One thing to keep in mind when you are reading one of mine and Freazie’s tales, we like to take it all back to square one with the super hero idea.

Think of this scene actually happening. Think as if you are one of those guys on the floor that just received a kick in the chest by a guy dressed like some comic book hero only this is really happening! The pain you feel is real, the fear, excitement, the sweat, the dirt, debris, the odors, gunfire and loud noises as someone who appears to be not much larger than you is throwing around objects that outweigh him by several hundred pounds! Hey! This guy stood up to a cascade of no telling how many bullets from more than a dozen automatic weapons!

If you approach reading almost any super hero story this way, it will give you a greatly different perspective and insight into what the artist and writer are trying to do.

The problem we have, all of us who have read comics for any length of time, have become jaded to the stories and action. It’s impossible to impress us any more. So it’s up to us as we read, do we just gloss over the words and pictures or do we use our own imaginations a little. Think about it.

We’re here! Enjoy the weekend! Have a great Saturday!

As I wrote yesterday, at the print shop I work for on my Day Job we are in the midst of doing High School Football Program Books of 75-150 pages each. Time is a premium for the next few weeks so I will have to keep it short.

On top of that we had the funeral of my Wife’s Grandmother yesterday. She was 85 and had a very good life. She was also our next door neighbor and will be missed greatly.  She was one of the nicest people I ever met and I never heard her say a bad word of any one. She always had an encouraging word for whoever she met. I knew her for more than 25 years.

Here’s page 1 of the Free Preview of Humants we passed out in the conventions and gave to retailers I showed you the cover of yesterday.

Today we have the debut of Humants #2. This issue was a landmark issue in my opinion. I thought Freazie and I turned in some of the best work we had done since our small press days. We learned a few things from the publication of the first two books with Legacy Comics and applied them to this issue.

This cover I did the pencils and inks on and Nathan Massengill did his usual extraordinary job of painting it in blazing color! Remember to click the images to see a larger views.

Be sure to check out Wednesday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! Enjoy life! CU2morrow

I just got a new batch of old art from Freazie! Some of this stuff I have not seen in 20 years. Some of it I had never seen so it was a big treat opening up the package and going through all of that. I hope everyone is enjoying getting these daily little peaks at our…uh… Legacy, no pun intended.

Maybe we don’t come across as a couple of old codgers reminiscing the good ol’ days! Sure a little of that is going on, but honestly we just want to share with you what we have done as we prepare the new stuff we have in store.

Freazie and I have agreed what we have done in the past laid the foundation for what we are about to unleash starting this fall. Some of it you have already seen us hyping in our Mighty Mega Check Lists and elsewhere. Others we have not told you about yet. For instance there is a special daily feature for this blog in the works.

We also have had other folks contact us wanting to get their titles hosted on our site. We’e flattered and there will be room for that at some point, probably in our second year, but right now we have our hands full just presenting the titles, both old and new, we have. We also want to bring in some new talent to work on some of our established characters. We still have our promised Character Guides to do too as well. There are also some other comics both of us did  with other folks or on our on to get posted. Res assured, even though we have a lot in our archives, the best is yet to come!

Here’s the back cover of the 1991 Free Preview of Humants we passed out in the conventions and gave to retailers. This page has a message from Freazie.

Remember to click the image to see a larger view.

Be sure to check out Friday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! TGIF! CU2morrow

My ol’ buddy just sent me yet another batch of old art! A lot of it was Small Press stuff with a few of our Independent pieces mixed in. Here’s one of them. This little promo was one Freazie wrote, penciled, inked and lettered all by himself from 1989.

Now, neither Freazie nor I were all that great at hand lettering. That’s why we always had our ace letterer Billy Leavell handling the job on every Legacy book. So I’m looking at this scan in PhotoShop and I’m thinking, “Ya know I’ve got those Blambot fonts I’ve been wanting to try out…and while I’m at it why not use some of those new coloring techniques I’ve been working on?” So one thing lead to another and… voila! Something old is now something new!

Remember to click the image to see a larger view.

Be sure to check out Sunday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! Rest Up! CU2morrow

We are in week 3 of Creative Printers marathon High School Football Program deadline crunch! We figured up yesterday that we probably have 2-3 weeks of work left on this project if the current trend continues. Whew!

Here’s a couple drawings by Freazie White, Jr. The first is the color guide for The Humant’s costumes he penciled, inked and colored. We used a black and white version for the inside cover of Humants #2.

The second is from our small press days: Captain Testament, the Christian Crusader. We hope to share some of those in Mega Tales later this year. Again Mr. White did his usual bang up job penciling and inking this little gem! Enjoy!

Sorry my time is short but things will be back to normal soon. Thnaks for your patience.

Click the images for larger views.

Be sure to check out Tuesday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants! Chill out! CU2morrow

I’m on page 17 of another 64 page  High School Football Program for Creative Printers. The marathon continues! We should compete in the Olympics!

Here’s more drawings by Freazie White, Jr. The first is another version of the 3N1 art I originally did. Freazie penciled this one over my layouts. This one is a favorite of mine and actually appeals to me more than my own version. Great job, pal! We’ll finish the Legacy Continuum book, which this was to be in, one day soon.

The second is New Man from the same incomplete title I just mentioned: Legacy Continuum. Again these are Freazie’s pencils over my layouts. Freazie was never comfortable doing pencils over my layouts. I don’t understand why because the combination of our talents in this way was always great! At least I thought so. I liked it almost as well as my inks on Freazie’s pencils. Freazie was a good inker over my work too. I hope we’ll be able to have time in our schedules in the next year to collaborate again like on these drawings. And I definitely want to ink Freazie’s pencils again on Humants or whatever he has a mind to pencil.

The third is a re-creation, more or less, of the Humants #1 cover. I roughed out the layouts and Freazie penciled over it and even began to ink it. This one I really want ot see completed! Another one which was done for the  Legacy Continuum.

Again my time is short. Thanks for your patience.

Click the images for larger views.

Be sure to check out Thursday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants! Peace out! CU2morrow

Hopefully this will be the last weekend, and especially Sunday, I have to work on High School Football Program Books this year. Whew! It’s really fun, but really hectic because of the short time they give us to do it.

These are ads we ran in 1992 for the Humants in the Comics Buyers Guide, which back then was a tabloid newspaper. Like the market CBG was so glutted they barely got noticed even though we ran them in several issues. We also bought ad space for several large comic strips as is mentioned in the bottom ad. I’ll post those soon. The originals for those were huge, double the width of a regular 11 x 17 art board size, so scanning them will be a trick!

The art on these were from Christopher Torres and some by me, Mark Poe. Of course on the bottom ad the cover art was by Freazie White, Jr. and myself.

Click the image for a larger view.

Be sure to check out Sunday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! Relax. CU2morrow

Working seven days a week can really disorient a fellow. Remember the old Dunkin Donuts commercial where the little guy that made the donuts was working such long hours he met himself at the door one morning? Yeah, I’m that guy.

Got another package of art from my pal Freazie the other day. I found this in it. Now, sometimes I don’t remember everything and that could be the case here. This seems to be a batch of New Humants Freazie has created surrounding Blaze, the Mediator. Maybe Freazie will enlighten us all on this one.

Click the image for a larger view.

Be sure to check out Monday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! Good day! CU2morrow

Well, we are past the midway point on working on High School Football Program Books. We’ve put 5 out to press now and have seen the light at the end of the tunnel with only 4 more to go. Those 4 are mostly complete in composition. Now we just have to proof them out and then make corrections. I’m hoping not to have to work on those Saturday, but just keeping my fingers crossed at this point.

WOW! The Democrats put on a great showing at their Convention last night in Denver, eh? It was good to see ol’ Senator Teddy Kennedy was doing so well after the major surgery he went through just a couple months ago. What an historic year we’ve seen, and it’s not over yet! The Republican Convention is next week. I can’t remember the two major parties having conventions back to back like this before. They usually have a few weeks between them.

Okay, today we have a little piece of art from 1987. This is the original concept art for Bearcat. Contrary to appearances, Bearcat was NOT inspired by Felix the Cat! He was really inspired by all those cool characters like the Sandman, the Guardian and the Manhunter by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby from the 1940’s. With a little Hanna Barbera Saturday Morning Cartoon flavor tossed in and a nod to Alex Toth as well. But he does have a pretty cool Bag of Tricks, just like Felix, accept a little more high tech! I always liked the idea of a gadget hero, like Batman and the original super-hero, Doc Savage! This art was done by me, Mark Poe, with Steven Shipley, one of our fellow Alpha-Omegans, handling the inks. Catch Bearcat in solo action over on Project: New Man #3 right now!

Have a great Tuesday!

Click the image for a larger view.

Be sure to check out Tuesday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! Live well! CU2morrow

We got a lot done on the  High School Football Program Books today at Creative Printers. We sent one more to the Rip Processor for plates today and only one left to finish up typesetting and layout on. 2 others are proofed out and will return in a day or so for corrections. Not having to work Saturday looks very good at this point and we might even get off for Labor Day. We’ll still have some odds and ends to finish up next week but the worst is behind us. Whew!

Well, after a rousing start Monday with a lot of hope for the, better the Democrat Convention in Denver has quickly slid into mediocrity.  It was good to see Senator Teddy Kennedy Monday and he gave a great speech and the tribute to him was touching! He’s the real hero of this convention. The guy is in his 70’s and recovering  from brain cancer surgery, yet he fought his way through all kinds of pain to make it to the podium and speak! Wow!

Mrs. Obama did good but may have been coached a little too much. Hillary Clinton was… herself. But so far we have not heard much from the star of this one. What about Barack Obama? He’s the one I want to hear about, but not all his accomplishments, and not how everyone is united in the party for him, that’s a given these days. Let’s hear his plan. I know he wants change, more change, and even more change, but change to what? Oh well, here comes President Bill Clinton to the podium now, as I write this, maybe he’ll shed some light on the subject.

Okay, today’s art is from 1987 again. This is the original concept art for Amp, another member of the team Razor’s Edge! He has the power to channel sound and, you guessed it, amplify it to earth shattering levels. We’ll probably see him turn up soon in a story.

Click the image for a larger view.

Be sure to check out Thursday’s comic book posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! Focus! CU2morrow

Hurricane Gustav fortunately did not cause as much damage as Katrina, but I doubt that’s much comfort to those who have loses to the storm. We are not out of the woods yet! 3 more storms, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine are churning up the Atlantic right now making their way toward the U.S.

WOW! I can’t remember a more interesting political year than this one. Not only do we have an African American on the ticket this year but also, Governor Sarah Palin, the second woman ever to be nominated for Vice President.This is beginning to look more like a Chess Match rather than a run for President of the United States of America! One thing’s for sure: this November we will either have the first African American or the first woman to serve in the White House as either President or Vice President. How cool is that?

After the delays due to the Hurricane Joe Lieberman gave a great speech at the GOP Convention Tuesday night. They should have had him on first. Fred Thompson did a great job too.

I’m eager to hear Governor Sarah Palin. I’ve never like Senator John McCain all that much but I like his VP choice. I was a little concerned about her being the governor from a small state but that’s the only minus I see. Even with that she may have more experience in government than Barack Obama. Not being much of a fan of Government, I’m divided on whether that is good or bad.

Yep! This is one of the most interesting Political Years I can recall in my 47 years. Only 2 more months and we’ll know the outcome.

Tomorrow I’ll actually try to say something about comics!

Check out Wednesday’s posts for Project: New Man