#Drawing - An inked comic, two pencils and a colored pic

Time for another drawings recap post!
First up, let's start with a comic!

It's a whole random comic page I penciled a while ago for practice.
Finally managed to clean it up and ink it:

I also published other comic pages recently, such as some Booster Gold page did for a fanproject - called "Booster Gold #49" - in this folder.

Some pencil work for a change~
Even if a bit sketchy, doesn't hurt posting online!

Here's pre-New 52 Superboy!
In all his shirt-wearing glory.

Probably the most serious Plastic man I've ever drawn :/
How weird!

And last but not least...

The classic!

Cartoon NEWS! DC Nation Animated Shorts Sneak Peek

Here's some new tidbits concerning Warner Bros' upcoming new cartoon block DC Nation!



DC Comics' new logo debut!
Plastic Man's getting more cartoons!
The Super gals Trinity kicking ass!
Even Black Ligntning will get his own cartoons, alongside his family - which is awesome if you ask me~

Can't wait!

Cartoon NEWS! First look at some DC NATIONS shorts

Thanks to a TVGuide, there's some new tidbits regarding Warner's upcoming cartoon shorts in the upcoming DC Nations program!

Long story short, here's how the World's Finest Gals - Babs!Batgirl, Donna Troy and Supergirl will look in their animated segments, as well as Plastic Man's new look in his newly resurrected cartoon:

I can only say this:

Wo-WOA-WOAAAH!! 

Stop the press, alert the media, hold the mayo!

This is awesome!!! :D

Also, Donna!! Here! Unlike DC's actual comics!

Loving the girls design. Simple, fun, dynamic!

Plastic Man's got Pants!

This is all looking pretty neat so far, give me some animation now!~

FavoriteScene from Batman: The Brave and The Bold: YANKEE DOODLE

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hope you're all doing great!
And it's 2012 now.
Things didn't change much from one day to another, right? Is it the end of the world now? Whatever, I only know I will be missing Batman: The Brave and The Bold this year...
Man, that cartoon was awesome! So much fun, references and homages to the fun comics of old.

Anyways, what best way to start blogging this year other than this.
Lemme start by posting this awesome scene from BTBATB, featuring no other than Plastic Man (and Batman, Qwardians and Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters!)

Here's Plastic Man's version of Yankee Doodle!



From Season 2's Cry Freedom Fighters! 
Heck, I'm not even an American but this song always gets me, like a patriot or something.
I must have seen this a hundred times easily.

Cartoon NEWS! DC NATION trailer

So, the 2-part pilot of the all-new CGi Green Lantern cartoon finally aired!
And you know what aired as well?
A little trailer for the upcoming DC cartoon/news block on Cartoon Network, DC Nation!

Here's the trailer if you didn't knew about it/missed it/couldn't watch it on TV (<- like me!)

Wow!
Looking great, looking sharp and looking fun.

So Tiny Titans won't be about Art Baltazar's Tiny Titans but a follow-up of sorts to the previous TT cartoon...oh well..
Plastic Man's getting his cartoon pilot aired finally! (and possibly more episodes?!)
Live Blue Beetle. Alright. I guess... *crossing fingers*

My favorite part of the whole thing? Seeing Negative man, even for only 2 seconds.. Bring the DOOM PATROL SHORTS ON!! YEAH!!

 

Next year's program is off to a good start. :D

ComicPageOfTheWeekend: How To Make Your Own Plastic Man Action Figure

Here's the most awesome page from Plastic Man 38-Page Special:

(Click for bigger pic)

Plastic Man 38-Page Special © DC Comics

CBR Plastic Man 38-Page Special

 

Remember Plastic Man? Sure you do!

Here's one more Plastic Man-centric comic book that was released near the end of the 90s. At the height of Grant Morrison's take on the Justice League which brought Plastic Man back to the front of the scene thanks to his slot on the team's roster.

That is when this One Shot special, brilliantly orchestrated by writer-artist Ty Templeton, was released. Its role was having fun and exploring Plas' outside the JLA team (though they do appear here and there, like on this comic's cover)...

Comic title: JLA Presents... Plastic Man 38-Page Special
Art by Ty Templeton, Aaron Lopresti, Dev Madan, Claude St. Aubin, Rick Burchett & Walden Wong
Stories by Ty Templeton
All color by Chris Chuckry

Published by DC Comics
From 1999
Lineup Plastic Man
Format: Special One Shot stand alone issue of about 38 pages released during summer.

"Featuring the man of India rubber Plastic Man and his portly pal, Woozy Winks!"

That's what it says directly on the first page!
Plastic Man 38-Page Special is a special issue featuring various little tales of Plastic Man and his sidekick Woozy Winks.

All the content was plotted and written by Ty Templeton who even did a bang up job at even drawing some of the features in this comic book.
This isn't even his first time having fun with one of DC's pliable here. Coincidently, he wrote the Elongated Man feature in the Elongated Man/Plastic Man: Secret Origins comic some years earlier.

Plas and Woozy are on the case, villains beware!!

This special features mostly 3 lengthy principal stories.
The first one is a comedic solo adventure of Plas and Woozy facing a group of Canadian (!!) supervillains, the media and their new found popularity in the showbiz.
Pretty fun, I could even picture this as an episode, had Plastic Man finally gotten his well deserved solo cartoon series nowadays..

In the second story, after a brief look at Plastic Man's origin as Patrick "Eel" O'Brian once more time, we finally get a threat with his bumbling pal's origin in "Why is Mr. Winks so Woozy?"
A very fun story, based around plot elements alluded briefly in Morrison's JLA.
Thankfully, it doesn't take itself too seriously as Plas' fans might fear.
Silly and plausible origin story for comic book's best sidekick ever!

Finally, the last story called "The Age of Crisis on Infinite Clones Saga" is as it implies, a big funny parody on the comic book medium and its fanbase and clichés.
Ty Templeton even appears in this one in a great self-parody. Definitively the main feature and highlight of this special.

The book features a wide range of artist, some more comedic others more "usual" (which suits the last auto-parody segment). All of them seem to be really having fun with Plastic Man's unique feature. (hint: his elastic proprieties)

The comic also features some other non-sequential pages. "Plastic Facts", "How to make your own Plastic Man Action Figure" both beautifully illustrated by Mr. Templeton (I kinda wish they'd gave him a Plastic Man on-going series).
And even a zany interview about Plastic Man's past movie while we wait for his upcoming modern take on theaters. What? You did not know about Plas' original movie on the silver screens? Well... You need to get this 38-Page Special and find out about it in this unique interview!!! :'3

Overall, BWA HA HA HA!!

This kinda summarize this whole special issue!
A pure gem, sadly underrated.

The book is very fun, DC truly needs to publish more humor titles like this again.

Plastic Man fans need to grab a copy of this, DC Comics fanboys and other comic book readers might want to give this a try too.
Just an overall perfect little one shot, fun, well drawn and great writing.

I give it:

  2 / 3 Plastic-trophies!

ComicPageOfTheWeekend: Plastic Man and Giffen's guys

I told you last time I'd love to see the Ambush Bug tag along Plastic Man more often...
But I'd love even more to see Keith Giffen's own Ambush Bug tag along his other 4th wall breaking nutjob The Heckler even more...
And when you put all those three together, well, it's even tons of time better! :D

(Click for bigger pic)

Sidenote: This is the only time the Heckler (re)appeared, outside his own miniseries. -sigh-

JLA Welcome to the Working Week © DC Comics

ComicPanelsOfTheWeek: Justice League of Anarky

'love Ambush Bug, 'love Plastic Man too.
And I'd love to see this "team-up" more often.

(Click for bigger pic)

The Justice League of Anarky as seen in Justice League of Amazons #1 © DC Comics

CBR Plastic Man/Elongated Man: Secret Origins

 

I'm a big fan of both DC stretching superheroes.
Unlike Reed Richards, they're less serious characters, and neither copy of one another.

A while back when I was checking some old Secret Origins issues from the 80s (like the previously reviewed Blue Beetle one) I found this pretty well themed comic concerning both characters.
So let's take a look, shall we?

If you're interested in more books featuring these characters, I also reviewed:
- Plastic Man: On the Lam
- Plastic Man: Rubber Bandits
- Elongated Man: Europe '92

Comic title: Secret Origins #30
Plastic Man story by Roy Thomas 
Plastic Man art by Stephen DeStefano & Paul Fricke
Elongated Man story by Gerard Jones
Elongated Man art by Ty Templeton & Grant Miehm

Published by DC
From 1988
Lineup Plastic Man/Elongated Man
Format: Single issue from an on-going series.

Like most Secret Origins comics, this one feature two distinct characters' tales.
Both done by separated creative teams, unlike the Blue Beetle one.
But also unlike other SO, this one cover related characters.
(the other issues of this series often paired 2 totally unrelated characters, often one famous such as Batman, Superman,etc and tagged those with B-lister and C-lister heroes who wouldn't get the chance of supporting an origin story over a book otherwise)

For this 30th issue, DC offered a revision of both the Elongated Man and Plastic Man origin stories.

Oh, Ralph... HowI miss thee...

The first story by DeStefano and Thomas is all about the Elongated Man, and for good measure!
"The Home Stretch"
Ralph Dibny returns to his hometown after travelling the states for a while with his wife Sue.
Since he got his superpowers he lived a dozen adventures, first attacking Barry Allen when he was the Flash, then joined him, becoming a detective, his marriage, etc..

Now it's time to go back where he comes from and confronts the people who knew him before.

Through his eyes, his origin story is retold and examined with a fresh new direction.
It pays a lot of respect for Elongated Man's classic stories while being quite nostalgic.
Wally West/The All-new Flash drops in then, which accentuates the nostalgic and growing up aspect.

A pretty neat story from people who seem to have a lot of respect for the character. Simple, sweet.

BAZOOKS, Plas'! Ya sure ya dontcha wanna grab a bit??

"The Secret Origin Of Plastic Man"
The second tale by Gerard Jones & Templeton is more looney, but still very much in the spirit of its character.

Woozy Winks is finally tell us (the reader!) his origin story and where does he actually come from..only to be interrupted by Plas' who definitively steals the show here.
Both from Woozy and common sense as well.

It's quite looney, like a good ol' comic strip story and far less serious than the Elongated Man from the previous pages.

We witness the transformation of the villaneous Eel O'Brian into an elastic plastic hero.
(which the more modern Kyle Baker's Plastic Man series seems to follow pretty closely)
The "secret origin" stays pretty close to his beginning and very first moment as Plastic Man.

Overall, both stories are very much in the spirit of their characters.
Not quite the same, two radically different approach on characters who in the end have very similar powers (to some extend).

The Plastic Man story was then followed by a miniseries (most Secret Origins were used as test runs by DC for potential comics).

A recommended read if you're a fan of either or both characters and also a great introduction to them!
Don't miss it if you stumble across this one in bargain bins!

I give it:

  2.5 / 3 Plastic-trophies!

Music Trivia - The Justice League theme songs that never were

If I talk to you about Justice League opening theme songs...
You probably think about this one:


Justice League Unlimited Opening 

And/or that other one:



Justice League Unlimited Opening

Well I wasn't talking about the Justice League theme song, rather Justice League members theme song!
And now I'm guessing your thinking about these one:



Batman: The Animated Series Opening


Superman: The Animated Series Opening

Or if you're old enough;


The original Superman animated Opening

 
The Superfriends cartoon opening from 1976

Well, what I wanted to talk about in today's post is neither of those.
In fact it's not even a cartoon but an "audio" series.

 Okay...so the cover looks awful...specially that forced pose everyone's doing..

I only discovered this CD not long ago...
Songs and Stories About the Justice League of America was released in 1968.
It seems it was part of a larger "trilogy" of release they had back then, only this one's really interesting.

For you see this one's called "Songs and Stories About the Justice League".
So it is like several radio dramas put together, each with its own opening theme song.

 Here's a second release cover, the much better alternate art done by Neal Adams(!)

It was basically composed like this: (here's the tracklist)

1. Justice League of America Theme Song
2. Wonder Woman Theme Song
3. A Wonder Woman audio drama - "The Return of Brunhilde"
4. Plastic Man Theme Song
5. A Plastic Man audio drama - "The Invasion of the Plastic Men"
6. Metamorpho Theme Song
7. A Metamorpho audio drama - "Metamorpho vs. Fumo the Fire Giant"
8. Aquaman Theme Song
9. An Aquaman audio drama - "The Defeat of the Dehydrator"
10. The Flash Theme Song
11. A Flash audio drama - "The Three Faces of Mr. Big"

Yeah, you notice the very unusual occurence, a JLA mechandise without Superman or Batman, but Hey! at least Wonder Woman, part of DC's Trinity, is in here!

Now, to the songs.
Thanks to youtuber CalebTheTimeTraveler, who has uploaded all the songs on his youtube channel, I can share with you guys and gals the music from this good ol' release!
(to get, buy, download, pirate this, well... google is your friend, do it yourself! :P)

First, let's start with the JLA theme!



Well...that was..not particulary good. Sort of less good than other cartoon theme songs of that time, maybe because since this was a record release, they wanted to be "more musical", while still doing the whole voices/narration/presentation particular to that era.

Now the Flash!
He even got a pretty badass live series in the 90s.
How does Flash theme song sound like in here?



Woah! A very fun surf song typical from the late 60/70s!
Sort of fun!



Aquaman gets an OUTRAGEOUS!! James Bond-sound alike song.

By now if you dislike "retro" music you're probably sick of this.
(hey!! nobody forced you to watch this)



Metamorpho gets his origins wonderfully summarized in this catchy song.
It's always the same group singing, sure, but this one is very much 60s, in the sound, the style, the composition.
Groovy~

Now it's time for PLAAASTIC MAAAN!!~



I gotta say it now.
Plastic Man's opening is my favorite by far!
It's great, funny and catchy!
Simply put: PER-FECT!!
The one, the original elastic man!

One left to go:



Wonder Woman gets a pretty strange song.
Pretty far from what they would get several years later in her old live action show, less goofy at least.
It's sort of a romantic/tango-like tune.

Anyway for any DC fan, it's really worth getting a copy of this!
The episodes/stories are...ok, it really depends on the characters.
(I specially dig Plastic Man's casting here. From here to his Superfriends cameo, his old 70/80s cartoon, his Cartoon Network pilot that never was and his recent appearances in The Brave and The Bold; his voice has been pretty consistent and similar throughout the years and different actors)

And that's all for this musical post~
Again, thanks to CalebTheTimeTraveler sharing the tunes on youtube!

ComicPageOfTheWeekend: Plastic Man captures Poison Ivy!

(Click for bigger pic)

Plastic Man © DC Comics

CBR Plastic Man: RUBBER BANDITS

Hey gang! Remember Plastic Man's previous review?
Well, here's the follow-up~

Comic title: Plastic Man vol. 2: Rubber Bandits
Art and writing by Kyle Baker

Published by DC Comics
From 2006
Lineup Plastic Man
Format: Trade paperback containing Plastic Man Vol. 4 issues #8-11 and #13-14

This here's the second and last Plastic Man collected TPB containing most of the rest of Kyle Baker's Plastic Man 2000s on-going series.

The Plas-gang is all back and ready for some more Plastic-action!

Still written and drawn by Kyle Baker, this second collection doesn't contain a big on-going larger overall plot. Instead Kyle Baker, after havin' redone and told Plastic Man's origins and motivations, moved on simpler fun.
His characters were all defined in the earlier part of the series, now it's time to have fun with this little family!

The book is mainly composed of two smaller arcs and some one shots, which ran the rest of the issues before the book was sadly canceled...

Plastic Man lives now with his little family, Woozy Winks, his trusty sidekick, and Agent Morgan, his gal-pal/ex-love.

The book is, like Vol. 1, drawn in Kyle Baker's very unique cartoony artstyle, which really works well with Plastic Man's powers anyway!
The dialogues and rythme, in one word, perfect~

Kyle Baker's all new improved Plastic-kids!

The main so called "plot" is this new book main's arc.
This time Plas' plays around with DC continuity - yep. Time travels, wreckin' havoc into the timeline, etc...
Plastic Man finds out he's got a son he never heard off...
(no, it's not Plastic's current son, Offspring, but another other different kid...but I can't tell you more if you don't wanna be spoiled, there's a little twist ending~)

Then some investigation/homeland security hijinks, where in one of those tales Plastic Man and Agent Morgan find vampires...and end up with adopting a new character/sidekick, a Goth teenage daughter, Edwina.

And after that, battling crimes, mice, illegal music download... It's just one shots and random little fun stories for the gang~

Where else would you see Abraham Lincoln kickin' so much ass?!? 

And superheroes tryin' to kill the guy?!? (you know, to correct the timeline, or somethin')

Kyle Baker really loves these characters, be it Plastic Man and Woozy, or his all original cast. And it shows!

He's really having fun in the little short stories. Though it's kinda sad there isn't a big epic storyline as in issues #1 to 6!
Anyway, it's great, it's fun, it's quite gorgeous to look at.... The "story" itself may appear as a simplistic random cartoon...but it's so much fun!!
Baker won an Eisner Award for this series afterall!

Plastic Man is such an entertaining character to explore, be it character-wise or just artistically.

Overall, a pretty fun book!
If you picked up Vol. 1, chance is you'll love this as well!
Check it out!

But I do have some problems, not with the issues themselves but with the 'trade.

The filler issues done by artist/cartoonist Scott Morse, Plastic Man #7 and 12, weren't included in the TPB...
Nor were all the final issues, Plastic Man #15 to 20. Considered "one shots" madness, just before the drastic cancellation. (my hypothesis? bad marketing. not enough people knew about this book!!)
This includes a quite epic story from Plastic Man that made fun about DC's universe... oh well...

As far as the story goes, it's a great compilation! The follow-up to vol. 1 "On the Lam!" and some one-shots (some issues not included sadly...) but not as epic and clever as the previous story.

Take this as a little "supplement" to an already great Plastic Man series!

I give it:

  2 / 3 Plastic-trophies!

CBR Plastic Man: On The Lam!

Here's a new Comic book review, an unexpected one at that!
This time we'll check the underrated awesome superhero that is Plastic Man...

Comic title: Plastic Man: On The Lam!
Art and writing by Kyle Baker

Published by DC Comics
From 2005
Lineup Plastic Man
Format: Plastic-TPB containing Plastic Man Vol. 4 issues #1-6

Who is Plastic Man?! What is Plastic Man: On the Lam?! And how special is this little series?!

First of all, let me say you'd expect from a comic book called "Plastic Man", edited with a real life plastic cover to be something quite special...

Is it a book or really Plastic Man himself? A special edition maybe ?? Nope, just the regular paperback...

Who is Plastic Man?!
Plastic Man may just be the very first rubber-hero, if not one of the earliest incarnations of this super powered type of character.
He first appeared in a story released under Quality Comics called Police Comics #1 in 1941. The story was about a little criminal who gets a super power in a crazy zany accident (not that different from the Joker or Sandman "accidents") but instead of going the cliché way, decides to become a super hero after a change of heart.
Sometime later, the Elongated Man was created by DC Comics in the Flash issue #112 in 1960, because, and I quote, "[We] didn't think we had the rights to use Plastic Man, when in fact [we] just had bought and obtained the rights to use all of Quality Comics created series in 1956".
And finally in 1961, Stan Lee & co created the last most famous comic rubber-hero in Fantastic Four #1 with the now more well known, Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic.
Many more comic book characters would use these abilites, but these are the main, older, more mainstream ones. (in DC comics, Marvel, Image and many other little companies...)

Elongated Man was a decent character, one time villain and scientist hero who's got his best appearances in the amazing Justice League International series.
Mister Fantastic, thanks to the 90s Fantastic Four cartoon and (somewhat lackbuster) modern Fox movie adaptations is currently the most famous hero of this kind.

Sadly, Plastic Man isn't that well known or that much used anyway.. But really he's the one with the moreuntapped potential and the more original in my eyes.
Being an almost immortal character, with a larger cartoony range of abilities and being a former crook, Plastic Man should deserve a lot more attention!
He doesn't just stretch, like R. Richards or Elongated Man, he can change forms to almost any kind of object, of any kind of size and shape, separate his body in many parts and still control them...
Plus he makes pretty good comedy, since he isn't a scientist like his other two counterparts, he doesn't have to act seriously.

That's right, Plastic Man retained his silver age light hearted and fun spirit and wasn't lost in darker, edgier themes over the years...

Our new Plastic Man series' crew...

What is Plastic Man: On the Lam?! 
Plastic Man had many long runs a long time ago in some pretty funny comics both at Quality Comics and DC later on.
Then he kinda disappeard...for a while...

But in the late 70s/early 80s Plastic Man had a cartoon series! (you know, those Hannah Barbera-type with simplistic commercial animation)
It was somewhat popular, enough to mark a new generation and bring Plastic Man back to the scene. The set was even released on DVD!
In the late 80s, Plastic Man was brought back under a cartoonist's pen in a limited series (we might talk about this some other time ; )). Plastic Man was back in current DC's continuity! Thanks to the cartoonist, Plastic Man was back in all his glory, funnier than ever. But it was a little mini series, so the run end up and Plastic disappeard again. At least the character was back in "modern" media! That's why Plastic Man joined DC's super team of the Justic League in the second roster and made some appearance here and there...

Then around the 2000s, cartoonist Kyle Baker introduced a new generation and old time fans to Plastic Man's origin in a brand new ongoing series!


"On the Lam!" is the first arc of Plastic Man 4th comic series.

...Back in all their glory, for justice, elastic-fun and many more mischiefs!

This story works as a great Plastic Man introduction, re-telling his origins for new readers (mostly based on the original Quality Comics series) without the problem of the story becoming a simple "Year One" book with the early days of the hero's appearance and his first actions.

Kyle Baker is a great illustrator and cartoonist, for sure, but a great story teller as well.
The story seems to be focused on little practical jokes and issues-contained misadventures, but tell a larger on going story in the background before the climatic ending and resolution.

We join Patrick "Eel" O'Brian, reformed criminal and super hero as he struggles between playing around and his duty as an agent working for the FBI. That's right, Plastic Man, being stuck in his "super-form" forever joined forces with the FBI to work and help on cases, thanks to his very impressive range of powers.
Helping  Plas', is always by his side Plastic Man's sidekick Woozy Winks.
With the help of the chief, they solve crimes and enjoy the lifestyle.
You see, Plastic Man is a super hero, member of the prestigious JLA, super famous and has no problems of his former life haunting him... or does he?

Plastic Man's past is revealed bit by bit and a larger-than-life revenge plot strikes Plas' current life.

On The Lam! is a funny light hearted story, in which Baker plays around with Plastic Man's powers and abilities without losing the most important aspect of a good comic book. It's entertaining and has a lot of substance!

I was laughing most of the time, always smiling at Plas' and Woozy's antics...but was quite surprised by the turn of events in the late rpart of the book...

In the end, everybody laughs around, happy ending, our heroes walk into the sunset.
I wouldn't expect otherwise from this story!

 

Who says comic books should always be super serious and all about realistic and gritty matters??
If this book teaches us something is that you can write cartoony characters in fun light hearted adventures and be quite entertaining if not as good as award winning series such as Batman Year One or Watchmen!
As a matter of fact, it did!
This Plastic Man series won an Eisner Award for Kyle Baker, and he truly deserved it!

Some parts, maybe the very first pages and some little aspects of the mid-issues across this paperback may appear like it's just joke after joke, with no real content. They might appear like mini-fillers but the overall experience is quite fun!

Including a super-random-guest-appearance of the Justice League itself (not many panels sadly...) that was pretty good. Baker can drew super epic muscular super-heroes when he wants to (see his other works), but in the pages of cartoony Plastic Man, they really work great as parodic serious character! (check the pages at the bottom of this very review)

 
Overall, it's quite a unique experience!
It's a great Plastic Man return in mainstream comics, a great introduction to his origins and sets up his future adventures (followed in...another book in another review).

Definitely a worthly addition to anyone's comic collection, DC fan or not!
It's amazing to see Plas' back in people's heart with this comic series first, that unaired pilot for the new series he almost had and with his current regular appearance in the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold!

I truly recommand you check it out, if you'd like to read a fun and cartoony comic book ; ).

I give it:

  2,5 / 3 Plastic-trophies!