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Comic Art Friday: The universal me
L’shana tovah and Happy New Year to all of my Jewish friends! (I will presume that you know who you are.) May the year 5774 bring you and everyone you love much good, and none ill. In celebration of...
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Comic Art Friday: O Captain, my Captain!
In the entertainment world, rumors are a dime a dozen. With the advent of social media, that value has plummeted to, say, about a dime per quadrillion. Still, I was intrigued to note earlier this week...
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Comic Art Friday: You’re Thor? I’m tho Thor I can’t write an ethay
The truth can now be told: I’ve never much liked Thor. I actually think the concept of Thor — lightning-wielding proto-Viking with a flying hammer — is pretty awesome. The character himself? Not so...
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A LearnedLeague update: LL58 postmortem
LearnedLeague Season 58 concluded this week, and in the immortal words of Gloria Gaynor, “I will survive.” After a grueling 25-day campaign, I managed to finish 17th in Rundle A West — without dispute,...
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Comic Art Friday: I say Martin, you say McDaniel
A while back, I was randomly browsing the comic art listings on eBay — you know, like you do — and I stumbled upon this drawing by artist Michael McDaniel of one of my favorite heroines, Wanda...
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Michael Rankins. Jeopardy! 1980s Fan Favorite. Vote. Yadda, yadda.
So, here’s the deal. I’m Michael Rankins — you knew that, right? nobody’s real name is SwanShadow, for crying out loud — and way back in 1988, I was a five-time undefeated champion on Jeopardy!,...
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Comic Art Friday: You can call her Princess… or not
Once upon a time (let’s call it the early 1970s), there was an anime series entitled Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman in the original Japanese) about a five-member team of young...
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Comic Art Friday: I’m not saying I’m Batman, but you’ve never seen us together
When I was a young comics-reading lad, I always liked Batman. Superman never really appealed to me because he was too… well… super. I mean, the guy could fly so fast he could travel through time, and...
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Comic Art Friday: A tall-walking big Black Cat
Followers of this space know my fondness for vintage superheroines. In fact, I’ve devoted an entire themed commission series, Bombshells!, to female costumed stalwarts who made their comics debuts...
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Comic Art Friday: Typhoon Taarna
It struck me this morning as ironic that on the birthday of the late, great Tony DeZuniga — who led the tsunami of artists from the Philippines that took the American comics industry by storm in the...
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Comic Art Friday: Art for nouveau’s sake
Although I collect original comic art exclusively — and that within a fairly specific range — I appreciate many different styles and genres of art. Since the days when I struggled through an...
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Comic Art Friday: Catch me now, I’m falling
I thought long and hard — well, okay, as long and hard as I think about anything; which, given the attenuated nature of my attention span, is not all that long or hard, really — about what to post on a...
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SwanShadow Gives Thanks: 10th Anniversary Edition
If you do something ten years in a row, it’s definitely a thing. Every Thanksgiving beginning in 2004, I’ve paused here in my little corner of the World Wide Wackiness to express my appreciation for 26...
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Comic Art Friday: A real-life superhero passes
In respectful acknowledgment of the passing of former South African president Nelson Mandela — one of the towering figures in human events in my lifetime — today I’m sharing a few choice images from my...
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Comic Art Friday: It’s hard out here for a superheroine
In case you missed it, the upcoming Batman/Superman feature film just added a Wonder Woman. Warner Brothers has cast Israeli actress and model Gal Gadot — that’s her, right above — as mighty Diana,...
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Comic Art Friday: I’m Donatello you for the last time
You know what has always bugged me about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Donatello. Not the character Donatello. He’s fine. His name, however, bugs. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Um… it’s giant,...
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Comic Art Friday: The best of 2013
2013 proved itself a solid year for my comic art collection. Perhaps the most significant 2013 addition was one that doesn’t appear in any of my galleries — a detailed catalog, completed this past...
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Comic Art Friday: Transformers — adolescents in disguise
It’s generally acknowledged that superheroes are a manifestation of adolescent power fantasy. What teenager doesn’t secretly wish to vanquish with a mighty blow all the people and things that cause...
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Comic Art Friday: Double Jeopardy at Munden’s Bar
When I first began commissioning artworks for my Common Elements series nearly a decade ago, I started a list of character matchups that I thought would make for interesting scenarios. Over the years,...
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Comic Art Friday: Mourning (over comics) becomes Elektra
I’ve long been on record as opining that Frank Miller singlehandedly ruined three of my boyhood comics heroes. Miller ruined both Batman and Daredevil by forcing both characters down the road to...
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