Let's kick some ass...

Greatest martial arts fight scenes. My top Ten!

When doing my research for this subject I started to notice that the greatest fighters in modern day martial arts movies were split down the middle between two guys, Jet Li and Jackie Chan! They are hands down the greatest ever, no argument can be made so don’t even try. Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba, Gordon Liu helped to pave the way. I’m also keeping most of these current, in the last 20 years or so. I could easily see how great the oldies are and the great battles in movies like Seven Samurai, Street fighter, Game of death, Master killer, Shogan Assassin and the 36th chamber of Shaolin All of those are Classics with classic fight scenes. With that being said how can I make a top ten list without those greats? I decided once again to go with “My favorite” theme. This time I judged all the scenes on these criteria. Length and difficulty of the scenes. Cool movies, how it was shot and of course the dramatic elements of the fight! I would also like to mention the new stars on the block or at least to American audiences that will help pave the way for more great Martial arts movies for years to come. Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen and Tony Ja. Bow to your master! Now, let’s begin.

(Starting from the bottom this time)

Honorable mention for American movies. This list will be dominated by the Asia cinema, but I had to mention these two American films that have some great fights that made me take notice.

The Best of the Best- One of the best American martial artist movies about the sport of Tae Kwon Do. Great action and drama with a nice ending. the sequel is a bit cheesy but is worth watching too. Phillip Rhee is high underrated and underused martial artist.
The Rundown- Highly underrated film and action sequences and of course one of the coolest fights between the Rock and the little Brazilians!



10. Bloodsport/The Kiss of the Dragon. (Tie) Kiss of…Not a great movie, but any movie with Jet Li in it is worth the money spent to see it! The fight scene with the “twins” at the end of the movie is awesome and brutal. Nice mix of east meets west action with this scene. Bloodsport is one of my favorite movies when I was a teen. I’ve watched this movie at least 50 times! This movie made Van Dammit a star, watch the last few fight scenes and especially the one with the great Bolo Yen and see why.

9. Matrix Reloaded (Neo vs. Agent Smiths or the Burly Brawl) this is one of the greatest scenes in martial artist movies in some time. It would have rated higher if it didn’t have so much CGI and slowmo “bullet time” FX and just got down to the nitty gritty. I love this scene, who the hell doesn’t? How great would this movie have been if Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh didn’t both turn down roles in it!

8. Zataichi, the Blind Swordsmen (fight in the rain) this was a great battle with great action and direction. Everything about this scene speaks of cool!

7. Kill Bill vol. 1 ( the Bride vs. the crazy 88 & Go Go Yabari) You have Choreographed fights by Yuen Wo Ping, with Tarentino Direction and old school Shaw Brothers blood splatters SFX and music Montage by RZA!! Are you kidding me, this one is great, graphic and action packed. Directed beautifully, and a nice bonus cameo by none other than the great Gordon Liu!!

6. First Strike (Jackie Chan and the ladder fight) This Scene has great action and thrilling stunt work, this is the stuff that made Jackie a household name and one of the biggest stars in the entire world!

5. Ong Bak, the Thai Warrior ( Tony Ja in the final fight scene) When I first saw this flick last year I knew I was looking at true greatness and the successor to Jackie and Jet right before my eyes! This movie is packed with great, brutal Muy Thai fight scenes that will make you cringe to watch. Tony has what Bruce and Jet have, raw fighting ability that looks real on scene and the stunt and acrobatic work of Jackie Chan. Bruce Lee would love Tony Ja, why? Tony really kicks ass and never uses wires!


4. Fist of Legend (Jet Li vs. the entire Japanese school) this is a remake of the Bruce Lee Classic Fist of Fury. Great fight scene that I believe the Wachaski brothers modeled the “burly brawl” after. This one is fantastic to see Jet Li and his intense style brought to its peak in this scene

3. Hero ( the chess house fight with Jet Li and Donnie Yen or the fight between Broken Sword, Tony Leung, and the King of Chen ,Chen Dao Ming.) The entire movie is packed with great visuals and fantastically gorgeous fight scenes. This movie has one great shot after another and has a powerful message wrapped into all this great action. Seeing two masters like Jet Li and Donnie Yen once again clash swords is a treat for any hard core fan!


2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi with all the weapons) this is one of the best movies of any kind and helped break down the “kung fu” movie stereotype for western audiences. It’s cool to know one of the best character conscious, plot driven period peace movies of my lifetime is also one of the best action movies as well!! Every fight in this is perfect and is executed with precision mastery; it’s almost incomprehensible to witness such a master that got such great critical and popular kudos by an American audience. Thank god the public and critics came together on this gem!

1. Legend of the Drunken Master (Jackie Chan vs. everyone in the final fight scene) this scene is long, with stunts great action, drama, lots of fighting styles and great martial arts! This fight is amazing and in typical Hong Kong movie making magic took about 6 weeks to shoot the finial scene (after about three months of rehearsal) this fight will have you exhausted by the end. Jackie out did himself on this one!

The Directors...

I've shown my favorite films and what great films they are. What makes a great film you might ask? Acting can make a good film, yes as well as a good story... but without a great director your film will never reach it's full potential. As a film buff and fellow story teller I have great admiration for the job that today's directors do. There have been many great directors from Orsen Wells to Stanley Kubrick to Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurasawa. It's hard for me, with my limited film knowledge that really only spans the last thirty years, to compares today's directors to the greats of old. So once again this is my list of Favorites. This list is MY top 10. I'll even go deeper and tell you why I like each director to give you more insight to what I look for in a great director. Enjoy...or not.

1. Martin Scorsese. ( Raging bull, Goodfellas, Kundun, Gangs of New York.) This man is movie gold in my opinion. The greatest film maker I've ever seen. This man should have a dozen Academy Awards by now. There is no other film maker that can tell a character driven movie like Marty. It almost make me want to vomit when his movies never make the money they should at the box office. Anyone that doesn't go out and support these kind of film makers should have their house fire bombed. God please let Marty do one of his movies and it make some money!

2. Quentin Tarantino ( Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) Quentin is without a doubt our generations Francis ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese. A true icon of my generations film makers and had one of the most influential movie on the industry of the last 20 years, Pulp Fiction.

3. Steven Spielberg ( Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Minority Report.) My generations Steven Spielberg, LOL. His films really push the creative boundaries. Every time you think he's going in one direction he does something like Ryan, or Munich that makes everyone turn there head and know he can truly do it all! The Michael Jordan of Film Directing.

4. David Fincher ( Fight Club, Seven) David is one director that if you could give him a blank check and a good concept the man can deliver the most provocative video masterpiece...Everything. Very few directors working today can match his visual style and unique story telling ability.

5. Michael Mann ( Insider, Heat, Collateral) Big time director that can handle big time stars and get the best out of them, everything. Few directors carry the respect of the finest in the biz like this mann ( pun intended) He has directed the biggest stars on the planet and can tell compelling character driven storylines and dynamic action sequences seamlessly. This man is a master at letting the characters come to life and draw us into the film.

6. Brain DePalma ( Scarface, Carlitos Way, Untouchables, and the up coming The Black Dahlia ) visual style that has been teaching young film makers for years how to open a scene with tention and style that has DePalma written all over it. Overhead shots that slowly pan the scene to stunning close ups from unique angles always tell the viewer your watching dePalma.

7. Chistopher Nolan ( batman Begins, Insomnia, memento, the Following) few directors can boast a 1.000 batting average in the bigs...This one can. Everything he touches is a master piece. With only a few films under his belt Mr. Nolan is quickly showing people that not only is he a master storyteller but he can do a big budget Hollywood movie like Batman and do it better than it's ever been done before.

8. Sergio Leone ( Once upon a time in America, Good the Bad and the Ugly, Fistfull of Dollars) The king of the intense close-up and the man who made Clint Eastwood and the spaghetti western a star is still looked at and revered by pears young and old as a true craftsman of the art of film making.

9. Guy Ritchie ( Lock Stock and two smoking barrels, Snatch) A lot of people like to hate on him now a days, but don't make the mistake of writing this limy off just yet. His first two major film releases were as exciting to watch visual as anything I've seen in recent memory. His directing style is purely defended as his unique eye for off beat outrageous characters. His pacing is strong and keeps you glued to the edge of your seat. I defy anyone reading this to watch those two films and not see the budding greatness that is Guy!

10. Terry Gilliam ( Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Time Bandits) Quirky, odd, witty and visual brutal. All this coming from a Montey Python! Terry is a truly gifted film maker that has imagination with scenes and characters like no other. Dark, quirky films that have so much depth and layers that he guarantees he will never be truly embraced by American audiences the way he should. If you like Tim Burton and his films, you'll love Terry Gilliam. He's had a few mis steps as of late, but I see and big cult hit just around the corner.

Coming soon, my top screen writers! (oh boy) One of these days I'll write something about my comics I'm working on. : )

The pick at the top is from the movie "Snatch"...put that in a google search ( as i did to find that pic) and see all the goodness that pops up. How stupid am I........don't answer that!

The top 100...

My buddy Chris and I are huge Movie buffs. for years we have pondered and debated over the great movies of our generation. We have done "best of" lists countless times but this is the newest of our lists. This is my Top 100 movies. The three criteria I used for this list were movies from the past 35 years, more or less, i took some licence with one but I left off most of the older "classics" that tend to dominate these lists. The second criteria to my list was these are my favorite movies. These aren't the movies that are technically superior or set the mark of a master piece, some do others don't...These are my favorites. The last criteria is that every movie on this list I've seen more than once. I love talking movie, feel free to e-mail your support of my movie list or lambaste me for the shitty ones on the list. If you wanna read Chris's list than you need to get in touch with him because he didn't send me a file to upload it. I'm much to lazy to type his out, besides...this is my fucking blog!




Jeff’s top 100

1. Pulp Fiction

2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Raging Bull
4. Memento
5. Seven
6. Empire strikes back
7. Goodfellas
8. Heat
9. Fight Club
10. Reservoir dogs
11. Kill Bill 2
12. Kill Bill 1
13. The Usual Suspects
14. Alien
15. LA Confidential
16. LOTR/Return of the King
17. A Scent of a woman
18. Indiana Jones and the temple of doom
19. Die hard
20. Chinatown
21. Blade Runner
22. Kundun
23. the Fifth Element
24. Fargo
25. Tombstone
26. Carlito’s way
27. the Matrix
28. Minority Report
29. Lethal Weapon
30. the Seven Samurai
31. One Flew over the Coo coos nest
32. Desperado
33. Saving Private Ryan
34. Scarface
35. Braveheart
36. Godfather part II
37. Requiem for a Dream
38. A Fistful of Dollars
39. Silence of the lambs
40. A Clockwork Orange
41. Hero
42. Sling Blade
43. Trainspotting
44. Gangs of New York
45. Shaun of the Dead
46. From Dusk till Dawn
47. the Shining
48. Casino
49. Sin City
50. City of Lost Children
51. LOTR/Fellowship of the ring
52. Swingers
53. E.T.
54. Zatachi, the Blind Swordsmen
55. The Incredibles
56. Ronin
57. the Terminator
58. the Big Labowski
59. the Rainmaker
60. Being John Malkovich
61. Lock, stock and two smoking barrels
62. Back to the Future
63. True Romance
64. Forrest Gump
65. Rocky
66. Leaving Las Vegas
67. Ghost in the Shell
68. Star wars (a new hope)
69. Unforviven
70. Taxi Driver
71. Raiders of the lost arc
72. Boys in the Hood
73. The Naked Gun
74. Chasing Amy
75. Saturday Night Fever
76. There’s Something about Marry
77. Narc
78. Clerks
79. Revenge of the Sith
80. Good Will Hunting
81. Batman Begins
82. Austin Powers
83. the Crow
84. Donnie Darko
85. Lady Snowblood
86. Jay and Silent bob strike back
87. Legends of the Drunken master
88. the Machinist
89. Sleepers
90. the Killer
91. the Rock
92. Robocop
93. Bull Duram
94. the Untouchables
95. American Psycho
96. the Cable Guy
97. Office Space
98. Bound
99. 12 monkeys
100. Bloodsport

V for Very cool flick

Just saw the movie the other night, and I have to say it's defiantly worth seeing. One of the best performances by the two lead actors in a comic book movie I've seen to date. The story drags on in parts of the movie but the well textured characters and plot really kept me watching and trying to figure out where it was going. Of course the over all subject matter has gotten lots of media attention and I'm sure everyone has an opinion on that; as do I but I'll leave that for the politely talking heads to argue and debate those aspects. This is a very well done movie and places high on my list of top comic book flicks. It's not flawless, and the only two movies that come close are Batman begins and Sin City, but it's a very cool movie that i will be picking up on DVD. it's a shame that Alan Moore wants nothing to do with Hollywood, but hey, he's one hell of a guy to have this movie be made and let the artist take full screen credit and cash for this project.

Here is my top Ten comic book movies

1 Sin City
2. Batman Begins
3. Hellboy
4. V for Vendetta
5. The Crow
6. From Hell
7. Blade
8. Spiderman
9. X-men
10. History of Violence/Renegade

Copyright law change?

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP
02.24.06
Call for Action to Prevent Orphan Works Amendment to U.S. Copyright Law
Tuesday, Victor Perlman, attorney for the American Society of Media Photographers went to Washington to register ASMP’s opposition to the recent Orphan Works Report.
Last week, Vic phoned us and asked if he could speak for IPA as well. We sent him the letter we submitted to the Copyright Office last year and said he could tell Senators and Congressman that it expressed the opposition of the 42 arts organizations in the U.S. and throughout the world, and the nearly 2,000 artists who signed it.
Orphan Works legislation is being championed by museums, libraries, archives, foundations and Free Culture advocates, and there is concerted pressure on Congress to write the recommendations into law before the end of this session.
This legislation jeopardizes visual artists’ copyrights and robs artists of income. We need to make sure that lawmakers hear from the people who will be hurt by these harmful changes to the 1976 Copyright Act. To do this effectively, all illustrators and photographers need to make their voices heard. ASMP has already asked their members and others to commence a letter writing campaign to lawmakers.
We urge all artists to do the same, and to act quickly to express your opposition to your Congressional representatives. We wouldn’t ask unless it was vital. This is a make or break moment for artists, creative authorship, and the exclusive rights guaranteed to artists under U.S. Copyright Law and the Berne Convention.
For maximum impact, we urge visual rightsholders to fax letters on your letterhead. E-mails don’t carry the same weight, and neither do form letters. We are providing a sample letter for you, but we recommend you modify it with your own points, or write your own letter. We are providing the complete list of those to contact at the bottom of this message. Or you may wish to use the excellent resource of tools to simplify faxing to legislators graciously provided by ASMP at http://asmp.org/news/spec2006/orphan_tools.php
–Brad Holland and Cynthia TurnerFor the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America
The Orphan Works Express
Congress is scheduled to commence Orphan Works hearings the first week in March. They hope to pass legislation before the end of the year. According to a source on the committee, this proposal is being fast-tracked because lawmakers think it has wide-spread support within the creative community. We need to disabuse them of this notion.
The spin that’s being put on this legislation is shrewd. Special interest groups have re-defined copyright users as “creators” of “transformative works.” They’re trying to persuade lawmakers that these “creators” - and therefore, creators in general - are being hampered because of obsolete protections on work which has “little or no commercial value.” Yet the omnibus measures proposed in this Report would affect any work - old or new –that’s been published without identifying information. This would apply disproportionately to illustrations and photographs. We need to make it clear to congressmen that these interest groups do not speak for real creators and that our work has significant commercial value.
Orphan Works legislation would be retroactive. This means that all the work you’ve done during the last 28 years could fall into the Orphan Works category if it was ever published without “relevant information” on it, was improperly credited or had been re-published by others without credit. In other words, it would take only one copy of any picture you’ve ever done – published without “identifying information” on it - or with that information removed by others – to justify an infringer’s claim that he was unable to locate the author. The same thing would be true, of course, for future work.
Disputes over infringement would have to be settled in court. (And remember, copyright law is a Federal law, which means Federal court.) The worst thing that could happen to an infringer –if detected - is that a court might make him pay you a “reasonable fee.” This means there’d be no real downside for infringing. For 28 years (since the 1976 Copyright Act went into effect), you’ve been told that your work was protected “from the moment you put pen to paper.” No more. And artists who for 28 years produced work with the confidence that it was protected by that promise will find that the promise has been repealed. In effect, you could now be penalized for having believed what the government told you for the last three decades.
The plan in a nutshell. For years, Free Culture advocates such as Creative Commons have been arguing that the US should lead the way in re-imposing copyright “formalities” such as marking and registration. This would aid the spread of “free culture” because most artists would fail to mark and register their work (or marks could be removed). This would make a vast number of illustrations and photographs royalty-free for anyone to use - or for companies like Google to sell access to.
Unfortunately for the free culturists, the US can’t re-impose formalities without violating or withdrawing from the international Berne Convention, which forbids formalities. And if the US did opt out of Berne, our country would effectively become a copyright outlaw. That would hurt American trade.
So the Copyright Office has crafted their orphan works proposal as a “limitation on remedies.” This would not re-impose formalities. But it would remove or emasculate penalties for infringement, potentially in any case where an illustration or photograph was published without “relevant information” on the picture itself. In effect, this would force artists – as a hedge against infringement – to re-impose on themselves the “formalities” the government can’t. Any artist who didn’t mark his work would expose it to no-fault infringement - a very clever way to re-impose formalities without actually putting it in writing.
Remember, this is all being done in the name of promoting creativity by artists. That’s why we, as artists, will have to speak up in numbers. We have to show lawmakers that the Free Culture movement - and the creative wannabes who comb the internet looking for royalty-free work - do not represent the true creative community. We have to say that this legislation would do great harm to our ability to create and make a living from our work.
What you can do. In their effort to speed this legislation through Congress, the plan’s shepherds are severely limiting testimony for and against it. That’s why your letters are important. Write to the senators and congresspersons who will be voting on this legislation, and do it as soon as possible. Express yourselves directly and frankly. You don’t have to write a complicated letter, but it’s important that you make certain points:
-Make it clear that you’re an artist and that you believe your small business will be endangered by placing limitations on remedies for infringement.
-Make it clear that you will never have the resources to police infringement of your work - which could occur at any time anywhere in the world.
-Make it clear that your work could be orphaned by others, no matter how diligently you do the right things to protect it.
-Make it clear that your work has significant commercial value.
For artists, this legislation would be a major revision of copyright law. The Orphan Works Report calls for a 10 year “sunset provision,” which means that Orphan Works legislation – once passed - will not be subject to reconsideration for another10 years. But if your copyrights have been laundered into the public domain during that decade, they’ll be lost to you for good as surely as the income that will be lost with them. And after 10 years of copyrighted work turning royalty-free, the market for art will be so deformed – and expectations in the marketplace so settled – that there’ll be no going back. We can’t wait until this law gets “reviewed” 10 years from now to express ourselves on it.
The government should not be allowed to create a royalty-free stockhouse out of artists’ work. Please write as soon as you can.
-Brad Holland, for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership
To write Congress: Follow the instructions Cynthia Turner has outlined on the IPA website:http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/04_forums/index.php See forum entitled: Write Congress: Questions and Answers.You may post responses or ask questions on these forums. First-time users will be asked to register.
-For additional information, also see: “Call To Action To Prevent The Orphan Works Amendment To Copyright Law”and “Free Culture-The Copy Left Is Not Right.”

Hostel...

This is a true horror movie in every scence of the word for those of us that love the genre. Yes, it has suspense and thrills but it also has something that these PG-13, so called horror movies don't have; graphic and gratuitous violence! It's about fucking time!

The Movie opens with three travels (two college age guys and their Icelandic travel buddy that they befriended on during their trip) as they trek across Europe to find "drugs and pussy" and they find an abundance of both.

Like your typical horror movie is have lots of sex and nudity which is cool, unless your the dumbness who brought your 14 year old step daughter to watch it with you, then it's a bit uncomfortable to watch. What this movie is about is simple in promos but is smart in execution. I'm not going to get into plot details because I do believe the best Horror experience is when you go into a movie cold, as I did with this one. Never knowing where the horror is coming from or knowing all the reasons why.

Unlike most horror flics, this movie is smart, well written and directed. It has very good acting for a horror movie, and the acting really sells the brutality of some of these sences.

The scenes are violent and ruthless, there is some very unsettling things to watch but you can't turn away from them. This movie doesn't try to hide behind some deranged serial killer or homicidal maniac or the super natural element to explain these violent acts...better yet. They put a spin on it that makes it quite believable but still disturbing. Very new school horror

The setting was perfect. Your in another country where you don't have friends to call for help, you don't know your surroundings and you can't just pick up a phone and call 911. That element really helps you believe the atrocities that will accrue later in the film.

This film pushes the suspense to a new horrifying level with some really big pay offs with blood and guts. I can't wait for the unrated directors cut DVD that is sure to hit the shelves.

I can't say I'm a fan of many horror movies in the past decade, but this is now on the top of my list. One of the best I've seen in a while, check it out and don't forget to bring the little ones, fun for the whole family!

Some of my favorites...

Random art from a while back, some of my favorite pieces from the last year. Remember I do commissioned piece, so e-mail me. I get busy and turn down some commissions if I think you idea sucks, sorry that's life deal with it. I really love doing the movie commissions. I'm itching to do a Receiver Dogs, or Jakie Brown piece so if someone wants one, e-mail me and we'll see if we can work something out.

Enjoy.

Some of these are more than a year old...so sue me.

The infamous Rob Liefeld

I was tooling around the net, checking out some various blogs from me fellow comic creators and i came across an all too familiar topic...Rob fucking Liefield!

It was the usually bashing. This one was kinda cool, people posted all the covers he's done that had some glaring mistakes, bad anatomy or composition and everyone's favorite, no feet! Rob Liefelds work was awful in so many ways, he seemed to break all the artistic taboos in each piece he would create.

We all know he was one of the most popular artist in the 90's and now one of the most infamous creators in recent memory. He is hands down the most hated...but why?

I will admit that I own lots of Liefeld books, and was a big fan. I will also admit that I now can look at his work and see lots of mistakes. I can also admit that I am still a fan of Rob's and would love to see him do more stuff. What the hell am I saying? Yeah, you heard right I like Rob Liefeld!

Now before you guys and gals start sending me hate mail just hear me out. I like Rob because of what he accomplished with sheer will and striking when the irons hot. He, for me, represents the every man, the over achiever who got too big for his little bit of talent. I see him as I would see anyone in this situation, he did the most with what he was given, and maybe even more.

Now the question is and always will be for me...why the hate? When I was younger I loved Scooby-Doo, the Beetle Bailey Comics in the Sunday paper, and Alvin and the chipmunks. Now that I'm older I can see that Scooby was terribly written and animated, Beetle Bailey is the most hack unfunny shit you can every hope not to read and Alvin...you get the picture.

I grew up and no longer like these things, but I don't go on an active crusade lambasting them or the people who do still find value in these things. Why does every comic fan/artist I know have such a strong opinion about Rob Liefield? I've seen death to Rob Liefeld sites, I've seen people banned form boards because of things said about him that were so hateful it made me wince. Post the subject "Rob Liefeld" on any comic message board and you'll see it will became the most popular thread that week!

Don't get me wrong, I understand that his work is not even close to being the best and I'm not defending his work, he can do that himself. But...I've seen many bad artist that people just don't give two thought about Why no threads about other very hacky artist or writers that have worked in comics? Is Rob the only one?

Is he the biggest Hack ever? I know he's stolen poses and scence and layout from other artists. I know his stuff was a rip off of other creators work. Is he the only one? Is this purly justified?

Here is my opinion on why people hate Rob Liefeld.

1. Jealousy! Yeah I said it. Most people can't stand the fact that a man with such a big ego and small knowledge of "real" draftsman or classic artistic skill made so much money and fame off his work.

2. Rumors. No matter if they are true or not, most people don't know Rob Liefield. I've had dozens of creators tell me shitty stories about him but it's all word of mouth. Most people don't have first hand knowledge. If Peter David, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane or Eric Larsen want to hate on him they have every right too, they all know and have worked with Rob Liefield...any beef they have with him is, in my mind, legit. I just get sick of other artist that think they know something about him because they read something on the net or from a guy who knows and guy who knows a guy who worked for a guy who was dating rob Liefeilds ex wife's old land lord.

3. He's rich as fuck, or once was. Nuff' siad

4. He still has fans. I saw him at wizard world Texas a year ago and he had a huge line at his table for sketches and autographs.

5. He's still one of the biggest names in comics.

6. Rob can't help them. for the most part the comic industry is an industry of parasites that only network with the people that can help them and as soon as they can't they go to the next person. I'm not saying I'm not nice to everyone at cons and do my share of ass kissing, but one thing you won't see me do is hide behind a pack of other people to voice my opinion. If I don't like someone and need to tell people I don't think about the concequeces or if they can help me later on. maybe I'm the idiot.

I would understand it more if he was still selling millions and other more talented guys were not. I get pissed too when books like Hellboy get out sold by some of the shit marvel and DC put out, so i can see why people chest up about that. But Liefield is not knocking anyones books off the shelves.

Is it because the shit that Liefeld and creators like him in the 90's almost killed our fine industry buy flooding the market with so many shitty titles? Well if that's the case than start boycotting Marvel for thier ten crossover titles every month, and lets not forget that Marvel is directly resonaceable for bringing the entire distrabution system crashing down. That helped to kill many comic shops and smaller creators around the country, a ripple that is still felt in comics now. Today many small creators can't get there books distributed because of the Marvel/Diamond monopoly.

Rob Liefeld was a huge influence on my early art endeavors because of him I had to re learn anatomy and composition, ( and one who has seen Warriors of Destiny can back me up on that). That was my fault for learning to draw by reading comics, especialy his! I'm not a fan of his skill with a pencil nor am I a fan of his characters or stories. I like Rob Liefeld because everyone hates him for taking advantage of a great opportunity that any artist reading this would kill for. What would you expect him to do, say" I'm not a good technical artist, so I quit." He was out selling X-men and Batman for god sakes! people were buying his books, you, me and everyone. Now that people see that they he sucked they think the only way to purge the thought of them paying money for his work is to hate and bash him endlessly. Enough already

Everyone hates Liefield, if you bash him on your Blog you have the right, and more than likely valid artistic reasons for doing so. But know this, you are doing something that has been done a thousand different ways better than you did, by people who know more about him than you. How hard is it to kick the shit out of a man that is already getting mob by a pack of angry people. I just think it's cowards to jump on the pile, there is lots of shitty stuff out there in comics, I wanna see some big chested artist start railing on someone that isn't such an easy target.

Comic artist are such kiss ass, brown noising pussies they would never bash someone that could still give them work. If you have it in your blood to be the executioner of peoples art and career in comics then start charting some new ground and go after someone who is actively working today, and make sure you do it the way you do it with Rob Liefield, just spit venom and wish cancer on them and all that cool stuff like you do with him. Then will you have my respect. There are a few comic creators that are straight shoots and will tell someone the honest truth if they need to.

This pack mentality in comics makes me sick. I've had personal beef with artist before. I posted on a message board my dislike for Rick Staci. I didn't do it because he was an easy target, or because everyone else was (they were not by the way) I did it based on my opinion on him after meeting and talking with him and taking one of his classes. My opinion was always on that. I said my piece and moved on.

People love roasting Liefeild because it's like making fun of the fat kid in class, it's easy.

I don't know Rob Liefeld, and there is a good chance he's an asshole, fuck him, I couldn't care less. I just ask for people to have some independent thought and stop jumping on the band wagon.

There are many artist I don't like, for there work or their personality. "But Jeff, why don't you tell us who." Well, cause I don't need to. Those people don't threaten me, if I don't like there work I don't buy there stuff. When people bash Liefied they are not warning people of his behavior or that his books are bad, it's just beating a dead horse. If I truly had a beef with someone's work and felt like I needed to make it public I wouldn't wait for there career to serial down or wait for forty of my friend to back me up on a message board.

Do if your reasons, not because you know you can. have some point to your criticism, not just looking to for a bunch of nods of approval from a bunch of zombies.

Fun is fun and all that, but it's getting played out and creators are staring to show there insecurities in their own work by pointing out the obvious mistakes in Liefeld's that are obvious and unconstuctive, just to make themselves feel supirior. "I can draw better than him" Well I guess that's why you are so bitter that with such little talent and skill he will always be bigger than you.

No doubt, he's infamous for all the wrong reasons but he's sold more books than anyone that will read this, and for that reason and that reason alone I have some respect for him. When i sell i million books, I'll be back to call him a fucking hack.

The best for the job...

Noticing a trend in mainstream comics lately, very photo realistic and or dynamic cover art. Thought I would take a break from showing my own work for a bit and look at some truly gifted art talent doing covers and working in comics today. Who would you have draw your cover, if money was no object? Many of the artist I've listed are doing a popular trend in comics, the heavily photo referenced artwork. Some reference more than others.

It's something that a lot of artist are doing, love it or hate it it's here, and below are some of the best at it. Other on this list are truly gifted in their abilities to conjure these fantastic and realistic images with little or no photo references. These artist in my opinion are the cream of the crop.

Let me know what you think of the subject of photo referenced work. Lets take a look now.

I will be giving my own editorial to these artist, not all of them are artist I love, but they are still some of the most popular and talented around.

lets start with Alex Ross

Ross is a fantastic realistic artist, but his referencing is a definite crutch and keeps him from really conveying any really dramatic energy in his work. If you just wanting heroic figures in a majestic pose, he's your man.

Next is Adam Hughes,

Some say one of the best artist you can have drawing your covers if your comic has hot looking women gracing it's pages. I've heard he is another heavy reference guy, but I've sat right next to him at cons and seen him freehand stuff that's twice a good as I could trace. He's good, not one of my personal favorites, but very talented indeed.

Josh Middleton,

This guy is good. One of my favorite artist working today, and has a very cool, unique style that's not over referenced (if at all) he has great movement in his figures and great entail feel to his pieces. Great a drawing the "teen" look.

Bryan Hitch,

Here is another guy that I'm not sure how much photo reference he depends on, but has great energy in his drawing and is one of, if not the best realistic style action artist out there today.

JG Jones.

Cover are great and some of the best action sequetails,(only one better than Hitch in mainstream comics) I can only guess, but it looks like he uses photos as a reference for the features of the characters, but not for the actual poses. He has a definite style that explodes off the page. His stuff is too good, and Wanted is one of my all time favorite books.

Joe Quesada





























Editor in Chief at Marvel, but still a fantastic artist. Every so offen he'll offer up his talents for a cover or two. Classic great artist that just draws his ass off. I love his stuff, not a marvel fan, but Joe. Q is one of the best today. To bad his art has taken a back seat to his position at Marvel.

Tim Bradstreet


Bradstreet is also one of elite breeds of artist/painters that use aggressive photo referencing techniques by utilizing great photography and professional models. Tim is an awesome artist because his stuff is so detailed and is fantastic mood. Love all his stuff.

Frank Frazetta.

What can one say except one of the best painters classically trained fine artists in the world that happens to work in the comic industry from time to time. He has brought to life so many great creatures and characters that now one can really hold a candle to his work. My bud Jeremy Mohlor turned me on to his work years ago and I have yet to find a piece that he has done that doesn't jump off the canvas/page, and you can tell right away who painted or drew it. I would guess his art is more recognized world wide than any other fantasy artist. If you have a fantasy book, he's your man.( good luck).

Travis Charest.

He is my personal favorite artist working today with this kind of style. His layouts are amazing, his figures are perfect in everyway, he conveys dynamics in poses and movement and makes every character pop off the page. His color work is very impressive and has trained under legends like Moebius. Travis is a classic old school artist that has dedicated his life to mastering his craft. He don't churn out a lot of stuff, but what he does produce has the mark of artistic brilliance!

All this with NO help from live models or photo referencing, a true phenom. The best, hands down.

These are the type of artist that I look at and have much admiration for, and envy slightly...Ok, I'm fickin' jealous! Seriously I look up to talent at this level and keeps me working. I know it might take me a lifetime of practice and study, but to think I could produce something like this someday keep me going.

I'm out.

And the winner is...

Me!

I won the CD cover contest on the held on the wackbag.com message board. Wackbag is the site for the Opie and Anthony radios show on XM satellite radio ( channel 202). Khemystri is a featured artist on this show with song parodies and other topical productions music for the show. Khem is also an awesome hip hop artist and is dropping his first solo album very soon, and my art will grace the cover.




Thanks to Ed for the awesome color work on this one. This is the first time I worked with him and met him over a digital webbing. Nice job!

You can check out Khem's stuff, download a song or two and get all the info on his music on his site. http://www.myspace.com/knapadomespeek His stuff is awesome, you need to check it out. I'll update here when the album is for sale.


Thought I would post this new pic of Shank I drew up one night when I was board and feeling the jones for some sci-fi type art.



Till next time

Back in the saddle...

It's been too long. I'm back, and hopefully posting more regularly. The CD contest ends in about a week, and I'm still in the lead. Hopfully I will be victorious! The contest was held on the Opie and Anthony message board. It would be nice to have my art on an album/CD cover, and Khem is awesome hip hop artist, I'm really in to his stuff and can't wait to hear the finished product.

As far as Texas Tenaka and Silencer and I talked about before, it's back to square one on the publishing side . I'm still working to get them published again some day but for now my focus is elsewhere. Cocked and Loaded dropped the ball and I can't really say it suprises me with all my other troubles with other publishers. Thank you for all the people that have bought a copy of Silencer and Texas, and I still have some copies left of Texas, so if you want one e-mail me your address and I'll send you one for free as long as you write a review on a message board or on this blog.

I would also like to send a big Fuck You to the people at purgatory publishing and West End games for being five mouths behind with my paycheck! I did like 30 pieces for them and have only gotten payment for 6 or 7 of these pieces. Thanks for giving me the run around and passing the buck on to the next guy. I'll get my money and will never work for you again.

I would also like to tell my web guy Jason Embury thanks for being so cool about me owing him for a website up date mouths ago. I really thought I would have my west end game money coming by now, but your checks on the way brother, sorry for the delay.

On a brighter note I have a new full time job, and signed a contract last week that will keep me busy till spring at least. I will be doing pencil and inks for a mini series and graphic novel that will be out next year. It's an awesome story by an awesome writer. It's the hardest thing I've ever done but so far been very rewarding. I'll post some art from it when I get permission to do so.

Well, back to work and hopfully I'll have some new stuff to post soon.

later

feelin' the vibe...

First off let me apologize for not updating my blog in almost a month. Wait a minute, fuck it, no I'm not...Nobody reads this shit anyway!

Now that we have that out of the way. I've been busy with comic stuff, some commissioned work and looking for fill in jobs to pay the bills. What I haven't been doing is getting my paycheck from West End Games or getting phone calls from Cocked and Loaded. For all you Texas Fans that still need a copy, e-mail me already, I'll get ya one real cheap. Number two is half way done, and In my next update I'll give everyone (who doesn't read this) a first look at those pages. I'm done making promises or predictions on when the books are coming out for the simple fact that my publishers might be the worst publishers/ promoters EVER! I think they are used to publishing things from artist that take two years in between projects. So anyone that wants to know when the release of any of my Cocked and Loaded books are coming out and all that, just go to Elite comics and ask them, they don't return my phone calls but maybe they will share it with you.



Here's some new work for a CD album cover contest. Still need it colored and will not know if I win till December 1st, I'm sure I won't but who the fuck cares, it was fun to draw.