Art Spiegelman's Deconstructing comics (NSFW)

I love comics that deconstruct the comics form.

The cover of the 1977 edition of Breakdowns. There are three more pages to go with this one showing the infinite combinations of this image.

For example in Art "Maus" Spiegelman's "Breakdowns" he explores what goes into making the very cover image by breaking down the printed image into it's individual parts and recombining them in a multitude of ways.The first image is the "normal" image. The next image is only the yellow and blue plates printed; then blue and red and so on until he starts to really mix things up with printing the "blue" plate yellow and black plate red. It makes for a surprisingly fascinating picture that I end up spending a lot of time just studying.

Starman vs. the Mist From Adventure Comics #67 (Oct. 1941)

I had a dream once where I was dressed up in a strange and colorful costume and flying through a cave with the help of a rod that I carried. The cave felt strangely warm as if I was in a very comforting and dark place like I was back in my mother's womb. Suddenly these giant bat-like creatures came out of a pit and started to attack me. I quickly shot a ray out of my rod to repel these hideous beasts.

I flew on further into the cave system seeing where they would take me. Then, out of nowhere, I was struck to the ground by an invisible force. I shined the light from my rod on it only to discover that it was an invisible man with only the hideous old head showing. “Who is this old man and why does he want to hurt me?” I thought. “I am your past trying to do away with you before I myself disappear forever into the abyss of time.”

It was a strange dream that left a strong impression. Then suddenly it struck me, it probably came from the comic I had read last night!

Alan Moore’s Greyshirt “How things work out”

In 1999, hot off the heals of working on Image comics like Supreme and Glory Alan Moore started his own comics line called America’s Best Comics. It seems that Rob Liefeld was getting flaky and so Jim Lee offered Alan his own imprint. Being the slothful writer that he is he started with no less than 5 titles. 

 Tomorrow Stories was his anthology title which contained 4 different features. They were all fun in their own way but one stood out from the others.

from the ABC Sketchbook 2002

Dash Shaw's Dr. Strange vs. Nightmare

Strange Tales (2009) was one of the most exciting things to come out in the last decade because of all of the amazingly diverse and original alternative creators doing their versions of the standard Marvel pantheon of heroes. And of all the great work presented in this anthology Dash Shaw did one of the most exciting stories of the bunch.

Tomar and Asaf Hanuka's Joker In DC's Bizarro World!

Tomar and Asaf Hanuka's Joker from their Bizarro World submission.

Teddy Kristiansen Does Deadman!

Teddy Kristiansen is one of my all time favorite comic artists for his fresh, quirky and free style. So when I discovered that he illustrated Deadman, one of my all time favorite heroes, I was ecstatic to say the least!

Alan Moore on The Smiley face

"The smiley face is evidently the purest symbol of innocence the human race has been able to come up with thus far." Alan Moore

 Though it was the most famous, it seems that the Watchmen wasn’t the first time that Alan Moore used the smiley face motif in his comics.