Monday, July 03, 2006

The Hell--?! Artwork?!! (Moral Realignment Challenge: Apocalypse And Jubilee)



From Marvel Comics solicitations for October 2005 (on Earth-427B):

BEST OF ESSENTIAL APOCALYPSE VOL. 1 TPB
Written by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS, JIM SHOOTER, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, BILL MANTLO & WARREN ELLIS.
Cover and pencils/inks by JACK KIRBY/GEORGE ROUSSOUS, ROSS ANDRU/FRANK GIACOIA, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, SAL BUSCEMA/JOE SINNOTT, ERNIE CHUA, BOB HALL/DAN GREEN & LEONARDO MANCO.
Just in time or Halloween, it's a collection of the first and best appearances of everyone's favorite gray goliath, Apocalypse! Includes his debut in 1960's "I Awoke The Mega-Mummy!" from "Journey Into Fantasy" #45, his reappearance as one of the Defenders in 1971's "Marvel Main Attraction" #1 (also featuring Doctor Mordo, Attuma The Aqua-Warrior, and Planet-Eater Lad), his first battle against the psychotic super-powered delinquent Jubilee in the pages of "Red, White & Blue Skull" #183 (1975), the groundbreaking story in which Apocalpyse saves a young man from a gay bashing and also comes to terms with his own homosexuality in "Rampage Of Apocalpyse" #7 (1977), Jubilee's terrifying transformation into the Kree-powered menace "Firestone" in "Awesome Apocalpyse" #54-55 (1978), Apocalpyse's titanic tussle with a fellow hero in "Bullseye: The Man Who Never Misses" #159 (1980), and his triumphant return from Comics Limbo in the mature-readers-only "Apocalpyse: Prince Of Death" #1 (1995).
180 PGS./B&W/MARVEL PSR...$9.99
UPS: 7200411582-00111

Boy, I really need to get that Illustrator program, don't I? I can't seem to get the hang of Jeremy's colored pencils at all. (I lost my pastels; so sue me.)

Annnyhow, here's my interpretation of Steven's idea of realigning Jubilee and Apocalypse. I did some reading-up on Apocalpyse and found out he was an ancient mutant who swiped some Eternals technology for his body-suit. So I figured if he was a good guy, he wouldn't have the suit. Ergo: Mega-Mummy! Good Apocalpyse is strong like the Hulk and has regenerative capabilities. Bad Jubilee is a mutant street-urchin who uses her powers to start fires and kill people, and to make her more of a match for Apocalypse, I juiced her up a la Moonstone. I ended up redrawing her a bunch of times and I'm still not happy with her but to be honest I'm also not that interested in her. What I was most into for this assignment was imagining Good Apocalpyse's publishing history as a cross between a Marvel Monster and the Hulk.

I'll try for more artwork posts this week.

8 comments:

Steven said...

THANK YOU!

Also for Planet Eater Lad! Bwah ha ha! That's one I NEED to see.

the groundbreaking story in which Apocalpyse saves a young man from a gay bashing and also comes to terms with his own homosexuality in "Rampage Of Apocalpyse" #7 (1977)

1977? Really? Comics were a lot more progressive on Earth-427B than they were here.

huh.

Anonymous said...

well apocalpyse really shouldn't be blue then, since it's the armor that is blue not his skin. but it does sound better then what actually happened in the comics.

Anonymous said...

The Mega-Mummy is teh awexome! For the record, I like you rendering of him. Jubilee, I agree, probably needs work, but yeah, there needs to be something there to inspire one in the first place.

I love the alt-universe comics thinga too. "Red White & Blue Skull"? Sweet. I want to see Baron Strange & Namor the Vengeful One team up with P-E Lad's rebellious herald, Silvered Serf, to take on those Alterna-Defenders.

Anonymous said...

Oooh, wait. Since it's P-E Lad, you know Silvered Serf has to actually be an older, uptight butler/guardian type, like Alfred gone horribly wrong, assigned to the cosmic boy's care by his parents or whatnot.

Wow. I may well draw this if you don't! (-:

Anonymous said...

That was me just now. So that's what happens when you don't provide a name...

Jeremy Rizza said...

Steven: Yup! It's the Bizarro-World version of the Jim Shooter story from "Rampaging Hulk" where Bruce Banner is almost raped by some hateful gay stereotypes. And for added irony, my opposite-story was drawn by gay comics icon P. Craig Russell.

Anonymous: Interesting point! I just figured he'd be blue or blue-gray 'cause he's a mummy.

Chawunky: Yeah, my Jubilee kind of looks like a praying mantis. The problem was I really couldn't be bothered to care. And a great big HAW! to "Silvered Serf."

Anonymous said...

The pic of Apocalypse reminds me of "The Nameless One", the player character from the vidgame "Planescape:Torment". His flesh was basically a mass of scar tissue and tattoos/ritual scarring as a result his amnesiac immortality (the bodymods basically being his "Notes to self in the next life") - concepts perfect for the "dark hero" Apoc.

Good choices for this neat experiment, btw.

Anonymous said...

I like the reference to the old monster comics. It's perfect for Apocalypse.