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

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!

Black Power

Fan art by Peter Temple left click to enlarge

Obviously I like this fan art other wise I wouldn't have posted it here but at the same time part of me wants to see even more black heroes from Marvel and DC in here kinda like those Marvel Universe Handbook or DC Who's Who montage covers. Off the top of my head specifically I'm thinking Luke Cage, Misty Knight, Blade, the John Stewart Green Lantern and Mr. Fantastic. Don't know if Amanda Waller quite fits the profile of what defines a "super hero" but I'd include her just on general principle.

Ok and now for another kind of black power. Just by chance today I passed through The 4th Annual Vintage Car Show in Downtown Hayward (California) while running some errands and look what they had there. Not at all a fan of the tim burton Batman films (or much of anything from burton for that matter) but I have to admit the batmobile in those movies was one of the few things they had going for them. The tumbler is my favorite though.

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

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.

Delivering Justice

I was at the library yesterday when I happened to come across a Batwoman TPB which included #35 which was the issue that had Ragman on the cover. I remember when I first spotted that issue during a trip to Reno over the Thanksgiving Day weekend I was initially thinking to myself this might end up being the first new comic book I end up buying for the past few years. But after giving it a quick browse it wasn't quite what I was expecting or maybe just not what I was hoping for. That's not to say it didn't have anything good in it but it turned out not to be Ragman's first appearance in the NewDCU. Nor was it a good jumping on point to start reading the story arc and it didn't turn out to be some kind of Jewish superheros themed issue which I was kinda hoping for given that both Ragman and Batwoman are Jews.
With the whole "delivering justice" theme in this clip art it seems this is a good time to remind folks that Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice is not only 3 weeks away. That movie just seems to look better and better with each new promo for it. The wife and I were just discussing the whole advanced tickets thing. I really wanna see it on opening weekend like we did for Deadpool but damn who wants to deal with those crowds and lines? But did you know there's actually reserved seating at some theaters that are selling advanced tickets for those who are willing to pay a bit more? Oh decisions decisions.

March 13th update:
Just found this cool rendering of the old DC Universe version of Rick Flag on Deviant Art this morning. The description under the art work is as follows . . . This is one of the Suicide Squad Illustrations that I did for the DC Films Presents-Dawn of the Justice League TV Special.

Looked into it and it can be easily found on youtube it's not bad. They have it in a five part video presentation hosted by Geoff Johns and Kevin Smith. And by the way Batman vs. Superman Dawn of Justice lees then two weeks away now.

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.

Ragman and The Hayoth team up fan art

I've always been a fan of the Israeli meta human team know as The Hayoth who first appeared in the pages of The Suicide Squad and would later be seen in The Specter and Checkmate in the old DCU. But more recently I've been getting into the Ragman character since having read some stuff with him (Ragman Suite of Souls one shot and Day of Vengeance #1)  I've found in back issue discount boxes. DC has other Jewish superheros like Atom Smasher and Batgirl but what I liked about these particular characters is that their powers and identity as heroes centers around Jewish lore and mysticism.

Oct. 3rd Update: 
I decided to add this clip art of Ragman in action from Day of Vengeance #1 (2006). Something interesting I learned about Ragman's suit in this issue is that the new souls that are collected often try to resist helping Ragman when called upon. Kinda think of it as a new prison inmate who hasn't learned the rules yet and think they can act like they're still on the outside. Well we know how that eventually plays out.

The Bat vs The Spider

So here we are my first bit of fan art 2015. I just did this on a whim this past weekend which was a nice and relaxing one I must say. For a little while now I've had this idea in the back of my head to do something with Black Spider. As a ninja version of  The Punisher in the DCU I'd like to see the character get a bit more notoriety.

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.

New fan art of the Amanda Waller that we used to know

Just found this awesome piece by chance from an artist who also hates the skinny Waller and has stated that she refuses to ever draw her that way  . . .
http://the-unbrilliant.deviantart.com/gallery/
Also, you can see more fan art that's popped up this year for The Wall by doing an Amanda Waller key word search on deviant art. It's kinda funny you can always get an idea about how old someone is by finding out what turned em on to this character I've been coming across more and more people who discovered Waller from the Justice League Unlimited cartoon or from some kind of DC online gaming media. Suffice it to say those fans are usually much younger then the old school Waller fans who discovered her back during the Legends mini-series and the Ostrander Squad era.

Straight outta New Zealand some new Squad fan art

Thanks Dan I know you worked a long time to finally get this done I'm really glad to be finally show casing it here. I think you got all the character's personalities down pretty good here I especially like how Waller looks so ominous. Also nice going on having Diablo on the Ostrander era Squad he was one of the few things I liked about the New 52 Squad. And also thanks for quite literally leaving Harley Quinn out of the picture I've long since O.D.d on Harley with the Suicide Squad.

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.

Finally, some newly discovered fan art

Free Comic Book Day was a bust. I didn't see anything that was of any interest to me all the free comics were crap and they were using the back issue bin area for more space so I wasn't able to do my usual foraging there for cool old school shit. Oh well, at least I have some newly found fan art which this blog has been devoid of for a little while now. First up is some classic Nightshade by Brendon Fraim.

Did you know that Nightshade, Peacemaker, Sergeant Steele, Blue Beetle, Judo Master, Captain Atom and The Question were all originally characters from another publishing company that no longer exists called Charlton Comics? Most of you probably did know that already but for the few who don't I thought you might have found that interesting. DC at some point bought the rights to the characters and integrated them into the DC Universe.
Nightshade pretty much became synonymous with both Captain Atom (the DC title of course) and The Suicide Squad. Peacemaker and Sergeant Steele made multiple appearances in both the Suicide Squad and Checkmate (both volumes). So I'm diggin Peacemaker re-design concept but I'm also looking to get some feed back on it from you good people. If you need a quick reference to his costume design as it was in the old DCU: http://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/2012/06/impel-trading-cards-series-task-force-x_21.html

Peacmaker re-design concept by Joe Singleton

Pimp Daddy Darkseid

As far as I know Darkseid has only made 2 appearances in the original Suicide Squad series. But o boy were they some classic Darkseid moments. This posting has been a concept I've had for quite a while now but it's always given way to other posting ideas for some reason. But because a friend of mine who is going through some bullshit right now that I am all too familiar with I finally decided to get to it. Unfortunately there is a lot of truth to that whole "nice guys finish last" cliche. In order to make certain your the one in the driver's seat instead of the one being taken for a ride on the highway of love it requires you exert a certain amount of "assertiveness" at times. Being kind of emotionally distant often works well and I've talked about that before on this blog in regards to Rick Flag and Ben Turner a.k.a Bronze Tiger. But Darkseid really has the whole schtick down best. Here he is giving a mission briefing to the Female Furies when one of them actually is stupid enough to question his wishes ( Suicide Squad # 3).
Ya see that? No explanation required. It's a simple matter of what Darkseid wants discussion over. In this next bit of clip art we see what happened after a rather climatic battle between Task Force X and "friends" against the forces of Granny Goodness on Apocalypse (Suicide Squad # 37) . As you all should know by now Lashina kidnapped many members of the Squad, Barda, Flo and even Waller herself and took them to Apocalypse to be used as cannon fodder while she tries to win her place back as leader of The Female Furies. As you see here that in and of it's self wasn't her biggest mistake.
Do you see that "oh shit!" look on her face? I think this is the first time that Lashina has ever displayed fear. We've seen her pissed, frustrated and even delighted from time to time. But scared? Well who wouldn't be if they were about to be "pimp slapped" by Darkseid's Omega Beams. So guys, when your feeling troubled by the ambiguous behavior and mixed messages by members of the opposite sex in the treacherous arena of dating just think to yourself, what would Darkseid do?

I'm adding a quick update here on Thursday morning CA. Pacific Time. The latest Task Force X retirement files couldn't have been posted at a more perfect time! Check it out: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2011/03/task-force-x-retirement-files-024-028.html