Just recently read this trade. And I think it is based on an unfinished Robert E Howard story. It is a fun comic and a great introduction to Solomon Kane. I hope someday the Solomon Kane film gets a release in region 1. I have had the region 2 dvd for almost 2 years now,and it is a great film.
The trailer I saw for the film looked pretty cool, but I haven’t been able to see it. Was it fairly true to the source material?
It is fairly close. Surprised that it hasn't at least gotten a DVD release in Region 1 yet. Pretty much every other region has gotten a release. But then look at a film like "All the boys love Mandy Lane" it has been out on dvd everywhere but region 1 for years now. And you would think with how big Amber Heard is now,some company would release it by now.
Just recently read this trade. And I think it is based on an unfinished Robert E Howard story. It is a fun comic and a great introduction to Solomon Kane. I hope someday the Solomon Kane film gets a release in region 1. I have had the region 2 dvd for almost 2 years now,and it is a great film.
The trailer I saw for the film looked pretty cool, but I haven’t been able to see it. Was it fairly true to the source material?
It is fairly close. Surprised that it hasn't at least gotten a DVD release in Region 1 yet. Pretty much every other region has gotten a release. But then look at a film like "All the boys love Mandy Lane" it has been out on dvd everywhere but region 1 for years now. And you would think with how big Amber Heard is now,some company would release it by now.
Well, I’m sure I’ll find a way to watch it at some point. I think Kane is an interesting character, especially in terms of his time period and visual description.
Have you ever read Guy Davis’ The Marquis? It’s the only other thing out there that gives me a similar vibe, and I think it’s a story you’d enjoy.
The first time I saw Mike Wieringo’s artwork was his first job for DC, Justice League Quarterly #11 (Summer 1993). His work was still in need of improvement at that point, but there were signs of potential. Cover inks by Jose Marzan Jr.
Of course, it was his work on Flash that made everyone sit up and take notice. I think what was different about Mike’s work were his influences. Besides seeing the Silver Age comics of his father’s collection, he spent time in Europe as an Army brat, so he was familiar with BD—Mike was the guy who turned me on to Yves Chaland—and other European comics work. He was also a big fan of Miyazaki’s animated films. That melting pot resulted in a clean, open style that was a breath of fresh air during a time where everyone seemed to be imitating the scratchy, detail-heavy work of the Image founders—Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane particularly. His work just had a sense of fun to it that was lacking in the industry at large.
By the time he took over Sensational Spider-Man with his best friend Todd Dezago as writer, his storytelling was really hitting its stride. Cover inks by his then-studiomate, Richard Case.
I think Gen13 Bootleg #13, which he both wrote and penciled (inks again by Case), may have been where his art style came into its own. He would continue to tweak it and experiment with certain aspects of it, but from this point on he had his voice.
I loved his run with Mark Waid on Fantastic Four. It’s the only time I’ve bought the series month in, month out. Not only was Mike great at the action scenes, but he brought a lot of heart to the quiet family scenes. Cover inks by Karl Kesel, who did a great job over Mike’s pencils throughout the series.
But the series that was nearest and dearest to him was Tellos, the series he created with Todd Dezago. There’s so much of Mike in those stories, not just in terms of the physical art and storytelling, but in the emotional punch of the stories. It will always be my favorite of his stuff.
Just recently read this trade. And I think it is based on an unfinished Robert E Howard story. It is a fun comic and a great introduction to Solomon Kane. I hope someday the Solomon Kane film gets a release in region 1. I have had the region 2 dvd for almost 2 years now,and it is a great film.
The trailer I saw for the film looked pretty cool, but I haven’t been able to see it. Was it fairly true to the source material?
It is fairly close. Surprised that it hasn't at least gotten a DVD release in Region 1 yet. Pretty much every other region has gotten a release. But then look at a film like "All the boys love Mandy Lane" it has been out on dvd everywhere but region 1 for years now. And you would think with how big Amber Heard is now,some company would release it by now.
Well, I’m sure I’ll find a way to watch it at some point. I think Kane is an interesting character, especially in terms of his time period and visual description.
Have you ever read Guy Davis’ The Marquis? It’s the only other thing out there that gives me a similar vibe, and I think it’s a story you’d enjoy.
Never read it. But it is on my list of stuff to find now. Thanks
Kevin Maguire broke into comics as one of Romita’s Raiders in Marvel’s art correction department. After getting some OHotMU assignments under his belt, he got an interview with Andy Helfer about a project called Wildcard. He got the gig, penciled the first issue (which was never published), and was promptly offered a job drawing Silver Surfer for Marvel. Helfer countered with a new Justice League series, and Kevin’s friend and writer Fabian Nicieza convinced him to take DC’s offer.
I came to the party a bit late, with issue #29, but as soon as I read that issue I quickly bought up all the back issues. The cover to #29 is a good example of Kevin’s greatest strength as an artist: his ability to convey emotion through facial expression and body language.
Kevin did some nice covers for another DC favorite of mine during that time: L.E.G.I.O.N. This one (inks by Al Gordon) was an homage of sorts to the famous National Lampoon cover.
The Adventures of Captain America may still be the best interior work of Maguire’s career. What a great mini-series. It’s a pity he suffered from a creative block and was unable to draw the entire series. Cover inks by Terry Austin.
Strikeback!, co-created by Jonathan Peterson and Kevin, was a ton of fun. I don’t know why it wasn’t more successful—other than it was a fun, fast-paced, funny book in a world where grim and gritty books ruled—but the publishing schedule certainly didn’t help. It was originally supposed to be done for Image, but when they were invited to join Malibu’s Bravura line, they took the book there because unlike Image, Malibu paid upfront. Unfortunately, only three of the five issues were published before Marvel bought out Malibu. After a considerable hiatus, WildStorm picked it back up, reprinted the previously published issues and finally the two final issues. If you haven’t read it, and you find it in the back issue bins, I highly recommend picking it up.
The Defenders mini-series was fun too, and for my money a more successful reunion of the Justice League creative team than the Justice League mini-series they did. I love Kevin’s take on Hulk and Namor. When depicting Namor, Kevin pictured Yul Brenner in The King and I, which is just perfect. This series also marked the first time Kevin’s work was printed directly from his pencils. The “inking” was done by darkening Kevin’s pencils in Photoshop. That’s how clean and tight his pencils are.
I'm a bit more mixed in my reactions to Maguire's body of work. I thought he was terrific on JLI and that he really gave it the artistic spark to make it work, especially with his brilliant facial expressions on each character. When he left, the series began to suffer a bit, despite some very decent art by Ty Templeton and Adam Hughes.
I always thought Strikeback was kinda 'meh' -- to this day, I can't recall much of what it was about, and I know I have the complete series. I thought his art, while still decently rendered, was lacking in the storytelling. Clearly he needed something more dynamic as he had when working from Giffen's roughs on JLI.
But that reunion with Giffen and DeMatteis on the Defendersreally did not work for me. Less because of Maguire's work (which, at least, was as sharp as it had been with JLI) and more because I really did not want to see the Defenders handled in that fashion. I did a lot of cringing as I read it. (I really found that the whole 'bwa-ha-ha' thing had gotten very old by the end of DeMatteis' and Giffen's tour of the JLI anyway.)
That Captain America mini-series, on the other hand, was quite, quite good on all counts, and I was really sorry that Maguire couldn't pull through for the whole job; he had a very good start on it.
His recent work on Worlds' Finest, in tandem with George Perez, has been excellent, some of the best work I've seen from him in quite some time.
I'm a bit more mixed in my reactions to Maguire's body of work. I thought he was terrific on JLI and that he really gave it the artistic spark to make it work, especially with his brilliant facial expressions on each character. When he left, the series began to suffer a bit, despite some very decent art by Ty Templeton and Adam Hughes.
I always thought Strikeback was kinda 'meh' -- to this day, I can't recall much of what it was about, and I know I have the complete series. I thought his art, while still decently rendered, was lacking in the storytelling. Clearly he needed something more dynamic as he had when working from Giffen's roughs on JLI.
But that reunion with Giffen and DeMatteis on the Defendersreally did not work for me. Less because of Maguire's work (which, at least, was as sharp as it had been with JLI) and more because I really did not want to see the Defenders handled in that fashion. I did a lot of cringing as I read it. (I really found that the whole 'bwa-ha-ha' thing had gotten very old by the end of DeMatteis' and Giffen's tour of the JLI anyway.)
That Captain America mini-series, on the other hand, was quite, quite good on all counts, and I was really sorry that Maguire couldn't pull through for the whole job; he had a very good start on it.
His recent work on Worlds' Finest, in tandem with George Perez, has been excellent, some of the best work I've seen from him in quite some time.
I don’t know, there were still some very good stories after Kevin left Justice League, the more serious Despero story in particular. I think the series ran its course, but was fairly consistent up until the change of direction. As for Strikeback!, to me it felt like a well done wacky Hong Kong action flick with a bit of romance (and I like wacky Hong Kong action flicks)—the kind of movie Jackie Chan might star in, but with no budget limitations. It was just so different from everything else on the stands, and I liked the characters. And I think Kevin’s storytelling was fine; the quiet, romantic scenes between Rascal and Nikki were exceptionally well done.
I don’t think the humor in Defenders matches Justice League at its peak, but there were some genuinely funny scenes and dialogue. And I do think it was better than their two returns to the Justice League in JLA Classified and the Formerly Known As... mini-series, both of which had their moments but which felt a bit forced for the most part.
My first exposure to Charles Vess’ work was through his painted Spider-Man covers. His first Spider-Man cover, in fact, Amazing Spider-Man #261 (Feb. 1985), and then his covers for Web of Spider-Man.
Being as Marvel Fanfare was produced only for the direct market, I didn’t see it until a couple of years later, once I started working at a comic shop. But Charles’ three-part (appropriately) Warriors Three story in issues #34-36 is my favorite of his work for Marvel.
Spirits of the Earth wasn’t the greatest Spidey story ever told, but to my eyes it’s the most beautiful. If I’m remembering correctly, Spirits of the Earth was just the second Marvel graphic novel to get the oversized, hardcover treatment—the first being Punisher: Return to Big Nothing the previous year.
Most of Charles’ comic book work has come as a cover artist. He had a nice run on Swamp Thing, among other titles, in the early to mid-’90s.
The Book of Ballads and Sagas was a fantastic series that Charles self-published through his Green Man Press. If you have any interest in mythology, fairy tales, fantasy, or just beautiful artwork, I highly recommend it. I’m not sure how easy it is to find, but it’s been collected.
Then, of course, there’s Stardust, which isn’t so much a graphic novel as it is a heavily illustrated prose novel. But Neil Gaiman’s story is very nice, and Charles’ illustrations are top-notch.
The Rose three-issue mini-series was a prequel to Jeff Smith’s wonderful Bone series, and was a wonderful addition to the overall story. If you’ve only read the Bone collection, you really should check this out. I think it’s some of Jeff’s best writing, and Charles’ inking and painting over Jeff’s layouts makes for a great combination.
The first comic I bought with Michael Golden artwork was ROM #9 (Aug. 1980). Michael only did the cover (pencils, inks, and color), but what a fantastic cover. It’s probably the main reason I bought the book, and it’s still one of my favorites. In fact, I liked it so much (and the story inside as well), I bought the next issue too—another great cover.
That got me looking for more of his stuff, and that G signature of his, but I rarely saw it. I did find Micronauts #23 on the stands though. I had completely missed the early issues, for which he also drew the interiors, and wouldn’t find them until several years later.
Doctor Strange #55 (Oct. 1982) was another one I missed initially. I would say it is the most influential single issue of the ’80s. So many artists—Art Adams, Kevin Nowlan, Todd McFarlane, etc.—cite this issue as making a huge impact on them and their work.
Just for something a little different, here’s one of Michael’s painted covers for Savage Sword of Conan (#101, June 1984). He painted several covers (in gouache) for the series, but his more graphic (style-wise) covers for Kull the Conqueror during the same time period were much better.
But I think his masterpiece is The ’Nam. His style, which blended a cartoony approach with painstaking attention to accuracy in drawing weapons, uniforms, equipment, etc., was perfect for the subject matter. Here’s what Michael told me about it: “The Vietnam War wasn’t something that can be approached from some sort of nostalgic photo-realism. It wasn’t this great national cause like World War II was, where we can all go in and we can do all of these Norman Rockwell moments. It was a confused, nasty, embarrassing moment for this country. And almost to the point of being surreal for those of us who lived through it... And so I really felt that approaching it as some sort of realistic venture was inappropriate.”
My introduction to Jerry Ordway was through his inking on All-Star Squadron, which I picked up on occasion, but not regularly. The first time I saw his pencils was also in All-Star Squadron—issue #26 (Oct. 1983), inked by Mike Machlan, probably my favorite cover of the series just for its simplicity and attitude.
My favorites of Jerry’s many, many covers for Adventures of Superman and Superman:
Bibbo, the guy in the Santa suit and my favorite Superman supporting character, was originally just a one-off character Jerry threw into the story when the script called for a tough guy in a bar. Jerry’s mother ran a tavern when he was a kid, and they lived in the same building as the tavern. Here’s Jerry’s story: “...One of the characters in the tavern when I was a little kid was an old guy named Joe Kominski. Joe was a merchant marine, a dockworker; he was everything that Bibbo became really. He was a tough guy, but he was sweet. He was a guy who would fight 15 policeman to a standstill by himself, but yet he would take my brother and myself, when we were little, to our grandmother’s house. He was like our watchdog, our guardian—really a wonderful guy. So, when I thought of this tough guy, I said, ‘You know, this is going to be Jojo”—that’s what we called him, Jojo. So the pages went in, I named him Jojo in the margin notes, and drew him in the hat and the pea coat that my childhood friend had worn. [Mike] Carlin got the pages... and said, “I don’t know about ‘Jojo’. What about ‘Bibbo’?” Bibbo was the name of a one-bit character in a Honeymooners episode that Carlin liked.” And because of what Jerry was able to put into the character, Bibbo went on to become a recurring character.
Jerry left the Superman titles to write and draw The Power of Shazam!—easily the best interpretation of the Marvel family since the original Fawcett comics, and quite possibly the best work of Jerry’s career. And his painted covers for the series were outstanding. This post is getting rather long, so I’ll only show a couple of my favorites.
Jerry’s painting for PoS #2, sans display type.
A nice U.S. Agent cover from the mini-series he wrote and penciled.
Love those covers. Ordway's work on Superman and Captain Marvel are among my very favorites. I remember seeing some of his early fan work on a strip of his called The Messenger back in the late 70's or so that gave some sign of his (and Mike Machlan's) future potential.
Bibbo was my favorite supporting character as well -- he had more heart than anyone else in the series. I was very sad that he fell to the wayside in the later years. One of Bibbo's relations turned up in the Power of Shazam! series -- his brother, I believe? I'd have to dig out my copies to get the particulars, but he was a lot of the opposite of Bibbo in that he was a well-educated professor.
Love those covers. Ordway's work on Superman and Captain Marvel are among my very favorites. I remember seeing some of his early fan work on a strip of his called The Messenger back in the late 70's or so that gave some sign of his (and Mike Machlan's) future potential.
Bibbo was my favorite supporting character as well -- he had more heart than anyone else in the series. I was very sad that he fell to the wayside in the later years. One of Bibbo's relations turned up in the Power of Shazam! series -- his brother, I believe? I'd have to dig out my copies to get the particulars, but he was a lot of the opposite of Bibbo in that he was a well-educated professor.
“The Messenger” first appeared in Tim Corrigan’s Superhero Comics #4 in 1975. I don’t have a copy of that, but I do have the two issues of Okay Comics, the mini-comic Jerry self-published also in 1975, which Jerry gave me when we were working on the Modern Masters book. The first issue had a pin-up of The Messenger. And in 2000 Jerry reworked the premise a bit and wrote and drew a Messenger one-shot that was actually pretty good.
I had forgotten about Bibbo’s brother. I don’t think he had a name beyond Professor Bibbowski—he was a scientist of some type.
“The Messenger” first appeared in Tim Corrigan’s Superhero Comics #4 in 1975. I don’t have a copy of that, but I do have the two issues of Okay Comics, the mini-comic Jerry self-published also in 1975, which Jerry gave me when we were working on the Modern Masters book. The first issue had a pin-up of The Messenger. And in 2000 Jerry reworked the premise a bit and wrote and drew a Messenger one-shot that was actually pretty good.
That was the one! A friend and I had stopped by Corrigan's house and he showed us a copy of that zine. I didn't know that he had reworked it for Image, though -- I completely missed it. I'll have to keep a watch for that in the future.
I first became aware of Frank Cho through his Liberty Meadows newspaper strip. As a fan of Bloom County, I saw the similarities betweenn the two strips immediately, but if Bloom County was the Marx Brothers of newspaper strips, Liberty Meadows was The Three Stooges (with a little W.C. Fields thrown in for good measure). As sophomoric as the humor could be, there was a lot of warmth and heart in the strip as well, and even if the humor went over the line for many, no one could argue that it wasn’t one of the best drawn strips being produced at the time. When Frank began reprinting the strips in a comic book format, he picked up a lot of new fans, and eventually, with more and more newspapers dropping him from their line-up, he was making more from the comic sales than from syndication fees. So he ended the newspaper strip on a cliffhanger, directing his readers to pick up the comic book for the grand finale, and his sales for that final issue of the comic spiked heavily.
This cover was an homage to Wally Wood’s cover for Incredible Science Fiction #11.
Frank’s Shanna the She-Devil mini-series was originally going to be part of the MAX line and was going to have quite a bit of nudity. When Jemas was fired, the suits moved it to the Marvel Knights line, so Frank had to go back over the many pages he had already finished by that point and cover up all the exposed naughty bits. He ended up having to cut an entire issue out of the story, which featured a much longer scene of Shanna and the doctor fighting through the velociraptors than what ended up being published, and to rewrite the story to accommodate the change.
For my money, this version of Ms. Marvel’s costume is one of the best superhero costumes ever, and Frank’s take on Ms. Marvel is perfect. Pity they got rid of it.
Cover art for Ms. Marvel #2, sans display type.
Frank had a recent run as cover artist for Conan the Cimmerian, and for the most part I didn’t think he was well suited for it. His linework is just too clean for what I look for in a Conan image. But Jose Villarrubia’s colors on issue #3 made all the difference.
I first became aware of Mark Schultz’s work, of course, through Xenozoic Tales—probably the first Kitchen Sink oversized collection. He was still producing the comic at that point, but very sporadically. Mark’s never been known for his speed, though that mostly comes from his redrawing/revising each issue until he’s satisfied with it. I’ve seen him do gorgeous, detailed sketches very quickly, so drawing speed is not the issue. Mark always found interesting ways to promote the series. Besides the usual T-shirts and posters, he had a friend produce a soundtrack/concept album for the comic called Songs from the Xenozoic Age, and it wasn’t bad. It was a bit ’50s rock ’n’ roll, a bit surf music, and a bit rockabilly. He also did candy bars—he did artwork for the wrappers of each of the three or four different flavors—which sold quite well at the store I worked at. Then, of course, came the Cadillacs & Dinosaurs cartoon, and its ensuing toy line and licensed fare.
But it always comes back to Mark’s story concept and artwork—oh, the artwork—in the end. Pants recently was hemming and hawing over the upcoming Xenozoic Tales Artist’s Edition from IDW. Just buy it!
The Predator mini-series he wrote and did covers for (with Gene Colan interior pencils) was pretty good too.
The SubHuman mini-series he co-wrote and provided covers for, while not as entertaining as Xenozoic, was pretty interesting, and it is set in the same world as Xenozoic, but much earlier.
Mark’s gorgeous cover to Action Comics #836, sans display type.
Not a great series, but it had some really nice covers, including this one from Mark.
I first saw Mike Allred’s work, naturally enough, in Madman. I’m not sure if I saw the Tundra issues first or not, but the first issue I bought was Dark Horse’s Madman Comics #1. I think what got me initially, besides the artwork, was the disc shooter Madman is firing on the cover. My brother and I had disc shooters just like it when we were kids, which we played with often, so I thought this Mike Allred guy might be worth checking out. And I was right.
You never quite knew what was going to happen next in Madman, but you could be assured that it would have that Silver Age wacky sense of fun. The cover of issue #3 even referenced the cover of Justice League of America #10.
Marvel noticed and put his style and sensibilities to good use.
As did DC.
Mike’s also a musician—he’s even recorded albums—and that came to the forefront of his comics work with his Red Rocket 7 series, which had all kinds of rock music references.
He spun The Atomics out of Madman, which allowed him to tell different types of stories in the universe he created.
I’ve never been a huge X-Men fan, so don’t be too surprised when I say that Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’ run on X-Force/X-Statix is my favorite X-title of all time (Peter David’s first run on X-Factor being a close second). The series was a little outrageous, a little crazy, a lot of fun, and it had a lot of heart. Plus it gave us Doop.
And Mike’s issue of Solo was one of the best of the series.
I first saw Mike Allred’s work, naturally enough, in Madman.I think what got me initially, besides the artwork, was the disc shooter Madman is firing on the cover. My brother and I had disc shooters just like it when we were kids, which we played with often,
I first saw Mike Allred’s work, naturally enough, in Madman.I think what got me initially, besides the artwork, was the disc shooter Madman is firing on the cover. My brother and I had disc shooters just like it when we were kids, which we played with often,
The good ones would shoot pennies!
I think we tried that one time, but the penny was a little too thick.
I first saw Mike Allred’s work, naturally enough, in Madman.I think what got me initially, besides the artwork, was the disc shooter Madman is firing on the cover. My brother and I had disc shooters just like it when we were kids, which we played with often,
The good ones would shoot pennies!
My brother and I also had those disc shooters -- they were Star Trek 'phasers' when we bought them -- and yeah, we tried shooting pennies with them too, but the pennies were too heavy and wouldn't fly very far. Surprisingly, I still have my shooter, but not so many discs; they're hard to come by.
Comments
It is fairly close. Surprised that it hasn't at least gotten a DVD release in Region 1 yet. Pretty much every other region has gotten a release. But then look at a film like "All the boys love Mandy Lane" it has been out on dvd everywhere but region 1 for years now. And you would think with how big Amber Heard is now,some company would release it by now.
Have you ever read Guy Davis’ The Marquis? It’s the only other thing out there that gives me a similar vibe, and I think it’s a story you’d enjoy.
Of course, it was his work on Flash that made everyone sit up and take notice. I think what was different about Mike’s work were his influences. Besides seeing the Silver Age comics of his father’s collection, he spent time in Europe as an Army brat, so he was familiar with BD—Mike was the guy who turned me on to Yves Chaland—and other European comics work. He was also a big fan of Miyazaki’s animated films. That melting pot resulted in a clean, open style that was a breath of fresh air during a time where everyone seemed to be imitating the scratchy, detail-heavy work of the Image founders—Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane particularly. His work just had a sense of fun to it that was lacking in the industry at large.
By the time he took over Sensational Spider-Man with his best friend Todd Dezago as writer, his storytelling was really hitting its stride. Cover inks by his then-studiomate, Richard Case.
I think Gen13 Bootleg #13, which he both wrote and penciled (inks again by Case), may have been where his art style came into its own. He would continue to tweak it and experiment with certain aspects of it, but from this point on he had his voice.
I loved his run with Mark Waid on Fantastic Four. It’s the only time I’ve bought the series month in, month out. Not only was Mike great at the action scenes, but he brought a lot of heart to the quiet family scenes. Cover inks by Karl Kesel, who did a great job over Mike’s pencils throughout the series.
But the series that was nearest and dearest to him was Tellos, the series he created with Todd Dezago. There’s so much of Mike in those stories, not just in terms of the physical art and storytelling, but in the emotional punch of the stories. It will always be my favorite of his stuff.
I came to the party a bit late, with issue #29, but as soon as I read that issue I quickly bought up all the back issues. The cover to #29 is a good example of Kevin’s greatest strength as an artist: his ability to convey emotion through facial expression and body language.
Kevin did some nice covers for another DC favorite of mine during that time: L.E.G.I.O.N. This one (inks by Al Gordon) was an homage of sorts to the famous National Lampoon cover.
The Adventures of Captain America may still be the best interior work of Maguire’s career. What a great mini-series. It’s a pity he suffered from a creative block and was unable to draw the entire series. Cover inks by Terry Austin.
Strikeback!, co-created by Jonathan Peterson and Kevin, was a ton of fun. I don’t know why it wasn’t more successful—other than it was a fun, fast-paced, funny book in a world where grim and gritty books ruled—but the publishing schedule certainly didn’t help. It was originally supposed to be done for Image, but when they were invited to join Malibu’s Bravura line, they took the book there because unlike Image, Malibu paid upfront. Unfortunately, only three of the five issues were published before Marvel bought out Malibu. After a considerable hiatus, WildStorm picked it back up, reprinted the previously published issues and finally the two final issues. If you haven’t read it, and you find it in the back issue bins, I highly recommend picking it up.
The Defenders mini-series was fun too, and for my money a more successful reunion of the Justice League creative team than the Justice League mini-series they did. I love Kevin’s take on Hulk and Namor. When depicting Namor, Kevin pictured Yul Brenner in The King and I, which is just perfect. This series also marked the first time Kevin’s work was printed directly from his pencils. The “inking” was done by darkening Kevin’s pencils in Photoshop. That’s how clean and tight his pencils are.
I always thought Strikeback was kinda 'meh' -- to this day, I can't recall much of what it was about, and I know I have the complete series. I thought his art, while still decently rendered, was lacking in the storytelling. Clearly he needed something more dynamic as he had when working from Giffen's roughs on JLI.
But that reunion with Giffen and DeMatteis on the Defenders really did not work for me. Less because of Maguire's work (which, at least, was as sharp as it had been with JLI) and more because I really did not want to see the Defenders handled in that fashion. I did a lot of cringing as I read it. (I really found that the whole 'bwa-ha-ha' thing had gotten very old by the end of DeMatteis' and Giffen's tour of the JLI anyway.)
That Captain America mini-series, on the other hand, was quite, quite good on all counts, and I was really sorry that Maguire couldn't pull through for the whole job; he had a very good start on it.
His recent work on Worlds' Finest, in tandem with George Perez, has been excellent, some of the best work I've seen from him in quite some time.
I don’t think the humor in Defenders matches Justice League at its peak, but there were some genuinely funny scenes and dialogue. And I do think it was better than their two returns to the Justice League in JLA Classified and the Formerly Known As... mini-series, both of which had their moments but which felt a bit forced for the most part.
Being as Marvel Fanfare was produced only for the direct market, I didn’t see it until a couple of years later, once I started working at a comic shop. But Charles’ three-part (appropriately) Warriors Three story in issues #34-36 is my favorite of his work for Marvel.
Spirits of the Earth wasn’t the greatest Spidey story ever told, but to my eyes it’s the most beautiful. If I’m remembering correctly, Spirits of the Earth was just the second Marvel graphic novel to get the oversized, hardcover treatment—the first being Punisher: Return to Big Nothing the previous year.
Most of Charles’ comic book work has come as a cover artist. He had a nice run on Swamp Thing, among other titles, in the early to mid-’90s.
The Book of Ballads and Sagas was a fantastic series that Charles self-published through his Green Man Press. If you have any interest in mythology, fairy tales, fantasy, or just beautiful artwork, I highly recommend it. I’m not sure how easy it is to find, but it’s been collected.
Then, of course, there’s Stardust, which isn’t so much a graphic novel as it is a heavily illustrated prose novel. But Neil Gaiman’s story is very nice, and Charles’ illustrations are top-notch.
The Rose three-issue mini-series was a prequel to Jeff Smith’s wonderful Bone series, and was a wonderful addition to the overall story. If you’ve only read the Bone collection, you really should check this out. I think it’s some of Jeff’s best writing, and Charles’ inking and painting over Jeff’s layouts makes for a great combination.
That got me looking for more of his stuff, and that G signature of his, but I rarely saw it. I did find Micronauts #23 on the stands though. I had completely missed the early issues, for which he also drew the interiors, and wouldn’t find them until several years later.
Doctor Strange #55 (Oct. 1982) was another one I missed initially. I would say it is the most influential single issue of the ’80s. So many artists—Art Adams, Kevin Nowlan, Todd McFarlane, etc.—cite this issue as making a huge impact on them and their work.
Just for something a little different, here’s one of Michael’s painted covers for Savage Sword of Conan (#101, June 1984). He painted several covers (in gouache) for the series, but his more graphic (style-wise) covers for Kull the Conqueror during the same time period were much better.
But I think his masterpiece is The ’Nam. His style, which blended a cartoony approach with painstaking attention to accuracy in drawing weapons, uniforms, equipment, etc., was perfect for the subject matter. Here’s what Michael told me about it: “The Vietnam War wasn’t something that can be approached from some sort of nostalgic photo-realism. It wasn’t this great national cause like World War II was, where we can all go in and we can do all of these Norman Rockwell moments. It was a confused, nasty, embarrassing moment for this country. And almost to the point of being surreal for those of us who lived through it... And so I really felt that approaching it as some sort of realistic venture was inappropriate.”
My favorites of Jerry’s many, many covers for Adventures of Superman and Superman:
Bibbo, the guy in the Santa suit and my favorite Superman supporting character, was originally just a one-off character Jerry threw into the story when the script called for a tough guy in a bar. Jerry’s mother ran a tavern when he was a kid, and they lived in the same building as the tavern. Here’s Jerry’s story: “...One of the characters in the tavern when I was a little kid was an old guy named Joe Kominski. Joe was a merchant marine, a dockworker; he was everything that Bibbo became really. He was a tough guy, but he was sweet. He was a guy who would fight 15 policeman to a standstill by himself, but yet he would take my brother and myself, when we were little, to our grandmother’s house. He was like our watchdog, our guardian—really a wonderful guy. So, when I thought of this tough guy, I said, ‘You know, this is going to be Jojo”—that’s what we called him, Jojo. So the pages went in, I named him Jojo in the margin notes, and drew him in the hat and the pea coat that my childhood friend had worn. [Mike] Carlin got the pages... and said, “I don’t know about ‘Jojo’. What about ‘Bibbo’?” Bibbo was the name of a one-bit character in a Honeymooners episode that Carlin liked.” And because of what Jerry was able to put into the character, Bibbo went on to become a recurring character.
Jerry left the Superman titles to write and draw The Power of Shazam!—easily the best interpretation of the Marvel family since the original Fawcett comics, and quite possibly the best work of Jerry’s career. And his painted covers for the series were outstanding. This post is getting rather long, so I’ll only show a couple of my favorites.
Jerry’s painting for PoS #2, sans display type.
A nice U.S. Agent cover from the mini-series he wrote and penciled.
Bibbo was my favorite supporting character as well -- he had more heart than anyone else in the series. I was very sad that he fell to the wayside in the later years. One of Bibbo's relations turned up in the Power of Shazam! series -- his brother, I believe? I'd have to dig out my copies to get the particulars, but he was a lot of the opposite of Bibbo in that he was a well-educated professor.
I had forgotten about Bibbo’s brother. I don’t think he had a name beyond Professor Bibbowski—he was a scientist of some type.
This cover was an homage to Wally Wood’s cover for Incredible Science Fiction #11.
Frank’s Shanna the She-Devil mini-series was originally going to be part of the MAX line and was going to have quite a bit of nudity. When Jemas was fired, the suits moved it to the Marvel Knights line, so Frank had to go back over the many pages he had already finished by that point and cover up all the exposed naughty bits. He ended up having to cut an entire issue out of the story, which featured a much longer scene of Shanna and the doctor fighting through the velociraptors than what ended up being published, and to rewrite the story to accommodate the change.
For my money, this version of Ms. Marvel’s costume is one of the best superhero costumes ever, and Frank’s take on Ms. Marvel is perfect. Pity they got rid of it.
Cover art for Ms. Marvel #2, sans display type.
Frank had a recent run as cover artist for Conan the Cimmerian, and for the most part I didn’t think he was well suited for it. His linework is just too clean for what I look for in a Conan image. But Jose Villarrubia’s colors on issue #3 made all the difference.
Frank Frazetta
But it always comes back to Mark’s story concept and artwork—oh, the artwork—in the end. Pants recently was hemming and hawing over the upcoming Xenozoic Tales Artist’s Edition from IDW. Just buy it!
The Predator mini-series he wrote and did covers for (with Gene Colan interior pencils) was pretty good too.
The SubHuman mini-series he co-wrote and provided covers for, while not as entertaining as Xenozoic, was pretty interesting, and it is set in the same world as Xenozoic, but much earlier.
Mark’s gorgeous cover to Action Comics #836, sans display type.
Not a great series, but it had some really nice covers, including this one from Mark.
you can get it for a donation to the appeal on his web site http://jl8comic.tumblr.com/
You never quite knew what was going to happen next in Madman, but you could be assured that it would have that Silver Age wacky sense of fun. The cover of issue #3 even referenced the cover of Justice League of America #10.
Marvel noticed and put his style and sensibilities to good use.
As did DC.
Mike’s also a musician—he’s even recorded albums—and that came to the forefront of his comics work with his Red Rocket 7 series, which had all kinds of rock music references.
He spun The Atomics out of Madman, which allowed him to tell different types of stories in the universe he created.
I’ve never been a huge X-Men fan, so don’t be too surprised when I say that Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’ run on X-Force/X-Statix is my favorite X-title of all time (Peter David’s first run on X-Factor being a close second). The series was a little outrageous, a little crazy, a lot of fun, and it had a lot of heart. Plus it gave us Doop.
And Mike’s issue of Solo was one of the best of the series.