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(From "Police Comics" number 10, 1942.)
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
You often hear old-timers praise the work of Jack "King" Kirby, arguably the most influential comics artist in history, but harder to find are explanations of why he was so great. Luckily we have Norris Burroughs of the "Jack Kirby Museum" to illuminate our ignorance.
One of Kirby's greatest strengths (although that's a bit like saying "One of the ocean's wettest waves -- the guy did so many things at such a high level it seems odd to pick out just one) was his panel composition, a skill sorely lacking in most comics. Burroughs does a great job explicating one such panel here:
In this panel from Fantastic Four #39, a conversation is taking place around a table.
(Click to embiggen.)The reader's eye enters the page with the visual cue of the yellow box reading, "the Next morning" and then on to the word balloon emanating from the sailor and finally comes to rest on the sailor himself. However, this is not the only cue to follow, as the structure of the entire composition will also lead us to the sailor. He is the apex of a pyramid that begins with the figure of Mr. Fantastic, travels rightward past Sue Storm to the top of the sailor's head, down his arm to Ben Grimm's shoulder and around left again to Johnny Storm. The oval shape moves the eye around, but the progression of a few moments in time must begin with Mr. Fantastic and end with Ben Grimm's words. This is a clear sequence of time in comic storytelling.
He doesn't post all that often, and the archives are only three pages deep, but he crams a ton of great stuff into those brief posts. Spend a lazy afternoon browsing through his breakdown of Kirby Kinetics and you'll thank me for pointing out this Thing I Like.
(Image from "Fantastic Four" number 39, © Marvel Entertainment Group.)
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Posted in Things I Like
(From "Spidey Super Stories" number 54, ©1981 by Marvel Entertainment Group.)
Comments Off on RP: Oh, and the alligator humping. Otherwise it's gold, baby!
Posted in Daily Random Panel
Hammerknight's back for another round of RPG Corner, introducing a new scenario this week that I think has a lot of promise.
Enjoy!
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Posted in RPG Corner
(From "Police Comics" Number 10, 1942.)
Comments Off on RP: Never ask Plastic Man to tickle your funnybone
Posted in Daily Random Panel
I've been doing a series of very simple portraits in an effort to focus on the line work itself, and not get caught up in the "Who is this supposed to be and what kind of scene is it" vibe. The point of these Sketches Of the Day is supposed to be simply to make myself draw every day, whether I'm mostly coding (like I have been this week), or even if I am drawing items for HM full-bore. But the larger reason behind that is to try to stretch myself, to hone the basic skills like line weight, mastery of the tool, and developing my own style. So I'll go through phases where I'm into a particular character or genre, but I'll also go through stretches like the current one where the important thing is not the subject, but the technique.
So apologies if these are boring, and rest assured I'll be returning to super-hero stuff before too long.
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Posted in Sketch of the Day
When last we left ourselves ... that sure sounds wrong. Let's go with "When last we left Lone Wolf", we had to decide whether or not to investigate some smoke rising from the woods before us. Mustering our Kai Discipline of Cajones, we chose to go on ahead rather than bravely running away. We'll see how that works out ...
Carefully parting the dense foliage, you are horrified by the sight that meets you. In a small clearing ahead, three Giaks have tied a man to a wooden stake and are setting fire to a mass of brushwood bundled at his feet. You recognize his tunic as that of a border ranger, one of the King's men who police the kingdom near the Durncrag mountains of the west. He has been badly beaten and is nearly unconscious.
Typical ranger. Ambushed in the woods and ready to serve as someone's dinner. Where's an Aragorn when you need one?!
Regardless, we do not have the Kai Discipline of Hunting because except for the spear and the mind blast we are anti-violence. That's too bad, because if we did have that Discipline, we might have been able to opt for a sneakier approach as well as turning to 297, which I've always wanted to visit. I hear it's lovely this time of year. Alas, lacking the skills of the stalker, we therefore "must attack the Giaks now in order to save the ranger's life. Turn to 336".
You rush into the clearing and take the Giaks completely by surprise. Without a moment's hesitation, you strike out at the one nearest to you. he is dead before his body hits the ground. The other Giaks unsheath their curved swords and attack you. You must fight them one at a time.
Giak 1: Combat Skill 14, Endurance 11.
Giak 2: Combat Skill 13, Endurance 11.
This is what we get for running towards danger instead of away from it. Stupid cajones. We have a base combat skill of 19, +2 for our Kai Discipline of Mind Blast, and another +2 for using a spear (acquired a few sessions ago) with our Kai Discipline of Weapon Skill. With that much extra mojo, if these guys were pigs we'd probably be able to use our Kai Discipline of Animal Kinship to convince the bastards to spit themselves for us. Maybe after this we can go to Kai-Mart and pick up some of that.
Before then, though, we have to dispose of a couple of Giaks. With a combat differential on Giak 1 of +9, and a random "roll" (actually a "close your eyes and point") of 9 as well, we fell the porcine pugilist with one mighty blow, taking no damage ourselves! Go us!
That leaves one dastardly foe to face, however. This time our combat differential is a +10, which frankly means we ought to be able to moon him to death. This time we only roll a 6, however, and while that results in 14 points of damage for our friend -- a kill -- we do take one point of damage ourselves, bringing us to 23. Jerk! He probably bled on us as we gutted him, Giaks are rude that way.
Having won, we free the ranger and head to scenic 117.
The man is badly injured and near to death. If you have the Kai Discipline of Healing [we do not, we decided to go for the Slacker Curriculum instead], you may ease the pain of his wounds but he has been so seriously hurt he is beyond repair by your skills alone. He soon lapses into unconsciousness. You try to make him as comfortable as possible beneath a large forest oak, before leaving and pressing on through the thick woodland towards the northeast. Turn to 330.
Cheap! We might as well have let them roast the fellow and saved ourselves the stains on our spiffy Kai Cloak of Cloaking. Ah well, a good deed seldom goes unrewarded. Eventually. Maybe. Just not, you know, now. On to 330!
Fatigued by your exertions, you stop to rest for a few minutes at a fallen tree. You notice a large bundle, beneath the trunk.
Haven't these people ever heard that you're not supposed to leave any packages or luggage unattended? No wonder the Giaks are taking over the place!
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Posted in Lone Wolf: Flight from the Dark, RPG Corner
We can all be thankful that Comics Alliance hired Chris Sims, because now we get to enjoy his "Super-Fetishes: 5 Super-Heroes Who Used Their Powers For Sex" column. Not unsafe for work, but let's be honest, no one wants to get caught looking at super heroes getting freaky by anyone, at home or work.
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Posted in Super-Hero Stuff, Things I Like
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com
