Hero Theory

The Black Panther is the King.

2009-08-19T20:44:00.002-05:00

I’m going to start off by saying I’m a HUGE superhero fan. So anything you read will be coming from a biased opinion. You’ve been warned…

I moderate a very popular videogame forum and I have to deal with a wide range of personalities. So one day this cat strolls up and says this:

“Civil War was awesome....well except for Black Panther. That character is such fail...

My issues with Black Panther go beyond Civil War however, like the way they always have him pull something out his ass. "Yes, we had a plan in place, if Galactus appeared..." Of course you did. (this is the same reason I don't care for Reed Richards most times)

Also, during Civil War, the government and IRON MAN were looking for Captain America....and Panther finds him in five minutes. ”

This cat claims that he is indeed knowledgeable about Black Panther and comics in general. That’s hard to believe, but whatever. I did address it, but it’s been over for months. But it still bothers me; if you knew anything about Black Panther you would know that…

THE BLACK PANTHER IS THE MAN!

And I’m not even going to into xyz writer’s run of the character. I’m talking about core concept of the character. Now given as the years progressed the hero has had to advance as well. Spider-Man has always had this status quo which as mostly gone unchanged. Why does it need to, it works wonders to this day. Back in the day you had Black Panther and it was given he was this awesome warrior-king and hero. However it was public knowledge he was educated, highly educated in the west. But back then you just had him jumping around and fighting. So this introduction of the “new Black Panther” is just natural progression of the character.

He’s more than just a cat (no pun intended), who fights, and he NEEDS to be a brilliant tactician. Granted, I am very critical of Batman’s “got a plan for everything” that Grant Morrison and other had years ago. But there is a difference between being unstoppable and having something in the ready, just in case. Granted if Batman (and we know he does) as access to Justice League computers and first hand experience from others, he could have a plan to stop Darkseid. Don’t mean it would work. Same with Black Panther. His access to the Avengers, Fantastic Four, his Wakanda’s spy network and own “greater than you” technology, he could have a plan to for Galactus. And again, not saying he could man up Galactus, but he could have a plan. I don’t think any hero should be above a beat down every now and again, you need to have that check and balance for the sake of a good story. However if you are going to gripe about Black Panther’s tactical abilities (and Heaven forbid he actually has a brain and uses it), it all goes back to Wakanda.

Let’s talk about where Black Panther rests his head. Wakanda is the only African country to not be conqured by outside forces. To review, it’s the ONLY African country to not be overridden by outsid forces. It’s a high tech paradise, a prefect marriage of nature and technology. Along with all the advancements in techology, you have the Vibranium mound. T’Chaka, T’Challa’s father, was wise enough to not just willy-nilly give up this valuable resource. Some scoff at the idea of a Wakanda, and maybe if you look at this with a overly critical eye you could. But then again, no one ever questions why Latveria has ever been invaded and how could Dr. Doom control his country for so many years. To me, Wakanda is and should be seen as inspiration for what can be. Not mocked for the bloody and sad history of the past.

Again, I’m talking about the core concepts of the character. I’m not too big on what’s going on with comics now and I’m cool with that. As long as the core concept of the character is done right and if there is a change it makes sense, I’m good. And I’m cutting this short because I could go on all day. But yeah, if I had to pick teams for my “Superhero Fantasy Team,” I’m going use one of my top picks on Black Panther. And it’s cool not to like him, but don’t be all BS over it. Then again, everyone loves Wolverine, Deadpool, and other “I’ll kill you” type guys and as much as I love the concept of Wolverine (Logan), I think he’s over rated. Now you can make a rant about me and Wolverine. ;)

Peace.

Well hello there...

2009-08-17T12:02:00.002-05:00

I’m back. Again…..

And I’m pretty excited. I’m working on these superheroes, art, and everything and its fun. I’ve really been enjoying coming up with concepts for these characters and the art is looking good. Not as good as I want, but pretty cool in my opinion. Unlike in the past where I would get side tracked after making a promise about doing “this, that or the third,” I’ll just say that I’m working very hard and have set times to get things done. However I’m not going to speak on it until it’s ready to be spoken on.

Not mention we are in the middle of some of the biggest superhero related multimedia explosion ever. From movies to television to videogames, and not to mention the great work done in comics, we are in the knee deep in amazing products. On the videogame front, next week brings Batman: Arkham Asylum. You play as Batman (Duh!) and you are fighting various villains in the “bad guy drop off” Arkham Asylum. The cool thing is that this is a “real” Batman game. No side scrolling brawling (like there is anything wrong with that), no fighting game, not bat nipples. This is Batman at his sneaking around, dark knight detective, massive-beat down best.

And then there is the Civil War inspired Marvel Alliance 2.I was a huge fan of the first game and see there are some improvements over the first (the wearing different costumes started off cool, but then I was stuck going with Beta Ray Bill if I wanted xyz Thor perk), I’m just not jumping up and down over this. Mostly because there seems to be no Cyclops (but Jean Grey is there?) and no Black Panther. Bad enough I had to hunt down damn dolls to get Black Panther in the first, but now he’s not in the game? Boo.

After over a year I finally saw Dark Knight. I didn’t make it to the movies (I don’t go to movies anymore, sucks…) and didn’t want to watch it until I owned it. It was worth the weight. As much as I loved Heath’s performance, it was perfect for that movie style, I’m not going hand him “THE Joker” label. To me, it still belongs to Mark Hamill for his voice work and for Timm, Dini, and the gang in the various Batman and Justice League cartoons. But still, a very awesome movie and I hope we get another one; heck, maybe with a Robin, but not a return of the “Schumacher Touch.” Ack…

But yeah, I’m going to take time to make this a regular deal and not a once every four month deal. J Let’s us this to sharpen my writing and also to really get in the flow of thinking and putting out positive thoughts. Lord knows we need more of that. And thanks to the many people who have been inspiring me, even if they didn’t know it. And thanks Take 6 for providing background music. Takes me back…

New for April 21st.

2009-04-21T20:59:00.005-05:00

(I'm not sure who the young lady is, but she is rocking the puffs)

(Old School Ninja Nerd. Hmmmm....)

(He is nothing but pure liquid energy!)

The school year is almost to a end. Which means my job is almost to a end, and I'm cool with that. I really want to spend more time playing with Noah and drawing. I'm thinking that the next batch of pictures are going to be more finished. Some more shading and some inking. They look good on paper, but once I scan them in and really start to sink into the picture, they just look flat.

(I like the power button, but I think another character(s) have that sort of mask)

(Adamant doing his best Capt. Marvel pose. There is a Capt. America sheild there. I would post that image, but it's not very good.)

04.15.09

2009-04-15T20:56:00.004-05:00

Todays:

For Thursday's pic I plan on doing a bit more shading and also something more... I dunno, dynamic or whatever. Something. The top one is a superhero I made up when I was young. Sun-Man, Sun King, Sun Tron (look, Tron was big back then, ok?! Who didn't want to be anywhere close to Tron?!), Sun Somethingoranother. When I was a kid, and now sometimes, I'd pretend be a superhero. Professor X would find me and I'd join the New Mutants. Cool....

The second I was just messing around. Been thinking of Assassin's Creed 2 a lot. Seen the trailer, read about it in Game Informer, I liked the first one. Thought of a kid who was all Assassin Creed'd out, but wasn't killing people. Fighting bullies, stealing quizes to sell to others, sabotaging the school buses so there would be no school, so on and so on... That's actually pretty cool.

Expect another "Assassin Creed Kid Who Isn't Really An Assassin" picture tomorrow.

New Beginning

2009-04-14T19:20:00.005-05:00

This is what I posted yesterday via Facebook.com:

Wanted: Creative Cats

No, not felines who can freestyle, but people who are creative.I've been
working on my ongoing superhero styled comic/animation/property for awhile. Over the break, I got quite a bit done. Some writing and some drawing, a ton of
brainstorming while I have time to have a clear mind. But it's not enough. So
I'm looking around and seeing all these creative folks. So I am doing something
I rarely do and should do more often. I am asking for help.
The goal starting tomorrow is to crank out one sketch/drawing a day (starting I'm going for 4 a week until I get a comfortable groove). However I still need to get the site up (I haven't picked a name yet, however I have a few in mind), getting stuff copyrighted, so on and so on. I don't want anyone to do it for me. However I
won't mind a gentle nudge or the like if there are no updates on my end. The
goal is to update my process here and elsewhere until the project is done and
running like Forrest. Everything is here in front of me on my end; it's just
getting it down. Also if there is anyone who wants to do drawing jams (in person
or virtual) or the like, I'd be down.
I've been reached the point where I'm tired of cool ideas I had being used in cartoons (even if I dig them) and whatnot. And I just want to share my stories (without some company coming in and "borrowing" my ideas because they aren't copyrighted. :) ) and pursue one of my dreams. I'll never be the captain of the new NASA spacecraft, the "USS Falcon Prime" and fight aliens; at least I can do this one.
Yes, that this was one of my goals as a 5th grader. That and getting my own Valkyrie or Transformer who was cool with me and we'd go on adventures. Hmmm, new idea coming from an old one....
And here are the results so far...

Some new stuff!!

2008-09-21T19:17:00.004-05:00

What is this? New work posted?

Beans and rice!!!!

I have a t-shirt in my head, I'm playing around with ideas now.

Black background

White background

I want to have one with a quote and something going on in the background, nothing too fancy. But for now, I'll stick with this.

Here is some roughs on the comic that will be here in about 2 weeks. Finally.

Where are you Kameo and Perfect Dark?

2008-09-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

When the 360 launched, we had Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero. They weren't perfect (no pun intended), however they laid down a foundation for future franchises.

Or so I thought anyway.

I'm not one for making online signatures or whatever, didn't help with my new Jet Set Radio game, but part of me really feels like we should get another show with them. Perfect Dark is clearly a franchise that would be amazing to have. The whole FP Spy-Action angle would be awesome and in a sea of super He-Men, bald space Marines, Ms. Dark (older this time around) would be a very cool heroine to have around.

Kameo shouldn't fade after one game. Add some new creatures, tweak the gameplay, we are talking a killer franchise. And again, having some cool female characters would open more doors. It doesn't mean it's "dumbed down." But you can have the killer gameplay, ability to draw in new players, and start a stable foundation for a franchise that could go far beyond games. More than Viva Pinata, to me anyway. A Ben 10 styled Kameo cartoon? Man....

So yeah, I really hope before the Next Xbox system, which I hope is a long ways away, we get another game from these two IPs. Not having another Perfect Dark, that would just be a shame.

The "Joy of Black Samurai"

2008-08-13T23:20:00.000-05:00

Black Samurai.
I'll say this first. The movie is only good if you need something to laugh at. As in, it's not funny ha-ha, but funny in that "Oh shit, did he just say/do that?!" sort of funny.

I wasn't expecting Lord of the Rings with Black Samurai, but that's what I got. IF LotR was made on a shoestring budget and hired non-actors. I love Jim Kelly, but this is just bad. I mean evil bad. The plot is straight out of a NES game, this could have been an amazing NES game. The action is horrible. Horrible. For a super spy cat with so much soul, Jim's character fights with the speed and grace of a retarded tiger with three legs.
There are moments when they are talking while fighting, but it's dubbed in. You'd wish they didn't dub the voices in. But then again, the dialog is nothing to call the Oscars for. I know, I know, it's from 76, it's a Blaxspotation movie. Again, I'm not expecting Casino or Do the Right Thing, but damn.

I laughed a lot more than I should. Jim throwing a vulture named Photon, who later in the movie fights Jim, to some bad guys to escape was cool. The 3 minute Jim flying in a jetpack for no reason got a laugh. The mini-boss fight with Bone, was comedy gold. Bone's fghting style must have been "punk push" Because he spent good chunk of their fighting pushing Jim around. The midget with the cowboy hat swinging on a rope like a school girl and the Zulu warriors (leopard men) coming out of no where was funny. And there were a lot of midgets in this movie. The bad guy, the Worlock, must have stock piled up on midgets...

The movie gets 1 star out of 5. HOWEVA, if you need a laugh (just remember it's 1976) that causes you to cover your mouth in horror, this is a five star event. Can't miss cinema. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Football, Football, FOOTBALL!!!

2008-08-07T17:36:00.000-05:00

I always been very, very excited this time of year. But it's not because of Madden (now) or 2K (years past). It's because of football itself. For me, when NCAA and Madden drops, that's my signal that the season is about to start.

When the teams first get into training camp, I really start to feel that need to play. Last year I worked at a game store and worked the Madden Midnight launch. It wasn't some epic event, but it was pretty cool to see a group of people, we had like 60-80 cats that night, hanging out and talking football. Just having fun and waiting to have more fun later. This year I'll be in line and will run home like Forrest Gump to play. Not because it's Madden (and I really enjoyed last years game), but because it's football.And every year, football puts me under it's spell and iron fisted grasp. This year is no different.

Changes...

2008-08-05T18:50:00.003-05:00

There are times when you think you have everything planned. I did. But things changed, so I went with the flow. So now things have changed again. I have a ton of art to scan, a pretty cool scanner, digital art pad... So there are no excuses. Time, make it. Noise and stuff in the house, do the majority of work somewhere else and keep rocking. But more on that tomorrow...

As far as games go, this year is pretty much shaping up to be another killer. Of course most people are waiting for Madden, I am. Yeah, I was a 2K person, still am with the basketball. But with the NFL being locked down with EA, along with ESPN, I could either be bitter and vow to never play any EA football game, or get over it. I got over it quickly. I enjoy the game too much and if you are going to hate EA, hate ESPN, and also hate on the NFL too. But how many are willing to go without their Sunday and Monday football? Yup, not too many.

What else was there since I last typed... Oh yeah, E3! It's not the same as it was, it's more for the retailers, and I think this will be the last time I actually watch any conference. At least E3s anyway. Microsoft didn't really blow me away, but it was pretty cool. They had the "cool old school E3 factor" by announcing Final Fantasy 13. I'm happy for that. Sony was cool as well, I love Little Big Planet. But ending with all the huff and puff, "This game can't be done anywhere else" and then show a cgi movie? Not cool. Not cool. And Nintendo. Nintendo just killed me. The said later that they didn't feel like they needed to show "core titles." Really? Because frankly, the "casual" cats aren't tuning in live and streaming off the Internet to hear you all talk. And while I do like my Wii, I don't care for a HUGE part of the software. And I saw nothing, save Animal Crossing, that I could see spending money on. But I'm happy for my DS. Keeps kicking all sorts of tail.

Overall, I don't care about E3 the way I use to. I won't say it's "dead," but I didn't even know it was coming until IGN started talking it up on their site. Oh well...

What else..... Yeah, football season is here! I won't bring up Favre. I'm tired of hearing about him, tired of all the "non news" that ESPN and the like keep giving. Tried of the all the talk and double talk. I won't even go there until it's all settled.

Go Ravens! I always support the home team and I dig my Ravens. Thursday can't come soon enough. It is pre-season, but I just love the sport too much not to watch.

But yeah, I'll have some art work to show tomorrow and I'll be happy to share that. Tired of watching other people work without sharing my own.

Easy E

2008-03-26T10:24:00.001-05:00

RIP Easy E.

Yeah he made a lot of business mistakes and he wasn't the greatest emcee or business man. But he was a key part in the history of hip hop and how we know it today, for good or bad.While everyone else worked with the music, Easy was the guy who had the vision of what NWA was going to be, sound, and look like. I have to admit, after Ice Cube left and blessed us with some of the best albums ever, I fell off of NWA. Then when Dre left, I just really left Easy alone. I just saw him as that dude telling "Punisher" type stories. I'd laugh at his rhyming as much as his rhymes.

I look at Easy like this. If there was no Easy, we may never had had Str8 Outta Compton. Never had Ice Cube (and THAT was a BIG part of my teen years), never had The Chronic, may never had Snoop Dogg, no BONE Thugs n Harmony... No Dre being Dre, maybe no Eminem, no 50 Cent. wait, that would be good thing...

It's that trickle down effect that has to make you stop for a second. Not to mention while everyone praises Jay and all these other "drug dealers gone mogal," Easy did that ****. Yeah if he kept it together it might have lasted longer, but it kills me when cats talk as if Jay was the first. Of Master P or whoever. No disrespect, but it is what it is.

Frankly, if I believe if Easy E died in a gunfight or something, people would bring him up more often. And no, it's not I remember every emcee who died or even Easy's death every year. But between listening to DOC and going thru old Source magazines, it just had me thinking about it all. I hope the stigma of HIV/AIDS doesn't keep people away from talking about what Easy did for hip hop.

I guess I'm really in a old school state or mind, all this popping up and all. But for what it's worth, peace Easy. Glad you made peace with so many before you left us.

Just had to respond to this... Lameness

2008-03-06T22:05:00.004-05:00

And I don't care if it hurts someone's feelings. It's just that bad and the ongoing trend of poor character design is pissing me off....

Damnation. A new game coming soon to a 360 and/or PS3 near you.

He looks like he's ready to battle, she looks like she should being going to her 11am-7pm shift at the Hustler Club. I'm far, FAR from a prude, but come on. Can we get some designs that don't look like the work of some 14 year old bored in social studies? It is possible for her to have the same outfit, but fitted to still made her look attractive. It is possible to have ON clothes and be "hot." And let's wear clothes that will make her a bigger target than **** Grayson Robin was with those green panties and elf shoes on..."I'll wear this, I want to look sexy when shooting them bad mens..." GTFO.

I posted this on the forum a mod from, though it would make something decent to blog about. It's lame and it's getting on my last nerve. Even when I was younger I never got a "thrill" out of this sort of thing. It goes beyond trying to be creative, to just being uninspired. Take Ivy, a character I like to use in in Soul Calibur. Before she was a attractive woman wearing very... revealing clothes. Now....

She looks like some old cougar who's "kittens" are about to explode out the cage. Way over done and stanky. Taki is worst, and I've already soiled this page enough..

I know games catered to the 18-30 crowd, but come on. I'm a grown up. With a wife and son. I am pretty open about my long standing hobby of gaming. But imagine being on the subway and reading a magazine and this image above pops out. Looks like some lame ass Maxim Magazine and we really don't need to know how much you love looking at digital asses. (talking to you Play Magazine....)

Respect the fact the audience is smarter than you think. And this is no way to bring in new gamers. Female gamers. My wife loves S. Mina and plays with me at times. But this is a total buzz kill. It's just lame and not hot.

2008-03-06T19:20:00.003-05:00

Ok. No more saying when I will post again. Just do it. :)

Atlas: A prisoner held so long, he forgot who he was. Chained to a massive boulder, "Atlas" learned to live with this "punishment" and learned to use his punishment on his capture. Now content to live alone, Atlas now travels the world with his "punishment;" looking for those who need his brand of justice.

See you sooner than later.

Reboot.

2008-01-12T15:22:00.000-05:00

May. 2007. Last time I was here. I haven't forgotten about the site, surprised I remembered the password, but not the site. I just left it alone. For various reasons, none really a good reason to do so.

So now I'm back. To stay. See I've realized that I left a lot undone. And it's time to get it done. From my art to my writing to my general views about this and that.

"Hero Theory" is and will be about exploring what a hero is. Not in some snuffy, pseudo-intellectual way. But just in a general, down to Earth manner. That's my mission statement I suppose.

Well, first order of business is to get back to writing. I mean typing. I have a huge amount of written word on my characters. Rewrites, editing, so-on-and-so-on. Now it's about getting it all done and up. That leads to the art. Again, I have a lot done, but with a scanner that is all kinds of terrible. So either get it up and going strong or get another. And then my views on comics, movies, pop culture.

That will come soon enough. There is so much to talk about. But my first order of business is my art. While I sort that out, I'll talk about this and that in the meantime. If someone is out there watching. Cool beans. But for now (at least until the art gets flowing here), this is just a way for me to collect my thoughts (at least the ones I don't mind sharing over the Interwebs).

Well, that's it for me really. For now. I have to get to some writing and cleaning up. Be back tomorrow with something more substancal.

"Console War and the Wii"

2007-05-15T22:43:00.000-05:00

In a effort to blog more, I plan on taking my thoughts from the amazing forums of Teamxbox and posting them here. Some of them are really great and I don't want them to go to waste. So this is for Tuesday. For Wednesday I'll have something new.

I like my Wii. I like my 360, PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast, DSL, chess board, mancala set, and whatnot.

I'm happy for the Wii success. Not because it validates my choice in getting one. But because it offers a new experience that I don't get on the other systems. And despite the same 5-8 people who always come into these threads talking about their all consuming hate for the Wii and whatnot, the experience and fun factor is something that is there. Plain and simple.

I don't want any one company to "win the console war." That's silly. You see what happen with NFL and Madden. One game to rule them all, not so fun. Much like with the Xbox, I didn't need it to "win" in order to have fun. Sure there were experiences that I couldn't get on the Xbox, hence I copped a PS2 later to get those games. But overall, I am very, VERY happy with my Xbox and games. Much like my Dreamcast and those games; basically my Capcom fighting game machine. Another "failed machine."

I guess what I'm trying to say is that getting mad because the Wii is doing well is just, lame. It's like telling someone that they aren't having fun and the only reason you like it is because you are sheep. Yeah, some asshat tried that and got shut down. Good for Nintendo. They provide me a product and service I enjoy. Instead of going the 360/PS3 route, they went their route. COULD they added more power or whatnot, sure. But again, it's their route. And it works for me.

And as the year continue, it will work more for me.

Spider-Man 3 videogame failure

2007-05-04T19:09:00.001-05:00

While I usually try to be even tempered, I'm kinda pissed off. Here you have what in all accounts should be a great game. Building from a series of great Spider-Man titles and open world games. And you have to rush it for the movie and it's not as good as it should be. And you get a product that might be cool (it's coming via Gamefly, I'm using the money I was going to spend on this on Super Mario Paper Sexy ***** tomorrow!!!!), but it's a long line of movie/licensed games that fall short.Now I play a lot of games that most don't consider "AAA." Gladius, Phantom Crash, Saints Row, so on and so... So I don't have some elite attitude or anything with my games. But Jesus, how hard is it to put forth the effort to make a solid game? Yeah you are going to make the money back in spades.

But it's not like it's a hard thing.I forgot his name, but the guy who oversees Warner Bros. licenses said that developers and publishers who fail to make a great title or put in a low quality of effort in a licenses should have to give back money to the owner of the licenses. In the sense it damages the products name (if I said there was a Superman game, it could be buy Bungie and you all would laugh your asses off for me even thinking it might be good. I know because I though the last couple of Superman games might be good. I had egg on my face afterward...) and makes it harder for the consumer to have faith in the product.

I might as well cop Ultimate Spider-Man if I want a Spider-Man game. Even if the broken "chase the bad guy until you catch him" and lame ass Venom (**** Venom. Weak ass character. He was cool when he came out, but when he became popular, Marvel milked him like a fatten goat.) action, it might be a better game. At least Marvel UA was cool. I hope Lego Batman is cool.... At least the Lego games were great.End of my rant on movie/licensed games.

It's been a long time...

2007-03-28T20:55:00.000-05:00

Whoops!!!!! Did I forget to do something???

No excuses or anything, I just left the blog alone. Since my plan of scanning my work went to crap, I lost focus. That's on me, I could have done something else like just make talk about things. That's the whole point for this, for me to just rap about stuff I like, and don't like, right?

Well, Captain America is dead. Yup. I thought it was bullshot too when they announced it. But I've come to peace with it. Also I doubt Steve Rogers will be back sooner than later. Captain America is an icon; one of the reasons his death was so powerful and meant so much after Civil War (can't wait for the trade to come out).

But I don't like how "serious" comics have become. We get a six issue story arc and 4 and half is talking. BORING talk. Super hero battles are lack luster at times and even then we get something that pales to the action you got years ago. I don't mind if characters "evolve," but I find the DC cartoons (Batman, Superman, Justice League, and the like) much better than the comics out now.

Well at least we have the old books to read. If we could get some trades or Essentials made from the 80's/90's that would be awesome. How about the Avengers: Under Siege trade republished. Or New Warriors trades/Essentials? Wolfman/Perez Titans trades? While I have some of these books, getting some of these older books can be a hassle.

But that's just me. What can be done about all this? On my end, I want to bring back comics the way they were. They had "serious" topics, without being overly gritty and characters dying for basically nothing. Check out writers and artists who share a sense of history involving the characters. The 90's had Superman and Batman all out of sort. "New and revamped" was the taglines, but they just ended up being lame. Geoff Jones is someone I think "gets it." He helped make JSA not only modern, but keep its old school edge.

In the coming weeks I hope to share a vision I have. It's something I hope you all enjoy.

2007-01-25T22:46:00.000-05:00

I have been doing a lot of loose sketches. I'm not using my scanner, this one belongs to my wife. And it doesn't like this new PC. So anything I scan turns out really "blahnastyfantastic!"

Copyrighted 2007. Blahnastyfantastic.

This is a ballpoint pen sketch I did. I really don't dig the lady's leg, but I thought it would be funny to do.

This is the Marvel Comics character "Kofi." I remember in middle school, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe came out (STILL my bible to Marvel Universe) and my friends saw this character. I didn't live it down for months. I kinda wish I could make a comic using him and his alien friends. That would be cool.

A blue Col-erase drawing (again, you can't tell because of my AWESOME scanner) of the Hulk. I have the original and will ink this at some point.

Next time I will post from my character who comic I'm working on. Ninja Nerd and Kidd IQ are coming.

That's no picture, that's me and my boy. Noah Jamal Kofi Simmons. Five months of kick butt!

A start

2007-01-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

Hey there. This is my first attempt at keeping a active blog, be gentle.

All jokes aside, my name is Kofi Jamal. I'm a man who wears many hats, one of them is that of a artist. After letting my dreams go to the side, I've gone back and decided to follow it all the way thru. The most that could happen is that someone likes it or not. But at least my voice will be heard. That's all I want.

While not drawing and working, I'm a husband and father of a 5 month old monster, Noah Jamal. I also game-a-lot, watch sports, read comics, and very soon will begin to take karate (Kenpo karate) again. I listen to a lot of music, not much in the way of new music. I'm a "old school" hip hop head, but consider myself open to all types of music as long as it movies me. I have no problem going from Wu-Tang Clan to Nirvana to a John William score to Kweli. Huge fan of animation and action-adventure movies. Marital art movies (the old ones with the bad dubbing) are my favorite.

Until I get my wife's scanner to work with my computer or get my scanner from storage, or buy a new scanner, I don't have much of new work. My goal is to post something at least three times a week. I have a ton of sketches to show, and once the gears are working, I can rock out some finished work. For now, here are some old work.