By the time I drove home, slept and turned on the computer, the news of Stan Lee's passing was firmly on my mind, so I didn't get around to posting about Grand Rapids Comic con.
It was good. It was a fun show. I got a few commissions requests. I normally try to steer people away from getting commissions from me when at a show, because it's really hard to focus on that when there are crowds of people around. HOWEVER, at the time I was in an adventurous mood, and the few I got were of characters I am familiar with.
Lobo (below) has been one of my favorites since high school, and if you don't know who he is, but like violent anti heroes...track down the Lobo Christmas Special. You wont be disappointed. This turned out okay, although I would have liked to have more time to draw him on his motorcycle.
Next was a request for Cerberus. This book is the grand daddy, gold standard of independent comics. Dave Simm did 300 issues of it, was never late and they (at least the ones I read) were well done. I heard that towards the end of the series he went through a divorce and slipped into crazy town...and the book took some weird and uncomfortable turns...I'll have to research that, but it sounds like the whole thing turned into a thinly veiled hate-fest about his ex-wife (which I have no problem with on principal as long as it's well done. People used divorce and break ups and revenge as fuel for good stories all the time.) I'll try to track down the final issues and see if they had any merit.
and I got a request to add VooDoo Joe to this cover of The Walking Dead
My newsfeeds on Instagram have been FULL of really nice illustrated tributes to Stan Lee. And I just wasn't up to joining in, it was just bumming me out thinking about it. When I'd start to do something...it just felt...sad. Today though while working on ideas for something else I scribbled out this scene with the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, the Watcher and Galactus. Galactus and this event happened early in the Fantastic Four's series...issue 48? 49? Somewhere around there.
I think I'll do this one up full sized ( the sketch is about 4 x 3 inches) maybe it'll be cathartic.
Funny thing about the Silver Surfer, he was one of Stan Lee's favorite characters because he got to write philosophically through his dialogue ( the Silver Surfer being a very thoughtful curious type person). and yet...he's about the most boring looking character ever.
It makes me wonder, was it Jack Kirby ( the F.F.'s illustrator) making him visually boring just to be a wise ass because he knew Stan liked him, or was it Stan picking a boring looking character as a focus so that Jack had to draw something boring for hours on end every time the surfer was in an issue? ...I guess I can't ask either of them now.
I'll keep you updated on the progress with this one.
OH YEAH, I almost forgot. There were a lot of decent costumes, and cosplayers but this one was my favorite.
I think it was supposed to just be a gender swap of Skeletor, but I like to imagine that's his over bearing wife and he goes home and gets bitched at for being late or spending too much money on fancy death rays.
Later.
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The Silver Surfer design was actually all Kirby! The lore is that Stan received the FF pages in from Jack to dialogue, and there was this random bald dude on a surf board that they’d never discussed and Stan hadn’t put in the “Marvel style” plot.
Stan of course took it & ran with it. I seem to recall Stan’s philosophical take might not have been quite what Kirby was envisioning and was actually a source of tension, which of course led Buscema to be the artist on that first classic solo series.
#comics When you read Silver Surfer volume 1, issue 18, there is a dramatic difference in the "voice" of Silver Surfer. This is the one issue of the original volume that Kirby actually penciled. With the Marvel method, Stan Lee likely had to adapt the story to what the artist put on the page, so in this issue, we probably get a vision closer to what Kirby imagined than what Lee had done in the previous issues of the Silver Surfer #comics.
that's interesting, I hadn't heard that
I really dig the Lobo sketch! He is one of the more heavy metal characters of the super hero genre. I am glad to hear that the con was good!
Thanks #comics. It was a solid well done comic con!
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Love the Voodoo Joe sketch. I like his attitude
Haha Thanks! It turned out alright, the paper was a bitch to work on! Very slick ... coated with something I think.
I always love seeing characters in your style, Doug :) You just make 'em that much more charming, imo~
#comics