Little Seen Marvel Comics Art

Not a real exciting post this week. I've decided to sell a few things on ebay and wanted to share some of the vintage art I like.

First up, Hulk art by Michael Golden, from the month of March, in Marvel's 20th Anniversary Calendar, 1981. From my perspective, Golden brought a whole new feel to comics. It was a "cartoony realism", which would influenced a slew of artists to come.


Next is Dave Cockrum art from three Marvel Novels. This was 1979, so on the cover to the anthology book, Hulk, TV star, is seen in the foreground, while a fairly new character, Wolverine, is stuck in the background. It would have been different today. As a kid, I was always fascinated to see painted superhero art. There was very little of it.


Lastly is art by John Byrne, from December, in The Amazing Spider-Man Calendar, 1978 . It's sometimes interesting to see what characters were popular during any given year. And look how clever Mr. Byrne was by grouping the old/new X-Men with Cyclops in the bottom right corner.


If I wasn't sleepy, I'd try to do a witty wrap up.

Cross Panel Comics #5

For an explanation of Cross Panel Comics, click here. I started this one with, "Wanna hear something funny?." Click to enlarge...

We're all making stew from the same garden.

I tend to say, "We're all making stew from the same garden," whenever I see a similar creative idea coming from more than one person. Case in point, I noticed this post today on Fail Blog...

Several years ago, I wrote a few newspaper strips, for the Kansas City Star, called Scattered Thoughts. They were drawn by my friend, Rich Lapierre. The one below appeared on February 24, 2005...

I have to admit, it's a lot cooler to see it done in real life!

Greetings from DC Comics, 1978.

Let's play a game!

Below are old DC Superhero birthday cards (printed by a company named Mark 1). I've included the cover, inside, and two fake insides on each one. Can you guess which ones are real? Remember, this was 1978. Click on each to enlarge.



Anyone who can identify the correct answer on each card will receive a warm feeling inside!

Correct answers in comments next Monday.

The Flash has weird thoughts.

I love the cover to Flash #133 (1962). Flash thinks, "I got the strangest feeling I'm being turned into a puppet."


What exactly does that feel like? I had to emphasize how silly it is by creating my own version. He still thinks it, but he's wrong. What a goofball!


Check it out on Coveredblog.blogspot.com. Look at more covers while you're there. It's a great site.

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.