Thor Thursday: Black and White Thunder Gods by Gabriel Hardman, Olivier Coipel and Mark Morales

I've missed a few Thurdays, here are a couple of Thor pics to catch up on my good Nordic karma.  You get enough good karma stored up, then Hela reserves a special birth for you in Valhalla.



Here's a crackling piece by Gabriel Hardman, who just took over the (Red) Hulk.  Thor will be appearing again soon in new Redskin's book.  (Old Greenskin, got it?  Verily I Say Thee Nay.)



Here's the cover to Thor 11 after Mark Morales inked Olivier Coipel's pencils.  And here again, I think you see the genius of Jack Kirby.  Most fantasy characters express their power through a sword.  Maybe a regular sword, a flaming sword, or a sword that steals souls.  Thor uses a freakin' HAMMER for crying out loud.  How do you a draw a dynamic hammer?  Kirby did it by making it larger than life, and so do these guys.

My favorite Marvel quote: "Yeah? Well, my God has a HAMMER!"  Nick Fury, Secret Invasion #8.
Nuff Said!

Link: Gabriel Hardman on deviantART
Link: Big Barda by Gabriel Hardman
Link: Mark Morales on deviantART.

Strange Saturday: Dr Strange and Clea by Paul Smith

August was a great blogging month--I did a post nearly every day.  September, not so great, but finally here's a new pic from Paul Smith!



Doctor Strange and Clea, posing in front of a Ditko inspired spacey background.  This piece is from the collection of Malcolm Bourne who owns a lot of great Smith drawings.  Nuff Said!

Link: Malcolm Bourne's Gallery at ComicArtFans.

Update: Comment from my old MT blog...

1 Comments

By dusty abell on September 26, 2010 7:44 AM

Great piece, wonderful composition. Fantastic example of what made Smiths run on the good Doctor's title such a classic!

Silver Surfer Saturday: Jim Lee Marvel Fanfare

This pinup was featured in Marvel Fanfare #45.  Behold the glory of Galactus and his herald, Norrin Radd!  Nuff said.

Originally posted on Giant-Size Marvel on Jan 10, 2009.

Behold: Avengers #57 Classic Vision Cover Recreations

Mighty Avengers has been recreating a number of classic covers for this series of stories during the Secret Invasion.  The cover to Mighty Avengers #14 has Marko Djurdjevic recreating one of my favorite Avengers covers of all time...

Avengers #57 cover by John Buscema, inks by George Klein.  What a dramatic way to introduce a new character!  Is he friend or foe?  The answer was not obvious, as the Vision was sent to destroy the Avengers by his creator, Ultron.  He was able to defy Ultron, which led to the Vision becoming a full fledged Avenger.  He was a unique character that was created solely to be in this team book, unlike the other Avengers, who had all been created elsewhere.  His origins and behavior were shrouded in mystery which provided a meaty subplot for the next five years worth of stories.

West Coast Avengers #45 cover by John Byrne.  Notice Byrne's signature on the lower left, giving credit not only to John Buscema, but to George Klein as well.  This is a philosophy that both John Byrne and Walt Simonson shared, giving credit back to the original artist when recreating a famous cover.  I just thought both of them were complete gentlemen for doing this.

Mighty Avengers #14 cover by Marko Djurdjevic.  It's a shame that credit was not given to Buscema on the cover or inside the credits page.  I cannot fault Djurdjevic, it seems to be a corporate policy now at Marvel.  Djurdjevic follows the original composition by Buscema very closely.  Note the position of the four figures (Black Panther, Giant-Man, Hawkeye, Wasp) are exactly the same as the original.

While I've come to really love Bendis' Avengers, I cannot forgive him for destroying the Vision back in Avengers #500.  I know he's still running around in Young Avengers, but without his memories or the Human Torch's body parts, it ain't the same.  I was really hoping the Vision who came out of the Skrull ship in Secret Invasion #1 would be the real deal.  Alas, as this cover indicates, Bendis robbed us again.  Nuff Said!

Originally published on May 22, 2008.

Thing Tuesdays: Dr. Strange and Ben Grimm

For today's feature, something that honors both Gene Colan and Benjamin J. Grimm.

There's a fella after my own heart, called the Marvel Two In One guy (see his website here).  He's commissioned many pieces of original art featuring the Thing and another Marvel character, in honor of the Thing's Marvel Two-In-One teamup series.  One of these pieces is a wonderful illustration featuring Dr. Strange and the Thing by Gene Colan and Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod has the pencils to this piece on his website, in the other artists commissions section.  Everytime I see a Gene Colan pencil piece, I'm reminded that this man really knows about shadows and light.  You have to say that Colan is a consummate craftsman, spending the time with the edge of the pencil on the paper to detail these shadows on the page.  Look at the streaks of water on top, imagine Gene carving them out in his pencils.  In today's world, where the majority of artists are using the computer, or putting in X's to indicate blacks, it's no longer necessary.  But it sure is a great joy for us to see pencils like this.

At this stage of the drawing, Dr. Strange has a noble appearance and almost regal pose as he strides next to Ben, seemingly unaware of what is happening.  Dr. Strange, like Dracula, must be one of those characters Colan could draw in his sleep.

Notice the Thing's head.  It's a bit funny looking, not your typical Thing head, which is understandable, as Colan never drew the Fantastic Four on a regular basis.  According to Bob's comments, I think Two-In-One guy asked for changes in that area.

Now here's the full illustration with Bob's inks and washes.  What a beautiful job.  McLeod has always been one of my favorite inkers, up there with Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer, and I love it when he does washes.  While this is still very much a Colan drawing, McLeod has enhanced this with his own touches.  The Thing's head as well as his rocky hide now have that classic look (what I call Sinnott-y look, after inker Joe Sinnott).

As Fernando Lamas used to say: Simply Marvelous!  Nuff said.

Originally published on  May 27, 2008.

Link: Two In One Guy's page for Thing & Dr. Strange illustration.

Hulk On A Rampage For Hero Initiative

Then lucky bastiches who attended Wizard World Chicago in 2008 were able to view these Hulk covers, donated by a Who's Who of modern comic art masters, for the Hero Initiative.  Comic Book Resources has a full image gallery, but I've plucked a few of my favorites.

Alan Davis: I love that glare in the Hulk's eyes.  I think my favorite Hulk artists find the character in his facial expressions.  Davis, Dale Keown, Gary Frank, are all superb in this respect.

Jimmy Cheung: This is a fantastic piece with gray tones.  Who are the two people on the left?  The woman must be Betty, is that guy supposed to be Rick Jones?

Terry Dodson: If you're a red blooded male, you're not looking at the Hulk.  A lot of the Hulk covers feature the She-Hulk.  I am reminded of the Hulk 2000 annual by Paul Jenkins where the Hulk tried to clobber She-Hulk into being his girlfriend.  Now that makes me wonder where those Hulk kids came from in Wolverine #66...

Steve Dillion: The most surprising artist to draw the Hulk, but one of the most effective!  He really captures the madness in the Hulk's face in this half-shot.

In addition to the Hulk covers, there was a special Hulk wine bottle with sketches and autographs that will be raffled off.  Nuff said.

Silver Surfer Saturday: Michael Golden Cosmic Powers #1

Michael Golden is one of my favorite comic book artists of all time.  I've bought and devoured two recent books on his artwork.  Since he's mostly done covers and pinups for the past ten years or so, finding Golden's work is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack.  I recently came upon this piece from a Silver Surfer mini-series in 1995, called Cosmic Powers.  Golden did this piece for the book.

Here it is in glorious black and white.  I love how Golden has positioned all-conquering Galactus, with Norrin Radd breaking down the barriers, trying to hold back his former herald from escaping.  I believe I saw this on Albert Moy's gallery on ComicArtFans.

Here is the color version.  The Marvel editors didn't use this as the cover for some reason.  But they did print it without any captions or logos.

Awesome.  This should have been a poster.  Nuff said.

Thor Thursday: John Romita Jr promo poster

Thor is riding high now, thanks to the new series and the movie coming out next year.  But in the 1990s, the Thunder God needed a reboot, and got one under the Heroes Return banner.  Dan Jurgens and John Romita Jr were the creative team and the first 24 issues or so featured Romita channeling Kirby's spirit.

This promo poster by John Romita Jr and Tim Townsend was a tease at the upcoming run.  I think this must have been drawn before Jurgens came up with the story for issue one.  The man slamming the cane down to summon Thor looks like Don Blake.  Thor's mortal host in the new Jurgens series was Jake Olson, who wasn't crippled in any way.

The Jurgens/Romita run is still in my collection and I re-read them last year.  Still a great run and holds up among the best Thor runs.  Nuff Said!

Link: Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr. - Volume 1 (Marvel Comics Heroes Return)