The 57th Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast: The Drawing Board, The Art of Travis Charest

Welcome to The Drawing Board on the Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast.  Now I don't think I've said anything about my favorite artists in comics on the broadcast before.  Now you can't have your favorite comics without the artist, whether he's the guy doing the pencils or the guy doing the inking.  Without these guys, there'd only be words and well, that's just not comics to me.  So for this edition of the broadcast, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite artists in comic books.

So for this edition of The Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast, we're going to take a look at one of my favorite artists in Comics, his name is Travis Charest.  The first time I saw the name Travis Charest, I thought that's how you pronounced it.  Pronounce it as it is spelled, so I kept saying Travis Cha-rest.  Little did I know at the time that the correct way to pronounce it was Travis Cha-ray.  I found out after reading about it in Wizard Magazine.  Say what you will about Wizard Magazine, it was sure packed with some useful information about comics and artists. Anyway back to Travis Charest.  I believe the first time I saw his artwork was on a tiny little house ad in a DC Comics issue of Superman I think it was about a new title coming out soon called Darkstars.

The  Darkstars were a group of fictional intergalactic policemen that appeared in DC Comics series Darkstars # 1 released in October of 1992.  The Darkstars were created by Michael Jan Friedman and Mike Collins.  The series lasted a total of 39 issues, ending with issue #38.  Wait 39 issues but the series ended with issue # 38, is my maths that bad?  Well, not really cause Darkstars also had an Issue # 0which was published between issues #24 and 25 during the whole Zero Hour major cross over storyline.  Remember Zero Hour?  It was the time when DC Comics decided to clean up their universe, kinda sorta like a reboot.  Is it me or does DC Comic love reboots?  Story wise the Darkstars were created by an offshoot of the Guardians of the Galaxy called The Controllers.  Though their goal was to establish order in the universe, the ancient Maltusian race known asThe Controllers were isolationists by nature, guess they don't like company much.  Anyway that's all I know about the Darkstars, other than the fact that the Darkstar agents wore a suit of armor called an "exo-mantle" which granted the wearer incredible power. Strength, speed, and agility could be increased to superhuman levels while a personal forcefield protected against impact and energy weapons. The forcefield could be expanded somewhat to allow the Darkstar to take others into his/her/its protection as well. With the exo-mantle, one could achieve high speeds during flight, all the while protected from wind friction by the forcefield.

The first time I saw the art of Travis Charest was on the cover to the first issue of Darkstars.

Now at first I thought that he did the entire cover but I was mistaken, on this cover there were three names credited, Larry Stroman who did the flashback portion and Travis Charest who drew The Darkstar on the cover, Scott Hanna did the inks.  It was a little puzzling to have Charest do the house ad and cover but have Larry Stroman do the interior art.  Puzzling.

So month after month, Travis Charest would just be the cover artist while Larry Stroman would do the interior art, now don't get me wrong, Stroman is a good artist in his own right but I was curious to see the panel to panel work of Charest.

I think at the time I had just about given up hope but as luck would have it, Issue # 4 came out and man I was in for a treat.

This was the first issue of Darkstars featuring the art of Travis Charest inked by Scott Hanna.  I was impressed by his artwork, I liked it, alot. I liked his eye for detail and was a little disappointed that he was only doing the artwork until issue # 7.

Issue # 7 of Darkstars featured a cover penciled and inked by Charest.  I was again disappointed to find out that he only did about 20 pages of this issue and Jim Balent did the remaining pages.  Charest would remain as cover artist for this title but the penciling duties went to Patrick Zircher.  It was during this period that we got to see the evolution of Charest as the artist we know today.  His art was a little different when he started out, I guess he was looking for his own style and was experimenting with his artwork.  When he drew the covers to Darkstars, he did his own inks and you could be a more refined style starting to emerge.  Now I could be wrong but I believe his last Darkstars cover was with issue # 11.

After that, I didn't really follow the title anymore, in fact I dropped it.  If I like a particular artist, I will follow that title almost religiously and if or when the artist leaves, usually I don't stick around, unless the new artist impresses me as well.  After Darkstars, Charest also produced cover work for other DC titles such as Detective Comics, Batman and The Outsiders.

As luck would have it, Charest was contacted by Jim Lee who had left Marvel and formed Image Comics, everyone remembers the story of Jim Lee together with Todd McFarlane and the other hot shot artists of that time.  Jim Lee offered him work on Wildcats and that as they say is history.

 I have to admit at the time when Jim Lee launched Wildcats, I was a huge fan of his Jim Lee's work on X Men,.  So it was natural that I followed his work on Wildcats.  Now when I saw the name Travis Charest on Wildcats, I was overjoyed to see him working on this title.  I thought it was a perfect fit for Charest and great title for him to further hone his skills and boy did he ever.

It was almost as if with each issue, each poster and trading card Charest drew, he got better and better.  Remember I said his eye for details?  You could see the amount of time and effort he puts into each line, each detail in the comics page, poster and trading card.

His work was astounding, unbelievably stunning.  It's hard to believe that this artist grew up on a farm, Charest was isolated from the comics industry, and he says the main reason he eventually turned to comics as a profession was because he could draw, having been through a number of dead-end jobs because deciding that comics was his calling. I for one am glad that he became a comic book artist.

It's amazing to note that Charest actually started out just doing back up stories featuring Voodoo and Warblade in issues 8 and 9 of the regular series (February and March, 1994). He became the regular artist of the series with issue #15, illustrating the title during the runs of writers James Robinson and Alan Moore.  But in comics nothing lasts forever, sooner or later, a talent would move on, Charest would leave Wildcats, his last regular issue was #31 (September 1996), though he later returned to illustrate the title's 50th issue (June 1998).

However in 1999, Charest would return to WildC.A.T.s to illustrate five of the first six issues of that title's second ongoing series, written by Scott Lobdell.

The art for Wildcats Vol 2 was out of this world, showing once again that his art had...well evolved for a lack of a better word, it was still that detailed beautiful work of Charest but it was some how different.  Have a look at some of the pages.

When I ordered Issue # 1 of this new title, I actually expected to see the familiar style that Charest has, it is definitely his unmistakable style but now it was different, more detailed, more expressive, it was just stunning.  Charest would later leave Wildcats and subsequently moved to Paris to illustrate a Metabarons Graphic Novel.

That's just beautiful.  One day I hope to get a copy of this graphic novel if it's still in print and have a look at his work.  One of the projects that Charest was involved with was a crossover special called Wildcats/X Men: The Golden Age.

When I heard of this crossover, I made sure that I bought this first issue of the crossover, The Golden Age featured Charest magnificent artwork.  This issue remains a favorite of mine to this very day.

Charest's stunning artwork just seemed to be getting better and better, his eye and attention to detail is almost completely flawless.   According to what I read, Wildcats/X Men: The Golden Age took Charest close to a year to complete.  WOW. To this day, I am still a fan of his artwork and I hope to see more of this very talented artist/illustrator in the future.

I hope you're enjoyed the 57th Edition of the Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast as I share with you the art of Travis Charest, who is my favorite artist, who are your favorite artists?  Let me know, let me know through the comments or send me an email: comicbookbroadcaster@gmail.com

This is the first edition of more (I hope) of the Drawing Board where I can share with you my favorite comic book artists.  It's been fun for me and I hope it's the same for you.  Join me again next time for another Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast, until then as always take care.

The 56th Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast: What I love about Comics.

I've often asked myself that question a few times, well more than just a few times.  What is it that I love about Comics??  Is it the art?

Yeah, that's definitely One of the reason why I love comics and still do, to this very day.  The artwork by these talented artists whether they are pencilers or inkers or color artists, they produce work every month and I am in awe of their work.  Often times I would just look at their work and wonder how do they do that?? Yeah so art is definitely One of the Reasons.

Is it the story?  Is it the imagination of the writer who creates a story month after month pulling the reader closer and closer to the world of Super Heroes as we read about their adventures each month?

Definitely, the story along with the art is essential to any comic book and comic book fan.  A great team, a creative team of story tellers can be your...guide to their Universe where all this happens.  Where the Heroes take on their arch nemesis and we are given the chance to read about their adventures.  When I look back at this hobby of mine, I feel really lucky that I was introduced to this world of comics.

Look at these pages, two classic pages from two different generations of artists.  The first one details the birth of Captain America.  Drawn by John Byrne, the second is by Jack The King Kirby.  Two absolutely beautiful pages drawn by two great artists.  It still amazes me how these two great artists were able to tell a story so well through their artwork.  I remember when I first started reading comics, I just like the pictures.  I didn't know at the time that there was a team of people behind this comic book.  I guess that's why I love Comics so much, they help you to discover the Super Heroes, their story, their world and also slowly you also discover the talents behind these wonderful books called Comic Books.

The art and the story, yeah two good reasons why I love comics.  Are there any other reasons?  Well, here's a strange one.  One thing I remember when I first started buying comics from a mail order joint in New Jersey is the smell of a new comic.  What I mean is, a newly purchased comic.  When I would get my comics, I'd open up the boxes and the comics I ordered would be packaged in plastic bags.  This company would pack them together in these big bags.  I would order say...well a lot and they'd pack them all together.  When I opened the plastic bags and take out a comic, any comic, any issue from any year, one of the things I would immediately notice as I flipped the pages anxious to see the artwork, read the story was the smell of a new comic book.  They had this distinctive smell.  One which I can still faintly recall.  And for me that's one of the reasons why I still collect comics to this day, the smell of a newly purchased comic book, there's nothing quite like it.

Okay, what else, well that is pretty much it, the story, the art, the color all in one nice neat package, a number of pages held together by two staples for my enjoyment.  The new comic smell, yep, that's about i....t...no wait, there is one other reason why I love comics so much.  Why to this day whenever I buy a comic, new or old, there's this sense of wonder for me.  The reason why I love Comics is....the Marvel Corner Box.

What?  The what?  The Marvel Corner Box.  You know the box on the top left hand corner of a Marvel Comic that shows the character of that title.  You remember them, right?  There were always my absolute favorite, when I buy my comics, one of the first things you see is the Marvel Comics Corner Box.  I think DC Comics tried to do the same thing once, have say Superman under the DC Bullet Logo but that didn't last long.  Marvel 's Corner Box lasted a long while but I haven't seen those Corner Boxes for a while now.  I love those Corner Boxes, before you flipped the page, you look at the cover, checking out the cover and don't forget the corner box.

These Corner Boxes have been around for a long time. I tried to find out who started them and when and so on but no luck.  I did however find this.

It looks like Marvel had these Corner Boxes as far back as Amazing Spider Man # 2.  Wow.  The Corner Box would usually feature the title character and the name of the publisher, the company, the price and so on.

There you go, a closer look at the Corner Box for Amazing Spider Man.  Curiously though not all the early Marvel titles had the corner box.  The Fantastic Four for instance didn't have theirs.

But I have to say that the cover to this issue Fantastic Four # 1 is a beauty, with or without a Corner Box.  Strangely enough while Spider Man got his corner box by issue # 2, The Fantastic Four didn't have a corner box until Issue # 14.

That's the Corner Box for Fantastic Four.  Drawn by Jack The King Kirby.  Over the years there would be different variations featured in the Corner Box, like these:

These are just some of the classic Corner Boxes for Fantastic Four.  Over the years these Corner Boxes would change with the change of the creative teams.  One of the artists whose art I really loved On Fantastic Four is John Byrne.  He took over the reins as writer and artist for Fantastic Four with issue # 232.

The Corner Box art was done by George Perez if I'm not mistaken.  A few issues later Byrne would re do the art for the Corner Box, here's just a few of them.

When The Fantastic Four got new costumes after their journey in The Negative Zone, Byrne would also redo the artwork for the FF's Corner Box featuring their new duds. Years later during the Secret Wars Limited Series, Ben Grimm would decide to stay back on Battleworld, prompting this change.

Well after a while it was revealed that this famous character would take over from Ben Grimm, until he returns of course.

Yep, it would be the She Hulk.  I'm trying to collect as many of these Corner Box pictures as I can.  I really like them on a Marvel Comics Cover, they always made any Marvel Comic distinct, these Corner Boxes made a Marvel Comic stand out.

Take this artwork by John Romita Jr and Bob Layton, this was the original art for Iron Man's Corner Box.  One that would be used for quite a few years and quite a few issues.

Issues of Iron Man like these.

Needless to say the Corner Box art adds a little something to these great covers.  Nothing stays the same forever, creative teams come and go and sometimes certain artists return to the title they made famous, like John Romita Jr.

That's the Corner Box art they used in 1991 by John Romita Jr.  Beautiful don't you think?  I hope you enjoyed this edition of the broadcast.  If you'd like to see more of these Corner Boxes, let me know, you can leave me a message or comment or email me, my email address is comicbookbroadcaster@gmail.com I'd love to hear what you think about these Corner Boxes and also what you love about comics.  I'll share more of these Corner Boxes in a future edition of the broadcast.

Thanks again for spending some time with the Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast.  See you again next time and as usual, always take care.

See ya!!!

The 55th Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast: The Green Lantern.

When I started this blog of mine, I mentioned that I am a Marvel Comics guys.  One of my first comics was Fantastic Four.  Yep, one of my first comics.  I bought, well my Dad bought three comics for me, one was the Fantastic Four, next The Amazing Spider-Man and last but by no means least Batman.  I still can't recall whether it was a Detective Comics issue or Batman.  Why did I bring this up, well in the past after I discovered titles like Batman, Teen Titans, Justice League and so on, I decided to broaden my choice of comics.  I liked to once in a while read an issue from DC Comics and after a while it became more than just one issue.  As time went along I decided that there were great comics from both sides of the isle.  I had nothing to lose except my allowance buying more and more comics but hey, I enjoyed reading these comics.  One character from DC Comics apart from Superman and Batman that I seem to like was a test pilot named Harold "Hal" Jordan.  Yep, ol Highball himself, the Green Lantern.

I actually remember the Green lantern character from a cartoon series first.  It wasn't until a few years later that I discovered the comics, well, I think it was more than just a few years.  I can still recall the cartoon, a guy dressed in green and this magical ring.

I can still remember begging my parents for a ring just like that....ring....wearing....guy.  I didn't know who he was at the time.  Hey, the fact that I even remember that there was a Green Lantern Cartoon is an accomplishment all by itself.  As luck would have it, my parents did buy me a ring, not a green lantern ring cause back in the old days, well toys and cartoon memorabilia were scarce in my hometown.  They did however buy me a ring, it didn't do anything of course and I believe barely a week later, that ring was a goner.  I was not known as someone who took care of his toys.  I'm ashamed of that fact, a character trait I kept when I started collecting comics.  Sigh.

I remember growing up reading these comics featuring this daring fearless test pilot who got this powerful ring from a dying alien named Abin Sur.  I can recall reading some of the issues drawn by Dave Gibson and I had fun reading those comics.  Unfortunately there were not mine.  A friend who started collecting much earlier had a huge Marvel and DC Comics collection.  I never did collect issues of Green Lantern though.  It just wasn't always available.  I think that friend of mine bought his overseas and brought them back because I had never seen these comics in town.  The bookstores and so on seldom carried these titles.  So I thought it wasn't meant to be.

A few years later I did manage to find a mini series called Emerald Dawn.  It was the first time in a long time for me to read an issue of Green Lantern.

This was the cover to Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn # 1 featuring a cover by Mark Bright and Klaus Janson.  This 6 issue Mini Series was written by James Owsley, penciled by Mark bright and Inked by Romeo Thanghal.  Emerald Dawn was a retelling of Hal Jordan's origins.  A kind of Year One kind of thing.  I followed this mini series as closely as I could but after Issue # 2, I wasn't able to get the remaining 4 issues.  It seemed that the local retailers were not too concerned about ordering comic books because to them, comics are for kids and they're not really important. they're not profitable and whatever other excuse they could come up with.

So I lost track of this mini series and completely forgot about it.  I did find out later that there was an Emerald Dawn II mini series.  It was another 6 issue Mini Series.  This time, the minis series was written by Keith Giffen who did the story and Gerard Jones who did the dialogue.  The art was handled by the same team of Mark bright and Romeo Thanghal.

In Emerald Dawn II issue # 1, Hal goes to prison to serve 90 days on a DUI conviction. While he is there he meets Guy Gardner who is his lawyer. The Guardians of the Universe send Sinestro to train Hal Jordan.  So basically both Emerald Dawn I and II is Green Lantern Year 1 and 2 I guess.  If I'm not mistaken, there was a regular Green Lantern series that was launched, that event was touted as the return of DC Comics' greatest heroes, Hal Jordan along with the other Green Lanterns.  

This series was written by Gerard Jones, art by Pat Broderick and Bruce Patterson.  In this issue titled Down To Earth, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and John Stewart wind up getting "The Call" in several different ways, but the message is the same, "The world needs the Green Lantern Corps." Again.  The return of the Green Lanterns.  I don't think I followed this series very closely at all. But that all changed when they released issue # 48.

This issue was the turning point for me.  Everything I knew about Hal Jordan, The Green Lantern Corps, the ring, the Guardians, everything would change with this issue.  This issue was released during a period of change in comics, Superman had died and came back, Batman's back was broken by Bane and over at Marvel Comics, Peter Parker was replaced by a clone......okay before we go any further I just wanted to say that the ENTIRE Clone Saga was the WORST decision Marvel has ever made.  Whoever came up with that idea should have been given a bullet.  I hated each issue of it and the stupid way it was handled just killed the character for me.  The ending of the clone saga was half assed, because of that mistake, Marvel lost a lot of fans including me.  Anyway I digress, this issue was just unbelievable. This is Emerald Twilight part 1.  Following the rebirth of Superman and the destruction of Green Lantern's hometown of Coast City in the early 1990s, Hal Jordan seemingly went insane and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and the Central Power Battery.

 Hal Jordan was devastated when Coast City was destroyed.  In a moment of sheer madness he decides to use the ring to recreate Coast City, to bring back the city and everyone in it.  In a moment of madness, Hal Jordan would go against all that he believed in, what he stood for as a Green Lantern.

The Power to be God.  Up until that point I didn't really understand or realize the power of Hal Jordan's ring.  Through the ring Hal willed the return of his city and his loved ones.  In that moment, he truly believed that just once, just once he should have what he wants most, after so many years of loyally serving the Guardians, he truly deserved this one moment, this one act.

In a blink of an eye, Hal Jordan would lose all that he cared for twice.  When I read this issue years a go, I did feel sorry for Hal.  He was at the time a true hero, a soldier, a police officer and also a human being.  I guess I felt that even though he was a hero, he was fallible.  Little did I know that there was quite the story behind this sudden change in Hal Jordan.

This issue was written by Ron Marz.  I read in an interview that he was asked to turn up the heat on this title, to shake things up, to bring some changes to Green Lantern.  In this issue he definitely changed the status quo on Green Lantern as he plunged Hal Jordan into madness.

And with one blow, Hal Jordan would go down a path that he couldn't come back from.  or so we thought at the time.  That was issue 48.  I couldn't believe what I had just read, this was one bold move by DC Comics.  I wanted the next issue to get here quick.  I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next, well Issue # 49 finally arrived and this cover kinda sorta said it all, Darryl Banks and Romeo Thanghal who also did the cover to issue # 48 did a great job here foretelling the story we would read in this issue as we stood witness to Emerald Twilight Part 2. 

As Hal said in Issue 48, he would need more power and he knew where he would have to go to get it.  That would be Oa.  As Hal made his way to Oa, he would have to face many of his fellow Lanterns and friends.

Along the way he would defeat all the Lanterns sent to stop him, friends and comrades, they all fell as Hal Jordan collected ring after ring after ring.

Finally even Kilowog the Green Lantern who was Hal's training officer and friend would also fall to Hal Jordan.  When I was reading this, I thought WOW DC was really serious about Emerald Twilight.  It wasn't that often you'd come across a story where the writer could basically wipe out a cast of characters like Ron Marz had done and all this was happening in the second part of emerald Twilight.  But this wasn't the end of it, no the end of part 2 came when the Guardians sent one more obstacle for Hal Jordan, one who was all too familiar.

Yes, that's Sinestro, once considered to be the Greatest Green Lantern ever.  He would be the Guardian's last line of defense against Hal Jordan.  Which brings us to....

That there is a beautiful cover, what a cover by Darryl Banks and Romeo Thanghal to conclude an already stunning story.  Emerald Twilight's conclusion was called The Future.  And what a story it was too.

 To say that this fight between these two old "friends" would be a knock down drag out fight is an understatement.

 Suffice to say that it was brutal, these two have fought each other for years, the conclusion to this fight is a little shocking I gotta say.  No spoilers especially if you have not read this landmark three issues of Green Lantern.  These next few pages shows it's almost as if Hal knows what he's doing is wrong and yet, he couldn't stop himself from spiraling further into madness.

And finally Hal Jordan's transformation would be complete as he destroys the Great Battery on Oa and emerge as Parallax.

And with that, the Green Lantern Corps is no more, destroyed by possible the Greatest Green Lantern, Hal Jordan but this was far from the end.

And the last Ring would be passed on to a new Green Lantern, that ring and the responsibilities would go to Kyle Rayner.

And a new Emerald Era began.  I read in an interview Ron Marz had with Wizard Magazine that he originally wanted to slowly build up to this chain of events, slowly telling the story of Hal Jordan's apparent descent into madness figuring that fans would be able to accept this and accept the changes and Kyle Rayner but that was not to be as the editor of the book wanted this done in the issues of Green Lantern # 48 to # 50.  Understandably long time fans of Hal Jordan were outraged and angry to say the least.  Fans sent hate mail and even made threats towards Marz and the editor of the title.  All in all after having a chance to read these issues again, it was great to enjoy some strong powerful storytelling.  I really liked the character of Kyle Rayner, he was the rookie who did good.  He was the last hope of the Guardians to carry on the mantle of Green Lantern and I personally think he was a great  Green Lantern.  Hal Jordan would return as Green Lantern a few years later after a lot of upheaval  and changes to his life.

I recently had a chance to read a few trade-paperbacks of Green Lantern written by Geoff Johns and I really enjoyed the stories which prompted me to talk about Emerald Twilight.  I'll cover a few of the trade-paperbacks I've been reading and share my thoughts with you.  If you have not read Green Lantern, try it, get a trade-paperback, you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks for dropping by for the 55th Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast on The Green Lantern, I hope you enjoyed this look at Emerald Twilight.  I'll be back with another broadcast soon, until next time, as always take care.