Sunday, September 6, 2009

Flying man meets flying gorilla

This is the cover for DC Comics Presents: Hawkman #1 (and only), a series of books that DC put out in 2004, paying tribute to long-time editor Julie Schwartz.  




It's a reworking of a memorable Murphy Anderson cover from the sixties.  As you can see, José's pencils were amazing and I tried very hard to retain as much of the middle tones as I could in the inks, especially the ape fur. 
He improved the layout by moving things around a little and he made the ape a bit more realistic and a little less cuddly.




Here's Murphy Anderson's cover from 1965.  This was the kind of image that could really warp a young mind, especially one that's only recently recovered from the sight of those flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.

7 comments:

  1. Cool! This is easily the best of those eight homage covers (and that's saying something because there were no slouches in the bunch. ;-) ) That's the most ferocious looking ape since the ones Kubert did in Tarzan and Hawkman looks tuff enuff to dish it back.

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  2. You know, he does look a little like a Kubert ape, maybe even a Hogarth ape... or am I seeing things?

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  3. Hmmm... Both? The fur of that upper arm looks like Kubert to me but it ends in those Hogarth knuckles. (Ha! This is such an awesome blog...)

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  4. You're right about the knuckles. Maybe it's just the ape's eyes that make me think of Hogarth. You don't see it?

    This doesn't look as chimp-like as the apes Kubert drew in Tarzan.

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  5. Kevin, sorry to ask again, but for some reason I was unable to reply to your last email. Could I ask you to drop me a line again please. I would love to catch up soon.

    Thanks

    Bryan HItch

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  6. Amazing drawing, amazing inks, amazing colors as well. I love it.

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  7. Consider it done, Bryan.

    Peter, I don't know who did the colors but I agree, they're terrific.

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