When the hardcover "History of the DCU" was first published, I also purchased the poster-sized version of that "jam" picture. My parents had it framed for me as a Christmas present. It's quite a conversation piece when non-comics fans see it.
My Alex Ross Crisis hangs in a frame above my art table. John, do you have any poster work like that out there? I would definately love to add it to my collection as well.
Thats a really great piece JB. But I have a question, how come you drew the skrulls so tiny in this pick? And as an aside, did you know that you are the last person to actually use the Moleman, way back in your Hidden Years story. Why, oh why, does no one at M*rv*l ever use the Moleman?
I should say that he is appearing in Ultimate FF, but that is not the Moleman that I know, instead they have some nasty guy that is actually covered in moles (no, I am not joking) that managed to create a type of life form out of what looks like clay, and lives in the sewers. And this apparantly took both Bendis and Millar to come up with. UGH!
Brendan: "...I noticed the other day that the copyright date on the poster is 1984. Twenty years gone!"
And that's just the date for the publication of the poster!! I believe the original piece was from about 1981 or 1982, based on the year the magazine it was first published in came out.
I have a question, how come you drew the skrulls so tiny in this pick?
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Excepting the FF themselves, who I drew as they looked at the time I did the illustration, I drew all the characters more or less as they looked in their original appearances. In FF 2 the Skrulls were wormy little guys. It was the Super Skrull who was tall and beefy. Jack forgot this, tho, and by the time the FF tracked the Skrulls back to their homeworld they had all become tall and manly -- with beautiful babes for the women, of course! (I played off this old sci-fi conceit twice -- once in NAMOR, once in my second run on SHE-HULK.)
I don't recognize two of the guys on the DC poster. Who's that with the long reddish-brown hair between Blackhawk and Flash? And who's the guy between Spectre and Robotman who vaguely resembles the Beyonder in Secret Wars II?
It is indeed Silverblade! (I'm surprised a youngster like you would know that, Gregg!) For the uninformed, SILVERBLADE was a 12-issue maxiseries that Gene Colan was doing for DC in the late 80s when this piece was created.
(edited to remove broken link)
This message has been edited by kevinbennett007 on Mar 5, 2004 4:42 PM
I notice there are a couple of changes from the published version to the life size version, the addition of Bat-Mite by Dick Sprang, and the historically accurate but racially insensitive portrayal of Chop Chop was dialed back a bit.
A framed copy of the History of the DCU poster hangs on the wall behind my desk in my office/comic book room; I love it! I also have framed copies of the Alex Ross JLA poster (with the Fabio-Superman), the Ross/Perez Crisis poster, the Ross Kingdom Come poster, and the WB Studio Store Superman stamp & coin set on the walls in here. My wife doesn't mind super-hero stuff on the walls, as long as it's all framed.
