Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Sometimes big things have small beginnings


Left click to enlarge

This wonderful labor of love is by artist Dana Black. Black was quoted as saying on farce book "this was a 3 piece commission, each piece 11x17 and I loved doing every inch of this damn thing!!". It took her all of 8 months to do for the client who requested that ROM be included.


 
Here's a concept I've had for a little while now of doing something that featured Optimus Prime, Rom and Acroyer together in relative scale to each other. I kinda like it but at the same time it didn't quite turn out as I visualized it in my head, that happens sometimes. So after playing around with it for a while I decided to add a tag line to it and make it into an 80s tribute piece. I'm feeling even more nostalgic about the past given all the shit lately in both Marvel and DC. Between the cancellation of the Young Justice cartoon, the DC reboot and what that asshole jonothan hickman did to Galador and it's space knights recently I'm more indifferent then ever from any new stuff from DC and Marvel.

Marvel Age Magazine #17
These three guys have so much in common and most of us love em all largely thanks to Bill Mantlo who wrote The Micronauts first series, the entire Rom series and the first two issues of The Transformers mini-series which launched an endless stream of Transfomers comic book titles for years to come. Speaking of which how many of you out there are old enough to remember this commercial? It's what prompted me to pick up the first issue of Transformers when I saw it at a 7 Eleven nearby the apartment complex I lived in at the time. The 80s, what a great decade!



September 25 update: And since we're on the topic of Bill Mantlo inspired coolness of the 80s I wanna give a shout out to The King of Thessaly for bringing this insanely hot Cloak & Dagger illustration by Mark Beachum to my attention.


30 comments:

  1. WOW! That three part Dana Black piece is absolutely amazing! What a fantastic find! Its brilliant! I like your sketch but I feel some color would really make it pop! I never knew Bill Mantlo wrote the first two issues of transformers. Thats wild to me! Great art and great info as always, nice work man! This post needs more exclamation points!!!

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  2. I really like her color pallet. She did an excellent job. Whoever commissioned it definitely got their money's worth.
    Yeah, I remember that ad. We all used to run around singing it. I could never get the electronic voice right, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Oh, the eighties. When shooting ray guns at everything was acceptable, and lasertag was still a kids sport.
    Good times, Shlomo. Good times.

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    1. You're totally right- the colours on that commission are wicked-excellent!

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  3. exhuman, i may experiment with some color on it later.

    Random, too bad those good times are largely over now.

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    1. This is why I live my life largely in reruns and backissues. And a side ponytail.

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    2. Do you like my pony-tail? I DO, I DO! My side-ways-pony-tail??? IT'S TRUE, IT'S TRUE!!!

      That's a Natalie Portman's Shaved Head jam, son!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsgA5qxEy_Y

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    3. Oh, I've heard that one before. I had it in my car, for kid free listening time. :)

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    4. Did you just call me a child? I'M ALL MAN, LADY!!!

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    5. Wow. I hit a nerve. Without even trying. I was referencing the fact that I don't listen to it with my kids in the car.

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  4. That art at the top is incredible - what a great three way split - and so bright and powerful too! I would never have thought of Ant-Man as a space faring hero, but he's as good as any to be included I guess!

    Kurt Busiek worked in Marvel Subscriptions at points over the 80's, and said the X-Men may have been the fan hit, but Transformers and G.I.Joe were the books signing up new readers and new subs by the tonne. And they were great comics. Movies were better in the 80's, comics were cheaper, and tv had he Hulk. We did we ever let time move on?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Yeah, anything over $1.99 is too much for a comic... that's the last price I remember not minding paying.
      Then I was like: THREE.NINETY-NINE? FUCK YOU!

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    3. sad thing is if Marvel was doing some kind of well done Rom continuity i would still be happy to buy it in whatever title it happens in even for $3.99. but obviously they (hickman) fucked that up too so i'm back to not buying shit from marvel anymore unless it's in a back issue bin.

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    4. Yeah, I'd MUCH rather pay 25, or 33, cents an issue!
      Gods bless The Dirt-Mall. -They know me there.

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  5. Wow!! I cant beleive Bill wrote transformers 1 and 2 in a four issue (80 issue) limited series and i never knew it. I adore those issues .Transformers book along with ROM. Too bad he didnt do spidey in issue 3 or the later meanwhile on cybertron straxus issues

    That dana black art is amazing and a labor of love indeed.

    Shlomo ben we do miss the 80s that scale didnt turn out to bad at all.your ROM here is very nice.

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  6. -I remember seeing that commercial and thinking how Megatron never quite looked right in it.
    I also miss The 80's... if you couldn't tell from most of the 200 videos I have up.
    You used to get your comics from a 7-Eleven? Nice. I'd get mine from a fuckin' Dairy Mart I had to ride my bike to... And then eventually from a butcher-shop, before a local comic store opened in the area when I was in high-school.
    *sigh*
    "Everything's perfect about the past except how it led to the present." -Homer Simpson

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  7. I remember that commerical . Megatron did look kinda off. Speaking of looking off Prime on the issue 1 cover looks a bit off too.still in awe that bill wrote it and explains how much i always likedvit.I still have em in outstanding shape and g1 toys passed to my boy like rom .

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    1. Hey, you watch your mouth! -That's a Sienkiewicz cover, son!!!

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    2. It is a great cover.close to my heart .its very different .Lazerbeak looks rad but prime does look a bit odd.not bad just odd

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    3. i've always liked that cover despite the more abstract illustration style and i appreciate Sienkiewicz's style much more now then i did when i was a kid. i met him just a few months ago in San Jose CA. at a con and i finally got to tell him just that he was actually pretty chatty and an all around nice guy.

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  8. That Dana Black piece is Fan-Tastic I can see why you couldn't sit on it until October Ha! I would have been like a kid that knew where the presents where and had to get into it Ha!!

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  9. Dana Black's is love and that Beachum's is insane indeed. I've never been a Transformers fan, though.

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    1. that's why amigo i have lots of different stuff related to Rom and/or Bill Mantlo's career in comics in any one posting so that there's something for everybody.

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  10. I love the Rom/Micronauts Art!! And I miss the 80s' too.

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  11. Oh wow. KoT, that Cloak and Dagger is sublime. And I don't pull out that word very often.

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    1. I know, right? Everything Beachum does is... Google Image search 'em! -Just, maybe not at work or in public or anything...

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