This classic Silver Surfer image is by Jack (King) Kirby, inked by superstar Al Gordon.  Gordon took on this inking challenge for a class he was teaching in the bay area.  The colored version on the right was done by John Heebink.

Al Gordon has worked on so many comics; Justice League, Legion of Super-Heroes, Wildstar are but a few.  You can see a list of his accomplishments on Comic Book DB.

Want another take on this theme?  Check out the Craig Hamilton Silver Surfer pinup.  Nuff Said!

Today’s nifty Doctor Strange pinup is by Will Simpson—does anyone know the source?  This came to me via James Sime’s Twitter, where he wrote:  My favorite comic character's most iconic images are of him hanging out at the house w/ his gal + his books. Love it. 

I totally agree, James!  Check out my previous post on Isotope Comics to see James’ store and his ultra-cool Doc Strange costume.  Nuff Said!

Here's a super-heroine long overdue for a comeback: the Scarlet Witch.  These two drawings can remind us why she is a great character...

Neal Adams did this pencil and ink drawing of Wanda conjuring up a spell.  If you go to the Neal Adams website, click on his store to find more sketches for sale.

Gene Colan did a brilliant pencil drawing of the Scarlet Witch fighting a pair of nasty serpents in this 2001 commission.  Check out Colan's site for more! 

I'm hoping that the Scarlet Witch will return in one of the new Avengers titles coming in June.  Could she be one of the Secret Avengers?  Nuff Said!

Neal Adams hasn't drawn the X-Men too many times since he left the series way back when.  He got a chance to revisit the characters in this 1997 cover to X-Men Wildcats The Silver Age.

According to Bleeding Cool, Adams may be drawing a Wolverine limited series for Marvel.  That would be fantastic!  Nuff Said!

I don't talk about modern comics very much--there's tons of other blogs that do everyday much better than I can.  But I do get a box every month from Discount Comic Book Service, and Amazing Spider-Man is always in there.  I think one of the most talented artists working at Marvel these days is Marcos Martin. 

Marcos Martin brings a crazy, kinetic style of energy on Spider-Man that hasn't been seen since the days of Steve Ditko.  Coupled with Dan Slott's high-energy mania, this is a creator marriage made in comic-book heaven.

I was particularly bowled over by the above splash page, where Spidey is standing over a craps table.  The story title and credits are cleverly laid out along the table grid.  A very clever idea!

I really find Martin's innovative use of logos (such as the blood dripping off Spidey's masthead on issue 619) to be very much in the vein of Will Eisner.  Eisner did all kinds of things with the Spirit's logo (or logo-forms as Alan Moore called them) by shooting them with bullet holes and having all kinds of liquids dripping from them.

The cover to the forthcoming Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 does another twist on the logo, by turning it into a neon sign.  Again, this cover seems very Eisner-like to me, with Spidey and Cap standing on different levels of a building.

You have to dig the old-fashioned shout-out to "Collector's Item Classic" here as well!

Marcos Martin has also done outstanding work on Dr Strange (The Oath mini-series with Brian K. Vaughan) and the Captain America 70th Anniversary special.  Here's the black and white version of a page where Cap addresses the troops on a WW2 aircraft carrier.

There's a cool interview with Martin over at The Beat by Michel Fiffe.  Like his fellow countryman, Carlos Pacheco, Marcos Martin appears to have respect for the creators who made these characters great.  Nuff Said!

What was hot during the Marvel Age?  The Marvel Age wasn't an era, it was a comic magazine--Marvel's way of keeping fans informed during the 1980s.  Here are some of the offbeat characters that were showcased.

Cloak and Dagger burst free of supporting character status into their own mini-series in 1983.  I always thought that both Bill Mantlo and Rick Leonardi did some of their best work ever on this title.

I remember buying a really cool Cloak and Dagger poster that Leonardi and Terry Austin drew.  Does anyone have a decent scan of that?  It was a great image and I'd like to feature it here.

The Micronauts were red-hot as well, even after Michael Golden left the series.  Jackson "Butch" Guice came along and injected new excitement into the characters.  After the X-Men became popular, it was only natural that Marvel would produce a limited series featuring the two teams getting together.

You have to love Storm's mohawk and biker-girl outfit in this one.  Wolverine's supposed to be front and center, but that mohawk is like a vortex.

I believe Arcturus (Commander) Rann is making a comeback in the current Son of Hulk mini-series.

Alpha Flight made a big splash in 1983 when it received a solo title, the first Marvel series created, written, and drawn by John Byrne (who started his Fantastic Four run around the same time).  This image was also used as a promotional poster.

Fans were excited--Alpha Flight always gave the X-Men a run for their money, and the series sold well but eventually ran out of steam.  The scene I'll always remember is the conclusion of issue #12, where Vindicator dies trying to disengage the circuitry in his costume.  That was well done, Byrne totally disrupted reader expectations with that one.  Nuff Said!

This 1982 Amazing Heroes cover by Paul Smith appeared during his spectacular run on X-Men.  Marvel fandom cheered when Smith took over the series—and cried when he left nearly a year later.  In the middle of a double-sized issue of X-Men, no less!  Nuff Said!

When Conan became such a blazing success in Marvel’s magazine line, the editors asked themselves, how else can we capitalize on this trend?  The answer was: give Thor his own black and white magazine and sell it to the barbarian loving hordes. 

I believe that Marvel was at one point primed to publish a bi-monthly THOR magazine, as I can trace about 3 full length stories commissioned in this format.  This decision must have been reversed and the material appeared in places such as Marvel Preview #10.

Ken Barr’s 1977 cover tries to evoke Conan and Frazetta rather than Jack Kirby, doesn’t it?  I think there was a miscalculation here, that Conan fans would also be interested in Thor.  If you bought this issue expecting to see Thor skewering enemies on a battlefield, there would have been massive disappointment.

The interior story by Len Wein opens with an Asgardian bar fight with the Thunder God backed up by the Warriors Three.  Jim Starlin provided the layouts, with finishes by Tony DeZuniga.  The usual hijinks with Loki ensues after a while—the most tired plot of all comicdom.

Marvel had to differentiate this series.  The Thor stories in this format took place before Thor had been merged with Dr. Don Blake—and before he learned any kind of humility.  Perhaps a more interesting series would be called Teen Thor?  Nuff Said!