web stats

CBR Live! Archive

Snark Free Corner for 4/16

Welcome to the latest installment of your breath of snark free air!

Enjoy!

COOL COMIC THINGS

Over at the Comic Book Resources' Never Ending Forum, Matt Bib is running an amazingly awesome competition titled Project CBRunway, which just recently began its second year of competition.

The concept is simple - a group of artists sign up (I believe it was sixteen this year), Matt gives them a superhero costume design theme, and they have to come up with a costume design for the theme, draw it and post it on the competition thread. Then posters vote for their favorites in a poll, with the lowest vote-getter getting eliminated. This goes on until there is only one competitor left standing - he/she is, obviously, the winner of Project CBRunway!

Awesome, no?

The first week's challenge was to design a costume and a hero based on an animal.

This week's challenge was to design a costume and a hero based on the flag of a country.

Here are four sample entries from this week...

"Zachary Loves You"'s entry

RedMistressforCBRUNWAYdonedark.jpg

"Samurai"'s entry

BoPsm.jpg

"AnkaleRa"'s entry

La_Bell__Italia_by_jelloconcoction.jpg

Our old blogging pal, Chad's entry!

khoomi.jpg

Isn't this absolutely awesome?

Click here to read more about the competition and click here to see more entries for this week's challenge. You can vote for your favorites, all you have to do is to register at CBR (registration is free - just click here).

Project CBRunway - a total snark blocker!

COVER THEME GAME

As always, here is the game. I show three covers. They all have something in common, whether it be a character, a trait all three characters share, locale, creator, SOMEthing. And it isn't something obvious like "They all have prices!" "They all have logos!" "They all feature a man!" etc.

In addition, please note that you must have some familiarity with comic book history to correctly guess these comics. You cannot guess the connective theme just by looking at the covers solely, you must have some knowledge beyond just the covers.

Good luck! This one is pretty tough, so TWO cool points to the first one to give me the answer!

1.

2059_4_001.jpg

2.

4099_4_2.jpg

3.

1867_4_0002.jpg

SNARK FREE CHALLENGE

Who is a better inventor - Tony Stark or Victor Von Doom?

COVER HOMAGE

Here's how this one works.

I give you a cover, and you have to tell me a comic cover that homages this cover.

You get a cool point for each cover (one cool point per commenter, so one single commenter can't just blow it all in one fell swoop), with double the cool points for any cover homage from three on (as I can only think of two homages myself, offhand)...

1571_4_001.jpg

WHO IS IT?

Remember, tell me who it is and what number clue gave it away!

1. This creator drew his first comic story in the 60s, when he was still a teenager.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2. This creator had a multi-year run on the Fantastic Four.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
3. This creator is currently a surrealist painter.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
4. This creator drew an arc of the Avengers, then did not draw the book again for almost exactly 200 issues later, when he did a second arc.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
5. This creator co-created Deathlok.

Who is it?

Well, that's it for this installment of Snark Free Corner.

Hope you had fun!

  • Posted on April 16, 2007 @ 09:54 PM

29 Comments

Theme game: all three feature characters with state names? Georgia Jenkins, Martha Washington and Virginia "Pepper" Potts?

I'm going for Rich Buckler and clue #3. When I was doing research for the creators of "Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes" on my site, Rich Buckler's website, IIRC, had a bunch of surrealist paintings.

Cover Homage: I'll just go ahead and say Marvel Zombies* to get it out of the way, beacuse that series has homaged just about every iconic cover there is, and it always comes up here in The Corner. So now people have to think harder!

I always felt that X-Men #1 was an unintentional homage - you've got the villain over on the left, seen from behind. You've got your heroes charging him from the right. It's a very loose parallel, but it's there...

*that'd be the fourth printing of the collected edition

Cover homage: Thunderstrike #21

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=57242&zoom=4

I loved that series, BTW (yes, I was the one).

Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Oh, and Doom is the geatest inventor. Stark invented a set of powered armor and not much else. Doom invented that (and Doom's is supposedly the most powerful of Marvel's armors, his retro look notwithstanding) AND a time machine, that not even Reed Richards himself was able to do without copying Doom's designs!

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Rich Buckler. Clue 5.

Cover homage: One panel of the cover of Avengers Log #1 by George Perez
solo.com/moz/perez/info/avenlog.htm

I can think of others, but since we can only choose one here's an obscure cover homage to Avengers #1:

http://www.newkadia.com/Covers/Temp/10thmuse2002series1avengers.jpg

Eric Masterson is the slept upon character of the 90s.

Sorry, let me try that link again: Avengers Log #1: http://vu.morrissey-solo.com/moz/perez/info/avenlog.htm

Tony Stark is a better inventor. While Doom may be smarter, he focus his creations to destroy the world. Stark trying to make a better world (Usually).

That's just freaking weird--I _just_ read Iron Man #2 about two hours ago. And I still couldn't tell you how it ties in with 'Night Nurse' or 'Give Me Liberty'. :)

I only hate on Thunderstrike because his #1 issue featured a lame villain and over-the-top narration. ^_~

I assume you mean Carjack.

Even better, the page where Thunderstrike gets his costume, including the costume-woman going "I've always thought an earring could be sexy on the right man." Something about the in-your-face-90sness coupled with it being written by somebody who obviously is at least one generation removed from it ... it gets me every time.

I thought Thunderstrike was lame when it came out, but like it now for reasons beyond my own comprehension.
I liked it when Eric Masterson was Thor in the early 90's too.

This one isn't a perfect homage, but I think it definitely takes Avengers #1 as an inspiration: The Atomics #1. Especially the hand of the villain, and Madman's pose, which mirrors Iron Man's.

"I liked it when Eric Masterson was Thor in the early 90’s too."

I actually prefer Eric Masterson Thor to Thunderstrike and, in fact, most other Thors (certainly '90's Thors, except for when Thor got corrupted during the Infinity Crusade, and there was a full-issue fight between Thor and Drax; that was pretty cool).

I think most writers didn't know how to may Norse Thor interesting, but taking the powers of a god and giving them to a mortal -- not just Masterson, but Beta Ray Bill -- gets more interesting to me.

I also thought, as far as I can remember, that Masterson-Thor was the best of the "replacement heroes" of the '90's. Definitely better than War Machine and Ben Reilly. I think it's because Iron Man and Spider-Man had personalities, so replacing them was tough; Thor rarely did, so a new Thor with an actual personality was better.

[I don't mean to knock Thor entirely; there have definitely been good runs. I was really surprised at how much I liked Jurgens run, which was coming at a time when I almost gave up on comics altogether.]

The best inventor?
Richards.
Doom just copied the time machine off reed's dad.

Doom just copied the time machine off reed’s dad.

No, he appears to have independently discovered it, so far as I know. If you can point me to a story in which Doom turns out to have used Nathaniel Richrds' designs, that's great. At any rate, Reed himself never duplicated his father's or Doom's invention himself, and had to use a copy of Doom's time machine instead. (Kang, on the other hand, used his namesake Nathaniel Richards' device.) That said, Reed is at least Doom's equal, and usually manages to be one or two steps ahead when it counts.

And yeah, Doom is a superior inventor to Tony Stark, having mastered not only technology but also developed a fair degree of magical ability as well, which he often incorporates into his devices. Stark hates magic, and has never really made any effort to seriously understand it.

For that matter, I've yet to see Tony Stark develop technology that can manipulate the Power Cosmic to the point of transferring it from being to being, construct obedient robot simulacra of himself (Stark's various LMD doubles have invariably gone mad and tried to kill him), or make any strides comparable to Doom's in the field of bioengineering superhuman beings like Doom 's creations Darkoth, Titania, and Volcana. (Clor was a joint project with Reed and Pym, for which Pym appears to have gotten most of the credit.)

In addition, it must be remembered that Doom was developing advanced
technology as an adolescent, and doing that while lacking Stark's considerable inherited wealth or the technological resources of Stark Industries.

Doom has quite simply mastered more disciplines and technologies than Tony Stark, who tends to focus on a smaller set of applied engineering and computer science principles because of the nature of his work.

"Who is a better inventor - Tony Stark or Victor Von Doom?"

Black Panther

Eric Masteron is one of my favorite comics characters. Ever.

Naturally, I spell his name wrong in the clinch.

Yeah, the costume-picking scene just left me boggled. And yeah, I was referring to Carjack. ^_~ Bloodaxe was all right as a villain, especially with the eventual reveal of who she was, but come on - CARJACK.

“Who is a better inventor - Tony Stark or Victor Von Doom?”

Simple: Doom.

Why? Two words: TIME MACHINE.

Lemme say that again: TIME MACHINE.

Stark's repulsor rays can suck on it.

it's funny that Doom is the better inventor, but Stark is directly responsible for more heroes' deaths...

Dude, Stark has a _huge_ bodycount. He killed an ambassador, downed a plane full of people, slaughtered a freaking nanny in Avengers Mansion, murdered Spymaster and Blacklash/Whiplash, created a bio-engineered murderclone to hunt down and kill Black Goliath, and that's not even touching the question of whether or not building 42 in the Negative Zone was what touched off Annihilus' attack on positive space. (Which, if it was, makes him partially responsible for untold billions of deaths.)

Next to Iron Man, Doom's a saint. :)

Iron Man also led the faction of the Avengers who assassinated the Supreme Intelligence, the leader/god of billions of Kree. If memory serves, he convinced some of the wafflers to go along with him. [Captain America, of course, was on the other side.]

No! Captain America and Iron Man have always been best buddies who never disagreed on anything! Ever! The fanboys who bitched about Civil War told me so! Exclamation point!

Anyway, cover homage: Following Cerebus #2

Leave a Comment

 

Subscribe to CSBG

Categories

Review Copies

Comics Should Be Good accepts review copies. Anything sent to us will (for better or for worse) end up reviewed on the blog. See where to send the review copies.

Browse the Archives