Comic Book Tattoos Wrapper Redux

 

World's Finest #36 Redux

 Commissioned for a friend, a few changes from the Winslow Mortimer original (mostly, I took off the heroes' boots because even a superhero has to surf barefoot! Capes are one thing, boots another! 

Prince Street News: Stuff I Miss

The new BACK ISSUE (#135, June 2022) is the SILVER ISSUE, spotlighting the Silver Surfer in the Bronze Age. My Prince Street News in this issue is another in a recent series of strips that don't tie in to the theme of the issue (it's also the second one-page installment, something that will happen now and then). Rather, I wanted to post an ode to elements of comic books that are now sadly extinct. Yeah, yeah, old man yells at cloud, I know. 

Coming Next! It's another Christmas-themed episode! 

LAUGH-IN Wrapper Redux

 

More Mighty Marvel Cover Recreations

 More Marvel cover redux commissions, mixing it up with some Fantastic Four this time!  The cover of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #38 features some radical alterations to the original. Perhaps having to do with this being Steve Ditko's final issue of Spidey, he did not create an original cover for the comic book, instead Marvel cobbled together images from the interior artwork and added a lot of lettering. While the main image is certainly dynamic enough for a cover, the three panels at the bottom felt kind of randomly chosen (I'll place the original cover for comparison) so I found the full comic book online and chose three different panels I felt were more worthy of cover placement. 
John Romita's cover to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #62 (introducing Medusa) has always been one of my favorites, so it was super fun to redraw this one. Medusa's green-and-orange color scheme compelled me to color it using fluorescent inks, making this another modern Third-Eye tribute. 
Finally, the cover to FANTASTIC FOUR #86, which was also so much fun to do because Jack Kirby's ridiculous genius always smacks you in the face when you have to try to draw it. Try it! It's fun! 

Still More Spidey Recreations!

Another batch of Spider-Man commissions for my pal Al, this round special because it was the storyline begun in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #144 ("The Delusion Conspiracy!") that cemented our friendship back in Elementary School! The ad for SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1 is after John Romita, as is the cover of ASM #141 while 144 is after Gil Kane & Romita, my all-time favorite Spider-Man art team. 

Peanuts #10 Cover Redux

My friend Elisa commissioned me to redo the cover to Dell Comics' PEANUTS #10, originally by Charles Schulz. I added Violet and a background to the original and changed some of the trade dress. Sorry, Sparky! 

 

Yellow Submarine

 I did this piece as a birthday gift for my friend, John. I combined elements from four different sources and the background is in fluorescent inks (which you can't tell, but I swear it's true!). 

The Flaming Teen-Age

 Recreation of the text-heavy poster for the 1956 exploitation film, THE FLAMING TEEN-AGE, a true unvarnished confession of a juvenile delinquent! Can you imagine? 

Wonder Woman #10 Cover Redux

After H.G. Peter's cover to WONDER WOMAN #10. You can't tell from the picture, but this is done in mostly fluorescent inks, making it a Golden Age DC Third Eye piece (if you get it, you get it). The original is available at the Tough Guy Goods Etsy shop. 

 

Bat Villains '66

 

Bob Mackie's Supergirl

There was a brief but glorious period in the 1970s when Supergirl was trying out a bunch of different super-costumes in the pages of ADVENTURE COMICS. But few remember that famous Hollywood costume designer Bob Mackie threw his hat in the ring as well. Sadly, while fabulous, the design turned out to be inconvenient for fighting crime, and Kara ended up in the hot pants and puffy sleeves. 

 

The Adventures of George Carlin

Sure, you know that Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope had their own comic books published by DC Comics, but who remembers the most censored comic mag of them all? 

Meet the Press comic book

Prince Street News: The Lost Oddities of the Bronze Age of Comics

BACK ISSUE #134 may be one of my favorite issues, focusing on comic book rarities and oddities of the Bronze Age (being the 1970s and '80s). While the issue's content (as always) is strictly for the longbox crowd, this issue's installment of PRINCE STREET NEWS features, along with the usual nerdy chuckles, a handful of gags that even civilians can get (that is, if you were into New Wave or Russian Soviet dissidents of the 1970s). I've posted some of the individual elements after the complete strip, but a few of these will get their own posts just so I can slip into someone's Google search of George Carlin or the B-52's a little quicker.... 

Next up: Another one-pager, lamenting some beloved extinct elements of old comic books. 

POSTSCRIPT: It was almost a month after posting this that I realized I put TWO conflicting issue number / months on the ARCHIE / X-MEN Mashup piece... that's what I get for mixing trade dress from two eras! Apologies! 

Come on, Ethel!

After the great Dan DeCarlo, of course. 

 

Lone Ranger Tattoo Wrapper Redux

 

Prince Street News: Night of 100 Stars

The new BACK ISSUE! (#133) is out, a tribute to comics' many STARMEN (and women), giving me an opportunity to take Prince Street News back to Julie's Bar for the Night of 100 Stars! This is another one packed with inside gags for the longbox crowd, so don't feel bad if you don't get it.  I will give a few footnotes: The big guy flying into panel one (and in the background on panel six) is Fletcher Hanks' Golden Age character, Stardust the Super Wizard. The woman with the eye patch is Bronze Age Supergirl enemy, Starfire (DC had at least three of them). The guy talking to Commander Steel in panel three is The Shield, comics' first star-spangled patriotic superhero (predating Captain America by a year). Wonder Woman's outfit on page two panel one is from an aborted 1990s animated series / toy line, The Star Riders (one mini comic made its way into Kellogg's cereal boxes in 1993). The Tony Stark joke being made by Marvel villain Blastaar to Shooting Star on page two panel four refers to Iron Man's bronze age drinking problem.  Oh, and that's Batman in the costume with the fin on his head (in case the punch lines didn't make it clear). 

NEXT UP! It's the 40th episode and one of my favorites of this strip I've done: The Lost Oddities of the Bronze Age! If you've ever thought that Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn should've appeared in DC Comics in the '70s, then this will be the PSN for you! 

Another Round of Spidey!

More Spider-Man recreations, this time the cover to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #76 (after John Romita), MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 (after Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia), and the splash page to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #122 (by Gil Kane, John Romita, and Tony Mortellardo) sans word balloons and captions. 

STRANGE TALES 128 Redux

Another commission, this time a reworking of the cover of STRANGE TALES #128, repurposing a Steve Ditko pinup of Dr. Strange from the interior as the main image for the cover, with the Jack Kirby Thing / Human Torch / Quicksilver / Scarlet Witch piece as a secondary image. Man, those Ditko backgrounds are fun to draw.