Geof Isherwood commission art for the nostalgic Suicide Squad fan

Before I get to the art work I wanted to talk a bit about something I stumble across yesterday. I was watching this Youtube channel doing recaps of DC animated films. One such film featured an alternate universe reality where Superman becomes this authoritarian figure that uses his power to imposes world peace. Ofcourse no world peace can be claimed to have been achieved in any multiverse reality without ending the conflict between ISRAEL and the palestinians. So here in this frame I posted we have authoritarian Superman "overseeing" a treaty being signed by these two nondescript Israeli and palestinian politicians. An interesting concept to be sure, but if I had the power of Superman at my disposal I would probably take care of that particular conflict in a less diplomatic way. A way that would include an immediate liberation of all the remaining hostages in gaza, a complete end to hamas and all other palestinian terror groups along with their sponsors. 

 

 

So, enough with the politics and onward to the Isherwood art. This commission featuring Amanda Waller, Count Vertigo, Poison Ivy and The Atom (Adam Cray) has been around for a few years now at least and by luck I happened to have discovered it today....

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?Piece=1769805&GSub=0&GCat=16979&UCat=16979

 

Now this one is a much more recent commission done by Geof Isherwood for Benjamin L. Sussman. It's based on Suicide Squad 22 in which Deadshot, while sitting on the Lincoln Memorial puts a bullet in the head of US Senator Joe Cray in what turns out to be yet another Task Force X mission that didn't quite go according to plan.

 

New Ostrander era commission art by Luke McDonnell

 

Based on the date by the artist signature I guess this isn't really new. But I literally just discovered it on social media where it had been posted only early last month. Makes me wonder what other Ostrander era Squad fan art has been out there for years now that I don't know about? Anyways, always good to see something "new" from the true Suicide Squad. And yes, I still hate the New DC 52 version as well as those shit movies. If you're also a fan of the late 80s to early 90s Suicide Squad series be sure to at least check out the most recent blog postings I only ever post anything once or twice a year these days.

John Ostrander era Suicide Squad sketch card

After years now of just having done fan art sketch cards for only the Marvel and Star Wars franchises I finally decided to do something different and get at least one for DC into my body of work. So ofcourse it had to be The Suicide Squad. The the late 80s to early 90s John Ostrander Suicide Squad, accept no substitute. 

I was looking at some early issues recently and something occurred to me while going over this one. It's too bad there isn't a Task Force X in the real world. That could have been one way to bring putin's barbaric war on Ukraine to an end sooner then later.

August 16th Update: Just found this Luke McDonell art work of a Suicide Squad height chart. It was a random post on twitter and unfortunately there was no supporting information on where it came from. Was it some kind of promotional material or just some unpublished art? Well, whatever and wherever it's the Suicide Squad I love and miss so i'm delighted to have found it all the same.

Well said anonymous owner of this white Mercedes.

November 17th Update: I stand with Israel. No ceasefire with out the return of all the hostages. Period end of story! Fuck hamas and their idiotic "progressive" cheerleaders like the congressional Jihad Squad. 

Suicide Squad fan art from 2010

I dug this up last night and even though I supposedly stopped posting on this blog site back in September of 2018 I'm gonna post this anyway just because. The original art actually included Rick Flag, Amanda Waller, Captain Boomerang and Night Shade in what was group portrait. But I was never happy with the way the rest of the team came out so I cropped it to the portion that only has Deadshot, Count Vertigo and Bronze Tiger.

Just for the record I still hate DC's reboot of Task Force X as I do both live action films. For me The Suicide Squad will be forever be The John Ostrander series of the late 80s to early 90s. Speaking of which, I recently re-read the 1st Deadshot mini-series. If you never read it before or only read it back in the late 80s it's definitely worth another read. It's a very sophisticated deep dive into Floyd's background that I think you will appreciate even more in the later years of your life.

 

https://www.zipcomic.com/deadshot-1988-issue-1

DC Legends . . . not quite the stuff of legend for me

Ya know folks I may get a little bit of heat about this but I after doing some reading of the DC Legends mini-series this weekend I'm not that big of a fan. Now ofcourse this isn't the first time I've read the series but even back then it honestly didn't grab me despite all it had going for it. You had The Squad's first mission along with a bunch of some of the best heroes and villains in the DC Universe's history and great talent on the series like John Ostrander and John Byrne. I feel the same way about the original Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series after having finally read it I felt like it was really over rated despite it's legendary status among the DC readership. Can't quite put my finger on it as far as the why but both of these series just didn't make for a great read for me unlike say for example Marvel's original Secret Wars which was like an adrenaline charged page turner which holds up pretty good even today.

Awesome classic Ragman fan art

Absolutely bad ass! This is some top notch fan art, the figure composition, the colors and even the detail in the costume. And ofcourse I love the extra added touch of Ragman tearing up a nazi flag while also sporting a Magen David (star of David) pendant. All very appropriate for our "clothe golem" Jewish avenger. And in case you were wondering, this is where I found it https://www.deviantart.com/art/Ragman-705702433

Too bad we never got to see this in the old DCU it would have been epic!

The Suicide Squad goes nuclear

Ya know with all this shit going on with north korea and their nuclear program not to mention renewed tensions with russia and the threat of islamic terrorists trying to get their filthy hands on that shit for years now it got me thinking about Firestorm 64 written by John Ostrander. The issue came out in 1987 in which the Cold War was still going on here in the real world even though it would be only a few years later that the soviet union would collapse. For about the next two decades or so we really didn't think about nuclear war as something that we had to worry about any more.
So this issue was part of a story arc in which Ronald and professor Stein (who was dying of a brain tumor at the time) as Firestorm attempted to coerce the nuclear armed nations of the world into dismantling their nuclear arsenals under the threat of doing it for them if they didn't comply. A some what similar premise to the awful Superman 4 film which ironically also came out in 1987. Yeah that didn't go over to well and as a result Firestorm was declared an outlaw and become subject to arrest. As a result Captain Atom (prior to this issue), Task Force X, The Justice League mixed it up with Firestorm in an attempt to end his crusade.
The story line continues and comes to a head in Firestorm annual 2 in which The Squad and The League start to fight each other. Adding to the mayhem The Parasite who at the time was in The Squad goes rogue. Firestorm manages to deal with The Parasite and make his escape only to be confronted in the Nevada desert by a russian super powered agent named Pozhar. The show down happens shortly before professor Stein's tumor finally kills him and disrupts the Firestorm bond in the process which happens only seconds before both the U.S. and Soviet governments try to nuke both combatants. Good stuff, makes me miss the 80s all that much more.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/marvelmasterworksfansite/suicide-squad-the-complete-ostrander-run-1st-time--t24588.html

Farewell 007

Roger Suave

So I'm just doing this spur of the moment posting on what is now mostly an in active blog site. Only heard the sad news about an hour ago about Roger Moore passing away at 89 from cancer. Right on the heels of Sound Garden's front man Chris Cornell no less but in his case his death was in some ways even more tragic given that he was only in his 50s. I figured I better throw something on the internet especially with all this russia/trump investigation and terror attack in Manchester drowning out all other news stories including this one. Again, what seemed to be one of those timeless celebrity icons from my child hood has left us. There's really not much of anything I can say that you don't know or haven't heard already if you know anything about Roger Moore's career so let me pivot a bit to some of the 007 toys I used to have when I was a kid.

Ya know I still see the 007 submarine car (Corgi) from time to time at comic and toy conventions, usually going for a pretty hefty price tag. Especially for the ones that are in better condition part of that being if the 007 logo sticker is still present and not too tattered and faded.

I also used to have both the large scale and smaller Moon Raker shuttle craft toys (also from Corgi). Both featured retractable landing gears and cargo bay doors that open. But the bigger shuttle also had a removable satellite which had extending solar panels where as the smaller shuttle just had a fixed molded piece in it but I loved both em just the same. I see the smaller shuttle once in a while at a con but have yet to come across the bigger one. I wonder if all these 007 toys will bump up in value now?

Left click to enlarge

Might as well throw this up here as well while I'm at it it's seldom I ever come across any fan art related to the Ostrander era and it's pretty original and other wise well done. If you want to get a better look at it go here... http://elena-casagrande.deviantart.com/art/Suicide-Squad-banner-for-Blastoff-Comics-625873780

Amanda Waller vs Barack Obama

So just this past Wednesday DC Comics relaunched for what I believe is the 3rd reboot of the Suicide Squad title since the inception of the New DCU. There was the original series that was part of the New 52 line up that eventually gave way to another title called "The New Suicide Squad". I dropped the original title after issue 11 and didn't keep up much with what went on with the series after that but I think that first series ended some where in the 20s and then became the "New" Suicide Squad and who knows what after that.
Although not getting a lot of great word of mouth the Suicide Squad movie is something of a commercial success so I guess DC Comics is looking to capitalize on that with a relaunch of the title that mirrors the movie in many respects.

Left click to enlarge

Coincidentally we now have a Suicide Squad that looks a little more like the Ostrander series from the old DCU. Waller is a plus size woman again along with Rick Flag and Enchantress being added to the line up of Squad members. Also, Deadshot a.ka. Floyd Lawton is back to having his signature mustache/goatee but that might have been the case again after I dropped the first series for all I know. All that aside this ideological debate between Waller and Obama was pretty well written I have to say I really enjoyed it. Not saying I'm gonna go out and buy this book but for now it's at least worth keeping an eye on. If you want to read a real review of the Suicide Squad Rebirth there's close to a half o dozen videos on youtube already among other places on the internet.

Now, why am I posting this photo of Voila Davis? Is it because she played Amanda Waller in the movie? No, I did for no other reason other then that she looks fucken gorgeous here.

August 23rd update
A little something interesting here I wanted to share with any Ragman fans out there. I'm sure most of you recognize this Batwoman cover art and have probably figured out the writing at the bottom left is Hebrew. But I doubt most any of you knew what it meant. Pronounced "emet", that's Hebrew for the word truth. Which is interesting because in according to Jewish golem folklore part of the spell that animates the clay creature known as the golem is to inscribe the word truth on it's head. As some of you know the Ragman suite was created from a variant of the golem spell so I imagine that has something to do with the Hebrew inscription of that Ragman dominated Batwoman 35 cover art. Almost bought that issue at one point but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for on the inside.

My obligatory Suicide Squad movie review

Ya know the day before I saw the movie I had caught this cool scene on youtube of Waller having the Enchantress magically teleporting some military secrets out of iran during a meeting with some top brass to help make the case for the Task Force X program and I was like fucken eh. Finally I'm at the theater and the movie starts and it opens up with this introduction of the main characters that reminded me of DC's Assault on Arkham and I started thinking that this might not be bad after all. I even liked a lot of the music in the movie especially the use of these classic songs that really were spot on for the moment. Probably the best example was the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for The Devil with the introduction scene for Waller. Unfortunately that along with some funny one liners is about all the movie really has going for it.
I think my biggest problem with the movie was the plot. The disaster Task Force X gets called up for is over some shit (shit that I never really fully quite understood) The Enchantress stirs up so basically she's not even a member of The Squad she's actually in effect the primary villain of the movie. That didn't really work for me, and aside from that the movie felt a bit disjointed as far as how the story flowed. Also, there were a few cool scenes from the trailers that were absent in the film I didn't like that much either.
Some of the characters hardly made any impression at all on me. Ok we had Slipknot. who's purpose in the movie literally was to be a mission fatality I mean they gave that character nothing to do but die. They don't even introduce him in the movie he just shows up and dies 15 minute later after 2 or 3 lines. Katana seemed to also show up out of no where and in spite of her swinging around this soul stealing sword she still some how manages to be absent from the story line. Boomerang didn't have much to do either other then some extra comedy relief. Killer Croc was more present in the film but they didn't do much to develop his character into something a little less predictable and two dimensional. They probably did a little bit better with the Rick Flagg character then the before mentioned cast members. Then there's El Diablo, who they did alright with his character up until the end when he transforms into some kind of demonic "Aztecy" fire kinda thing for what was supposed to be this epic battle scene you probably won't care much about at that point in the movie even though Diablo sacrifices his life for the mission. That was one of those huh? moments. Are all my spoilers bothering you? It's ok trust me you really won't care much once you start watching the movie.
As expected the stand out characters were Amanda Waller, Deadshot and Harley Quinn what you saw in the movie trailers as far as how those characters are portrayed is pretty much what you get in the movie. Jared Leto as The Joker wasn't bad but certainly fell short of Heath Ledger's legendary performance. Another issue that bugged me was how through out the movie many of the character's seemed to be out of character. Toward the end of the movie Rick Flagg tries to give Deadshot a hug and I'm like no way that would ever happen. In any universe cinematic or published you couldn't even get a hand shake out of those two they can't stand each other. I think you'd best save your money for now and wait for this movie to show up at a nearby Redbox.

Stop, Waller Time!

Apparently all this old school Amanda Waller fan art has been up for a little while on deviant art I just happened to have discovered it today. It's nice to have something to post about here for a change I realize it's been a while. Just in time it would seem for our new commentator to this blog welcome Jeson Holder now the number of people following this site might be up to 3 now how exciting. The fan art on the bottom is fairly self explanatory but the top side fan art leaves a bit more to the imagination. I like how it shows that Waller isn't just some pencil pushing bureaucrat despite being a plus size middle age woman she's willing to get into the fight when she has to http://biram-ba.deviantart.com/art/Amanda-Waller-486215893

http://bielero.deviantart.com/art/286-Amanda-Waller-497984946

Well the Suicide Squad movie isn't quite so much off in the distance any more. No way of knowing for sure if it'll be any good but I know I'll see it at some point no matter what I hear about it although I'll most certainly be catching a matinee. But good or bad or some thing in between I'll certainly be doing a review of it here so all 3 or 4 of you who follow this blog still can see what I thought of the movie.

Luke McDonell Suicide Squad commission fan art 2014

Found this on Comic Art Fans last night. It's seldom that I find some fan art from this era of The Suicide Squad it's too bad I didn't find this in time to feature it for the first day of 2016. In case anyone was wondering I still could care less about the DC relaunch and it goes with out saying I don't follow it whats so ever including whatever is going on with the so called Suicide Squad these days. As for the upcoming movie, not really following the hype I'm content to see how it turns out when it hits theaters. Probably gonna play it safe with a matinee.

Millennium Week 4 with The Suicide Squad

Any of you remember the late 80s DC 12 issue maxi-series Millennium? It was similar to Marvel's Secret Wars II in which it was it's own title but also crossed over into just about every DC title at the time including Suicide Squad issue 9. So tonight I was browsing at this Millennium TPB at a discount book store after work and came across a couple pages of unknown (at least to me) clip art which is actually a prelude to Suicide Squad #9. I took a couple of pictures of this page with my iphone for your viewing pleasure.

What a pleasant surprise, a real nice way to end my day by getting to read some Ostrander era Squad stuff I previously was unaware of. On the this page the Squad is informed that their going to be transporting a bomb to the Manhunter's fortress in the Bayous. Slipknot and Boomerang initially refuse to take part in the mission upon which they are informed that not only are they going to go but also will have to wear explosive bracelets. And if you want to see how that worked out in Suicide Squad # 9 you can have a look here . . .
http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/06/lame-ass-villain-7-slipknot.html

Suicide Squad Convergence, worth the read if . . .

 . . you find it for free on youtube which I happened to by chance last night. I had no idea what this whole convergence shit with DC was but based on these two issues I guess it has to do with some sort of old and new DCU cross over. So we do get to see some of the classic Squad but it's pretty scant on development. They did a descent job on the plus size Waller but we get far too little of old DCU Bronze Tiger, Poison Ivy and Count Vertigo. Bronze Tiger gets one line and Vertigo doesn't say a thing in either issues. Too much of the writing was spent on DC characters they already use frequently in the new DCU in particular Deathstroke and Deadshot. Kinda mediocre art work for both issues. Nice try DC but I'm still not spending any of my hard earned income on your new comics.

Convergence Suicide Squad 1 and 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9pAVucJnAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY387p2T89o

Finally some new fan art from The Squad of the old DCU

Awesome sketch art by guinnessyde

I dunno about the rest of you but it's just fucken Harley Quinn over kill for the past couple of years now. So sick and tired of seeing nothing but "Suicide Squad" cosplay or fan art piece with Harley and a giant mallet or baseball bat. This is aside from my over all disdain for the false DCU it makes me not want to bother with looking for cool Suicide Squad related stuff to post any more. And lately all this shit from the upcoming movie has been saturating the net. I know I'll see the movie at some point but like with the new Star Wars movie I refuse to get caught up in all the hype. Any ways, this morning I just gave it a shot and looked for some stuff and as luck would have it I found this. A damn good sketch from The Ostrander era Squad, that's a potent combo.
http://www.deviantart.com/art/01292015-Suicide-Squad-510509352

Along came a Black Spider

I was really enjoying the mano a mano throw down between Black Spider and Batman in Assault on Arkham it's too bad it got cut short by a mis thrown boomerang by the good Captain. Have a look at the rest of The Squad files from Assault on Arkham . .  .
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2014/08/05/batman-assault-on-arkham-meet-task-force-x

Speaking of DC animated films I just got done watching Justice League War on youtube I finally found an actual full movie upload as opposed to the bogus channels that just have in the title "full movie" only to find some bullshit. It wasn't as good as Assault on Arkham or Batman Year One but it was still fairly good even though the parademon/Darksied fight scenes got to be a bit tedious. Can't wait to see Throne of Atlantis it's probably gonna be the only thing from DC worth looking forward to in 2015.

I'm posting this old school fan art of the Martian Manhunter (8 1/2 X 11 oil on canvas 1996) just for the hell of it. Some retro fan art to help usher in the new year as it were : )

 

The fly in the ointment of Assault on Arkham Part 2

Suicide Squad 64

After having read and processed the comments in my last posting I'm going to stick to my guns on this one. In Suicide Squad #1 of the 2007-08 9 issue mini-series we see Amanda Waller blow of the head of a prisoner at Belle Reve who tried to lead a prison break and had taken some guards as hostages. In Checkmate #3 (Vol. 2) Waller shot dead when she could have taken prisoner a would be Kobra assassin sent after her. And of course we all saw what happened with KGBeast in Assault on Arkham as well as the fact that Waller put out a hit on The Riddler.
The bottom line here is that Waller can be ruthless with her enemies and even with convict members of The Squad when she needs to keep them in line. But authorizing lethal force to any degree against American civilians and or against law enforcement agents was just stretching things too much. I mean sending The Squad on a mission where it's anticipated that they're gonna have too knock around some cops who probably have families is one thing but to say it's ok to kill some of em if they need to? Uh-huh no way I'm not buying it that's not the Amanda Waller I know that was a definite over site in what was other wise a well done and very entertaining movie.

Nightshade digital painting by Julianna Pardue

Ok now that I got all that Amanda Waller stuff off my chest let me move on here a bit. I haven't bothered looking for any Suicide squad related fan art for months now so I decided to see what's out there for the Hell of it last night. Hot damn did I ever find some awesome stuff out there so I just had to add it to this posting . .

Deadshot fan art by Phil-Cho

 .I love this subtle costume re-design not to mention the animation cell style look to this fan art. What DC's ultimate marks man might have looked on Young Justice? . . . .

Sashs Bordeaux cosplay by White Lemon

Dios Mios! Spanish cosplay vixen White Lemon hits it our of the park again with a little something for Checkmate fans. Suddenly I'm really thirsty for some lemonade.

FINALY! some new group shot art of the REAL Suicide Squad

What a breath of fresh air this is! Some brand new Suicide Squad fan art that has nothing to do with the WW II version, or Harley Quinn or any other aspect of the New DCU. I just found this only a few hours ago on comicartfans.com apparently it's a commission piece done by Steve Erwin. This guy is good I've featured his stuff here at least once before.
On a separate matter here I found this over at the Firestorm blog yesterday. I think it's much to do about nothing but still worth having a look at if your a Suicide Squad fan http://firestormfan.com/2014/01/16/suicide-squad-film/

The spin starts here

Left click to enlarge

For those of you who hate the skinny Waller reboot here ya go from artist JJ Kirby. I also love what this guy does with vertigo's cape that's very creative. Be sure to check out more of his stuff at this link he's also got a bad ass Roy Harper as Arsenal piece! http://jollyboysessions.blogspot.com/2013/07/kirbys-whos-who-art.html

As long as nature has endowed you with the right qualities doing some Amanda Waller cosplay is a piece of cake. It's funny now how whenever I see a curvy black woman in a business suite I automatically think of the character as sure as a Pavlovian dog starts to salivate when it hears a bell.

By Michael Fiffe

 I found this fan art on tumbler at the tail end of December with the following information with it: "Commission: unmasked Count Vertigo with hovering logo plus Deadshot in the background. Suicide Squad die hards will recognize the scene." This is a good example of how typography can be used to enhance an art piece.

New fan art and cosplay combo posting

I just love finding some new Suicide Squad fan art that reminds me of the good ol days. Especially when it includes Rick Flag which we don't see to much of out there. Now I know Cheetah wasn't in the Ostrander Squad at any point but that's ok it all still makes for a cool "What If" sort of setting.

Yeah that's ok I pretty much struck a boner too when I first saw this Cheshire cosplay by Spanish vixen WhiteLemon. Be sure to check out her Catwoman cosplay too! http://whitelemon.deviantart.com/#/art/Catwoman-Selina-Kyle-from-DC-Comics-413012508?hf=1