DC/Marvel Treasury Editions Commission Edition

 I think that title makes sense. Here's a couple of commissions requested by the same person--

Underdog! Spider-Ham! Darkwing Duck! Hulk Bunny! Both are funny animal versions of two classic Treasury Editions!

I'm sure many of us thought the characters should have been switched, Superman vs. Hulk and Batman vs. Spider-Man. Those team-ups did happen later, but these were the first!

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.

The Offenders! Ah, the memories...

This week's Hulk featured the "Offenders".

My very first, nationally published work was the Offenders!

Yes, it's tacky. I was young. I needed the exposure. Unfortunately, the magazine's index page credited the art to "Terry Callen."

(Btw, the unfortunately-placed sword and hilt wasn't positioned there intentionally. Ah, the ignorance of youth.)

The year was 1981. My art was a "Silly Cover" in the now long-defunct comic magazine Amazing Heroes. I had submitted the "Offenders" to the Comic Journal, as they used to print fan art in the letter pages. An editor named Peppy White wrote me stating they were starting a brand new comic magazine called Amazing Heroes. My art had given him the idea to begin a regular feature called Silly Covers. Mine would be the very first one. I was thrilled to see in printed AH #4.

Not a Bad Hulk

A few days ago, I was looking through some old boxes and found copies of the now-defunct comic magazine Amazing Heroes. Coincidently, one issue (#155) was dated Dec. 15, 1988, twenty years ago today. I flipped through it and found a drawing of mine in its letter pages!

I had drawn the above Hulk, if memory serves, after being inspired by the way Todd McFarlane was drawing him. I then stole a line by Jessica Rabbit from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Next, I mailed it off to Amazing Heroes for your viewing pleasure twenty years later.

You don't like me?

Sometimes, during mid-sentence, I decide to change what I'm saying.

It happened recently as I was using an old TV show reference. Unfortunately, the person I was talking to didn't understand the reference.

I'm pretty sure it made me merely sound like a deranged psycho when I said... "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when... I stab you!"

Little Seen 1967 Marvel Comics!

In the 60's, the toy company Kenner released a cheap version of a Viewmaster, called a SEE-A-SHOW. Unlike a Viewmaster, which had a rotating disk with film images embedded in it, the SEE-A-SHOW merely had a thin card you pulled down through the viewer. One is seen here at the left. The images appeared in 3-D, but you needed a fairly strong light source to view it. It's read from bottom to top.

I thought it would be fun to share the ones I recently found in my basement! For your reading convenience, I've assembled the strips into a more traditional configuration. Click to enlarge...

Spider-Man falling down the pit is the most impressive 3-D effect in the bunch.

For its sheer goofiness, this Hulk one might be my favorite.

Super-hero stories don't get much more straight forward than this Thor one!

The Fantastic Four rated a two-parter!