Capitol Comics #2: The Washington Monument: Spider-Man: Homecoming movie adaptation - Mayhem at the Monument (2017)

 by Chris Shields

This series highlights pages from my collection of original comic art that depict Washington, DC monuments and buildings.  As a long-time Washington DC resident, it is always exciting to see the extraordinary town depicted in comics.

Published in 2017 to coincide with the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the Mayhem at the Monument book published by LB Kids is an exciting use of a landmark to help dial-up the suspense.  These are pencil sketches made prior to the final artwork.

Why did the movie depict Washington DC? 

In the interview with Jon Watts, director of the movie, he answers this question:

Q When you started on Homecoming, did you make a list of things that you were not going to do? And then were there things that are just so inherent to Spider-Man that you knew you would have to include, and would just have to come up with a more clever way to incorporate them into your version?

Watts: That’s what we tried to do with everything. Like if anything seemed familiar, we tried to come up with something else. The reason to make this movie is to show people things they’ve never seen before and to take them on a journey that they’ve never been on before. So that was actually a great creative limitation, to make everything new. Spider-Man still had to shoot webs and swing around every once in awhile, but then you would come up with, well, what haven’t we seen Spider-Man do? Let’s take away buildings. Let’s throw him in the suburbs and see what he has to do, if he has to go from rooftop to rooftop. Or send him to Washington DC, make him climb up the side of the Washington Monument. What are you going to do then when there’s only one building? What’s that going to look like? So that was the fun challenge, to just keep trying to come up with something we haven’t seen before and keep pushing that.

Why is Steve Kurth the perfect artist for this book? 

Artist Steve Kurth is the penciler for the book, and uses unique storytelling skills to convey the movie in a condensed form.  The Washington Monument rescue depicted relies on dramatic foreshortening, long vertical perspectives, and clear staging.  Kurth has been working for all of the major publishers and in comics for over 25 years. His work can be seen at https://www.instagram.com/stevekurthart/   

As Steve notes in his LinkedIn profile:

"I’ve had the great privilege of working with some incredible editors over the years who have taught me about the art of story and collaboration, as well as some of the best writers and storytellers I could ever hope learn from.  I have spent my entire career breaking down and translating ideas, descriptions and dialogue into the telling of story, be it a single image or sequential. I’m comfortable with a variety of styles and am very familiar with storytelling..".

Link to buy a copy of the book.

 

The elevator rising through the center of the Monument menaces MJ and Spider-Man

cIndy Center interview - Senior Editor David Astor at Editor and Publisher

Chris Shields interviewed "Senior Editor David Astor at Editor and Publisher" for his cIndy Center podcast and posted it on September 25th, 2007. Hopefully a transcription of this will eventually appear in the International Journal of Comic Art as part of our pioneers of comics scholarship series.

Chris writes:

The 100th episode of the cIndyCenter.com podcast! Huge milestone! Our friend David Astor talks with us about the field of contemporary cartoonists. His work at "Editor and Publisher", both the online version and the monthly magazine, keeps him very busy. He shares his insights into the Syndicated Comic industry. This is an amazing interview and one that I am sure you will enjoy. Listen to the interview with David Astor.

cIndy podcasts updates

Since I last posted, Chris has added a bunch of cartoonist interview podcasts to his site http://www.cindycenter.com/ - the link's permanently on the right over there.

September 5th, 2007
Colin Panetta, X-Heroes creator

X-Heroes creator, Colin Panetta joins us here at cIndyCenter.com and talks about his work. He also talks about SUNY New Paltz and the wonders of the Utica Zoo. Listen to the interview with Colin Panetta.

August 29th, 2007
Tom Pinchuk, Writer on Alterna's Ruin

Tom is currently attending Boston University, Tom Pinchuk has lived in Singapore, upstate New York and Chicagoland. In addition to RUIN and the short story "What I Am" in ALTERNA COMICS #1, he is writing HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Studio Press. Listen to the interview with Tom Pinchuk.

August 21st, 2007
Deserving an Honorable Mention... Tom Stillwell

Tom Stillwell was hooked with that first Superman comic book off the spinner rack at 7-11. Since then writing comics has been a lifelong dream. Honor Brigade is that dream come true. His comic influences are Marv Wolfman, Kurt Busiek, and Geoff Johns. Listen to him talk about Honor Bridade, Gail Simone, and his take on comics today, interview with Tom Stillwell.

August 14th, 2007
Interview with Chris Verene is an American fine arts, documentary photographer and performance artist.

Chris' work has been published in the NYTimes, and his work has been collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Jewish Museum, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; The High Museum of Art, Atlanta; The Cheekwood Museum, Nashville. Listen to the classic interview with Chris Verene.

August 7th, 2007
Interview with Colleen Coover.
Of Montreal, said it best... "Everyday is like Sunday", Banana Sunday that is....
Everybody loves Colleen Coover... the Illustrator, and comic creator. Colleen talks about Banana Sunday, X-men, and Small Favors. Listen to the interview with Colleen Coover. Listen to her talk about her working style, secrets that she doesn't want to share with Editors, and hear her grill me about why I didn't go to SDCC

August 2nd, 2007
SDCC Report, from our favorite Deltiologist
Jason Rodriguez, editor and writer for Random House's [POSTCARD] Anthology. Listen to the interview with Jason Rodriguez. He talks about the Random House/Villard Panel, the signings, his postcard promotion, and meeting Frank Miller.


July 31st, 2007
ONI PRESS' "NORTHWEST PASSAGE" BY SCOTT CHANTLER
I am back from Canada and I thought this would be a perfect time to release the interview with Scott Chantler. He talks about Days Like this, Colbert, and NorthWest Passage. Listen to the interview with Scott Chantler

Matt Dembicki's samurai artwork

Matt wrote in to say, "The Meat and Potato Theatre (meatandpotato.org), a small, alternative theater in D.C., commissioned me to do an illustration to promote its fall presentation of 'Rashomon.' (They wanted a Frank Miller-like image with a good amount fo red stuff). I've attached the final approved image, which will appear on postcards, newspaper ads and, I hear, on the Metro, too.

I've also attached the initial illustration that landed me the gig. I kinda like it--it has a sense of apprehension about it, with the bandit lingering behind the samurai, just about to slash him."

Matt's newish blog, Three Crows press, which I just discovered, can be found here.

Also, Chris Shields just interviewed Matt and Carol, his co-cartoonist wife, at Click his cIndy site.

Cartoonists with Attitude booksigning photographs

Chris Shields took pics of the booksigning - see his "cIndyCenter.com...Cartoonists crossing BORDERStm" and note that TM because it's a damn clever phrase.

Thanks for the tip, Chris! Chris also has a new cartoonist interview up that I'll try to link to later today. It was a busy week.

Cartoonists with Attitude booksigning report

A couple of days ago, Matt Bors was commissioned to do a full-page drawing for "Drawing Blood: Cartoonists With Attitude" by Scott Rosenberg, Express July 5, 2007. I found out from Scott when I ran into him at the event that this interview with Tom the Dancing Bug cartoonist Ruben Bolling was online even though I couldn't find it. So here's the article. The event was well-attended - standing room only as I got there late having driven (duh) to the wrong downtown Borders. The gang loosely led by Ted Rall each showed three or four of their cartoons, sans microphone, and then took questions and signed books. I think I head the Borders rep say 150 people were there. I spotted local cartoonists Richard Thompson and Jason Rodriguez (whose Postcards book is coming out soon), Scott, cIndy blogger Chris Shields, SPX organizer Warren Bernard and OSU Comic curator Jenny Robb. I bought all the books I hadn't by the group and if I wasn't so tired, I'd list them for you. And yes, I got them all signed.

Fred Van Lente in DC

Chris Shields, of the cIndy.com interview podcast site (linked on the right), reports, "I had lunch with Fred Van Lente at Zola earlier today. The attached picture is in front of the National Portrait Gallery where he is doing some research for his upcoming "Action Presidents" title. He was heading over to the "Hall of Presidents"...

Van Lente does the excellent Action Philosophers comic book filled with hard-hitting Kantian action. Visit his blog where he reports that he was in town for the ALA convention and mentions the new title.

cIndy Podcast update - Comic book writer Marc Bernardin

Chris writes in to say (I'll make the links hot later, sorry):

This week on the cIndyCenter.com Podcast: We have the very very talented Entertainment Weekly Senior Editor, & Comic book writer Marc Bernardin.

Marc is promoting his new book The Highwaymen, a five-issue miniseries from Wildstorm/DC, also written with Adam Freeman, is being drawn by Lee Garbett. The first issue will be on stands on June 20, 2007.... Listen to hear why Bill Clinton is in the series....

http://www.cindycenter.com/MarcBFinal.mp3

http://www.cindycenter.com


Thanks,
Chris

P.S. Big stuff is going on with cIndyCenter.com this Summer:
1. Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen artist, Scott Chantler is visiting with us on Wednesday evening. So if you have a question for him: post it to: http://cindycenter.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=355

2. Batgirl friend, Dean Trippe is going to be a guest reporter for cIndyCenter.com at MOCCA this weekend.... he'll do a report when he returns from his trip.

3. Published by Random House [Postcards] and Harry Potter book is shipping the same day. cIndyCenter.com friend Jason Rodriguez's [Postcards] and a number of the postcard gang did a group interview... his site is: http://www.eximiouspress.com/postcards/

cIndyCenter podcasts

Since we last checked in, cIndyCenter's added seven new cartoonist interviews - see the link over there on the right in the permanent bit or http://www.cindycenter.com/

Chris, how about hitting up some local cartoonists like Toles, Thompson, Galifianakis, Garner, or Fluggennock for interviews? And let us know when new interviews are up!

DC-based comics interviewer Chris Shields & cIndy Center

Chris Shields runs cIndy Center, a podcast that frequently deals with comics. DC-based Chris interviews cartoonists (as well as other types of artists) and releases the interviews as podcasts on a regular basis. You can subscribe to Chris's podcast through itunes or sign up at his website.

Recent interviews of cartoonists include Mark Millar, Fred Hembeck (a real favorite of mine), and Zak Smith (the artist who illustrated Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow sort of as a graphic novel).

2nd in a series of profiles on local comics bloggers.