No way am I calling this post "Fisting it."

My last post got me thinking about all the cool B- and C-tier characters at the Big Two that I loved as a kid. Even more came to mind. KOBRA, DEADMAN, GHOST RIDER, THE DEMON...a few others.

It occurred to me that Mike was the same way. We used to trade titles back and forth all the time but it was usually the large collections like SPIDER-MAN or AVENGERS. Once a creative team moved on and Mike lost interest, he'd start eyeing what I was buying to see if one of "his guys" was working on it. His guys were John Byrne, Jim Starlin, Mike Ploog. Even then Mike was becoming a student of comic art, studying people he thought he could learn from. (My "guy" was Sal Buscema and though Mike appreciated his work, he wasn't necessarily sparked by it creatively. So he never traded for THE INCREDIBLE HULK, ROM or NOVA.)

But Mike rarely gave up the small books. The only one I can remember was SPIDER-WOMAN. He read it, wasn't impressed and turned it over. Somehow, I ended up trading it for something else later on. When he got his hands on one of those little gems like Joe Kubert's RAGMAN or OMEGA THE UNKNOWN or MS. MARVEL, however, he held onto it for dear life. He read CAPTAIN MARVEL, WARLOCK, THE CHAMPIONS and IRON FIST to tatters. He'd let me borrow them, which I often did because I wanted to see why he was so fascinated with them. I knew the books were quality but I was five years younger and much more appreciative of the the more simplistic rendering of my beloved pal Sal. It wasn't until much later that I realized what I was missing out on but by then Mike had those books bagged, boarded and under armed guard.

Thank Crom for reprints. Marvel and DC have gone reprint crazy lately and, unlike horror movie remakes and the 3D crap going on, I'm actually enjoying this trend. It's enabled me to read all those great old books and soak in the artwork that I didn't get a chance to when I was a stupid kid and jumping up and down at the latest issue of HUMAN FLY, US1 and TEAM AMERICA. One of those books is IRON FIST. It was one of those books that seemed to scratch so many of Mike's itches at once. Great John Byrne art, fantasy elements, mature (not to be confused with adult) stories, martial arts (Mike loved Kung Fu movies and took Karate lessons) and had those great Dave Cockrum covers. Best of all, since it was written by Chris Claremont, it had close ties to the X-MEN, Mike's favorite book at the time. I didn't get to spend much time with the books but I remember the incredible art and coloring (Byrne brought out the best in his colorists back then) but I never actually sat down and read them cover to cover. My only exposure to 'Fist was his appearance in MARVEL TEAM-UP, also drawn by Byrne but somehow allowed to remain in my possession. It was enough. His iconic appearance (including his Spider-Man-style eyes) and the great story in that TEAM-UP two-parter were enough to cement him on my list of all-time favorite B-characters.

As I was drawing the above sketch, it occurred to me how great it would be if Marvel had a book set in the Marvel Universe of the '70s, not tied to any modern continuity but with fun, self-contained stories and a rotating cast of B-listers in their classic costumes. Mike would have been perfect for a book like that. It seemed to be his curse that every time he was assigned to a book, it would get sucked into some stupid crossover that would change the character's look (Iron Spider, anyone? JEEZ!) and he wouldn't get to draw the "classic" design. He probably wouldn't want to draw the book because it wouldn't be tied into current continuity and he was very career-conscious but I would have loved to have seen it.

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I often bitch about the hours I work and the past two weeks have been no exception. (70 hours last week.) But it does have one beneficial side-effect. When I have down time while I'm waiting on someone else to do their bit so I can do mine, I get to draw guilt free. Who's going to give me grief for sketching at 9:00 at night (or even 2:00 in the afternoon) when I'm not going home until 3:00 in the morning? This sketch was finished in record time. I was very surprised at how fast I managed to draw it, even though I don't think I spent more than five consecutive minutes on it at a time. I wasn't even going to ink it. I was going to just go over it in traditional pencil, but I'm trying to get comfortable with inking my work in preparation for THE HAND ME DOWN HORROR, assuming I ever get to go back to work on it.

I really like how it came out. I'm getting more confident with drawing legs and feet, something I've struggled with in the past. And I think I'm finally starting to like the hands I draw. I was recently telling someone who e-mailed me through the blog that I read a post on Mike Manley's site that really helped with that. He mentioned that, if you're struggling with a particular body part, spend an entire day drawing only that, over and over, from every angle. Before you know it, you'll know how to draw it. I'm no expert by any means, but that bit of advice really came in, um...handy.

Since I really hate the way I draw women, I may start doing more of the female B-listers to get over that hump. But first, I have to do a drawing for my buddy Christian's little girl Lilah. I won't say which character it is that he's asked for but I can say I've never drawn him before and I'm really looking forward to the challenge. That will probably be my next post. Okay, gotta go crawl into bed. On top of all the hours, I'm working, Todd has somehow given me his cold from 300 miles away. Have a great weekend and I hope you like the sketch.

Later!