After Monday's advance Batman and Robin preview, the Springfield home office haven't been able to keep its collective mind off what Grant Morrison has planned for Issue #6. We'll find out when the comic arrives at the LCS (that's comicspeak for Local Comics Shop) today, but the wait's killing us. Raley's already gone through half a bottle of Tums.
If you're unfamiliar with Cameron Stewart's artwork, some of the other comics blogs might ask exactly which rock you've been living under. If not directly, they'd cleverly imply it, mark our words.
But not us, dabblers. Instead, we searched far and wide for a few key pictures that speak to Stewart's amazing skills to whet your appetite for his bold and beautiful Batman and Robin debut next January.
While he doesn't have stacks of superhero comics beneath his utility belt, Stewart's insanely gifted -- he must be, having already collaborated with Grant Morrison on three - that's right, three - of his past projects. That's more than most artists can claim, and in our book, puts him just below Frank Quietly as the right co-pilot for Morrison's Batmobile.
Stewart's first collaboration with my favorite writer was on one of Morrison's creator-owned projects, the three-issue Seaguy series published by Vertigo Comics in 2004. Morrison has called Seaguy his 'Watchmen,' a series where he can talk about superheroes in a manner that seems visually light but which grows increasingly less real and more tragic with each issue.
Considering Seaguy's best bud is Chubby da Chuna, a bloated tuna fish that floats and smokes cigars, and that the villainous landscape of the story is an amusement run by the omniscient and enslaving Mickey Eye - a direct slam on Disney's Mickey Mouse turned corporate icon -- you should see why I love this book.
Morrison and Stewart had planned a trilogy, yet while the entire creative team was behind the project, Seaguy's sales didn't convince Vertigo to see the project through at the time. Stewart's response to over-anxious fans who got ahead of themselves calling for a second Seaguy in a Barbelith.com thread offers a glimpse at what a cool, sincere dude he must be. Find it here.
Stewart was working with Morrison again the following year, co-creating The Manhattan Guardian -- one of seven bi-monthly series that comprised the two-year expanse of DC's epic Seven Soldiers. Matt Brady at Newsarama has a great article to fill you in on the project here.
Seven Soldiers is one of my favorite Morrison works, and his first major DC series following his three-year run on Marvel's New X-Men.
Needless to say, Grant Morrison's reputation and his stature at DC Comics / Vertigo has grown exponentially since the days of the first Sea Guy. And so Stewart returned for the next installment, the long-awaited, finally approved, and ever more brilliant Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye, earlier this year. If you've ever worked at Walt Disney World or Disneyland like The Dabbler has, you'll find a warm place in your heart for this one.
Slaves of Mickey Eye is also Stewart's last project before Batman and Robin, and it's very likely your LCS still has a few copies for sale if you'd like to take a look. Our Comics PageTurner folks concur Mickey Eye is one recommended read.
But should you be wondering what Mr. Stewart will bring to his renderings of the Dynamic Duo, we've found a few pictures that should make you a very happy camper. The image below comes from Stewart's cover to January's Batman and Robin #7 . Seems like the Squire's taking the Batcycle for a rainy day spin on London Bridge. Oh, the suspense!
Our second treat is really the best of the bunch, and we were lucky to find it posted on Cameron Stewart's own blog here. It's a character study Stewart created for his own use that he posted after having to remove a page of interior artwork from next January's issue. DC didn't care much for Cameron's little sneak peek, and I'm sure Stewart must have felt pretty bad for the unintentional slip. But his replacement [below] is something I'd love to have hanging on my bedroom wall. Stewart's palette is intense and vibrant, and I can't get enough of this pic, the first Batman I've seen from him. If only my mistakes looked this good.
Before we bring our blogging day to a close, we thought you'd like to have a good long stare at Cameron Stewart's Catwoman. Looking this good, we're convinced Grant Morrison'll have no choice but to bring Selina Kyle to the pages of Batman and Robin before long.
The chance for any of us to watch a skilled comics artist of Stewart 's caliber do their thing rarely comes along, but he's recently posted an instructional You Tube video that will allow all of us to do just that. While created with the artist in mind, the short tutorial offers a fantastic lesson in digital drawing from which each of us can learn. The Catwoman you see above is Stewart's end result of the process he explains. Whether you're an artist or have just heard of one, it's worth a few minutes of your time to check Stewart's video out here.
Any dabblers that do can send abbracadabbling an emailed scan of their completed Catwoman to become eligible to win a Near Mint Variant cover copy of Batman and Robin Issue #7, shipping from our offices to your front door on February 1st 2009. You can get our email address plus all the information on this giveaway by first dropping us a note by way of our Back Issues department at the bottom of the blog.
We hope your graphic imagination enjoyed our colorful look at Cameron Stewart, and we'll see you around the comicsblog.
After an unforgivable comicsblog absence last week, our rollicking and barely readable Sunday Funnies are back again for the first time ever!! That's right, dabblers, this laugh-laden Late Night Edition of the Funnies will send you off to slumber with split sides and squinty eyes. Not because we're the best imitation of an actual newspaper on the 'net, no sir! Our randomly intermittent coverage of the blow-away blog-hit Covering The Caped Crusader continues right here - yeah, we know! Whowouldathunkit?? But be warned, daring dabblers: our Late Night Editions tend to deviate from the Funnies format you know and love, but who cares?! They're a helluva lotta buncha of fun, and Joker only knows we can all use a good laugh, 'cause we're sure not getting any on TV - Fox News and any show that Sarah Palin's on excepted, of course!
