Recently in Ghost Rider Category

Mark Millar once remarked that he has several notebooks with all kinds of ideas for Marvel characters.  His new Ultimates mini-series has been giving him the opportunity to showcase a lot of revised heroes and villains. 

Ghost Rider appeared in Ultimate Comics Avengers, Vol. 2: Crime and Punishment.  His first appearance was in this glorious double page spread.  His Ultimate origin still remains tied to Satan, and this supernatural creature is more than a match for the Ultimate Avengers.

M. Schulman is the lucky fellow who owns the pencils to this page by Leinil Yu.  I was surprised to see that Leinil pencils the image on paper, not that I object, I just assumed all young artists drew on the computer.

Millar's take on Ghost Rider is a nice tweak, giving Johnny Blaze a new motivation to keep riding on his hellcycle.  This series also featured the Punisher, who joins the Ultimate Avengers--against his will--to hunt down the Ghost Rider.  The only problem is that he approves of the villains that Ghost Rider is killing.

One piece of Ghost Rider movie news came last week:  Ghost Rider 2 will go into production very soon in Romania.  It will be shot in 3D, of course, because you demanded to see a flaming skull as close as possible.  Don't look too closely at the Penance Stare in this film. 

According to this Nicholas Cage quote on Comic Book Movie News (who got it from MTV):

"This story picks up eight years after the first film. You don't have to have seen the first film. It doesn't contradict anything that happened in the first film, but we're pretending that our audience hasn't seen the first film. It's as if you took that same character where things ended in the first film and then picked it up eight years later - he's just in a much darker, existential place."

One stroke against this film right on the starting gate is that Cage is back as Johnny Blaze.  Who wants to see a middle aged man as Ghost Rider?  Johnny Blaze should be no more than 30 years old.  Eva Mendes won't return as Roxanne Simpson, saving me from another frontal lobotomy.  The directors are Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who produced an entertaining movie in Crank, but fell apart in other works.   

I really don't demand too much from this type of movie.  The first Ghost Rider film I can still watch, if I fast forward right to the scenes where the flesh burns off Cage's face.  The scene at the end with the cowboy version of Ghost Rider, played by Sam Elliott, riding on a flaming horse was really cool.  Nuff Said!

Link: Schulman's Gallery on ComicArtFans.

Link: Ultimate Comics Avengers, Vol. 2: Crime and Punishment

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Live Blogging Frank Miller's The Spirit on DVD

It's going to be a monstrous week for me.  The only thing that can make it better is a week of Michael Golden covers...starting off with my favorite hell-raiser, Ghost Rider!

This 1991 cover appeared in the Doctor Strange Ghost Rider special.  The interior story wasn't that great, but the cover alone justified the buck fifty.  I love how Golden draws that hellcycle climbing up that mystic bridge.

Surprisingly, Doctor Strange is very small, even though he's the co-star.  I am sure the editors wanted Ghost Rider to be the focal point, since his popularity was much greater.  The version above was the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider.

Golden did draw the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider 10 years earlier in this cover to Defenders 96.  Blaze's hellcycle is literally ablaze in flame, which Golden details in utter delight.  Doctor Strange and Daimon Hellstrom appear in the background.

Which Ghost Rider do you prefer?  Ketch's bike is cooler, but Blaze's uniform, an ode to Evel Knivel, simply can't be beat.  Nuff Said!

Beginning...a week of covers from one of the most famous fanzines of all time: The Comic Reader! 

Launched by Paul Levitz in the 1960s, and later published by Street Enterprises, TCR was a prime source of insider news on the comics world.

TCR was a digest-sized mag published in black and white for the first few years.  The magazine switched to color covers after the first 100 issues, and they were often able to snag superstar artists to draw them...like this Ghost Rider cover to issue 154 by Jim Starlin.  This cover references a story that Starlin wrote and drew for Ghost Rider #35 (1979), titled "Death Race".  I've often wondered if this image was a rejected cover that Starlin had intended for that issue.  Nuff Said!

Here's a 1990 drawing by Javier Saltares that I found on Romitaman's website.  According to the description, this was a promotional drawing for the "second-generation" Danny Ketch Ghost Rider that debuted later in 1990.  Nuff said!

When Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5, I was absolutely run over (pardon the pun) by Mike Ploog's artwork and character design.  Especially intriguing was the cover blurb: Is He Alive or Dead?  I sold my original as a kid, but I was able to buy a back issue a few years ago.  It's still one of my favorite origin issues ever.

Here are the pencils to a recreation that Ploog did a few years ago, from Pheng Taing on comicartfans.

Marvel Spotlight #8 really showed me the potential of Ghost Rider as a character--by taking him out of the city and pitting him against another brand of magic.  It was also cool to see the Ghost Rider--a revamp of a Western character--in an Indian reservation.

Ploog's recreation--also from Pheng Taing--really oomphs up the crazy magic going on here.  What lucky guy to have both of these!  Nuff said.

What would a Marvel monster version of the Defenders look like?  If Mike Ploog were drawing it, something like this nifty commission done for Leo Chuah on comicartfans.

Ghost Rider, Frankenstein, and Werewolf by Night on a moonlit night.  Greatness!  Nuff said.

Ghost Rider in a Marvel Swimsuit?  It really happened, true believer!

The 1993 Marvel Swimsuit issue had this groovy centerfold featuring the Spirit of Vengeance on a beach.  Naked, which means burning on the beach.  Imagine your surprise if you got to this point in the magazine, expect to see something like a sexy Adam Hughes She-Hulk?  Nuff said.

My big plan to do a weekly review column was too ambitious.  I haven’t reviewed a modern comic since July!  The problem is that I switched to a monthly discount comic book service.  Out of the stack that I just received, here’s what I liked the best.

Captain America Reborn #3 continues to amaze with Steve Rogers becoming unstuck in time while his friends and enemies try to fish his body out of the time pool.  I won’t reprint the amazing wraparound Hitch cover that you’ve all seen—but I think this alternate John Cassaday cover featuring his take on the Invaders is pretty nifty.

The Slaughterhouse Five device allows Bryan Hitch to revisit classic Marvel moments, such as the one above where Namor accidentally releases Captain America from his icy entombment.  This scene was originally presented in the classic Avengers #4 by Jack Kirby in a few panels.  Hitch opens this scene up in breathtaking cinemascope, as you can see in the above double page splash.  Ed Brubaker described his experience working with Hitch on Word Balloon (Part 2 The Brubaker Testimony Sept 2009).  Sequences such as these were supposed to last a page or two, and Hitch opened them up and added even more to the action.

The best thing about getting a monthly package is reading four issues of Amazing Spider-Man in one sitting, including ASM # 606-607, which features the return of the Black Cat.  This story by Joe Kelly is pure fun, with great execution by artist Mike McKone. One of the great things about the new Brand New Day era is seeing Peter Parker’s romantic entanglements.  Peter’s made a faux pas after sleeping with his roommate Michele, and in this story, spends the night with the Black Cat.  As a result of Mephisto’s gift (yeah I don’t call it a curse, you One New Day whiners)—Black Cat has no memory of Peter’s identity.  Since she’s more enamored with his costumed persona, they make love in the dark.  We’ll see if she made good on her promise not to look at his face while they were asleep.

Dark Reign The List Daredevil has really proved that I have to continue buying this comic now that Andy Diggle has taken over.  The idea of Matt Murdock leading the Hand is just too irresistible.  Diggle has placed him against both the Kingpin and Norman Osborne, with Bullseye and Lady Bullseye also in the mix as well.  The final splash page by Billy Tan, showing Daredevil leading the Hand (now with new hornhead-inspired ninja costumes) promises great things to come.

Not to mention this lineup of Liltin' Landmarks: 

Ghost Riders Heavens on Fire #2:  I’ve loved Jason Aaron’s Ghost Rider since he took over the series.  Any comic that features the Son of Satan (Daimon Hellstrom) teaming up with Johnny Blaze is great in my eyes.  They’ve restored a lot of Hellstrom’s classic elements—the inverted Satan symbol on his chest, his trident pitchfork, and even his hellish chariot made an appearance in the first issue.  The only thing I don’t like is that Hellstrom looks Anton LaVey (Aaron’s idea) now.  I had no idea how Johnny Blaze was going to get to heaven, but we learn how by the end of this issue: Danny Ketch has sold his soul to the Devil.  Yikes, now I gotta wait a month to see what happens.

Spider-Woman #1:  I honestly wasn’t sure Alex Maleev was the right artist for this series.  Hoo boy, was I wrong, Maleev’s art is superb.  He does the inking and coloring as well.  I have to say that Maleev’s work has never been better as a result, as you can see in the above panel, with Jessica Drew in Madripoor.  Bendis’ story is wonderfully I-Spy in the Marvel Universe, as Agent Brand from SWORD recruits Jessica to hunt down all kinds of nasty aliens lurking in the dark corners of the world.  Bendis is also interviewed on a recent Word Balloon (Part 2 The Bendis Tapes Fall Edition 2009) where he says that Maleev should always color his own work—I wholeheartedly agree!  Nuff said.