MY ESSAY ABOUT COLLECTING ALEX ROSS' ART

This essay originally appeared in spanish at the CLUB BATMAN website/blog. Wanna read it in Spanish? Click here.

Este ensayo apareció publicado originalmente en español en el blog/sitio web del CLUB BATMAN. Léelo en español haciendo click aquí.


The first time I ever saw Alex Ross’ art was on the Earth X sketchbook published by Wizard magazine. I was just coming back to comics after not collecting them since childhood when Spider-Man was fighting an afro-wearing villain called The Hypno-Hustler at a place called Disco Inferno. What attracted me about the sketchbook wasn’t only the description of this “alternate future’s” super heroes, which showed how much comics have evolved, but the way the artist achieved such levels of detail in his pencils. From the threads on the rope which tied a tattered, old flag to Captain America’s body to Daredevil’s shiny leather suit, everything done with just a pencil.
From that moment on, I was fascinated by this hyper-realistic art style so I decided to collect Earth X thus learning a great deal about the Marvel Universe and I just couldn’t believe how amazing it was the way the covers formed a giant mural-like image which could only come out from the mind of a genius, a wizard whose magic was exercised with a pencil, brushes and watercolors. That’s when my collection began and when I decided to look for more of Alex Ross’ art.

Then I found Marvels, the alpha to Earth X’s omega and saw the history of the Marvel universe unfold before my eyes with the Human Torch’s flames which seem to burn right through the page, to looking at myself reflected on the Silver Surfer’s chromed body or crying alongside Phil Sheldon, the main character of this story, for the tragic death of the beautiful Gwen Stacy. That’s where Alex Ross and writer Kurt Busiek showed me the swift way in which comics matured and lost their innocence.



But nothing could have prepared me for the visually arresting images of Kingdom come and the way we see, through the eyes of the Rev. McCay character, a violent future unfold before us, where the “heroes” no longer worry about saving lives, reminding us how, just like comic books, they have lost their heroic values. Within this panorama, Alex and writer Mark Waid return Superman to its roots as a hero with a strong sense of morality which is worth respecting and taught to others, and to its status quo as the first and foremost superhero in the world. It’s hard to suppress the tears when at the end of this story, Superman puts his glasses back on and goes back to being Clark, therefore revealing Alex’s recurring motif in his work, the return to the innocence of the Golden Age of comic books. The same imagery will be repeated later at the end of the “Justice” miniseries.

Among his other works, Alex contributed to a very gloom Terminator story and some sweet Astro City ones. But his oversized books, which celebrate the anniversaries of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Shazam are particularly heart-warming. Superman, tries to rid the world of hunger and realizes the problem is in people’s mean-spirited nature; Shazam’s inherent child-like innocence makes him help youngsters in need and Wonder Woman’s lack of touch with humanity makes her rethink her mission in life; but my favorite is Batman’s story in which he sees his life reflected in a child who loses his parents the same way he did, making him realize what is the true nature of crime and despair.


Further chapters in the oversized book line deal with the Justice League such as Secret Files and Liberty & Justice. These are just a sample of what’s coming in the epic series, simply named JUSTICE, a tale in which the villains apparently become good guys and the heroes end up looking uncaring and useless in the eyes of humanity. This series brings back memories of the Super Friends animated series but done in a more serious and “mature” way.
Comic books were a children’s game that grew up with us and I’d like to think that those of us who grew up reading them not only still keep that innocence and heroic values but we uphold, and show them to the world, just like Alex Ross does in his work. That is the magic that can be achieved with just a pencil or a brush.

Andres Avila
The Alex Ross Collector