The Four-Color Rift

Beneath the water-stained plaster of a Midwestern ceiling, a quiet transformation begins. As the boy cracks the spine of U.F.O. & Outer Space, the room’s dull tungsten glow is shattered. A radiant spiral of cosmic energy erupts from the pulp pages—rainbow lightning laced with stardust and memory.

The swirl ascends, turning the ceiling fan into a spinning vortex. On the walls, silent guardians—Zorro, Conan, Tron—begin to shimmer, their eyes flickering with sudden awareness. The floorboards hum. The globe spins on an invisible axis. The boy is no longer just reading; he is summoning. In the static charge of the air, the line between paper and reality dissolves.

[workflow: a bunch of nanobanana prompts to create various components. Image searches to retrieve magazine and poster images. I took my 20+ items into Affinity Photo for composition, including multiple layers and mask work. A bunch of pixel brush experiments to get the magic swirl.]

• UFO & Outer Space no.19 from 1978 (USA) artwork by Luis Dominguez
• Conan der Barbar no.8 from 1982 (Germany) artwork by Bob Larkin
• Alien Worlds no.8 from 1984 (USA) artwork by John Pound
• [Zorro] Four Color no.425 from 1952 (USA)
• Ripley's Believe It or Not! True Ghost Stories no.11401-2 from 1979 (USA)
• Schoolhouse Rock! poster from 1975
• The Explorers movie poster from 1985 (USA)
• Tron movie poster from 1982 (USA)
• The Karate Kid from 1984 (USA)

Hi-rez image link [3840px tall]

ComicBase Splash Loader Screen: Christmas Book Store

I created another variant splash loading page for the new ComicBase 2026 that features two teenage boys reading a comic book outside the B.Dalton bookstore located downtown next to Ace Hardware and Hot Topic.

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

Comic Book / Graphic Novel Appearances (as props) in TV or Movies

Posting this here, and will be updating as I find more, so I have a singular record, or until I find a better online resource where someone has exceeded my details on comic book/graphic novel appearances (as props) in TV or movies.  I'm only going to be posting real, actual published comic books that make appearances.

• Detective Comics (1937 series) (DC) #298 is seen in the HBO TV series It: Welcome to Derry, Season 1, Episode 1 "The Pilot," where Teddy Uris is reading the book in bed before being attacked by a lampshade made of human flesh.  Originally broadcast in October 2025.
  
  
• Everything's Archie (1969 series) (Archie) #34 makes an appearance in the TV series Police Woman, Season 1, Episode 4 "Seven-Eleven", where Detective Pete Royster is reading it during a stakeout at the airport. Originally broadcast in October 1974.
  
  
• The Flash (1959 series) (DC) #123 is seen in the HBO TV series It: Welcome to Derry, Season 1, Episode 1 "The Pilot," where Teddy Uris has the book hidden under his study materials at the dinner table until his Dad finds it and throws it off the table in anger. Originally broadcast in October 2025.
  
  
• more to come...

There are 100's more, but I'll add them as I see them. If you have some prominent ones to add, just let me know.

Peanuts Homage - Charlie Brown in 3D Reading a Comic Book

Charlie Brown in 3D was created while in a Slack discussion forum with Robbie Weinberg.

[Workflow: I fed Peanuts sample art into Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana) to create a 3D version. I then imported it into Affinity Photo to clean up a few issues found while creating the background elements (poster, toys, etc), and I also used Topaz Gigapixel to upscale some elements of the image flow as needed.]

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

trade dressed image (currently unused in CB2026)

Kilowog from the GLC

Great image from artist Ben Oliver showing DC COMICS' Green Lantern Corps (GLC) member Kilowog. Comic books have gone way beyond simple 4-color images in the last twenty-plus years.

You can find more examples of his art on Twitter.

Kilowog