Tommy Lombardozzi Does An Awesome Rocky... Um, I Mean ROCKET Raccoon Variant Cover For Me!!!!

 

With Guardians of the Galaxy doing gangbusters business in the cinemas right now, it is only to be expected that parent company Marvel Comics would make a push in print with all the characters involved. Rocket Raccoon, Star Lord, Guardians, Nova, and Thanos all have been playing major parts in the comic universe through individual titles... and characters from the "cosmic" side of the Marvel Universe have been popping up in every major title. So on a trip to one of our local mom & pop comic shops (Pinocchio Comics in Brooklyn) I looked over and I seen a stack of Skottie Young's new Rocket Raccoon #1 variants sitting there. They had all 3: The one with Rocket with a huge gun, the one with Stan Lee, and a white blank cover. Now I am not one of those comic collectors that will get caught up trying to track down variants and chase covers... its not my style. But I have been talking to Tommy (resident artist here at CCD) about doing something with one of these... having him create me a unique cover image (a 1 of 1) that is hand drawn. But I have been waiting for the right one to come along, and since Rocket is one of my favorite characters ever and I started collecting monthly comics again with the launch of this particular title I figured now was as good as a time as any. So I bought it, turned over to Tommy, and awaited the results. My man TL did NOT disappoint.... he did a bang up job on this awesome cover, and took the character way back to it's roots as being inspired by the Beetles song "Rocky Raccoon". Great, just great.... TL also happened to snap some incredible WIP shots of his initial sketches and the finished product. So great... thank you my friend. This has definitely "Rocketed" to the top of my collection as one of my favorite books (see what I did there). Check em all out after the jump...

Variant X-Men Covers By Julian Totino Tedesco

All New X-Men has been a book that has been intriguing me for a bit now. Started about a year and a half ago, it tells the story of the original X-Men team of the 60s coming forward in the future and interacting with themselves (and other current X-Men) in order to help stop a potential disaster from occurring. It has recently lead up to the company wide crossover 'Battle of the Atom' and it is supposed to be fantastic. One of the coolest aspects of the books are the little winks and nods to the original OG series... some subtle, some obvious. So here are a few variant covers of issue #18 that kind of parody an original cover of the old X-Men, except these variants all feature different groupings of mutants to fill out their rosters. Pretty cool stuff, and a book that I plan on checking out now that they have a few issues under their belt (and are appearing in trades!) Check out all the variant covers after the jump...

X-Muppets by Ken Haeser

Ken Haeser is a very talented comic artist that specializes in zombies. He is the artist from "The Living Corpse" comic, which is awesome in a way that hearkens back to the beginning of the "Walking Dead" run of comics. But one of the coolest things that I have seen on the 'Net has to be Haeser's custom variant covers that he often draws at Comic Cons that he appears at throughout the country. He created an awesome collection of X-Men variant covers featuring Muppet versions of the mutant gang we are all used to, and boy are they great. Kermit as Cyclops, Animal as Wolverine... those are kinda gimmies. But Fozzy as Beast & Gonzo as Nightcrawler are just awe inspiring!!!! Check out those as well as others after the jump, and support Ken by buying his art if you see him at a con!!!

Thor Goes To Hollywood To Fight Some Horror Legends

Marvel Comics is trying to ensure that their Thor movie is a huge success upon release this May... and so they are approaching the film's promotion from all angels. One way is to mash up Thor with some Hollywood legends on variant covers for some of their upcoming comic books. This is a pretty cool idea, and the first two covers are making the rounds.

First up: Artist Mike del Mundo and his cover for 'Uncanny X-Force #7' that features Thor and Frankenstein's Monster!!!

Next up, we got artist Greg Horn and his 'Heroes for Hire #5' cover where Thor is all set to battle The Great White Terror... Jaws!!!

Very cool stuff... and Marvel has more of these to come. Check these out at your local comic book stores in the upcoming months!!! Support local mom and pop comic stores. Which Hollywood mashups do you want to see with Thor? Tell us in the comment section below...

Marvels Mightiest Heroes Get The Tron Treatment

If there is one thing that Disney knows how to do, its collaborate. It makes it a bit easier when you are collaborating in house. Last week we show you guys the Toy Story/ Tron mashup the guys from Pixar did. Now we get Disney's newest business partner, Marvel, in on the act. Check out these cool variant covers that will be hitting stores soon featuring some of the most impressive characters in the Marvel Universe. Cal ran these puppies a few days ago, and other sites started putting em up yesterday, so I just wanted to keep my CCD'ers in the loop.

Cap with the light disc type shield and Ghost Rider on a light cycle from hell... priceless!!!