CRIVENS! COMICS & STUFF!: PART TWO OF THE SUPER HEROES COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Sunday, 25 May 2014

PART TWO OF THE SUPER HEROES COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Time for part two of The SUPER HEROES gallery, featuring cover art by U.K. artists that U.S. readers may not have seen before. The late VANESSA MORGAN was the editor of this title, which puts me in mind of another female editor - PIPPA M. MELLING - who was the first editor of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL back in 1972. MWOM once promised to print a photo of Pippa, but never got 'round to it. If by some remote chance anyone who knows Pippa might be reading this, ask her to get in touch through the comments section, as I'd like to publish a photo of her and fulfil Marvel's promise of long ago. It'd be nice to give her the recognition she so richly deserves while, hopefully, she's still around to know about it.

Anyway, that's enough of the opposition, let's return to DC. Some great covers (even if the STARRY-EYED SIREN's body is a little elongated in the lower regions), by the cream of the crop of British talent around at the time. And wait 'til part three, when we'll have an absolute stoater of a cover in issue #7, featuring CHRISTOPHER REEVE and the bad guys from SUPERMAN II. However, that's for next time - be sure to join us then.

10 comments:

Staz Johnson said...: What's the odds that when Curt Swan was tasked with designing Vartox, DC editorial sent him a photo of Sean Connery in Zardoz, for reference?; 26 May 2014 at 00:08
Kid said...: I think it's always been acknowledged that Vartox was based on Zardoz, SJ. What I find interesting however, is that as time went on, his hair line got lower and looked less receding.; 26 May 2014 at 00:32
Staz Johnson said...: Ahhh.. my bad. I confess I had never heard of Vartox, & thought I was making a hitherto unreported observation...

Nice to see these 'Superheroes' covers by the way. I remember this mag on the newsstands, but never picked up a copy. Shame I didn't, it would be nice to own some of those classic tales in large format black & white. In retrospect, I think at this point (as far as comics went) I'd totally given up on super-heroes in favour of 2000AD & Heavy-Metal magazine... maybe Warrior too, but I'm not sure of the dates & if this was slightly prior to Warrior. I only got back into American comics a couple of years later when Don Newton started working regularly on the Bat-titles.; 26 May 2014 at 01:27
Kid said...: I think Warrior came out while The Super Heroes was into its last few issues, Staz - or not too long after. Talking of Batman, I loved Don Newton's art when he was being inked by Alfredo Alcala - pure class.; 26 May 2014 at 01:38
Unknown said...: Pipa Melling, now that is a blast from the past,I was always keen to see a picture of her as well. I remember reading that at the time Pipa was the editor the UK Marvel comics were put together and edited in the States by Larry Leiber (actually I may have read that from yourself Kid) so if true, I wonder what Pipa actually did as "editor"?

I recall Marvel UK published pictures of the UK team when Bernie Jaye was the editor in the early 80s (think this around the time of the UK books like Deaths Head etc being published - I might still have this somewhere).

The cover of issue 5 of the Super Heroes (Superman) looks rushed (ok it looks poorly painted) I remember being taken aback by ho poor ( imho) it when I first saw it (mind you I still bought it). Love that Adam frogman page, one of my favourites of his.

I really liked Don Newtons work at Charlton (Phantom etc) but felt after his initial few years at DC his work got pretty average there (New Gods etc) Would love to see Alcala inking Newton (cant recall that) sounds like it could be special stuff.; 26 May 2014 at 12:59
Kid said...: I think Pippa's title as 'editor' may have been an 'honorary' one to some extent, McScotty, in that the comic was put together in the States so she had no real input into the contents. However, she probably liaised with advertisers and printers, as well as the readers, and initiated lettering corrections (usually made by Dave Gibbons) that the State-side team had missed.

Like you, I wasn't impressed by the New Gods series that Newton drew, but his Batman art inked by Alcala was something else. I'll do a post about it some day, McS, so you can see what you missed.; 26 May 2014 at 14:11
John Pitt said...: The 2 softcover specials, Kid - one was Superman, what was the other one?; 26 May 2014 at 21:38
Kid said...: There're pictures of the 3 Annuals and 2 Specials in the post 'Some Fantastic Place...', JP - the 2nd one was also Superman.; 26 May 2014 at 22:48
Dougie said...: I loved that Legion issue. In the intervening years, I had lost the 70s giant that had printed the HQ schematic. So, in the early 80s, The Super Heroes was something of a link to the previous decade.; 31 May 2014 at 15:36
Kid said...: The Super Heroes was a great little run of mags, Dougie - just a shame it didn't last more than 19 issues.; 31 May 2014 at 15:51

About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artist on various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artist and spot illustrator on pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

For MARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as a restoration artist for MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

Have also made TV appearances as a collector of memorabilia.

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Just some of the titles I worked on are:

2000 A.D. * JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE * DICEMAN * SONIC The COMIC * JUDGE DREDD, LAWMAN Of The FUTURE * CRISIS * REVOLVER * EAGLE * TIGER * BATTLE ACTION-FORCE * BUSTER * WHIZZER & CHIPS * WHOOPEE * NIPPER * SCHOOL FUN * ACE VENTURA, PET DETECTIVE * The REAL GHOSTBUSTERS * DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE * COUNT DUCKULA * RUGRATS * The TRANSFORMERS * DEATH'S HEAD * THUNDERCATS * GALAXY RANGERS * DRAGON'S CLAWS * SINDY * MARVEL MASTERWORKS * The TROLLS * LOADED * INFERNO * WARHAMMER * ROSE BLACK.

Copyright Notice:

Images remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are used here only for the purpose of review, promotion, and nostalgia.

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In the case of images culled from my own collection where copyright of an item isn't mine, I impose no copying restrictions on fellow bloggers.

(Although, if you don't allow copying on your own site, then you really shouldn't be copying from others, should you?)

And while you can credit this blog if you like, it's not mandatory. Who has time to make notes of every casually visited site during an idle browse of the Internet?

In the case of anyone copying images of my own artwork and calligraphy, I affirm my right to be identified as the creator, and any such copying should not be for the purpose of monetary or material gain. (Unless it's mine.)

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Please also note that this blog is not sponsored by, affiliated with, or connected to, any organisation, business, or group, and is wholly independent.