Francesco Francavilla's Captain America

Comic artist Francesco Francavilla has a number of commission sketches on his website, including this sweet drawing of Captain America. I definitely recommend browsing his site (and buying his books!) as well as his blog Pulp Sunday, where he posts a pulp-inspired illustration each week.

Francesco Francavilla's official site
Pulp Sunday

Zombies take Atlanta

AMC has released the first image of the Zombie invasion of Atlanta from the filming of The Walking Dead:

More images, including the first picture of series protagonist Rick Grimes, at AICN. Via Spinoff Online.

If you haven't read Robert Kirkman's excellent Walking Dead comics, I recommend them highly [available at Amazon].

Getting excited about Athens Popfest 2010

After a year off in 2009, Athens Popfest returns August 10-14. I'm pretty excited about it, as my professional life has prevented me from seeing much live music lately. I'm particularly excited about veteran acts The Apples in Stereo, Mission of Burma, Oh-OK, and Your Heart Breaks, along with local favorites Madeline and Grape Soda. There's a lot more to see too, including a bunch of local bands on my radar, and it's only $45 for the whole festival. Should be a great late summer event and worth a visit to Athens for the out-of-town crowd. We're nice here, you know.

Mission of Burma - "Dirt"

The Athens Popfest 2010 lineup:

Keith John Adams - Afternoon Naps - The Antivillains - Apples in Stereo - Bambra - Bastards of Fate - Big Fresh - BOAT - Bunnygrunt - Cars Can Be Blue - Casper and the Cookies - Circulatory System - Dead Dog - Defiance, Ohio - Dream Diary - Elekibass - Eureka California - Eux Autres - Flash to Bang Time - Gold-Bears - Go Sailor - Grape Soda - The Humms - Laminated Cat - Los Meesfits - Madeline - Marshmallow Coast - Rose Melberg - Misfortune 500 - Mission of Burma - Nana Grizol - Oh-OK - Onward Chariots - The Open Letters - Pipes You See Pipes You Don't - Poison Control Center - PS Eliot - Quintron & Miss Pussycat - Raymilland - Reptar - Sleepy Vikings - Sourpatch - Standard Fare - Supercluster - Sweater Girls - Joe Jack Talcum - Terrapin Pond - Thee American Revolution - Titans of Filth - Tunabunny - Twinside - The Wedding Present - Werewolves - Witches - World Atlas - Your Heart Breaks

Athens Popfest official site
Athens Popfest tickets

What is best in life?

Preach it, Conan.

From Conan the Barbarian: The Official Marvel Comics Adaptation of the Movie (1982); art by John Buscema.

Apparently it took a $1 paperback from Bizarro Wuxtry to get me posting here again. And away we go....

Sourpatch - "I Want You Either Way" (video)

As may be apparent, I haven't been jazzed about a lot of new music lately. This week, however, I was introduced to an artist to watch. Sourpatch are a young band from San Jose, and they have a record on Athens label HHBTM Records. They've posted the video for "I Want You Either Way" and it's a promising sample:

Order Sourpatch records from HHBTM.

Jeff Lemire draws Tintin

Tintin and Snowy by Jeff Lemire
From Leigh Walton's Tintin sketchbook on Flickr.

The Mountain Goats - "Psalms 40:2" on The Colbert Report

The Mountain Goats were on The Colbert Report last night, and played a new song from their brand new album Life of the World to Come (Dig). Here is "Psalms 40:2":

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Bonus track:

The Mountain Goats - Genesis 3:23

Werewolf By Night and the Godfather of Soul

I watched the great documentary on the 1974 Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire, When We Were Kings, tonight and was surprised when a Marvel comic made a quick cameo. Not only did 1974's Werewolf By Night #23 make an appearance, but it was being read by James Brown. Hell yes.

The Godfather of Soul clearly digs his werewolves.

A timely find: Marvel's subtle reference to the Clarence Thomas hearings

Flipping through NFL Superpro #5 tonight (don't ask), I had to pause and look at the "Bullpen Bulletins" page packed with whimsical news about Marvel's staff and books. Right under a sketch of Quasar and next to an announcement of the upcoming Operation: Galactic Storm was the "January Coolometer" for 1992:

See what's on top? It seems the Marvel office was offering subtle commentary on the then-recent confirmation process for Justice Clarence Thomas. The January street date for the issue means it probably went to press about three months prior, in October-November 1991. As the timeline notes, the initial allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill emerged in the media on October 6. Hill testified against Thomas in the Senate Judiciary Committee beginning on October 11 and the nation was swept up in the drama of sex, law, and politics. Thomas was later confirmed on October 15 by a 52-48 vote, the narrowest margin ever for a successful Supreme Court nominee. Pretty nifty to see a reference to the Thomas hearings show up in the funnybooks.

Either way, it's not as bad as the preemptive hit job that DC pulled on Robert Bork:

I'm guessing this seemed less perverse when it was published

From Marvel Super Special #4: The Beatles Story (1978)

Prince would be proud.

Saturday afternoon at AthFest

Wandered down to AthFest today to see Venice is Sinking and Liz Durrett play enjoyable sets. A few sights from the afternoon:

More pics from AthFest are on my Flickr. Tonight I'll be at the Kindercore showcase at Athens Cine.

Nerd + Sense of Entitlement = Ugh

Note written by a "fan" on table of writer Brian Michael Bendis (New Avengers, Dark Avengers, Secret Warriors, Alias, Ultimate Spider-Man, Powers, etc.) at HeroesCon on June 19, 2009, after learning that Bendis would appear only after an upcoming panel discussion. Classy, no?

My other pics from HeroesCon, mostly of creators, are at Flickr.