Stan The Man

Scott Edelman's blog has some detailed character descriptions believed to be written by Stan Lee in the 1970's.  Scott was an assistant editor at Marvel Comics at the time, and he did print these in an issue of FOOM.  For more information, check out his post: http://www.scottedelman.com/2012/02/11/did-stan-lee-think-cyclops-should-sound-like-anthony-perkins/

Apologies for the scans, but with my secretary on vacation, I was unable to provide a transcript.  However, you can click on the image for a larger version.  Also, I know how much my readers appreciate rare X-Men art, so I have included a dose of John Romita Sr. to keep you from going through withdrawl symptoms.

Hulk 181 Week

This week we will be taking a look at the introduction of Wolverine in The Incredible Hulk #181.  While Hulk #180 did have a Wolverine appearance on the last page, this issue was the first to feature Wolverine throughout the issue.  First up we have the original character design by John Romita Sr.  I believe that these sketches are recreations of the originals.

Here's the classic cover by Herb Trimpe, along with some later Wolverine and Hulk commissions.

Check back later this week for more Wolverine Vs. Hulk!

X-Men Vs. Robots

This unpublished cover for X-Men 48 strikes me as being even more appealing than the published version.  The cover on the right has a bigger version of Marvel Girl.

The art comes from Richard Donnelly's gallery at comicartfans:

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=100444&gsub=

And here's the published cover by Sal Busceman and John Romita Sr. for comparison:

Classic X-Men Week - Art Adams

Here's an interesting look at the evolution of a cover:  The original version of Classic X-Men #1 by Art Adams.

The prelim sketch below was credited to John Romita.  Was he teaching Art how to tighten up his layout?

Below is Adams' second prelim, based on John Romita's poses, perhaps.

And here we have the final Classic cover!

Along with a recolored version.

Finally, we have a recent commission showing how Adams would attack this composition today!

Most of the images come from Marvel Comics of the 1980s:

http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2010/09/1986-classic-x-men-covers.html

JR Sr Sketch

I have no idea what this piece by John Romita Sr. was used for, but it's nice to see his rendition of  Marvel characters after the Silver Age.

Super John Romita Sr.

Inspired by Monday's post, which included a touch-up by John Romita Sr., I sought out some more of his X-Men work.  While he did at least one Silver Age cover, I was surprised to find he also produced some X-Men art in the 1990's, including this cover art for the Super Nintendo game "Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge".

This art appears courtesy of Mephisto at Collector's Society:

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2916730

And here's the final published box art:

Don Heck

Feast your eyes on the unpublished cover for X-Men #38 by Don Heck:

For your comparison, here is the original art for the published version by Dan Adkins:

On Comicartfans.com, Richard Donnelly credits John Romita Sr. with drawing (or perhaps redrawing) Marvel Girl on this cover:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=272713&GSub=42061

And here's the final published cover: