Superman Unchained variant cover by José Luis García-López

After yesterday's Superman Mondo poster debacle, here is an original work by José Luis García-López.

Superman Unchained variant cover, capturing the Silver Age spirit that title used to have.  Love the phone booth, the mini-skirt and the boots.  Nuff Said!

Buscema, Adams, Kubert, Garcia-Lopez, Kane on a Silver-Bronze Age Jam!

I love finding comic art jams where a die-hard fan was able to get the most famous comic artists to draw characters together in one big illustration.  Last year I featured one with Wrightson, Ditko, Infantino and many more great artists.

This one features a number of equally great artists.  Here is a rundown:

• Wendy Pini - Elfquest
• Joe Kubert - Hawkman
• Rudy Nebres - Doctor Strange
• Frank Thorne - Red Sonja (modeled on Wendy Pini?)
• José Luis García-López - Deadman
• Neal Adams - Conan the Barbarian, note Roy Thomas' signature next to Adams
• Gil Kane - John Carter, Warlord of Mars Gulliver Jones, Warrior of Mars!
• Dave Cockrum - Sun Boy Human Torch (Golden Age)
• Ross Andru & Bob Layton - Sub-Mariner
• Dick Dillin & Dave Hunt - The Flash
• John Buscema & Joe Sinnott - Silver Surfer

An impressive piece!  Martin Greim has to have been the original owner.  The fact that the owner got these inkers is also remarkable.  Who knew Bob Layton inking Ross Andru would be such a great combination?  Nuff Said!

New Justice League, Wonder Woman, Black Canary pin-ups by José Luis García-López

José Luis García-López has a nice Facebook gallery, where I found this great new Justice League cover that did recently for Hero Initiative.  Not sure if this is a old or new Hero Initiative cover project, but covers like this one will certainly do well.

José had a few more pin-ups that I really liked, especially this downward angle shot of Wonder Woman flying in the air.  It’s just astonishing to me how well García-López portrays this character, with classic grace and beauty.

This one of Black Canary in her original costume is butt-kicking beautiful.  An upward angle shot, just the opposite of the WW pic.  As Nancy Sinatra said, those boots were made for walking all over you!

I’m not quite privileged enough to José’s friend on Facebook, but super-fan Jerry Whitworth is and Liked his picture so that his friends could see it.  Thanks, Jerry, you helped bring some Silver Age freshness into my day.  Nuff Said!

Atari Force and the art of José Luis García-López

A few years ago, Two Morrows published a very fine Modern Masters book on one of my favorite artists, José Luis García-López. One of the great DC artists during the past 25 years, he hasn't worked on that many series, and not much was known about him until this book came out.



García-López had been away from the comics pages for years, doing various special projects for DC Comics, such as drawing the DC Style Guide for licensing and merchandizing.  A lot of this artwork can be seen in DC licensed products you might purchase today--I have some Superman coffee mugs that are clearly Lopez drawings. In the 80s he did some great work on Superman (in DC Comics Presents), a Deadman mini-series (that resolved plot threads from Neal Adams' original run), but his longest running regular series was Atari Force. 



During the 80s, Atari was synonymous with video games. DC partnered with Atari (since they were both owned by Warners) to produce comics based on various Atari games. One was a graphic novel called Star Raiders (also wonderfully drawn by García-López), but Atari Force the regular color comic series still brings back fond memories. Written by Gerry Conway, it told the story of a group of descendants from earlier mini-comics distributed in Atari video game packages.



The star was Dart, a female of mixed Indian-Japanese heritage who opens issue #1 with her lover, Blackjack. They are mercenaries, mixed up in a war with a former employer, bouncing out of one scrape to another. I love Lopez' design for Dart, and how he draws her in action throughout his run. Dart has a brother called Tempest (the name of my favorite Atari video game) who can transport himself between multiverses. You can almost say he "jaunts" like in Alfred Bester's Stars My Destination, but it's even more fluid as he can just send his fist through a wormhole. Tempest was clearly meant to be the star of Atari Force, but Dart overpowered him from the first issue.



Art-wise, I loved everything García-López did on this series, from the character design to the worlds they visited. Story-wise, I always remembered Dart and her lover Blackjack. Conway plotted an initial twelve issue arc that took the couple on a wild journey. In one issue, Dart is forced to leave Blackjack in space (a scene that also reminded me of Bester's novel). Later, Blackjack returns and is reunited with the team, only to turn on Dart violently. Re-reading the entire 20 issue run, I can say that only this arc is still worth re-reading.



After Conway and García-López left the series around issue 13, it quickly lost momentum and lasted only 20 issues, plus one annual in 1986 (which featured art by Marshall Rogers). For you Atari or García-López lovers, this may be worth scouring the back issue bins. It's highly doubtful that it will ever be reprinted or revived. Nuff Said!

Originally published on Photon Torpedoes on Dec 13, 2005.
Link: Jeremy Radisich Gallery on ComicArtFans.
Link: Michael Bair Gallery on ComicArtFans.