Marking the 10th anniversary of the Death and Return of Superman, Dan Jurgens and Bill Sienkiewicz tackled a four-issue retrospective mini-series titled, appropriately, Day of Doom.
Bill’s unmistakable inks make the situation even more horrific this second time around. (This is one of the best pages in the series, as it features all four Superman characters who “returned.”)
Happy Halloween indeed — and welcome to the 30th anniversary of the Death of Superman.
I couldn’t imagine I’d ever see Bill Sienkiewicz create a Jack Kirby version of the Hulk, and then I ran across this odd and trippy one-shot issue featuring an unusual pairing of the Sentry and the green goliath.
And sure enough, during some flashback scenes / dream sequences, we do indeed see Bill’s Kirby-style Hulk, crackle and all.
As a bonus, on this great page, we get “traditional” Bill art along with the Kirby homage.
Definitely a keeper.
Bill combines classic and contemporary images on some beautiful pages throughout this one-shot.
HBO’sWatchmen was an unexpected television smash of 2019, and it has landed on a number of best of lists. This series of posts explores the Watchmen characters, which have roots in the more traditional superhero universe.
Steve Ditko creates the iconic and mature character Mr. A (with moral absolutism as his trademark) in 1967 for the prozine Witzend, published by Wally Wood.
A few months later, Ditko tones down the violence and moral
absolutism just a bit, and creates a more comics-code friendly character, The Question,
for Charlton Comics.
In 1983, DC acquires the Charlton superheroes from the
financially strapped publisher. The characters first appear in 1985’s mega-event
Crisis on Infinite Earths as inhabitants of “Earth Four.”
In 1986 Alan Moore retools the Question/Mr. A as Rorschach for Watchmen.
Even before Watchmen concludes, the Question receives his first
own ongoing (and very mature) DC series by Denny O’Neil and Denys Cowan.
In issue #17 of that series, the Question (Vic Sage) reads a
Watchmen comic and dreams that he is Rorschach.
A most meta series of events.
Ultimately, The Question series ran 36 issues, ending in 1990. 20 years later, DC added an extra issue as part of the Blackest Night storyline that brought back additional issues of previously cancelled comics.
Which brings us here: In this issue, Bill Sienkiewicz, who
drew or inked nearly all of the covers for that original series, inks an entire
issue for the first time over Denys Cowan’s dynamic pencils. (Cowan had
penciled all but one original issue.)
This is the last page (Renee Montoya is The Question here) from
the story. But, of course, certainly not the last of The Question. As he/she
has already appeared a few times since, most recently notably in Grant
Morrison’s Multiversity: Pax Americana on a new version of Earth Four.
And, in this universe, Vic Sage sounds a lot like… Rorschach.
And the circle continues….
Ten years ago, in Blackest Night, the original Question, Vic Sage, is resurrected to fight the then current Question, Renee Montoya.
The first appearances of Mr. A and The Question, along with the cover of the first and only feature-length Question comic from Charlton.
We meet Rorschach in Watchmen #1, and then the Question meets him in his dreams in Question #17, the first time a Watchmen character appears in any other DC comic.
A recent incarnation of the Question and his Charlton colleagues in the DCU.
Lush brushwork. Clear storytelling. Impeccable detail. Accurate anatomy and likenesses. Al Williamson’s page from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi adaption speaks volumes about realizing potential in adapting other mediums to comics.
George Lucas had the power to choose the artist to draw the Marvel
Empire Strikes Back adaption and he had the good sense to choose Al Williamson.
Al’s gorgeous art on classic EC science Fiction stories as
well as Flash Gordon had clearly made an impression.
Fortunately for us, Williamson agreed to also illustrate the
Star Wars newspaper strip (after Russ Manning’s untimely passing), and he
ultimately came back for Return of the Jedi adaption as well.
On all three projects — plus a handful of stories in the
regular comics — Al delivered. It’s some of his finest work.
Williamson kept much of his Star Wars related art, and his estate now owns it. Nearly all the originals that have come on the market are those once owned by his assistants or inkers.
This great page from ROTJ has a more interesting provenance. Superstar inker Mike Royer received it from Al (see inscription) shortly after publication. It remained in his collection for many years.
So it’s not only a great piece of original art, it has a
great story behind it as well.
And it’s a cornerstone of my collection.
The complete adaptation was printed all at once in a Marvel special magazine — it appeared in Direct Market stores a few weeks prior to the film’s release. Imagine if that happened in 2019. Covers for the magazine and the comics by Bill Sienkiewicz.
