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Chris Sprouse — Tom Strong Gets Strange

Original Art and The Artists

Tom Strong #12, June 2001

Alan Moore has fun with his “silver-age” heroes (Tom Strong and friends) meeting their “golden-age” counterparts (Tom Strange and friends) in this great two-parter.

The entire series is apparently finally getting an omnibus – or compendium, or something — in 2023, and it’s about time. (All of the “America’s Best Comics” material needs the same treatment.) 

Al Gordon provides quality inks for Chris on this early issue, as Sprouse and Karl Story had not yet become a “permanent” pencilling and inking team.

Plus… great cover homages on these early to classic silver age covers. (See below.)

Welcome to Day Eight of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

Chris Sprouse & Karl Story — Truth, Justice And…

Original Art and The Artists

Adventures of Superman #7, January 2014

….Happy Independence Day!

DC changed “The American Way” tagline a while ago, and I get that. Superman, more than 80 years after his debut, is an an international icon.

But Superman, like July 4th and summer, will always go together in my mind — I’m pretty sure some silver age Superman comics are the first ones I ever read with the help of my Aunt at the age of five on a July 4th family vacation. And the rest, as they say (ad nauseam, actually), is history.

This iconic Superman image is a “blue-line”: Karl inked the a scan of Chris’ pencils to save some time as deadline rapidly approached. (The print schedule is more powerful than a locomotive OR Superman. Trust me on this.) And I absolutely don’t care. It’s the printed cover, and, like I said, iconic.

More Superman posts during July. Stay tuned.

Chris Sprouse & Karl Story — Thor Vs. Thor

Original Art and The Artists

Thors #3, November 2015

Rune Thor decks Ultimate Thor in the Secret Wars spinoff, “Thors.”

Chris Sprouse and Karl Story deliver a cool action splash from this series where members of the Thor Corps investigate the deaths of many, many Jane Fosters.

If you Google “Rune Thor,” you’ll find a close-up of this page used as the “bio-pic” on the Marvel Fandom Wiki.

Cool indeed.

Thor vs. Thor, the first time, courtesy of Walter Simonson from 1983 in the Wayback Machine. (With contemporary coloring.)

Chris Sprouse and Karl Story — Love and Thunder

Original Art and The Artists

Thors #4, January 2016

Thor “4” is entitled Love and Thunder.

Love and Thunder? 

Sounds potentially a bit comedic. But if only “a bit”… I’m ok with that.

Thor Ragnarok mixed seriousness with humor as well.  I like the film — and mass audiences responded to it very much— but it comes a bit close to camp in places.

Fingers crossed that a new film doesn’t cross that line that line completely.

I’m definitely intrigued to see Thor’s pal girlfriend Jane Foster take on the Thor role. (It’s already happened in the comics.) Might we have more than one Thor when the film ends? 

Maybe. Chris Hemsworth has said he isn’t planning on going anywhere if he has anything to say about it, so who knows.

We can have more than one Thor. We have had at least a few in the main Marvel Universe. And throw in alternate realities, the multiverse, etc., and you have many, many Thors.

Case in point: This Secret Wars (2015) spin-off, appropriately titled Thors. The plot is too complex to cover in detail here, but in this pivotal splash on Doomgard, Jane Foster attempts to rally the other Thors to fight a common foe instead of each other.

See, she’s not only Thor — she’s now a leader among Thors.

And great art, as always, by the terrific team of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story.

“Ink and Thunder” sounds about right to me.

Chris Sprouse — Hauled Away

Original Art and The Artists

Daredevil #601, April 2018

Daredevil, beaten and bruised, is hauled away by the NYPD in this cool cover by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story.

It’s an apt metaphor for the part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that briefly resided on Netflix.

Daredevil, along with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Punisher anchored an ultra-violent “Marvel Knights” style universe on the steamer for three years. Pretty good television shows, ultimately victims to the battles between the giant entertainment behemoths.

Daredevil was my personal favorite of the group, leaning very much into Frank Miller’s work on the “Man Without Fear” and “Born Again” story arcs. Terrific cast, well-written scripts, and a definitive, stunning performance by Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin.

In about six months, the moratorium on rights reversion ends, so Marvel will be free themselves to use the characters in the MCU. In fact, there is a dedicated group of fans campaigning for the cast, if not the entire show, to return in some form under the Marvel banner.

A long shot of course, but the group has worked tirelessly to make its opinion known. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile this cover is an oddity in that it highlights a scene that took place in the previousissue. Just in case you missed it, I guess.

Doesn’t matter from an art standpoint of course. It is a striking image. Regardless. And as mentioned in a previous post, I’m always happy to see Sprouse and Story on… pretty much anything.

Chris Sprouse and Karl Story — Sensational

Original Art and The Artists

Sensation Comics, (digital) #26, (print) #9, June 2015

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few posts — no matter when the new film finally releases.

Plenty of reboots. Rebirths. New universes. New timelines. Old characters return. New characters die. Old characters becomenew characters.

Rinse. Repeat.

And yet somehow, through all of this, the dynamic duo art team of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story are not illustrating a mainstream superhero comic book on an ongoing basis.

The ONLY —and I mean ONLY – reason this should be possible is speed. Plenty of talented art teams have trouble with long-term monthly output. (As they say, I have the gray hair to prove it.)

But that can fixed with some long-term creative planning and execution.

Meanwhile, even if it’s a rare sighting, it’s definitely a welcome one.

Like this Wonder Woman splash, from a “digital First” Sensation Comics series featuring multiple creative teams.

The pages have to work in both digital and print format, and that’s certainly not a problem here. Good, clean storytelling from a fun tale featuring Diana and Lois Lane.

More, please.

Chris Sprouse — Always Terrific

Original Art and The Artists

Tom Strong #26, June 2004

2019 is somehow the 20th anniversary of Alan Moore’s ABC line of comics at Wildstorm / DC, which included Tom Strong and company.

Seems like only a few years ago that Wildstorm published the first issue of the cool retro-modern Strong, Moore’s obvious love letter to Doc Savage and other pulp heroes. Sprouse’s art was of course perfect for the character designs and storytelling. As noted previously, I’m a big fan of the Sprouse and Story team. (Al Gordon also did a nice job on inks of the earlier issues, but Karl gets my vote anytime Chris is penciling.)

Moore left the regular series shortly before this issue appeared, and in fact, it is “guest-written” by Mark Schultz, and “guest-drawn” by Pascual Ferry. The only Sprouse / Story art in this issue is this terrific cover. (To see it at full-size, check out the amazing and somewhat overlooked America’s Best Comics Artist’s Edition from IDW.)

Moore would team-up one more time with the art duo to wrap up the storyline in the final regular issue (#36), but fortunately for us, Sprouse and Story came back for both mini-series that followed, written by Peter Hogan. (Strong also ultimately appeared in a separate anthology series, Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales, featuring different creative combos.)

Now, of course, the ABC line is dormant and I’m pretty sure the Wildstorm imprint is as well. But Strong and his crew live on for now in the greater DCU, as part of the Terrifics, a quirky multi-verse title. Still, it is definitely worth revisiting the original 36 issues and the spin-off appearances.

Hey DC, how about an Omnibus?

Chris Sprouse / Karl Story — Double Feature

Original Art and The Artists

Supergirl #36, and Action #872, February 2009

Supergirl’s 5thseason premieres on the CW on Sunday, so our next few posts will take a look at the cousin of steel.

Here’s my unsolicited story idea for the terrific art team of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story:  A Superman Family “Elseworlds” limited series that includes Superman, Supergirl, Lois and Jimmy, The Super Pets, The Legion of Superheroes, Kandor, Bizarro… And a full line-up of classic villains.  Pretty much everyone who populated the mid 20th century Superman comics.

In other words, a longer form story that’s similar to Alan Moore’s and Curt Swan’s classic “Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow,” but with —- spoiler alert — no fatal tragedies involved.

In 2020, that’s about as likely to happen as Perry White yelling “Great Caesar’s Ghost”, or Jimmy Olsen turning back into a giant turtle, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

Much like Steve Rude, Chris Samnee, and a handful of other artists, Chris and Karl take classic styling and adapt it into a modern form. It’s both retro and contemporary. 

In many ways, it’s the best of both worlds. (Hey — that could be the name of the series.)

In the meantime, we have these two great covers: Supergirl and “Superwoman” (long story) gracefully flying, and Metallo and Reactron defeating the super cousins. Cyborgs rarely look this menacing on a super-hero cover.

And, if someone at DC miraculously likes my idea, and Mark Waid is tied up, it’s pretty easy to find me…

Gabriel Hardman — Terror In The Public Domain

Original Art and The Artists

Project Superpowers: Blackcross #6, November 2015

Our third annual Halloween tribute continues now through October 31. 

Gabe Hardman creates an image of The Black Terror, that’s… well… pretty terrifying.

Launched in the Golden Age, the character has since fallen into the public domain, and has appeared in numerous titles and incarnations. This most recent version of The Terror spins out from the Project Superpowers project, the clever Alex Ross-driven series from Dynamic Forces that combines a number of PD characters into one universe.

As noted multiple times previously, I find Hardman’s work among the best in modern comics art.

I just wish for more of it.

The Black Terror’s launch and subsequent iterations from Alex Ross and Alan Moore / Chris Sprouse.