Doug: I believe that the line of variant covers by Alex Ross in celebration of the company's 75th anniversary has come to a conclusion. We've presented some of these along the way, but today we wanted to run a post with the entire collection. While Ross certainly has his detractors among our readership, your proprietors are not in that corner.
Doug: So love him or hate him, which of these covers resonate with you? Hey, art aside, are there certain looks or ideas that you feel Ross was going for that work? -Or would have worked if done by one of your favorite artists? If you're a Ross fan, which of these would make cool posters?
Jeepers, I must be out of touch--I have no idea who Spidey is fighting in that convenience store. And I can't place the squatting guy with the lighted collar. I may have to surrender my MMMS card.
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed he didn't do an IT! The Living Colossus cover. Maybe one of those with Skull the Slayer, Modred the Mystic, Omega the Unknown, Woodgod, Paladin, Bloodstone, and Torpedo among others too for an homage to Bronze Age concepts without a viable market.
ReplyDeleteBy the way count me in the pro-Ross corner.
Rip Off
Comicsfan, the guy with the glowing collar is Miracle Man, (an older character just recently acquired by Marvel) so your MMMS card is safe. BTW, I don't know who that guy fighting Spidey is either. He kind of looks like Cyclone, but he seems to have to the power of DC's Count Vertigo.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite of these covers are the Daredevil (although he's a little too anatomically correct if you know what I mean?) And the Iron Man is really cool as well. It has a very Kirby feel to it, but what Kirby art would look like if it was real.
IIRC, Ross is doing variants for Marvel books being published now. That Spider foe is a guy from the current book but is supposed to have a throwback feel like a guy we're just now learning that Spidey fought. I dunno, I still on a coffee and donut rush. It was covered in the post when Karen/Doug first posted the art.
ReplyDeleteI really like the Hulk cover. The one where it's mainly just his fist. That would make a cool cover as well as the Star Wars art. Both of those really jump out at you.
The Iron Man one is cool just for the heart clutching and the plugging into the wall outlet.
"Hey Pepper, I'm designing an Iron Man armor!"
"Uh Tony, you gonna make it all 220?"
"220, 221, whatever it takes...."
The Prowler (When two tribes go to war a point is all you can score when two tribes go to war a point is all you can score).
PS: William, I know exactly what you're saying about Kirby's art but dadburnnit, I'm having a devil of a time trying to diagram that there sentence......
Is Ross experimenting with colour here? I don't particularly follow his work, so maybe this is nothing new, but some of his choices seem a bit off to me.
ReplyDeleteHis use of yellow is really noticeable but seems to (deliberately?) clash against blues and greens, as in the first pic. Still, good that he's trying stuff out.
-sean
I can't stand Ross' art. That being said, I guess the Hulk one is the least soulless of the lot.
ReplyDeleteMost of these are horrible in my opinion. Your mileage may vary though.
Gary
I'm on the record as being none too fond of Ross' art, but like I said when you first posted it, I like that pencil sketch of the original Guardians. In fact, even the finished version isn't too bad, maybe because the colors are kind of muted.
ReplyDeleteThe Daredevil cover is also really well designed.
My faves here are the closeup of the Hulk, the X-men with the reclining Storm, Iron Man and the Star Wars recreation poster.
ReplyDeleteSay what you want about Alex Ross, whether his art style is your cup of tea or not, you have to admit the guy loves what he does!
- Mike 'poster boy for obesity' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Ross's work is excellent on these. Especially dig the Spidey stuff. I always like seeing Storm in her original costume. That Iron Man cover might be my favorite of the lot though. That's the suit I prefer to any other, even the movie ones. Ross makes it pop like it was created today.
ReplyDeleteI like the FF one and the Star Wars one.
ReplyDeleteI love these paintings by Ross, they are homages to their themes that really tell a story in one frame----an art that seems to be becoming "lost" in the forms of comic book covers, album covers, and movie posters, IMHO. I could sit and stare at these posters forever.....okay, okay, I'm the resident hippy, but these are really cool!
ReplyDeletestarfoxxx