≡ LIGHTNING LAD
For today’s sketch, I decided to go back to the LEGION well. Back when I was in discussions with DC about going over with Mark Waid to work on their planned LEGION relaunch book when Mark was removed from FANTASTIC FOUR by Bill Jemas, I went out and bought a bunch of the LEGION ARCHIVES books. The ARCHIVES books are wonderful things to own (as are all the wonderful collections that are coming out these days… ESSENTIALS, SHOWCASE and the many trades)… particularly if you have a huge collection of comics like I do– and especially when that collection is so big and buried under boxes and ‘stuff’ in your junk room that you’d never be able to find any specific book again if your life depended on it. I have many years worth of LEGION comics as well as so many other titles that I’m now buying in collections because I just don’t have the energy or desire to go through that mass of singles. Yesterday I was looking through the 12th edition of the LEGION ARCHIVES with all those issues from the mid-70s that were drawn by Mike Grell. He was taking over for Dave Cockrum, who had moved over to the UNCANNY X-MEN at Marvel… and he was working with all those great costume designs that Cockrum came up with. It was very cool to see back then. Grell’s work was raw, but very energetic and exciting to see. It was only the beginning of what would coalesce into the work he did on THE WARLORD., the ERB-inspired fantasy epic he created, which was a huge favorite of mine back then.
So anyway– here’s a sketch of LIGHTING LAD in his Cockrum-designed duds. It’s a hoot to draw the character– and especially with the hair styles and mutton chops that were so prevalent in 1970’s comics characters. Fun stuff.
OK… that’s it for yet another week. Have a great weekend.
This is Entry 298. (NUMERO 300 HITS NEXT WEEK….!)
Mike
