2099 original artwork!

Marvel's 2099 line launched right as I was starting to read and collect comics, and something about it struck a chord with *slightly* younger me. Who can say what it was that made such an impression on me? Why, it could have been any number of...uh...well, okay, we all know what it was: Spider-Man 2099's incredible design by Rick Leonardi:

Has there been a better costume to come out of Marvel in the last 25 years?

Anyway, ever since I picked up a few issues of the 2099 books in the early '90s, I've held a soft spot for them. I tend to try and focus my original art purchases on the Fantastic Four and books I've personally worked on, but these few have managed to sneak their way in. Let's take a look!

This first piece is from Spider-Man 2099 #27, and even though he's out of costume, this page features Miguel O'Hara, Spidey himself.

The art is by Joe St. Pierre, and it was gifted to me by one Ian Nichols. I worked with Joe on a short story for Rhode Island's AR Comics, and even though he was doing me a favor by letting me write something for the book, Ian sent me this page as a thank you.

They - they said the word "Alchemax"! It wouldn't be a proper 2099 title without it.

This next page is from the second issue of Ravage 2099, the 2099 line's only non-derivative title of the launch!

This is the second page of original art I own from the late, great Paul Ryan, one of my favorite artists of all time. Oh, and it was also written by none other than Stan Lee! That's pretty exciting.

One fun note about this page is that the word "blasterproof" was added in the second-to-last panel as a late edit. I guess "bulletproof" didn't sound futuristic enough! Oh, Ravage 2099. You were weird.

These next two pieces are a bit more modern, coming from the recent relaunch of the Spider-Man 2099 series. Both are pieces of preliminary art, and both are by Pasqual Ferry. The first one is rough pencils that eventually became the a variant cover to Spider-Man 2099 #4, with a number of 2099 characters, like Spider-Man, Hulk and Doom!

Here's the final version. It changed a good bit from concept to print.

The next rough sketch eventually became a variant cover to Contest of Champions #4, which featured  a number of Marvel's characters from the future, including Iron Man 2020, who has two years left to remain a part of this group.

Here's the final cover, which took a lot from the rough sketch on the left. I do like the Killraven/War of the Worlds inspired Martian ship in the image to the right! But I'll take Spider-Man 2099 original art any way I can get it.

Remembering Fantastic Four artist Paul Ryan

Earlier today I learned that one of my favorite artists, Paul Ryan, had passed away at the age of 66. I haven't read anything about a cause, but I was stunned to learn this not only because Ryan was still relatively young, but also because I grew up reading his run on Fantastic Four with Tom DeFalco. Ryan is one of the reasons that I love the FF so much, and his years-long stint on the book is still the third-longest in the title's history, behind only Kirby and Byrne. In fact, I learned today that Ryan's first Marvel work was as an inker on the '80s Thing series!

Ryan drew in a classic style that I've only become more appreciative of as I've gotten older. It was the perfect amalgamation of Kirby, Byrne, Swan, Anderson, and other classic, steady styles of the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages. Back when the extreme (and silly) art styles of 1990s Image Comics were all the rage, Ryan's art was a consistent, solid presence on one of comics' greatest titles. He's known for his work on Superman, Flash, Avengers, Iron Man, DP7 and currently the Phantom comic strip, but he'll always be a Fantastic Four artist to me, and one of the greatest. The above cover to issue #370 was the first issue I bought with my own money, back in '92 at the Uniontown Mall.

I was very fortunate to have the chance to work briefly with Ryan a few years ago, when I contacted him about a commission and some original art. I purchased this page from Fantastic Four #390 for the paltry sum of $100. I decided to press my luck and was able to get some comics signed and, for a little extra, I got this Thing sketch card mailed to me:

The thing I'm most thankful for, though, is that I actually got the chance to commission an original Teddy and the Yeti cover from Ryan. His website said that he wasn't taking commissions at the time, but after talking to him for a little while, he told me that his website developer simply hadn't updated the site and that he was indeed taking commissions.

I jumped at the news and a few weeks later, he sent me the original art that you see here, including a rough sketch and full-size pencils.

The cover was eventually completed by Duane Redhead (inks) and Karin Rindevall (colors). I'm so happy that I had this done when I had the chance. It's a real shame that there won't be any more work out there by Ryan after his run on the Phantom strip ends, but he has a legacy of decades that still holds up and will for years to come.

At a FUBAR signing in 2013, I asked Rafer Roberts to draw a version of the Thing with his helmet, a trademark of '90s Fantastic Four. After I brought up the idea, he immediately said, "oh, you mean Paul Ryan?" Rafer, I think, has a similar understanding of '90s FF and he cranked out the lovely rendition that you see below. I'll miss Ryan and his work. I'm glad that I had the chance to interact with him in a small way.

New Fantastic Four original art! FF 2099 and color guides!

A little while ago, I found and bought a page of original Tick art.  Original art can often be a little pricey, so after I buy one I usually wait at least a few months before I start searching for another.  I stumbled upon the above page from Fantastic Four 2099 just a few days after winning the Tick art, and I couldn't resist.  I put in a fairly low bid and as luck would have it, I won the page at a great price.

The artwork is page 2 from FF 2099 issue #4, with art by Matt Ryan (not the quarterback, I think) and Al Williamson.  I have fond memories of this book for what should be obvious reasons.  This issue even featured an appearance by Spider-Man 2099!

Despite there being little action on the page, it still has good shots of three of the four FF team, including a nice image here of the future Thing, who looks a lot like, well, the regular Thing.

If I'm remembering correctly, upon arriving in the future, the FF hid out in an old SHIELD safe house that doubled as a barbershop.  The female character, Chimera, had some nefarious purposes and a fairly obvious crush on Reed Richards.

The book came into being at the tail end of the 2099 line, so it only had eight issues before everything shut down.  Still, writer Karl Kesel, no stranger to the FF, crafted an interesting story that unfortunately got derailed starting in issue #5, and we never really learned the mystery of the characters' identities (or Doom's, for that matter).

I wonder who at Marvel put in the order for the official Fantastic Four 2099 stamp (much easier than writing it on every page, I guess).  At the bottom of the page we can find Al Williamson's signature as well, so apparently the previous owner of the page bought it from Williamson himself.

Here's what the page looks like in print.

I also picked up three Fantastic Four color guides for a dirt-cheap price.  I would imagine that one of the reasons they were so cheap was that none of the pages features any of the FF, with the exception of Mr. Fantastic's hand, reaching through some dimensional barrier into the Innerverse.

Each of these pages come from the same issue, #362.  I actually have two other pages from this same issue, and there are others floating around on eBay as we speak.  Who knows why there are so many of these from one issue but almost none from others currently out there.  When the price is right, though, I'm happy to add them to my collection.

The preceding two pages are pages 2 and 3 from the story; the first is a full page spread of Reed on the other side of the barrier.  That one's a bit more expensive.

This last one skips toward the end of the book, and yet we still see that dang portal causing trouble.  362 was very early on in the DeFalco/Ryan run on the book and the Innerverse never really played a big part in the book ever again.  Still, it's nice to get these pages and put them with the others.  I always keep an eye out for color guides.

The mystery of Adam Hughes's 1992 Fantastic Four cover

I've found my way to a few items of comic book production art lately.  I enjoy seeing the process that artwork goes through on its way to being a printed page.  I remember seeing the above image a while ago - a few years, at least - and it popped up on eBay again recently.  There's nothing unique about it in that it's a production transparency, made for coloring purposes on its way to the printer, but it's the image itself that caught my eye.  This image, if I'm not mistaken, has never been used by Marvel and certainly never for the cover of a book.

There are several sheets to this item, each revealing a different layer of color.  It's interesting to see everything come together to create a complete image.

If this image was never used before, then what was its purpose?  "Inventory" stories are not uncommon at Marvel - self-contained stories that were completed and saved in case a regular creative team missed the deadline to go to print - and that is the most likely answer to this question.  Of course, it raises other questions, namely if there was a story that went along with the cover.  Since it made its way to the film transparency stage, chances are that it's not just a pinup that someone did of their own accord.

With this in mind, I took a picture and tried to find out a little more about this mystery cover.  There's no signature on the art that I could see, but it reminded me of that of Terry Dodson, who had drawn this FF cover:

Thanks to the magic of the Twitter, reaching out to people you don't know is easier than ever before, and it was helpful in this case:

Soon after I had sent the inquiring tweet, Terry Dodson wrote back:

And, of course, he was right.  I don't know why (beyond the similar styles), but I often get art from the two mixed up.  I sent another message on to Adam Hughes, and he replied just a little while later:

This in itself was a mini-breakthrough, as I now had confirmation on who drew the piece.  The next question I asked was about context - was it for an inventory story?  A poster?  A pinup?  A reply came soon after:

This is a bit of a roadblock, of course.  The next step is to try and contact the editor of the book around the time it was drawn.  The copyright date by the "4" logo says 1992, which was right at the beginning of the lengthly Tom DeFalco/Paul Ryan run.  The two never missed an issue until they were replaced several years later, so if this was for in inventory story, it was never needed.

Who knows if this mystery will ever be solved.  This is a very cool piece of art and it gains even more notoriety since it's never been published before.  We'll see if I can't figure out its origins at some point.

After I found out that Hughes drew it, I found a scan of the original inked art online:

Maybe one day.

Thing sketch cards, part 3

Tired of Thing sketches?  NEVER!  Only on this blog do we take a break from the Thing sketchbook to then show off Thing sketch cards.  Such is life.

Paul Ryan - Former Fantastic Four artist Paul Ryan is easily my favorite childhood artist.  I started reading comics in the early 1990s and Ryan's art was, month in and out, consistently great.  He didn't miss an issue during his entire FF run!  So it was a thrill to get this sketch card from him.  Ryan was gracious enough to sign some books for me and draw this sketch card after I commissioned him to draw a Teddy and the Yeti cover.  The fact that this is on a T&Y sketch card make it even cooler.  Very happy to have this card in my collection.

Rob Summers - This eBay purchase comes from Rob Summers, a prolific semi-professional artist who has a keen internet presence.  When searching for information about Summers for this blog, I came up with a newspaper report about a Rob Summers who was shot and killed in an attempted robbery of a Los Angeles comic book shop (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/09/04/second-comic-shop-killing-in-lancaster-los-angeles/).  I'm going to just assume that this sketch card was drawn by someone else who happens to have the same name.

Mark Kuhn - This was another random eBay purchase from early last year.  Thanks, Mark Kuhn!

Alex Magno - The Fantastic Four Archives is a trading card set released a few years back.  Since its debut, I've been slowly collecting the series in its entirety, and to complete the collection I knew that I had to get at least one of the one-per-box original art sketch cards.  Of course, I picked one out featuring the Thing.  This one comes from Alex Magno, who drew quite a few original art cards for this set.

Here's the back of the card, congratulating me on my purchase.  Thanks, SketchaFEX people.

Alan Kupperberg - My most recent acquisition comes from none other than classic Marvel Two-in-One artist Alan Kupperberg, which is a real treat.  I got this card as a reward for renewing my annual membership to the extremely worthwhile comic book charity Hero Initiative.  What a treat.

Here's the back of the Hero Initiative card.  Spiffy!

That's actually the entirety of my Thing sketch card collection.  Just posting this makes me want to do an eBay search.  The perils of blogging.

Original Fantastic Four art by Paul Ryan!

It'll be a while before Paul Ryan, the comic artist stops being mistaken for Paul Ryan, failed Republican vice presidential nominee, but to me, the name is synonymous with the Fantastic Four books of the 1990s.  I've written before of my affinity for him and his art, but suffice it to say that he's one of my favorite comic artists of all time.  This is undoubtedly the product of his classic style mixed with the fact that he drew my favorite book, but it still needs to be said - I like the guy's work.

I finally worked up the edge to e-mail Mr. Ryan a few weeks ago, and to my delight he wrote back a few days later.  Eventually, the conversation turned to original artwork and I ended up purchasing a page from the fabled Fantastic Four run.  It showed up in the mail on Monday, so I took a few pictures!

The artwork in question is page 20 (27 if you count ads) from Fantastic Four #390, part of the "No One Gets Out Alive!" storyline that saw the Fantastic Four and friends searching for the lost-to-time Reed Richards.  Paul did the pencilwork on this page and inks, if memory serves (i.e. I didn't look it up) are by Danny Bulandi, a longtime collaborator with Ryan on the book.

What's great about this page - beyond the nostalgia of owning some artwork from a book I grew up reading and loving - was the sheer number of characters featured on the page.  You've got the Thing (a must) and the Invisible Woman from the FF, you've got related characters like Ant Man and the Sub Mariner, you've got a classic cosmic character in Uatu, the Watcher, and to top it all off, the first panel is a statue featuring the four original Fantastic Four members in their original costumes with Four Freedoms Plaza in the background.

The first panel on the page is actually an overlay panel, meaning that this panel was cut and pasted over what was originally there.  I love all the different production aspects that this page shows, and this is my favorite.  Of course, I really want to know what was underneath it, but I'm not going to go and pry the new panel off to find out.

This page has more than a few great shots of the Thing, which, of course, was one of my criteria for buying it.  It had to feature the Thing, and this page doesn't disappoint.  Also, I'll say that I was a big fan of this version of Sue Storm's costume, which didn't stick around for long.

Here's some exciting news, perhaps news that I shouldn't curse by giving away before the fact: I'm about 95% certain that Paul will soon be providing a cover for a future issue of Teddy and the Yeti.  This is really exciting!  I'm sure he'll do a great job - and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does actually happen.

I picked up some similar items on eBay recently.  Above and below are color guides for pages from Fantastic Four #392 and Wonder Man #15, which features a hearty helping of the Thing (and is an Infinity War crossover book, which to my 11-year-old self was AWESOME!).  Color guides aren't original line art - it's a photocopy of the inked art that a colorist uses to figure out how he/she is going to color the originals when the time comes, hence all of the markings with different color designations.  So basically the book's colorist uses this page to practice for the real thing.

Since almost all coloring is done digitally these days, color guides don't exist anymore, or at least not en masse like they used to (and certainly not at big publishers like Marvel).  And only one copy exists of each guide, so I picked up a pretty cool, unique item of comic artwork.  Love how the Thing looks in the Wonder Man page.

Let's wrap up this original art-themed post with one more item - Rafer Robers sent me the original art for the "Yeti Rhyme Time" strip he put together for Teddy and the Yeti #5!  The board is much bigger than I imagined, and it looks great.  Every time I get original art, I tell myself that I need to frame it and display it immediately, and it's no different with this batch.  But there's nowhere near enough room to do so, so it's a matter of picking and choosing, I suppose.  It's a good problem to have.