Come Away With Me: Goodbye to Electroverse, Hello to stormantic.com

A year ago, I created this blog wanting to share my love for the Marvel Comics character from the X-Men, Ororo Munroe, known as Storm. I really wanted to start the blog at the beginning of 2008 and I racked my brain for something to name the blog and came up with ElectroVerse. After googling that title, I found out it was also the name for a defunct trading card game. That was unfortunate, but I stuck it out.
A few months after this, I re-branded myself online as stormantic and simultaneously discovered how much easier it was to use Wordpress and I grew to dislike using Blogger more and more. I've kept up both blogs this past year (pasting what I post on stormantic.com to ElectroVerse), but now it comes down to this simple equation, dear reader.

Wordpress > Blogger.

Thusly, I will no longer be putting up new posts at this web address. If you are a regular follower of this blog, I invite you to change the address for your bookmark to stormantic.com and continue to read my posts there. I think you'll like the format better. I think it's easier on the eyes and better organized. Also, you'll find tabs that give you information on me (How's the Weather?) and how to navigate the content (The Forecast) I have posted thus far.

Thank you for reading!

Yours Truly,
STORM

Storm Sunday: Group Dynamic

Today we celebrate the superhero team picture! There's something really awesome about seeing your favorite heroes mug for the camera (who's taking this picture anyway?). This 1990s fold out poster from the deluxe edition of X-Men #1 is drawn by Jim Lee and inked by Scott Williams. We've got the X-Men Blue & Gold Teams, X-Force, Excalibur and X-Factor! Can you believe this was all the assembled mutants at that time? I wonder how many fold out pages would it take to fit all of the mutants running around the titles today? I was a huge Jim Lee fan back in the day and his art brings back some great memories. I like how the "X" in this poster is made up of Iceman's ice and it's great to see Beast up front and center.

Alan Davis drew this image of the X-Men flying (Let's pretend Jean Grey is telekinetically lifting the ones who cannot fly). Cyclop's optic blasts divide the characters in the middle into their past and present selves. Particularly interesting is the Angel/Archangel and Classic Storm/90s Storm divides. It's great to see X-Baby Wolverine on here and I love love love the fact that Cypher (RIP, buddy) is on here, too (Fused with Warlock).

Joe Quesada drew this image for the The Palm restaurant in New York and features most of Marvel's marquee names. Comic Book Resources has some photos of Joe in the process of painting the mural and some more information. I particularly like how fiercely in control Storm looks here. She's super charged elemental intensity!

Dave Cockrum drew this classic (And I mean classic!) image for his run on Uncanny, pitting the original five versus the All-New, All-Different team. Can you believe this used to be the entire roster of the X-Men (Not counting Havok and Polaris)? Amazing. I miss when teams had just five or six members. It was easier to get to know the characters. They had more fully realized personalities and weren't just a codename with some powers. Cockrum knew how to give everyone unique looks as well. Yes, everyone's bodies are typically superheroic, but their faces and builds are unique. His work continues to set a standard for comics excellence.

The Champions by Joe Rubinstein

I love The Champions almost more than any other team book. Seriously. Yes, my love for the X-Men is vast and incomparable (I include my fondness for The New Mutants in this comic team category). I also adore the Legion of Superheroes (although current fanboy mindsets at the Isotope contend that one cannot love Marvel's mutants and DC's futuristic teens simultaneously--to this I say, pish posh. I will have my Storm and Polaris as well as my Dream Girl and White Witch). I also have much affection for D.P. 7 and Bloodstone Syndicate (I know most of you just went, "Huh?") and I have nurtured my crush on the Defenders (Yes, all of them, even Gargoyle) ever since I saw that inverted pentacle on Son of Satan and those metal cone bras on Valkyrie.

However, I think I like The Champions the best.

Why? It's the team lineup, no question. There's just no other team that's as illogical, as nonsensical and patently ridiculous (Yes, I know about the Doom Patrol, thank you very much). The Black Widow is one of my favorite Marvel heroines. I have a soft spot for Russian spies in catsuits. I've had a crush on Angel since I can't remember. Iceman has a great power. Ghost Rider is a supernatural biker/curmudgeon and Hercules is a super strong drunken lout/god! Add Darkstar (Another sexy Russian) who has a great power that looks great on the page (She controls ink, er, I mean, the Darkforce)! And unlike the New Defenders (who are a close second to my favorite team) which had enough issues to lose steam and fall apart, The Champions only lasted 17 issues! I love that Angel and Iceman went on to join the New Defenders (along with Beast, who was also an Avenger).

Just last week I was honored with a blog comment from the illustrious Joe Rubinstein who happened to notice my love for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Check out his work and commision some of it while you're at it! Perhaps one day I will be able to ask him to draw me my own Champions illustration. Until then, I will enjoy this image (and remember the days when Darkstar was still alive in the Marvel Universe--RIP Laynia). Don't you just love images where giant hands grab the heroes in their evil grip? I do. A lot.

"He Looked to the Sky": Mixed Media Journal Painting by stormantic

Today's showcase: a mixed media collage journal I created and have on sale at Swankety Swank in San Francisco. Do visit the store as it is amazing, featuring handmade art by local artists! Many more of my art journals and paintings are on display there!

Closeup of the front. The white on black type was taken from a DC Comics memorial ad commemorating Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman, natch!) and the black on white type came from a children's book. I just really liked how they read together. The skulls were a gift from my Gonaway and are screenprinted on fabric.

The back of the journal has a great image from a postcard advertising a play placed over a page from a dictionary. More Joe Siegel commemorative words are below. I used acylics, watercolor and ink on this journal.

This is the original collage before the painting process. The images are applied wet (after the paper is soaked) with matte medium. After the book is painted, I coat the covers three times with polycrylic.

A Brand New Dish

This week I worked my first Wednesday at Isotope, The Comic Book Lounge. That's right, dear reader, I'm not just working special events anymore. I eve have a title to go along with my new position! To celebrate the occasion, James Sime created special edition commemorative plates engraved with quotes by Storm (the X-Man, not yours truly) from the X-Men: Worlds Apart mini-series. Make sure you collect all three plates!

Interview: SF Weekly and the X-Men's Relocation to San Francisco

I totally meant to blog about this when it came out (10/28/2008), but here's Benjamin Wachs' article in SF Weekly examining the X-Men's move to San Francisco. Wachs asks what part, if any, Marvel's mutants would play in local politics and he polls X-Men editor Nick Lowe, Marvel Spokesman Jim McCann, Amazing Fantasy comic book owner Frank McGinn, and yours truly. Wachs has a great wit, as evidenced in his writing:

"According to Nick Lowe, X-Men editor for Marvel Comics, the team's making itself at home. Wolverine goes to bars in the Mission; Angel has bought the Transamerica Pyramid; the "young X-Men" team is living in the belfry of Grace Cathedral (I wonder what that rents for ... ); and just this month, after a fight in a local BDSM club, team leader Cyclops had telepathic sex with his girlfriend, the White Queen ... except it wasn't really her, it was his disguised ex-wife, Madelyn, secretly returned from the dead. So, you know, typical Saturday in the Castro."

Funny, right? There's more. Check out the entire article!

For good measure, here's an article about the X-men's relocation in SFgate.com. It also discusses some of the parallels between being a mutant and being gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender.

Thanks to Benjamin Wachs for interviewing me. It's not everyday you get a phone call to talk about the X-Men like they're real people and it wasn't like I needed any encouragement *grins*. For a more timely article, you can read Benjamin Wachs' New Year's Resolutions. There's one in particular that hit me a little too close to the heart. If you read that and my Bio, I'm sure you can figure it out, dear reader. But hey, I'm all for some parody, satire, or whathaveyou, no matter how much it makes me want to cry.

Today's images are from the first and second issues of X-Men: Manifest Destiny, a mini-series containing short stories about the X-Men making their way to San Francisco. Chris Sotomayor illustrates Iceman in front of the Golden Gate Bridge with inks by Brian Reber. Humberto Ramos draws Emma Frost with inks by Brian Reber.

Stormwatch: Is Storm the New Black Panther?

This image is making the rounds online and in this month's comics. The buzz is about Reggie Hudlin and Ken Lashely's new Black Panther comic this coming February. The twist is that the new Black Panther is female. Ads featuring possible contenders to replace T'Challa showcase Storm, Monica Rambeau, Sue Richards (The Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four), the Dora Milaje (T'Challa's elite bodyguards), Shuri (T'Challa's sister), Echo (from the Avengers) and goddess knows who else (I've read rumors of an Elektra ad but I've yet to see it). The only logical possibilities would be Shuri or the Dora Milaje as I have a hard time imagining a non-Wakandan filling such an important role. It makes no sense at all for Echo or Monica Rambeau take on the mantle because they have their own power set and are not Wakandan either. Even though Storm once dressed like a Black Panther in battle (in Jason Aaron's three issue arc of the Secret Invasion crossover), I really see no reason for her to take on her husband's job. She's got enough to do as it is as Queen and as an X-Man). Ororo does look sexy and svelte in the outfit, however. A cat suit looks great on her. Hardcore X-Men fans might remember this little bit of X-History from a Comic Book Artist interview with legendary artist Dave Cockrum:

"The original black female in the group was to have been called The Black Cat. She had Storm's costume but without the cape, and a cat-like haircut with tufts for ears. Her power was that she could turn into a humanoid cat or a tabby. She wore a collar with a bell on it. When we came back to the project, after the hiatus, all of a sudden all of these other female cat characters had sprung up—Tigra, The Cat, Pantha—so I figured that we'd better overhaul this one! She wound up getting white hair, the cape, and becoming Storm."

The image is kind of ironic viewed with that bit of lore, isn't it? Well, we still don't know why T'Challa has decided to pass on his identity. My bet is on Shuri.

The Storm poster is drawn by J. Scott Campbell. It is my assumption that the ones below are drawn by Ken Lashley.

The solicitation information is as follows:

BLACK PANTHER #1 (DEC082327)
BLACK PANTHER #1 70TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT (DEC082311)
Written by REGINALD HUDLIN
Penciled by KEN LASHLEY
Cover by J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
50/50 Cover by KEN LASHLEY
70th Anniversary Variant Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
Rated T+ …$3.99
FOC—1/15/09, On-sale—2/4/09