Did I Accidentally Do a Marvel Comics Cover?

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.

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.

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?

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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Arishem the Celestial: Happy New Year - 2018

Happy New Year!

Hey, it's a New Year!  Happy New Year, everyone!  I just got used to writing out 2017, and now this--another year to add to the stacks?  Anyhoo, what better way to bring in the new year than have the Celestial, Arishem the Judge, with 2018 inscribed on his thumb, rather than the code to destroy the planet (will they be one and the same?  Only time will tell!).

I just want to take a few moments to thank everyone who has stopped by and briefly gawked at my modest site before moving on to other sites, or were searching for something else and accidentally got referred to my site...  Heck, I'd even settle for rubber-necking at the digital car crash which is my Blog on the information super-highway.  So, thank you to all who have visited (some on purpose!), and even provided words of encouragement (names are withheld to protect the guilty)--It means far more than you can know and is greatly appreciated! 

I have plenty of resolutions to break, including posting more this year (don't say I didn't warn you!).  I only had 24 posts in 2017--just under one ever other week.  Rather meager and personally disappointing, IMHO.  This year, I hope to have more posts, a few projects which are more ambitious.  Well, we'll see.

Onward to the preposterous process portion of this post!

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STEP ONE:  Here is a quick, digital thumbnail of the idea I had for the New Year's posting.

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STEP TWO:  Another really quick drawing to layout the figure, etc. on a 1,500px by 2,100px canvas.

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STEP THREE:  And here it is a little bit further along and tightened up.  It's starting to take shape and resemble (loosely) Arishem the Judge.

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STEP FOUR:  This was the finished picture, done with multiple new layers, using the blend and smudge tools to smooth out some of the brush strokes.  However, after looking at the original quick sketch, I decided I liked the idea of Arishem's hand breaking out of the frame, even though it was due to me doing a poor job of drawing a rectangle, rather than something planned out that way.  That said, if anyone asks, I meant to do that!  So, I went back into the picture and carved out around the hand to make it look like it was popping out of the frame.

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Done digitally in Photoshop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Celestials (Arishem)

CELESTIALS: Arishem the Judge

Here's the entry from "The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe".

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Here's my version for the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION.

OK, because sometimes I'm not all that bright, I jumped at the chance to draw the Celestials but didn't stop and think to myself, "Hey, Self, there are 10 of 'em to draw from the Marvel Handbook entry, y'know."  I think I will be posting 'em as I get them done, rather than wait until I get 'em all done and post them all at once.  Because of that, I'm gonna be posting a LOT in September!  :-D

[I was already interested in The Celestials, as evidenced by my previous post HERE, which featured my Repanel of Arishem in ETERNALS #7, page 18]

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils.  As each entry is about 1/4 of a comic page, each Celestial entry was pretty small.  So, I cut some 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock in half and set to work pencilling them out.  Also, as they would be relatively small, I also tried to keep them simple in design, as well.

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STEP TWO:  Here are the inks.  I first went around the pencils with a .03 Copic Marker I had laying about.  The line weight seemed pretty dead, however.  So, I went over top of everything with a size 05 Round brush and ink (just a cheap, generic brush, nothing fancy).  I then scanned it into PhotoShop and cleaned up the inks.

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STEP THREE:  I created a Duplicate Layer and set it to MULTIPLY, and then colored over top.  I kept the color scheme pretty simple, as there are going to be nine more over the next week-and-a-half... and I sort of liked the look of the vaguely 80's throwback for coloring the pen-and-ink drawing. 

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This was done with pen-and-ink on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock and colored in PhotoShop.

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Replaneled: The Eternals #7, Page 18

REPANELED SUBMISSION: The Eternals #7, page 18

Originally drawn by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer

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Here's yet another submission of the delightfully fun REPANELED Blog.  In this case, it is from Jack Kirby's 1977 series "The Eternals", issue 7, page 18.  I found most of the series run in a back issue box when I was in my late teens and scooped them up.  Grant Morrison was beginning his run on "Doom Patrol" and "Animal Man", so I thought I was used to seeing crazy-imaginative ideas on the comic page.

While Morrison is still one of my favorite writers today, the ideas put forth by Kirby are truly astonishing in their scope and grandeur.  In this case, it was the story of space gods (the Celestials) returning after millennia to check up on their genetic experiments (ie. Humans, Eternals, and Deviants).  One of the Celestials, Arishem, had a symbol on his thumb which would end the world when activated if the experiment (ie. Earth) was deemed a failure.  How cool is that?  Later issues include the Uni-Mind--a sort of group-mind of individuals given a literal, psychic form of a collective consciousness.  And that's only the beginning.  Every issue had some new concept in it (and in many cases more than just one) which thrilled and dazzled the imagination.

Sure, the execution of those ideas may have left a little something to be desired--the dialogue was a bit clunky and the stories seemed to shift around and were a bit flighty... but the core ideas within the comics were absolutely amazing.  Morrison, Ellis, Moore, and Millar... Kirby had much BIGGER, cosmic ideas and was doing them a decade or two before they even got started.

There is just something about the dynamism of Jack Kirby's work--both in the art and the stories--which continues to fascinate me and I have grown to appreciate more as time goes by.  He was truly a genius!


As usual, here's the process (click on the pictures to embiggen):

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First, I did a series of 30 second to one minute sketches to work out the composition of the panel I wanted to recreate. I used ball-point pen and/or marker on typing paper, with the images typically being about 2" x 3", give-or-take. In one of the sketches, I had considered putting in a flock of birds flying past Arishem's outstretched arm, but thought it would be more distracting and confusing to the image. The panel was going to be busy enough with all the lettering and the Kirby Crackle and such, so it didn't need the addition of the birds for drama--there was enough going on at it was.

After I decided on the composition, it was time to get painting...

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STEP ONE:  On a 10" x 15" gessoed piece of illustration board, I quickly painted a generic sky scene...

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STEP TWO:  And all of the interesting parts of the sky were then covered over by the underpainting of the Celestial, Arishem. Sigh... When will I learn? :-)

I did the underpainting in black-and-white to establish the general values (lights and darks) of the page.

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STEP THREE:  I went back in and painted more clouds/sky on the other side of the panel, as I probably should have done in the first place, had I been thinking about it for about 10 seconds.  I also added a bit more detail to the black-and-white underpainting, trying to get the shadows and highlights worked out.

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STEP FOUR:  Here's the final acrylic painting. I painted color over top of the black-and-white underpainting, trying to keep the values matched to what was underneath. I'm not entirely sold on the whole process of doing an underpainting and about half the time I just go straight into painting with color on the board.  But, sometimes, it seems to help.  **Shrug**

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STEP FIVE:  I imported it into PhotoShop and did a little digital tweaking. I added a glow to the face mask of Arishem and the doomsday glyph o his thumb with a Gaussian blur. To do that, I copied the areas I wanted to glow to a new layer in PhotoShop and applied the blur filter. I also added a "Kirby Crackle" on a new layer using the Paintbrush and Eraser tools, then selected the "crackle" and used the circular Gradation Tool going from white to black, and reduced the opacity to 60%.

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STEP SIX:  Of course, most of the Kirby Crackle I spent about 20 minutes figuring out how to create was covered up by the lettering. Again, WHEN WILL I LEARN? And why is the answer to that question always "NEVER!"? Sigh. However, even if you don't wind up using those parts in your art, all of it is good practice, I suppose. :-)

Anyways, I added the lettering, threw an 8-pixel border around it, called it "DONE!", and sent it off to Anthony for his site. Ta da!  UPDATE: It's up at the REPANELED Site today, November 9, 2011.  Thanks, Anthony!  :-)

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This was done with Acrylic paint on 10" x 15" gessoed illustration board with digital alterations and additions.

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