Picture Perfect Wednesday: Steranko

How did I get this far without featuring Jim Steranko here at Shades of Gray? While it's true that there is a bottomless pool of pictures for me to post, and movies and graphic novels for me to review, I'm a bit surprised at myself for not having at least gotten around to SOMETHING he'd done.

But, thanks to the prodding of loyal visitor (a Steranko fan who has designed this excellent, content rich site dedicated to his work), I'm rectifying that oversight now with a small Picture Perfect Wednesday gallery. (And I really must get around to writing a review of "Essential Captain America" one of these days, as it features some of Steranko's finest comic book work, outside of his "Nick Fury, Agen of SHIELD" issues.)

And speaking of Nick Fury...

The Henri Trilogy by Will Baden

Who says YouTube cat videos aren't serious filmmaking?

Henri I


Henri II


Henri III

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

Actually... I can give an explanation for this one. Scroll down a bit if you really want to know.









The picture was taken by Carlo Polito in June of 1958. It's of 17-year-old Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dressed up as a cat and dancing on wine bottles in June 1958. Her performance was based on a dream. She practiced for eight hours a day to do this.)

Joe Kubert dead at 85

I just learned that another legend of comic book art (and art in general, frankly) has passed away.

Joe Kubert, artist, editor, teacher, and story-teller with talent on an epic scale, has died at the age of 85. I think its safe to say that the comic book art form as we know it today would not exist. And I'm also noticing that of the few younger artists out there who seem to understand how to tell a story properly through pictures on a page, most of them seem to be graduates of the Joe Kubert School.

Here's a small gallery of Kubert art from varying points in his career, in honor of him.

Maybe I'm just a grumpy old guy, but I see all these massive talents passing into history... and so very few with the talent and skill to take their places.

The Groucho Monthly

Here's a compilation of outtakes from 1950s game show "You Bet Your Life".

("Let me explain something to you Pat," says Groucho at one point. "This audience is even filthier than I am.")

Groucho doing more than just dreaming of Jeanie with Barbara Eden

Cover illo for 'ROLF!: Dragon vs. Tiger'

I have once again pretended to an artist (although I'm learning that there are apparently a number of people out there who are running around posing as artists because they can apply Photoshop filters and use the cut-and-paste function in the software--so maybe I need to start taking my Art Seriously) and created the cover illo for "ROLF!: Dragon vs. Tiger."

Click here to check out this latest humorous rollplaying game product from NUELOW. It was also written by yours truly.

A Mars-related Public Service Announcement

I'm looking forward to the first pictures of the Martian Princesses to come back!

Artist's rendition of what Curiosity will find.