Justice League Brewery: Adult Beverages In Honor Of The JLA by Marcello Rizzetto

My love for comics was forged at a very early age. I remember being four or five and walking into my local neighborhood candy store, seeing a rack of comics, and falling in love with how colorful they were. From that point on I spent my life idolizing comic book characters, buying and collecting hundreds and thousands of them through the years. But now I am a grown up geek, and I have grown up needs. Enter graphic designer Marcello Rizzetto, who must be in the same boat as me and decided to do something about it. He created a six pack of beers based on the core six members of the Justice League, with each beer taking on characteristics of each hero. This is a killer idea. Superman as a super strong Pale Ale. Wonder Woman as an American Lager. The Flash as an Irish Red Ale. Aquaman as a Belgian Blonde Ale. Green Lantern as a special edition St Patrick's Day Green Beer. And finally Batman as a Dark Ale. It all works so perfect, both in reference to the heroes and to the potentially deliciousness of these beers! I can get behind this. You can see all 6 beers after the jump, and hopefully we see something like this in the future...

Denis Medri Takes The JLA Back To The Wild, Wild West

We have featured many artists here on CCD over the last few years, and it is always nice to come across one a bit down the road still doing great work. Denis Medri was featured here on CCD last August for his Star Wars High sketches, and now he is back with his take on the JLA. Medri decided to take these DC Comic mainstays on a trip down the ole trail, as he has re-imagined them in a style of the Old West. I like the distinct western characteristics he gave each of the original seven (plus Green Arrow), but I have to say that Martian Manhunter's mustache and Aquaman's spear are two of my favorite details. Batman is still king... no matter what! Check all of them out after the jump...

Sketch Lottery Goes Green... Lantern That Is!!!!

The gang over at Sketch Lottery are really making me proud. These guys are repping hard, and they are knocking out various topics that they chose to take on with Babe Ruth like efficiency. They don't really do the basics, they take on lesser known characters like Power Lords and Bufkin from Fables. But honestly, the thing I like the most about this collective has to be the various mediums that they present their weekly topics in. You have everything from 8 bit GIFs to full on paintings... you couldn't run as much of a gamut as these guys do. This week they are going a bit more traditional, albeit still staying abstract. They are taking on Green Lantern. Now I know first instinct is to say that Green Lantern is a mainstream character, but honestly that really is not the case. He is a second tier character in the Justice League, and the bombing of the Ryan Reynolds movie didn't do the character any favors to boost his popularity. So far we only have three entries for this character, but I am sure there will be many more before the entry closes on 5/12. Check out all the gang has to offer over at Sketch Lottery by clicking here, and check out the first three GL's after the jump...

What If Albert Hitchcock Had Made Superhero Movies?

Artist Alberto Muriel is now the regular artist over at Propeller, and boy can the guy bring the funk. In order to celebrate his ascension to his new position, he has released four very cool photos of restructure key scenes from Alfred Hitchcock films to feature Comic Book Characters in the key roles. My favorite is the Green Lantern/Sinestro infused North by Northwest. You can check out all four after the jump... they are fantastic....

Justice League of the Round Table by The Comic Fan

My main man Cal up in Canada sure does find some gems to post on his awesome blog The Cave of Cool. One of the cooler things he has posted in the past few weeks has got to be these medieval renderings of The Justice League of America by a Deviant Artist who goes by The Comic Fan. I love the way he recreated each individual character in a way that befits their counter parts of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. Pretty great detail and innovative ideas on how to make the more mystical characters like Martian Manhunter & Green Lantern into Knights without sacrificing their original looks. I would love to read a book like this from DC in the vein of Marvel 1602, especially if Neil Gaiman was writing it. All around pretty cool. Thanks for another winner Cal... check out the pieces after the jump!

Erich Owen Puts The Mash In Mash-up For Comic Book Resources

Comic Book Resources is a pretty kick ass website that provides comic book geeks like myself with a plethora of comic related stories to read & revel in. One of their coolest features they have over there has to be the "Comics Should Be Good" message board, where they provide fodder to artists for cool mash-ups they want to see and then the artists post their versions of the finished product. One of the artists who is consistently coming up with great mash-ups has to be Erich Owen. He is taking things like comic books characters & sitcoms, comic characters & a historical figure, and all time fantasy Green Lantern Corps and is producing some killer mash-ups. Check after the jump for six of the contributions from Owen that I absolutely love after the jump...

The Many Colors Of The DC Lanterns Explained

The Lantern Saga has been an ongoing story line for the past couple of years in DC Comics. It is one of the only titles that has not been affected by the new DC 52 relaunch (I think) and has produced some really cool arcs such as The Sinestro Wars, Brightest Day, and Darkest Night. But who are these mysterious groups of Lanterns??? What are they all about? Who are the key members? Look no further. Thanks to my main man Cal over at the Cave of Cool here are 8 full size posters detailing everything you need to know about all the Lantern Corps. Hope that this helps you out with any questions you may need answered about the basics... click after the jump for all the posters!!!

JLA Paint Blots by Nicholas Hyde

I am always a fan of anytime we get a representation of the big 7 from the Justice League, but these minimalistic  paint blotted styles for the 7 characters just absolutely took my breath away. Artist Nicholas Hyde really gets the basics right on these, but gives them his own special spin to make them unique. Click after the jump for all 7 pieces...

Bloops Takes On The Justice League, Minimalistic Style

I have been featuring more and more artists who have taken to expressing themselves in the minimalist format for some reason. I'm not exactly sure why, but i think it has something to do with the simplistic nature of the designs that go into a minimalistic take on something. While someone might think that since the designs are simple then they must be easy to create, if you see truly good minimalistic art then you know that this is not the case at all. While they may be simple, the artist must capture distinct details of the subject matter in order for the pieces to work. Case in point: Check out artist Bloops take on the Justice League of America. These are wonderful... just wonderful. You can see the whole crew represented after the jump...

Artist Spotlight: The Mash-Up King Marco D'Alfonso

I saw one piece of artists Marco D'Alfonso work over at Rampage Reality and I was very impressed... so I decided to dig a little deeper. My god am I glad I did! I love me some mash-ups, but Marco is one of the best I have ever seen at combing two properties together. I think the key is finding two properties that make sense together but are not the obvious choice... that is what brings it home. When you see the awesome mash-ups from Marco, you will see exactly what I mean. I am officially crowning him The Mash-up King... at least here on CCD he is!!! I hope you enjoy... click after the jump for all of them.

Danny Haas Is Back On CCD With More Of His Alter Ego Series...

A few months back we featured artist Danny Haas and his awesome superhero art series entitled "Alter Ego's" (click here for our older story). I checked in on his site again last week and he added a few more pieces to join the Superman, Batman, and Iron man ones in the first wave, Click after the jump to see Haas's take on Green Lantern, Spidey, Wolverine and The Hulk. I love these posters... might have to put an order in!!!

Sam The Eagle Is Captain America

Last month the people behind the upcoming Muppets movie parlayed the upcoming mega movie Green Lantern into a cool poster featuring Kermit as the Emerald Knight. Now they are at it again, this time thrusting everyone's favorite patriotic eagle Sam into the Super Muppet program as Captain America. This is wonderful. The new Muppet movie opens on November 23rd here in the US. I for one can't wait! Thanks to Den of Geek for the tip on this one.

Why DC Fucked Up Green Lantern... Or How To Piss Away 300 Million Bucks & Alienate Fanboys Everywhere

I went to see 'Green Lantern' on opening day Friday, and it took me a few days to write this article. I went to see it with my son Mikey, and I wanted to like it. Hell, I wanted to love it. I wanted it to be the best superhero movie of the summer, maybe the best all time. I love Ryan Reynolds, Nolan has only one more Batman movie left, and DC is eons behind Marvel in the movie adaptation department and I would like to see some parody. I left the movie satisfied, entertained and overall content. But the more I think about it.....

... the more I can see all the movies faults and I become enraged that DC did it again. Why? How? Is it possible for one group of people to fuck up so many times? On paper this is perfect. We have technology today that can bring aliens alive and create the universal wide appeal of the Lantern comic books. Worlds, aliens, and space are child's play to create nowadays. Next you got Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. Great choice for a fearless/arrogant prick that Hal used to be in the books. Then the stills and cast announcements came out, one better then the next. Great actors like Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, and Mark Strong in the supporting cast. Voices from Michael Clarke Duncan and Geoffrey Rush for the alien lanterns. Sexy ass Blake Lively as the love interest/eye candy. Everything LOOKED wonderful. Accurate. A sure to be homerun. Then the movie really came out. No homerun here... a single at best.

I'd put my power ring on this one for sure... fuck Beyonce!!!!

Why? Why has it happened again? How can DC have gotten it wrong? It all lies in the plot details of the movie. Everyone looks and acts the parts well. From Reynold's dickish portrayal of Hal to the awesomeness that was the Lantern home planet of Oa and all the alien Lanterns... they got the look right. But the story and details are all ridiculous and nonsensical to the point of making my head hurt. Want proof. Here is my top 5 gaffes that prevent Green Lantern from being anything more then a middle of the pack superhero movie.

1. The ring is suppose to be used by a fearless man. A guy who can master emotions better then anybody. Throughout the whole movie, Jordan displays fear. Over and Over again. Even when he is successfully being Green Lantern... this is just unexplainable.
2. Parallax is the stupidest superhero movie villain ever. He is unstoppable... yet Abin Sur stopped him. But then Abin Sur couldn't stop him a second time, even after he had been imprisoned for mad long and was probably weaker then their first meeting. Then, instead of following Sur to Earth to finish him, he just floats off and does some random bad guy destroying of worlds. He defeats anyone who tries to fight him, including what was supposed to be the BEST OF THE BEST Lanterns in the whole Corps. Yet when he fights Hal Jordan on Earth, he gives him breaks to regroup and even allows him to get his ring back from Hammonds. He is then held off by the inexperienced GL Jordan, even though Sinestro & the other Lantern All Stars could do nothing with him. Then he is tricked like a 5 year old to get sucked into a sun. C'mon. This entity that is so strong, flies through space for years on end, is a scourge to the entire universe, and has killed some of the best Lanterns ever known just gets tricked to kill himself... just liked that? That is weak. WEAK!!!!
3. Only the ring's owner can use the ring. Shit... even Reynolds had trouble getting the ring to work initially!!! How the fuck did Hammonds get to put it on an use it? How come Jordan couldn't summon it back to him? How come??? Tell me... SAY IT!!! SAY IT!!! (Sam Kinison voice). Its things like this that bother me. Taking liberties with the mythos. Why? It's not like the pros aren't involved in this movie making process. Geoff Johns & tons of other DC bigwigs are producers and writers on this movie. Why deviate from 50 YEARS worth of continuity for NO REASON WHATSOEVER? I am curious myself....
4. Sinestro falls from grace and then becomes tempted by the Yellow side of the force (hehehe) in the comic books. But not here. He is not the same iron willed hard ass he was in the comics, willing to kill in the name of order. In the movie he is at best semi-insubordinate. He is the REAL HERO in this movie. He is the one who wants to fight Parallax, defend Oa and the universe, and be the best Green Lantern he can be. He has no reason to put on the yellow ring at the end... yet he does it anyway. Why? To set up a sequel that might not even happen due to the underwhelming success this movie may see at the box office. they should have showed him losing his grip on right and wrong.. slipping to the "Dark Side" so to speak. But instead we see a mediocre hero in Hal Jordan get all the glory and the true hero of the movie turn bad for no reason whatsoever. Thanks.
5. The plot must have been written by a 7 year old. Doesn't DC have anybody checking this before hand? It starts at the beginning with Ferris Air testing out drones fighter jets (no pilots) against THEIR OWN BEST PILOTS in an attempt to secure a contract to make more drones. Couldn't Ferris's pilots (Jordan & Lively) just throw the challenge to get the contracts? Why would the Army agree to these ludicrous conditions? They wouldn't. Then the company is gonna fold, and its all Jordan's fault... but then it's OK!!!! And now we are having a party... cause Ferris got the contract!!! Wait... what? How the fuck... this is just one example. How about Hector's ever expanding head and extreme sweating problem? No one saw a change in the bio-geeks demeanor BEFORE he became a full blown super villain? And Parallax can defeat the best of the best GL's ever, but he comes to Earth and only manages to kill a handful of civilians and destroy 1 warehouse? Then he loses to the new guy? WTF!!!! No to mention, how the fuck did Parallax get out of the prison Abin Sur put him in initially? He broke the Green prison he was in, THEN killed the three aliens to gain some power. If he could break the Green prison, why did he wait so long? Things like this are frustrating and annoying... and to be frank, have no place in a movie that is being made for 300 MILLION dollars.

Listen... the movie was not all bad. It was fun. My son loved it. I had a good time. It's just sad that it's downfall comes from things that are so easy to fix. I mean, you get the look of the aliens/outer space worlds right, your cast is awesome, you get a decent story arc together... and then you blow it over minor details and impossible scenarios? Why? This one had tons of potential... but falls way short of that potential. DC better hope Nolan kills Batman 3 (he most definitely will) and Zack Snyder gets the Superman franchise back on track (one can hope), or else their movie business days may be short lived. We shall see. I am not saying not to go and see 'Green Lantern'. Just make sure you check out better movies like 'X-Men: First Class' & 'Thor' first.

It's Not Easy Being Green Lantern

Those fuzzy little song and dance men are back with another spoof trailer. With some lackluster Green Lantern reviews coming in, lots of folks are saying this looks better than the movie they are parodying. That would follow suit perfectly with that Hangover II parody.

According to the press release, from Mr. The Frog himself, this appears to be the last of the spoof trailers (awwwww). But also comes with the promise of a full official trailer to premiere soon (yay)!

Hi ho! Kermit the Frog here! I sure hope you enjoy this “Being Green” trailer…and our other parody trailers—“Green With Envy” “Fuzzy Pack”. Now, after much ado—and Miss Piggy’s insistence that she get final cut—we’re finally ready for the world premiere of the official trailer for our upcoming movie, “The Muppets”. You can watch it everywhere on Monday June 20th at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure not to miss it!
– Amphibiously yours, Kermit The Frog

The new teaser also comes with a brief synopsis of the film...

When Walter, the world's biggest Muppet fan, and friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater, they help Kermit reunite the Muppets to stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater.

Another great teaser. Cool to see a few more Muppets, like our favorite Viking descended, verbally challenged master of the culinary arts. Also looks like we'll have a little axis of evil including Bobo(he always did look a little shifty), Statler and Waldorf(of course) and Uncle Deadly......holy crap Uncle Deadly!

Uncle Deadly is one of my all time favorite Muppets, even though he's only ever been sparingly used. I don't think he's been prominently used in over 30 years. It is great to see him and I hope he gets a good moment or two. I've been obsessed with him ever since he had a duet with Vincent Price on a James Taylor song. I mean come on!

Justice League of America by Mike Monge

Check out this epic gathering of DC's greatest heroes as Mike Monge assembles his favorites from the ranks of the Justice League. All the core members are there, but Monge added a few of the obscurer characters from past JLAs to make a complete team that would make any DC fan proud.

Click to Enlarge

The Incredible League of America by Karl Savage

Thanks to Jeff Bond, I present to you this interesting mashup of the Justice League of America and The Incredibles by Karl Savage.  Not bad... not bad at all.

Lanterns Unite!!! by Jimmy Xu

This is a wonderful piece featuring representatives from 8 of the Lantern groups. No White Lanterns here, because artist Jimmy Xu doesn't like them!!! That's a good enough reason for me. Here you go!!!

Top Row, Left to Right:

Red Lantern: Atrocitus
Orange Lantern: Larfleeze
Yellow Lantern: Sinestro
Green Lantern: Hal Jordan

Bottom Row, Left to Right:

Blue Lantern: Saint Walker
Indigo Lantern: Indigo-1
Violet Lantern: Star Sapphire
Black Lantern: Black Hand

Hawkman: The Rodney Dangerfield of Superheroes

The guys over at Frog Island decided to take a peek inside the after hours shenanigans of everyones favorite super heroes who have gotten the movie treatment... and then wonder why Hawkman hasn't joined the ranks. This is one of the funniest nerd videos I have ever seen.



Holy shit!!!! Superman said he wanted to punch through his skull!!! Hawkman told Batman to go fuck himself and abused Nick Fury for being black!!! Thor had the nerve to call another superhero gay!!! Best nerd video.... EVER!!!!!!!!

The Best Cosplay Of The 2011 Wizard Big Apple Comic Con In NYC

Here are a few photos that we snapped of some excellent cosplayers who were geeking up the joint at the 2011 Wizard Big Apple Comic Con on May 21-22 in NYC. These guys were great... keep it up!!!

Awesome Aquaman

Batman Punching Manzo

Blue & Gray Batman!!!

Big Daddy from Bioshock

***Click Read more below to see tons of more Cosplay photos from the 2011 Big Apple Comic Con***

Mark Hamill Is A Knight Once Again....

... it's just this time he is an "Emerald Knight", aka a Green Lantern instead a Jedi Knight in Sean Hartter's newest alternative reality movie poster. Click on the link to buy some of his stuff, and tell em we sent you!!!