Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Dazzler as Grace Jones by John Romita Jr.

"Dazzler was originally a project commissioned by Casablanca Records in the mid-to-late 1970s to be a cross-promotion in the mold of KISS, who had two successful comic book tie-in super-specials by the end of 1977. Marvel Comics would develop a singing superhero, while Casablanca would produce a singer. The two companies would then work with Filmworks and produce a tie-in motion picture; Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter wrote a treatment for the project.
The character was originally conceptualized as "The Disco Queen" with the power to make people tell the truth. Initially, no one wanted anything to do with the project. Marvel Comics appointed former Archie Comics writer Tom DeFalco to the character and he developed some changes to the character, namely suggesting light-based powers. Roger Stern conceived of the character's name, Dazzler, while John Romita, Jr. provided pencils."
"Artist John Romita, Jr. originally intended for the character to resemble model, actress, and singer Grace Jones, as seen in early depictions.However, representatives from Filmworks – wanting to promote model and actress Bo Derek – insisted on design changes to reflect Derek's features.
To promote Dazzler, Casablanca wanted it cross-promoted within several key Marvel Comics titles: The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man in particular[citation needed], with Dazzler debuting in The Uncanny X-Men because she was a mutant character. However, Casablanca continued to request conceptual changes to the character's appearance and personality, leading to several cancellations of the project. Eventually, Casablanca Records backed out of the Dazzler project altogether due to financial concerns. Marvel Comics, left with a much-publicized new character, decided to launch the project as a monthly series.
According to writer Tom DeFalco, Dazzler was canceled "five or six times" prior to its launch in March 1981. At the time, Marvel Comics was looking for other filmmakers to invest in a Dazzler cross-promotion. However, Jim Shooter and Stan Lee decided to launch the series without such a partnership because of their "faith in the character.""

Monday, July 29, 2013

John Romita Jr. Week

I don't want to speculate as to what this image was produced for.  I don't even know that it's unpublished - but it's a very nice rendition of the X-Men.  This may be the only time I've seen John Romita Jr. ink his own work, and there's something about his shading here that I like.


Friday, July 26, 2013

Ryan Sook - Changeling

It's my understanding that this piece was produced for the VS. System trading card game.  Changeling was only considered an X-Man after he died - only Jean Grey knew that he was impersonating Professor X.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Monday, July 22, 2013

X-Men #4 cover sketch

From Mike Mayhew's gallery at comicartfans.com:
"Even though this was a cool shot, it was pretty hard to figure out that they were vampires, so it wasn't used."

Friday, July 19, 2013

Jim Lee - Nightcrawler

Jim Lee drew Nightcrawler only a few times during his X-Men run, so here's his version of the fuzzy elf!


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

X-Men WildC.A.T.s

This promo image for the X-Men WildC.A.T.s crossover is among Jim Lee's last official X-Men work.
He drew some covers for the crossover, and he drew issue #2, which featured the Neal Adams era X-Men.



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Jim Lee and Scott Williams

We're getting a late start on this year's Jim Lee week - but I think this image more than makes up for it.  The original art (seen below) remained unfinished for some years until Scott Williams was commissioned to ink it.
Note Jean Grey's unused costume design - the original art was produced during the time when the X-Men #1 team roster and costume designs had not yet been finalized.  This could have originally been intended as a promo piece for the new series.



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

George Perez - Pacesetter

This George Perez image comes from Pacesetter - The George Perez Magazine issue nine.



Monday, July 8, 2013

George Perez - Avengers 178 - Updated!

There are quite a few differences between this unpublished cover for Avengers 178 featuring the Beast and the published version, both by George Perez.
(Professor H. and Tom Brevoort have both brought it to my attention that the published cover is by John Buscema.)
Image from The Marvel Age of Comics:



Friday, July 5, 2013

Captain Britain and Psylocke

From the Deviant art page of Mark Brooks:

"Just something done for fun in the last couple of days. I've always loved these characters sice back in the day and thought they would fit perfectly for my country series of pics. the first was the Silver Samurai with the Japanese flag behind him. next I plan on doing a few more including Colossus from Russia, Wolverine from Canada and, of course Captain America. 
For anyone not familiar with the characters, Capt. brit and Psylocke are siblings born in England. Psylocke is a member of the X-Men and Captain Britain is one of the founding members or Excalibre. Pencils and colors by me."
http://diablo2003.deviantart.com/art/Captain-britain-and-Psylocke-15930781

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Captain UK

Comic Vine has this scan of Captain Britain #13, where Betsy Braddock, aka Psylocke, takes up the mantle of Captain Britain for a while...
Check out their site to see more Captain Britain covers by Alan Davis:

Monday, July 1, 2013

Captain Britain Week

According to Wikipedia:

In 2001, a four-issue limited series titled Excalibur, featuring Captain Britain, Meggan, Psylocke, Black Knight, Sir Benedict, Captain U.K., and Crusader X, and written by Ben Raab, detailed Captain Britain's rise to become king of the extra-dimensional realm of Otherworld.
Originally solicited as Excalibur: Sword of Power, the subtitle was absent from the published issues, and, due to an error, the indicia described it as Excalibur volume 1. In addition, the solicited cover to issue #1 featured a new costume for Captain Britain, different from the one he actually received in the comic, and the cover was unused

Art by Ian Churchill
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