Supervator.com’s IRON MAN blog!
Avenger vs Avenger! One of a kind color guide art splash page! Click the pic for availability!
Hey there, invincible ones! It’s been a while since we’ve done a Supervator.com Super-Blog, and this one is about one of my favorite Marvel Universe heroes…. the Invincible Iron Man! And I am psyched for the Iron Man 2 movie that’s coming out next month starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, with Mickey Rourke playing the super-villain Whiplash and Scarlett Johansson playing the sexy Black Widow. And the movie soundtrack by AC/DC? What’s not to love?!? If this Iron Man II movie is anything like the first film, it’s gonna be a mind-blower. And War Machine is going to be in it too! The only thing I don’t like about the movie previews so far is Whiplash’s costume. It doesn’t compare AT ALL to the real Whiplash suit that was first seen in Tales of Suspense 97 back in the 1960′s. I even had a t-shirt made of the TOS # 97 comic book cover, and this was way before the internet was ever thought of and custom tee-shirt’s were easy to make.
Avengers/Thunderbolts color guide art page showing Iron Man, Captain America, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye! Click the image to check availability!
Iron Man has always been one of my top 3 heroes, and so much of my childhood revolves around roleplaying that I was Iron Man, to playing with my Iron Man Mego action figure, to my plastic Marx Iron Man figure (I had all 4 different colors), to using an old car’s emergency brake to pretend I was Whiplash, to even trying to make a tin costume out of my Mom’s old floor wax containers. I used a can opener to make openings in the top and bottom of the containers so I could squeeze my 5 year old body in the wax can. And oh my GOD, I got cut to ribbons trying to get out of the suit! But that didn’t faze me one bit, since I still love anything relating to ol’ Shellhead. I especially love the late 60′s and early 1970′s Iron Man comics, especially when drawn by artists Gene Colan and Gil Kane.
Speaking of Invincible Ironman items, this blog shows several of the original color guide art pages that we currently have in stock. To see larger pictures or to check availability, just click on the photos. We have MANY more Iron Man related color guide artwork pages in the Supervator eBay Store.
Well, I’m out of time. Thanks very much for reading this installment of the Supervator.com Super-Blog, and I hope you love the upcoming Iron Man movie as much as I will!
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Have no fear: I will explain Daredevil Color Guide Art
Hello, blog and comic art fans! Tonight’s blog is gonna be about fear, but don’t worry. It’s a good kind of fear! It’s about Daredevil, the Man Without Fear! As DD’s fans know, Daredevil TMWOF started his crime fighting superhero career back in 1964, in his silver age Marvel Comics Group issue 1 debut. DD is of course the blind New York City (and once San Francisco California) attorney, named Matt Murdock. Not only did Matthew Murdock have his hands full dealing with NYC criminals by day as a lawyer, but he also dealt with crime during his nightly rounds as the Man Without Fear.
I remember as a kid reading “Giant-Size Daredevil” issue 1 (which was a reprint of an old DD annual issue), and trying like hell to make my own Daredevil billy club, as shown on one of the pages of that Giant Size comic book. Drove me and my family nuts. Hell, I was always doing something comic related, like using a car’s emergency brake cable pretending I was that Ironman villain “Whiplash”, and whipping my plastic Marx Toy Company Marvel statue set (yes, I admit it). And when I was five, I foolishly cut my Mom’s floor wax can (yes, made of METAL), and tried to squeeze into it so I could be Iron Man. It cut the living s*it out of me. And then there was the time I tried to use those Tic Tacs plastic candy dispensers to make homemade Spider-man web-shooters that I filled with Elmer’s Glue. Oh by the way, this is just scratching the surface. There was also the time I thought I was Iron Fist and tried for fight a kid named David outside on my lawn. The only thing was, David *was* actually into Martial Arts unlike myself, so I got my Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu (and my ass) handed to me damn quick. I remember crying when the Mad Hatter (David Wayne) dropped liquid cement on Batman (Adam West) at the end of a 2 part cliffhanger episode of the 1966 tv show. I was 3 at the time, and I thought they really killed my hero! I was literally tormented for 7 days until the next episode. I wouldn’t even eat bacon when I was little, til my Mother tricked me by calling it “Batman Bacon”. I swear to GOD! So to say super-heroes made a huge impact on my life would be a massive understatement. If not for reading comics at around age 4, I’d probably be illiterate today. School taught me nothing. All I ever needed to know I learned from Marvel Comics! YEAH! Stan Lee is still the Man!
Back to Daredevil. My favorite issues of Daredevil were his 1st appearance back in the 1960′s by Wally Wood (yes, of EC Comics fame), by John Romita Sr in the 60′s, by Sal Buscema in the 1970′s, by Frank Miller in the 1980′s, but most especially by Gene Colan. There was just something about the way “Gene the Dean” drew Daredevil that I liked better than all the other talented artists that worked on the character.
Color guide for Daredevil issue 356, page 31 (Sal Buscema). DD gets decimated by arch super-villain the EEL!
Speaking of Gene Colan and Sal Buscema, here’s a couple cool screen shots of some original Marvel Comics color guide pages we currently have available in our eBay Store. Just click on the photos to see more information about them, as well as check to see if they’re still for sale. As you might know, color guide artwork is also known as colorist’s art. It’s the real deal (they were hand painted by Marvel colorists) , they’re one of a kind, and they don’t make color guides anymore because comics are now colored on computers. Color guides are basically copies of the black & white original artwork, that are shrunk down and given to actual Marvel employees to hand color and draw those funny “color codes” on, so the printer knew exactly which shade of blue (for example) to make Spider-man’s costume. You get the idea. And what’s best about color guides is, there is almost always just one of each page ever made. Yep, when you own one of them, you own the ONLY one of them. Cool, huh?
The one of a kind color guide art for Daredevil issue 363, splash page 16 (Gene Colan)
Are these pages not gorgeous? Believe me, they look even more vivid in person, as color guide art pages usually do. They’re normally very bright in person, compared to the actual published comic book. See, back then, Marvel Comics (or DC Comics, for that matter), could not have published the actual comic books without color guides to show the people at the printing plant exactly which shades of colors Marvel wanted for each superheroe’s costume, for the backgrounds, etc. As of this writing, we still have a limited supply of older Marvel Colorist’s pages, like the Invincible Iron Man, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, and of course the Amazing Spiderman, among others.
Come take a look at some of these collectible rare pieces of comic book history. Collecting color guide art can be just as fascinating but MUCH less expensive as collecting comic book original art.
Thanks for reading this week’s blog!
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Rare Vintage Comic Art and Posters
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What IS comic book “color guide art” anyway?
1985 X-Men issue 191 color guide splash page 1 art (Romita Jr, Glynis Wein)
Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time I’ve been asked *that* question, I’d be paying cash for Superman’s first appearance in Action Comics 1. Well, this question comes with the territory, and I’m happy that I’ve had so much influence in the enlightenment of many comic collectors about the nature of color guide art (also known as original colorist’s artwork). One great example can be seen on the left of this text: This is the one of a kind 1985 color guide art splash page 1 to Uncanny X-Men 191, guest-starring the Amazing Spider-man and the Avengers. The Colorist was Glynis Wein (also known as Glynis Oliver), hand painting her colors over a xerox of John Romita Jr’s art. And further below is a color guide used to create an issue of Daredevil the Man Without Fear. The Colorist was most likely Max Scheele, hand coloring over a xerox of Steve Ditko’s artwork. By the way, as of this writing, both of these pages (and many more) are available for sale at the Supervator.com online webstore. If all this talk about color guide art sounds confusing, do not panic. The info immediately below will help clear things up.
The following condensed definition of a color guide can be seen on my Supervator.com website, under each color guide art page for sale:
“Color guides (colorist’s artwork) are re-sized copies of the pencil & ink original artwork that are assigned to the issue’s colorist, and then hand colored by that colorist. Colorguides measure about the same size as the published comic book, and some have “color codes” for the printers to follow. Computer coloring has made hand painted colorist artwork extinct. This description is (C) Copyrighted and may not be used without permission.”
So yes, comic book color guides are most certainly a misunderstood art. While they are not the same as the black and white original art that many comic fans are familiar with, color guide artwork is almost always one of a kind, and *is* the original painted work of the Colorist. Confusing? Absolutely, until you’ve sold a few thousand of them.
Daredevil color guide art by Max Scheele (over xerox of Steve Ditko's artwork)
Speaking of which, you wanna know how I first got introduced to Colorist’s artwork? You don’t? Well, I’m gonna tell you anyway, and it’s gonna take me a month to get to the point! No, not really, but it’s all germaine to the story of how I got introduced to color guide art. Years ago, and I mean YEARS ago, I wrote a letter to the Editorial team at Marvel Comics who were in charge of the production of Captain America comics. This was in the early 1990′s, I believe. The late, great Mark Gruenwald was writing the Cap stories, and Rik Levins was doing the art chores at that time. I wrote a letter praising the writing and storytelling prowess of the Capt America staff as I recall, and I mentioned a desire to buy some of Rik Levins original artwork. I never heard anything back from anyone at Marvel, so I finally gave up on it. Totally forgot about it.
Many, many months later, I got a phone call one day from a guy who asked for me by name. When I asked the mystery caller who he was, he said “Rik Levins”. I laughed at him, thought it was a prank, and nearly hung up on him. But after Rik mentioned the letter I wrote him, I knew he was the real deal. And as fate would have it, Rik had some FANTASTIC Captain America original art pages and covers (yes, I said covers) to offer me, before he turned the art over to his agent. There were about 12 items altogether, and I thought to myself “How in the *world* am I gonna buy these incredible pages before I lose the chance forever?” I wasn’t even working at the time! But I told Rik right there while I had him on the phone, “You’re probably gonna hang up on me, but how about (an undisclosed humble amount) for all 12 pages and covers? It blew my freakin’ MIND when he said “ok”. I couldn’t believe it, and not only did he send me the 12 pages and covers, he included a BONUS published Cap cover. Remember now, I’m not talking about color guides yet. I mean the 17 by 11 inch black & white original art! Oh my God, I wanna kick the livin’ $&%# out of myself every time I think about how I was forced to sell those Cap covers I owned back then. But I had no choice. I had to sell them while I was out of work, just to survive and pay the mounting bills. Many of us have been there, but man, that old pain is still there just thinking about it. Ok, so are you (the reader of this blog) wondering exactly which Captain America covers I once owned? They were the covers to Cap issues 404 (vs Wolverine), 409 (vs Crossbones), and 410 (Crossbones). I still love Rik Levin’s art to this day, and he was great to do business with. I miss those pages and covers something awful though!
Avenger vs Avenger for the love of the Enchantress: Wonder Man defeats Iron Man color guide art!
ANYway, what in the blue hell does this have to do with my first exposure to color guide art? Ok, I’ll tell you finally. When Rik Levins shipped me the Captain America original artwork I bought from him, he also included this weird, brightly colored page showing the West Coast Avengers. I remember seeing Iron Man and Hawkeye on that page (this is a different color guide page than the Ironman vs Wonder Man and Enchantress page you see on the left). This bizarre page Rik Levins gave me was a lot smaller than regular black & white original art, and this weird little page was super bright, colored with markers, and loaded with some strange, nearly hieroglyphic type coding on it. Back then, I had no idea this was a color guide, and those “color codes” were the numbering system that professional comic book colorists used to tell the printers exactly which shades of color to use when the actual comic book goes to press. Now, as many longtime comic fans know, Rik Levins is an artist of black & white art, and not a colorist. But of course, he had access to many a colorist’s work. It was a touch of class for him to give me a bonus color guide page as a gift.
Because I didn’t know any better back then, I ended up just giving that first color guide away. Only years later, when I accidentally noticed another color guide on ebay that the lights went on for me and I got that “AH-HA!” moment. I ended up buying a huge collection from a private collector, and I was on my way.
And as many collectors know, and many collectors *don’t* know, is that color guide art is truly a lost art now. All (or nearly all) comic books created today are colored on computers, so paper color guides are no longer made. And worse, most were destroyed back in the day, because no one ever thought they’d be collectible. But then again, the same thing was originally thought about black and white original comic book art. THEN look what happened to prices and collectibility when the word finally got out! So the death of color guide production has actually led to collectors realizing no more are being made, driving some prices up, while other collectors are quietly keeping their colorist art, wisely waiting for them to become more mainstream. As far as I’m concerned, people are still getting in on the “ground floor” of color guide artwork collecting, and this form of hobby (for fun or making money) will most definitely be heading up.
Well people, that’s all I have time for in this blog. I could obviously extol the virtues of color guide art collecting for hours. Maybe I’ll devote more time to the subject in a future blog.
Thanks a Million for reading!
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