As you can see if you’ve been here before, I’ve been meddling with the wordpress theme. Since I never update the little covers at left- who has the time- I thought they could go. They make for slower loading the first time and get in the way when I’m trying to connect a post image to a link when referring to this site on Google Plus or Facebook- I have to scroll through a hundred images to get to the relevant one.
Now I just have to figure out how to widen the main post so there isn’t dead white space at left. But I’m happy for now, I’ll stop before I crash the site and have to back up an entire database. Why I always get interested in html or css at midnight is a tragic flaw I’ve yet to expunge.
Try to introduce a character in a weird position if at all possible. Hanging upside down is always good. Anything but just standing there. The best is if they can be doing something physically that says the main thing you need to know about their personalities. That’s like I just handed you money, so go buy one of my books now.
Hulk #50
Jeff Parker (W) • Carlo Pagulayan (A/C)
Variants By Arthur Adams, Humberto Ramos & Walter Simonson
Blank Cover Also Available
• Bonus-Sized! A Great Jumping On Point, As The Ghoulish Haunted Hulk Arc Begins!
• Who Or What Is The Dark Figure Hunting Red Hulk?
• Can Red Hulk’s Might Match Malevolent Magic?
• Appearances By Dr. Strange, Red She-Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Daredevil And Others We Aren’t At Liberty To Divulge!
48 Pgs./Rated T+ …$3.99
Thunderbolts #172 & #173
Jeff Parker (W) • Declan Shalvey (A)
Covers By Mark Bagley
• It Had To Happen – Thunderbolts V. Thunderbolts!
• Years Ago, In The Wake Of The World’s Battle With Onslaught, The Thunderbolts Were Formed To Protect A Planet Devoid Of Heroes – But They Were Villains In Disguise!
• Now, The ‘Bolts Of The Modern Day Come Crashing Into Their Earliest Days – And Will Make A Decision That May Destroy The Marvel U – Or Save It! Parts 1 & 2 Of 3!
32 Pgs. (Each)/Rated T+ …$2.99 (Each)
This is really for any of my family who check in and want to see what one of the little Parkers is up to, but maybe you’re a fan of the Suzuki school. Allie has been playing since she was 4. My iPhone can’t zoom in!
At the Independent Film Channel site, Rick Marshall makes a better case for why UNDERGROUND should be a movie than I ever can. If you never saw it, this is the book by me and Steve Lieber about two park rangers trying to stay alive in a cave system in Kentucky. Give the Marshall article a read!
By now it’s probably obvious my New Year’s resolution was to post EVERY DAY on my website. Over the past couple of years I’d let it languish, opting for the much less time-invested Twitter. I’ve had lots of heavy deadlines and felt if anything could give, Parkerspace would be the choice. At one point, years ago, my goal was to put something up three times a week.
But thinking about it that way made it seem like a chore, when really it shouldn’t be. I read other people’s blogs that are little more than a quick thought or note from the day and find them interesting. So now I’m thinking I can do the same. That’s what the site started out as, besides a way to inform readers who I am and what I work on, I wanted to log my year in a semi-journal style so I could go back one day and remember with some more accuracy. I still feel guilty if I don’t post some art, which I shouldn’t. If you go back and look at my early posts when this switched from sample site into a blog, you’ll see that more informal and probably more interesting approach.
Still, I blew it! I thought I posted something yesterday and I didn’t! But I won’t let that derail me like I missed a gym day and hence all workout ends. I’ll just try to double up some time this week. That will count, right? As for actual content, my daughter has a violin recital today, maybe I’ll video some of that and let her carry the ball tomorrow. I haven’t even put pictures of cats up here yet! I’m getting back into the hang of it.
My tiny triumph this morning was to switch the domain name servers from the company I registerd with over to the company that actually hosts the site, so that’s all finally in the same place. By the way, I highly recommend pair.com who was recommended to me by Jim Ottaviani back in 2000. This site hasn’t gone down in twelve years, so they do something right. Maybe one day I’ll even convince that realtor in Seattle to pass on JeffParker.com to me somehow…
From upcoming issue, art by Kev Walker. And then much more coming on that from Declan Shalvey. And now I’ve got that horrible joke out of my system so I’m not compelled to put it in the story. Whew.
As if it were written and drawn just for me, Ben Dewey’s TRAGEDY SERIES appears several times a week on Tumblr.
Ben draws lots of animals, and well, in the feature. He also makes prints you can order of your favorites.
I’ve worked with Ben before on a story in Dark Horse Presents, and hopefully we’ll work together again soon. Bookmark his Tumblr, you’ll be much better off for it.
Does anyone know who the artist was on The Montgomery Story comics about Martin Luther King Jr.? I’ve never seen a copy but the art from it looks really good.
I should have posted this weeks ago, but I’m still fascinated that there was a whole Flash Gordon dream sequence in A Christmas Story where Ralphie helps Flash. It of course revolved around a BB gun. Probably cut because the movie was already long, but it had Ming! I would have liked to have seen Ming.
Stopping at the Belmont Library instead of our usual, the Hollywood, I was hoping to find the second How To Train Your Dragon book, but they didn’t have it. But I was happy to find one of the Edward Ardizzone TIM books that we hadn’t read yet. If you haven’t read them, and I can never find anyone who has, they’re about a little British boy who contrives to go off to sea a lot and somehow hasn’t been labeled as the jinx of the Atlantic despite every voyage resulting in either a ship-sinking gale blowing up or a mutinous crew or being rammed by another vessel.
Ship’s Cook Ginger (Tim’s red-haired friend who says “Oh poof” a lot) finally addresses the responsibility of his parents always letting a small child out on the open seas despite his history.
Tim’s mother did not like the idea at all. Something horrid always happened when Tim and Ginger went to sea.
And the parents for once, go along with the kids. A situation manifests to make them put ashore at a nearby port and take the train home though, and we’re right back into near-death on the rocks. I was surprised to look at the date and find this was the very last book Ardizzone did in the series, because we had read one called Tim’s Last Voyage. Even though done in the author’s final years in 1977, it’s as much fun high adventure as the earliest of the series began in the late ’30′s.
All of the books are loaded with good illustrations and are a good brisk read, and the threats of children in mortal peril are always enjoyed by my kids, look into them if you have a chance.
Just did a live call-in discussion about the upcoming big battle story for Thunderbolts, you can read some transcripts of it at Newsarma. Artist Declan Shalvey is on, and editor Tom Brennan!
As I mentioned earlier, the dream team of me and Colleen Coover reunite in April- at Dark Horse! We have a story in CREEPY QUARTERLY #8 called “Nineteen.” This one has been a blast to work on, because since I sit four feet away from Colleen at Periscope, we’re able to do old-school collaborating and really make something that pulses with life.
If you missed that Comics Reporter interview with her, Colleen talks a little bit about our loose working style, which will likely irk other artists I work with who think I’m a control freak.
Tomorrow I’ll remind you about my CREEPY story coming up. But you can go right now to Colleen Coover’s website and see a sample of how she works. Look how close her layout and final are!
It was foggy most of the day, but that finally burned off and we had a perfect window of clear sky and no winds. The Estes rocket Stephen and I made worked perfectly, and deployed the parachute- which was the part I was afraid wouldn’t go off right. A friend of mine took some video, I’ll try to put that up this week.
Erika Moen and I are nearing the end of the year+ long story of BUCKO. If you haven’t read it yet, go start at the beginning and catch up on the whole thing on a day when you’re home with a cold, like most people do. You’ll be like me finally watching Breaking Bad all at once and now I’m pacing around waiting for the final season to start.
It’s out, and here’s what IGN has to say about it, too. IGN on HULK 47. Along with artist Elena Casagrande come Red She-Hulk, fresh from The Defenders to visit her dad- and fight! Also Zero/One returns.
Speaking of The Red Hulk, he’ll be appearing in the VENOM: CIRCLE OF FOUR event soon. Here’s me talking to Albert Ching at Newsarama for a little more on that.
CIRCLE OF 4: NEWSARAMA
Also some stuff on upcoming stories, like The Eternals. Crush it!
The thorough Holiday talks continue at ComicsReporter.com with a nice big Steve Bissette interview. Bissette always gives plenty to think about. Even if you don’t agree with him, he’s always well worth the listen.
Launch is still on hold due to crazy high winds here in Portland. Also I was working on the Grand Cherokee yesterday which had serious transmission-slipping issues. Changing the transmission fluid and filter worked wonders, if you haven’t done that service in years or at all, I highly encourage it. I was embarrassed when I realized I’d never even opened the pan, but I have this memory problem: if I make one repair on a car, my mind extends that service to all vehicles.
Anyway, now to work on getting out the mold smell, probably with enzyme cleaner. I want to sell this car to someone who uses four wheel drive more than me, which is at all.
Now my interview with Tom Spurgeon works as a companion piece to another- go read this great dialogue he does with cartoonist Colleen Coover, this is a fine way to start the new year!
