Musical Mondays at Fish-Flavored Baseball Bat!

I have been meaning to hype up Musical Mondays for literally three months now but I keep forgetting. In any event, pretty much every Monday on his neat comic blog, Fish-Flavored Baseball Bat, Erich posts a sketch from a comic book artist that goes along with a song. For instance, his latest sketch is from Steve Rude, and it is of Baron Von Strucker and it is a tie-in to Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand.”

Awesome, right?

Here is the link to Erich’s Musical Mondays.

Read on to see a couple more samples…

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This Comic Book Blog is Good – Chasing Amazing

A few weeks back, a friend from the New York Knick blog I write for (knickerblogger.net) e-mailed me a link to this website he thought I would like where the author writes about his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man. It was called Chasing Amazing, and it was a really good read. I meant to give it a spotlight back then, but, well, I forgot. Then the site’s author, Mark Ginocchio, dropped me a line earlier today and it reminded me that I really ought to tell you folks to check out this neat site.

Ginocchio has a charming writing style that makes the subject, which, to be fair, is not exactly the most compelling in the world, quite interesting – fascinating, even. He fills in a basic story (like “I just got my first single-number issue of Amazing Spider-Man”) with tons of interesting background, like how getting his first single-number issue (#9, to be precise) causes him to look back at the beginning of his endeavor and how daunting such a purchase once seemed.

One of the regular features on the site is Ginocchio reflecting on the circumstances behind a particular purchase. They’re quite evocative little tales. To wit, he paints a perfect picture of the local candy/cigar/general store that he purchased one of his very first issues of Amazing back in the late 1980s, as well as the nearly universal connection between a younger brother and an older brother when he details how the issue he bought was the same one his older brother bought.

It’s always nice to see such strong writing about comic books. Be sure to check the site out here.

A Max Overacts Valentine’s Day!

First off, be sure to check out last week’s The Line It Is Drawn, since the Valentine’s Day edition is now quite topical!

One of our artists, Caanan Grall, spied a suggestion last week that involved two characters from his nifty web comic, Max Overacts. He felt it was a bit too easy to chose for The Line It Is Drawn (it being his own characters, and all), so he chose Siryn and Madrox re-create the famous deli scene from When Harry Met Sally. But he still decided to do it on his own as a bonus!

Check it out!
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Happy Valentine’s Day from Darkseid!

My pal Adam Knave wanted me to share this Darkseid Valentine’s day comic with you good folks!

Check it out here.

Wolverine or Two Batmen? Olly Moss Just Blew Your Mind!

Olly Moss is an amazing artist.

But this…this is just trying to blow all of our collective minds!

Well done, Mr. Moss, well done!

Check out his site for more awesome artwork.

What Is EVERYONE Reading?

As part of Robot 6′s second anniversary at Comic Book Resources, they asked all the good folks at CBR (reviewers, Spinoff Online writers plus, well, you know, us) to contribute to their weekly “What Are You Reading?” feature!

Here are the results, with contributions from me (one of the books I mentioned shows up first!), Greg Hatcher, Sonia and Chad!

Congrats again, Robot 6!

Happy 2nd Anniversary, Robot 6!

Our sister blog here at Comic Book Resources, Robot 6, is celebrating their 2nd Anniversary at CBR with a big ol’ birthday bash with LOTs of cool stuff!

Check it out here!

I was a part of the group blog that is now called Robot 6 years ago when it was The Great Curve, and it’s nice to see them continuing to be such a great comic book group blog!

Later today, there will be a post at Robot 6 with content from a bunch of the bloggers here. I’ll do another post when that goes up!

Fun With Christmas Advent Calendars!

While you folks are following our 2010 Advent Calendar, I figure it would be nice to point out two other neat comic book advent calendars!

Here is Scott (from Polite Dissent fame)’s yearly Christmas Cover Advent Calendar. Scott does a really nice job with the design of the calendars. He also chooses some very interesting covers.

Bully the Little Stuffed Bull is doing a very neat Archie-themed Christmas Cover Advent Calendar. Check out his Riverdale Christmas here.

The Comics Cube is doing a neat Christmas countdown with a variety of Christmas moments, covers, etc. Check it out here.

Brendan McKillip is doing his yearly Christmas Cover Advent Calendar. Check it out here.

Finally, Dave Carter of Yet Another Comic Blog is continuing his Christmas Cover Advent Calendar that he has been doing for so many years that I don’t think there even WERE calendars when Dave began! Check it out here!

Also, I figured I’d take this time to let you know something about our Advent Calendar of Cool Christmas Comics. I featured the classic Christmas story, “Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot,” from Christmas With the Superheroes #2, awhile back (check it out here), so that’s why that isn’t going to show up on the list. Just a head’s up!

Great Cathy Leamy Interview at Production 3C

Ché at Production 3C did an extensive interview with Cathy Leamy here (it’s two parts – the second part is a general discussion about women and superheroes while the first part is more about Leamy’s indie comic work).

I enjoy Leamy’s comics, but the interview is interesting whether you enjoy Leamy’s comic work or not.

Excellent Blog About Laws in a Comic Book Universe

My pal Loren sent me a link to a very enjoyable and well-thought-out blog called Law and the Multiverse, where two lawyers, James Daily and Ryan Davidson, address various legal concerns that would naturally come up in a comic book universe.

Very cool stuff.

Halloween Pin-Up Countdown!

Over at her website, the nifty artist Stephanie Buscema has been doing a Halloween Pin-Up Countdown, where each week leading up to Halloween she debuts a new Halloween pin-up painting.

After Halloween, they will be in her store for purchase!

Here’s the first one…

(click to enlarge)

Be sure to check out her website for the next two (and keep watching her site for the rest)!

Check out the Cross Hatch Podcast!

Our own Alex Cox is now doing a regular podcast with Brian Heater and Sarah Morean from the Daily Cross Hatch!

Check it out here.

Alex is always fun to hear talk about comics, so this is sure to be a great podcast!

Interesting Spotlight on Kinetic

I was thinking of doing a bit on Kinetic for a Year of Cool Comics (and I might still), the 8-issue series from DC Focus co-created by Allan Heinberg (before he created Young Avengers) and Kelley Puckett and drawn by Warren Pleece (that’s a pretty top-notch creative trio right there).

But I noticed that Max Barnard had a nice spotlight on the series recently at his comic book site here, so I figured that I might as well just link you to his piece. So give it a look see!

The Whirring Blender Design Challenge is Back!

My pal Kristen wrote to me to let me know that Carly Monardo’s nifty site, The Whirring Blender Design Challenge, is back after some time off.

I would be willing to recommend this site just based on the Warren Zevon reference that gives it its title, but luckily, Monardo’s site is much cooler than just that.

Here is how she describes it:

With each new challenge I will take 2 or 3 characters belonging to a particular property and redesign them to fit another property or artist’s style.

Like, for instance, Batman by Edward Gorey…

Lots more fun at her site! Her latest is doing Marvel’s Runaways in the style of KLAMP! Go check it out!

More “Hey, Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobbering Time!!!” Appreciation

I’ve written in the past about the coolness of Stephen Gettis’ art site, “Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobbering Time!,” but it was long enough ago that it could not hurt to plug it again!

If you don’t recall the original post, the concept of the site is that Gettis asks various comic book artists to draw their favorite fictional characters and/or favorite authors.

The results are amazing.

Read on for a couple of samples from artists who have done new pieces since the last time I talked about the site! And heck, try to guess who is being depicted!
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