STAN LEE MEETS the SILVER SURFER hits the stands at comic shops today. I drew the lead story that was written by Stan “The Man” Lee himself… and it was a unique experience to be able to work on that story. It’s special in that I can say that I worked with Stan Lee on a comic book story (albeit a very short one). Carrying the thread over from Monday’s post– that’s not something I ever envisioned myself doing when I got into this business– if for no other reason than that Stan had, by and large, left comic books for the more star-studded world of Hollywood to represent Marvel there well before I became a pro. It’s also a first for my career in that I got to draw the SILVER SURFER in panel-to-panel continuity. Up to this point, I think the only time I’ve drawn him was for a ghostly flashback image floating above Reed Richards’ head in an issue of FANTASTIC FOUR. That makes yet another major Marvel icon I’ve gotten my grubby pencil on since I started in this business. Stan’s plot was incredibly brief in length… and so I had to do a lot of extrapolation for the 10-page story… but that gave me a little taste of what it must have been like back in the early days of the “HOUSE OF IDEAS” when the stories published then were more often than not the result of a short phone conversation between Stan and his artist about the overall theme of the book they were working on– and the artist would then draw the story in its entirety from that conversation. What a different working world it was then compared to now– where the writers control the everything about the story in stiflingly detailed complete scripts…. the number of panels per page, shot selection, lighting, pacing and even wardrobe. There’s very little left for the artist to contribute beyond bringing the writer’s vision to life on the printed page.

I didn’t do Stan’s likeness in the story much justice, I’m afraid. For some reason, I just couldn’t really get it down. I thought that I did a much better job the first time I had to draw him in a story back a decade ago when Todd and I did our issue of the FLASHBACK stunt on SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN. I don’t know what was different this time…. but Stan looks pretty generic in my story.

Let me know what you think if you happen to pick it up and read it.

OK… that’s it for today.

This is Entry 311.

Mike

It’s funny… I don’t think I ever would have imagined, all those years ago when I first got into the comics biz as a pro, that I would be working on a portion of a SPIDER-HAM story for Marvel. It’s one of those odd– and very fun– twists that I never could have seen coming my way. That seems to define my career up to this point, though…. things come my way that I never would have predicted would happen. Some artists control their path to the utmost, making calculated jumps to specific projects in an attempt to always be moving forward and upward in status and popularity. Me– I’ve tended to sort of passively go with the flow in the hopes that the kind of upward path others determinately set for themselves would come my way. I have to say that I’ve had more success in my comics career than I ever imagined I ever would up to this point… but the path hasn’t always been a smooth one, by any means. There have been road blocks, missteps and trip-ups…. but I don’t regret any of it. And I CERTAINLY don’t regret working on this portion of the SPIDER-HAM SPECIAL I’m drawing. It’s one of those strange turns that I just have to smile at.

For those of you who may not have seen last week’s JOE FRIDAY’S column over at NEWSARAMA, they posted the full-color cover of the ULTIMATE CIVIL WAR FEATURING SPIDER-HAM special that I was honored to be able to draw. It was a blast to do– I don’t think I’ve had as much fun drawing something as an assignment in, really, as long as I can remember. I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed drawing it.

OK… that’s it for one ham-filled day……

This is Entry 310.

Mike

There’s buzz going around that DC COMICS might be revisiting the NEW GODS franchise. I hope this rumor turns out to be true… but I REALLY hope they get the right creative team to handle it if the book indeed happens. Of all of Kirby’s post-Silver-Age-era creations, I think NEW GODS is his greatest. It was obvious from the beginning that Kirby was absolutely inspired by his idea…. he just couldn’t get his thoughts on paper fast enough. He created such a rich universe and mythos with NEW GODS right out of the gate. It’s been debated whether the untimely end of Kirby’s Fourth World was due to poor sales or editorial bias….. but whatever the real reason was, NEW GODS ended too soon. There have been many attempts over the ensuing decades to resurrect the characters and rekindle that fevered creative energy that Kirby brought to his creations… but over and over again, these attempts haven’t caught on. There’s so much potential in NEW GODS for greatness….. its scope is so epic, with the biblical threads that run through the origins of ORION and SCOTT FREE– and the constant struggle between the powerful forces of good and evil that spill out into the world of ‘normal folk’ here on earth. Things have been so grounded in superhero comics for so long these past years… so… dull… that something huge and epic in scope like NEW GODS could be very powerful and exciting to read.

If done well. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that DC will try to do it right this time……

OK– have a great weekend, all. I’ll be attending the PARTS UNKNOWN COMICON tomorrow. It’s a one day show… so anyone in the area, come by and say hi.

This is Entry 309.

Mike

Maybe I still have a food hangover from Thanksgiving, but I just don’t have much to write about today. This could end up being one of the briefest posts I’ve ever made. I suppose I’ll just leave you with this sketch of SUPERMAN and BATMAN. I tend to draw a lot of DC characters for this blog– but I think that’s just because I’ve been working at Marvel for…. what… 5 years now…. and I get a chance to draw the majority of the ‘major’ characters at the ‘House of Ideas’ on most of my projects. So I like to dabble on the other side of the fence here on the blog.

So, for today, the two fellows from DC’s ‘Big Three’…. and I’ve drawn WONDER WOMAN here many times.

OK… I’ll leave it there for today.

This is Entry 308.

Mike

I returned home yesterday from Thanksgiving holiday to the depressing news that legendary artist Dave Cockrum had passed away of complications from his long battle with diabetes. Cockrum was one of those “second generation” of Silver Age creators who came from the ranks of rabid fans of the comics THEY had read as kids. I was just starting to read comics as Cockrum was starting his work on LEGION OF SUPERHEROES– his first big solo assignment in the ‘majors’. His work made an immediate impact on my young sensibilities– Cockrum’s art stood out from the crowd for me– and he put his stamp on the LEGION characters with his wonderful sense of design, energy and figure work. Cockrum’s LEGION work is still seminal– his impact on that title was so strong that it’s still remembered as one of the best ‘eras’ of the comic’s history. He then went on to make an even greater and lasting impact on the UNCANNY X-MEN at Marvel Comics. Cockrum hit his artistic stride with that book… and the characters he introduced to the X-MEN canon like STORM, COLOSSUS and most notably NIGHTCRAWLER are among the most popular characters in X-MEN — if not comics –history. Along with Chris Claremont, Cockrum was there for the tranformation of Jean Grey into PHOENIX– and that event along with many of his other contributions became the fodder that inspired the X-MEN movie franchise.

There’s many tributes to Cockrum’s work sprouting up on the web in the wake of his passing– but the most incisive and succinct entry I’ve seen yet is posted at THE COMICS REPORTER. Tom Spurgeon writes about Cockrum’s career and impact on comics far better than I can put into words. I can say that his influence on my own young comic book fevered brain was astronomical. People always ask me about influences on my own work… and that’s a hard thing for me to answer, because nothing that I’ve ever really loved as a fan shows up much in my drawing. But I CAN say that if not a direct influence, Dave Cockrum was for me an immense source of inspiration early in my comics life and I’m sorry that I never got the opportunity to express to him just how much his work means to me.

This is Entry 307.

Mike