Original Marvel Two-in-One artwork!

A few weeks ago, I picked up a signature piece for my original art collection - a page of artwork from Marvel Two-in-One #45!

Marvel Two-in-One #45 features a team-up between the Thing and Marvel's original Captain Marvel.

Artwork on this page is from Alan Kupperberg and Mike Esposito.

There's a lot going on in this page, with the Thing riding a flying...ghost car...above what appears the be the Brooklyn Bridge.

What I love about this page is that the Thing appears in technically every panel...including (I guess) the last panel, in which he's splashing down into the river.

The back of the page has a couple markings on it, including the name of the pencil and ink artist, and the original cost of the page, a minuscule 25 bucks! (I paid slightly more for it.)

Some of the legal information appears at the bottom of the page, which lets us all know that this page is currently 39 years of age.

Here's a sign of that age: one of the word balloons - which was originally added in after the artwork was completed but before publication (I guess the Thing needed another quip) - is loose. I'll need to think of a safe way to reattach it so I don't lose it.

Until then, though, I have the opportunity to do this whenever something bothers me. Works for now!

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.