The library was kind enough to lend me the Marvel Civil War collected edition. Pretty cool. I liked how there was no major villain, but rather an ideological divide between allies, friends and even in some cases, lovers. I bought the first issue back in 2006 I think it was, and remember it as the one where Tony Stark reveals he's Iron Man. I thought that was their inspiration for the end of the movie. Memory's a funny thing since it was actually Spidey who unmasked. Weird.
Also what happened to Thor? In this series he was a clone or a robot or something. And Hercules snmashed his face in good using robot Mjolnir. That was cool.
Which reminds me of one of my favorite comics of all time- an old Thor (I would dig it out of my collection but that would require a lot of digging) where Hercules is out for a stroll in Central Park with the Avengers' butler and they come across a group of youngsters playing frisbee. Unbeknownst to Herc, one of the kids was being bullied by the others for always drawing pictures of his hero Thor. So the kids ask Hercules who would win in a fight, him or Thor. Herc, of course, starts spinning a tall tale about how he totally kicked Thor's ass after Thor bonked him on the head with Mjolnir. At one point he even picked up the entire island of Manhattan to throw at Thor ("I don't remember that," say the kids). Jarvis, the butler, notices what's actually going on and asks for a word with Herc, who then quickly edits his story to show that Thor was faking weakness the whole time and totally beat him up so bad. That was a good one. Oh yeah here it is:

It's so nice to be half done my week after working only one night shift. I took half the week off for a wedding. Night shifts around this time of year are nice because there's only about four hours of dark. But I gotta go! No fan art friday again today sorry! Well here's a quick one in honor of the incredible Hulk! A recent daily deviation by Manarama:

Okay, so Spidey 3, though it had its moments, wasn't amazing. But that's alright. For the truly amazing all you have to do is turn to real life, which never runs out of innovative ways to surprise and astonish. Have you ever heard of Attila Ambrus? I hadn't, and I even spent a few days in Budapest in his heyday. Luckily for us, author Julian Rubinstein was paying attention and wrote a book about his exploits. It's called Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, and it's about a Transylvanian who defected to Hungary, became the unpaid backup goalie of a professional hockey team in Budapest, and made his money by robbing banks and post offices. He was very good at it, and was known for his thoroughness, his politeness (even once giving a cashier flowers), and his penchant for whiskey. When he was finally caught he confessed to everything, but then decided it would be best if he broke out of jail, so he did.
That's just the broad strokes. You should read the book to truly appreciate the story of Attila Ambrus and the cast of colorful characters that lived in the outlaw days of post-communist Hungary.
Attila never killed anyone's uncle or turned into living sand, but his story is far more amazing than any onscreen burglar, I'll tell you that much.

I found another Venom for you, which I think is one of my favorites so far- it catches a certain insane, coming-undone quality which suits the character.

It's by a Deviant known as EuphoriouSin so go take a look at his gallery, he's got some pretty interesting pieces.
I also found a cool pop culture blog that's having a Spider-Man week, check it out: Blogzarro.

Extravenomza
How do you like my Venom Bear? It's a far cry from the usual quality of my poo bears, but that's because I drew this one myself. I'm pretty exited about Spider-Man 3, I hope Venom is suitably venomous. He's one of the most visually arresting characters in comics. So here's a Virtual Venom Gallery for you to stick your tongue out and slobber over (please take a moment to click on the links to visit the artists' gallery and see the images in their full-sized glory):
We'll start with a pic of Venom triumphing over Spidey, just so he don't get mad at me:

Enrico Galli

Next we'll show you some more stylized versions, which I always like:

Lineart by Todd Demong colors by Jeremy Treece


BlueBerserker


Mihajlo Dimitrovski

And finally, take a look at these two images- one is a tribute to the other.

According to my young friend (who is four or five years old) I was hanging out with at the Gathering last night, Spider-Man is not real.
"Yes he is!" I protested.
"No!"
"Yeah!"
"No! He's really a boy named Peter who just dresses as Spider-Man."

Look out India, here comes the Spider-Man! Spider-Man is being reincarnated in India! Not merely ye olde familiar Spider-man translated into Hindi, Spidey will actually get a new, Indian identity. His name is Pavitr Prabhakar, and he will be a reinterpretation of the Spider-Man myth. The Green Goblin will be the nemesis, in the form of Rakshasa, an Indian demon. Which makes him much cooler than Green Goblin in the form of Willem Defoe in a Power Ranger costume.
Oh yeah, and in other Spidey related news I think there is a movie about the webslinger opening tomorrow. I, however, will be watching a movie set very near to India called Two Brothers.