X-Men Artists: The King Jack Kirby

 (This will be the first of (hopefully) a series of posts about X-Men artists. I grew up loving the X-Men, started reading when John Romita Jr. was on his first run then kept on for a long time, and worked backward. This won't be an especially scholarly overview, just me talking about what I like. I hope that's enough to get a couple readers.) 

The X-Men always had top drawer artists around them, from Kirby to Neal Adams to Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Jim Lee, etc ... when Chris Claremont was in charge especially he got that the X-Men needed the next big thing as their artist. 

It all started with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, though, as so much at Marvel did.

One thing that sticks out about this cover is how not jacked up our heroes are. They're in shape, sure, but it's not the hyper-detailed musculature that would take over comics as time went on. 

It's also cool to note how much we learn about our heroes from just this cover - everyone is doing their thing powers wise, including Magneto. Jean's the only one in the background in kind of a dainty girly pose that she would adopt a lot. It does have character, though. 

Again, like the image above, even though nothing's really happening dramatically in this scene, the heroes are mostly doing their heroic stuff, even though it's essentially in Professor X's living room (or office or what have you.) Did Beast need to come in through the window? Does Iceman need to be making an ice mess? Did Angel need to fly from the doorway? Of course not, but for someone just looking at this comic for the first time, we learn a lot about what these characters can do in one static image. It's a kind of short-hand really. Plus the name matches the image, without knowing who was who, you could figure it out. 

These images are big and splashy, not a ton of backgrounds but as most of you know, Kirby was churning out a lot of comics in these days. 

Another thing to note here, and this could be me projecting a bit - The X-Men look different than the FF or the Avengers. They're oddly shaped and drawn, even Jean who's in many ways the typical Stan Lee sweetheart doesn't look like an Avenger.

There's a heroic ideal to this FF piece. Not that the X-Men aren't heroic but they aren't drawn quite the same.

I also have to mention Kirby's Juggernaut. Again, he's not nearly as massive as he'd become over the years, he's just bigger than everyone else. He's thick but not muscle-bound beyond belief. But he's dominating and scary. 

Kirby's villains always looked weird and sniveling. Look at these guys, their shoulders are hunched, they're generally pretty ugly - you knew who the bad guys were for sure. At the same time, though, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are different - even without knowing the details, they aren't just like the rest of the crew. They're a little better looking, their colors a little brighter. There's more to them. 

And a couple pin ups, just because Kirby did so many of them to fill the back of so many comics. Sure, Jean's stuck doing girly stuff again but Angel looks great doing his thing!

I didn't start reading comics until long after Kirby's peak. It's easy to understand why so many people saw his art and started to draw, his characters were dynamic and different and he kept making new stuff until he passed away. 

In the great scheme of things, though, he's always The King!

The Art of Alex Ross at the Canton Museum of Art

Looking back on 2022, I realized I completely missed out on some awesome blog posts! Even though this is way after the fact, it's still too cool not to acknowledge, so while while just over a year later, here we go! 

  In November of 2021 through March of 2022, the Canton Museum of Art hosted, Marvelocity The Art of Alex Ross! This wasn't the largest or most glamorous of events but since most of the Cranboyz started off in the Canton area, this was pretty darn exciting! The exhibit was put together by the Dunn Museum of  Libertyville, Illinois and was definitely worth taking in!

 

 

I've been aware of Alex Ross and his painted comic book work since 1994 when Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, appeared. It was a huge hit and I don't think Alex Ross ever quit being a huge deal after that!  

The Marvelocity exhibit covered Alex Ross way before that. They had displays of his early childhood comic books and even homemade Fantastic Four "action figures" that he made from paper! 

 

From there they went on to cover his work on Marvels and Earth X, as well as many of the other paintings that he's famous for, in the world of comic books.

 

There were statues, busts and action figures, based on his work, also. 

 

The gift shop had a nice selection of Alex's sketchbooks, art books and prints featuring his work. 

 

Overall, it was an enjoyable exhibit. As a long-time comic book fan, I ate it up! Hopefully, it was just as entertaining to the rest of Stark County! 

 You can read about the Canton Museum of Art and Marvelocity the Art of Alex Ross, here: https://www.cantonart.org/exhibits/marvelocity-art-alex-ross-november-23-2021-march-6-2022

The Cranboyz Custom T-Shirt Gallery

The Cranboyz have accumulated quite a collection of custom t-shirts over the past 14 years.  Most of these t-shirts were designed to reflect each year's sketch theme on the convention circuit, but some were merely simple tees sporting the Cranboyz logo.  Now, let's take a look back through the history of the Cranboyz custom t-shirt.

2009

Year of the Serpent

The year that started it all!  This theme was pretty much an excuse for Shane and Popa to get sketches of their favorite members of The Serpent Society, but everyone joined in on the fun.

2010

Armor Wars

Tony Stark would be proud!  The brainchild of our dear friend Adam, this sketch theme featured our favorite armored characters.

2012

Dark Cranboyz: Villains United

Bring on the Bad Guys!  A wretched theme of scum and villainy.

2013

Out of This World

Outer space!  Alternate universes!  Parallel dimensions!  The Multiverse!  This sketch theme explored the characters from many realms beyond the world we call home.

2014

Clash of the Titans

Collector's item!  A very loose sketch theme, accompanied by a shirt that never made it to production.

2015

Armed and Dangerous

Most Wanted!  The Cranboyz tracked down sketches of comics' most notorious heroes and villains with an MO of being armed to the teeth.

2016

Animated Adventures

It's Saturday morning!  This sketch theme featured a fun lineup of characters from our favorite animated shows and movies.

2017

The Silver Age

The 25th Anniversary of the Cranboyz!  To celebrate 25 years of friendship spent collecting original artwork at conventions, this sketch theme looked back to the classic characters from the Silver Age of comics.

2018

Year Without a Theme: Part I

Back to basics.  After our big anniversary, the Cranboyz decided to take a break from themed sketches, and went back to the beginning with an updated logo shirt.

2019

Image United

Image Comics' most EXTREME characters, front and center!  Shane, Popa, and Andy decided to bring back the themed sketches with a heaping dose of 90's awesomeness.

2020

Year Without a Theme: Part II

After the craziness of Image United, the Cranboyz took another year to focus on our own individual collections.  And, inspired by the Cranboyz: Not At Comic Con print from 2019 by artist Nate Lovett, we took the opportunity to add a new red Cranboyz logo shirt to the collection.

2021

Turtles, Bats, Apes, and Snakes

For Carl...  To honor the passing of our friend Carl the previous in 2020, the Cranboyz paid tribute by collecting themed artwork featuring characters inspired by some of Carl's favorites. 

2022

Year Without a Theme: Part III

And finally, this shirt brings us to the present, and another year without themed sketches.  Despite the lack of theme, Shane requested a Cranboyz logo shirt using the Green Lantern palette... a callout to Green Lantern artist extraordinaire, AND honorary Cranboy, Darryl "Darrylax"Banks.

Cranboyz 2021: Turtles, Bats, Apes and Snakes!

2021 may have seemed like the Cranboyz strangest theme yet but it was all for good reason! In July of 2020 we lost one of our closest friends, Carl. Carl was like an older brother to most of us and we were all hit hard by this loss. 

Carl was attending conventions, collecting art and reading independent comics while we were saving up lunch money to buy our comics. Like most of us, Carl had diverse tastes in comics and he loved the characters he loved, just because. So we did our best to make him proud by collecting sketches of Turtles, Bats, Apes and Snakes!

Carl was reading the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their original black and white comic books and always continued to love them!

Andy and Carl often bonded over the Turtles and Andy got a few TMNT commissions during the year.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 Cover Recreation by Andy Bennett. I had this recreation in mind for several years, and this theme seemed a great opportunity to make it happen. It’s a great homage to the very first issue and appearance of the TMNT in Andy Bennett’s unique style of artwork, and a piece I think Carl would have loved. -Andy

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 Cover Recreation by Drew Moss. Drew Moss had been posting some of his amazing TMNT commission work, including his reinterpretation of the cover to the very first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so I commissioned him for a recreation of my all-time favorite cover, issue #4, originally by Peter Laird, and then again by Michael Dooney. I love a good cover recreation, and this felt like a great way to honor Carl! -Andy

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Soul’s Winter by Dan Govar. Carl was a huge TMNT fan, and when we got to talking about the Turtles, he ALWAYS brought up this story, with writing and art by Michael Zulli, from the original Mirage Studios run. - Andy

 Casey Jones and Raphael by Ian Nichols. Ian Nichols is a fantastic TMNT artist, and when I requested a commission to showcase the friendship between Casey Jones and Raphael, he came up with this wonderful image of the two buddies taking a break from patrolling the city to eat some pizza! Carl was a big fan of Casey Jones, so this turned out to be one fortuitous request that I am happy to add to my collection. This one's for you, Carl! -Andy

Also, a digitally colored "Pin-up" version by Ian Nichols.

 I knew I needed to get all of the Turtle brothers for Carl. I usually have a pretty solid plan when I collect sketches but with these guys, I just went with what looked and felt right. I'm thrilled to have these sketches in my collection and I think Carl would be happy with them, too! -Shane

Leonarado is by Drew Moss and I really love the tones and muted red background. Even the pose of this feels old school while be totally modern. 

Donatello by Chris Campana is a great representation of Donnie's serious attitude.

Raphael by Freddie Williams II was a no brainer for me! Freddie draws some of the best Turtles and he went all in on Raph and his aggressive style! 

 

Michelangelo by Nate Lovett is a perfect example of everything Turtles! It's black and white tones, it's in the sewers, Mikey is playing with his chucks and there's even a pizza graphic on the skateboard! 

 

I also picked up these 2 sketches from our friend, Sean Forney. Sean had them on a live sale online and I thought they looked great and couldn't believe no one else grabbed them up! Donnie and Leo are also my favorites, so that made it easy too! -Shane

Casey Jones by Andy Bennett. This was a huge one to me. If Carl actually was any comic book character, it was probably Casey Jones. Running around, dishing out some street justice, keeping the streets safe from evil, while laughing and hanging out with his buddies. Yeah, if Carl could have gone thru life with a hockey mask on, I'm sure he would have! -Shane

 

 Eric didn't miss out on Turtle-mania, either! Eric was able to pick up this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cover prelim by Ian Nichols!

Batman / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Mike Bowden When the first crossover between Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was announced, Carl didn’t miss an opportunity to tell anyone who would listen that he had the idea for the team-up years ago. With that in mind, I decided to commission the team-up from Mike Bowden, to pay homage to Carl's fantastic idea. -Andy

This is the perfect transition to the Bats portion of our theme! Popa went all in on one of the greatest versions of Batman to exist, the Animated Series! 

 

I knew Carl most of my life, we went to the same schools and had siblings the same ages. Plus, he was a legend in the local comic book scene, even when we were teenagers. But Carl was into Snake Pliskin, Planet of the Apes and Batman - all cool things, but not things I necessarily would buy or collect as original art. One thing we DID have a mutual obsession with, though, was "Batman: The Animated Series." I remember him coming home from (I think) a Chicago Comicon where the opening sequence debuted and telling me all about it. Shot for shot, he was pumped, and so was I! Believe me - if there was a first Harley Quinn fan, it was Carl. With that in mind I reached out to Gene Gonzales to do a different Animated Series character monthly for a little over a year (through his Patreon.) It's mostly my favorite villains, with some of the other regulars at the end. -Popa

I also grabbed this Harley by Paul Pelletier along the way. Who can resist a Pelletier Harley? -Popa

And who doesn't love the Batman!

Karen got a Batman from Marcus Grant! Eric got his Batman from Ian Nichols!

Brian and Brendon Fraim also provided Batmans to Kurt and Eric Osier!

Batman: Year One by Tom Reilly. Technically, this one arrived in late 2020, but we were gearing up for the 2021 theme when this became available, so I bought it as a pre-emptive entry for the theme. An homage to Mazzuccheli’s Batman from the seminal Year One story seemed a no-brainer to honor Carl, one of the biggest Batman fans I know. -Andy

I did a re-watch of the Batman Animated series this year and I was convinced I wanted a Batman and Robin piece, I just couldn't decide who to have do it. When I saw Scoot McMahon at the first convention of the year, he had this for Sale in his portfolio! It's not in the Animated Series style but hit all the marks of what I was looking for! -Shane

I've always been a Dick Grayson fan and I collect Teen Titans sketches, so a Batman theme seemed like a great time to visit All of the Robin characters! To start off, the original Robin, the Boy Wonder, by Romeo Tanghal Sr! -Shane

 

Shane got 2 sketches of Tim Drake as Robin, by Marcus To and Marcio Fiorito!

 

Shane also got Jason Todd as Robin by Brendon and Brian Fraim! Damian Wayne as Robin is by Brandon Franklin!

 

Shane moved onto Nightwing with a commission of the beloved George Perez designed costume by Pat Quinn! Travis Mercer provided Shane with the 90's version of Nightwing, complete with Starfire and Titans Tower!

 Carl was a little different in his art collecting than most of our group, in that once he got a piece from an artist, he didn't normally go back. There were exceptions to this and the biggest one had to be Scott McDaniel! Carl loved Scott's work on Batman and Nightwing and had multiple sketches and a few pages from Scott! Shane and Andy both being fans as well, picked up a couple of commissions from Scott, in honor of Carl! 

Deadshot is my favorite Batman villain, even though he isn't considered one of his main rogues. Deadshot was introduced in this costume, in Detective Comics drawn by Marshall Rogers (Who Carl also loved on Batman!)! I came up with this idea after the last commission I got from Scott but wasn't sure when I would get around to getting it. After losing Carl, I knew I had to get it!

Carl would have loved this and I'm bummed about missing the long debates we would have had about who's winning this fight! (Sure, it's probably Batman but don't tell Carl I said that!) -Shane

 

 

 

 

As much as I enjoy his Batman, I could look at new Nightwing drawings by Scott McDaniel, every day! A Nightwing versus Deathstroke seemed like a great companion to Batman versus Deadshot, especially since Carl was such a Deathstroke fan! -Shane

Nightwing & Robin by Scott McDaniel. The 25th issue of Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel’s run on Nightwing, featuring Nightwing and Robin running a gauntlet through Bludhaven while catching up, is a favorite of mine. Carl loved Scott McDaniel’s take on the Bat-Family, so I decided to commission McDaniel for this Bat-Family piece as a nod to Carl. -Andy

 

I'm not sure how much of a Batgirl fan Carl was, past Yvonne Craig from the 1960s Batman TV Series, but she is one of my favorites! Batgirl prelim by Ron Frenz! Batgirl commission by Tom Grummett! Batgirl commission by Joe Pekar! -Shane

 

 

 Batgirl by Landon Franklin Not much story to this one, other than I love Cassandra Cain as Batgirl from the No Man’s Land era, and I thought it a fine addition to the theme. -Andy

 

I immediately knew I needed to get a Commissioner Gordon this year. Carl was definitley a Gordon fan and he liked the interaction between Gordon, the Gotham City PD and Batman. That plus with me being in law enforcement, I had to get the Commissioner for Carl! Gavin Smith did this as part of Inktober/Batober and it's everything I could have wanted in a Commissioner Gordon piece! -Shane

The Cranboyz are going Ape! We didn't get any Planet of the Apes art but we still collected our share of Apes! 

Eric had Brendon and Brian Fraim draw the Blood Brothers for him! Kurt went all out with the Red Ghost AND his Super Apes!

 

Shane had Ian Nichols draw a savage Gorilla Grodd! Shane also got the Flash, making a monkey out of Gorilla Grodd, by Scoot McMahon!

 

And finally, why did it have to be Snakes! 

Kurt got a Master of the Universe, Snake Face, by Brendon and Brian Fraim!

Jason wasted no time in getting the Cobra Water Moccasin driver, Copperhead, from Brendon and Brian Fraim! This is perfect because Carl loved trash-talking the GI Joe team to Shane!

And finally, the main man himself, Snake Plissken! 

I'm not sure if Snake Plissken had a bigger fan than Carl! Carl has to have the world's greatest collection of Snake Plissken art. And he had this little "test" he like to give artists. Being a smoker, Carl would say they "passed his test" if they drew Snake with a cigarette! I always wanted Carl to get a Snake from Brian Level so when the time came, I went for it! Brian not only delivered an epic looking Snake, he passed Carl's test! Who could ask for more? -Shane

Hopefully this little post leaves no doubt how much we not only cared about Carl but what a huge part of our lives he was and how much he means to us. This little collection was a nice way for us to honor and remember our friend through the hobby we enjoyed together. There's no doubt that any time we get together, fun-filled stories of Carl will be shared while we remember some of the important life lessons Carl taught us.

Leave the water on in your hotel room, it's free. If the room floods, it's a free water park!

They want you to throw your tray away, it's how they get new ones. 

Eat someplace nice, like Wendy's.