One-shot Iron Man Poster Special.

The Hall Of Iron.

An Iron Man Gallery

This was supposed to be a simple picture. The original idea was for it to be a picture of the three main suits of Iron Man armour (1) of the Eighties recreated from the work of the main artists on the book for the era. The problem with this is that there were at least five main artists (2) who worked on the title in this period with only three suits to use: Who to choose?

There was a solution. They introduced the concept of specialist suits of Iron Man armour in the Eighties so I decided to use those for the other two artists and the picture is finished. However, a problem arose when I realised that there were three specialist suits (3) which were all drawn by one artist (Mr. Bob Layton). This would mean at least two suits would be drawn by one artist, of course, which would lead to an imbalance, so which one to leave out?

This led to a change of concept. Instead of being the three main suits, it would be a picture showing every suit of armour used in the Eighties by every main artist who worked on it. That would work. So the picture began and I recreated two of the suits separately and combined them into one.

The layout now would be for the classic red and gold armour to be the centre of the picture, with the Silver Centurion and New Red & Gold on the left and the Specialist suits on the right. This being decided I recreated the suits and finished the picture.

Except the picture didn't feel completed. 

For one thing, there was a lot of empty space left to fill and the layout seemed off-balance. Then there was the fact that there was a seventh suit used during the period I hadn't included, the recovery armour/original suit of 1984-85. So, OK, I'll just add that suit to the bottom right of the picture and move the deep sea suit to the left. Easy enough, picture finished.

Except the picture still didn't feel completed.

So, another change. The picture would now include every suit of armour used in the first twenty-five years of the title. There were nine of these and I'd already completed seven so it wasn't that difficult.

Except the layout didn't work. So I moved the classic red & gold suit to the bottom centre and drew a classic Romita suit to replace it. That worked in terms of the layout so what about the background?

Well, the original concept of a metallic background would no longer work as I decided to show the specialist suits in their designed environment (sea & space). So, what to add to the others? A cityscape for the main suits with a night sky for the stealth seemed to work. That being done the picture was completed.

Except the picture now felt too full.

Exasperation was setting in by this time. Still, removing the night sky section would leave enough space to fix that with some vague cloud lines to suggest a planet and some movement lines added to finally complete the picture. 

The picture now felt completed (4).

The italicised explanation section thing

(1) Classic Red & Gold, Silver Centurion & New Red & Gold.

(2) John Romita Jr., Luke McDonnell, Mark Bright, Bob Layton & Jackson Guice.

(3) Space, Stealth & Deep Sea Exploration.

(4) Except for colouring and effects, but that is the fun stuff.

Simpler Pictures

Iron Men of Eighty-six recreated from original art by Bright & Layton.

A Jack Kirby Iron Man & Mandarin in the style of his 1969 Marvelmania pictures/posters.

Gene Colan was the artist for Iron Man from 1966 to 1968 and developed the Mk. 4 into the classic red and gold armour which lasted with a few alterations until 1985. Kirby & Heck may have created Iron Man but Colan made him iconic.

The Iron Man figure from the Iron Man & Sub-Mariner One shot in the style of an imaginary Power of Iron Man special (The Power of Iron Man being the title used during the Tales of Suspense era and was supposedly considered as the title for his solo series before it was named The Invincible Iron Man).

George Tuska, the man who defined Iron Man in the late 60's and most of the 70's by virtue of drawing the majority of the stories (you know, the things you buy the comic for in the first place). He didn't draw many covers but his run on the title lasted just over 100 issues (with the occasional break).

Bob Layton Silver Centurion Iron Man from 1987 in the style of a Marvel Masterwork Poster (Very Gene Colan).

Thrill-packed Third Issue!

For the love of an Iron Man.

 

 Given the tendency of certain people in the wider world as well as the strange subculture of individuals which make up the many types of comic fans to pretend they always have been a fan of whatever is currently determined as cool (1), you can be forgiven for thinking that the comic character Iron Man was always as popular as he has been over the last decade. An insanely successful movie franchise where the character and actor receive top billing will do that to you. 

 Obviously, this has not always been so.

 The truth of the matter is that being a follower of the Golden Avenger over the decades has not been an easy journey. If the pain of the long-suffering supporter of a periodically successful sports team is universally understood I need say no more about the varying fortunes of Iron Man over the years.

 There have been epic eras of greatness for Iron Man over the last fifty-seven years. The David Michelinie/Bob Layton/John Romita Jr. run of the late 70's leading to a decade of success for the title. The Denny O'Neil/Luke McDonnell/Mark Bright run. The definitive Bright/Layton run of 1986-1988. The Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return of the late 90's era and of course, Extremis in the 2000's. This as well as a rather pivotal role in The Avengers/West Coast Avengers and Force Works.

 The Eighties defined the character and armour like never before. As is well-known, Bob Layton brought a more technical aspect to the armour, designing and introducing specialist suits in between co-plotting, drawing, and inking the best-looking Iron Men ever (I'm biased, of course). Before David Michelinie Tony Stark was a superficial billionaire playboy ex-weapons manufacturer with a side-hobby of James Bond style adventures and a founding role in a small super-hero team called the Avengers. With Michelinie as a writer, Tony Stark was transformed into a doubt-driven, alcoholic billionaire playboy ex-weapons manufacturer with a side-hobby of James Bond style adventures and a founding role in a small super-hero team called the Avengers.

 Oh yes, he also travelled through time to Camelot with Doctor Doom once during this run. Comics never get better than that.

Honestly though, the standard of the comic has varied wildly over the years, both in terms of script and art. For every Stark Wars there is a Mask in the Iron Man (2). For every Iron Monger/Silver Centurion fight issue there was the issue where Tony's consciousness is switched with an Artificial Intelligence program, trapping Tony in Virtual Reality and culminating in Tony becoming a robot who defeats the AI and switches his consciousness back to his own body (3).

In terms of characters, well, for every Spymaster there is a Vibro. For every Ghost there is a Flying Tiger. For every Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger there is a Living Laser. For every Iron Man 2020 there is a teen Tony Stark(4). For every Mandarin there is a Mandarin. 

That is to say. for every sublime work of genius there is a hideous display of uninspired hackwork, most often in the same issue.

So, what am I really trying to say? Obviously that I love the character and have done so ever since I picked up Iron Man #200 in 1985. I mean, James Bond in a state-of-the-art technological wonder of a suit, how can you not love that concept?

Oh yes, and his armour just looks sexy of course (Tony with his moustache and mullet? Not so much.)

Notes of the foot

 (1) The peak of Iron Man's coolness being the exact same moment Loki threw Tony Stark out of the window in The Avengers in case you were wondering.

 (2 A story in which the Iron Man Renaissance Armour gains sentience due to the Millennium Bug, quickly becomes a robotic equivalent of a psychotic stalker and eventually strands Tony Stark on a desert island where Tony has to become Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of Predator in order to survive, facing his sentient armour in final battle during which time he has a heart attack, leading to the sentient suit pulling out its robotic heart and shoving it in Tony's chest as a final act of love. 

Yep, that good.

 (3) The story is something like that anyway. I've never had the courage to read it a second time.

 (4) The horror. The horror.

 The Evolution Of Iron.

 Iron Man was always different,

That is to say Iron Man's creation and the formation of this thing you may have heard about called "The Marvel Universe" was not as straightforward and pre-planned as the people who make a living out of promoting it would have you think.

 The tale that is told telling the tale of the Marvel line of superheroes is well known. Two men(1) you may have heard of took a comic line that produced monster, sci-fi and romance comics (2) and came up with the idea of a superhero family with powers defined by the four elements and called them the Fantastic Four. The success of this led to them taking the concept of Jekyll & Hyde, combining it with the plot of Godzilla and calling it The Incredible Hulk. This was closely followed by the creation of a Superman type hero based on Norse Mythology named Thor. Then came Ant Man, who was a pre-Fantastic Four scientist character who could shrink, given a superhero costume and a giant helmet. Oh, then there was this other character who may sell a few copies named Spider-Man which brings us to the creation of Iron Man.

 As can be seen from the descriptions of Marvel's existing characters in the first year of the Marvel Universe (3) these are all rather varied with one common theme being superpowers. The demand for new characters and the proliferation of Super-heroes from rival companies was making it increasingly difficult to create original origin stories (the simple explanation of people just being born with powers had not been thought of yet).

 So the men who created these characters wanted to try something different, a more classic comic hero with no powers who was more flawed than any Marvel hero before. A character who was more of an establishment figure than the tragic teenagers (4), scientists and demigods that made up their line. Enter a Weapons Manufacturer, dangerously wounded with shrapnel, who creates a magnet chestplate to stay alive, using a suit of armour to fight evil, while also going on James Bond style adventures.

 So, the basic concept created and the initial armor designed (5), Iron Man debuted in Tales of Suspense #39 and quickly became another of Marvel's great success stories. The plotlines for the majority of his appearances in the sixties detailing Tony Stark's efforts to maintain his secret identity (6) while fighting villains, his armour always running out of power during battle leading to a suspenseful ending which would be resolved in the next issue.

 Due to his role in The Avengers Iron Man was always a "decent seller", meaning that while it was not as popular as Spider-Man or The Hulk it sold enough copies to escape cancellation in the late 60's/early 70's (7). The stories during the 70's being usual superhero fare with an occasional highlight, such as Tony realising that the Vietnam War might be bad in 1972, between his adventures facing characters of such fame as The Night Phantom, Mikas and The Demon Queen.

Thankfully, Jim Shooter made the decision to hire David Michelinie as writer along with Bob Layton in 1978 (Issue 116 to be precise) which is where this post first came in.

 Notes of the toes.

 (1) The truth of exactly who created what is contested, with the estates of the artists and Marvel fighting over the rights. This is what happens when something gets insanely successful and profitable, of course. I'm not focusing on the reality of the comics industry (for now) merely celebrating the innocent fantasy of the comics themselves, so forgive my vagueness over who did what, please.

(2) Or, to put it in a more Marvel style: GIANT ATOMIC ANTS WITH NUCLEAR FLAME BREATH! MARTIAN INVADERS DISGUISED AS HUMANS! WOMEN WHO CRY A LOT!

(3) This is different from the "Marvel Age" & "Marvel Era", which were first termed a year or so later in late 1963, the period discussed here is August 1961 to December 1962.

(4) At the time of creation, Spider-Man had one comic appearance, Amazing Fantasy #15.

(5) The original Iron armour only lasted one and a half issues, the suit then becoming the Golden Avenger armour for just under a year, before the creation of the red and gold armour that became so iconic.

(6) The story being that Iron Man was a hired bodyguard for Tony Stark, of course.

(7) Nick Fury, Doctor Strange, The X-Men & The Silver Surfer being the most notable titles cancelled at the time. Daredevil and even Captain America were under consideration for axing, although they survived by becoming Daredevil & Black Widow and Captain America & The Falcon, respectively.

 

 

Sensational Second Issue!

So, second post. Where to begin?

Well, as I said in my previous post, I've been posting the art I like and recreate (some people say copy) on various social media platforms for years. So I suppose I should show some of the old drawings I have completed as an introduction to the sort of thing I will be putting on this blog.

A quick explanation of when and how I drew these before my thoughts on the artist who envisioned and created them. So, the pictures in this post were a combination of traditional and computerised techniques. That is to say, I copied the artist's original with pen/pencil and paper, took a photograph of my version and uploaded it to my laptop, then coloured and completed it using various drawing software. In these instances I used MS Paint to colour(1) and GIMP later to add the canvas effects and blurring(2).

 

Jeffrey Catherine Jones

 A person whose art I adore, Jeffrey Jones had a dual career as a comic artist/book cover artist in the late 60's to early 80's. He primarily worked as an underground comic artist with the exception of a few DC covers and was seen as the best book illustrator after the mighty Frank Frazetta(3). In the mid-70's he was one of the four artists who formed the art group named The Studio, the others being his lifelong friend Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith and Bernie Wrightson. 

During his time as a member of The Studio and following its dissolution in 1979 Jones garnered critical acclaim for his art, from both comic and high art circles. During his later years, he experienced various setbacks and problems which I will not go into here. During this period of time, Jones began hormone replacement therapy, changed his name to Jeffrey Catherine Jones and became legally recognised as female.

She returned to drawing in the mid 2000's, expanding her fanbase and following as a cult artist. Sadly, she passed away on May 19th 2011 as a result of emphysema and bronchitis. She was 67 years old.

 

About the pictures.

 

I was introduced and became familiar with her work about seven years ago. I was collecting the work of Barry Windsor-Smith(4) and heard of the Studio while trawling through blogs (some still with us, some no more). The first piece I saw of hers was the Second Book of Robert E. Howard cover and from there I set out to find as much of her work as I could. This led me to realise that the artwork of Catherine Jones was not well-represented or easily available online free or to buy. There were some prints; Flame Winds/ Son of the Bear God/ The Undying Wizard and the aforementioned Robert E. Howard series. Yet mostly the only art of hers I could find online were scans of the original books, complete with titles and text. I was not happy about this and began recreating the covers solely for myself, before showing them on forums in a small attempt to popularise her work. These are the first four I recreated and I have arranged them in the order of completion (if I remember correctly), there are more I've not included as I'm saving those for another post although I hope you like these.

If you do like them, be sure to find the originals, for as good or as bad as my recreations may be they are nothing compared to the work of Jeffrey Catherine Jones.

The Second Book of Robert E. Howard (1976).

Sword of the Gael (1976).

Wolfling (1969).

Montage/combination of "Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman" and "Sorcerer's Amulet" (1968).

Footnote time again

(1) which is why the pictures are so large, due to the fact MS Paint looked terrible if used at a small size.

(2) After years of resistance, this year I have finally been forced to submit to using the mighty Photoshop. GIMP is good though (and free), and I used it in combination with MS Paint on everything I created for five years or so.

(3) The debate/argument over which artist (Frazetta or Jones) is best will be dealt with at a future date.

(4) My love of Barry Windsor Smith knows no bounds.

Collector's Item! First Issue!

So, the beginning.

I must be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing right now. I have no idea how to change or add anything to this (checks notes) blog to make it look stylish, original, or sexy... yet. I have no set idea of what this blog will be about or what I will put on it, although the idea at the moment is that it will be about whatever I am currently fixated on and obsessed about. I have no idea if anyone will ever read anything I put on here, or even if they will see it. Yet I'm doing it anyway(1).

So, what to say? Say used in a metaphorical sense of course as I am typing this, but that's not really important right now, is it? Well, I suppose I should start, as all things that obey the laws of time start, at the beginning.

I've been posting on various social media platforms for just under eight years now. I began with a YouTube channel showing music videos and short films (this was the 10 minute or under time limit era) I had edited and created about my favourite bands which I quickly stopped; as in I placed 5 videos on the channel all of which were removed by YouTube due to copyright infringement so I decided it was a waste of time. I think there's one video on there still with about 100 views somewhere now I think about it.

So YouTube was off the table. Next was Facebook. I have an interest in art, be it High Renaissance masterpieces or comic book covers, so I made various albums on Facebook displaying the art I had made or work of others I adored for about a year. I stopped doing this because, well, it's Facebook, right?

The next thing I attempted was Pinterest. I posted on various boards for a few years showcasing the work I had (re)created and the work of whatever artist I was obsessed on at the time. Inevitably I stopped doing this due to: Pinterest limiting the size of the images I presented, being an awkward pain in the ass to edit, and just being a general nuisance which made me want to destroy my laptop after five minutes. Which is not good, and also awfully expensive.

So, I tried again and with more success than before (for a short time at least) on chat room graphic forum threads. This was the preliminary attempt at what this blog will attempt to be; the thread showcased my work and the work of others, with various written and visual retrospectives and topics on artists and art. Apparently, I also joined Blogger about this time without realising it, but again, that's not important right now. Back to the story and surprise, the thread didn't work out. Mainly due to moderators limiting my posts and closing the threads, the restrictions and censorship of certain words and subjects (such as the comic artist Dave Cockrum being presented as Dave ****rum), the realisation that the people using the forum didn't appreciate artistic overviews of 15th Century Late Northern Renaissance woodcuts showcasing the events of the Book of Revelations, and a rather nasty disagreement when the forum used the work I created and presented on it as advertising without my knowledge.

That was a long sentence. Is it even a sentence? Oh well, I'm not changing it.

In the aftermath of yet another failed attempt at creating something interesting on social media I decided to forget the whole idea and just focus on drawing, reading, writing and editing with no motive other than doing it for myself. And this is what I've been doing quite happily for the past two years.

I have a friend who blogs, however, under the name Fluttering Butterflies (well, she did, and still does every now and then, I'm uncertain. Look, it's complicated alright!) and I show her the things I have done while chatting and she suggested I start a blog to showcase it and to just be creative and confident instead of doubtful and insecure.

I was doubtful and insecure about her suggestion.

Still, after thinking about it I decided I would at least attempt it again. The idea of beginning something as large as a blog terrified me however, so as a test-run I joined Twitter(2) nine months ago as a means to see if I could write in an (extremely) limited capacity while I was preparing drawings and writing for this actual blog. After nine months, I feel confident enough to attempt this at least so here we are with Superman Moustache(3) post #1.

If you are still reading this at the moment, thank you so much. I'm coming to the end now, honestly.

So, what can you expect from this blog? Well, at the moment I intend it to be a combination of things. Some of these subjects are a history/retrospective of comic books presented in the form of my recreations of iconic, underrated and even terrible covers. Recreations of artists work I adore (from both famous artists and obscure, across all art history). Whatever thoughts and opinions I have over movies, books, although these are not reviews. There are other things I have planned that are either in the midst of completion or are still in a vague, blurry, unformed state of pre-planning which may or may not appear over time. Yet for now it will consist of the main three subjects I have detailed in excruciating detail above (or it may not, It'll be what it is - successful or not, interesting or not).

Anyway, that's enough for now. If you are reading this, thank you (again) and hopefully you'll like the blog.




(1) It should be footnoted that I sometimes tend to overwrite about things in an extremely long-winded way. I am aware of this and I am currently undergoing treatment to correct it. Still, be forewarned!

(2) Except Twitter being Twitter you have to struggle against the whirlpool of oblivion that is politics, of course. POLITICS WILL HAVE NO PLACE ON THIS BLOG!

(3) There's a reason I use this as my name which I may tell at some time. Not now, though, because this is long enough as it is.