Happy Anniversary!!!

I just realized that January 24th marks one year of blogging about Unpublished, Rare, and Commissioned X-Men art.  For those new to the blog, we tend to feature unused art on Mondays, rare but published art on Wednesdays, and Commissions or Sketches on Fridays.  Here are a few highlights of the first year:

To show my commitment to unpublished X-Men art I hit the ground running, and reached into my personal stash to bring you a rare scan of an unused page from X-Men Special Edition by Dave Cockrum:

http://unpublishedxmen.blogspot.com/2012/01/all-new-all-different-revisited.html

I restored the artwork from Uncanny X-Men annual #3, to correct a major oversight in the printed version:

http://unpublishedxmen.blogspot.com/2012/03/uncanny-restoration.html

And with much help from Professor H., a classic piece of unpublished art by Barry Windsor-Smith was reimagined as if it had been published.  Roy Thomas himself was thrilled to see this artwork!

http://unpublishedxmen.blogspot.com/2012/06/barry-windsor-smiths-first-cover.html

Stay tuned, because we've got a lot more rare and unpublished artwork coming in the next year!

All New, All Different: Revisited

In 1983, Marvel published Special Edition X-Men, which was basically a reprint of Giant-Size X-Men #1, with a new backup story by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.  It also featured a great wraparound cover by Dave.

Here is a page by Dave that wasn't completely used in published book.  As shown, the top panel was used, and the story jumps ahead to show Kitty Pryde and Magik already in the water.

The inside front cover of the book also has a pinup of the X-Men by Dave.  This was used many years later as the cover of Back Issue Magazine #29.  Interestingly, the magazine mentions that Dave had intended to use the illustration as an Uncanny X-Men cover during his second run on the title.  It's unclear which issue this artwork was originally intended for.

To purchase Back Issue Magazine #29, or to check out other publications by TwoMorrows, click here.