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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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2023 #7

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2023
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's yet another M.O.D.O.K. submission for the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog!  I believe I really am just spamming them at this point...  Anyhoo, this time I am offending the memory of Maurice Sendak with my shenanigans.  Oh, M.O.D.O.K., when he isn't eating Chicken Soup with Rice, he's busy with his Wild Rumpus.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital, blue-line pencils done on a 2,000px x 2,200px canvas @300dpi in Clip Studio Paint.  

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STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks.

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STEP THREE:  Here is the finished color plate.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Aliens - Contraxians

Contraxians

Here is the original entry for the Alien Race: Contraxian to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.

Originally, I planned on just doing a proxy drawing of Jack of Hearts--a character I always thought looked pretty cool--the same way I sneaked ROM Spaceknight into my entry for Galadorians.  But, then I thought I should do up a female version, but all the designs I did for it just didn't seem to work for me for some reason.  So, I just scrapped it all and only vaguely called back to the character.

To be honest, I really overthought this one too much and it took wwwaaayyyyy too long to finish.  Ah, well.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick digital pencils, scribbled out on a New 900px x 1,350px document.

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STEP TWO:  And here are the roughs for the digital inks and color flats.  I didn't bother getting too detailed with the inks, since they were going to be covered anyways on the final digital painting.

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STEP THREE:  I built up the colors on a new layer, basically covering all the inks I did to make it more painterly/rendered.

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This was done digitally with Photoshop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Aliens - Courga

Courga

Here is the original entry for the Alien Race: Courga to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quickly scribbled digital pencils on a New 900px x 1,350px document.

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STEP TWO:  Sigh, because I wasn't paying attention while working on this, I accidentally merged down the color flat layer, so I just have the finished picture.  So, I guess "Step One" is scribble something vaguely in the shape you want to draw, and "Step Two" is to color it.  Um, yeah...

As for this drawing of the Courga alien species, as I uploaded this, I am beginning to wonder if it looks a little bit like he was wearing old-guy pants pulled halfway up to his armpits.  Ugh.

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This was done digitally with Photoshop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Aliens - Cotati

Cotati

Here is the original entry for the Alien Race: Cotati to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.

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STEP ONE:  Once again, here are the quickly scribbled digital pencils on a New 900px x 1,350px document.

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STEP TWO:  Here are the quick colors thrown over top the pencils, and I used the Eraser to carve out leaf designs.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the added highlights and shadows on the same Layer.

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This was done digitally with Photoshop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Aliens - Clavians

Clavians

Here is the original entry for the Alien Race: Clavians to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quickly scribbled digital pencils on a New 900px x 1,350px document.

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STEP TWO:  I decided to change things up a bit stylistically and did some quick color layouts, rather than the typical digital inks.

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STEP THREE:  I did everything on a single layer this time, just for fun and to try something a little different.  I added the highlights and shadows, and also made some slight adjustments to the character's facial structure after digging up my old copies of "ROM: Spaceknight" and looking at their first appearance.

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Created digitally in PhotoShop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Forge

Forge

Here is the original entry for Forge in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And, here's my version for the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Blog.  I was a regular reader of "X-Men" way back in the day, when they first introduced Forge.  Holy cow, that was a long, LONG time ago...

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils on a New 900px x 1350px document.

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STEP TWO:  Here are the digital inks, done with a 5px hard brush.

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STEP THREE:  And over a series of layers, I used a combination of grayscale and Multiply layers to colorize the drawing, with final highlights and darks done with a Normal Layer over top.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Grandmaster

Grandmaster

Here is the original entry for Grandmaster in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And, here's my version...  Hey, it's another posting for the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Blog!  It's been a while, but there are a few entries still left to do, so I grabbed a few to finish up.  It feels good to be working those muscles again.  And, I have such a deep, abiding affection for the original "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" that I had to do more when the opportunity presented itself.  And here we are.

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STEP ONE:  Because I'm a genius, I accidentally painted over the digital pencils I had done.  So, here's the grayscale painting. I did on a 900px x 1350px NEW document.

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STEP TWO:  Over a MULTIPLY Layer, I added the flat colors; then on a NEW Layer above that, I added highlights and shadows.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Tyrannus

Tyrannus

Here is the original entry for Tyrannus to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux. 

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STEP ONE:  I sketched Tyrannus with blue-pencil on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of printer paper.  I scanned it into the computer and imported it into Photoshop.

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STEP TWO:  Next, I digitally inked the drawing using a 5 point round brush.

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STEP THREE:  Originally, I was going to just do the drawing with a simplified color scheme, like something out of the original comic books.  But, I changed my mind and thought I should put in a little more effort. 

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STEP FOUR:  I created several New Layers and added each color over top for highlights and shadows.  I also figured I should go back and emphasize the "crazy-eyes" and give him a jokeresque smile.  When it was done, I erased the white background and put in a light-blue background, then sent it along to the OHotMU: Redux Blog.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Crusader

Crusader

Here is the original entry for Crusader to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux. 

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STEP ONE:  I created a new 900px x 1400px document and used a charcoal brush to roughly layout the pose.

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STEP TWO:  A little further into the grayscale modelling the figure.

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STEP THREE:  Over a MULTIPLY Layer, I put in some flat colors.  I went with a slightly different palette than the original... for some reason, the original colors looked a little strange when I did it originally.  And I think the red/white/blue motif worked a little better. 

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STEP FOUR:  Over several New Layers, I added colors over top for highlights and shadows.  When it was done, I erased the white background and put in a light-yellow color and sent it along to the OHotMU: Redux Blog.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop

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