Finishing our mini-celebration of the X-Men’s 60th anniversary.
Here’s a fun page from X-Men First Class, featuring, as part of the story, Kitty a bit out of sorts in an underground drainage system. It’s here she learns the secret of Doc Blake’s cane and his transformation abilities into — well — the last panel tips us off, doesn’t it? (Of course, the cover was a giveaway, too.)
Clear and interesting storytelling, and a wonderful use of shadows and light, make this an exceptionally compelling page. (Once again, although the published page is fine, the original looks much better in black and white.)
Continuing a mini-celebration of the X-Men’s 60th anniversary.
Here’s a perfect (or as perfect gets) Wolverine cover by underrated artist David Williams. It features a pissed off Wolverine (actually, that might be redundant) and a shocked and terrified Kitty Pryde dynamically heading into — or out of — trouble.
Great background detail (nicely adapted from from photo reference) provides extra depth and interest while still setting off the foreground. Overall, a very nice use of shadows and light. (The digital coloring on the published cover handles it less effectively.)
And cliche’s are cliche’s for a reason: Every time I examine the expression on Kitty’s Face I do indeed think one picture is worth a thousand words.
Continuing a mini-celebration of the X-Men’s 60th anniversary.
Spider-Man and Wolverine. Team-up or rivalry? Peanut butter and chocolate — or Coke vs. Pepsi?
Doesn’t really matter. Two of Marvel’s most famous icons in one story typically means chaos and fun, especially when a talented artist like Chris Bachalo takes charge.
Bonus points for snow, at least for me. Issues #47- #49 of Amazing Spider-man were the earliest issues I read, and yep, Spidey must ultimately deal with snow. Not to mention the flu. Oh, and he gets his butt whipped by a different kind of dynamic duo: Kraven the Hunter and The Vulture.
Continuing a mini-celebration of the X-Men’s 60th anniversary.
What’s so great about this issue of X-Factor?:
Walter Simonson.
Classic X-Men characters.
Sentinels.
Story by Louise Simonson.
Terrific inks by Bob Wiacek.
Did I mention Walter Simonson?
You get the picture. I overpaid (really overpaid, I think) for this page in an auction bidding frenzy during the pandemic — you can look it up — but I love it, so it’s a win. It’s not going anywhere, unless, in all unlikelihood, I find a better page out in the wild.
We can’t let 2023 fade into the memory books without at least some tribute to the 60th Anniversary of the X-Men.
Neal Adams drew nine issues of the X-Men. John Byrne drew four times as many. I love John Byrne art, but the prices of his pages are — how do we say? — a bit out of whack when compared to the scarcity of Adams.
Oh, and this is a great one from his run, with superb inks by the legendary Tom Palmer. (Despite the disappointing quality of the scan.)
30 years ago, I had the good sense to snap this fantastic photo of Jack Kirby and Gil Kane at the 1993 San Diego Comic-Con. (Jaunty Jim Salicrup, the Topps Comics EIC, is the happy fella in the middle.)
Fantastic, but, as it turned out, bittersweet: This was the final time these two legends had a chance to greet each other. (Jack passed away the following winter.) I’m not sure they were both scheduled at the Topps booth at the same time, so it may have been a very happy coincidence.
I’ve discussed Topps Comics (and trading cards) numerous times in previous posts — it was a wild ride with many great moments. This was one of my favorites.
And did I say good sense? Hardly. If I did, I would have handed off the disposable camera to someone else and jumped in the photo as well.
Kane and Kirby both delivered for Topps; we launched the “Kirbyverse” with unused and under-utilized concepts from Jack’s files, and Gil Kane drew the Jurassic Park adaptation and prequel. And both provided art for our massive Star Wars Galaxy series, which featured more than 400 cards — with art from nearly that many individual creators.
Spider-Man and Sub-Mariner need a few pages of bantering and brawling in this early issue of Marvel Team-Up before they figure out that they left on friendly terms just two years prior. But that’s often the classic (sometimes cliché) formula. Characters meet, fight, and then figure out who the real enemy is and join forces to stop them. (In this case Tiger Shark and — I kid you not — the Aquanoids.)
Gil Kane provides, as always, dynamic and dramatic pencils and composition — although finding regular inkers for him on this series seems challenging. Here the enigmatic Wayne Howard takes a stab at Gil’s unique styling with mixed effects throughout the issue. (Although I like the results on this specific page.)
Great cover too, with inks by Frank Giacoia. (Although the Marvel trade dress is out of control with not much room for the main imagery.)
For more on the first Sub-Mariner / Spider-Man crossover, see this fun article below:
Ten years ago, I purchased this terrific Avengers double page spread by Walter Simonson and Scott Hanna from Scott’s art representative at New York Comic-Con. Scott was at the convention, but I never managed to track him down. Walter was there, so he signed it before I returned to California, but since it was inks over blue-line printed pencils, it definitely needed Scott’s signature as well.
Problem was, I kept forgetting about it during my convention travels.
Finally, coming out of the pandemic two years ago, I see that Scott will be at Baltimore Comic-Con, so I pack it up, fly back East and… he needs to cancel. That’s not on him — a lot of creators cancelled in 2021, many because Covid had started raging again and travel stunk.
Flash forward to a few weeks ago, he’s an announced guest at BCC, so I bring it again, and voila, I catch up to him. Signature acquired.
And as a bonus, when I remind Walter about the piece, writer Brian Bendis happens to stop by, so I end up with a cool bonus signature as well. (He was genuinely delighted to see the original art — writers often don’t see the originals before they make their way back to the artists and/or disappear into the collectors’ market.)
If you’re counting, that’s 12,500 miles of travel for that piece of art.
I should have signed it up for a frequent flyer account.
It was my turn to chat with Comic Art Fans (CAF) moderator Bill Cox this past Tuesday. We ended up talking about lots of interesting comic book publishing history… plus some great art. You can watch it directly through the link below:
And speaking of comic book history…
In celebration of 50 years of the creation of the comic book specialty distribution market, Milton Griepp of ICV2 is featuring a series of interviews with early “pioneers” in the business. The day before this past SDCC, my interview (video and print) appeared. If you’ve got some down time (Ok, if you’re bored with pretty much everything else on-line at the moment), please join me down the rabbit hole.
Good timing on the publication of the interviews; I am personally celebrating 40 years of professional contributions to the popular entertainment arts (Topps, IDW Publishing, Activision, et al) in one media format or another.
Teenage Greg (photo is October 1975, at Phil Seuling’s monthly Comic Book Marketplace show in New York City) would be very amused, if not startled.
