Vs. Card by Tom Fleming

This handsome, regal shot of Aquaman is by artist Tom Fleming, as part of the Vs. card game series.

As we've seen first hand, the format of these cards really don't do justice to the art, crammed as it is into such a tiny space, with much of each piece cropped out. I'd love to see the original painting!

Vs. Deck Box

This very handsome Vs. card deck box was sent to me by generous F.O.A.M. member John Lijewksi III.

Decorated with a nifty Alex Ross painting (you can see Aquaman there on the bottom left), the magnetized flap opens as one piece, and inside you can store a number of the smaller metal tins that you can keep the cards in. All in all, a very spiffy package.

Click the graphic to get a better glimpse at Ross' painting, and thanks Jon!

Aquaman Vs. Painting by Diego Latorre

A few months ago I posted a Vs. game card featuring this painting by Diego Latorre. As I said at the time, I thought it was a great piece.

Well, just this week Mr. Latorre emailed me and sent me this scan of the painting in its full glory!

As we've seen before, the paintings made for these cards frequently are real humdingers, and we only get to see a tiny, cropped representation of it, so its great to see an original like this.

I told Diego I think its a beautiful illustration--Aquaman looks mysterious yet majestic, and I love the near-blinding light above the surface of the water. It really gives Aquaman an other-worldly feel, an aspect to the character rarely touched upon.

Thanks Diego, and keep up the good work!

Vs. Tin - 2007

I still don't know much about the Vs. game, but I knows what I like, and this tin to keep all the cards in is very spiffy, since as you can see if features the heroes of the DCU painted by Alex Ross.

I like that Aquaman gets such a prominent spot (even if his face is cut off a bit)--knowing that Ross is an Aquaman fan, I can't help but think that's on purpose.

Vs. Card by Diego Latorre - 2008

This is yet another handsome-looking Aquaman card for the Vs. game; featuring a striking, moody painting by Diego Latorre.

How this image relates to the subtitle, "Founding Member", I know not; nevertheless, it's a very nice painting!

Vs. Card by Craig Hamilton - 2008

I had been waiting for what seems like forever for this Vs. card to come out!

For, as most of you know, this card features a jaw-droppingly gorgeous piece of art by master illustrator (and my pal) Craig Hamilton, who then turned around and graciously sold me (or, more accurately, sold Darlin' Tracy) the original art.

We had planned to get the piece framed, and then my pal Ed over at All Things Fun suggested I wait for the Vs. card to come out and have them framed together, which was a smashing idea. So as I write this, the original and the Vs. card are at the frame shop, hopefully under some sort of 24-hr. armed guard.

Once I get it back, it's going up over my art table, just to my left of where I'm typing this.

Original Illustration by Craig Hamilton - 2007

Now it can be told!

Back on my birthday, Darlin' Tracy had given me the single best present I ever got, an original Craig Hamilton drawing of Aquaman--this drawing.

Unfortunately, I couldn't post it at the time because Craig had done it for a future Vs. game card, and he asked me not to put it up on the Shrine until the art was officially released.

Well, the art(and other card art) is now up on an Upperdeck website, so I would say the sea horse is out of the bag! Yay!

As you can(now) see, this piece simply kicks all known ass. The colors are fantastic, the design is dynamic, and Aquaman looks about as regal and impressive as he ever has.

Craig generously offered me first crack at buying it, but I knew I had no way of affording it, even if Craig asked for half--a tenth--of what it's worth. That saddened me, but I saw no way around it.

Thankfully, my better half heard me talk about it, and went to Craig directly, and a week or two later this beauty was on my doorstep. One more time--thanks Craig and thanks newest F.O.A.M. member Trace!

Vs. Card - Atlantean Trident

This is the last(so far) of the Vs. cards I have featuring any members of the AquaFamily, featuring the Sea King in a silly battelsuit of some kind.

The art is uncredited, but...am I crazy, or does this look like it was drawn by classic Mad artist Paul Coker?


Update: AquaFan Ilke Hincer informs me the art for this card is by Keron Grant. I have no idea who that is, but I like the piece!

Craig Hamilton Week, Part 1: Vs. Card Original Art

Welcome to Craig Hamilton Week here at the Aquaman Shrine!

As I'm sure you all know, Craig Hamilton was the excellent artist behind the 1986 Aquaman mini-series, which for my money remains the best Aquaman story in the last twenty years.

A few months ago, I contacted Craig and wondered if he would do a sketch in my AquaSketchbook. I told him that since I had the other great AquaArtists like Nick Cardy, Ramona Fradon, and Jim Aparo, I desperately wanted to add him to the list. Since I had never seen Craig at a con, I figured I'd have to FedEx him my book--something I'm a tad nervous about doing, of course--but for him it'd be worth it.

Luckily, Craig said yes, wanting to be part of that august list of artists. While working on the sketch, Craig agreed to an AquaInterview(ok, I'll stop) as well. Once he sent me this piece, the original, uncropped illustration he did for a Vs. game card, I knew I had the makings of a theme week.

So for the next five days, we'll be immersing ourselves in All Things Craig. We start today with Craig's gorgeous piece of Arthur on his throne. Tuesday we'll review the third issue of the mini-series, Wednesday the fourth and final issue, Thursday the interview, and culminating on Friday with the sketch itself. And it's a doozy!

Join us, won't you?

Vs. Card - Ocean Master

Another Vs. card, this time on Aquaman's most personal foe (I would argue Black Manta holds the title of #1 Aquaman villain), the Ocean Master!

It's funny to think about, but Aquaman--as a character--was certainly allowed to develop much more than most of other DC heroes at the time. Not only did he marry, have a child, but with Orm here he was given a brother, and one who was a super-villain, too boot!

I've always felt this brother vs. brother dynamic has never been fully exploited by Aquaman's writers. Neal Pozner did it best I think in the 1986 mini-series--you really got the sense of bitter sibling rivalry that causes Orm to want to not only kill Aquaman, but take everything--his family, his throne--away from him.

Sadly, for the longest time he had never been transformed into any action figure, until the just-released Mini-Mates two-pack which we'll see here soon!

Vs. Card - The Shark

This is probably stretching the limits of the Aquaman theme here, since The Shark started out as a Green Lantern villain, I believe. But over the years he's taken on Aquaman more than anyone else (makes sense!) that I say this Vs. game card qualifies.

Has anyone ever really thought about how absolutely terrifying it would be to live in the DCU (or the Marvel one, for that matter)? Your sense of security is completely shattered; with aliens, demons, monsters attacking cities on a near-weekly basis. Your spouse could all of a sudden try to kill you because--surprise!--they were taken over by some evil entity freed from its home dimension, bent on world domination. Hell, there are even giant, super-intelligent gorillas who are looking to take over your mind!

And nothing I think would terrify me more than meeting The Shark in person--here's a giant, evil man, with the head of a shark. He can swim after you, then chase you onto land, and bite your head off all the while probably rifling through your wallet. *shudder*

Who says Aquaman doesn't have some great villains?

Vs. Card - JLA Detroit

Another Vs. card, commemorating one of the oddest eras in Aquaman and the JLA's career--the time when the original Justice League of America was busted up, in favor of a hybrid of established heroes (Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Elongated Man) and newer characters (Vixen, Steel, Vibe, and Gypsy).

I guess Neil Gaiman's maxim that "the silver age of comics is when you're eleven years old" really holds true, since recently I've seen a lot of nostalgia for this era of the JLA, when, at the time, I don't know anyone who didn't hate hate hate the whole idea of making the JLA an ersatz X-Men. I guess readers who were too young to remember those issues when they were new are intrigued at the whole idea and want to read about it now.

Of all the comics I read as a kid, Justice League of America was my favorite, and this seemed like such a weird idea, to ditch most of the classic DC line-up. While I was thrilled that Aquaman was being given center stage, I could never understand why the backbone of the team--old-time members like Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Hawks--didn't stay on. I completely understood why long-time JLA writer Gerry Conway wanted to have characters he could change and chart a course for (which of course he couldn't do for Superman, Batman, Flash, etc.), but since the other members really weren't appearing anywhere, it confused me as to why they were jettisoned in favor of characters like...Vibe, the break-dancing superhero. Yeesh. To quote the man himself, "Chu ain't bad...chu sad." Indeed.

And, as usual with Aquaman, it was one step up, two steps back. Aquaman did get to take command, become the lead character of the book; but this whole new direction was such a dismal failure (commercially, at least; I do remember some moments during this run that made me think it had real potential creatively) that it eventually led to the book's cancellation and a whole new JLA was started up after the Legends mini-series. So Aquaman has had to live down that idea that the minute he took over a long-running DC title, he drove it into cancellation less than two years later, even though Conway got rid of Aquaman long before that.

...I didn't really talk about the card, did I?

Vs. Card - Aqualad

Another beautiful card for the Vs. game, this time featuring Aqualad, rendered by master illustrator Kevin Nowlan!

As I've mentioned before, all these cards were given to me by my pal John McLaren at my favorite comics store, All Things Fun. I owe John a lot, since I would normally have no way of discovering these, and I'd be missing out on all these nice Aqua-illustrations!

Vs. Game Card - Aquaman

My buddy John at All Things Fun graciously handed me a pile of Aquaman-related Vs. game cards when I was in last. In return, I bestow upon him the title of official F.O.A.M. member--congrats John! Membership dues expected by the first of the month.

I admit--I have no idea what Vs. is, exactly, other than a playing-card game. All those different numbers on the card frighten me, actually, since I don't understand them. Ah, these kids today...

Even though Arthur is in his BLL (do you know the secret Aquaman code I just used? Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!), it's still a nice-looking painting, truth be told. One of the things I am impressed by is the varied art styles Vs. uses on its cards, and we'll see other examples as we go on...

Vs. Promo Shirt - 2006

I got this swell shirt from the swell folks at my local comics shop, All Things Fun. They hold a lot of gaming competitions there, and are always up on the newest gaming swag.

Not knowing a thing about that subject, it was enormously cool of them to put aside this item for me, one of a series of promo shirts for the "Vs." game. Not only is the shirt in that nice, bright Aquaman-orange, it has a beautiful Alex Ross painting on the back! Sa-weet!

When I told one of the gang, Dee, at ATF (All Things Fun, not Alcahol, Tobacco, and Firearms) that I was afraid to wear the shirt for fear for tearing or spilling something on it, she promptly gave me a spare. What a sweetheart.