Category: comics

The Sharpie Marathon

At one table, two devils wandered through a postapocalyptic wasteland. At the other end of the room, a boy and girl passionately embraced, but tragically, she turned into a robotic killing machine and chased him all over the city. (Modern love is like that.) Across from them was another pair of lovers whose affair was much more traditionally romantic, if you overlooked the fact that he was a square and she was a triangle.

They were all stories drawn in ink, pencil, and marker by a collective of artists—eight bespectacled, nerdy guys mostly in their twenties. They call themselves the Cartoonists’ Conspiracy, and they were hunkered down at three tables at the downtown Grumpy’s. Each was focused intensely on a sheaf of thick, white Bristol one-hundred-pound paper. They were participating in the Twenty-Four Hour Comics Day, an endurance contest that took place a couple of weeks ago. Each artist had a single day to complete a twenty-four-page comic, with no advance planning or preparation.

The idea was proposed about ten years ago by author and cartoonist Scott McCloud. While our local crew was inking away, five hundred others in sixty similar groups were putting pen to paper as far away as South Korea.

Originally published May 20, 2004 in Rake Magazine. Read the complete article.

Beyond Batman and Catwoman: Comic books that deserve to be turned into movies

In recent years, the comic-book movie has really taken off. In part that’s due to ever-better special effects that make it easier to make a fantastical world look real. But there’s also more willingness to treat these stories with the seriousness they deserve — that is, it’s still escapist pop entertainment about guys who shoot lasers out of their eyes, but it’s no longer doomed to the dungeon of dreadful camp.

Casting is always crucial in any film adaptation, but especially so with comics. You need actors who can bring the character to life without moving too far from the established face and personality readers already know. Tobey Maguire, for instance, is just about the best Spider-Man one could hope for. Ron Perlman is an equally inspired choice for the title character in “Hellboy,” which came out at the beginning of April. This summer, we’ll see a new round of comic-based movies, led by “Spider-Man 2” on June 30 (this time taking on villain Doctor Octopus), Halle Berry’s “Catwoman” on July 23 and “Alien vs. Predator” on August 13. But there’s plenty of other comics — superhero, indie or otherwise — that deserve a shot at the big screen. Here’s a few of our suggestions.

Originally published on msnbc.com April 28, 2004. Read the complete article.

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