Again, I won't even attempt to recap all the Comic-Con announcements for ya, because that's the job of people who write for blogs with larger readerships than l'il ol' mine; some of which (I'd bet) even get a little financial remuneration for their efforts. I'm sure you know several that can hook you up with all the straight dope. However, one of those announcements that intrigued me was one that the above illustration refers to, a revival of Marvel's Cloak and Dagger characters- scripted by one of our own, Occasional Superheroine Val D'Orazio. Congrats to her; I think she's got an uphill battle ahead making these characters, who have always been on the Marvel Universe fringe (they've been teenagers for like 20 years, right?) and whose ludicrous, oh-so-"relevant" in that early 80's way origin merely serves to reinforce my entirely personal conviction that their primary appeal is visual (which led me to buy their first appearance oh so many years ago, as well as the miniseries that followed soon after, since you know that I often let my eyes convince me to make purchases that my head is not so sure about) readable. How's that for a convoluted sentence! Anyway, I liked 'em OK, and it wasn't until they got lost in the mid-80's Marvel mutant titles quicksand that I gave up on 'em.
Nice to see so many people who I have become acquainted with via blogging getting pro gigs like this. Maybe someday Marvel will greenlight my Modred the Mystic pitch*.
So this might help you to understand when I say that the main reason why this news is so interesting to me isn't so much Miz D'Orazio but her collaborator Irene Flores; the illo above, as well as those at the bottom of this page, show a lively line and some beautiful color. Despite the usual yawn-inducing manga stylings, which make it look at first glance like about a hundred thousand other young artists who learned to draw by tracing their copies of Fruits Basket (for lack of a better example at hand), upon closer examination there is a lot of subtle nuance going on that reminds me a little of people like James Jean, or even some of the early/mid-70's Filipino wave such as Alex Nino or Spain's SanJulian. Anyway, it remains to be seen if I'll put my money where my mouth is, but I do like the pieces I've seen. An Emily Warren is credited with colors on the series; it's unclear if she did the color on the above piece.
I also happened upon this illo via my Google Reader; it's an illustration of the lead character in the sadly missed and short-lived TV series Wonderfalls, found on the PunchPants art collective blog. One of these days I'm going to get the DVD set and watch the episodes I didn't get to see.
*only kidding. I don't even know how to write a pitch.
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