so yeah... Catwoman.

 I LOVE comic books but haven't read any in a long while. I haven't even read any of the trade paperbacks, collections and graphic novels I bought a few years and months back. Not that I am ignorant of what's been going on with the big companies like DC and Marvel, it's just of the horror stories I've been hearing about. DC's Final Crisis sounds like one big mess. Ditto to what they did to Batman and a good friend told me Superman cries every chance he gets. Marvel isn't any better either. All the crap they have done to their flagship character Spider-Man disgusts me (ie, "The Other", "Civil War", "One More Day", "Brand New Day" storylines). Actually, Spider-Man has been unreadable since the Clone Saga B.S. from the early to mid 90s. I've only been keeping up with my favorite characters thru blogs and news articles than reading any actual issues.

 Any who, with keeping tabs on the industry Adam Hughes artwork for Catwoman has really jumped off the page and caught my eye. He's the first comic book artist to do so in quite some time (the last were horror artists\writers, Junji Ito and Suehiro Maruo). I should make it clear I've never read a single issue of Catwoman in my entire life, but Hughes artwork for JUST the front covers alone makes me want to now even if only does the cover for the book. Just the way he draws the title character is eye catching would certainly be an understatement. I loved the way he made her sexy rather than slutty. Doing some research, he said he modeled Catwoman\Selina Kyle after his favorite actress- Audrey Hepburn. 

 I was wondering that when I first saw the cover for issue #74 and my jaw dropped. That's right, my jaw dropped over a fictional character made up by pencil, ink and paint. Pin-up art for geeks. I still can't get over how unbelievably GORGEOUS Ms. Hepburn was (on the inside as well). You know, the kind of beauty that makes you want to lift your heavy sofa way over your head and rip it in half like in some Ren and Stimpy cartoon while delivering one intense primal scream? The only other women I can think of at the moment who share such a beauty are Asia Argento, Jessica Lange, Edwige Fenech and French singer Alizeê. Come to think of it, I think Asia Argento would make a pretty friggin' awesome Catwoman\Selina Kyle.

 So, without further ado, here is some artwork from Adam Hughes' work on Catwoman.