Showing posts with label Dave Cockrum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dave Cockrum. Show all posts

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays MARVEL PREVIEW "Good Lord!"

A very kool tribute to EC's Weird Science and Weird Fantasy (& Weird Science-Fantasy)...
...which often combined sci-fi space hero adventure with horror elements!
There's an especially-ironic note to this EC tribute tale...the "Crusty Bunkers" inker ensemble, who like EC's "Fleagle Gang", who would help each other out with tight deadlines in the 1950s!
The Fleagles consisted of Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Frank Frazetta, and Roy Krenkel with occasional assistance by Russ Heath, Wally Wood and Joe Orlando.
Their projects were often last-minute art "jams" with people doing anything from a figure or backgrounds in a panel to full pages at a shot.
The 1970s/80s equivalent was "The Crusty Bunkers", and consisted of artists based at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates art studio.
On this particular tale from the b/w magazine Marvel Preview #1 (1975), written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by Dave Cockrum, they were...(in alphabetical order) Neal Adams, Terry Austin, Pat Broderick, Russ Heath, and Joe Rubenstein.
And, like the Fleagles, they inked the story piecemeal, so you can see several different artists' styles on various pages, and even individual panels!
Penciler Dave Cockrum himself was at an artistic peak, having recently-finished his run on DC's Legion of Super-Heroes and was working on Marvel's then-recently-revived X-Men series that would make Marvel's mutants marketable again!
(Say that five times fast!)
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Monday, October 25, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part V: End of the Invaders"

(This was Dave Cockrum's presentation piece for the Martians and their tripods, looking decidedly-different from the aliens and war machines from the then-recently cancelled Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds series!)
You know the story.
Guy meets alien!
Alien conquers planet!
Alien suddenly ghosts guy...
Overall, not a bad job by the creatives, eh?
The Marvel Classic Comics series ran 36 issues from 1976 to 1978, the first 12 of which were reprints of the b/w Pendulum Press Now Age Books comic adaptations of literary classics which had been sold directly to schools and libraries.
(Note: Classics Illustrated had ended in 1971, leaving a void in the retail comic market that Marvel attempted to fill.
Sadly, sales of the books after the reprints in 1-12 didn't warrant continuing the ambitious project.
The Direct Sales/Comic Book Shop market was just beginning, and if the project had survived another couple of years, it might have found a successful niche, but the timing was off.)
Like Classics Illustrated, the Marvel adaptations included text pieces about the original authors...
...and other goodies like the Dave Cockrum model sheet seen at the beginning of this post!
The adaptations featuring new material (13-36) have never been reprinted in America.
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Monday, October 18, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part IV: Earth Under the Martians"

...this ain't no treat, but the mother of all tricks, as the Martians have effectively conquered the Earth!
(Though you have to admit, this painted cover for the German edition, based on Gil Kane/Dave Cockrum's pen-and-ink art, is a treat, indeed!)
...what's the answer?
Another trick?
Or a life-saving treat?
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(the First [and extremely-unauthorized] sequel to the HG Wells novel)

Monday, October 11, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part III: the Rout of Civilization"

When Last We Left our Protagonist...

...as this amazingly-kool Gil Kane/Dave Cockrum cover for the British edition shows, the Martians are here, and they're kicking Mankind's collective ass!
That's really all you need to know!
...we're safe for the moment...only...as we shall see>>>
NEXT MONDAY!
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(Including Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, John DeLancie and other Star Trek castmembers!)

Monday, October 4, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part II: The Conquest of Earth!"

Yeah, we could've called this chapter...
...but then HG Wells' ghost would've risen from the grave and bitch-slapped us!
(and rightly so!)
...projectiles from Mars have landed on Earth in 1898, unleashing aliens with heat-rays destroying everything in range of their landing sites.
Unfortunately, the aliens are now mobile...
To Be Continued...
NEXT MONDAY!
Adapted by Chris Claremont, penciled by Yong Montano, and inked by Dino Castrillo, it's a pretty straighforward visualization of the original novel, without updating to the present, as most adaptations of the tome have done.
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(Mars' Invasion of Earth from HG Wells to Orson Welles)