Among the hyperbolic winners in our comic group's informal chat sessions: best comic with the worst cover. As opposed to many issues of Rom: Space night that had great covers and regrettable interiors, or plenty of other issues with solid interesting Cockrum covers and, again, generic interiors.
#1 on the list, always, was Avengers Annual #10, the utter tour de force from Michael Golden and Armando Gil, a comic where, literally, every page was a stunner and a new lesson in how to do Marvel comics. Introducing Maddy Pryor and Rogue, it turned into a lynch pin of understanding the New X-men as well. Amazing. And it was saddled with this cover.
Don't get me wrong, I love Al Milgrom. As I've said, he was one of the two biggest influences on my inking and it is to my current regret that i've not met him in person to thank him. But this was not his best work. It honestly looks like something knocked out at the last minute in the office when another cover didn't work and the deadline was, well, passed most likely.So I've honestly no idea where this piece came from, other than it might be a commission by a fan for Golden to do what would have been his take on the cover. The style says to me that its fairly recent, but your could try to convince me otherwise. Either way, its beautiful, and i'm psyched that someone went to the trouble to get the correct trade dress for the art. Enjoy the comic that might have been.
5 comments:
The second cover might be better drawn, but the first cover is what would have gotten my 75 cents if I had seen it in the drug store where I was buying my comics as a young child in the early 80's. I loved busy covers like that back then, and I bet the same was true for a lot of other kids.
gotcha. Just as a personal aesthetic, i don't really love the montage cover, but i don't hate it either. Just not my favorite. done this sloppily, however, it moves well into the negative for me. c'est la vie.
I think this is definitely a "newer" Michael Golden cover because it seems that a lot of the inking is done with a pen and his signature (upper right hand side in the rubble) is the new "Michael Golden" logo rather than the simple "G" that he used during that mid 80's period (like on the cover of Marvel Fanfare 1 and 2). However Shooter's name is in approval block...I wonder if someone has "photoshoped" that.
OK..did I just put my geek flag way up high?
By the way, interesting idea...great comics with covers that did not appeal to you when you first bought them...
Alex-
The work is a commission, posted by Phillipe Queveau on ComicArtFans. Renee Witterstaetter, Michael Golden's agent, commented on the art, explaining its origins.
"Back when the "Avengers Annual" was being produced, Michael produced several sketches for the cover, but they were not used. This is a commissioned piece of one of the sketches that Michael proposed for the Annual. Cover Quality commission, Very large. It really is an amazing piece when you see it in person too, much less a scan! Thanks to Philippe for the request!! --Renee"
http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=833693&gsub=13952
thansk @flameape for that note!
Post a Comment