So yesterday my local shop, Westfield Comics, opened a new location on the east side of town. It’s pretty cool because I grew up near there and the east side has never had a comic shop. So if/when when we eventually move back I won’t have to drive across town.

There were 4 artists there signing/sketching, 2 of which I really wanted to meet, Phil Hester (The Anchor, Firebreather, Green Arrow) and one of the Twart guys, Steve Bryant (Athena Voltaire, Cipher)

I was able to talk to Phil for a few minutes about The Anchor, a character I really dig. Hester’s taken to writing more than doing pages in recent times, and he’s doing amazing work. If you haven’t heard, there’s a little 3D feature debuting on Cartoon Network this Wednesday night based on his Firebreather character. Andy Kuhn (who we love at this here nerd▲blog) draws the comic and the film is being directed by no other than Peter Chung of Aeon Flux fame. Firebreather and The Anchor are currently in production and both are recommended reading. If you like Invincible, you’ll love Firebreather and The Anchor is definitely up the alley of fans of Hellboy and The Goon.

Steve Bryant was also super cool. More than modest about his talents, he mentioned that he feels like he’s the odd one out when it comes to the other artists at ComicTwart but I definitely don’t think so. Anyone whose main influence is Dave Stevens can do no wrong and if you’ve taken a look at a single page of Athena Voltaire you’d say his claims of being sub-par are full of shit. We’re gonna call him Stevesie from now on.

Bill Reinhold was also there signing & doing sketches but he seemed really busy and had a long line of people waiting to get sketches. I decided I’d let him work and chat up the folks waiting.

Besides the quality time with some cool artists I was able to score some awesome stuff for super cheap. I got the shorter figures in the following photo for $1 each! Come on. How could I not get a grotesque-looking Jim Lee Banshee and Longshot for $1? And that big 13” Captain Marvel was only $25. It’s probably the best action figure I’ve ever seen.

Next time you’re ner a shop opening i suggest checking it out, the guests they have are usually way cool and they often run major sales.

 It’s a NINJA TURTLE Thursday

I will always love Eastman’s style the most. Laird’s was more bulky and humanoid (anthropamorphic ?) looking, which was cool too, but i loved how chunky and semi-realistic (in a cartoony way) the original Turtles were.  A subsequent collection of figures based on Eastman’s art are now in my collecton

Cover 1 by Kevin Eastman 1984

Cover 1 reprint by Peter Laird

Realistic Leonardo statue by: AlexCF

Eastman style Leonardo by: NECA

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/10/if-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-were-real/