Some How I Will Make This Happen

I have to be sure to go this game—Game of Thrones jerseys at the Staten Island Yankees.  —Luis

Meet George R.R. Martin Night

Fandom Awakens

The internet almost broke last week with the debut of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. It was viewed over 30 million times in the first 24 hours, and caused Disney stock to go shooting through the roof. I was excited for this movie before, but am even more excited now. 

J.J. seems to have locked into what every Star Wars fan has been asking for and looks to have delivered an epic. Soaring John Williams music, desert locales, outer space dogfights, new droids, well-designed villains (Kylo Ren’s triblade), and the return of some original classics (I nearly lost it when Han says “Chewie, we’re home"). This is going to be huge. I wish it were December already!  —Luis

Time Traveling Fun

Mark Millar and Sean Murphy’s Chrononauts is a little bit Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid meets Back to the Future. Which is to say, it’s a lot of fun. Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly are very much like the Newman/Redford characters in Butch Cassidy (and The Sting). Their relationship is the engine that drives the book. As they get deeper and deeper into shenanigans, you wonder how it's going to play out. While Millar's stories of late have seemed very made-for-the-screen (hard to argue with his thinking seeing how many of his stories get made into movies), this series is pure sci-fi comics gold. Murphy's pencils are great as well. As good as he was on The Wake, he seems even better here. I can’t wait to see the way this series plays out.  —Luis

Fight Owens Fights

A buddy of mine in the office is a huge independent wrestling fan. For months now he has been trying to get me to watch old Kevin Steen matches. I like wrestling, but I like it to be well-produced WWE-style, so I tend to shy away from the independent promotions. Kevin Steen then signed on with WWE and got placed at NXT as the renamed Kevin Owens. Now I see what all the fuss is about.

Since his debut in December, Owens has steam-rolled the competition. He is incredibly agile for someone his size with a remarkable sense of ring psychology. His mic work is already that of a seasoned veteran. I feel like we are watching the birth of a superstar. All of which leads me to his NXT title match with Sami Zayn (which the WWE greatly packaged, leaning heavily on the past history and friendship of these two men). 

No one expected Zayn to drop the title he had fought so hard to finally snag from Neville. Yet here he was in his first title defense getting absolutely mauled by Owens. The sheer physicality of it all was amazing. Zayn selling every powerbomb as if he were near death. The refs stopping the fight and awarding the belt to Owens was reminiscent of the classic Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold match. Owens has star written all over him. I’m sure his stint at NXT will be short lived as the WWE knows they have a main event wrestler in their minors.  —Luis

The Reviews Are In...

NYCC should pay you to do such strong work on their behalf. Seriously, very well done.  -Colin, Maxim

You have completely outdone yourself!!!! This issue is amazing!! -Hilary, Wired

Great issue! LONG too. You guys must have worked really hard! -Mikey, Zinio

Awesome! I always look forward to reading these. Nice job—this issue looks great! -Alexander, Scholastic

Check it out for yourself:

Art Department Weekly | Issue 77 Vol. 6

Reign of Boos

This past weekend, the WWE put on their annual Royal Rumble. The general mayhem of the Rumble always makes it one of my favorite events of the year. This year even more so as Daniel Bryan was returning, and I was sure that was going to lead to great things. I mean they wouldn’t make the same mistake as last year and have an unpopular big man win (read: the returning Batista in January 2014).

Coming into the event everyone expected Roman Reigns (the new WWE anointed big man) to come out on top. Daniel Bryan entered early (10th) had some nice moments but got eliminated by a strong Bray Wyatt. Once the “Yes movement” unceremoniously ended, the crowd turned rabid. They booed every move lustily. When it became apparent that Reigns would win, the heel-loving Philly crowd really let the WWE have it. Not even a surprise appearance by the Rock (trying to give his real-life cousin a positive rub) would help. It was as angry a crowd as I can remember. 

The WWE really dropped the ball on this event. What the fans wanted wasn’t taken into account at all. Hopefully they start paying attention soon.  —Luis

Comic Con Is Finally Up!

Check out our 52 pages of coverage:

Art Department Weekly | Issue 77 Vol. 6

(We redesigned a little.)

Similar Suits

Batgirl’s redesigned costume (by Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr) has been incredibly accepted and applauded by the comics community. It’s one of the fresher redesigns I’ve seen in years. After years of Spandex hell, and just simply being a copycat of Batman’s outfit, we have an original take that lends itself more to a real-word Yvonne Craig-style costume. I couldn’t be happier with this. 

On the heels of that costume's popularity, Marvel has decided to redesign the nearly perfect Spider-Woman costume. The’ve gone with a very real-world jacket, tight leather pants combo that Stewart and Tarr perfected. Here, though, it seems forced and copycat-ish. The logo looks great when the jacket is closed, but is unnoticeable when opened. On top of that her slouchy belt simply doesn’t work. This all led me to ask “Did Jessica Drew’s Spider-Woman really need a redesign?” I don’t think she did. Marvel took one of the more identifiable costumes in comics and simply genericized it in the guise of making it real-world. This was a big swing and a miss for me.  —Luis

A Little Slower

When my husband saw me laying out this spread, he was like, "We should have one of those."

I guess we will in nine months... I'm so exhausted. All I want to do is finish this issue (and make it the most amazing issue in the history of publishing (no lofty goals there)). —Madeline

The Food Issue

Check us out on Issuu—the Food Issue is now up:

Art Department Weekly | Issue 76 Vol. 6

Working on a Big Issue

I stopped to talk to a lot of vendors and artists on the floor. This should be a really big issue. Here is a sneak peak of my hair and makeup coverage... —Madeline

Costumes at NYCC

There were so many great costumes all four days, so I'm sure our magazine version of this story on Issuu (http://issuu.com/artdepartmentweekly) will be packed with bigger photos. Here is a sneak peak...