Nick Davis's Blog, page 106

Unconditional – A new Project Fabula based on a moment of whimsy, a Teddy Bears scared duty

Teddy Bears perform a secret duty so great that they endure the hardship of their child growing up and finally abandoning them, for this task is the most important and most sacred one in the whole world. When their child sleeps at night the Teddy Bear vigilantly watches over them to protect them from the Monsters under the bed… 

This evocative quick sketch is by local Maryland Artist Dan Nokes of 21st Century Sandshark Studios fame. He is under taking a Quick Sketch Warm up Challenge where everyday he will pick three suggestions and draw it. He is doing this for FREE and to help sharpen his already considerable drawing skills. You can put in your suggestion by clicking this link here.

A quick sketch of Tristan the Teddy Bear by Dan Nokes from my latest story Unconditional

Meet Tristan the Teddy Bear, the main character from my latest short story – Unconditional. You see Tristan has a secret, a scared duty to protect his Boy from the Monsters under the Bed, as you can see in his amazing image. Unconditional is the tale of his last night watching over his Boy and the night the Monsters under the Bed decide to attack.

This evocative quick sketch is by local Maryland Artist Dan Nokes of 21st Century Sandshark Studios fame. He is under taking a Quick Sketch Warm up Challenge where everyday he will pick three suggestions and draw it. He is doing this for FREE and to help sharpen his already considerable drawing skills. You can put in your suggestion by clicking this link here.  You can check out the three quick sketches he did for me, which include Tristan the Teddy Bear, Tobisum the Inch High Samurai riding a Bee and Ninja Vs Zombie in the gallery below.

 

First Look – Marvel at more The Avengers movie sneak peak pictures of Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye

Psst… Ere Mate, I got some Avenger movie pictures for ya… Fresh off the Internet, you can check out Chris Evan's being all buff and Captain America like, and Black Widow being all… Widowish and hot… Ahem… New Avenger movie sneak peak pictures!!! How cool is that!!! Check out all the images after the jump.

Sigmartyr Vol.3 of the Epic Stikfas action web comic – An Unexpected Rescue

Volume Three of Sigmartyr the Stikfas Action Web Comic continues. Click here to view to read this epic story. Alpha team is in the hands of the Omega Coalition, but could this be an unexpected rescue?

Sigmartyr Vol.3 of the Epic Stikfas action web comic – An unexpected Rescue

Volume Three of Sigmartyr the Stikfas Action Web Comic continues. Click here to view to read this epic story. Alpha team is in the hands of the Omega Coalition, but could this be an unexpected rescue?

Time to rest the eyes with a little Internet fun – Where's WALL.E ?

I promise you WALL.E is in this amazing picture of Bots we all remember and love, warning you might be reminiscing too much to actually find him.

Lunch Break by Jonathan Adams – A Star Wars comic that takes us into the Secret Diary of Darth Vadar

There have  been many comics and books created from the Star Wars franchise, many official, many fan generated. One of the best fan works is Lunch Break by Jonathan Adams.  We take a humorous look into the diary of Darth Vadar, you can check out the full strip after the jump.  

From the Archive – My Custom MSIA RX-79(G) Gundam Ground Type in desert configuration

Going back to my Gundam roots here with a showcase of my RX-79 (G) Gundam Ground Type socked up for desert use – inspired by Gundam 08 team. Note the ports are covered with sand filters, and has covers on its major joints too, these were created using modelling putty. This custom MSIA is painted using Citadel Paints and a mix Bubonic Brown shaded with Snakebite Leather, highlighted with Bubonic and Bleached Bone. To finish off I dusted the figure with pastel dust. It was fun little project and gave me a very unique Gundam to display.

Inside the Box – Secret Avengers, More Avengers, Captain America, More Captain America and Transformers

Welcome to the biweekly Inside the Box column, where we look inside my box at my local comic store Chucks Comics to see what will stay or what will go. Before I go any further I have a quick confession what follows are not all the books in my box, due to budget constraints I had to leave some behind which will make the next column very packed. Now, lets see what goes and what stays in the order I read them in.

Secret Avengers #17 – Ellis, Walker & Martin – Sing it with me… Secret Agent Man… Secret Agent Man… This is what this book should be, each week the Secret Avengers being put into teams and tackling a threat in secret. I didn't love this book as much I did last months, but it was fun. What I did get from it was a extremely creepy 2000AD vibe which worked with the concept of this book – uncommon threats dealt in an uncommon manner; and Steve Rogers is much more fun as Commander Rogers. A pure comic book romp and so staying in my box…

Avengers #17 Fear Itself Tie In – Bendis, Romita, Janson & Mounts – I got very excited opening the pages of this book, it was the first time we didn't open with talking heads in what five issues now? Then I got past the two page splash and there they were waiting for me. I honestly don't mind the narrative being powered this way, just thought after five issues we would see something different. Decent story dealing with what I think is the end of Fear Itself in the Avengers book, kind of glad it all over now to be honest as it felt like we were going through the motions a little bit here. Lets see what happens now, eh?

Avengers Academy #19 Fear Itself Tie In – Gage, Raney, Hanna & Cox – The Academy kids deal with the invasion of two of the Chosen as the Infinity Mansion goes haywire. Great interactions between all the characters, believable stuff as three of them prepare to make the ultimate sacrifice. This has been one of the rare series books that has dealt with the Fear Itself event very well. Everything changes for the kids at the end of this book, but I wont spoil that for you, still a keeper.

The New Avengers #16.1 – Bendis, Adams, Palmer & Mounts – Now free of Fear Itself The New Avengers .1 issue fails at its task of introducing what the Avengers are to new readers but… But… Gives us a jumping on point for a whole new and exciting looking story arc. Interesting to note every time we see The New Avengers in the Avengers Mansion they are always eating – I wonder who does the catering for Superhero teams? Is it Dial H for Hoagies? Okay that was bad, but this story was fun even if our street level Avengers spent most of the book running around looking rather clueless.  Onwards to the next book!

Captain America & Bucky #622 – Brubaker, Andreyko, Samnee & Breitweiser – We continue the retro (retcon?) look at the history of Cap & Bucky during WWII, this time we join them as they fight alongside the Invaders. To be honest I didn't enjoy this book as much as the last, maybe it was just the art or blotchy looking inks? Fun story, I would of liked to see how Cap & Bucky and the Invaders all got together, but I guess that was handled in the Marvels Project. Still in the box.

Captain America CORPS 4 of 5 – Stern, Briones & Milla – To save the future, or is that the present, or this reality or something like that, the CORPS must destroy a dystopian future. I am kind of disappointed that this didn't get more timey whimey and the threat is little more than B list villain with tiny piece of What If comic thrown in. The Cap's recruit the worlds resistance, Steve gives an inspiring speech and again the best character in the book is US Agent. One to go and the last panel may give us something I had been hoping for from the beginning, to say anymore would be a spoiler.

Captain America #3 – Brubaker, McNiven, Leisten & Ponsor – We are treated to a knockdown drag out fight between Cap and the Ameridroid, and it is a fight. In typical fashion Cap takes out one threat to reveal a much larger and dangerous one – Bravo is turning out to be a very real and deadly antagonist to Rogers and I want to see how all this plays out.

Transformers #26 – Costa, Roberts & Ramondelli – Hey IDW when I read a comic book I want to see the characters, not just color splashes in panels of moody darkness. Apart from the art making this story hard to read, the actually writing has finally knocked this book into full on space opera gear. This is what Transformers should be not the emo stuff we suffered through at the start of this run.  Somehow I've missed issue #25, which I may have to rescue from the back issue rack, but it looks like this run in IDW Transformers continuity will end in glorious fashion.

Wow, that's a lot of Marvel books on a month that feels they just let DC do their thing. Either its supreme confidence that they feel DC will screw it up (highly likely), they really are playing a deeper game, or they were caught flat footed, because I didn't see anything that really did anything special to promote the Marvel brand. Anyhow from the next column onwards DC books will be fighting alongside the rest of my pull list for survival, should be interesting, eh?

One book that didn't even make it into the box although it enjoyed a brief look earlier this year was Kick-Ass 2. What a pile of shite, it stunk more than Nemesis… My attachment to Kick Ass was from seeing the movie before picking up the original Kick Ass series in the dollar bins; frankly the movie was much better and more fun. Mark Miller really needs someone sitting on his shoulder to say, 'No your being very silly here' for him to produce a good story. I'm frankly disgusted with this book and that does take a lot for me to say; there are collections of panels that just turned me completely off his work. Shock value for the sake of shock value, no story advancement at all… Oi Mark you can do better or please just get some counseling!

That's it for this weeks column, next week depending on finances will see a super-packed one, so expect some book movement.

DCnU52 Catwoman – The Morning After? by Eric Canete

So Catwoman #1 ended with the Cat and the Bat in mid coitus, what happened afterwards? Artist Eric Canete gives us this little vignette and funny comment on the current state of DC's liberated women.