Thor, Superman, X-Men: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Artwork Reveals Powerful Superhero Influences [Excerpt]

Charles the First, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982. Courtesy of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Basquiat’s Charles the First, viewed by many as a work celebrating the jazz icon Charlie Parker (see also: the reference to the Parker song CHEROKEE), actually contains more elements reflecting his love of comics. And though it doesn’t feature any figural drawings of superheroes, it does name drop a few of the medium’s best-known characters. The first of those named is the mighty THOR, whose name is written near the top of the first panel in the Charles the First triptych, and framed with a box. Hovering just above Thor’s name is one of Basquiat’s now iconic graffiti crowns, and above both the sardonic phrase HALOES FIFTY NINE CENT is written. 

The name of Thor’s publisher Marvel actually makes two appearances. The first is further down the aforementioned panel, just under the number “193,” but scribbles mostly render MARVEL COMICS INC illegible. The name, however, is easy to discern at bottom of the third panel, where it appears with a line drawn through it, recalling a practice from graffiti. Also extracted from graffiti culture is the once ubiquitous S symbol that kids across America formerly doodled on endless sheets of notebook paper and on classroom desks. Its stylized form appears in the first panel encased in a strike zone box, like those once drawn with chalk on the sides of buildings where boys gathered to play stickball now ages ago. Next to the stylized S in the strike zone box is the ever-recognizable chest emblem of Superman with an S nested at its center. Directly above Superman’s emblem is where X-MN is written, a somewhat abbreviated reference to Marvel’s merry mutant superheroes, the X-Men. 

A variety of non-comic book related elements also make up Charles the First, which — as a whole — recalls the youth-driven scrawl that covered the doorways, walls, and trains in New York in the 1980s. But none attract more notice than the insightful phrase written across the bottom of the first and second panel: MOST YOUNG KINGS GET THEIR HEAD CUT OFF.

King Charles I of England, though not exactly young at the time, was beheaded for treason at the tender age of 55. Jazz great Charles/Charlie Parker, at the age of 35, died from a bout of pneumonia exacerbated by Parker’s many years of substance abuse. And in 1988, at the young age of 27, Jean-Michel Basquiat died from a heroin overdose.

Excerpt from the 2018 essay 'Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Artwork Reveals Powerful Superhero Influences'.

Ode to Underground Cartoonist Vaughn Bode

"The desire to reinterpret Vaughn Bode’s distinctive cartoon style was hardly limited to the underground realms of graffiti. In 1977, Bode’s work also inspired the production of the animated fantasy film Wizards, directed by Lord of the Rings animator Ralph Bakshi." 

Note: "Ode to Underground Cartoonist Vaughn Bode" was originally published in Kung Fu Grip!#2. The text has recently been reformatted for publication on Medium. To check out the remixed and remastered director's cut, click here. 

Ralph Bakshi’s ‘Street Fight’ Film Revisited

"Three decades have passed since my original viewing of the animated film ‘Street Fight.’ I still hate it almost everything about it." 

Note: "Ralph Bakshi’s ‘Street Fight’ Film Revisited" was originally published in Kung Fu Grip! #1. The text has recently been reformatted for publication on Medium. To check out the remixed and remastered director's cut, click here. 

The Adidas Superstar: Still Funky After All These Years

Credit: Ricky Powell

Credit: Adidas

“Paco Taylor goes in on Ballers, Hip-Hop, and Adidas for the 50th anniversary of the Superstar in The Adidas Superstar: Still Funky After All These Years.” – Liz Gallo, Medium

Halle Berry Refuses to Lose to Spicy Wings on Hot Ones

Oh, man. I loved this. I love her! I only wish that I'd seen this vid (which just came through my Facebook feed) back around the time when John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum came out. I was actually fanning my face at the end of this. Halle Berry FOREVER!!! 😂👏🙌💛 

#HalleBerry #JungleFever #Baps #DieAnotherDay #MonstersBall#Catwoman #XMen #JohnWick3

[Press-N-Play®] Bun B & Statik Selektah - Basquiat (Feat. Fat Joe & Smoke DZA)

Shout out to the homie DJ Darrell D for hookin' your boy up with this jazzy-fat-nasty new track from Bun B & Statik Selektah. 

This one's called "Basquiat," y'all, featurin' Fat Joe & Smoke DZA. Since I clicked on the link D sent me (posted above), this joint has been in heavy rotation. Truly dope...on so many levels.

Horn Players by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Collection of the Broad Art Foundation

Grown Ass Men Podcast, Ep 69: Adstravaganza Pt. 2

Speaking of super cool interviews, fellow writer Doug Bost of the Grown Ass Man podcast found my old article on Count Dante recently and was nice enough to invite me on to the show (via phone) so that we could discuss Chi-town's late martial arts legend. The production value on the podcast is tops, and the host somehow managed to make yours truly sound like an authority on the Count, comics, and the golden age of martial arts in America. I hope you'll give Episode 69 of the GAM podcast a listen!

Ep. 69: Adstravaganza - Part II (with special guests Joseph Dasaro and Paco Taylor) https://apple.co/2TsazvB

A super cool interview with NY graffiti & flyer legend Phase 2 in IGA Eye On Design Magazine #04

IGA Eye On Design Magazine #04

Back in October of 2018, graphic designer and teaching fellow at Maryland Institute College of Art, Jerome Harris, reached out to me after he'd happened across that little 2012 blog post I wrote on the 1980s hip-hop party flyers of legendary New York graffiti artist, designer and art historian Phase 2.

Jerome had had the honor of curating a show in September 2018 exploring the work of black graphic designers for the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Phase 2's hip-hop handbills were a big part of the show and IGA Eye On Design, a handsome print mag devoted to design, asked the curator to work up a long form piece on the influential (and somewhat illusive) Phase 2.

I was kindly asked if I could be interviewed to get my thoughts on the impact of Phase 2 on graphic design, graffiti art and hip-hop culture as a whole. And I, of course, couldn’t be more pleased to get any chance to talk at length about the dude who's always been one of my biggest creative inspirations.

 eyeondesign.aiga.org

Because he'd been largely unable to pin Phase himself down for a Q&A, Jerome had also reached out to half dozen Phase 2 enthusiasts in addition to me, including Charlie Ahearn (director of Wild Style) to flesh out the piece. I was given a fairly lengthy list of questions that allowed me to cover a lot of ground...but ninety percent of it wound up on the proverbial 'cutting room floor’ when Jerome was finally contacted by the illusive subject himself!

Nonetheless, I was flattered to see that Jerome was using my earliest personal recollection of Phase 2’s impact on hip-hop culture in New York and beyond to help frame the intro of his super cool interview with Phase 2 for the March edition of Eye On Design magazine. And I'm glad that I got the chance to be even a small part of this amazing retrospective.

Priced at $19 + shipping & handling, print editions of the gorgeous Eye on Design #04 (the "Worth" issue) are available at premier retail locations in cities across the US, Japan, the UK, Italy, Germany, China, Taiwan, and several more far flung locales. It'll also be available for digital download for only $9, at some point. But you can order a copy of the print edition today.

Oh, and if you're in Chicago and I like you like that...I may let you borrow mine. LOL

Paco Taylor, Esq.

"It's been a while, T'challa."

Super-duper-cool meme, right?! Wish I'd been the one to think it, but still glad that another brilliant mind (@swagnetomagnetoinsta) did!

This lil'  beauty came through my Facebook feed just now and made my face just light up as it quickly reminded me of the age progression idea I mentioned near the end of that piece I wrote on Halle Berry being the right choice to play Storm in the X-Men movies. 

So ay, yo, Marvel Studios...what's good? You've officially got the X-Men film rights from SONY. Can you imagine the box office receipts with Storm making a cameo in Black Panther 2? Plus, we can serve all o'dem lame-o haters, like...DJ Darrel D!

C'mon brother Coogler!!! Make it happen, fam. For Wakanda! For Zamunda! For the culture!!! 

LOL

Craving in Vain?

When you've been craving – in vain – Japanese Kit Kats and then visit a shop that you've never been to before that has shockingly little in the way of comics, but two boxes of the Japan Airport EXCLUSIVE white chocolate Ume (plum) Sake Kit Kats sitting on the counter. Yum.

Anywho, not like you asked, but this past weekend was a good weekend, True Believers. In addition to these tasty imported goodies that I picked up at the previously mentioned but unnamed shop (Otaku Hobbies), I stopped into Amazing Fantasy, my regular shop here in the Chicago burbs, where I grabbed up two copies of Harley Quinn #59, a copy of the small press mini comic Magical Beatdown #1, and some other goodies (not pictured). 

Over at Half Priced Books, I snagged a copy of Flash #59 for $2–half of the $3.99 retail price, because...Half Priced Books! I don't even read Flash comics, but I saw this uber cool manga-inspired variant cover by artist Karl Kerschl online a couple months ago and made a mental note to snag a copy whenever I ran across one in the wild. So I did. ^_^

The Flash #59 (Variant Cover Edition)

The Flash #59 (Variant Cover B by Karl Kerschl)

Harley Quinn #59 (Variant Cover Edition)

Hey Puddin'!

'Memba when I mentioned back in January that a sweet Harley Quinn fan art piece done by singapore-based artist Derrick Chew, that I'd given the top spot in the fan art listicle I published to geeks.media, was used by DC Comics for the cover of Harley Quinn #58?

Well, I'm very happy to announce that another piece he did – that I'd also used for my listicle – will be featured on the cover of Harley Quinn #59 (street date: 3/6/19)! As stated previously, I'm not going as far as to presume that my article had anything to do with its selection by DC, but I'm beyond thrilled for Chew...and I hope that it did.

When life hands you lemons...make a meme!

Although they've become an immensely popular facet of internet culture, I've only made two or three memes. I can't even recall now what the first one was, and don't know why I didn't think to post the last one I made a month or so ago (inspired by the Aquaman movie) here on the blog. Maybe I'll do that later tonight and back date it to the time when it was made. 

Anywho, it was with, perhaps, a dark sense of humor that I made this new meme. I'd started workin' on it shortly after reading the announcement today that Netflix (thanx much to Disney) has also pulled the plug on Jessica Jones and The Punisher, the last of the streaming network's six Marvel TV shows.

I'd originally started off using a much different image of Mickey Mouse, but figured I'd play around with another that I'd found and everything pretty much clicked with my second attempt in a way that it hadn't really with the first.

The quote used is line of dialog borrowed from Thanos, the big purple alien wearer of the golden Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers: Infinity War and the comic book series that inspired the film.

Not much more to say about it all. Unlike a great number of fans, I only watched Luke Cage and The Defenders, so my heartbreak over the cancellation of the Marvel shows I cared about was already felt and gotten over some months ago. Them's the breaks, as they say.

I did have a twisted bit of fun making the meme, though.

[Press-N-Play®] CZARFACE & Ghostface Killah - Mongolian Beef!!!

Yooooooo!! This new video for the Czarface and Ghostface Killah "Mongolian Beef" joint is everything, all that, and a bag of wasabi peas! A gorgeously garish visual smörgåsbord of old school Eastern and Western influences. I'm givin' it 5 stars, five mics, and–as the Chitown homies Siskel & Ebert used to say–"Two thumbs up! Way up!!"

Directed by: Shawn A. Johnson (Nektr) @oldsoulbrother1

Also, the full Czarface Meets Ghostface album just dropped on February 15th, so make sure to cop that $#%@ wherever good music is sold! And no bootlegs, y'all–buy that $#%@!!! Or...bootleg it AND buy it. I could definitely co-sign on that.

When the Official 'X:Men The Animated Series' Page Uses Your Stan Lee Essay to Inform X-Men Fans

“Hmm @XMenTAS what’s the tea?”

Prompted by a Twitter post made by OMG Facts on January 15, a curious fan of the 90s TV show X-Men: The Animated Series asked show writer & producer, Julia & Eric Lewald (@XMenTAS), about the rumor that Stan Lee based Professor X on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. To my very pleasant surprise, both Mr. and Mrs. Lewald replied with a link to my essay that disproves this popular urban myth.

Pretty friggin' cool, huh?

Happy Belated 80th, Count Dante!

February 2, 2019 marked what would have been the 80th birthday of the man once known as Count Dante (1939-1975). Having grown up in the golden age of martial arts movies reading comics–where Dante's most famous ad for his martial arts system appeared–the Count holds a special place in my heart, and in the hearts of countless others. 

In the fall of 2004 I wrote an essay on Count Dante and published it in the first issue of Kung Fu Grip zine. Sometime last year, I decided that I should probably transfer that piece to the web. As coincidence would have it, a fellow Gen-Xer who both read and liked the piece invited me onto his podcast on February 1st to talk about the infamous cult figure. It was a fun chat.  

I'll post a link to the show when its edited and uploaded to the web in a couple of weeks. But in the meantime, if you've never read "Man, You Come Right Out Of A Comic Book," you can check it out the essay by clicking here. 

BATTLE ANGEL ALITA

It was in the summer of '94 that I fell head over heels in love with the short animated film Battle Angel (renamed Battle Angel Alita in the US). One of the managers at the local comic book shop had unexpectedly handed me his VHS copy one afternoon and asked me to give it a watch.

The obvious echoes of Fritz Lang's Metropolis meets Ridley Scott's (and Phillip K. Dick's) Blade Runner, laced with other original elements by story creator Yukito Kishiro, blew me away. Soon after, I started reading the graphic novels/manga.

Despite being a longtime fan (or maybe because of that), I can't say that I'm looking forward to the live-action film that director Robert Rodriguez and producer James Cameron are bringing to theaters in the coming weeks. Off the top, I don't care at all for Alita's (or Gally's in the manga) facial design. 

I positively love Alita's anatomical design on the flat, two-dimensional plane, but the over-exaggerated, Disney-influenced eyes that the manga and anime of Japan have been known for over 50+ years just looks too grossly unnatural–to me–in a live-action venture.

Rodriguez should have reconsidered taking that approach, I think. 

The off-putting design seen in the trailers, however, is somewhat downplayed in this poster, and it WORKS. In fact, the overall design of the poster is really gorgeous, and I love how the florescent pink and baby blue just pops... 

Heyyyy, wait a minute! (Then again, never mind.)

Despite my disinterest in the film, somehow I still want it to do well. Rodriguez has every thing to do with that; he's yet to make a film I didn't enjoy, and if I could get past the design of Alita–which I can't–I'd probably enjoy this one too.

The poster really does kick ass, tho.

Alita: Battle Angel opens on Thursday, February 14. If you see it, puh-leeze feel free to tell me what you thought about it. I'll prolly just stick with the original anime and the comics.

Harley Quinn #58 (Variant Cover Edition)

Hey Puddin'!

Yours truly gave the fan art piece by singapore-based artist Derrick Chew (seen above and below) the top spot in a short Harley Quinn fan art listicle that I published to geeks.media sometime back (give it a peep by clicking here). So it was super effin' cool to learn just now that it's gonna be used by DC Comics as a special variant cover for Harley Quinn #58 (street date: 2/6/19). I won't go as far as to presume that my article really had anything to do with its selection by DC, but I'm tremendously happy for Chew...and I low key hope that it did.

'Spider-Man: Far From Home' (I See What You Did There, Marvel)

I'm sure that it's just a *ahem* coinkydink, but I really had to chuckle just now. I'd actually known the title for the second installment of the Tom Holland Spider-Man reboot series for a while. Months maybe. But it was only today, when I saw the new poster, that I recalled a comment I'd made about how I'd set my "Ultimate Spider-Man" story idea beyond the now boring borders of NYC.

"I also thought that I'd detail the story ideas that I have for my 'Ultimate Spider-Man' movie, which I've set in Chicago, Tokyo and Hong Kong (NYC settings have become a bit cliché in movies today)..." – Paco Taylor, 6.20.2015

Okay, New York is a great city. Far from boring. But Hollywood has just – I think –  milked the snot out of New York. And anyone who pays even a little attention to the culture of America's eastern media capitol knows that there's a very insulated "It's all about us" mindset there. And the fact Marvel Comics itself has always been based there didn't help. 

But damn. You'd think there weren't 50 States in America, and who knows how many cities across this nation. At least DC's Superman was from Kansas, and we got to see a glimpse of a rural, Midwestern landscape in the old Richard Donner directed Superman. 

Oh, wait. Marvel did put Tony Stark in some faux small town setting in Iron Man 3, right? And before that they were in Monaco for the Grand Prix and he was living a Hollywood/Disneyland lifestyle, so there's that. The Avengers and all the related films have seen various foreign vistas ("Wakanda Forever!"). It was mostly just Spider-Man that was relegated to New York. 

And I get it. In the comics, Spider-Man wasn't traditionally like the members of the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. Spidey has mostly been a cash strapped hometown hero. He could barely keep the rent paid in Lower Manhattan, let alone plan for a trip overseas. So at least he's getting a European vacation by way of a class trip in the upcoming film...which I very likely won't even see. 

I didn't see Spider-Man: Homecoming. I've heard tons of great things about it, but I myself was completely over the Peter Parker character. Let the new generation have their live-action Spider-Man, I had mine with Tobey Maguire in the role. Well, the first two Maguire films. The last one was a dumpster fire. Okay, it had some really good things going for it (Sandman!), but man...the bad things in Spider-Man 3 were/are just unforgivable.    

Anywho, I'm actually tired of posting stuff about Spider-Man(s). I just had to take one final dig at Mony (Marvel + Sony) for seemingly availing themselves still another of my brilliant ideas. 

If you're interested, Kevin Feige, Phil Lord, Peter Ramsey, Chris Miller, et. al, I'm available for casual brainstorming sessions and think tanks; I require that room temperature Fiji Water®, unsweetened golden oolong tea – Teas' Tea® brand – and assorted flavors of Japanese Kit Kats® be at my fingertips (non-negotiable). 

There are many more good ideas where these lil' blog toss-offs came from. So like I said before, have your people call my people. (LOL) Or...just shoot me an email: stpaco@gmail.com. 

Spider-Man: Far From Home opens on July 5, 2019.

P.S. I just now paid particular notice to that "I Love NY" sticker on the poster... *Dry heaves*

'Hey, Miles' by Catrie [Fan Art]

"The moment the credits rolled for [Spider-Man:] Into The Spider-Verse, I immediately envisioned this piece. This movie was so inspiring to me, and I hope someday I get to work on a movie like that." – Catrie Art

The above work by Catrie Art is a very sweet image I ran across on Facebook a few days ago. With regard to the color arrangement and composition, it speaks to me on several levels that have already been discussed. So I had to share it.

I also hope she gets the chance someday to work on a movie like this too.

SP