Friday, November 04, 2005

I bless the rains down in Africa

Today's Comic Art Friday is sponsored by Burn Baby Burn Revolutionary Hot Sauce. Because you need a little Black Panther in you.

Speaking of the Black Panther, here's the King of Wakanda himself, as envisioned through the powerful pencil of Darryl Banks:



If you're an old-school comics fan and not already reading Marvel's current Black Panther series, you owe it to yourself to give it a whirl. Hollywood director and screenwriter Reginald Hudlin occasionally frustrates me with his character beats, but his scripts definitely keep the storyline lively and interesting. I like artist David Yardin's dramatic pencil work on recent issues far better than the more stylized output of John Romita Jr., who drew the first six issues of the series.

Yardin will also be the artist on the new miniseries featuring Storm, the weather-manipulating heroine of X-Men, that's being written by best-selling novelist Eric Jerome Dickey (author of Sister, Sister, Liar's Game, and Genevieve). T'Challa, the Black Panther, will play a key role in the storyline, which involves Storm and the Panther's long-ago romance. This series, which debuts in February, should be a book worthy of the anticipation.

The lovely line sketch of Storm shown below emanates from the pencil point of one of comics' current superstars, Adam Hughes. Best known for his covers on such series as Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider, and Catwoman, Hughes — who signs his work with the distinctive monogram "AH!" — is widely considered today's finest exemplar of the "good girl" comic art tradition pioneered in the 1950s by the legendary Matt Baker (Phantom Lady) and continued by such notable talents as Dave Stevens (The Rocketeer), J. Scott Campbell (Gen13), and Al Rio, whose work periodically graces this space.



As you can see here, Hughes is a master of using just a few well-placed strokes to create an image brim-full of charm and beauty.

That's a wrap for this Comic Art Friday. It's raining here in northern California's wine country, so let's be careful out there.

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