KINGDOM COME part 3

The Kingdom Come action figures were designed by Alex Ross and sculpted by Tim Bruckner, the same guy who did the 3-figure statues we saw in part 2. So finish your KC collection here:

Series 1: The first batch of figures included Green Lantern and Hawkman on the top and Superman and Wonder Woman at the bottom of the picture.

HARD-CORE COLLECTOR ALERT! Wizard Magazine introduced between sets 1 and 2, an exclusive figure of Red Arrow, only available through a special offer inside said publication, so your collection isn’t complete without this figure, so get hunting!

Series 2: The second wave included Batman, Red Robin, Kid Flash and Shazam in his evil grin version.

Series 3: The third and final group of figures had some very cool as well as some odd choices like Magog, The Flash, Wonder Woman in her Amazonian battle armor and Deadman, which is the weird choice, yet it looks awesome.

Elseworlds: After wave 3 Kingdom Come action figures started coming as part of the Elseworlds series, which collects figures from different alternate-reality comic books by DC such as Red Son or Gotham by Gaslight. Series 2 of this series contained the Rev. Norman McCay and Spectre two-pack, and Jade. Series 3 brought the fantastic Aquaman as King of Atlantis and Nightstar. Finally series 4 included another great-looking yet of-the-left-field choice, Blue Beetle. We hope that this trend continues and we keep seeing more KC figures ‘cause they rock! I’m hoping for the Von Bach, the Starman and the Power Woman action figures, at least. Which ones do you think should be made into action figures?, leave your comments!!!

IN MY COLLECTION: As you can see on the photo above I’m only missing the Elseworlds series 2 figures... and not displayed is one of the Wonder Women, 'cause I see no point in having the 2 in there so I picked the coolest looking one.

KINGDOM COME part 2

The buzz that Kingdom Come generated left in its wake, plenty of merchandise for us, collectors, that even up to this date it keeps coming. Here's a list of what you need to complete your collection:

THE POSTERS: To promote this mini-series, these posters came out and were displayed on comic book stores all over the world. Top: Retail posters 1 - 3 as you can see #3 is a reprint of the full covers of issues 1-3 of the series. Bottom: This poster reprints the full cover of the trade paperback. IN MY COLLECTION: Poster #1, I don't care much for #3 or the TPB one 'cause they're reprints but the latter one looks pretty sweet so I might get it, eventually;)

THE T-SHIRTS: Two T-shirt designs were released in 1996-97 with new art by Alex Ross. None of them are IN MY COLLECTION 'cause they're so hard to find.

THE TRADING CARDS: Also that year, a set of trading cards came reprinting the art of the comic book but, there were 6 cards with new art by Ross and also signed by him. These are so rare that if you bought an entire box of these, you'd still wouldn't find these 6 cards, hell even if you bought 2 boxes! IN MY COLLECTION: The 3 cards at the bottom of the picture (The Spectre, Norman McCay and Shazam) and the Batman card (top row, center)

THE MAGAZINES: Media coverage for Kingdom Come came in specialized magazines such as Wizard, they contained new artwork on their covers. Clockwise from top left: Wizard # 57; The Alex Ross Millenium Edition by Wizard, wich has an in-depth look at all things Ross and came in hard and soft covers with the same artwork of the KC Superman and Earth X Captain America; Wizard #2000, again Kingdom Come vs. Earth X; Wizard #191, Sep/ 07 issue which celebrates the return of KC Superman to the pages of JSA, check out our news post for the cover of JSA #11 featuring Supes; Overstreet's Fan #14; and finally Comicology #1, this magazine contains the most complete sketchbook of KC ever! with explanations by Ross and Waid, it was so thorough that DC Comics demanded it was taken off the shelves and all copies be destroyed, after a few days it was released, which makes it one of the hardest things to find for any collector, and yes the cover is by Alex Ross, he's just trying to emulate one of his heroes, the late Alex Toth, the legendary artist, creator of Space Ghost and other Hanna -Barbera cartoons. IN MY COLLECTION: All of these issues. Yes, even Comicology #1. We will expand this magazine covers section, later.

THE STATUES: Alex Ross sculpted these himself, the original Superman statue with the silver finish and the Shazam one in bronze, later smaller, colorized versions of these statues came out, these are hard to get because of the price, they go for US$200 to US$400. Later came the statues with 3 characters each, these were designed by Alex but sculpted by someone else, and they are also expensive, that's why none of them are IN MY COLLECTION. Next on part 3 we'll talk about the Kingdom Come action figures exclusively.

KINGDOM COME part 1

In 1996, Alex Ross' best work came out, sure all his works are his best work but this is particularly exceptional, why? because, it not only is my favorite, but it’s Alex’s favorite, hell even Alan Moore (comic’s biggest storyteller ever) admitted that the release of this series made him actually go to a comic book store, something he hadn’t done in ages, just to pick it up. The story is fantastic, it tells of a future in which all the superheroes we know and love have retired due to personal tragedies or injuries or just lack of inspiration, giving way to a new generation of “heroes”, ones that don’t care much about the innocent bystanders and protecting the public, but of beating the pulp out of each other. Into this situation, created and painted by Alex Ross and written by Mark Waid, Superman emerges from a self-imposed exile, and becomes the leader of the old guard of heroes against the new ones, resulting in a battle of epic proportions. The art is astounding, this is the Alex Ross style, we all know and the one by which all of his other work is measured.

In this first part we are only going to consider the art that came out with the story, trades and such, later we will analyze the posters, action figures and related merchandise.

Top of the article: The 4 covers of the original mini-series. Above these lines: The hardcover and trade paperback versions of the book and the Special Limited Edition Slipcase version which came with the book revelations which explains the relationships between the heroes and villains in KC.
This is the novelization of Kingdom Come, written by Elliot S. Maggin, it has a new cover plus new images inside it, 4 in color (pictured) and 4 in black and white (not pictured). This novelization came in a hardcover en paperback editions all with similar images.

Finally, this year an Absolute Edition of this book came out, it’s in large format and contains all sorts of amazing extra features plus a new cover.

IN MY COLLECTION: Everything except for the original 4 issue mini-series and the Deluxe edition.

MARVELS

After Alex Ross’ break into comics, thanks to Terminator: The Burning Earth, he got more work as a cover artist for Marvel and DC Comics, (something which we’ll delve into later) then in 1993 with writer Kurt Busiek, they presented a story at Marvel Comics which they loved but weren’t unsure if a fully-painted series would be a hit among fans. They finally took a chance and now we have MARVELS, a fantastic trip down Marvel comics’ memory lane, starting with the creation in the 30’s of the original Human Torch (Marvel comics’ - then called Timely comics’ - first super-hero) and ending with the death of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s girlfriend during the sixties. Readers take part of all of these events, watching them through the eyes of photographer Phil Sheldon, the main character in this tale. This an excellent story for everybody who loves super-heroes, the fans and the newcomers, old and young alike. Alex’s art in this book is closer to what we know today, although not as crisp in detail in some parts but still amazing nonetheless.

Below we can see the covers to all 4 issues of MARVELS from 1994.


Later a number zero came out, which became a sort of prologue to the story as seen in the collected editions, too. Below these lines: Marvels #0, the 1994 Hardcover edition, the 1994 trade paperback and the 2003 trade paperback. Not pictured is the 10th anniversary hardcover edition, which reprints the 4 original covers.


Finally, Graphitti Designs released in 1994 a special edition hardback in which the cover art is the letters of Marvels made up of heroes and villains from that company’s stable, there is also a poster with this art. Go ahead! hunt this down.

IN MY COLLECTION: Sadly, only the original trade paperback from ’94.

TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH

For those of you who would like to start your collection from the very beginning, what better place than Alex Ross' first published work from 1990. Released by NOW Comics, the miniseries TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH, is a little short but, it features John Connor's (and his merry band of outcasts) struggles to survive in the future world we've briefly seen in the movies. Here we can see Alex's still-in-development style because in this series he still uses oil-based paints for his work instead of his usual gouache. He still had not master the style we all know and love today, yet you can see where it came from, plus the character's likenesses are pretty well achieved, like how similar, Aurora, the new terminator, looks like Cindy Crawford. So, it's a good way of taking a look at his earliest work.

A word of advice: It's not easy to find these comic books, but it's not that difficult either, hit the auctions and you'll easily find them, except for the trade paperback, which is a little harder to track down.




TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH: Top; issues 1 through 5. Bottom; The wraparound cover to the original trade paperback from 1990. Not Pictured; the new TPB which reprints the cover of issue 4.

IN MY COLLECTION: Issues 1 - 5 and the original trade.

WHAT KIND OF COLLECTOR ARE YOU?

I have narrowed down Alex Ross collectors and fans (or any other collector or fan of a specific comic book artist) into 5 groups:

TYPE 1 - THE FANBOYS: These fans like Alex Ross' art as much as any other cool artist in comic books, such as Neal Adams, Jim Lee, Michael Turner, etc. just because they are cool.

TYPE 2 - THE FANS: They like Alex Ross' art a little more than the rest of the other comic book artists.

TYPE 3 - THE COLLECTORS: These guys, try to collect anything that they consider a good story and art by Alex Ross, they have all the major works by this artist.

TYPE 4 - THE HARD-CORE COLLECTORS: Same as above but also including the hard-to-find stuff, independent comics, action figures, and any kind of merchandise.

TYPE 5 - THE INSANE COLLECTORS: Same as the previous one except that they have to have all of the things Alex Ross has done, even when some things are just reprints of previously published material.

All of you guys, and those who are just discovering the art of Alex Ross, Welcome to this blog! I'm a Type 4, by the way.

ABOUT THIS BLOG (AND IT'S CREATOR)

I've been a collector of the art of Alex Ross for about 10 years and I have a fairly big collection which I'm really proud of. I decided to star this blog to help and exchange information with other collectors all over the world. This blog will contain news about upcoming works by Alex Ross, reviews of his work, old and new, and also info about what's new in my collection and about hard to find stuff. I would appreciate any comments you can make about all these topics, agree, disagree, it's cool Let me know about it. Thanks and happy collecting.

Click the picture above to see Deadman from my Kingdom Come Action Figure Collection.

ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

WHO IS ALEX ROSS?

Alex Ross is the most famous painter of comic books and comic related stuff in the world. He is recognized all over the world for making his paintings of superheroes seem so real, like they would actually exist in the real world. His paintings are made using watercolor techniques with a little airbrushing here and there. His art can be seen not only in comic book covers, it has been featured in a wide variety of things from T-shirts to CD and DVD covers and even on the poster for the Academy Awards in 2002. He was born on January 20, 1970 in Portland, Oregon and currently resides in Willmette, Illinois, USA.

Click the image above to see a sample of his work.