Category: 2009

John Beatty: “Expendable”

Craig / / 2009, Craig's Sly Art, Expendables

John Beatty, who’s no stranger to long-time SZoners, created this amazing drawing of Sly from “The Expendables” on Friday while I was hanging out in his studio.  John’s been my best friend since junior high and gifted me with this piece since I’ve been serving as his co-host for some of his live UStream sketch sessions.

Although I have quite a few pieces in my collection, and it’s impossible to pick a single favorite, this piece by John is going to be tough for anyone to top.  Thanks again to John for going above and beyond the call.

Rocky for the Holidays!

Craig / / 2009, Expendables, Fan Art, Rocky III, Sly Fan
Hey SZoners! The holidays are quickly approaching and I wanted to remind everyone that Rocky sculptures are still available through A. Thomas Schomberg studios. These statues were created by Mr. Schomberg [who created the original Rocky sculpture seen in the Rocky movies] in collaboration with Sylvester Stallone and MGM studios. Here’s my interview with Mr. Schomberg. [part two of the interview is here] for the SZ.

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Mr. Schomberg and his lovely wife, Cynthia, are offering the following discounts for statues purchased between November 27 through January 8, 2010

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20″ ROCKY bronze plated sculptures normally $468 – holiday special $395 (includes shipping) Nov. 27th to Jan. 8th, 2010 plus one year interest free time payments now available
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20″ ROCKY limited edition cast bronze sculptures – $2600 – holiday special free shipping Nov. 27th to Jan. 8th, 2010 plus two year interest free time payments now available

Remember, if you’ve purchases a statue, I’d love to post a picture of you with it on the StalloneZone! – Craig

Miguel Insignares: 1st Blood Shave

Craig / / 2009, Fan Art, First Blood

Miguel Insignares is back with a new e-mail and art.  Miguel says:

Hey Craig-

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

Here’s my new illustration from First Blood featuring Rambo fighting back at the sheriff’s station. This is another StalloneZone exclusive and has never before been seen online until now! Thanks again and keep up the great job on this site.

-Miguel

Miguel — thanks for sharing your Stallone art here at the SZ.  You picked a cool scene from a great movie to illustrate.  I look forward to seeing more of your Stallone art here at the SZ as well as your The Rufnex: Island of the Dead comic [www.islandofthedead.com.

Ethelmae Adds to the News

Craig / / 2009, Hunter, Rambo

This past week we’ve seen some updates on Ethelmae’s blog [publicist on “The Expendables”].  Here are a few tidbits:

Honestly folks I have to admit I wasn’t that jazzed about Sly doing Rambo … But that all changed after my oh so interesting conversation with Sly on Saturday about the new Rambo.   I told him how happy I was after reading Zablo’s blog in which Sly said that he had changed the storyline.

I told Sly that I was excited about him tackling the subject of the brutality women and children caught in the drug wars in Mexico face.  He spoke passionately about shining the high beams on the situation.

He commented it will be a brutal shoot…

It will have all of the trademarks of a Stallone film and the story will be provocative, revealing and totally kick ass.

So now I’m clear – this Rambo will be Rambo and Hunter will be made in the future as a stand alone as it should be.

You can read the full reports at Ethelmae’s blog by clicking here and here. – Craig

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Moviehole.com picked up the story of Ethelmae’s updates here.

StalloneZone is on Twitter!

Craig / / 2009, Craig's Sly Art

Hey SZoners!

StalloneZone is now on Twitter. I will send out “tweets” when the SZ is updated. Since I plan to start updating with older material, these tweets will be especially helpful in finding archived posts that have been reloaded or older material appearing for the first time.

Special thanks to John Beatty for creating the customized StalloneZone “Twitter” background.  If you’d like John to create one for you, contact him here.  His prices are very reasonable and his work speaks for itself.  Speaking of John — don’t forget that this Friday, we will be broadcasting LIVE as he draws a new Stallone piece for my collection.  We’re calling it “Black Friday Stallone Stallone Sketch – Live”.  Tune in to watch John draw, ask questions of either one of us, comment on the proceedings or just to have some fun.  Full details can be found here.

Okay… I’m off to send the first tweet out to StalloneZone Twitter followers.  It’s about an archived piece from 2000 making it’s way back onto the StalloneZone.

Meeting Frank Stallone, Part II

Craig / / 2009, Frank Stallone

On Sunday, November 8, 2009, Frank Stallone dropped by City Line Pizza in Edgewater, Florida. Store co-owner, Joe V, is a SZoner, and gave me advance notice so I made plans to be attend. It was a totally cool experience.  Frank was down to earth and spent the time talking with fans, signing autographs and CDs.  You can read part one of my report here.

That’s Mike Tourney getting Frank to autograph his ultra-rare Valentine record album cover.  [Valentine was Frank’s band back in the early 70’s.]  Mike is a long-time Frank Stallone fan who collects autographs and guitar pics!

That’s me, Frank and SZoner Stephen Isaia. Stephen sent in the photos used last week and has provided us with photos before. He’s a true Stallone and StalloneZone fan and I was pleased to meet him!

We close out with a final shot of my wife, Doralya, Frank and me. It was great meeting Frank and I want to thank him again for all the support he’s provided the StalloneZone over the years.   Frank is a great guy, an amazing artist [singer, song writer and actor].   It was a true pleasure to meet him.

I also want to thank SZoner Joe V. of City Line Pizza [great food!!] for the “heads-up”.   Hopefully, Joe will be able to have Frank back again some time.  If so, we’ll report it here!

“Black Friday Stallone” Event

Craig / / 2009, Craig's Sly Art

The art above was drawn by my buddy, John Beatty.  It’s his take on Sly as Cosmo Carboni from “Paradise Alley”.  John has done quite a few drawings of Sly for me over the years and he’s about to do another this coming Friday.  Only this time he’s drawing it LIVE on UStream and you can tune in to watch it being drawn.

As an added bonus, I’ll be co-hosting the event.  We’re calling it “Black Friday Stallone”.  While our wives are out dealing with the holiday crowds, we’ll hopefully have a small crowd of our own watching as John gives us his take on… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?  We’ll be talking about Stallone, movies, tv, art, comics and more.  We plan to get things started at about 11am. John will have a direct link on his site.  Hopefully you can join us and add to the fun.

Sly as The Black Beetle

Craig / / 2009, Craig's Sly Art

I’m a fan of Francesco Francavilla’s art. Usually when Francesco releases a new sketchbook, he offers free “quick” sketches with each purchase.  My first piece from Francesco was Sly from “Cop Land”.  My second quick sketch was in Francesco’s sketchbook of classic horror movie characters and for that sketch he did a “Jack Carter” zombie.

My most recent Francesco sketchbook was dedicated to a character that Francesco created, “The Black Beetle”.  Francesco came up with the idea for my sketch — what would the Black Beetle look like if played in a movie by Sly Stallone.  LOL.  How could I not go with it?  You can learn more about the Black Beetle here.   You can see more of Francesco’s art here, here and here.