Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 17, 2010 in
Comic Books 
Dark Horse is reprinting The Goon Volume 4: Virtue and the Grim Consequences Thereof which would normally be a non-event for yours truly. However they’ve gone the extra stretch and had Eric Powell do a new cover (shown above) which just looks brilliant. What makes Powell so unique is that he’s able to combine pull off a combination of an pulp magazine cover that you might have seen back in the day with just the right touch of cartoonishness.
Tags: Dark Horse
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 22, 2010 in
Comic Books 
So many of the post-apocalyptic films from Mad Max to Escape from New York all owe a little something to Mighty Samson which was a comic book series published by Gold Key Comics back in 1964. The team of Otto Binder (writing) and Frank Thorne (illustration) created their vision of N’Yark which was one corner of planet Earth devastated by a nuclear war. The series lasted until 1982 and the faded into obscurity so I’m glad to see that starting in June Dark Horse will be releasing Mighty Samson Archives Volume 1. The first volume features the first seven comics from the series — here are some covers and interior pages from that era to give you a taste the mutants that roam the former streets of the big apple: Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse, post-apocalyptic
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 16, 2010 in
Comic Books 
Thanks to the goodness of Goon there is no wrong that Eric Powell can do in my mind — which is why I’m looking ahead to Buzzard which is a comic book miniseries that goes on sale on June 9th. Shown above is a cover by Powell and below is an alternative cover by Richard Corben: Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2010 in
Comic Books 
I came across Groo: Hogs of Horder #4 and it then hit me: I’m guilty of having spent my entire life looking at the amazing artwork of Sergio Aragonés and I’ve selfishly have always assumed that I’d be seeing more. It’s high time for us fans to stop taking Sergio for granted (he’s 72 years old!) and starting to treat him like the comic book god that he is. I grew up with Aragonés in the pages of mad magazine, but sadly those issues were so packed with high quality work that Sergio got lost in the crowd. However as of 2002 he’s drawn more than 12,000 gag cartoons for Mad and that deserves some real respect. And then we have his creation Groo the Wanderer which has been running since the 80s — to me this running series ranks up there with Asterix and Tin Tin, and what’s wonderful about is that it has both an American and Spanish point of view. Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse, Mad magazine, Sergio Aragonés
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 8, 2010 in
Comic Books 
Jerry Robinson is best known as the comic book artist who helped to put Batman on the map along with Bob Kane — and credit for creating the Joker belongs to him. However sadly his other work is overlooked and that’s why I’m glad that Dark Horse is doing a proper reprint of Jet Scott. This wonderful science fiction themed newspaper strip debuted on September 28, 1953 in The New York Herald-Tribune. Read more…
Tags: 1953, Dark Horse
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 3, 2010 in
Comic Books 
Thanks to the CB Radio craze of the 70s I have to admit that I had a cultural snottiness when it comes to any form of entertainment featuring truckers: So I have to admit that I was blown away by the sheer charm of the comic book Mesmo Delivery by Rafael Grampá and Marcus Penna. What I like about the look of this book is that the inking style has quite a bit of grit and texture, yet the character designs and poses almost have a charming if not slightly cute feeling to them. The result is that each page has the sort of warmth that you would see in folk art except that the draftsmanship is both exquisite and exhilarating to look at: Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 2, 2010 in
Comic Books 
Being a manga fanboy the release of Devil #1 immediately caught my eye: “Manga artist Torajiro Kishi (Maka-Maka) and blockbuster anime studio Madhouse (Trigun, Paprika, Ninja Scroll) love comics. So much so that they’ve decided to publish an original, Western-style comic exclusively with Dark Horse! Enter Devil, a thrilling, sci-fi take on the vampire genre.” Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse, manga, vampires
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 10, 2010 in
Comic Books,
Star Wars 
Back in the day science fiction book covers always looked realistic while comic book covers looked like — well comic books! However the last few years that has faded away and comic book covers remind me more and more of the good old days of paperbacks: Except unlike paperbacks the format is even larger. So I was blown away with the quality of this cover by art by Sean Cooke for Star Wars Legacy #47. Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse, Star Wars
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 10, 2009 in
Comic Books 
A while ago that when I read they were gearing up for an Emily the Strange I have to admit that I feared for the worse in terms of quality — as part of a push for the film Dark Horse would be publishing an art book and a comic book. But I have to admit that while I’m still unsure about a film that Dark Horse seems to be off to a good start with our old creepy friend Emily. Shown above is the cover for The Art of Emily the Strange which doesn’t look too bad form the previews — it’s not brilliant, but it’s respectable as you can see: Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse, Emily the Strange
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 2, 2009 in
Comic Books 
Greg Broadmore is a conceptual designer at the Weta Workshop the New Zealand effects studio that did some amazing work on Lord of the Rings. In his book Dr. Grordbort Presents: Victory Broadmore goes steampunk and has an Edwardian military officer giving a lush tour of a world filled with enemy robots and space aliens. The result reminds me of a cross between old pulp fiction covers and old patent medicine adverts: Read more…
Tags: Dark Horse, steampunk
