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.)
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.
Art Adams pays homage to Neal Adams with this terrific Avengers variant cover from 2014.
Neal’s original Avengers (#92) cover is from 1971, and remains one of my personal favorites. In addition to loving the dramatic art and striking colors, I have a fond memory of guessing the cover’s story gimmick before I actually read the comic.
(Spoiler alert: Thor, Cap and Iron Man are actually skrulls, which we don’t find out until the next issue. Another spoiler: Writer Roy Thomas shortcuts some of the backstory of how that came to pass — blink and you might miss it. Before it’s all over though, the Avengers will find themselves in the middle of the Kree-Skrull war. But, as always, we digress.)
Art’s modern version swaps out X-Men for Avengers, and seamlessly adds additional characters as well.
2021-2022 is the 50th Anniversary of the Kree–Skrull war, so… Happy Anniversary, and Happy New Year!
As discussed previously here, John Byrne does (or did?) some amazing commissions. The reason I’m not confident on my verb tense here is that I hear John stopped creating them when he put his artistic efforts behind his X-Men “fan-fiction” project.
One of most interseting facts about these commissions is that John has done them as large as 30×40. That’s slightly bigger than a movie poster!
This terrific one here is 20×30. I’m the second owner, as the first one sold his entire collection all at once. Right place, right time for me; I’m a big fan (no pun intended) of the Super-Skrull.
I commissioned Len O’Grady to color the piece for me, and he did a terrific job. If I recall correctly, we sent it over to JB, who approved it as well.
(And if my recollection were incorrect about that, it would not surprise me to hear about it. John is not shy about offering his opinion.)
Some of the many additional Byrne Fantastic Four commissions in the hands of fans and collectors.
The first appearance of the Super-Skull, followed by an issue of Thor where I first encountered him as a young Marvel reader.
Concluding — for now — our two-week series celebrating a few important X-Men anniversaries in 2020.
A full-page splash of an iconic superhero… on the phone?
Well yes, why not, if done well?
And here in Alpha Flight it’s done very well, by the talented June Brigman and Whilce Portacio.
I love the look on Logan’s face. And, his coif reminds me of
the line from great Warren Zevon song “Werewolves of London:”
“His hair was perfect.”
Wolverine is not self-quarantining here. I double-checked. He’s just chilling at the moment. Also, note there are two things you won’t see anymore in a Marvel Comic. A phone cord and a cigar; old technology and a bad influence on kids, in the order.
But Snik?!? Someone
apparently forgot the “t” in Snikt? That’s an odd one. Chris Claremont first used
“Snikt” way back in X-Men #116. And, apparently it’s become a legit trademark
for the sound of Wolverine’ claws.
Fun fact: The story continues — with Wolverine — in Alpha Flight #53 and, while also inked by Whilce, its penciled by none other than Jim Lee, whose very first Marvel work was two issues earlier, in #51. But this time, he draws Wolverine, a sign of things to come.
Fun fact #2: Whilce
and I bumped into each other —- both of us with unscheduled visits — on
Free Comic Book Day a few years ago. Pretty fun and random coincidence — its
not like San Diego is a small county, or only has one comic book store.
Fun fact #3; If for
any odd reason you have not read the Power Pack series by Brigman and Louise
Simonson, well, stop what you’re doing and get to it. Brilliant. And fun!
More X-men and Wolverine related posts late in the year. Stay tuned.
Claremont and Byrne introduce “Snikt” as Wolverine’s trademark claw sound effects in X-Men #116, December 1978
As noted earlier, John Byrne had returned to X-Men with X-Men: The Hidden Years.
His original collaborator, writer Chris Claremont, returned much later on in 2010 via a more direct route, in X-Men Forever.
Basically picking up after he left off in 1991 — and then immediately diverging — Claremont quickly killed Wolverine and had the remaining X-Men team deal with the ramifications of his death.
Tom Grummett’s character-packed cover deals with the team laying their fallen comrade to rest. Grummett was the many artists on the Forever series, which also included X-men mainstay Paul Smith on this issue, and others.
It’s an interseting choice — and a good one, commercially — to leave Wolverine’s uniform on top of the coffin. Contextually, of course, it makes little sense.
Sean Chen’s variant cover takes a look at an imaginary one moment later — when “zombie” Wolverine breaks out of his coffin(In uniform). This event is not in the series. Wolverine in fact stays dead. This image seems a tribute to the popular (and multiple) Marvel Zombies series.
It’s a clever set-up, and one of the few times a main cover and a variant are done in this manner. Kudos to editor Mark Paniccia — or whoever came up with the imaginative idea.
X-Men: The Hidden Years # 17, April 2001 & #20, July 2001
John Byrne returned to the X-Men in 1999. Not his beloved X-Men of Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Phoenix, however. This time it was the “original” X-Men — in the period between their cancellation and rebirth. The “Hidden Years.”
It’s an often overlooked series and shouldn’t be. John brought great energy — and closed some outstanding story loops — in the 22-issue series.
Inks are by the terrific Tom Palmer, which gave the series a
classic look, reminiscent of those great original Neal Adams issues, while still
keeping it clearly Byrne.
Lots of fun guest appearances in the series as well, including the Fantastic Four — inked in one issue by the legendary Joe Sinnott.
X-Men: Hidden Years #20 is a Byrne homage to Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four #1. It was the sixth (and final) Marvel-related FF #1 homage that John drew.
