuts! We wanna put out the best books anywhere! Our readers deserve it!
So the image on the right is how it actually appeared in print...
And this is only the 'behind the scenes' of 2 images out of the THOUSANDS that appear in each volume of THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z. So, if you missed these in hardcover you'll DEFINITELY NOT want to miss it now! ESPECIALLY since the handbook team put in so much work to making updates to several profiles!
Here's my personal experience with this week's featured trade: WOLVERINE & NICK FURY: SCORPIO.
When I was growing up, there were no local comic shops, just a few convenience stores that carried comics. The closest "real" comic book store was 20 miles away! And when you're 12 and all you have is a bike, 20 miles seems as far as Latveria! Luckily, I had an older cousin who collected comics casually--unlike me, who was an obsessed fanboy that couldn't wait for the next issue of something to come out!
So, whenever he wanted to drive to the comic store, he'd let me tag along. One day in 1989 I saw something on the shelf behind the counter… The original WOLVERINE & NICK FURY: THE SCORPIO CONNECTION graphic novel. I looked at that cover and I just HAD to have it! I mean it looked like a movie poster to a British Spy movie but instead of some fancy guy in a tuxedo it was Wolverine AND Nick Fury! I asked how much it was and the attendant told me, "$16.95!"
Now, at a $4 a week allowance, this was a big purchase! I was in for over a month of my "salary." But I didn't care! So I asked, "Can I see it?" The attendant pulled it down, and I looked at this book and just imagined the adventure inside. "Why didn't you just open it?" you ask. That's because this particular comic store sold its graphic novels bagged & boarded!
So almost on the verge of bursting I said, "I'll take it!" "No you won't," said the man behind the desk. "What? Is this reserved?" "NO, it's just not for you. Are you 16?" he asked. "No, why?" "Sorry, graphic novels are for 16 and up. NOT KIDS," he exclaimed. I was shattered! The whole drive home I just stared out the window wondering about the adventure I had left behind!
So imagine my excitement when editor Mark Beazley (Who dresses like a British super-spy.) asked me If I wanted to be the collection editor on WOLVERINE & NICK FURY: SCORPIO!!! My inner fanboy was exploding! It took all my strength to play off my excitement, "Uh, yeah. Sure. I guess so." THIS WAS IT!!
Not only was I over 16 but now, but it would be MY JOB to read the story that had eluded me for years. And to top it off, I'd be working on the overall look of this book! Now It was my turn to design a Movie-poster-looking-cover that would hopefully bring the same excitement to the next generation of bike-riding fanboy! And let me tell you, working on this trade was WELL worth the wait!
The Scorpio ConnectionDOES read just like a spy movie! This story has it all: action, adventure, romance and the added bonus of a look into Wolverine and Nick Fury's pasts! Archie Goodwin & Howard Chaykin TOTALLY deliver! This trade ALSO includes Wolverine: Bloody Choices by Tom DeFalco & the legendary John Buscema! And this trade finished off with Wolverine & Nick Fury: Scorpio Rising written by Howard Chaykin with Shawm McManus providing the art.
So whether you were like me and were too young to buy this the first time around, or you're a Wolverine fan, a Nick Fury fan, you like action/adventure movies or even if you're like my cousin and just a casual comic book reader looking for something different, then this Trade is not to be missed!!!
And if you make more than $4 a week allowance, pick these up as well…
SPIDER-MAN & THE NEW WARRIORS: THE HERO KILLERS
INCREDIBLE HULK: PAST PERFECT
ASTONISHING X-MEN BY JOSS WHEDON & JOHN CASSADAY ULTIMATE COLLECTION BOOK 2
