X-Men – Page 2 – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Mike Parobeck — Modern Composition

March 26, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

X-Men: The Early Years #7, November 1994

Sometimes the reprint cover is just better.

Case in point, Mike Parobeck’s cover of X-Men: Early Years #7, which reprints the original X-Men #7.

Jack’s original cover (below) is overloaded, and a composition mish-mash. Ok, I know it’s by Jack Kirby, and some fans will bristle about anything negative about the King’s work, but sorry, there’s no real comparison between the original and the reprint.

Mike’s cover is strong and focused.

Jack’s original has way too many characters all over the map, with the X-men oddly positioned in the background and The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants voyeuristically up front, awkwardly. Are they watching from a window? Or on a TV screen? A magical portal? Why the heck are they even on this cover? This is a selling point?

Now, just to be clear, this may not be at all Jack’s fault. Maybe Stan Lee art directed it. And overwrote the cover blurbs to death. (Now, the Stan haters can come out of the woodwork.)

As I’ve said on the record many times, I’m a fan of both Stan and Jack, so let’s all calm down. However this original cover developed, it’s simply not a great one. Even legends drop the ball once in a while.

Mike’s solves the problem thirty years later by focusing only on the X-men coordinating — or attempting to — an attack on the Blob.

Simple. Clear. Clean. Powerful. Typical of Parobeck’s work.

But… On the published version, the trade dress is a bit heavy handed, so some of the art is obscured — and the entire image had to be flipped to accommodate said trade dress. And, to add to this litany, why the monochrome coloring? Ah Hell, who knows.

Anyway, the original art is great and Mike’s Marvel work is pretty rare; he is best known for some great looking art on the Batman Animated comic books. I was also a big fan of his Justice Society run.

He unfortunately passed away MUCH too early at the age of 31 (from Diabetes) in 1996.

His is a talent that is sorely missed.

John Byrne — X-Men Redux

March 24, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

X-Men #115 Re-Imagination, 2006 (Orig. Nov. 1978)

2020 is a big year for X-Men anniversaries.

It’s the 50^th anniversary of the original title’s cancellation (Issue #66). It had struggled to find consistent commercial success or creative direction for much of its original seven-year history.

It’s the 45^th anniversary of the X-Men’s “comeback” with the launch of Giant-Size X-Men #1, possibly the greatest rags to riches story in comics’ history. If anyone else can tell me where a book goes from cancelled to a company’s most popular title in less than 10 years, I’m all ears.

And, perhaps more importantly from a broader pop culture perspective, it’s the 20th anniversary of the X-Men film franchise from Fox, which concludes forever in a short while with the release of the problem-plagued New Mutants. (Postponed many times, it was most recently scheduled for an April 3 theatrical release, and has now been indefinitely delayed because of the COVID-19 outbreak.)

The first X-Men film launched 8 years ahead of the MCU, and in my mind, established what a Marvel film could do in terms of both creativity and commercial success. It paved the way for what was to come.

Meanwhile, we have this great commission by John Byrne.

John Byrne. X-Men. Not much to add here except a few details.

This is a Byrne re-imagination (as John calls them, I believe) of the cover of X-Men # 115 featuring the dinosaur villain Sauron. The re-imagination is more dynamic and dramatic than the original, which was only John’s third cover on the book. Dave Cockrum had a few in the can when Byrne took over art duties on issue #108.

Byrne’s commissions can be found easily through a Google search and there a lot of great ones — at sizes up to 30x 40!

Unfortunately, John’s not doing much if any in the way of commissions right now as he is spending time on his X-Men fan fiction (his phrase) but if you want to keep fingers crossed that he will take them up again, you can contact his art representative, Jim Warden.

*John’s Commission is closer in spirit to this great original double-page spread from #115.*

*The X-Men rebirth began here in Giant-Size #1 and X-Men #94, both 1975.*

*Byrne’s earliest X-Men work: His first issue (#108, cover by Dave Cockrum) preceded by a guest appearance in Marvel Team-Up #53, featuring another great DPS.*

Walter Simonson with Scott Hanna — Hulk Naughty…

December 22, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Avengers #28, September 2012

It’s a Red Hulk / Green Hulk Walter Simonson-themed Christmas, with Red Hulk stepping up first.

Red Hulk appears very angry — that’s no way to behave during the Holiday Season! — in this marvelous double page spread by Walter Simonson.

The notorious deadline crunch has come calling — this is blue-line inked original art (the pencils exist separately) with inks by the talented Scott Hanna, who embellishes Walter’s pencils pretty faithfully on this spread.

Walter of course does not part with pages that he both pencils and inks, which means this is one of only a few scenarios where one can own a Simonson published page.

And even though his actual pencils never touched the paper, its a great Simonson example to have. Storytelling on a DPS can often be tricky, but Walter develops this one with a combination of clarity and creativity. (Note the panel size variety and “camera angles.” )

As for Red Hulk? Nothing good usually comes from picking a fight with the X-Men, no matter what the time of year.