Photo from CBR

I bet Jack Kirby gets really annoyed when youngsters like Mike Wieringo and Michael Turner show up to sketch with him. I imagine him saying something like this in a disgruntled voice, “Dammit kid, get back down there to your drafting table! You’ve got more comics to draw!”

At only 37 years old, Michael Turner joined Kirby and Wieringo Friday night, June 27 at Santa Monica hospital in California. His long battle with cancer, chondrosarcoma in his right pelvis, finally ended. He will be sorely missed.

When I was starting out as a colorist with UDON, I made the rounds at a Wizard World Philadelphia convention and was fortunate enough to shake hands with Michael Turner at the Aspen booth. Sometimes meeting your heroes can be a real disappointment. You can usually tell when they’re just trying to blow you off or being polite for appearance’s sake. Not Mike. He was such a genuine guy. I only met him briefly, but for that short moment, he was just as interested in me as I was in him. Comics is so full of egos and elitism that it’s astonishing to meet people like Mike. I came away from that encounter with such a positive outlook on the industry. He inspired me to just get out there and fucking well draw.

Dustin Nguyen wrote a nice remembrance of Turner:

As many people as i know in comics, i cant say i know many of them personally, and i’ll be honest, i never knew Mike more than just a few weekends a year. But Mike, i loved and i know the industry needed a person like that, and the world will miss a person like him. To pass away having achieved so much and being loved by so many, i’d say he won in the end.

You can send condolences to Turner’s family via:

Aspen MLT, Inc.
C/O Michael Turner
5855 Green Valley Circle, Suite 111
Culver City, CA, 90230

Aspen also encourages fans and well wishers to send donations to the American Cancer Society and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

[Via Comic Book Resources]

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The world became less funny Sunday. George Carlin died of heart failure at 5:55pm in Santa Monica, CA. He was 71.

Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits are seven words that have clearly informed my vocabulary. But beyond that, Carlin always made me think. He pointed out the everyday absurdities we somehow accepted as truths and challenged us to think more critically. Seems to me that his brand of intellectual humor paved the way for John Stewart, Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, and other topical comics. Carlin will be sorely missed.

So let’s celebrate his awesome might! Here is the famed seven words routine. Enjoy. And try a few at work today. If anyone gives you shit, just tell that ignorant motherfucker you’re celebrating George Carlin’s life.

And another one just for good measure.

Thanks to Mikey D for the word.

[Via ET Online]

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This is from C-Span’s live House feed from late Monday evening. As of this writing, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News have yet to cover the story. Isn’t it sad that we live in a country where Britney’s vagina can grab front page headlines instantly yet Dennis Kucinich’s thirty five articles of impeachment levied against George W. Bush gets nothing? Brilliant.

While I agree that the administration should be held accountable for the lies it has sold, unfortunately I can’t see this going through. Pelosi has stated on a number of occasions that impeachment is off the table. The party doesn’t have the stones to go through with it and certainly no Republican would support impeachment. I’m afraid it’s dead in the water. Certainly I think there’s worthy discussion to be had. But one, it’s a little too late at this point, and two, there’s no possible way this will happen.

[Via Huffington Post]

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We’ve had some good old fashioned internet dramas regarding MC Chris’s infamous “art fag” diss. And like most internets drama, this one may have sprung from a slight misunderstanding. Nick, from Dead of Summer, has some more info to enlighten us.

I was talking to a guy who works Ottobar yesterday while I was out buying comics. He happened to work the night of the show and happened to mention that he knew Chris. Basically the story goes that Chris was told about Art Fight last minute without a heads up from his booking guy. Unfortunately, no one could tell him what AF was so- since he approves all of his openers- we got the boot. To be fair to us- it was our first bout. It’s not like we had done this in that setting before.

MC Chris was also quoted giving an open mind and interest to Art Fight. Saying that he didn’t know and-Was it something that might go along with the show? One of the ideas that came to mind was a music act. Since it was held at a rock club, you don’t expect a live comic related art demonstration/battle (even though that’s what it was billed as).

Still, he did call us Art Fags and Lame on stage. There is no reason for that. However this was a comment made at the carelessness of the club’s upstairs dj- not us. I made sure Art Fight was finished by the time he took the stage. I was enjoying the show when Chris made those comments. There was loud distorted bass coming from the direction where we just were. Which coincidentally, was not my fault. The noise was interrupting his show. I’ll give him that.

It sucks that all of this is a huge misunderstanding. His problem lies with a shitty circumstance that has nothing to do with us. It sucks but what are you gonna do?
I’m going to go see him at Warped Tour. So you can see I am a fan. I love his new album.
I’m just happy I can get back to enjoying it.

It was fun to be caught up in a psychotic art nerd drama but it’s useless to soil a name that doesn’t need to be soiled. For all parties involved. The Ottobar loved Art Fight. That’s why we’ll be back soon. The Ottobar loves MC Chris as well. It was the first venue he ever sold out. Hopefully Art Fight will have a similar story.

I have to agree with Nick. At this point, there’s no point in nurturing the drama. MC Chris was miffed at the shitty loud music and blamed us because he thought we were still arting. No one bothered to tell him we weren’t on anymore and honestly, there’s no reason that anyone would have. It comes down to a big misunderstanding all around, although, no one misunderstood him calling us “art fags.” That’s so 80’s. Oh well. Probably best to just move on and leave him be.

[Via Dead of Summer]

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You heard me, Super Art Fight is on the horizon. I will report back with the exact date when we get official confirmation, but the plan is to head back to Ottobar sometime in September to unleash Super awesomeness!

So, what makes an Art Fight Super? For starters, we bring the fight to the main stage. We will implement an audience voting system so we can declare a winner. There will be a opening art jam before the main fight. More audience participation. An actual website for the event itself. Stickers, buttons, and posters. Screen printed special editions posters. Possibly custom toys. Prizes for all. And much more awesomeness!

The details are coming fast a furious and I’ll keep you updated on our progress. I am also working on a run of limited edition screen prints for all the folks who submitted a suggestion for our first Art Fight. The ones I don’t give out, I will be selling here with proceeds going towards Super Art Fight.

Once we lock down our date and get a poster up and running, we’ll need as much help as possible spreading the word. So get ready folks, this could be the start of much amazingness!

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Apparently, AZM “is causing an overload of the shared resources on this server.” So to stop me from inadvertently wanging other sites, they’ve moved AZM to a new server. Hopefully, you didn’t notice the switch (I certainly didn’t until they told me). If you do notice evil wonkiness that isn’t usual, please drop me a line and I’ll see what’s what.

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The current SAG contract with the studios ends at the end of this month. And from the looks of it, progress on a new deal between the SAG and the AMPTP has stalled. The dark eye of the strike looms in the near distance. Or not.

The AFTRA has already cut a deal with the AMPTP which weakens any leverage the SAG might have had. The SAG points of contention are DVD residuals, clip consent, force majeure (frees studios and SAG from liability should a strike or natural disaster or something else beyond control occurs), new media jurisdiction, product integration (SAG wants to right to refuse to do product placement), middle class actor coverage and internet residuals. But the AFTRA has already agreed to a deal without force majeure, DVD residuals, or product integration. Why would the studios bother giving in to SAG demands when the AFTRA has already danced their dance?

The SAG needs 75% of its members to support a strike if it comes to that. I suspect that members will want to work more than they will want to hold out for a deal that isn’t coming.

[Via Variety]

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Reader Tyler Anderson uncovered a dark plot by aliens to spy on our little girls. Okay, not really.

In response to what he believes is legitimate video proof of alien life, concerned Denver resident Jeff Peckman wants Denver citizens to vote on an initiative that would create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver. The video in question shows a wide pale head with large black eyes peering into a window. Peckman screened the footage for a select group of reporters but refuses to release it to the general public at this time. The footage will be released at a later date as part of a documentary.

The screen grab above is from the official video which sucks because you can’t see shit. Almost looks like a Punisher t-shirt. io9 has reenactment footage that has some cute overdubbed audio.

Peckman has sort of done himself a disservice. By keeping the footage so close to the chest, he damages his credibility. If he really thinks is teh alienz, why not let the world see and be convinced for themselves? And now that we’ve got that reenactment footage, a lot of news services and blogs may mistakenly pass that off as the Peckman’s footage. Double fucked. Also, he’s proposing the creation of a new commission paid for by tax dollars in the middle of an economic down turn. Tax payers won’t be happy funding Denver’s X-Files when they’re trying to decide whether to buy gas or groceries because they don’t have the money for both. Sorry Peckman, you’re triply fucked.

Thanks for keeping an eye on Denver, Tyler. We’ll have to see in November if the citizens rise up against the aliens.

[Via Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News and io9]

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Last night was a blast. Even though we couldn’t get the streaming up (I might just end up getting either small PC for live streaming events or buy one of them sexy wireless modems from my wireless provider) a massive sexy time was had by all! I have a list of big sexy thank yous to send out!

Big Sexy Thank You List in No Particular Order

• Ottobar, thank you so very much for hooking us up! The 2nd floor was the perfect venue for our first time out. We learned a lot and will be tweaking the show for much more awesome so we can eventually art the shit out of the main stage!
• Jim and Nelly from Morlock Enterprises, thank you so much for the massively sexy canvasses! They were so sexy good that you will now be the official Art Fight go-to canvass providers! Without you guys, the evening would have been an Art NOT.
• Big ups to Mason Booker of May Sun Productions for filming. The poor guy went hand-held for two hours with a front heavy camera! The VX2100 is perfectly balanced but with a wide angle lens, it becomes very front heavy. Thank you so much Mason for capturing the event. I’ll be editing through this two hours of footage to get something up for everyone hopefully sometime early next week.
• Thanks to all the fans and friends who came up to support our first show! I know Dead of Summer brought a lot of folks. I saw Greg and I think I saw CharmCityShinobi hiding in there somewhere. I’m sure I missed a whole bunch of folks who headed downstairs to check out MC Chris, but I heart you alls!
• Giant thanks to all the AZM readers who wrote in with suggestions! I’ll have to get a list of the suggestions we ended up with, but I’m going to be doing a limited edition robot print and everyone who sent in something will get a free print. This would have been less interesting without your insane suggestions so everyone who submitted deserves some props. I’ll hit you guys up once I get the print all sorted.
• Big sweaty high fives to my nemesis Nick for setting things up with Ottobar and for arting the shit out of the Ottobar. Also big ups to Chris Impink and Ross Nover who pitched in with their own canvass battle.

And I’m spent! Bloody fucking brilliant! I will do my best to get this footage edited down to something less than two fucking hours (probably five to ten minutes to throw it up on the YouTubes). If there’s interest, we might send out a longer cut to people. Will have to sit on that idea for now.

Again, thank you one and all for all the love and support. I think this is a great way to kick off something big. We have ideas for how to run the show in future, how to actually figure out who won, people to pitch the show to, and we’ve got some interest from various media outlets so who knows. The next Art Fight might just be massively more epic than last night!

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Apparently, if you updated your Macbook Pro a few months ago with the latest software update, the Ottobar wifi will not work with your machine. Poop. Tested absolutely everything but the onsite wifi. I’m updating from Chris’s Linux laptop, but it doesn’t have the right connection for the camera. So we won’t be streaming.

Poop!

BUT we are recording the Art Fight and we’ll get it out as soon as I can edit the footage together. Very sorry about this. One of these days I’m just going to fucking invest in a wireless modem or some shit.

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