My name is Mark Marianelli, and this is Six AM Comics!

Six AM is one part portfolio, one part creative outlet, and one part network. While I understand that in a competitive field such as art, a level of segregation is required to make a living (hence the portfolio aspect), I also believe that we as creatives desire more than what's expected of us in a 9-5, we need an outlet. Cartoons have always been mine. But even outlets can become something set apart and lonely. Which is why I feel the art community needs to set aside it's competitiveness from time to time and be simply what it's called: A Community. The feed below won't be just me, but other contributors to the site sharing their thoughts and updating you on their latest contributions.

That being said, I'd love to hear more from the creative folk. The illustrators, the designers, the writers, the musicians, the photographers... Heck, even the interpretive dancers (I think that counts). Not to brag or critique but to work together, bounce ideas off one another, collaborate... You know, do that whole community thing.

So hit me up and let's talk art »


Wednesday
Jun192013

Gimme some mo'

Ultron, Sauron & M.O.D.O.K. :

Tuesday
Jun182013

Some mo' Villains - Marvel Style.

I'm a little surprised it took me this long to illustrate the following villains, two of them were some of my favorites from the old X-Men animated series and the other, well I don't much care for him, but he was in that one X-Men movie, so he was kind of mainstream enough to have been on my radar all this time.

That was a ridiculously long run-on sentence. English wasn't my class in High School... Nor was Math. Or any of the Social Studies. Come to think of it, I didn't do that well in art either - probably why I spend my evenings drawing cartoons of characters created by actual innovative people, not people who sit around drawing other people's creations.

What has become of me.

Toad, Juggernaut and Mystique:

Don't you know who I am??
~ M.

Friday
Jun142013

Food Fighters!

There's a lot of things I loved about being a child of the 80's; the cartoons, the music and of course, the florescent clothing. More than all of those, however? The toys. Oh man did I love the toys. There's really no way to describe many of them other than that they were just deliciously 80's. They were innovative, fun and were just grotesque enough to raise an eyebrow from the adults without sending off any parental alarms. Kids are wusses today and I pity the kid-friendly educationally sound cutesy nonsense my son is going to have to put up with when he's old enough to appreciate a good action figure.

There's one toy line that comes to mind as I reminiscence about my awesome childhood... FOOD FIGHTERS! What were Food Fighters you ask? Well in essence, they combined the two things every 80's child loved: Greasy food and WAR. They were anthropomorphic items of food with army gear and weapons. They were plastic, they were hollow and they were battle-ready!

There's not a ton else to really say about Food Fighters. As it was with many other 80's play things, they were as simple a concept as you could get, and I miss that simplicity nowadays. To pay tribute to these awesome toys, I made this here illustration of the "Kitchen Commandos" - The good guys.

See some other beloved 80's illustrations here »

Go 80's!
~ M.

Sunday
Jun092013

More DC, more Marvel... More to come!

Iron Man villains kind of suck, doesn't mean they aren't fun to draw though. So of the totally awesome Iron Man Rogues Gallery, I picked Whiplash, Iron Monger and, obvioulsy, The Mandarin to illustrate. Yeah, I picked them because they were in the movies... I don't follow Iron Man. See the rest of the Marvel Villain illustrations here »

I also drew a few more DC Characters ». I'm running low on these, there really aren't a lot of memorable DC Heroes... Or maybe I was just more of a Marvel kid growing up. Though I did love me some Batman - Like every other kid on the planet.

V, Plastic Man, John Constantine and Atom (not to be confused with Captain Atom, who I'll probably draw next):

Fast & Furious is on tv, I'm out,
~ M.

Monday
Jun032013

DC Heroes part IV

Haven't touched any DC material in a while, so I thought I'd do a few more now that I'm done with the Video Game Illustrations. The following probably aren't as prominent in the DC Universe as the likes of Batman and Superman, but they're still classics nonetheless. Save for Jonah Hex, I'm not sure how relevant a character he really is. Based on his movie, I'd say not so much. But then, I'm more of a Marvel guy anyway. Don't hate!

Blue Beetle, Swamp Thing, Jonah Hex and The Spirit:

Na na na na na na na na Swamp Thing! ... Wait that's not right.
~ M.