T-shirt #296 - Madman in Space

T-shirt #296 - Madman in Space

Mr. T-shirt Blogger Man is still behind the eight ball, and I do not mean Daniel Clowes' Eightball. Though I am happy to see Shia LaBeouf skywrite to apologize for plagiarizing Daniel Clowes.


LaBeouf Retiring

See, now I have will have to leave this "under construction" note because I generated real content.

Blog man will catch up. But this will posted complete or close enough.

I do appreciate your patience, dear readers.

Meanwhile, here's Madman by Mike Allred.

This is a great comic book in all its various iterations and with its various publishers.

Recently, Mike Allred has been drawing FF for Marvel Comics, which is the story of the heroes filling in for the Fantastic Four while they are in space. It is one of the best comics Marvel publishes. Though it had dropped in my stack, and though I often prioritize others over it, the comic leaped up based on the excellence of recent issues when I cleared my back log. It's a wonderful comic that captures the spirit of Mike's work with Madman and Atomics as well his previous Marvel work with X-Statix as well as more standard super-hero fare as written by Matt Fraction.

I have read every single issue of Madman and Atomics created by Mike Allred as well as his other projects, such as Red Rocket 7, which further proves that Mike Allred  is in line with me as a massive DAVID BOWIE fan as also evidenced by the image directly to the left.

Madman Comics started during the renaissance of creator-owned books published by Dark Horse Comics in 1996 that gave birth to things like Concrete, Rusty the Boy Robot and the Big Guy, and Sin City.

I followed Allred's Madman as he jumped to Oni Press and then Image Comics before closed up shop on these characters and their stories in 2009 (see a link below).


Mike's wife Laura often works as his colorist. It also appears that someone else (Mike's son?) did work in the most recent issue of FF for Marvel Comics.

 Mike's work is difficult to explain. His style merges many styles and influences from early 20th century pulps to EC comics to POP art of the 1950s-1960s to a myriad of popular culture influences.

It's "ginchy" as Madman would say. Or even "jinky," borrowing a word from Scooby Doo cartoons.

I may have to revise my list of comics for non-comic book readers because I am not sure I included Madman, and I should have if I didn't.

Okay, I updated the list to be found at T-shirt #160 to make Madman Comics an honorable mention.

Mike Allred's Madman is difficult to describe. He absorbed the styles of other "alternative" creators, such Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge, and Charles Burns but with his own spin.

MIKE EXPLAINS HIMSELF - AAAPOP COMICS FAQ

Michael 'Doc' Allred grew up in the 60's and 70's and was surrounded with the best in pop culture and a steady diet of music, movies and comic books including the three B's: Beatles, Bond and Batman to the point of obsession.

So it should come as no surprise that he keeps a hand in film and music (He's the lead singer and guitarist for The Gear), but comic books have always been a seminal source of joy for Mike and that joy remains the main ingredient in most of his work.

Allred first tasted success in the comics field with his wildly popular MADMAN series, which is currently being developed for a live action film with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. His earlier work from GRAFIK MUZIK was turned into the cult hit movie G-Men from Hell directed by Christopher Coppola (featuring Robert Goulet as the Devil). Other work includes Red Rocket 7, his history of Rock and Roll told in the context of a sci-fi adventure storyl the Madman spin-off THE ATOMICS and his magnum opus, THE GOLDEN PLATES, where he's illustrating the entire Book of Mormon.

Mike counts the secret to his success to be his wife, and creative partner, Laura Allred, who is is considered to be one of the best colorists in the business

This is a good selection of Mike Allred and Madman resources. Of course, I have another Madman shirt, so I can expand in that post.

I have many comic reviews I want to include, but in the interest of catching up, this is all for today.

CCC09 Mike Allred On His Biggest Influences

Mike Allred Interview

GOOD LINKS

Madman Wikipedia

Madman Character Comic Vine

Madman Volume One Comic Vine

Allred Art Blog

MIKE ALLRED CLOSES OUT ATOMIC COMICS/MADMAN COMICS - 2009

Mike And Laura Allred – Making A Monster Out Of Madman

MIKE ALLRED CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF A MAD, MAD, MADMAN WORLD

Locked In A Room With A ‘Madman’ – Interview With Comic Artist Mike Allred

COVER GALLERY

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 69 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1401.11 - 19:03