Captain Britain Attempt

This is an attempt I made at drawing Captain Britain in his original costume.

Dragon from Marvel UK's Dragon's Claws

Dragon's Claws was a great title in the Marvel US format, published by Marvel UK. It featured a dystopian future and featured the sublime, action packed art of Geoff Senior. It was written by Simon Furman of Transformers fame. This is an attempt I made at drawing the team's leader - Dragon.

Captain Britain Weekly 1977

Secret Wars Dorman's Cheese Giveaway.

 

Remember the ad that appeared in 1985 for the Secret Wars puffy stickers? Here's the set. It's pretty cool.

 

 

Fantastic Four #258 Classic Issue

John Byrne's run on the Fantastic Four was one full of innovation, no question. Byrne continually pushed the envelope with the medium in the 1980's. This issue features one of Byrne's masterstrokes: a full 22 pages focusing on the FF's main protagonist Doctor Doom, with absolutely no appearance of any member of the FF whatsoever. A bold move. 

The cover features Doom's gloved hand clawing at the paper, partially uncovering the splash page featuring himself - another innovation, 

'It is good.'

The issue opens with an impressive splash with an inposing Von Doom standing on the battlements of his castle.  Doom is surveying the street below, where hale and hearty Latverians are happily engaging in honest labour, or taking five with a game of chess. The shops are picturesque and beautiful. 

This pleases Doom, and Doom notes that the people of Latveria are happy 'as I commanded them to be.' Herein lie one of the essential and often contradictory elements of Doom's persona that Byrne is well aware of and explores adeptly; Doom is a megalomaniac and completely ruthless in pursuit of conquest and destroying Reed Richards and the rest, but he loves his country and ensures that his people have the best life possible under the rule of his gauntlet ed fist. He treats his subjects fairly and they, in turn, treat him as a deity, almost. 

 One of those subjects informs Doom that Doctor Strange is without a disciple, and Doom ponders this. His maniacal ego struggles with the notion of studying under anyone else, yet he acknowledges Strange's mastery of the mystic arts and mulls over the idea of becoming his disciple, 

 Byrne here, lays the goundwork for Roger Stern's Torment greaphic novel featuring the two doctor's quest to save Doom's mother from the nerfarious clutches of Mephisto. It's a classic story and well worth reading .

One of the loose ends from David Michelinie's classic Doomquest story from Iron Man #149 & #150 is tied up here also as one of Doom's top scientists/assistants who betrayed Doom in retribution for his brother's death at Doom's hands is killed by Doom. 

 Hauptmann creates a means of granting the power cosmic through a chair like device and invites Doom to try it in order to kill him. 

Victor smells a rat and insists Hauptmann tries it instead. He is then disintegrated by the powerful energies. 

How Doom sees through the ruse is classic: if someone had the means to obtain the power cosmic why would they give it away? 

This is Doom observing others through the warped prism of his own morals. However, his warped logic is proven correct.

Also explored is Doom's guardianship of a young orphan called Kristoff of whom it is clear Doom is very fond of. The boy who was orphaned during the overthrow of Zorba in #247 is overjoyed at the sight of his master returning and is being treated to the best of tuition the Royal Court has to offer. We see here a softer side of Doom explaining to the boy the ways of a monarch. 

 This parental side of Doom is tested when Kristoff calls Magneto Doom's rival and Doom explodes with rage lifting young Kristoff from the ground!! 

Interestingly, the Doom that Arcade struck a match off in the pages of Uncanny X-Men is revealed to be a Doombot as Byrne felt unhappy with Chris Claremont's treatment of Doom and uses this as a means of rectifying that misuse. It seems petty but Byrne obviously took Doom's character very serious and it shows here. It would be a further cause of discord in the Bullpen when Shooter used him in the Secret Wars a year after. 

The Doombot is summarily destroyed for allowing such an affront. 'Doom needs no one.'

Doom sends his robots to obtain Terrax, Galactus' former herald who fell in battle to the FF, and is now simply Tyros once more. Doom intends to re-power him with the power cosmic in order to defeat the Fantastic Four. Doom uses Hauptmann's machine to achieve this end. This energy augmentation is temporary and will end up killing Tyros. Here we see the callousness and ruthlessnesss of Doom and no matter how charismatic he is, Byrne deftly reminds us that he is an amoral villain who will stop at nothing to achieve his ends. 

There are interesting exchanges between Doom and Tyros, both egomaniacal men of might. Tyros flies off on his mission and the stage is set for one of the best battles of Byrne's run!

Tyros embarks on his mission

All in all, this is a great one issue character study showing Doom as a highly comple, multi-faceted character with depths that many less capable writers failed to plumb. I honestly believe that this is the best and most well realised treatment Doom has ever received. 

Superman House Ad 1986 - John Byrne

Classic house ad from DC. This ad ushered in the modern post Crisis era of Superman. Man of Steel had been a critical and commercial success and the Superman titles were given a fresh coat of paint, with a new 'Team-up' approach to Action Comics. 

The Superman title became 'Adventures of Superman' and we got a Superman #1!! All three titles were high quality and 'Adventures' by Wolfman and Ordway had a slightly different flavour than the two Byrne books.

It truly was a magical era for the character.

Iron Man Vs Doctor Doom

Trying to imagine a cool scene where Iron Man defeats Doctor Doom during the Doomquest storyline. It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted.

Captain America and the Red Skull (A Recent Attempt)

Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars Sticker Album 1986

This fantastic sticker album came free with both Transformers and Spiderman and Zoids in Oct 1986. This book comes from sticker collection giant Panini, and is truly a feast for the eyes. The cover looks like it was drawn by Ron Frenz, although it may be a 'jam' piece from a number of artists.

The timing of this release was always quizzical to me, as this was released in October 1986 and the toy-line had died an ignominious death well over a year earlier, with all but the most die-hard Marvel fans. Also, the Marvel UK title was finishing up in less than 3 months. It just makes no sense to me.

As a whole this collection is bright and colourful and stays faithful to the source material, unlike the US version, which had very little to do with the classic storyline, and was far less attractive.

One of the best parts of the collection is the middle section that features the main heroes and villains duking it out amidst a suitably cosmic background. It is on high quality, glossy stock also. 

Here is the glorious centrespread.

Some more pages...

And finally here, is an example of some of the individual stickers. Check out the review of Marvel UK's treatment of the Secret Wars!!

Spider-man Weekly #618, 1984 - Classic Cover

Here is the cover to Spider-Man Weekly #618 from 1984. It's gorgeous with headshots of most of the Avengers, the Hulk and even Machine Man gets a look-in. I love the golden finish effect. The stories inside are a reprint of a Marvel Team-Up issue with Thor as both he and Spidey square off against the Black Abbott. The is a Hulk story by Roger Stern and Sal Buscema and a partial reprint of Avengers #208 from 1981 as the Avengers collide with the Beserker, with art by Gene Colan. 

Captain Britain 70's Costume Attempt

Marvel UK 1985-86 Part 2 - Marvel UK enters the Secret Wars!

In 1984 Marvel US released Secret Wars. It was a tie in for a great line of toys from Mattel. The toys were ultimately a commercial failure, and nowhere near as popular as Kenner's Superpowers line of DC Heroes who Mattel were trying to emulate. The Secret Wars toys are still highly sought after by collectors, and the line holds the distinction of crafting the first ever Wolverine figure. 

Marvel decided to release a tie-in comic in the US where all the heroes and villains were transported to Battleworld to do, ahem, battle. A simple premise that created one of the most remembered series in comic book history. Whereas the toyline was a failure, the comic was a smash! Written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Mike Zeck it still elicits fond recollections from collectors today. 

Marvel UK, whose superhero line was entering its twilight period made the wise decision to chronicle this story in a fortnightly comic. (It later became weekly). 

The first issue screamed 'pick me up' with that exquisite cover by Mike Zeck and also came with some free transfers pictured above plus a great illustrated backing board on which to place the transfers. 

Lust like sister comic the Transformers, SW used a combination of black and white and colour pages. It also used back-up strips as was the format at the time for the company's fortnightlies/weeklies. 

In this case it was John Byrne's popular Alpha Flight and the Iceman mini-series. 

Iceman may not have been the most inspired choice (even though I quite liked the strip back in the day), the decision to include the strip may have been prompted by the characters visibility through the very popular Spider-man and his Amazing Friends cartoon that aired in 1983 on BBC1. This cartoon was a gateway drug for many kids into the world of Marvel comics. 

Early issues continued the trend of giving readers free gifts with a variety of circular foam stickers that were almost impossible to remove without damaging the cover of the comic. Here's SW #9 with the free mounted Enchantress sticker. It's a gorgeous cover with the superior shiny logo from the toy line that the UK version tended to favour in the early days.

Here is some of the resultant damage from the removal of said puffy stickers!

ARRRGH!!

Marvel UK's Secret Wars title had a different flavour from the US comic book it reprinted no question. One of the great things about it was a feature called 'Secret Artist' which featured full page caricatures of Marvel's shining lights. Some of these were fantastic, if not a little creepy. 

Now, I haven't a clue who this talented guy is but these caricatures are magic! Here's a sampling...

Here's another one of Hawkeye...

And finally a f&*(ed up version of Mr. Fantastic!!!

Special thanks to Ulysses Klaw for supplying those..

The fortnightly black and white editions eventually became weekly and full colour and the Iceman back-up strip made way for a spanking new strip called Zoids. This strip which featured great art and story and some of Grant Morrison's earliest professional work. 

The first Secret Wars was a classic, no doubt, it was really Doctor Doom's story. A man with the testicular fortitude to take on a God.

Issue #32 started the reprints of the much maligned sequel Secret Wars 2. #32 came with a free poster of US Secret Wars #1.

 The weekly often had cut and pasted different issues together and were often under pressure to fit a 22 page story (back up strips were gone at this stage) with a 24 page mag, while also including a classifieds section, their regular War Office introduction section and an ad or two. It was a precarious balance. They even went to the measures of enlarging panels and featuring them as covers. 

  Secret Wars 2 was an over ambitious attempt by Jim Shooter to bring the god-like entity, Beyonder, to Earth. It featured an abundance of navel gazing and existential questioning that often bordered on inanity.

 Still. if you didn't take it too seriously it was quite a fun read. Some of Shooter's musings on the media and 80's consumerism were a little heavy handed but humorous also. I got a kick out of it. Some of the crossover issues were excellent however. 

 Here is an example of an innovative UK cover design that takes a panel and puts an interesting twist on it. 

 All of the US tie ins were reprinted with the exception of the ROM and Micronauts issues licensing reasons. 

 All in all, the Secret Wars comic clocked up a respectable 80 issues, with a reprint of Avengers #266 serving as the epilogue was reprinted in Spider-man and Zoids. Then it was all over... The UK office turned its back on superheroes until Oct 1990 when the Complete Spider-Man hit the shelves. It was the end of an era and apart from the odd Iron Man back-up strip in Transformers or Power Pack strip in Thundercats, there were sporadic appearances of superheroes elsewhere, such as the rare summer special etc. 

 In late '86 Marvel released Panini's Secret Wars sticker album. I'll never understand the timing of this release as the Secret Wars title was finished two months later. Nobody really collected it as the Secret Wars toy line had died an ignominious death, with toys selling for 50p in Woolworths and other stores. But man, what an album and collection it is!!!! Here's a pic and you can judge for yourself. It featured a gorgeous Ron Frenz cover and was infinitely superior to the US version which had no connection to the actual mini-series.

Daredevil and Kingpin Attempt.

It's not often I try and draw Daredevil, but I was fairly pleased with the way this turned out, however I really need to work on my buildings...

Man of Steel #1 1986

John Byrne is the king of the revamp. His revitalisation of the Fantastic Four is still revered after all these years and stands as a milestone in Marvel's history. In 1985 DC had plans to revamp their Superman franchise and who better to go to than Byrne.

With Man of Steel Byrne successfully scraped off the barnacles from Kal-el's space shuttle. There would be no more Krypto, Fortress of Solitude, Superboy, Supergirl, Superhorse etc. At least for a while.

Byrne reintroduced Ma and Pa Kent back into the mythos. This to me was a great move. It made Superman more human having two parents who he worried about and asked for guidance etc.

It also provided added avenues for plot development as Ma and Pa Kent had lives of their own wihich based the series in reality and added many subplots over the years, such as Pa's heart attack during the Funeral for a Fiend storyline, for example.

They were down-to-earth, hard-working country folk who provided Clark Kent with a rock solid moral grounding. They served to ground many of the more fantastical plot elements often providing comic relief.

Lana Lang was no longer the glamorous newscaster in Metropolis but the pretty, lovelorn girl who got left behind.

All these elements added much needed depth and realism to the Superman mythos. Lex Luthor became a currupt, manipulative business man often staying out of jail by legal manipulation, while remaining a philanthropist in the eyes of most Metropolitans.

Man of Steel #1 sets the stage perfectly for the reboot. We see an updated Krypton which looks incredibly sterile and bereft of warmth. It looks suitably 'alien' moreso than the previous incarnation of Kryton. This planet looked interesting and is one of the depictions that people most remember about the first issue.

From the first page you realise that this is very much a stylistic diversion from the original origin, while actually not altering anything.

Jor-el and his missus are presented as cold unemotional, but highly rational beings, unlike their previous incarnation.

After the space shuttle is sent to Earth we see Clark being a glory hog for the Smallville High football team, basking in the adulation of his classmates.

Pa Kent decides to take him for a drive and reprimands him telling him, that he should never make other people feel small by using his great abilities.

It becomes clear from these exchanges that the Kent's were largely responsible for moulding Clark's humanity and this provides a decent and plausible reason why Superman never became a fascist, self serving overlord.


It is this moral compass which Byrne expertly conveys through this and the following issues.

Pa Kent tells Clark about his origins as he shows him the craft that brought him to earth. Clark suddenly feels weak and Pa thinks it's because of the shock of learning his origins. The weakness stems from some kryptonite that was attached to the shuttle. We then see a sinister shilouette who stands intriguingly in the background. We would not learn for many issues who this is

Clark stops a plane from crashing in Metropolis and meets Lois Lane for the first time and is immediately smitten. We are then treated to the most plausible explanation of Clark Kent's disguise yet as Pa explains that if he stoops a little and slicks his hair back he looks like a different person, plus Pa's old hand-me-down glasses change the shape of his face. Byrne is masterful at this stuff.

Clark meets Lois for the first time.

All in all, this is a pacey, well plotted issue which sets the tone for the rest of the mni-series, while not as groundbreaking as Batman: Year One for example in terms of it's approach it is nonetheless a classic of the genre and an example of an almost perfect superhero comic.

Byrne's Clark/Superman is most certainly modeled after Christopher Reeve as you can probably tell from the profile from the left and clearly deviates from the Jose Luis Garcia Lopez version used on merchandise and Curt Swan's classic version. I think this is a good move, only because the the first two Superman films were pretty similar in tone to this mini-series.

This series marked the end of the Silver Age hangover for Superman which had relegated the book to being fodder for 10-12 year olds for many years and made it a book more relevant to the era it was published in.

The last page of #1 features one of my favourite Superman images as Clark leaves the farmhouse resplendent in his new costume to fly out into the world. It is an image that captures the optimism and wholesomeness of the Superman legend.