I really enjoyed sharing some of my favorite covers in a post from a while back, so here is a fresh batch of covers I really dig!

I love, love, LOVE pulp style art!

Here is another cover from my youth by Bill Sienkiewicz.

There are literally hundreds of great Brian Bolland covers to choose from but, I think no one drew Dredd better.

Gabriel Ba’s art is so deceptively simple, and goddamned cool.

I’ve long been a Mike Zeck fan. I chose this cover because this particular issue was one of the first I bought with an eye towards it’s future value. BTW, comicspriceguide.com rates a NM copy at $25.00…meh.

Tim Bradstreet draws (or “traces” as Mike calls it) some of the most striking covers I’ve ever seen.

A very unique cover from Frank Miller

I’ve included this cover not really because it is all that great (although Man-Bat, The Creeper, The Demon, and Phantom Stranger on one cover is pretty cool!) but because I always liked Blue Devil, and this is probably my favorite issue.

I never bought this issue. I remember seeing it in the rack and totally falling in love with it’s cover, but I didn’t have enough money to buy it. Hoping to hide it and buy it later, I crammed it all the way behind some issues of Archie (true story). Sadly, by the time I got back it was gone.

Awesome!

Why aren’t there more Iron Man vs Doom stories?

Finally, there were many memorable covers during The Preacher’s run, this is one that really stuck out for me.

Ok, more soon including a FallCon update!

Where have I been?! Where have YOU been??!!

We’ve been busy around 50 Foot Robot Studios doing…. um.. various things and important… stuff. And…uh… talking to our girlfriends… they’re from Canada. You wouldn’t know them.

Well, we’ve got some big announcements coming up.

Don’t forget to come visit us at the Minnesota FALLCON at the MN State Fairgrounds in St. Paul in October!

More soon,
Michael

Project news: Mike has been at work with fellow Small Press Idol contestant, Erik Hendrix. Here is more info from Mike hizzelf.

“The run for the crown may be over for THE ASSOCIATE (for now), but in an eleventh hour plot twist, Michael Nelsen of Team Associate has joined forces with Team FACTION!!

Faction was a book we watched closely through out our time with the competition. It was consistently of highest quality and always the project to beat in Small Press Idol. Over the course of the contest we became creative partners and friends with its creator, Erik Hendrix, and he asked Michael hop on board assisting in color and grayscale work for Faction’s Zero issue, which is on sale NOW in Small Press Idol Round 4!

FANS – There are two ways for fans to get Faction Zero.
1. Order direct – http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com. Look up Faction, or item DSP-I09-F0. You can download for $2.00 or purchase the printed version for $3.50 plus postage BEFORE AUGUST 31st!
a. PRINT COPY – http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html
b. PDF DOWNLOAD – http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-dl-2275.html
2. Go to your local comic book store and give them the below retailer information, (info to come soon!) explaining that you want them to carry the book and, well, hopefully they will! Make sure they place their orders ON OR BEFORE AUGUST 31st!

RETAILERS – There are two ways to get copies to your store.
1. Order from Haven directly by going to http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.havendistro.com, sign up, send a mail to Haven requesting to be set up as a retailer account, gather pre-orders from your store and then search for Faction to order. All orders must be turned in for Faction on or before AUGUST 31st! Issues will deliver in September.
2. Order from DimeStore directly by going to http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com, sign up, send an email to DimeStore requesting to be set up as a retailer account, gather pre-orders from your store and then search for Faction DSP-I09-F0. Issues will deliver in September.
a. PRINT COPY – http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html

Please note, the order code DSP-I09-F0 is Case Sensitive DSP-I(letter)0(zero)9-F0(zero).

Thanks!
Team Associate/Faction

Alright, more info soon!

So, all of a sudden its almost July. Wow.
Well, we have a few news items from the decidedly un-arctic base. First, we were going to go to the San Diego Comic Con (or SDCC in nerd speak) but those plans fell through. We now have our sights set on the Chicago Con this summer and the…er…I forget the proper name but the Mpls Con this fall, more on that as plans develop.
On a project tip, Mike has finished the Hostile Make-over story line in Hulk vs Bizarro. He is hard at work on finishing a few other projects, and may be close to figuring out how to get us in print!
Things may slow down for a bit as summer trips and the like steal time away from us, but, as always watch this spot for news and updates.

So, I was trolling the internets when I happened upon this site. It has a few cool galleries of golden age comic covers. If you go there just click on one of the three circles at the top of the page to see the galleries.
Inspired by viewing the galleries I’ve decided to share some of my personal favorite comic covers, enjoy!

There are tons of great Spiderman covers, but I absolutely love Mysterio

Dave Mckean rules.

The second appearance of GI Joe #21 in this blog. It is safe to say this is one of my all around favorite comics.

One of my favorite Arthur Adams covers, and arguably the best Wolverine.

One of the covers that sent Gaines to court. I think the drool is a nice touch.

Hard to pick just one George Perez cover, but I just love his work on Crisis.

Dead heat between this issue and #3. I went with #4 because i like how Logan still suits up after Kitty skewered him on a sword.

I love this series! I just started reading it (I acquired all the comics legally, you can be sure of that) and it kicks ass. I recommend doing an image search for more of the covers from this comic.

Not much to say here, I just think this cover is cool!

The issue that launched a thousand emo girl outfits. One could pick any of Mckean’s covers for The Sandman, but this is my favorite.

Not much to say about this that hasn’t been said by everyone else, but I love how it acts as the first panel, continues the circle motif, etc etc.

Neal Adams could draw covers like no one else. How cool is Havok here?

And finally, one of the most iconic covers ever.

So, there we have it. I’d like to wrap things up with an image just for fun…Simpsonized Watchmen

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For more cool fan-art Simpsonized characters check out this site here. Make sure to check out the archives!

We ended up in the top 9 in the competition, which is good enough to get us published in an Anthology along with other material AND we’ll be featured on the Cover. Rock on. Thanks a billion times for voting!!!

The Associate will continue. We currently exploring some options for continuation of our story. Check back here for updates. To show you all we’re serious, we’re going to continue to post Associate related news items here along with our other updates and rants

To begin with, here’s a little something extra:
Because I mumbled when I sung the chorus, the Lyrics to THE ASSOCIATE THEME:

All the beast have been put to sleep,
in the evening, can’t you see them?
Words of power lose their meaning,
in the evening, can’t you see them?

All the lies that are my life,
are just cold hands that hold me down,
Cold hands hold me down.

Download MP3
Yes, that’s me on guitar & vocals

3

Today the third and final, for us anyway, round of the Small Press Idol contest draws to a close. I thought it would be fitting to wrap up my commentary on the three pages we submitted to the contest today as well.
This page begins an important sequence which, over the next few pages, draws Cain into an investigation that will form one of the main story lines for the first season. I’d rather not get too far into details here, but essentially Cain has used the synthesized hallucinogen as a means to view the psychic history, or echoes of the space occupied by the hospital. This page allows the reader to follow Cain as he finds a kind of familiar landmark in the ether from which he can explore the echoes further. What will he find? Well, for that you’ll need to wait for the rest of Issue Zero to be published.
For some insights from Mike on this page, here is a section of a post of his from the Associate’s Small Press Idol forum:

“Jason had a lot of descriptions for this page, but left me the freedom to break down the information into panels. I wanted to show Cain as “walking” through the hospital, symbolizing a journey through a vision. This hospital is most definitely haunted. It’s our belief that all these old institutions are haunted in some way. People would be put in to these facilities and left to rot, and eventually die. Mass, unmarked graves can be found behind these hospitals all over the country.1,000s of lonely dead.
But what Cain sees here are not ghosts.

Jason used the perfect term here to describe it: Echos. A sort of psychic residue left behind by suffering and nefarious deeds. I think it’s safe to say, without giving away the story, that these children have been being experimented on in numerous ways – the why and what of these experiments will be a focus of our first Season’s story arc and tie to much bigger events.

I wanted all the hospital staff to have no faces, but to be a moving blurry image of a face. This is how I think the children would remember the staff in their minds and thus in this projection. The children’s faces are their real faces. They are all deformed and mentally stunted. I wanted them to be sort of creepy, but not threatening, not evil, they are the victims here. Horrible, creepy, disturbed victims…”

So there you have it True Believers! With our commentary and contest wrapped up what is next for The Associate?
Well, I think our Issue Zero will still be published in one of DimeStore’s anthologies, but we are out of the running for the contest’s grand prize: being published as an ongoing series.
Michael and I have pretty much plotted out the first season, which will be something like 24 issues, and have sketched out a basic plot line for season two. When will we begin work on season one you may ask…well, I have no idea. Currently Mike is hard at work on finishing the final HvB strip in the “Hostile Make-Over” story line, plotting out new Dr Immortalis adventures, pencilling Vent, as well as beginning a new project with one of our fellow Small Press Idol contestents. So, I fear the inhabitants if the Associate universe will have to wait until later this summer…at least.
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to extend our thanks and gratitude to all our fans and fellow contestants who voted and got others to vote for us in the Small Press Idol and Zuda competitions. While we didn’t win, we did learn a great deal and made some new friends in the community.
So, thanks again everyone, and watch this spot for updates and news!

Today is the LAST DAY to Help us retain our Cover Slot!
for The Associate in Help us retain our Cover Slot!

Help us retain our Cover Slot!
LINK!

We’ve always planned The Associate to be written much like a TV series would be laid out. So, in that spirit, and for the last day of Small Press Idol, I’ve written and recorded an Associate Theme song: DOWNLOAD MP3

On this page Cain and Dey proceed with some chemically assisted psychic forensics. Cain’s use of government cooked hallucinogens has caused confusion amongst some readers, but more on that later.
So, why the drug trip?
Well, I decided to use this device for a few of reasons.
First off, I thought it broke up the necessary, but often clunky, “catch the reader up on the story” exposition. Cain and Dey have already spent several panels gabbing about “off camera events”, so I thought it would be nice to let the reader view the key events that lead to Cain’s earlier involvement at this hospital.
Also, the dream-like quality of the visions let us dress those events in symbols allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions about them. Since these visions set Cain off on a story line that will be very important to the first season, we want to be vague about details while still piquing the readers’ interest.
Finally, my approach to how Cain displays his powers in this sequence has been influenced by the comic series Hellblazer.
(Before I move on: if your only knowledge of John Constantine, the main character in Hellblazer, comes from that awful Keanu Reeves movie… do yourself a favor and read the comicbook. I recommend reading any of the collections that feature the stories written by Warren Ellis or Garth Ennis.)
Constantine is more likely to bullshit or scheme his way out of trouble than shoot fireballs from his bat guano covered hands. The most magickal thing you’re likely to see Constantine do is commune with the dead, or disguise something with a glamour. I’ve always liked that, and while Cain will have some more overt displays of his powers, you can look at this sequence as a kind of nod to the Laughing Magician.
So, does Dey turn into a dog a the end of the page? No, the dog is a symbol of Dey’s character and his “transformation” is a byproduct of Cain coming up on the drug.

Next: Page 7 and what’s next for the Associate