So, as most of you have already heard, Disney purchased Marvel Comics for $4 Billion dollars. What do I think? It's good for comics. Good for Marvel. Good for Disney. Say what you will about Disney's films (beyond the consistent quality stuff that Pixar puts out) but Disney Corporate are masters at keeping intellectual properties vital, relevant, and financially viable. The problem is, Disney's been struggling for years to establish an intellectual property line for the lucrative boy/adolescent male market with the same level of success as their female counterparts (such as their Hannah Montana and Disney Princesses lines). That's where Marvel comes in. Marvel's cool with the dudes. As long as Disney does as promised (which is keep out of Marvel's business) they'll have a successful line of boy properties to exploit in a variety of multi-media including videogames, movies, toys, and pretty much anything a 12 year-old boy can get a hold of.

But, I'm a little concerned about Marvel's edgier stuff. Sure, Iron Man, Spider-man, and the Runaways have an excellent opportunity of flourishing under this new arrangement... but what about more violent "contraversial" material like Garth Ennis' Max Punisher series. What'll Disney think of Deadpool's humorously amoral ways? Will we see a Disney-fication of the grim-&-gritty corner of the Marvel universe?

Disney's made a family-friendly name for themselves by taking a largely moral approach to intellectual property development. For busy parents, Disney is depended upon to be a responsible filter for "safe" dosages of pop culture. Even Pixar (the shining beacon of Disney done creatively-right) brilliantly plays the non-threatening angle while maintaining a genuine sense of artistic integrity. Watch a Pixar film and try to look for anything that is amoral, takes an explicit stance on politics and/or religion, or challenges wholesome family values. You won't find any.

Can the same be done with Marvel comics? I'm not entirely sure.

Overall, it's a very exciting time for comics. I think Disney's best bet is to keep Marvel as a constant entity that is completely separate from Disney (like Pixar). Marvel should be allowed to be Marvel. That means they may occasionally push the superhero ethical boundaries from time-to-time... in the spirit of fun and good comics (and intellectual properties!)

Jack Kirby (Marvel Universe co-creator) illustrated Mickey Mouse from the Super I.T.C.H. blog:

When you partner strong design with visionary artists, the initial design gets pushed, pulled, and prodded in interesting ways. One of the finest examples of this is the original blue and red Spider-man costume. Steve Ditko's original sinister design struck a pop culture chord. But it was John Romita's more approachable interpretation of the costume that resonates to this day as the definitive interpretation of Spider-man. Here's a small sampling of how Spider-man has looked over the years. The covers included below are shown in the following order (by Artist name): Steve Ditko, John Romita, Gil Kane, John Romita Jr., Todd McFarlane, J Scott Campbell.

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Here's a second offical look at Tequila Incredible Edition (in stores in this September!). Here, more than ever, you can see the inspiration for this figure... and no, our inspiration didn't come from an eggplant! We'll be showcasing Tequila Incredible Edition with his poncho/sarape next week.

I want to give more props to Frank Mysterio of Mexico. Senor Mysterio is a Custom Toy-Making machine! Every time I check out his blog it looks like he's got ANOTHER custom toy that he's working on. Even more impressive is that they all look so damned amazing! We've already showcased Frank Mysterio on our Fan Art page, but I wanted to share these sweet photos of one of Frank Mysterio's gorgeous Tequila customs along with some 'Luchadores'. Those quality Luchadores masks make me jealous! Be sure to also check out Frank Mysterio's blog. As you can see he's a very busy man.

I love sharing as much behind the scenes stuff as possible. There's something very intimate and revealing about seeing the creative process being broken down into its many components. It's kind of like taking apart a watch: you can appreciate all of it's functioning bits and pieces a whole lot more when you see them in their separate parts. Here are pencils and colors by Gobi in their separate and combined form (originally showcased on the Goblog).

I've been going back and revisiting some of my favorite old albums. Whenever I do that I ALWAYS am reminded of how great the Pharcyde was. Those first 2 albums hold up really well (the first one particularly). Pharcyde brought humor, mc skills, and jazzy instrumentation together in a manner that no other group has done since. There's a sense of emotion and depth to their music that allows it to stand the test of time. It's just a shame that they didn't get the major props they deserved with their debut album.

The second album has some solid production from the legendary Jay Dee/J Dilla during an early time of his career. Production-wise it's a solid album... but you can feel a bitterness and frustration in the Pharcyde's rhymes that wasn't present in the first album. For me, that makes it an inferior album to te first. Despite that, the 2 singles on the 2nd album are as good (if not better) than the best bits from the first.

Below are the 3 best Pharcyde videos: 'Passin' Me By', 'Drop', and 'Runnin'. 'Drop' was filmed by the super famous Spike Jonze (back when he was just doing music videos and skateboarding tapes).

PASSIN' ME BY

DROP

RUNNIN'