COVER GALLERY: 1998

Two of my favorite images of Alex Ross' art came out this year. 'Nuff Said!

SUPERMAN: FOREVER #1: This special issue returned Superman to his original costume and powers after the whole Electro-Superman story arc. They don't give any details about how he came back with his original powers and the story is just average, but the cover alone is worth the price. It's a classic image of Clark Kent ripping open his suit to reveal the Superman costume inside, this image was reproduced last year as a statue. Now this cover came in 2 versions, the normal one (pictured left), and another "lenticular" one (pictured right) with 7 images of the entire Clark Kent changing into Superman scenario all crammed into one, which looks like Ross' first attempt at animation with his art. It's brilliant!

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS - Deluxe Hardcover Edition: We all know what the crisis meant for the DC universe in 1985, it was a streamlining of his character's adventures by eliminating all those alternate universes and rebooting as well as starting everything from scratch. This series was originally pencilled by George Perez and written by Perez and Marv Wolfman. So for this deluxe edition, DC Comics decided to do a special cover, so they enlisted Perez to draw and Alex Ross to paint over this drawing of all the characters that appeared in the 12-issue series, that's 563 characters all crammed into one cover! The guys took months but the finished product is worth the wait. This image appeared simultaneously on a huge poster (5 ft. X 2.5 ft. - 155 cm. X 75 cm.) and later reprinted on the softcover edition. I just love it, trust me the image below is nothing but a sample of what it ctually is, you have to see it to believe it, it tells you the whole "Crisis" story in one giant image. If I could scan my poster so you could see the detail, I would, it's amazing!
Special cameo appearance: There are 563 characters plus one, Rev. Norman McCay from Kingdom Come, he wasn't in the original crisis series, but since it's modeled after Alex's dad, he put him in there too ;-)


EMPTY LOVE STORIES #1: This indie comic book published by Funny Valentine Press features a writer and artists that are all friends of Alex Ross and who have been models for his various projects. The writer is Steve Darnall, who wrote Uncle Sam and the pencillers who work on this book's various stories that include 3 tales of stalkers (“My Target”), zombies (“One of the Walking Dead”), and “White Trash Romance” are Paul Fricke, Scott Beaderstadt, Hilary Barta, and Lenin Delsol. The cover is a big departure for Alex because it doesn't feature an extraordinary thing as superheroes, instead it's just this very real scene of 2 people talking and the reality of it suits Alex's style very well.



THE MARRIAGE OF HERCULES & XENA #1: This issue published by, makers of baseball cards, Topps, is one of those comic book tie-ins that try to reap the benefits of a hit TV show. In this case, Alex Ross was hired because his art is so realistic and life-like, yet when he turned in this simple yet nice cover, Xena actress Lucy Lawless, complained about his likeness and made the publisher digitally "retouch" her face up to the point where, in the final art (pictured) her face looks triangular and weird in my opinion. What do you think?


IN MY COLLECTION: Superman Forever (lenticular cover) and the Crisis poster.

COVER GALLERY: 1997

This year Alex was getting tons of awards for Kingdom Come and Uncle Sam was released, Here's what else he did:

SQUADRON SUPREME (Trade Paperback): This volume reprints the 12-issue mini-series Marvel published in 1985, including this team's origin from Captain America #314 from 1968. It was written by the late Mark Gruenwald with a host of artists. Basically the premise is simple what if a group of superheroes take upon themselves to rid the Earth of all its problems, poverty, disease, etc. which can be seen by some as something incredibly good or horrendously evil, raising the question of the importance of having, or not having, super heroes. The team is formed by JLA archetypes that are easily recognized, Hyperion is Superman, Nighthawk is Batman, Power Princes is Wonder Woman and so on. Now when this series was published in '85, it was dismissed by fans as just Marvel ripping off DC characters, but when the trade came almost 10 years later and with the success of Kingdom Come, people started seeing it as a little more relevant due to their parallel stories. The cover is simple and effective, it features all the characters in formation with Nighthawk looming over them just like Batman would.
Weird Fact: After he died, Gruenwald's ashes were mixed into the ink used to print this volume's first edition. Spooky!


KABUKI: SKIN DEEP #2: Written and pencilled by David Mack and published by Caliber Comics, this issue entitled "Solitaire" featured Mack's most famous character, the girl called Kabuki. This is issue 2 of 3, and it came with 2 different interlocking covers, one by the author (named "Bones"), the other by Alex Ross (called "Skin"). Dynamic Forces later published one version with a wraparound cover and also used the image on a litograph. Alex's art on this one is just too plain for my tastes, but combined with David Mack's, the whole image looks a lot better.



BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #100: This special 100th issue contains 2 stories, one called "The Choice" written by Denny O'Neill and pencilled by Dave Taylor, and the other called "A Great Day for Everyone" by James Robinson and Lee Weeks, now both stories focus on the character of Robin in two of its incarnations, also the cover features the Boy Wonder in a very nice art composition where you see him being watched over by Batman and in the center you see the two taking an oath, or something, to fight crime. This is in my opinion, the best of these 3 covers. Also, as an aded bonus, this issue features a pin-up gallery with art from guys like, Mike Mignola, Gene Ha, Joe Quesada, Frank Miller and more.


IN MY COLLECTION: None of these (YET!)

COVER GALLERY: 1996

This was a busy year for Alex, 'cause Kingdom Come came out but he was able to squeeze in a few covers.

INDIANA JONES AND THE SARGASSO PIRATES #2 of 4: Continuing with the adventure, this issue also by Kesel and Barreto, sports a cover by Ross, though it's strange why he only painted the first 2 out of a set of 4. This cover is more action packed than the previous one with Indy wrapped in an angry octopus being watched from the plank by a female pirate. The resemblance with Harrison Ford is a bit lost on this cover but notice how the perspective going upwards is amazing, you see the sky all dark and the face on the pirate is very angry while Indy is just scared, which doesn't fit the character very well.



FOOT SOLDIERS #1: This series marks the first time Alex Ross collaborated with Jim Krueger, this duo would later give us some fantastic comic book series such as Earth X, Justice and more recently Superpowers and Avengers/Invaders: The Return. This series, pencilled by Mike Avon Oeming, tells the tale of a dystopian future ruled by robots, who have killed all the super-heroes, now a few teenage delinquents have gotten hold of superpowered boots and are trying to restore order to the world with less than perfect results. This cover is awesome, you just gotta stop to take a really good look at it, it's so in-your-face, you see explosions and these kids running away from them, you feel you have to get out of their way or they'll run over you.

LETHARGIC LAD #3: This very strange character is the creation of Canadian artist Greg Hyland, who started this comic strip while he was in high school and still does it in his website, the comic compiles and reprints those strips. The "hero" has the power of lethargy, which makes me wonder how he actually fights crime if he's always tired, but he does it in Infantino City with the help of the most bizarre cast you'd expect. Now this cover rocks, it's really cool how the covers of this series makes fun of actual comic covers and for this issue, well, you can see it for yourselves, all the characters from this book formed like the Kingdom Come covers while Rev. McCay, the main character of that series looks puzzled to see those weirdos, behind him, all done with the same striking, overhead lighting Alex Ross used in KC. It looks great, and shows how Alex can make fun of his own art.

MADMAN #10:Since we're talking about weird characters, let me tell you about Madman. His name is Frank Einstein, named after Frank Sinatra and Albert Einstein, he used to be a hitman who died and was put back together by a couple of mad scientists (is there any other kind of scientists?), hence the name sounds like Frankenstein. When he woke up, he had no memory of his previous life, but he also had enhanced reflexes and mental powers which he used to fight crime in Snap City a fantastic place where mutants, monsters and evil robots roam free. It was created by Mike Allred in a cartoony style and with a tongue-in-cheek attitude that made it hugely popular in the 1990's. The cover was pencilled by Allred and painted by Ross, with most of the series' weird characters. The back cover was painted solely by Ross and shows Madman reading a comic book with a cover that spoofs Action Comics #1, Superman's first appearance, which captures the essence of how odd this hero really is and how this series never takes itself too seriously.


IN MY COLLECTION: Madman #10

COVER GALLERY: 1995

For this year, Alex Ross' art wasn't just on the covers of Astro City it was also on other comic covers as well.

BIG BANG COMICS #0: The idea behind Caliber Press' Big Bang Comics is to pay tribute to the Golden and Silver Age of comics in more ways than you may think possible. Not only do they emulate the heroes, having parodies of Batman (Knight Watchman) and Superman (Ultiman) but they're also able to capture the silliness and campiness of the comics read by our grandparents. So for this cover, Alex Ross renders The super-heroine Thunder Girl, who represents Mary Marvel from the Shazam mythos. Since Alex loves the whole Shazam "family", he was glad to paint this cover and it shows, the heroic pose and the flowing cape and dress of Thunder Girl as well as the killer lighting, makes this cover a winner, unlike the Prime cover from the previous year.


MIDNIGHT SONS UNLIMITED #9: With a cover date of May, 1995, this issue tells the story of "Golden Age (1940s)" Marvel heroes such as the British vigilante Union Jack and the German paladin The Mighty Destroyer teaming up with the American "hotheaded" mystery man The Blazing Skull to stop the growing nazi threat. This is a very nice story if you're interested in learning a bit about these old characters from the time when marvel was called Timely Comics, and see how they were the precursors or the original ideas of some of today's heroes, for example, The Blazing Skull looks exactly like Ghost Rider, The Mighty Destroyer wears a skull on his chest just like The Punisher and Union Jack is still around today. The cover is an excellent composition of the characters in the story and by this time Alex had perfected his rendering of real-looking flames (first used in Marvels) so the Skull looks amazing.


ELEMENTALS: GHOST OF A CHANCE #1 was published at the end of this year with a cover date of December 1995. It was written by Bill Willingham with art by Tony Akins. Now I don't know much about the story of these Elementals, but the cover is a nice composition of what I think are the main characters in a ripped page kind of fashion, it looks really good. The story behind this cover is it that the original art for it, has been "missing" for quite some time. You see Alex Ross gets all the art he paints, back to him after the publisher scans it and adds titles and all that, but this one didn't return from publisher Comico. So, if whoever has this art is reading this, give it back, it's not like you can sell it without people noticing. Come on, it's an Alex Ross original, you'll probably have more luck trying to sell a stolen Mona Lisa. ;-)



INDIANA JONES AND THE SARGASSO PIRATES #1 of 4: This mini-series' first issue was published on December 1995 and continued in 1996, so we'll talk about issue 2 on our 1996 post, 'cause both had covers by Alex Ross. This 4-issue series was written by Karl Kesel with art by Paul Guinan, Kesel and Eduardo Barreto. For this cover Alex was hired for the uncanny resemblance his painted characters have with the real life actor or model, in this case Harrison Ford, and I'm not going to comment on how awesome and realistic his Indy looks, just check it out for yourselves.



IN MY COLLECTION: Only the Midnight Sons issue.