Sal's Sunday Punch #17

Hey there, fight fans.  A special treat today - it's Marvel's artistic soul of the '70s clashing with their hottest new heroes of the '90s in 1997's Spider-Man Team-Up #7, brought to you by Kurt Busiek, Sal Buscema, and Dick Giordano.

The scientific no-goodniks at the Enclave (creators of, among other things, Adam Warlock), have created a super-robot to steal stuff.  It kinda-sorta-maybe-if-you-squint looks like Spider-Man, so when it kills a security guard during one of its heists, the hunt is on for the wall-crawler!  This is after the Avengers and the Fantastic Four sacrificed themselves to destroy Onslaught, though, so who's left to bring him to justice?  Why, the Thunderbolts!  But, of course, as we know and Spider-Man doesn't, the Thunderbolts are the villainous Masters of Evil, masquerading as heroes to gain the public's trust.  Thus, they're really excited to have a good reason to pound on Spidey - especially MACH-1, who is secretly former Spider-Man punching bag the Beetle.  But while he and Songbird fight Spider-Man, his teammates Techno and Meteorite find the robot, and it's none too friendly.

Due to recent events in Thunderbolts, at this point that may be the present incarnation of this guy, mind-wiped and altered to resemble his past self...meaning this is the second time he's been punched that hard.

The Illustrated Comic Art Workshop Vol. 1, Part 2

Once again, we return to Frank McLaughlin and Dick Giordano's 1982 artist aide, The Illustrated Comic Art Workshop. Continuing on from our look at classic drawing equipment and how a drafting studio can be set up, this section of the book gives the reader an incredibly extensive guide to the use of perspective in art. There's information on how one can tackle depth, shadows, reflections and more!

The Illustrated Comic Art Workshop Vol. 1, Part 1

Over a year ago, I picked up the first volume of The Illustrated Comic Art Workshop, an out of print comic artist how-to book from 1982 authored by Frank McLaughlin and Dick Giordano (the latter famous for inking Neal Adams on Batman in the 1970s, among many, many other feats). When I originally made my scans, I posted them to the art section of the Allspark, a Transformers message board, as 80 Page Giant did not exist then. But now 80 Page Giant DOES exist, so it's time to share this rare gem with the rest of the world!