“Escape to Victory” vs “Mean Machine”

In honor of the World Cup, Metro.co.uk decided that the two best soccer movies should face off to determine the absolute fan favorite.  So, Escape to Victory and Mean Machine were matched up and here are two of the comments about Victory...

Escape To Victory has passion, power and genuine pace… Escape To Victory… has an ending worthy of a World Cup final.

To read all of the comments, go here.

Sly @ Lakers’ Game

Actor Sylvester Stallone watches the Los Angeles Lakers play the Boston Celtics during Game 2 of the 2010 NBA Finals basketball series in Los Angeles, California, June 6, 2010.   REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Sly Receives Award

Actor Sylvester Stallone accepts the Guycon Award onstage at the Spike TV ‘Guy’s Choice’ awards in Culver City, Calif., on Saturday, June 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sly & Arnold

Actor Sylvester Stallone, right, accepts the Guycon Award from presenter Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger onstage at the Spike TV ‘Guy’s Choice’ awards in Culver City, Calif., on Saturday, June 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sly Attends

Actor Sylvester Stallone attends Game 1 of the 2010 NBA Finals basketball series between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles, California June 3, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES)

Sly Watches

Actor Sylvester Stallone watches the Los Angeles Lakers play the Boston Celtics during the first half of Game 1 of the NBA basketball finals Thursday, June 3, 2010, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Mark Pennington’s Jack Carter

Mark Pennington graduated from the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in 1985.  Upon graduation Mark became a toy designer at Hasbro. Mark created designs for the G.I. Joe line of action figures including a Rocky Balboa GI Joe that never saw production! Mark’s first work as an inker in the comic book industry was for SQP on Judge Dredd!

When I started collecting original sketches of Sly, Mark was one of the first artists that I approached.  I was excited to get this Rambo head sketch from him.  Earlier this month I posted Mark’s take on Sly as Rambo.

Today we have Mark’s take on Sly as an older Jack Carter.  Although we’ll never get a sequel to Get Carter, and it is not a perfect film, Get Carter remains one of my favorite Stallone movies.  Sly was perfect as the “bad brother” — the man who knew that he’d taken the wrong path and saw a chance at redemption by finding his brother’s killer and keeping his niece and sister-in-law safe.  So I thought it would be cool to get Mark to draw Sly as Jack Carter, but with some more years on him… sort of like Clint Eastwood’s performance in Unforgiven.  I couldn’t be happier with the result!