Todd McFarlane Wolverine

Uncanny X-Mas!

This Marvel Subscription ad imposed Santa hats onto Marc Silvestri's X-Men.  I'm not sure what this image was originally produced for, but I'm fairly certain it was used on a coffee mug.  The image at bottom was taken from a comic produced for Marvel's stockholders.  There's some horrible photoshopping on Rogue's head because part of her face and hair was missing in the original publication.

Merry X-Mas, mutants!

Sam Kieth Weapon X

This unused Weapon X cover for Marvel Comics Presents was printed a few months later in issue #86. 

Fastball Special

We conclude our second annual John Byrne month with a classic "Fastball Special".  Have no fear, there's plenty of John Byrne X-Men left to post!  'Til next time!

Marvel Age

This image of Wolverine and Colossus fighting a Sentinel was printed in Marvel Age 16.

Wolverine Redesign

John Byrne didn't like the yellow and blue color scheme of Wolverine's costume, so he designed the classic brown version seen here.

Wolverine and Rogue

This commission may be one of the only times John Byrne drew Rogue, and probably the only time in the Jim Lee designed costume.

The Death of Mariko

Byrnerobotics.com features a post by a longtime friend of John Byrne, Cory Vandernet, who found a list planned storylines through Uncanny X-Men #150.  One story was the death of Wolverine's love, Mariko, after a vicious attack at the hands of Sabretooth.

JB: Something that jumps out at me is the "death of Mariko" referece. That was going to be a hugely powerful story. In fact, when this list was made, with the death of Phoenix not even in the cards yet, it was probably the most powerful story we had planned.  I'm going to break one of my own rules here, since I have, at one time or another, discussed most of the details of Mariko's death as I had worked it out. So here it is all together, for those who haven't seen it before (and even those who have): Sabretooth attacks Mariko as a way of getting to Wolverine. He brutalizes her beyond imagining. (Nothing sexual. This is sheer animal violence.) He leaves her for dead, torn and bleeding in an alley. But she isn't dead, and the X-Men, tracking Sabretooth, find her. They race her to a hospital, and over the next several issues she lies in a coma, on life support. Other things occupy the X-Men's time for a while, but their thoughts keep coming back to Mariko. Wolverine returns to her bedside as often as he can. Her condition remains unchanged.

Finally, he can take it no longer. He begs Jean and Xavier to do something, to save her. Xavier scans her and makes a sad discovery. She is brain dead. Only the machines are keeping her alive. Wolverine refuses to believe it. But Jean links his mind to Mariko, and he feels the emptiness where her soul used to be. He asks to be left alone with her. Xavier and Jean depart, to wait outside. Wolverine sits by Mariko's beside, holding her hand, stroking her hair. He rises. He looks at the machines that are maintaining her life functions. In a sudden, swift movement he pops his claws and slashes the power cables. The machines fizzle and shut down.  Outside, in the hall, Jean and X have both "felt" what has happened. They move toward the door, but Wolverine comes out before they can enter. He stands for a moment in silence, looking at them. Finally he speaks. "She ain't meat," he says softly. And in an instant, he is gone, disappearing down a stairway.

Next issue, he finds and, in the most horrifying battle the Code would allow, kills Sabretooth (who was, at this point, to be revealed as his father.)

Regarding the above image, Cory writes:

"A little back-story, back in the day JB used to visit Grandpa Takes A Trip Comic-shop once in a while. When John broke the news that Mariko was going to die and Wolverine was going to kill Sabertooth out of revenge, the last few panels of the last page of the first part were to be of Wolverine cradling Mariko's body and the last panel was Wolverine raising his head with an expression of grief and hatred. I asked John what that would look like and he drew this free-hand with a ballpoint pen. At first he drew a tear welling up in the corner of his eye thought better of it and penned over it."

John Byrne Wolverine

Before Dave Cockrum drew Wolverine's face, there was much speculation as to what he would look like.  John Byrne came up with this design, which was later used for Sabretooth, with some changes.  This was the genesis of the idea that Wolverine and Sabretooth would be related.

From johnbyrnedraws.tumblr.com:

John Byrne had this to say about the image. "Ah, yes — that was my original suggestion for Wolverine’s face. I sent that to Chris and he responded “You blew it! Dave has already designed Wolvie’s face.”

Updated version of the original concept drawing of Wolverine under the mask by John Byrne. 2012.

After looking at the original 1976 version of Logan’s face, John tried his hand at doing it again. He wrote: "Morning’s exercise: the same face, with thirty five years of additional experience driving the pencil…"

http://johnbyrnedraws.tumblr.com/post/56549418945/updated-version-of-the-original-concept-drawing-of

Wolverine Gothic

Artist Paolo Rivera tells the story behind this unused Wolverine cover:

When I was first given the premise of Wolverine Art Appreciation Month,

this was one of the first images to pop into my head. Yes, it's totally cliche, but that's sort of the point. I quickly found an image of American Gothic on-line and proceeded to digitally paint on top of it. I received approval from my editor rather quickly, but it couldn't survive the legal department... and so we moved on.

http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/2009/04/wolverine-gothic.html

All of the Wolverine Art Appreciation Month covers can be seen on Comicbookresources.com

Hulk 181 Commissions

Here are a few artist commissions for The Incredible Hulk #181, starting with Art Adams:

This commission by John Byrne also has a color version:

Here's a fairly straightforward reproduction of the original by Herb Trimpe:

And finally, this sketch cover for Wolverine #1 features Herb Trimpe doing a homage to Incredible Hulk #181 and #340 at the same time!

The Incredible Homage

Here's a few covers that pay homage to The Incredible Hulk #181.  The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine features a John Byrne wraparound cover.

I'm not sure if this cover to Wolverine battles The Incredible Hulk is by Herb Trimpe, if anyone knows for sure feel free to comment below.

Old Man Logan chapter one, printed in Wolverine 66, featured this Dynamic Forces variant by Herb Trimpe.

Here's a better version of that art, printed in Giant-Size Old Man Logan.

Wrapping things up, we have the cover to Wild Thing #0, from Marvel's short-lived MC2 line.  The title, written by Tom DeFalco with art by Ron Frenz, was the story of Wolverine's daughter in an alternate universe.

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!

Classic X-Men 111

This pinup appeared as the last page of the last issue of Classic X-Men.  If the next issue had been published, it would have reprinted Uncanny X-Men #207, which included this battle between Wolverine and Phoenix over the fate of the Black Queen.  The Terry Dodson art below was most likely intended to be the cover for what would have been Classic X-Men #111.

First X-Men

Wrapping up Neal Adams Week at Unpublished X-Men, we bring you a shot of Wolverine that was one of a series of Ebay auctions some years back.  This week has featured Neal Adams drawing the All-New All-Different X-Men, rather than the Original Team he drew in the comics.  If you haven't seen it yet, check out First X-Men, a series he drew just last year featuring Wolverine's attempt to bring together a team of mutants before Professor X's original team!

More Liefeld / Future Wolverine

Also from Rob Liefeld's blog, a future Wolverine from an aborted Killraven book.  To see more, check out the full post:

http://robliefeldcreations.com/?p=3031

Two for One

Here's a couple of sketch covers by Michael Golden to wrap up the week.

Wolverine and the Gang

Here's a great cover for Amazing Heroes, featuring Wolverine, Spidey, Cap, and the Human Torch.

Art by Todd McFarlane.

Cap'N'Wolvie

By Mark Brooks

A Matter of Perspective

Here's a convention poster by Jackson "Butch" Guice for Heroes Con in 84.