#ask Ungoliantschilde a question

[ungoliantschilde]

Well, gijoe-forever, pull up a chair for second or two.

Despite what Bernie drew, he was a sweetheart of a guy. Apparently, he met Susan K. Putney at a comic book store he frequented, and they hit it off as friends. As a favor to her, Bernie pitched the project to Marvel for their prestige bound Marvel Graphic Novel series. (The Death of Captain Marvel was one of the first in that series. X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills was another one.) Oversized and printed with a square binding. That’s “prestige bound”. It might have been a hardcover first. I forget.

Anyways. If you get a chance, you should search my archives because Bernie drew the shit out of this book. And that’s about the end of the positive feedback that it got. It didn’t sell particularly well, and it was not part of the Spider-Man continuity at the time. It’s a pretty book that Bernie worked on to help his friend get her career going. I have not heard of Susan K Putney in the comics world except in reference to this book.

Berni Wrightson’s cover art for Marvel Graphic Novel # 22: “the Amazing Spider-Man: Hooky”, by Susan K. Putney.

[ungoliantschilde]

Yo I was looking at your work it looks amazing could you help me by making me a profile for my YouTube channel?

My Chanel is starlordjay and yea I love Star Lord lol 😂

No, but thanks for asking.

[ungoliantschilde]

Discography Review

I am gonna do a record by record review of a band up to the their latest release.

I will probably still reblog artwork in between.

Out of sheer “why not”, I’m gonna start with Metallica. If there’s a band or artist you want me to talk about, send me an ask.

[ungoliantschilde]

Do u buy comics..I have ASM, PETER PARKER SPIDERMAN N WEB OF SPIDERMAN FOR SALE.. RAW.. IN BOARD N PLASTIC..U INTERESTED

I am not personally interested, but I will happily signal boost this offer.

Anyone in the market for back issues of:

Amazing Spider-Man

Peter Parker: Spider-Man &

Web of Spider-Man

Please contact brownlikebobby1968.Tumblr.com

[ungoliantschilde]

Well, speflo-blog, that’s assuming he drew on the same paper. Maybe the prelim was just a concept. I’m not even particularly certain of the date of either drawing, so maybe the unfinished version was a reconsideration after the fact. But the rough version is clearly tied to the published pinup, so my guess is that what started as a doodle by big John became a concept that he worked into a finished pinup.

He was known for constantly drawing. Backs of art boards, napkins, scraps of paper, any piece of paper he found, he drew on it. He probably drew this and put it down, saw it again and decided to actually go for it. And then Roy Thomas saw it, and it was published as a pinup. The end.

Savage Sword of Conan #17, February 1977, pin-up by John Buscema

[ungoliantschilde]

Hey retard, PETA doesn't have a tumblr blog. Why the fuck would they?

Why do ANY of us have a tumblr?

The only reason you sent me an anonymous ask is that you see my regular content, but you don’t want me to know that you find something I said disagreeable. You want to attack me, but you don’t want to stand behind your comments or defend your opinions.

That makes you a coward.

If you read all of what I said, I acknowledged the realization that PETA doesn’t have a tumblr, but I made valid points so I am gonna stand by my comments. Basically, I ranted about PETA. And I was right about everything I said. And I stand by what I say, even when I have to apologize to people for being rude. Read through my history, I have made mistakes and oversteps before, and I have owned those mistakes and I stand by my word. I have been here on this site for more than 12 years. And I have never been an anon or had anything to hide, because I’m not a coward.

You are a coward and a nincompoop.

[ungoliantschilde]

Is Kirby's run on Eternals worth checking out, if you're familiar with it? Currently enjoying the Gillen/Ribić run and it's gotten me curious about the original series.

YES.

Kirby’s Eternals is absolutely worth reading, but with a few words of warning and context.

Wanna know the dark secret of Kirby’s Fourth World for DC Comics? It’s unfinished. He never fully had his say with those characters and concepts. DC has since taken Darkseid, Orion, Big Barda, Mr. Miracle, Kalibak, Granny Goodness and Boom Tube tech to big screen. But Kirby’s grand statement on those characters was never fully realized. The Fourth World is Kirby’s unfinished masterpiece.

You asked me about the Eternals, so why am I blathering on about the New Gods?

I met Stan Lee once. Met him in person at an airport. He was tired, on his way home from a convention appearance. It was random. Pure luck for me. He was EXACTLY what you would imagine Stan Lee was like. He was not acting like Stan Lee, he was really and truly Stan Lee, so “excelsior!, true believer!” That was his actual persona and personality. It was amazing. He was wonderful. Stan was a natural “carnival barker” for comics. An extrovert in every way.

Jack was the opposite. Jack’s way of talking to the world was his artwork. Stan wasn’t the villain, and Jack wasn’t the victim. They both did their thing, they collaborated frequently, and by the nature of the business, Stan got more credit than he deserved and Jack felt like he got slighted.

Now, the Eternals.

Jack wanted to continue his ideas if intergalactic space gods. It’s gorgeous. It’s prime Kirby.

And it doesn’t work.

Jack was not a good writer. Jack’s ideas are so good that he gets a pass. But he’s honestly not a good writer. The Eternals have been rebooted over and over and over again because Marvel knows that there is gold somewhere in those concepts.

I am hopeful that the Eternals movie will give the creators a better tact to pursue with the comics, like how Robert Downey, Jr. showed the world what Iron Man should be all about.

Yes. A 1,000x YES: read Jack’s Eternals.

Just go into the endeavor knowing that it was the project following his magnum opus, the New Gods, and that it sort of follows the same pattern.

[ungoliantschilde]

Jerry Seinfeld dated a 17-year-old at age 38. He came forward that he was dating her only when it was legally allowed in the state of New York, he was grooming that child, that show was made by a pedophile.

Cool. Good to know.

A show about a bunch of shitty people was made by a couple of shitty people.

I 100% guarantee you that every famous person has done some horrid stuff at some point in their lives.

I’m super happy to have you point out to me that a really funny show that I have enjoyed for many many years has some people with serious character flaws at its heart. Makes me feel good.

And now I respond to this and… what? If I don’t immediately start a campaign to cancel Jerry Seinfeld, then I’m morally corrupt as well?

I don’t condone what you say that he did. I believe that he probably did it too. That sounds aggressively awful.

I lived in NYC for a couple years before I moved to Missouri. Believe me, we all know that Jerry Seinfeld is an asshole. Remember Kramer? The funny neighbor? Yeah, Google him. He… he made some pretty big mistakes.

Instead of sleuthing on comedians and musicians, why not go after politicians in local government? Seriously, start a campaign to destroy the public life of your local treasurer because you found out that he is… I dunno, something suitably unsuitable for you.

Go do this crap somewhere else, please. If you really stood by it, and were really trying to change things, you would not have done this on anon. I honestly think you’re just trying to stir up shit with me because you’re bored, and I’d be better off not even responding.

[ungoliantschilde]

Cyclops is a classic example of the 1960s era Marvel leading man. He’s gifted in a lot of ways, but deeply flawed. Hank Pym is kind of a piece of crap. Tony Stark is too. Peter Parker’s life was defined not by a spider bite, but by allowing his Uncle Ben to be murdered. Flawed characters are more interesting to read.

The staple of Marvel’s sales for the 1980s-1990s was the X-Men, and the love triangle between Cyclops, Wolverine, and Jean Grey was arguably the central team conflict of it all. Rereading Uncanny X-Men 100-300 is a chore. And then it lead to Age of Apocalypse and so on. But a lot of Claremont’s focus was writing these characters as people that had superpowers. They were living breathing people. There’s a documentary about Claremont on streaming. He repeatedly stresses the concept that he thinks of the characters as people with faults and dreams and hopes. Multiple issues involve the X-Men playing baseball in the backyard or lounging by the pool. Cyclops is like the Don Draper of the X-Men. He’s an utter louse. I would chase him out of town with a tire iron if he came near any woman I care about. But he’s compelling.

Marvel went Bankrupt right after the Onslaught saga happened, but I cannot stress to you enough how much of a sales juggernaut the X-Titles were from basically day 1 of Chris Claremont’s tenure.

Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men was a really great look at what can be done when Cyclops is written well. Avengers Vs. X-Men started with Scott going toe to toe with Captain America. And that all happened because the mutant population got dropped to less than 200 people world wide. And Scott dug in his heels and lead the mutant community out of it. He clusterfucked a lot of it. But even Magneto followed Scott’s lead. Dude is a hell of a leader, for good or ill.

As for Hal Jordan… how dare you, anon. I understand that reading 60s and 70s comics is a chore. Read Green Lantern: Rebirth and then the first 30 issues of the Geoff Johns Green Lantern book. Hal Jordan is Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top Gun with a power ring. You wanna hit him, but you also grin at the stuff he does.

The Manhunters just chased Hal across the city, drained his power ring, and blew up his jet. He dives out of the crashing jet and recharges his ring in free fall by shoving it in the face one of the Manhunters. He’s the best Green Lantern. Being a cocky show off is a job requirement.

Different asker, but a follow-up question: to what degree will you be willing to say “this character is ultimately good but bad writers have been writing them” because I’ve only ever heard about the nonsense Scott Summers pulls, never explicitly read it, but it’s weird to me that he’d be kept around for so long if people didn’t find him appealing and thought him irredeemable. It’s also weird to think he’d still be consistently put together with Jean Grey considering monogamy doesn’t seem to suit him. Is it just bad writers? Or does Summers have some cool appeal? Is it similar with Hal Jordan?

I don’t know.

Angsty male characters with cardboard female counterparts has been a long-standing staple in comics, sci-fi and action movies.

[ungoliantschilde]

I mean look I'm sorry but Hitch might've done great work & his hand in making way for the MCU shouldn't go unnoticed & his tracing isn't the worst thing imaginable. But to me I always found his art passable-to-boring & as a writer just bad. Like a lot of his designs aren't great beyond the "realistic" work for Ultimates, It can be straining on the eyes for whenever he does an earthquake like scene, & his writing on Justice League (both that delayed nightmare & Rebirth) are the most by-the-book action schlock you could see Geard Butler as the leading man. (Not to mention his lack of knowledge on how Green Lantern ring works bugs the heck out of me).

Yeah, his writing on Justice League was… passable. Not great, just passable.

As a draftsman, his primary contribution would be the style of comics seen in Stormwatch, the Authority, and the Ultimates. Warren Ellis called it “wide screen comics”. It all looks like the cinematography of a big budget action flick.

That style has been done and redone so many times since the late 90s-early 2000s that it’s easy to dismiss its relevance. But Bryan Hitch created those concepts pretty much single handedly. Warren Ellis wrote the scripts, but it was Hitch’s mind-numbing detail and slow, plodding output speed that made those books pop.

It’s easy to reread Ultimates and criticize it today. I was reading each issue as they were being published, and dude - that was, hands down, the BEST Avengers book anyone had ever read. It was mind blowing. And it was also ridiculously late every issue.

Bendis and Finch rebooted the Avengers shortly after Ultimates was wrapping up. Before that, the main continuity Avengers was a quarter bin book. Go to an LCS and look for Avengers issues 400-499. They’ll be in the quarter bins.

The Ultimates redefined that team. It was Millar’s bombastic writing, but it was mostly Hitch’s overtly “summer blockbuster” styled artwork.

Bryan Hitch changed the public perception of comic book artwork. He made it look like blockbuster movies, and then the movies started following suit.

He cast Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, dude. He designed the Triskelion building seen in the MCU films. The Helicarriers all look like his designs too.

In the years since, he’s gotten faster at producing and he’s kind of turned into, as you put it, a rather serviceable penciler with a decent design sense.

You don’t have to like the guy’s work. Everyone has their own taste and that’s what makes it fun.

But… you still gotta respect Hitch for what he’s done. And he’s done a LOT.

[ungoliantschilde]

Recurve or Compound?

I use a Mathews solocam composite bow. My last buck was taken with a PSE Dream Season.

My brother in law gave me the Mathews (one of his old bows) as a Christmas gift a few years back. It’s lighter, quieter, and more powerful than my PSE.

[ungoliantschilde]

Hey, so... I'm a "classically trained" artist (illustrator, properly speaking) who's been personally invested in graphic novels... my preferred media is india ink+dip pens. I'm trying to vary up my work, so i'm looking for comic artists to draw inspiration from. I'm a big fan of M.C. Escher and Gustave Dore... right now, the only comic artist I have to go on is Barry Windsor-Smith. I respect your taste in art/ists, got any suggestions for me? -thx

Oof. Ok, thanks and this is the kinda thing I set my blog up for, so I’ll give it a shot.

When you’re looking at illustration artwork, you need to understand that it’s a lot like music. Each generation builds upon the previous, using and tweaking what they like, and discarding what they don’t.

I have said repeatedly that BWS is the best comic book artist of all time, and I mean it. It’s my opinion. His only real peer in terms of quality and output is Moebius. It’s not about black lines. It’s about body language and facial expressions.

Back to what I was saying about generations building on one another. BWS became the artist that he did out of frustration. He could not find an inker or a colorist that could reliably help him achieve his visions. So he did it himself. But, Barry was influenced - heavily - by previous generations. Barry likes to draw landscapes. Look at how he draws grass. Go to my homepage and open up my header image at the top of my page. Landscapes. Wind. Rain. Look at how he draws Storm in the Life-Death books.

Landscapes. Body language. Facial Expressions. LANDSCAPES. Learn to draw trees. Grass. Wind.

Barry is a huge fan of a British Victorian Art style that focused on landscapes and pastoral settings. Ladies eating lunch outside with parasols. Lace. Grass. Wind. Landscapes.

As far as names go?

Try Franklin Booth and Virgil Finlay. Winsor McCay did a lot more color work, but his inks are incredible.

Howard Pyle did a number of ink drawings and they’re worth googling.

NC Wyeth is the platinum era illustrator most directly responsible for modern comic book artwork. Study his body language and light sources.

Al Williamson is the best inker of all time. Flat out.

Frank Frazetta’s pen and ink drawings.

Paul Pope is a modern master of brush inks.

John Buscema. Find reprints of his work on Savage Sword of Conan. He worked with some of the best artists in modern comic book history as his inkers. My first TPB as a kid was the Essential Wolverine, Vol. 1. It was the first 25 issues of Wolverine, reprinted from the original inked pages on newsprint in black and white.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned Kirby. Jack Kirby will teach you how to tell a story better than anyone. Read his comics and notice how the pages move as you read them. But. He is NOT a classically trained artist. Copying his style is a lot like spending your whole life learning to play guitar, and then joining a Beatles cover band as your career choice. Be you.

I will say this again. The best advice I can give on the track that you’re on is to study landscapes. Learn to render light in black and white. Landscapes are good practice.

NC Wyeth’s best work was when he was restricted to one color. His endpapers for scribners were grayscale paintings with one color. And they POP. Make your work pop.

Lastly, don’t be a prude: Draw porn. I’m serious. Milo Manara is an incredible artist. Serpieri’s Druuna is beautiful. His writing is awful, but the artwork is amazing. On tumblr, check out Apollonia Saintclair - She pretty much exclusively draws pen and ink erotica. Drawing erotica teaches you nuance and flesh tones. It teaches you tact and tittilation. Restraint. Fabric. There is a fine line between sexy and slutty. Find it. I’m not kidding. You’ll be a better artist because of it.

Good luck. Work hard, and you’ll get there!

[ungoliantschilde]

Bud, you’re preaching to the choir.

I am a massive BWS fanboy. He’s basically pissed because Marvel won’t spend extra money reprint his work on the paper that he likes.

Just watch the opening credits of the show. Believe me, I fully understand the contractual relationship that Marvel and DC create with their talent. You’re not educating or enlightening me in any way. I’m just saying that I feel for Aja on this one. It feels rather gratuitous with this show. Like Marvel is waving their contract stipulations in Aja’s face while doing an end zone dance and making more money off of his artwork than they ever did when he first drew it.

I get how the contracts work. It doesn’t mean they don’t suck. And those contracts are specifically written to screw over young talent, which means the longer it goes on, the more daunting it becomes for new artists to want to try and make good things for Marvel or DC.

Hawkeye by David Aja

[ungoliantschilde]

I don't want to sounds like a big deal, but apparently there's a douchebag on Twitter coping-and-pasting all photos each day you post it without link to yours and the other's Tumblr account, and i sew he stole your ink artworks without add a credits. He blocked me after i called him out, and later he deleted your arts (lol), i won't mention his name, but i'll tell you that guy was such a wussy.

Well, yeah. A lot of people do that to me.

The thing with my Inks is not cool, but I still sign all of my artwork. So, people that are into it know what my inks look like. That Joe Quesada Captain America Vs. Batman pinup that I inked gets shared on Pinterest a lot too.

Without ego, I can tell you that I have got (probably) one of the best comic book artwork blogs around. I go to a lot of trouble to find as much info as I can, and to find the largest and best quality images I can find.

But, I would feel like an absolute asshole if I went through all that trouble and then posted an annoying watermark or a banner advertising my blog on the images when I posted them. I’d rather just share the artwork with the world with as much credit given to the original artists as I can find.

It’d be really cool if the people who find the images I post gave me shout-outs when they repost them on their social media accounts. But not everybody does that, and I have done it in the past well. It’s the nature of the beast. As long as the original artists get credit, and the artwork gets out there for more people to appreciate, I’m cool with it. To be clear, that doesn’t mean I like that people raid my tumblr archives and act like they found the information. It’s more like I realize I can’t do much about it, and trust that the internets have a way of revealing douchebaggery in the long run.

Thanks for looking out bud. I’ll be continuing to do my thing for the foraeable, so I’m super stoked to hear that I’ve got fans who want to make sure I’m getting proper accreditation.

[ungoliantschilde]

How is it possible for Rogue to kiss Gambit , but no one else?

Ugh, who knows dude. It was probably explained in a throw-away line at one point or another. But honestly? I have been shipping Gambit and Rogue since I was like, 10. They’re probably my favorite X-Couple. So, my real answer to your question is “Does it matter?” 😂

The whole reason Rogue is a teenage boy’s fantasy is that she’s a tease. You can look, but you cannot touch. Her appearances from the 1990s until Mike Carey’s run were pretty much all cheesecake. It was her and Psylocke. Psylocke as the impossibly hot ninja chick, and Rogue as the impossibly hot southern belle powerhouse. When Rogue was with Magneto, they explained something about him using his powers to make it so they could kiss.

Because... magnets, I guess.

So, following that logic, Gambit and Rogue can kiss because he can make inanimate objects explode. So... playing cards. They can kiss because of poker cards. Yep, that works for me.

[ungoliantschilde]

If you had to Time Travel or to an alt reality -who would you trust more, to lead you Dr.Who or Dr Strange?

Dr. Who would be a LOT more fun.

Dr. Strange would basically find my presence rather annoying. He’d reluctantly show me a brief glimpse, then cast a spell to make me forget it all and plop me right back where I belong.

Dr. Who would have weed, whiskey, and a ray gun for me, and we’d go all over the multiverse. We’d get chased by dinosaurs. Gamble with aliens. Fight some Daleks, and then he’d be bummed that I had to go home and get back to my life.