Deja Vu
Is this a stopgap filler post? You can say that, and it may appear that way at first glance, but it isn't. This is more of a behind the scenes look at the last 12 months, showing the early stages of the artwork featured on the blog. Pictures in various states of undress, disarray, dejection, and abandonment. Pictures I forgot to add when publishing the 18 posts that make up this blog, and more.
Kothar And The Demon Queen by Jeffrey Catherine Jones
I'm not certain why I didn't post this for the second issue, possibly I couldn't find it at the time. Regardless, this is my favourite of the many recreations of her work I have attempted. This was originally created about six or seven years ago, although I reworked the picture around February 2020, when I began using Photoshop. I didn't change much from the original, however, merely used a little blur to achieve the blizzard effect, which I was never satisfied with on the original. The only other changes were adjustments to the vibrance and brightness (more vibrance, less brightness).
1960's Iron Man Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up by Don Heck
This was intended to be used as the illustration for the Evolution of Iron section of the third issue. The idea was to show the first four armours of Iron Man, drawn by Don Heck during his time on Tales Of Suspense. I started this after the Iron Man 25 drawing for the fourth issue, originally as part of a collection called "Kirby, Heck, Colan, & Tuska" which became the simpler pictures section for the issue. I abandoned the picture due to over-complicating the line work and burning-out on Iron Man.
Kirby, Heck, Colan & Tuska
The original three completed drawings for the aforementioned project, these date from what I term my rose period, being a time where I drew every outline in Madder Rose*. These are presented in the order of creation, the Heck piece was worked on after I'd drawn the Colan** pictures and before and after the Kirby piece.
* Hence the name, as well as being a Picasso reference
** The Power Of Iron Man was drawn as I wasn't satisfied with the Tales of Suspense picture, although I posted a coloured ToS version in the Stopgap issue.
Jack Kirby's Fourth World
The Silver Surfer picture I used originally for the post, that I replaced with the version from 1965. This was originally a pencil sketch from a series of drawings of his from the 1970's. I'm not sure why the colour version looks like it does, if I remember correctly it was something to do with bronze, silver, and gold.
Jack Kirby's Fourth World (The Lost Chapters)
The author Mark Evanier and the publication Jack Kirby Collector have written extensively about Kirby's 60's work and The New Gods, which led to my realising that, in terms of writing an article about the subject, I would be copying their work for the most part.
I am planning to recreate Kirby's work over the period of time, as there are numerous splash pages, single panels, pencil sketches and portfolio plates to work with, and I will write something about them, it just won't be similar to the original Fourth World article, is all.
The Passing Of Sauron by Walter Simonson
The first picture of Walt Simonson's I attempted to recreate, this was originally a pencil sketch on lined paper from 1965. It didn't really fit with the rest of the work on the Simonson Issue, so I left it unused (until now).
Raquel Welch
This began as part of a bigger idea, in this instance a movie poster for an imaginary X-Men film from 1968. The cast had Robert Redford as Cyclops, Jane Fonda as Jean Grey, Max Von Sydow as Magneto, and Raquel Welch as The Scarlet Witch. I didn't intend to use this for the main poster, it was more an experiment to find the right style for the poster (not realism, not comic art, but something) that became a straightforward portrait when I realised the movie poster idea wasn't going to work.
The Drifting Snow by Esteban Maroto
I originally intended for this to be used in the Fifth Issue, although I discarded it after deciding that issue should be about the fifties era of horror comics, leading to the original title of the Fear-Filled Fifties Fifth Issue.
I completed this later (obviously as it's finished) as a gift for a friend.
Endo Giemon Masatada by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
An incomplete (obviously) version of a piece from one of Kuniyoshi's Samurai series, I think this was the Heroes of the Great Piece, without checking. I discarded this version as I disliked the brush effect and began a new version in the style of the following picture.
Ôta Kazusa no Suke Taira no Harunagakyô by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
The outline of a coloured version I am keeping for a future post on Kuniyoshi's work. It's an attempt at recreating the original Kuniyoshi artwork, which was destroyed in the creation of carving the wood blocks used for Ukiyo-e art.
X-Factor/The Original X-Men by Rob Liefeld & Todd McFarlane
Rob Liefeld is known in the comic industry as the worst artist to ever draw a comic book. Indeed, the term Liefeld is used to classify a whole genre of comic art in the 1990's, portraying men with huge muscles and women with impossibly slim waists and over-proportioned breasts. However, not everything Liefeld did is terrible, he is a self-taught artist, and his collaboration with Todd McFarlane, who is a comic book legend for his work on The Hulk and Spider-Man, has a certain appeal to it. Which leads us to this picture, X-Factor as they were called at the time, although they are of course, the original X-Men. This was originally the cover to the 50th issue of X-Factor if I remember correctly, and, along with X-Force #1, is probably the only Liefeld drawings you really need.
The Original X-Men by John Romita Jr.
A John Romita Jr. recreation of the cover to X-Men #1 from 1963 (by Jack Kirby), this was originally published as a frontispece for The Official Index of the X-Men from 1987, although I believe it dates from 1983, due to the artist beginning a run on the comic and it being the 20th Anniversary of the creation of the X-Men. This, and the Liefeld piece are for a planned X-Men post I never get around to making.
X-Men #50 by Steranko
The only completed cover by Jim Steranko (so far) for a post about his iconic late 60's work for Marvel, I'm hoping to show next year.
Wolverine by John Buscema
John Buscema was and is a comic book artist legend. Famous for his work on The Avengers, Silver Surfer, Thor, Fantastic Four, Conan The Barbarian, and countless others. He never worked on the X-Men, however, apart from one issue of a mini-series, and a brief run on the Wolverine solo series when it began (The Madripoor/Patch era). The drawing was taken from the first Wolverine story he worked on, published in an anthology title as a series of ten, eight page chapters.
The linework of mine is not very good on this, although it was never really intended as a serious work, more an attempt at using a new style of (computerised) brush, so it stands as a precursor for the following, final picture.
Keith Richards
An indication of where I'll be going in terms of drawings for the next year, probably. A rough pencil with partial inks and colour drawing of Keith Richards in 1978 for a future post (assuming I don't get distracted by something else).
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