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2010 SKETCHBOOK (60 pages, black/white/tone, print run 100 copies)

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

One-a-Day #67...Death or Glory

Ok, this will be the LAST "Soul Gem Saga" inspired sketch...I promise. This all started when I picked-up a few of the 1980 Marvel Baxter reprints and just loved re-reading them. This has lead me to re-read and/or buy Starlin's "Breed", BreedII", "Cosmic Guard", "Kid Cosmos", and finally "Dreadstar". All fun stuff.

Here is an interesting thing that I noticed: in "Dreadstar" Willow's mother is in a coma, Breed's mother is brain dead, and Kid Cosmos' mother is in a coma and can't tell him anything about his father. In each case, the "device" is used differently, (in Dreadstar there is "hope of recovery", in Breed there is "loneliness" after Breed kills his mother, in Kid Cosmos there is a mystery to be solved) and it is almost like listening to the same musical composition being played totally differently.

6 comments:

norm said...

I'll have to ask you about the Kid Cosmos book....

Dan said...

Outstanding (the drawing, not the promise...)! I love that your Thanos has real boots - this was Paul Pope's best improvement to Batman in his Year 100. ;-)

Alex Sheikman said...

Norm,

Kid Cosmos is actually a 2-book deal. The first part is called "Cosmic Guard" and was a 5 issue series that has been collected into a trade (I bought the individual issues because...I just happen to find them like that) and the sequel is called "Kid Cosmos" and I got that as a trade (but judging from the sketchbook section it was supposed to be a series as well because there are at least 3 full page pieces in there that look like covers to me).

I really enjoyed the stories and look forward to hopefully seeing the third and final installment soon. To me this storyline is like Starlin's Spider-Man...a good kid (who has some serious issues and who gets into trouble) finds that he has been gifted special powers and has to learn how to deal with that. There is also a touch of DC's Captain Marvel in there because when the powers come on, the kid's body matures (but he does not mature mentally). Throw n a bit of "Last Starfighter" and a lot of Starlin and you got "Kid Cosmos"...at least that is my take on it :)

Dan,
Thanks for the kind words...well, I MIGHT get a few more "Starlinverse" pictures out :)

riq said...

I love it.. I love the approach and the style..

My only comment( not even crit really) is that you've handled the rendering on the planets very differently than everything else..

And being someone that "meanders" from style to style, I very big on making sure everything is consistent.

I think it would be a stronger piece( ever so slightly) if you found a way to use the very graphic approach to render the planets, the same way you've done on the figures and such.

Still, it doesn't hurt the piece, I just think it might be stronger.

riq.

Alex Sheikman said...

Riq,

Thank you for taking a look. Nice insight...I'll have to work on that :)

I will say that as I get exposed to more and more artists, my style becomes less and less consistent...but I hope that someday it will all gel into something unique.

inkdestroyedmybrush said...

i claim copyright on the term "starlinverse"! Like the thinner thanos more consistant with the Captain Mar-Vell series rather than Warlock.