Showing posts with label DC Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC Comics. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Batman and Black Orchid



This was one of the earliest ones that I made and I think it shows in it's roughness. Still, I am happy I was able to make a cover with the character at all given the limited amount of images of her to work from.

The Black Orchid is still pretty much a blank slate as DC has barely used the character in the past few decades and most of that has not been in DC proper, but rather the Vertigo Imprint. As with Swamp Thing, I think the character would have a much better chance to flourish if reintegrated with the mainstream DC universe. DC needs more female characters that are not just feminine versions of male characters. The Black Orchid, like Halo of the Outsiders, is just sitting there unused and it's a shame.

Batman and Big Barda



This one was a request and I got lucky to find a picture of Barda that worked with this Batman cover. Well, OK there's no real reason for her to be at a hockey rink, but it does look like she is flinging pucks at Batman.

Most of Kirby's New Gods material didn't appeal to me as a kid, but the exception was Mr. Miracle. His escape artist identity was as cool as his more superheroic side. I was first exposed to him through his three B&B appearances and Barda appeared alongside, but never got solo billing. I have liked her portrayal on the Animated JLU series and I hope she and Scott Free are brought back to the forefront of the DCU soon.

Batman and Batman Beyond



A good idea in concept, I think this one suffers a bit from the disparate art styles between the two Batmen. Now that Batman Beyond is being introduced into the mainstream DCU, there is more non-cartoony imagery of the character out there than when I created this cover,I may take another crack at this pairing.

I remember being disappointed when I learned the creators behind the great cartoon Batman: The Animated Series were going to switch gears and move to Batman Beyond, featuring an elderly Bruce Wayne mentoring a teenage Batman. I figured the network was just aiming for the kiddie market and trying to sell more toys and while that may have been partially true, I should have had more faith in Bruce Timm & Company. They continued the excellent work they had begun on Batman and Superman and made the show a welcome addition to the Batman canon. I especially love the director's cut of the DTV, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

Batman and Ant-Man

OK, since this blog is so new, I have decided to add more than a cover per day at the beginning, just to give folks a little more to look at when they visit...




The figures are blurrier than I would liked on this one but it still works out OK due to the easy swap between Ant-Man and the Atom. Actually I cheated a bit here because I used a Scott Lang Ant-Man picture and not Hank Pym.

Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne have suffered more than the rest of the founding members of the Avengers. Neither really ever rebounded from the ill advised idea to have Hank smack Janet a couple of decades ago. I'd love to see Hank back in the Ant-man or Giant-Man gear and Jan back among the living, working together in new adventures. There was a chance to clean the slate with Secret Invasion, but no such luck. Still, this is comics, so I live in hope.

Batman and Ambush Bug



I thought this cover would be too simple in design but I think it really ended up working well. Besides, who wouldn't want to see this team-up?

Ambush Bug was a unique concept - wisecracking, breaking the fourth wall and commenting on his own publishers years before Deadpool or even She-Hulk made waves doing the same. I'd like to see DC do a little more with the character.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Batman and Alpha Flight



Here's an issue where I couldn't find an appropriate Aparo Batman for so I opted to use a piece by Shawn McManus from Legends of the Dark Knight.

Alpha Flight is another one of those properties where Marvel just couldn't leave well enough alone. If they revived the series with the original cast from Byrne's run, I bet it would find a following, but every revival seems to have too many radical changes in roster and tone and does not last long. Alpha Flight is like the Doom Patrol of Marvel in that way.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Batman and Air Wave

Welcome to the Blog!

My favorite comic book series of all time was "The Brave and the Bold", which featured Batman teaming up with a different guest star each month and was illustrated by the great Jim Aparo.

I was disappointed with its cancellation at issue #200 because there were still so many team ups that I wanted to see. Bored one day, I decided to create covers of issues that I wished would have happened but never did.

I began with team ups from the DC Universe that the company never got to and posted them in a forum that I frequent. They were well received so I began to do some more and even take requests. Pretty soon I was branching out to more obscure DC characters, Marvel characters and beyond. At this point I have made well over 100 covers and a friend suggested that I begin this blog and feature a cover a day.

OK, that sounds like a good Idea, so here I go. I will post the covers alphabetically at first and then any new ones that have been created in the interim. Enjoy!

A few notes:

- Each cover was created by manipulating existing artwork using Microsoft Paint.

- My goal was to only include characters that never actually appeared in The Brave and the Bold and use artwork by Jim Aparo whenever possible.

And here we go!

First up is Air Wave:



This one was tough because I had a lot of complicated background to create after eliminating Dr. Phosphorous from the original cover. The Air Wave Image I got from an issue of DC Comics Presents. I always had a soft spot for the character but he hasn't seen much action in the past 2 1/2 decades. Yeah, he was just featured as a zombie in Blackest Night, but who wasn't?

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