NEWS: COMICS ON COMICS INTERVIEW

The Comics on Comics website has published an amazing podcast where a lot of cool comic-book related topics are discussed in a funny as hell way. Among the regular hosts of the show, there's Alex Ross, via telephone, contributing to the hot topics as well as being interviewed on his carreer from Terminator: The Burning Earth until Superpowers. Visit their site here or subscribe to their cool podcast in iTunes.
Thanks to our friend Blair Marnell from Comics on Comics.com for sharing this interview with us.

POSTERS part 8

MARVEL POSTERS

Another one of Alex's masterpieces came in the covers of Earth X and Universe X (left) which could be combined into the massive lithographs you can see here. The Earth X one combines everything into a cool collage of images in a very surreal way of telling the story. The Universe X one does the same but groups all images into a silhouette of Captain Mar-Vell. Both are very cool and very hard to find, especially the UX one.

My major gripe about Marvel posters is how quickly and easily they turn into covers, making my job of cataloguing them much harder. Case in point: That spidey cover for Marvels (far left) was almost simultaneously launched as a poster, leaving me to play the egg or the chicken game.
That Avengers/Invaders poster (second from left) amazingly captures the old and new team in a very nice group shot. Hopefully this won't be turn into a cover. But this series hasn't finished yet so...
The Spider-Man/Spider-Woman litho (third from left) is absolutely new and absolutely gorgeous, made by the folks at Upper Deck Entertainment, this one isn't on a cover after a few years it's been out.
Unlike that other Spider-Woman poster (far right) which was solicited as a poster one month and then it became the cover for Spider-Woman #1 the next month. Anyways that Spider-Woman is painted by Alex so curvy and hot that all's forgiven. I mean look at her she's not one of those anorexic-looking super heroines, Baby's got back!!! LOL

Again, I'm sad to tell you that none of these posters are IN MY COLLECTION.

POSTERS part 7

"CLASSIC MARVEL" POSTERS
Alex's work in the posters department at Marvel isn't as extensive as DC's but is no less impressive. specially with the opportunity he's had to work with legendary artists from past decades, like on this Spider-Man vs. The Green Goblin lithograph from the mid 90's. It was his first collaboration with John Romita Sr., well-known Spidey artist during the 1960's and 70's, and the end result is more than impressive, again they use Alex's trademarked "dizzying" perspective to get a really nice composition.

On their next collaboration Romita and Ross went all out with the Marvel characters as they looked during the 60's and 70's. There are heroes, villains and other assorted secondary characters such as Robbie Robertson and J. Jonah Jameson. Romita's pencils in all their retro look along with Alex's paints and those pastel tones give this image an ethereal quality. Most of those characters I don't have a clue who they are.

Finally this Avengers piece was originally pencilled by another true legend, John Buscema. As you can see, it has, just as the Romita pieces, the trademark Buscema style, which is also very retro. This is another incredible poster with a great color composition and cool selection of characters. Since I'm not a big Marvel guy, I just don't know who the guy on the winged horse is, help please. This litho was the last poster Mr. Buscema did before his passing in 2002. Alex will hold an auction of this original art with all the proceeds to benefit John Buscema's widowed wife. All this 3 lithos were released by Dynamic Forces and are very limited and very hard to find so look out for them!



Alex, apparently liked his collaborations with the 70's creators so much that he decided to take it upon himself to create a composition of the Marvel characters that were created or became popular during the 1970's in another one of his masterpieces. You can see well- known characters like Iron Man, Wolverine and the Punisher as they looked back then as well as little know guys like Nova and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Heck, even Howard The Duck is in there. If you have a better scan/photo of it, please help me, I'd really appreciate it.


Also as the ultimate tribute to another legendary artist, Alex painted this litho to honor not just Prince Namor, the Submariner but his creator, the late Bill Everett. This amazing litho, again by Dynamic Forces uses black & white and sepia tones to convey how old the character is. The pose on Mr. Everett is like he's painting Namor and at the same moment the character comes to life on the background, it's as if Alex had a time machine and he traveled back in time and captured the creator at work.
Again, I apologize for having such small scans but these are very hard to find posters. This Namor poster is a little harder to find than the 70's Marvel characters.



Finally, taking a cue from the opening pages of the oversized books Alex decided to tell the entire history of Captain America in a single two-page spread, which then transforms this poster into an American flag. The composition is amazing and you can learn everything about Cap from this litho. This is a very hard to find poster and this same image was also used in the pages of Captain America: Red, White & Blue an anthology of Cap stories by various writers and artists.

Sadly, none of these posters are IN MY COLLECTION.
Special thanks to our friend Jeremy Engel for getting me hi-res scans of some of the posters you see above.

VIDEO: HIDDEN ALEX ROSS ART part 1

Here's a little something I created to show you the little easter eggs we can find hidden in Alex Ross' art. First Stop: Terminator: The Burning Earth. See the celebrity cameos, the album covers and insults hidden within Alex's magnificent brush strokes. Enjoy!



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YOUR ALEX ROSS STUFF

Hi everybody! I'm opening up a new section not to talk about my collection or the Alex Ross stuff that's out there but instead to give you the opportunity to show me what YOU got. Case in point, our friend Master Robert from Argentina and owner of the Krypto Club (check out the link in our links section) just acquired this amazing issue of Superman Forever (left) signed by all creators involved in it including good old Alex. Also our pal Andres Vega from Ecuador is sharing this photo he took of himself with Alex at the New York City Comic-Con 2008. Awesome stuff!!!

Got a cool new addition to your collection or a photo with the one and only Alex Ross? Send a pic or a scan and share with us the joy of collecting!

The Alex Ross Collector

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POSTERS part 6

>LIMITED EDITION DC POSTERS
The word limited edition usually translates into better quality paper and printing materials but it also means higher price. These posters are not actually so, but lithographs or giclées printed on canvas or heavy stock paper. The one to the left of these words is a personal favorite. This lovely Legion of Super-heroes lithograph has pretty much every member of this team flying into space, look at the color combination as though Alex grouped them so their uniforms wouldn't clash with one another. Also worth mentioning is how sexy Shadow Lass and Dawnstar look. This litho was limited to 500 units and sells for around US$500 if you ever find it on eBay. Hidden Art Alert: I read on the internet once that Alex hid something on the reflection of Wildfire's helmet (bottom), and you can see that something's there that isn't in the original piece but I don't know what it is. Do you?

The Superman portrait (left) is one of Alex's few oil paintings (he normally uses watercolors) and it was originally created for the "Got Milk" ad campaign then never used (that's why Supes is making that monkey face) so it was sold as a giclée on canvas in a very limited set. Estimated price, if you can find it, between US$1000 and US$5000.
That gorgeous Batman Beyond piece (center) was sold at the Warner Bros. Studio Store and it's the only time Alex has painted this character. The composition looks wonderful with present and future Bat-characters in the mix. My only complaint is that Batman looks a bit, well fat, there I said it! Random sightings of this lithograph on eBay have been bought for prices that range from US$700 to US$1500.
This lovely lithograph entitled "20th Century" (right) is a nighttime reproduction of the cover of 1939's Superman #1 and besides its coolness, it's not one of Alex's favorite works, he complains that he had to draw too many windows and he changed from day to night to better frame the character and then he didn't like how it was framed, also he says the pose is too stiff and Supes' head is too small. If he could go back in time to start over he'll gladly do it. Talk about being over-critical of your own work!!! I think it looks great! This litho is seriously hard to find so I can't estimate its price.

Again this is another wonderful lithograph with a great art composition and the 2 greatest DC heroes. Released in 1998 this fantastic image called "World's Finest" just oozes heroism as well as detail, check out Batman's cape, it's so realistic! And due to its odd angle, this poster can be hanged on your wall horizontally (photo) as well as vertically. That is if you could find one...


With the success of the Mythology book which featured the first 2 images of Superman and Batman you see above, and then added Wonder Woman for the Special Edition of this book, DC Comics decided to make them lithographs but since they were reprinted images they threw in new images of Green Lantern and Flash in the same style, calling them "The Mythology Prints". I really like the new ones but the Flash poster stands out more than the GL because the art is not covered by anything and the lines aren't intrusive as the Hal Jordan poster which is covered by way too many green "flashes", no pun intended. Each one is sold for around US$200 to $400.


JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES: This poster was used to promote the video game of the same name for PS2, XBOX and all next-gen platforms. This poster includes the heroes from the video game, that's why you get Zatanna and Green Lantern John Stewart, dressed in the JLU cartoon show costume. This poster is a little hard to find but not impossible and it's possibly the only poster in this article that's affordable.

Sadly, due to their steep prices, only the Batman Beyond and Justice League Heroes posters are IN MY COLLECTION.

POSTERS part 5

DC CHARACTER POSTERS

This is a big collection of poster to decorate your wall, their size is 22 x 34 inches (56 x 87 cm) so find a lot of wall space for them. They started as images on the back of the oversized books for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Shazam and then DC Comics and Alex went crazy!!! Pictured are the posters for: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Flash (Barry Allen), Aquaman, Hawkman & Atom, Martian Manhunter, Plastic Man, Shazam, Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Spectre, Dr. Fate, Flash (Jay Garrick), Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Supergirl, Batgirl and Zatanna. Sadly, I have yet to start this poster collection.

This series of posters were so successful that full-bodied, life-size versions of them were created of the most important heroes, namely, the first 5 of the pictures above. Eventually most of those full-size images were digitally composited into the image you see below to make a new poster (and to take our money away basically) but in my opinion, they looked great as single images but together, they look a bit weird, like the pose on Aquaman without his trident. Messing with Alex's art just plain sucks.