Dave Cockrum's probably most well-known as one of the premier comics illustrators of the 1970's and early 80's. Any comics fan or collector worth their Mylar snugs will quickly recognize his remarkable style which graced Marvel Comics' most iconic covers of that era, including 1976's landmark X-Men #100.
Less known is the fact that several of the X-Men's most famous mutants -- Storm, Colossus, Mystique, and Nightcrawler, to name but a few -- were also Cockrum's creations. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may be the X-Men's founding fathers, but Cockrum's had everything to do with the look and roster of the team most people think of when they think 'mutants.'
And few folks probably realize or even remember that Cockrum was also one of the earlier pioneers or champions, so to speak, of creators' rights while working at a 'Big Two' publisher. While the issue's indelicately hot today-- Warner Bros and DC Comics' Superman litigation and Marvel's all-too-real possibility to face the same with regards to the creations of the late Jack Kirby as two notable examples-- creative ownership was much less of a concern even five years ago, when Cockrum's then-poor health and hospitalization eventually lead to a 2004 dispute between him and Marvel over the ownership of the characters he created while at the publisher. Happily, the Cockrums and Marvel resolved matters to everyone's satisfaction, and likely paved a few inroads to the future while they were at it.
You'd probably think this blog's about Dave Cockrum, or creators' rights, or maybe even the X-Men, but it's really about Covered. A fellow Blogger as well as comics artist himself, Robert Goodin's Covered features a wide variety of artists and illustrators from many fields redoing comic book covers in their own style. Whether their specialty is animation or sculpture, graphic design or computer rendering, the artists whose works, or 'covers', fill the blog's numerous pages do more than copy their chosen comic cover -- they recreate it.
And that's part of the fun of Covered, especially if you get a kick seeing new takes on old (or recent) favorites, or enjoy the result of a talented artist stretching his or her proverbial wings by tackling a genre they're otherwise unfamiliar with.
If abbracadabbling's content is any indication, you've noticed by now how much I get a kick out of indy artists' interpretations of Big Two superheroes. Covered is well, covered with those unique visions -- and one of my recent favorites belongs to a fellow San Francisco Bay Area resident, independent comics illustrator Andy Ristaino. (San Jose's Slave Labor Graphics published Ristaino's two main comics works to date - LOAF and The Babysitter -and his new 288-page graphic novel Escape from Dullsville , which sounds like a chronicle of the Dabbler's daily life in Springfield but it's not, will hopefully find publication next year.)
Ristaino served up a portrayal of X-Men #100 as his Covered contribution, and the similarities in composition to Cockrum's original version can't be missed. It's 'Contemporary Comics' rather than 'Old Skool', a stand-out piece all on its own.
But there's a clash of styles and times that becomes much more apparent when the two covers stand side by side, and I should note, as they're presented on Covered. Cockrum's original pitted Sixties' X-Men against their then-contemporary Seventies' replacements, and this battle seems to metaphorically continue on an aesthetic front when situated beside Ristaino's modernized cover.
Art lies as much in Form as well as Content; its an elusive and powerful deity that's not always easy to identify, and one you'd never expect to find within juxtaposed Marvel mutants. At least, I didn't. I never thought the sight of a thirty-five year old X-Men cover would reignite my fanboy love for Dave Cockrum. Or that a fresh view of old material would bring something new to both. Or that I'd be blogging about all of that soon after.
Yeah, Art lies as much in Form as well as Content, but it derives its power from participation. Interaction fueled by imagination. So if you've ever doubted the intrinsic power of the comic book cover (or wondered about why ridiculously high prices haven't already killed comics' variant cover trend) and where that power might come from, well, I believe we've both found our answers tonight.
'Nuff said.
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If you're an artistic dabbler, amateur or pro or anywhere in-between, you might want to think about challenging yourself and join the ranks of your fellow Covered artisans. You can find the blog's submissions guidelines here. [Link] And to get a closer look at Andy Ristaino's many unique comic book creations, check out his very clever blog here. [Link]
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