Friday, May 25, 2012

The Spectre and Doctor Strange



The Spectre is one of my all time favorite characters, particularly the Jim Corrigan version.  He has had other hosts since Corrigan finally faced his demons in the excellent 60 issue series by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake, but they never quite seemed to work as well as the original version.  Here's hoping that when The Spectre reemerges in the new DCU, it will be Corrigan beneath the cloak once again.

14 comments:

Cathy and Dave said...

Dave sez,

Very cool cover!

I would hope that The Spectre is part of this new Earth 2.

This reminds me, have you done a Doctor Strange and Phantom Stranger team-up?

Ross said...

That one is coming up.

Jamie Rosen said...

I too have a soft spot for the Spectre. I'm reading through the Showcase collection right now (although I think I prefer the Golden Age and Bronze/Copper/whatever age iterations.)

I think a Spectre/Ghost Rider pairing would be interesting, what with the whole spirit of vengeance thing going on.

Jamie Rosen said...

Oh, and I wanted to say, you've gotten REALLY good at these covers. They're quite impressive.

Ross said...

There's also a Ghost Rider/Spectre cover waiting in the wings...

Rick L. Phillips said...

I like that version of the Spectre too but I doubt they will bring it back. I think DC is against anything that Jerry Siegel had anything to do with in fear of another lawsuit from his family.

Robby Reed said...

Your site is wonderfully entertaining, your Photoshop (or whatever) work is flawless.

I do have one suggestion though... for the BLURBS you add to the covers, you use a serif font. Comics rarely if ever use serif fonts on the covers. I'd suggest Futura or something sans serif.

Also, I continue to wish you showed the original covers, as I've told you in the past. I think it would add to the appeal and not ruin the "illusion" at all. I know you don't agree but that's my two cents.

At any rate -- great site!

Ross said...

I do indeed use MS Paint for these - I have since moved to Photoshop, but those covers won't be posted until we get deep in the 300's. Robin/Hulk part 2 Is the one exception, an early Photoshop effort that I posed out of order.

Interesting thought on the fonts, I never gave them a second thought, I usually used whatever I thought worked.

So glad that Dial B for Blog is back, Robbie!

Ross said...

As for posting the covers... I have to admit that since they are usually posted over a year after I created them, there are times that I forget where I originally got the images from!

pblfsda said...

Speaking of which, I was trying to figure out where each sample originates (the same game I play every time I come to this blog-- it never gets old!). I know the Dr. Strange cover, I have it somewhere. It's from the mid 1980's towards the end of that series, just before it was replaced with the new Strange Tales title. (Circa Secret Wars I or II?) It kind of looks like Vess, but that's not his signature in the lower right hand corner. It was one of those Marvel titles (like Dazzler) that got radically better artists only after everyone stopped reading them and lost them all to Dark Horse when that company started up. (Mark Badger, Paul Chadwick, etc.) I can't pin down who it is, but I'll bet they're Dark Horse class of '86.

Okay, now the Spectre. Right off the top we can eliminate Adams, Aparo, anybody from the late 80's version and Mandrake. The whole overall feel looks like Bernard Bailey but the knees kind of look like it might be Russell, who did the lion's share of covers last time around. Then I noticed that he's holding a PROPELLER plane and thought, "well, that sinks it. It's from the 1940's, so it must be Bailey." The Spectre only appeared on about a dozen covers back then, so could that have been some interior/splash page?

Ross said...

Bernard Bailey from More Fun Comics 54 and Chris Warner from Dr. Strange 77.

Jabbok, Espresso said...

"Dark Horse Class of '86!" Wonderful comment! At the time, Dark Horse was out of my price range, like most independents, but I knew something exciting and wonderful was happening among their titles. When two years, my friends and I had abandoned newsstands and were shopping exclusively at comic shops to purchase independent titles. If there is a Golden Age for independents it was the mid 1980s.

Marcus said...

Bailey's 40s cover art really fits. I think the good Dr. has met his match.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Awesome, awesome cover. And what team-up that would be of it ever happened! Doc Strange and Spectre vs. Wotan/Dormammau would be freakin' sweet!

Can't wait for the GH/Spectre cover. Not sounds like a cool idea!

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