Cross Panel Comics #4

For an explanation of Cross Panel Comics, click here.

Typically, Martin and I sit down and do one of these in an single evening. We almost finished this one, and then he went off to camp. I rounded it out by adding a couple after he left. I started this one with, "I'm going to spend all my money." Click to enlarge...

Marvel and DC's Wizard of Oz!

I recently ran across this Wizard of Oz comic from 1975...

Since it was published by both Marvel and DC, I couldn't stop myself from redrawing it with a few substitute characters. Click on it to enlarge...

You won't see this on on Covered Blog like some of my other recreations. It's too much of a parody/mash-up for the purpose of that site, if you're curious why.

When I first thought about what characters to use, I was surprised to realize that there are no Lion-based superheroes! And, very few villains.

Using Tin (who's awkwardly out of step, if you didn't notice) from Metal Men was an obvious choice. Using the Batman villain, Scarecrow, was also an obvious choice. I very, very briefly considered using the Marvel hero named Scarecrow. He was created in the 70's and maybe used only three times.

I debated about who to use for the Cowardly Lion. The most obvious choice would be Leo...

...from the Zodiac, a group of old Avengers villains...

...but he was too obscure, and boring to look at. I thought about the Griffin...

...but he was a griffin, not a lion. Marvel has a whole race of Cat People. I thought about using one of them, like this dude below...

...but, again, too obscure. Even though she's a girl and a tiger, I came close to using Tigra herself. However, my son told me I've already drawn her too much.

As I considered using Kraven, my other son reminded me that "craven" means "cowardly". A winner had emerged.

It's my fondest wish that my thoughtful examination of how to translate Wizard of Oz characters into Marvel or DC characters will be of great use to future generations.

This is slightly interesting!

I've been relaxing lately by drawing Covered Blog covers. I've turned in a couple recently which should appear on the Covered site in the future. I considered drawing Strange Tales Annual #2. I really dig the multicolored title and all gray background. Plus, there's always something slightly weird about Jack Kirby's version of Spider-Man.

I started my version with only minor changes planned. On the original, there is no spider on Spider-Man's costume, so I added it crawling across the logo. I changed the wording a bit.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that there is no Human Torch on my version. I never drew one I truly liked, and, overall, the cover was feeling too close to the original. I saw no reason to continue working on it. If I'm not liking what I'm doing, I shouldn't expect anyone else to like it either.

Okay, on a tangent, here comes the slightly interesting part...

I was flipping through Marvel Treasury Edition #1 from 1974.

On the inside back cover, it has reproductions of "famous" Spider-Man covers. It includes Strange Tales Annual #2.

However, it has extra dialog included!

It's a pretty crowded cover, so the decision must have been made to remove the word balloons. The file copy used on the Treasury page obviously doesn't reflect that. It could have looked like this--!

And that, my friends, is slightly interesting.