Showing posts with label Josh Howard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Josh Howard. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2022
Princesses of Mars, Part 44
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
How can you tell Halloween is coming?
The air is turning cold... the shadows are deepening... and Vampirella is dropping by Shades of Gray for her annual visits!
Meanwhile, Wonder Woman will continue her bi-weekly appearances as well, since her latest movie has been postponed again. Although, since she was expecting to be off because of her movie coming out, all she's doing is showing the costume she'll be wearing for Halloween: She'll be going as the goddess Diana.
Meanwhile, Wonder Woman will continue her bi-weekly appearances as well, since her latest movie has been postponed again. Although, since she was expecting to be off because of her movie coming out, all she's doing is showing the costume she'll be wearing for Halloween: She'll be going as the goddess Diana.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Wonder Woman Wednesday
As we continue to look forward to the release of "Wonder Woman '84", we bring you these portraits of everyone's favorite Amazon and her wondrous hair!
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| By Aaron Lopresti |
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| By Josh Howard |
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| By Milo Manara |
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| By Joe Jusko |
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| By Asisi Suharianto |
Friday, August 5, 2011
The coming of the Space Girls!
The "Princesses of Mars" post series is starting to wind down--I think I've just about mined that vein for the best it has to offer--but we're moving on from sci-fi flavored fantasy to pulp fiction-tinged space fantasy! Please welcome the Spacegirls to Shades of Gray!
If current plans hold, each post in this series will present a couple pin-up style Spacegirl drawings and a batch of Travis Charest's "Spacegirl" comic strip. There will be a new installment every Friday until I run out of stuff (or until someone asks me to stop tromping all over their copyrights).
SPACEGIRL
by Travis Charest
Part One
(Much of what will be appearing in this series comes from the art collections of Jeff Amason and Eric Thrower, and the imagination and amazing talent of Travis Charest.)
If current plans hold, each post in this series will present a couple pin-up style Spacegirl drawings and a batch of Travis Charest's "Spacegirl" comic strip. There will be a new installment every Friday until I run out of stuff (or until someone asks me to stop tromping all over their copyrights).
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| By Mark Brooks |
by Travis Charest
Part One
To Be Continued....
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| By Josh Howard |
(Much of what will be appearing in this series comes from the art collections of Jeff Amason and Eric Thrower, and the imagination and amazing talent of Travis Charest.)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Picture Perfect Wednesday:
Josh Howard Horror
Josh Howard Horror
Here's a small gallery of horror art from Josh Howard, the writer/artist behind graphics novels such as "Dark Harvest", "The Lost Books of Eve", and "Clubbing".
If you like the spooky stuff, be sure to visit Terror Titans, my horror movie-centric blog.
If you like the spooky stuff, be sure to visit Terror Titans, my horror movie-centric blog.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Picture Perfect Special:
Princesses of Mars, Part Two
Princesses of Mars, Part Two
This is the second installment in a series of posts featuring images of beautiful Martian maidens, such as John Carter's beloved Dejah Thoris, from a range of talented artists.
Click on the artist's name under each illustration to see more of that artist's work at their official website (if they have one.)
Click on the artist's name under each illustration to see more of that artist's work at their official website (if they have one.)
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| By Gil Kane |
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| By William Stout |
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| By Josh Howard |
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| By Andy Kuhn |
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Picture Perfect Wednesday:
NananananananaBATMAN!
NananananananaBATMAN!
Yesterday, it was 45 years ago that the "Batman" TV show debuted on ABC, with Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin. Yvonne Craig later joined the heroic line-up as Batgirl. Legendary iconic television performances as recurring villains were provided by Cesar Romero (as The Joker), Frank Gorshin (as The Riddler), Burgess Meredith (as The Penguin) and Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt (as Catwoman, at various points).
The failure of the spin-off series to materialize doesn't change the fact that version of Batgirl remains the coolest version. Within the next month or so, I'll be reviewing the book reprinting her comic book adventures from the 1960s and 1970s, but in the meantime, here are some recent portrayals of her.
For more pictures from the classic Batman television show, check out this post at Cinema Steve.
The new Batgirl (secretly Commissioner Gordon's daugther, Barbara) was created by DC Comics editor Julie Schwartz and artist Carmine Infantino at the request of the show's producer, William Dozier, for its third season. Dozier envisioned Batgirl in her own spin-off series, a plan that never came to be.
The failure of the spin-off series to materialize doesn't change the fact that version of Batgirl remains the coolest version. Within the next month or so, I'll be reviewing the book reprinting her comic book adventures from the 1960s and 1970s, but in the meantime, here are some recent portrayals of her.
For more pictures from the classic Batman television show, check out this post at Cinema Steve.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
A graphic novel for the girls of the house
Clubbing (Minx Books, 2007)
Writer: Andi Watson
Art: Josh Howard
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
After teenaged goth chick Lottie is busted trying to get into a night club using a fake ID, her parents send out of London to spend summer with her grandparents. Here, she gets a little variety in her life--learns about golfing and fishing, manages to win a cake decorating contest, and discovers that it is possible to survive without a cellphone--and learns that friends and possible romance can be found in places she never thought to look. She also becomes involved in a solving a mystery when a woman is murdered on her grandparents' golf courseher to spend the summer with her grandparents in the country... and her grandfather appears to be the most likely suspect.
"Clubbing" was one of the inaugural entries in the "Minx" line of graphic novels. These are books targeted at young teenage girls, and, as such, I am about as far away from being the target audience as possible.
However, a well-done book isa well-done book, and I enjoyed "Clubbing" quite a bit. Like any well-done juvenile fiction, the book can be read and enjoyed by kids and adults alike,
The basic storyline is one that I remember reading in countless mystery books when I was a kid, so juvenile fiction is apparently still juvenile fiction. The "big city kid goes to the country" is used with great effect here, particularly as writer Andi Watson ellicits such a perfect portrait of a spoiled rich girl who is somewhat out of her element. Kids and adults will both develop a strong liking for Lottie, smiling at her victories and feeling sorry for her during one particular scene where she tries to make friends and fails. (Some of her antics may be funnier to kids than adults, but they're consistently entertaining, and there's never a dull moment to be had.)
While the basic storyline is typical of juvenile fiction (I'm making an assumption here--it's been decades since I read my last "Hardy Boys", "Jimmy Bond", or "Secret Seven" novel, and I've let the whole Harry Potter thing pass me by, but since the Minx line is supposed to be all hip and cutting-edge and appealing for girls in their early teens, I think it's a safe bet that a talented professional like Watson was writing something appropriate for the target audience andthat therefore kids' lit is still kids' lit), Watson throws a twist into his tale at the end that I did not see coming. It's both funny, creepy, and he wrote which is one of my favorite lines from any fiction I've read recently, be it comics or "real" literature: "And that's the last I saw of Gran--as she was trying to hug an extra-dimensional horror."
(I don't think I'm spoiling too much by quoting that line... or by saying that this graphic novel put a twist on life in a quiet British village that's similar to that found in the movie "Hot Fuzz".)
As for the artwork, Josh Howard has a cartoony style that is both appropriate for the story and that should appeal to most readers. He also has a sense of layout and story-flow that few modern artists possess--it's a clear, easy-to-follow visual story-telling method that is remarkable because it doesn't call attention to itself. Howard is practicing graphic storytelling as it was done during the heyday of American comics, and it's nice to see such craftsmanship in a book that's supposed to be hip and new. If more up-and-coming artists and their editors and publishers had paid attention to these sorts of fundementals over the past 20 years, maybe American comics would be as big a business as they deserve to be.
"Clubbing" is a fun read that once again proves that comics can be used to tell all sorts of stories, and I think this is one that should appeal to just about every member in a household (except maybe the 9-year-old boy who thinks girls are yucky). The final page of the book sets up the potential for a sequel, and I'll be keeping an eye out for it.
Writer: Andi Watson
Art: Josh Howard
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
After teenaged goth chick Lottie is busted trying to get into a night club using a fake ID, her parents send out of London to spend summer with her grandparents. Here, she gets a little variety in her life--learns about golfing and fishing, manages to win a cake decorating contest, and discovers that it is possible to survive without a cellphone--and learns that friends and possible romance can be found in places she never thought to look. She also becomes involved in a solving a mystery when a woman is murdered on her grandparents' golf courseher to spend the summer with her grandparents in the country... and her grandfather appears to be the most likely suspect.
"Clubbing" was one of the inaugural entries in the "Minx" line of graphic novels. These are books targeted at young teenage girls, and, as such, I am about as far away from being the target audience as possible.
However, a well-done book isa well-done book, and I enjoyed "Clubbing" quite a bit. Like any well-done juvenile fiction, the book can be read and enjoyed by kids and adults alike,
The basic storyline is one that I remember reading in countless mystery books when I was a kid, so juvenile fiction is apparently still juvenile fiction. The "big city kid goes to the country" is used with great effect here, particularly as writer Andi Watson ellicits such a perfect portrait of a spoiled rich girl who is somewhat out of her element. Kids and adults will both develop a strong liking for Lottie, smiling at her victories and feeling sorry for her during one particular scene where she tries to make friends and fails. (Some of her antics may be funnier to kids than adults, but they're consistently entertaining, and there's never a dull moment to be had.)
While the basic storyline is typical of juvenile fiction (I'm making an assumption here--it's been decades since I read my last "Hardy Boys", "Jimmy Bond", or "Secret Seven" novel, and I've let the whole Harry Potter thing pass me by, but since the Minx line is supposed to be all hip and cutting-edge and appealing for girls in their early teens, I think it's a safe bet that a talented professional like Watson was writing something appropriate for the target audience andthat therefore kids' lit is still kids' lit), Watson throws a twist into his tale at the end that I did not see coming. It's both funny, creepy, and he wrote which is one of my favorite lines from any fiction I've read recently, be it comics or "real" literature: "And that's the last I saw of Gran--as she was trying to hug an extra-dimensional horror."
(I don't think I'm spoiling too much by quoting that line... or by saying that this graphic novel put a twist on life in a quiet British village that's similar to that found in the movie "Hot Fuzz".)
As for the artwork, Josh Howard has a cartoony style that is both appropriate for the story and that should appeal to most readers. He also has a sense of layout and story-flow that few modern artists possess--it's a clear, easy-to-follow visual story-telling method that is remarkable because it doesn't call attention to itself. Howard is practicing graphic storytelling as it was done during the heyday of American comics, and it's nice to see such craftsmanship in a book that's supposed to be hip and new. If more up-and-coming artists and their editors and publishers had paid attention to these sorts of fundementals over the past 20 years, maybe American comics would be as big a business as they deserve to be.
"Clubbing" is a fun read that once again proves that comics can be used to tell all sorts of stories, and I think this is one that should appeal to just about every member in a household (except maybe the 9-year-old boy who thinks girls are yucky). The final page of the book sets up the potential for a sequel, and I'll be keeping an eye out for it.
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