Point is, we were discussing some New 52 art and the Heroes Reborn initiative came up. Most people didn't have fond memories of the late 90s attempt to revive the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. But me? I did!

I'd stopped voraciously reading current superhero comic books in 1993, around the time I finally realized Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld weren't coming back to draw the X-Men (I was young... it took me a while to piece things together). I still followed X-Factor and Excalibur, but most of my efforts turned towards digging up books printed in 88-92, back when the Image founders still drew for Marvel.

So I was shocked when I stumbled into my local Fairport, NY comic shop in 1996 and saw a Captain America cardboard cutout drawn by Rob Liefeld. I bought Captain America #1 on the spot and loved it.

Around the same time, my sister was living in New York City and working in-house for a graphic design firm. She knew how much I loved comic books, and she'd saved a ton of posters and promotional materials for me.

Among the jewels she gave me were these beauties:

I was smitten! Up until this time, I'd never even seen what a Marvel Comics art board looked like. But now I had three glossy mini-posters by my art heroes, printed out as mock art boards, just with a little added color and text.

Now let me bring things back to the present. A couple of hours ago on Pittsburgh Comic Talk, I was gushing about these posters in our Heroes Reborn talk. I went to Google to try and find some pics of them... but I couldn't find a single image!

So I took pics of my own. And now here we are. Please forgive the crappy quality of the pics and poor condition of the posters. I hung these on my walls through out most of high school and college, so they've seen a lot of action.

I don't know if these ever made it out to the general public or if these were just prototypes. I've never seen them hanging up in comic book stores, and I've never seen them at a comic book convention. If you know what their deal is, fill me in!

I got this tattoo in 2005, I think. I guess I'm a little hazy on the exact date. But that's not very important. What's important is that: 1. this was something my cousins and I did together as a commemoration of our bond, 2. we designed them together, and then 3. I got to draws the tats!

If you're already familiar with my art style, it should be pretty easy for you to tell this is my handiwork. The line weights, shapes, and angles are distinctly mine. The tattoo artist* did a killer job. Frankly, I think it looks like I drew it on my own arm.

My cousins -- Ben and Josh -- have similar-yet-different tattoos, all featuring the same skull character, as well as the same tablet** marked with the letters K and M (for our family names, Kobylarz and Marino).

In Ben's tattoo, the skull is surrounded by billowing smoke. It has red eyes and the tablet has a red inner line. Josh's skull sports a huge top hat with a lime green band. His skull has matching green eyes and there's a green inner line on the tablet.

For mine, I decided to go with a spider, a web, and the color purple. Why? To me, my spider represents Anansi and his storytelling tradition. It also represents a creature that's both a predator and a protector, gentle yet lethal. And I see a spider's web as living, functioning art. As for purple? I'm sure I could come up with some kind of poetic reasoning, but honestly I just like purple.

You can see all three of our tattoos here.

Currently, this is the only tattoo I have. I've thought about getting more over the years, but nothing has spoken to me like this one. This tattoo is about more than just a cool image... it's about the experience my cousins and I shared by getting them together, the strong bond we share to this day, and the symbolic qualities of the design. Plus, I like having one of my drawings forever etched into my arm.

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*I'm no tattoo expert, so forgive me if I say something that sounds implausible... but from what I remember, our tattoo artist put together some kind of thicker-than-usual needle when we brought in our designs. Whatever he did, I know he was working with a much thicker point to try and mimic the thick lines I used in the drawings.

**The shape was originally supposed to be a playing card, as suggested by Ben. But the shading I added ended up far too thick, almost like a stone tablet. We dug the look and decided to go with it.

In the meantime, if you're craving entertainment, listen to this week's AudioShocker Podcast #205 and A Podcast with Ross and Nick #116. And, of course, make sure to follow my current Super Haters comics collaboration with Andrew Kilian.

Pictured here (mostly) are cards from the 1991 Jim Lee-only X-Men series. In my adult years, I've never met anyone else who's ever seen these, let alone heard of them!

I guess you could say that I'm forever searching for someone who has fond memories of them too. Along with Marvel Universe Series II, these plain X-Men cards have always been my favorites.

In the second image, you can see four of the X-Men Series 1 cards by Impel from 1992. Apparently that series is also Jim Lee-only! I never even noticed until today.

Anyway, the main difference between these being that the 1991 cards pull art from the comics and re-color it, while the 1992 series have the character names on the front and the art is unique to the cards. Also, the backs of the 1991 cards regurgitate plot info, while the 1992 cards have bios and stats.

If you couldn't already tell, the last pic is the checklist from the 1991 series. I also have cards from a similar Wolverine series. Like the 1991 set, the Wolvie cards don't have any text or borders on the front, and the art comes from the comics.

And then there's this.

Shuma-Gorath lands a Chaos Dimension on Spider-Man and perfects him to win the match in Marvel Super Heroes.

So what is going to happen, you ask? I'm gonna mess with time.

I recently completed Stick Cats Act I and ended things with a pretty big cliffhanger. But despite the shocking revelation I dropped, I'm not sure how I want to dive into Stick Cats Act II.

However... I dig the notion of drawing Stick Cats Act III next. That means I'd go back and fill in the gap afterwards, making the end of Stick Cats Act II the end of the Stick Cats saga.

So when should you expect to see the start of Stick Cats Act III? Next week. I'm going to use 24-Hour Comic Day to knock out all of Act III (and, with luck, both the first and third acts will be available for purchase at this year's PIX on October 8-9).

BUT... that doesn't mean this will be another week without Stick Cats! Here's a scrapped comic that was originally intended to be Stick Cats #22:

Obviously, I'm going to go in a totally different direction. But I thought you might like to see it anyway!

Along with my friend and fellow Pittsburgh podcaster, Dan Greenwald, I'll be covering some intermediate-level type stuff, from audience building to audio editing and more.

In fact, my plan is to open things up early on and answer questions from the attendees about the sort of things they want to know. So show up with your questions and get ready for a knowledge-packed 45 minutes!

I went to both the Pitt Con and SPACE this past weekend. I'm really glad I did both shows. I learned a lot. Unfortunately, that's also another way of saying that I could have done a lot better than I did.

My more outgoing, gimmicky sales style went over WAAAY better in Pittsburgh. In fact, had I stuck around there for Saturday and Sunday, I'd probably have had some pretty strong overall sales.

SPACE is a much more subtle environment, among many other things. Suffice to say that my style didn't feel like it gelled there. I felt a bit outclassed.

Not to be defeated, I already have a revitalized game plan for next year's SPACE! And, most importantly, if I never went to Ohio for SPACE, I never would have seen this:

Gorgeous.

Anyway, I finally sent in my Future Shocks script submissions to 2000 AD today. I've been working on them for at least two months now... maybe a tad too long! I'm really proud of them and I hope they actually get read by someone and not just overlooked.

Also, have you ever let the credits play all the way out on SFIV? It's got this ridiculously corny voice that starts spouting some nutty faux-philosophy about street fighting. WTF?

P.S. Can't wait for my SSFIV to get here! Damn it, Amazon! It better be here tomorrow!!!

P.P.S. Went to a great comics lecture last night by Bill Boichel of Copacetic Comics. Thx, Bill!