Marvel Universe Commission by John Buscema

When I started this blog years ago I spent a lot of time finding images, rare commissions, old magazine covers, etc.  I joined the Tumblr party this year - late to everything as usual - but I see so much fun stuff on there it's addictive.

This John Buscema commission is a wonderful piece of work.  Featuring the Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four, Conan, Red Sonja, Thor, the Vision, various Avengers and X-Men.  From the signature it was done around 1998.  Nuff Said.

Thorsday: Thor vs Hulk by Steve Rude

Back when the Hulk wasn't depicted as a gargantuan, it was possible to do what Thor is doing in this pic by Steve Rude.

Pick him up and get ready to smash!  Check out The Dude's Kickstarter for his 2013 sketchbook.  Happy Thorsday!  Nuff Said.

Silver Surfer 4 cover re-imagined by Yildiray Cinar

The most famous Silver Surfer cover of all time is issue #4, featuring the Surfer hurtling at Thor for a big fight.  I found this re-take on that cover from Yildiray Cinar's DeviantArt page.

Cinar takes the same scene and twists the angles of both heroes to get a different perspective.  Maybe it's just a few seconds later after the classic cover...

...so deftly drawn by Big Joh Buscema.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Splash Page by George Perez and Al Vey

Here's a page to start off your Thorsday...

This splash page was from Avengers #6 in 1998, by George Perez and Al Vey.  Perez was really on top of his game during this historic Avengers run!  Nuff Said.

Thor Splash Pages 1968-69 by Jack Kirby, Odin, Recorder and more!

As I mentioned before, Jack Kirby used splash pages quite often in Thor.  Nearly every issue featured a great action shot or a titanic figure making a speech with Stan Lee's dialogue.  Here are some great ones that were published during the last two years of Kirby's run on Thor.

Thor #161.  My god has a hammer!  And he loves to swing it.

Thor #159, Dr. Don Blake needs to find out the truth between his relationship with his godly alter-ego.  How does he do it?  By going to sleep and dreaming.  I just recently read this one, never knew that they fully explained the Blake/Thor dichotomy.

Thor #162, Odin makes a speech that only Stan Lee could deliver, while dressed in a costume that would make Bob Mackie envious.  Kirby didn't skimp on the details in a splash page.

Thor #170, the Recorder jets off into space after Thor and Galactus!  Loved how Thor was a blend of mythic fantasy meeting characters in the science-fictional realms.

Incredible as all these pages were, Kirby was just warming up for his work on DC's New Gods series in the 1970s.  I am currently re-reading those right now, they are still awesome decades later.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Gil Kane Original Covers with Romita and Colletta!

Nothing puts me in a good mood like looking at Gil Kane covers from the 1970s.  Here are a couple of Thor covers, inked by some heavy hitters.

Thor #201 is a superb cover by Kane and inked by Vince Colletta.  I am not the biggest Colletta fan, but I really like his work here.  Maybe because he inked Kirby's Thor for so many years?

Here is the full color cover as originally published in 1972.  I love how Pluto's axe spills outside the rectangle and over the Thor logo on top.  This type of image really suited Gil Kane, who loved to draw fantasy and barbarian type characters.

Thor #237 was a collaboration between Kane and John Romita Sr.  Ulik plows Thor into the side of a bus while a crowd looks on in horror.  Not the greatest cover, but a good action shot.

The original color cover as published in 1975, along with the often used Marvel quote:

"...Not All My Power Can Save Me!"

Remember when covers used to be great action scenes like this one?  Nowadays the covers are more like movie posters, character poses, thematic covers that convey little about the actual content.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Spider-Man and Thor 1998 poster by the Romitas

I came across this nifty 1998 poster by John Romita Jr and Sr, featuring Spider-Man and Thor, on Heritage Auctions.  As you can see, it must have been done for the San Diego Comic Con.  This would have been around the time of "Heroes Return" when Jr Jr and Dan Jurgens began their excellent run on Thor.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Walt Simonson Battle Armor from Marvel Fanfare #45

From the Marvel Fanfare #45 all pin up issue, here is Walt Simonson drawing Thor in his Battle Armor, which was used during Walt’s run on the series.  Marvel Wikia describes this perfectly: Forged of Asgardian Steel and enscribed with the sacred Runes of Odin, Thor's Battle Armor helped protect his body while dealing with the curse of Hela.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Walt Simonson pin-up with a little inspiration by Gene Colan

Here’s a pinup that Walt Simsonson worked on to raise money for a Gene Colan benefit last year, featuring Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk riding a crazy space bike.  Thor and Hulk are done in Simonson’s style, but with Iron Man, Walt managed to portray him in Colan’s classic style.

Here is close up view of Iron Man in one early stage of this drawing.  Colan had a way of drawing IM’s helmet, where the facial expressions came out of the mask.  Simonson nailed that and other classic details, like the larger rings around Iron Man’s gauntlets, shoulders, hips, and boots. 

You can find these and other great Simonson pieces on The Official Walter Simonson Page on Facebook. For Gene Colan news, visit The Invincible Gene Colan Blog, as well as Clifford Meth’s blog.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Movie posters for US and International Releases

I cannot get over the fact that a Thor movie will be in the movie theaters in May!  Regardless of the quality of the film or changes to the classic Stan Lee / Jack Kirby storyline, I think it’s great that many people will be introduced to the Asgardian mythos for the first time!  The poster that you see above is the version for International (re: Europe) movie theaters.

Here is the advance one-sheet poster for the United States theaters.  I prefer the International poster, it seems a bit more dramatic.  Both of these advance posters do nothing to convey the wonders of Asgard.  I am hoping this is just because they are advance teaser posters and some other versions are coming later.  The Europeans also get to see Thor 1 week ahead of US.  Not fair, we created Thor!  Well, if you forget about Vikings and Norse origins.  There will be a lot of kids who see this film and have no idea about those—hopefully they will look them up.

Last year at Comic-Con 2010, Marvel released this “poster” featuring production concept art of a battle between Thor and Loki in the film.  I think the costumes look superb.

I think all Marvel fans are waiting to see how this film turns out.  From the trailer we can see that the origin story has been altered.  The film doesn’t start with Dr. Don Blake finding the hammer and turning into Thor.  Presumably the film makers want to start off with plenty of action, with Thor fighting the Frost Giants and triggering a war that was unnecessary.  Odin sends Thor to Earth to learn humility and separates him from Mjlonir. Kenneth Branagh did say at Comic-Con that there is some Don Blake stuff in there—if I had to guess, I’d bet the screenwriters will borrow Dan Jurgens trick in his version of Thor—having the Thunder God somehow merge his existence with Blake to save his life.  Then he would once again become worth of wielding Mjolnir and go on to whup the Destroyer’s ass in the last act.

Mere conjecture on my part.  Let’s hope that Thor is on the same level as the first two X-Men films, rather than the Fantastic Four movies.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Black and White Thunder Gods by Gabriel Hardman, Olivier Coipel and Mark Morales

I've missed a few Thurdays, here are a couple of Thor pics to catch up on my good Nordic karma.  You get enough good karma stored up, then Hela reserves a special birth for you in Valhalla.



Here's a crackling piece by Gabriel Hardman, who just took over the (Red) Hulk.  Thor will be appearing again soon in new Redskin's book.  (Old Greenskin, got it?  Verily I Say Thee Nay.)



Here's the cover to Thor 11 after Mark Morales inked Olivier Coipel's pencils.  And here again, I think you see the genius of Jack Kirby.  Most fantasy characters express their power through a sword.  Maybe a regular sword, a flaming sword, or a sword that steals souls.  Thor uses a freakin' HAMMER for crying out loud.  How do you a draw a dynamic hammer?  Kirby did it by making it larger than life, and so do these guys.

My favorite Marvel quote: "Yeah? Well, my God has a HAMMER!"  Nick Fury, Secret Invasion #8.
Nuff Said!

Link: Gabriel Hardman on deviantART
Link: Big Barda by Gabriel Hardman
Link: Mark Morales on deviantART.

Thor Thursday: John Romita Jr promo poster

Thor is riding high now, thanks to the new series and the movie coming out next year.  But in the 1990s, the Thunder God needed a reboot, and got one under the Heroes Return banner.  Dan Jurgens and John Romita Jr were the creative team and the first 24 issues or so featured Romita channeling Kirby's spirit.

This promo poster by John Romita Jr and Tim Townsend was a tease at the upcoming run.  I think this must have been drawn before Jurgens came up with the story for issue one.  The man slamming the cane down to summon Thor looks like Don Blake.  Thor's mortal host in the new Jurgens series was Jake Olson, who wasn't crippled in any way.

The Jurgens/Romita run is still in my collection and I re-read them last year.  Still a great run and holds up among the best Thor runs.  Nuff Said!

Link: Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr. - Volume 1 (Marvel Comics Heroes Return)

Thor Thursday: Jack Kirby Marvelmania

Here's a classic Jack Kirby poster from the 1960s for the fan club Marvelmania.




Nuff Said!

Link: The Mighty Thor - Volume 1 Omnibus by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Jack Kirby
Link: Thor Omnibus by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel
Link: Tod Seisser's Gallery at ComicArtFans.

Giant-Sized Thor Thursday: Olivier Coipel's Gatefold Variant Wall Poster

You've probably seen these mega giant-sized wall posters that Marvel Comics has been producing over the past couple of years.  Olivier Coipel's Thor poster was one of these grand behemoths, a 10 foot long panorama of all things Asgardian. 

The poster originally appeared on the covers to the Tales of Asgard mini-series from 2009.  Here is the finished cover to Tales of Asgard #1, with inks by Mark Morales.  Note that this is classic Thor, in his old Jack Kirby designed costume.

Here are Coipel's original pencils to the cover.  I am amazed at the detail and the shading,  You can see Coipel even drew Thor's kneecaps, even though he knew they would be obscured by the boot cuffs after the inking.

tales of asgard 1 cover by *MarkMorales on deviantART

Mark Morales provided the finished inked version on his deviantART site.  Please click on it to see a larger version.  Morales has lots of great artwork and commissions on deviantART to look at.

Marvel took all the 6 covers for Tales of Asgard and joined them together as a gatefold variant for Thor #604.  Here's the first half of this cover, the left side.  Balder the Brave is leaping out toward the viewer, and Loki plots his twisted schemes over on the far left.

The second half of the Thor #604 variant features the Warriors Three, Hela, Odin, and Sif.  If I had to nitpick, and this would be a small nit, I would have put Sif in an action pose.  And I would have made the Enchantress a bit more glamorous, but it's tough to fit all these characters in even this much space.

Isn't Hela one of the most badass characters that Kirby ever designed?  The costume and headress are something else.  One day we'll have a Hela retrospective.

Finally, here is the full variant cover to Thor #604, feel free to click on it and get the full sized version from my Flickr site.  Nuff Said!

Link: Thor Omnibus by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel

Link: The Mighty Thor - Volume 1 Omnibus by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Jack Kirby

Link: Mark Morales on deviantART.

Marvel Funnies for April Fools Day: Forbush-Man, Nick Fury, Thor vs Silver Surfer

Here are few pieces to drive you Marvelously Crazy this fine April Fools Day…

This cover to Crazy #1 (1972) by Marie Severin features Forbush-Man summing up the spirit of the early 1970s anti-war protests:  Support peace, you super-baddies, or we’ll clobber ya! 

Forbush-Man: a character I thought would have taken off more!  He looks to be making a comeback in next week’s parody special (of Captain America), Who Won’t Wear the Shield? 

What happens when Nick Fury goes scuba diving on vacation?  As Bruce Timm sees it, he just can’t stop taking all of his gear along with him, much to Val’s chagrin.  Perhaps Hydra was about to strike?  It’s a fine homage to Steranko’s covers and penchant for pockets and gear.

It really cracks me up that Fury is smoking a cigar inside that helmet!

Bruce Timm again, drawing the scene that John Buscema forgot in Silver Surfer #3.  Silly, but as a kid, I did always wonder why the Surfer never rammed anyone in the gut.

Last and certainly least, a terribly Inhuman pun.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Mike Deodato's Thunder God

Here's a nice illustration of Thor by Mike Deodato.  Back in 1995, Deodato and Warren Ellis worked on an interesting 4-issue Thor story titled WorldEngine.  I always thought Deodato had a great take on this character, perhaps he will get the chance again soon.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: A 1976 Annual Story, Intended for a Magazine?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Marvel's plan to create a black and white magazine for the Thunder God (see Thor Thursday: The Thunder God's Magazine).  I believe Marvel commissioned a few stories for this format--and one of them was the story that appeared in Thor Annual #5, 1976.

Surely the greatest thing about this annual was the cover by Jack Kirby.  It was worth the 50 cents just to celebrate the King's return to Marvel, after his stint at DC Comics.  While not one of Kirby's most classic covers, it just felt good to see him drawing Thor again--and he was fighting Hercules!

That logo and masthead really cut down on the space available for the cover image, didn't it?

The interiors were done by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga.  Something about the art makes me think that it was designed for a larger, magazine-sized format.  There is also the fact that DeZuniga did a lot of inking for Marvel's magazine line (he also inked Buscema's Conan and Jim Starlin's Thor story in Marvel Preview #10).  Buscema laid out the story with plenty of grand splash pages.

This pic of Hela making a grand entrance is one example.  The story by Steve Englehart is designed to introduce a new audience to the world of Thor--Asgard, Odin, etc., are all explained before the action starts.  I do remember reading somewhere that this story was intended to be the first issue of a Thor black and white magazine, while the Marvel Preview #10 story by Wein and Starlin was going to be in the second issue.

You see, fellow True Believers, all of this Marvel Minutia occupies my mind on a daily basis.  I should be thinking about how to become a millionaire or how to create a great software product.  Instead, I wonder what made the 1970s Marvel editorial staff abort magazine projects before they started!  As Hercules might say, Are Ye Mad or Merely Daft? Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: Comic Reader covers by Joe Sinnott and Rich Buckler

A couple of Silver Age Thor covers today, from The Comic Reader…

Here’s a 1975 cover (Comic Reader 115) that showcases not only why Joe Sinnott was a great inker—he was a damn good artist as well!  Sinnott inked many issues of Thor, though ironically, he never inked Kirby on this title.  What would have happened if all those Vinnie Colletta issues were done by Sinnott instead?

Uh-oh, I’ve just made myself a target for the Colletta Club. 

Rich Buckler did this 1972 cover for The Comic Reader 1972.  Buckler during this period was the perfect second-generation Marvel artist, combining the best of Kirby and Buscema in his work.  Thor must be fighting one of the High Evolutionary’s creatures in this pic…perhaps the Man-Beast? 

Have a great Thor Thursday and skip the trip to Valhalla.  Nuff Said!

Thor Thursday: The Thunder God's 1970s Magazine

When Conan became such a blazing success in Marvel’s magazine line, the editors asked themselves, how else can we capitalize on this trend?  The answer was: give Thor his own black and white magazine and sell it to the barbarian loving hordes. 

I believe that Marvel was at one point primed to publish a bi-monthly THOR magazine, as I can trace about 3 full length stories commissioned in this format.  This decision must have been reversed and the material appeared in places such as Marvel Preview #10.

Ken Barr’s 1977 cover tries to evoke Conan and Frazetta rather than Jack Kirby, doesn’t it?  I think there was a miscalculation here, that Conan fans would also be interested in Thor.  If you bought this issue expecting to see Thor skewering enemies on a battlefield, there would have been massive disappointment.

The interior story by Len Wein opens with an Asgardian bar fight with the Thunder God backed up by the Warriors Three.  Jim Starlin provided the layouts, with finishes by Tony DeZuniga.  The usual hijinks with Loki ensues after a while—the most tired plot of all comicdom.

Marvel had to differentiate this series.  The Thor stories in this format took place before Thor had been merged with Dr. Don Blake—and before he learned any kind of humility.  Perhaps a more interesting series would be called Teen Thor?  Nuff Said!

The 1980s Marvel Heroes Fashion Makeover: Grey Hulk, Spider-Man Black Costume, etc.

Every comics company loves to give their heroes a new look from time to time.  During the Shooter-era of the 1980s, the Marvel heroes were re-designed with new looks and costumes.

• Spider-Man: Black costume from Secret Wars, sans the symbiote.
• Iron Man: Tony Stark designed this red and silver armor in Iron Man #200.
• Hulk: Grey Hulk from Peter David’s tenure on the series.
• Thor: Walt Simonson designed this new battle armor and let the Thunder God grow a beard.
• Captain America: Steve Rogers put on this costume and became a free agent for a while.  Later on, US Agent wore this costume whenever a team needed a third-rate Captain America—like the current Mighty Avengers series.

Were these Marvel makeovers as bad as shoulder pads and mullets?  I liked the Grey Hulk the best out of this lineup.  Nuff Said!

Update: Comments from my old MT blog...

2 Comments

By Zebtron A. Rama on February 5, 2010 9:17 AM

Those were the days! I'm with you on the Grey Hulk but also was a fan of the "Captain."

By The Irishman on March 3, 2010 5:46 PM

I'll always have a soft spot for the black Spidey costume: didn't collect comics rigourously, mainly getting the Marvel UK 'Transformers' comic and the odd issue of other series, but that title tended to run other Marvel strips as back-ups. One such strip, taken from the 1986 US 'Amazing Spider-Man' annual, I later learned, showed Spidey coming up against the Iron Man of 2020, and, having only seen Spider-man in the red and blue costume, this cool new look blew me away! At the time, I knew nothing of the origin of the costume, or its alien nature (that said, as that story was printed in 1986, the black costume in it would have been the cloth version anyway), but thought (and still do) that it was aesthetically stunning in its simplicity, the white spider emblem really complimenting the black. We must have had quiet childhoods, because I can remember talking with friends about Spidey's 'new' look: one friend said that the suit was an alien, and I thought he was surely mistaken...