Did I Accidentally Do a
MARVEL COMICS Cover?
OK, in a year full of strange and weird things which have happened, so far this is the strangest and weirdest. It's a lifelong dream come true in the most bass-akwards, round-about, Rube Goldberg-esque way.
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| My crude drawing of Arishem the Judge: The Redux * * * |
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| Arishem the Judge as drawn by Keith Pollard/Gene Day From the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" |
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First, a little back story. I am a huge fan of the "Eternals", the comic series as created by Jack "The King" Kirby in the early 1970's. I tracked down the original comics series in my teens, own a couple collected editions, and even bought the "Monster-Size" (or, as I prefer to call it, the "Celestial-Size" collection), which is 14" x 21.5" and collects all 19 Kirby issues of the "Eternals" plus the Annual #1. I would say it's a coffee table book, but it's practically a coffee table in-and-of-itself. I could use it to press the accused in Salem Witch Trials. It's ginormous and super-sized, it shows Jack Kirby's art at its best and I adore it.
In the "Eternals", the Celestials are giant, armored space gods. Their leader of the Fourth Host, Arishem, has an inscription on his thumb which would destroy worlds which are deemed unworthy, and they have returned to Earth to judge it. I was immediately captivated by the galaxy brain imagination involved with Kirby and his Celestials.
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| Jack Kirby's Arishem from "Eternals #7" (1976) |
About 10 years ago (!), there was another nerd art Blog I participated with, "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Redux", and they tried to remake the entire "OHotMU"--another book of my youth that I pored over. I jumped at being able to do the Celestials and grabbed them immediately (and quite a few other characters, too).
Here's a collection of the Celestials I did which someone (unknown) collected and labelled:
The Celestials are probably the most popular things I've done on my Blog and, ironically, I really don't care too much for my drawings of the Celestials--They were a bit too simplistic and too slavish to the original drawings from the OHofMU, and I've been meaning to update them and do a better version sometime in an indeterminate future. Yes, yes... someday.
The original drawing was done with a PITT pen on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock and the line work is wonky and slightly embarrassing--made even more embarrassing when enlarged to the size of a cover.
Anyhoo, I would see the various drawings above show up randomly on every third website and YouTube video that was about the Celestials, so that was both weird and cool. Some other people took the images and added backgrounds which greatly improved the pictures. So, thanks to them (whoever they are) for making me look better than I am. To be honest, I wish I'd thought of it.
And here is an example of other people taking the drawings as an explanation with the "Eternals" movie which was coming out (the movie was... eh, OK).
It was more stuff to add to my "My Art in Weird Places" file. No permission was asked, but I assume after a picture is saved and re-posted a few times, things get lost in the shuffle and who did what and credit with Internet Art gets fuzzy. Not that I mind all that much, personally. (Heck, who am I to talk? I'm just as guilty as everyone else: I have folders full of cool art from the Internet and no idea who did them for the most part.) Interesting, noted, and I will admit thrilling and flattering to see my art turning up at the darnedest times. They were oddly popular. "Oh, hey, that's my drawing! Neat!"
Anyhoo, back to the present...
A couple weeks ago, I randomly discovered that my drawing of the Celestial, Arishem the Judge, was accidentally used on a Variant Cover for "A.X.E. (Avengers / X-Men / Eternals): Eve of Judgment" by French artist, Mr. Garcin (or, should I say "Mr. Mr. Garcin"?). Mr. Garcin does really elaborate collages featuring comic book characters done with images of of the same character. So, Iron Man collage done with "Iron Man" comic book pages and so forth. I admit I wasn't too familiar with his work, but I had stumbled over it on the Internet as something interesting.
The way I discovered it was a stereotypical scene from a really dumb comedy. I was looking at the Variant Covers in the back of the collected book, saw the Mr. Garcin cover, immediately started looking at all the images they used for Arishem. I was trying to test my nerd knowledge and place the issue from which each image came (what can I say, I'm a big fan of the character and the "Eternals" comics by Jack Kirby) and then flipped to the next page. Then my brain, being somewhat slow on the uptake, suggested I should probably turn the page back and take another look. So, I flipped back to the previous page and started looking at all the tiny pictures of Arishem again... and after a couple minutes I saw the BIG picture and noticed my drawing on the cover for the first time.
Once again, my brain was a little slow on the uptake and tried to process what I was looking at, not being able to believe what it was looking at: My art on a Marvel Comics Cover? And then I literally laughed out loud for several minutes at the mistake which was made.
Here's my best guess as to what happened: Mr. Garcin did an image search for "Arishem", came across my drawing assuming it was legit from Marvel. After all, it shows up in a lot articles and such when talking about Marvel's Celestials from "The Eternals". So, who wouldn't think it was legit? It's also very, very similar to the "OHotMU" entry, and if you weren't paying close attention it would be easy to mistake it for the original. Also, the drawing is simplified, relatively clear, and an easy fit the criteria to use as a frame for the collage.
I do want to thank Mr. Garcin for using my art, even if was unwittingly.
An innocent mistake, but one that leaves me thrilled that my artwork has been accidentally published by Marvel Comics, even though they don't know it (heck, I barely found out about it by pure chance).
Of course, I had to buy a few copies of the Mr. Garcin Edition just to see with my own eyes and tangibly hold them in my own hands. Cool! I (kinda) got to do a Marvel Comics Cover and didn't even know it! I wonder if I can use it to burnish my artistic bonafides and resume?
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| Hey, I'm (accidentally) famous! Kinda sorta... |
All that said, Marvel, if you're listening, I'd love to have an opportunity to do a **REAL** Marvel Comics Cover!
😜
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