Ungoliantschilde

CONAN THE KING no.21 • cover art • Michael Kaluta [1984]

Barry Windsor Smith Jane Morris Original Art (The Gorblimey Press, 1975) Source

“This drawing was published in Shelf Stuff and The Studio.”

My friend ungoliantschilde has the full set of prints.

Barry Windsor-Smith and Frank Giacoia “Zukala's Daughter” Conan the Barbarian #5 title splash (1971) Source

Leo and Diane Dillon Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird Original Dust Jacket Artwork (1965) Source

Final jacket

Art Process: Wesley Dodds, The Sandman

Art by Matt Lesniewski

World’s Finest by Howard Porter, with My Inks and Colors.

Howard Porter and John Dell “Fire in the Sky” JLA #6 Zauriel title splash (1997) Source

Colors by Pat Garrahy

Marvel going bankrupt in the late ‘90s wasn’t a surprise. It was like that scene in Talladega Nights where the car crash goes on for so long there’s a commercial break. Onslaught, the Heroes Reborn stuff. It was Ricky Bobby’s stock car endlessly flipping across the track and it was so bad they took a commercial break, only to come back for an even more drawn out car wreck.

X-Men was this huge hit in the 1980s, and it created Jim Lee (and by extension: Image Comics). Marvel reacted by doubling down. Crossover events every other month. Foil variants. Bolero jackets and pockets. It reached a boiling point.

Meanwhile, DC Comics killed Superman and then killed Batman. But. A small vertigo book was making waves. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing is fantastic. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman was perhaps the most literary and well written comic of all time.

Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol had a story arc about a painting attacking a city.

Naturally, DC editorial said fuck it and gave Grant Morrison the writing duties for the reboot of their premiere team. All the headliners: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern. And Grant pulled an ace for the art duties. Howard Porter.

“JLA” was for the JLA what “Ultimates” and “New Avengers” was for the MCU. It made a failing property relevant for a new generation, and it rereads very well. (Skip the DC 1 Million Stuff).

Silver Surfer

Art by Francis Portela