Jeffery Veregge Of Gods and Heroes Exhibition at the National Museum of The American Indian

One my colleagues informed me that one of my favorite museums was having a new exhibition by #jefferyveregge called Of God's and Heroes, reinterpreting Marvel Superheroes in the traditional style of Native American aesthetics, and infusing Native American narrative with these modern mythological characters. Definitely a beautiful exhibition, colorful, vibrant, stylistic, and very reflective of humanity and the importance of storytelling, subtly guiding the lives we live and inspiring imagination for centuries. Aside from that, I enjoyed the military section and reading bits about the various Native Americans that served this country to preserve the treaties of their lands, for their own and for many others,

Pick of the Week: The Batman Who Laughs Issue 3 Review 2/13/19

     The pressure is on as Batman races against time as the Joker virus continues to course through his body, rapidly changing his entire being.

      Meanwhile, the Batman Who Laughs is wreaking havoc all across Gotham, causing Batman to make hasty decisions. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and with very few options left Batman, and Gordon turns to the only person who knows Gotham better than anyone, James Gordon Jr.

    Will Gordon Jr help Batman in his quest to save Gotham? What of the Grim Knight? Can Batman maintain control of himself or will he be consumed by madness before it’s too late?

      Snyder is truly in the best form that he has ever been on Batman. While that is debatable given that the upcoming Black Label title that he and Capullo are currently working on is in development, this will do for now. What’s so interesting about this series is the narrative tone of the book, which sets it apart from all of Snyder’s other works such as Justice League. Both books are polar opposites of each other, and while Snyder is having fun with both titles, I think Snyder is really having a blast on the Batman Who Laughs a bit more. Given that Snyder and Jock have worked together on Black Mirror, it feels like this series has been a fun reunion due to the insanity that occurs within the book making it all feel as though Snyder and Jock have come full circle on their Black Mirror story all those years ago. There are some fantastic scenes where Batman is just snapping on Gordon Jr, Alfred’s reaction to everything, and even The Grim Knight having more prominence In this issue.

     Without giving anything away, there is a lot to unpack that requires some re-reading due to how the issue parallels in its intro and its outro, and how that parallels to the quarrels of Batman, the Grim Knight, Gordon, and Gordon Jr, it’s really well crafted narratively. It feels like this is just Snyder going off the wheels in all the right ways that only further complements the work that he’s developed throughout the entirety of his Batman run. Believe it or not, you wouldn’t have to read All of the other titles that spanned out from Dark Nights Metal to jump into this book. If you read Snyder’s Batman run, and Metal, it’s a fun journey to go on. But even without Metal, it still stands on own as a story. And this issue is certainly no exception!

     In regards to the art, Jock’s beautiful silhouettes, use of ink, and page layouts all carry the narrative of this issue beautifully. David Baron’s color work does a good job at tonally capturing the perfect darkness that a series like this requires. Cipriano’s lettering achieves the same essence and spirit that the story itself conveys through the use of fonts and bubbles that provide distinct voices that help the characters within this series standout.

    This is another solid installment of the Batman Who Laughs saga! This issue provides readers with enough action, mystery, and thrill to keep them engaged for the next installment. I definitely recommend adding this to your new comic book day pull list folks!

If you want to read more of my reviews on various other comics, you can find it at this link:
http://fanboyfactor.com/author/anthony-andujar/ 

Comic Book Reviews 1/30/19 by Anthony Andujar Jr

    Man, @ssnyder1835 and @jamesthefourth  dropped a friggin bombshell that set the stage for not just the Justice League, but each of the JL / DC titles involved for rest of this year!! You can read my whole review about it, but what I can confirm is this: all the build up that lead to this annual issue was so worth it! If you're gonna pick up something that feels important to the landscape to the DCU, I feel this is the book. Also,

      I did a review Batman Beyond issue 28 which is one of my favorite issues this week, and The Flash issue 63. I didn't know that annual 2 of The Flash was also coming out today until i saw  @scottkolins post two days ago. All I can say is that it is worth checking out!!!!!! These were my fave books of this week, let me know what you think and what was your fave titles for this week !

Here's the link for my review of  Batman Beyond issue 28: 
http://fanboyfactor.com/2019/01/comic-review-batman-beyond-28-dc-comics/

Here's the link for my review of The Flash issue 63:
http://fanboyfactor.com/2019/01/comic-review-the-flash-63-dc-comics/

Here's the link for my review of Justice League Annual 2:

http://fanboyfactor.com/2019/01/comic-review-justice-league-annual-1-dc-comics/

I hope you guys have a good weekend!

Justice League # 16 and The Wildstorm #19 reviews by Ant Andujar Jr

Hi guys!!! I know I've been a little inactive on here. I've been mostly posting my comic book reviews onto the Fanboy Factor website, so whenever I'm doing something I always end up saying to myself "jeez!! I gotta also post this to my blog so people can check it out!". I've been busy with working on some comics, and most especially the interpreting classes that I end up getting a little overwhelmed and preoccupied with the assignments. But I wanted to post my favorite comics from last week!

Snyder and Tynion's Justice League issue 16 was a definite fave of mine. We discover a bunch of secret information about Perpetua and her influence across the multiverse! You can read all about my review by clicking the link below:
http://fanboyfactor.com/2019/01/comic-review-justice-league-16-dc-comics/

  Another favorite title is Warren Ellis's The Wildstorm issue 19! This series has been phenomenal and continues to create new takes on classic Wildstorm characters and reshaping them in contemporary way that makes this book shine. As Jenny Spark's and The Doctor round up member to form their own Authority, other forces begin to make their move. A storm is coming but will The Authority be enough to stop what IO and Sky Watch ? You can read all about my review here by pressing the link below:

http://fanboyfactor.com/2019/01/comic-review-the-wild-storm-19-dc-comics/

 These two were among some of my favorite titles last week.  I'm really digging what Tomasi is doing on Detective Comics as it is nearing it's historical 1000th issue! It's history in the making in the same way that Action Comics did for Superman. Other titles that I've been enjoying have been Batman Beyond by Dan Jurgens, Justice League Dark by Tynion, Batman Who Laughs by Scott Snyder, Books of Magic, The Flash by Joshua Williamson and Green Lantern by Grant Morrison.  There are only so many titles to keep up with, so I tend to write reviews on the books I felt the most engaged with in between my class assignments and personal projects, work etc. I hope you guys are having a great Sunday and let me know what was your favorite titles this month!

My Journey Short Comic By Ant Andujar Jr 2018

During the duration of 2018, I was going through some stuff, and whenever I had something i wanted to express, I illustrated it into my personal sketchbook. I knew that whenever I was illustrating a sketch in my sketchbook, It was something that felt like it belonged to an anthology of some kind because I kept drawing things that were cyberpunk esque. In between animating, scraping pages for other comics that I was working on with collaborators, and then joining the interpreting program at laguardia community college after obtaining my associates in Fine Arts, I felt ...lost. at times I felt lost, impatient, angry, frustrated, etc. But I always went back to that sketchbook. 

I remember hesitating to draw in this particular sketchbook for a couple of reasons that I won't] disclose. But my friend Stephanie.J. blessed with me with a sketchbook that became a great device to visual regurgitate ideas that inspired various concepts that I could turn stories out of. WIth that I realized that I could create anything that comes to mind, and that's when it lead to this short comic. Artists, most especially illustrators are magicians/ wizards/ sorcerers. Creating something out of thin air, creating something out of nothing, making a space where something on a two dimensional page will feel more three dimensional and more real than any conversation and voice that they hear on a daily basis. 

So I went with that, exploring the various worlds that inhabit the mind of an illustrator such as myself. While I was working on this personal projects Stan Lee passed away. I grew up on a lot of his stuff, reading his X-men,Fantastic Four and most definitely his stuff on Amazing Spider-man with Steve Ditko. I remember that pushed me to go to my sketch book, to take those personal pages and turn it into a comic. After I finished taking one of my finals for intro to field interpreting. I scanned the selected pages  and started  digitally coloring these pages... I Went for a Bill Sinkevich and David Mack approach when I was drawing this stuff loosely and then i would draw heavily detailed stuff to contrast with it all.

There are various things I'd like to bring to life, but find difficult due to finding other illustrators that have the same enthusiasm, or being bogged down by the natural pace at which human beings draw hahaha. I don't know if this will help people through depression, It definitely won't cure cancer, and most likely won't change the situations that occurs in ones life. But I at least hope that It can inspire action. i hope it inspires my fellow artists to take action to create what they want to create regardless of what they are told. SO i hope this helps you in your journey as it is helping me as I enter 2019. Also, I'd like to wish a birthday shout out to the homie Johnathan Acosta, Happy Birthday man! Dope! You share the same B-Day as Stan lee. I Also want to thank @obey_thelaw /@unbothered_thoughts for being one of my reference models for the muse section of the short comic. Ya'll should check out her writing and poetry. Anywho, See ya soon folks!

See ya soon.

 

 

You can check out all of my other stuff here:

https://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-comics-that-ive-completed-thus-far.html

The Comics That I've Completed Thus Far

I originally posted this post on to my AAJ Comics N Stuff page, https://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-comics-that-ive-completed-thus-far.html 

but I'd figured I'd post it on here too. 

For the past few years I've been working on some comics that I've made on my own, or collaborated with fellow co-writers, contributing colors to, or still currently working on. It's been a joy to see my progress and how much i've improved in various areas. I'm still working on some content that I can't show just yet but I look forward to completing them and showing them to you without spoiling nor giving away the entirety of the plot and the details that it may contain.  But I figured to save you guys the trouble of trying go through the entirety of it all, I figured I'd save you the entirety of your search and put the comics that I've completed on here:

 My first comic from 2015: 

https://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2018/12/memory-detective-2015-my-first-comic.html

Proto Saga (2016/2017):

https://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2018/12/proto-saga-fan-made-comic-20152017.html

I Can't Remember (Amnesiac Mage) 2017:

https://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2018/12/i-cant-remember-amnesiac-mage-2017.html

Stan Lee tribute collaboration with Jose Garcia:
http://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2018/12/stan-lee-avengers-infinity-war-end-game.html

 Spidersona comic Knight Spider:

http://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2019/02/knight-spider-short-comic-by-anthony.html

Valentines Day silent Spidey short comic:
http://aajcomicsnstuff.blogspot.com/2019/02/spidey-in-rush-valentines-day-silent.html



       These are only some of the projects that I've been working on in between completing my associates as a Fine Arts Major, Joining the ASL interpreting program, volunteering, working, animating animatics etc. The point is, I utilize as much as my free time as I can. I'd like to show more but this is as good as it gets for now. I'm working on getting more of this graphic novel done over the winter break, along with the other comic that I'm working on with (Will and Jose.S) so hopefully you'll see it sooner than later! 

-Ant ANdujar Jr