This last week Marvel Comics has been promoting their new event called The Heroic Age. It was hinted last year with a teaser showing Thor, Captain America and Iron Man in shadow. the last few years in the Marvel Universe have been very dark. There was Avengers Disassemble, Civil War, Secret Invasion and the Dark Reign. But in May Marvel will bring in the Heroic Age, There’s going to be a new spirit of hope, courage, and the selflessness at the heart of heroism will rise up. Marvel’s most elite characters will be at the center of The Heroic Age, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and more.

I’m personally excited about the new direction Marvel plans on taking. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and think this new story line will be awesome and full of great adventures. I’ve decided to use my blogging skills and create a fan blog site dedicated to The Heroic Age. I’ll be putting any and all new info up on the site including news, promo art and future Solicitations.

So if you want the latest info about Marvel Comics The Heroic Age check out my Fan site: www.TheHeroicAge.com

-Shazam!

A few months ago I was vising my moms house where I found a box of old drawings I did when I was a kid. There were drawings I did of Veritech fighters from Robotech to comic book and super heroes. Last night I was looking though theses treasures from my childhood. I had a blast remembering how I’d stay up late, looking at my comics and wanting to create and recreate these awesome art works. One of the drawing that jumped out to me last night was this one of Iron Man. I drew this 20 years ago in 1989 when I was 14 years old.

In the late 80’s I was reading all the Marvel Comic I could get my hands on, but Iron Man was on the top of my favorites list. I’m a huge science fiction fan and Iron Man was a perfect meld of Sci-Fi and Comics. This drawing was a recreation of the cover of Iron Man 244, it was originally drawn by Bob Layton. I remember being blown away by the split screen showing Iron Man’s then current suit and his original grey one. I had to redraw it. So this is not a tracing, but a recreation of a cool comic cover. This is how I learned to draw. I’d look at a comic and try to recreate it. I didn’t take any art class when I was young, but I loved to draw.

Looking at this drawing I did as a bright eyed kid so many years ago really reminded me of the passion I had for comic book art back then. I feel very lucky that as an adult I haven’t lost that passion. I plan on posting more of my childhood drawing up, so keep an eye out. -PoW, Zap, Zooom!

I was very fortunate to be able to attend the “MOVIES, GAMES, AND COMICS PANEL” this weekend at the Albuquerque Film Festival 2009. The speakers on the panel were T.Q. Jefferson: the Marvel Comics Director of Games, the Eisner-nominated Pander Brothers: Jacob and Arnold Pander, and a writer/director from Rogue Taurus Productions. It was a great relaxed panel where they told us about how they work with the story, licensing and marketing of their projects.

T.Q. Jefferson from Marvel Comics showed us a trailer to the new Iron Man 2 video game, which by the way rocked! He also showed some awesome character design concept art for Iron Man and Crimson Dynamo. He explained how the video game and the movie are both coming from the same place, but can still stand equally on their own. The story in the game is not a retelling of the new movie, but just a new adventure with the same characters and spirit from the movie. The game has been in development for over a year now, so the creators know the general idea of new movie but not the whole story. He hinted that the games for both the Thor and Captain America movies are already in development too.

I had missed seeing the the Pander Brothers last year when they came to the Santa Fe Film Festival with their award-winning identity theft thriller SELFLESS, so it was a nice surprise to see them on this panel. Jacob and Arnold Pander are both well established comic book writers and artists. They have worked for both Marvel and  DC, in film, video, animation design and illustration. Arnold Pander talked to us about his newest project Tasty Bullet, a graphic novel he’s working on with Jonathan Vankin. We got to see a really cool trailer for the graphic novel too. He also explained what type of promotions they have planned to bring readers to the book, including an ARG (Alternate reality game) and the creation of vintage commercials for the tasty drink. The graphic novel will be published by Image Comics.

Rogue Taurus Productions is an independent film company based in Albuquerque, NM. They have created several movies which were filmed in New Mexico. It was interesting to hear the writer/director from Rogue Taurus assessment that comics, video games and movies all come from the same place. The desire to tell a compelling and interesting story. He commented on how the beginning process are similar to each other, but they create completely different story telling mediums.

This was a great panel and I really had a fun time listening to what they had to say. I learned some new information regarding the creative writing process when it comes to licensing of properties. Thanks to the Production Central ABQ for hosting this panel through the Albuquerque Film Festival 2009.