Challenge 33: Dave Cockrum Art
Dave Cockrum: 1943 - 2006 In Memoriam
This week we are celebrating the life and work of Dave Cockrum, who died last week. He is known as the illustrator for the landmark 1970s overhauling of the X-Men that turned a relatively obscure Marvel Comics title into a 1980s publishing sensation and eventually a major film franchise, died Sunday, November 26. He was 63. Mr. Cockrum died after a long battle with diabetes and related complications.
Mr. Cockrum designed or co-created many signature characters for the wildly popular comic book series, such as Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus.
"We did that so well that 25 years later it's still the best-selling comic in the business and has become the basis of an entire financial empire based on toys, cartoons, action figures, video games and, recently, the big-budget film," Mr. Cockrum wrote in an undated recollection posted on his Web site.
The son of an Air Force officer, Mr. Cockrum was born in Oregon in 1943 but moved around as a youngster. His interest in art was set aside during a stint in the Navy. He later went to New York and eventually got his big break drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics in the early 1970s.
He moved over to Marvel, DC's major rival, and, along with writer Len Wein was handed a group of moribund characters. The X-Men had been created in 1963 by comics pioneers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but the premise--a group of young outcasts enrolled in an academy for mutants--failed to capture fans the way Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four had done. Wein and Cockrum took the existing team's mythology, added their own heroes and delivered "Giant-Size X-Men No. 1," published in 1975, which became one of the most important collector issues of the decade.
So to honor his work, I give you a challenge of Dave Cockrum art. And to make it somewhat different, I chose a variety of inked, but not colored works from the fansite http://www.davecockrum.net/. You can use or not use color however you would like in this challenge.
~You may make three icons for this challenge
~You may use only the images provided, but feel free to blend more than one image in an icon.
~All text must be readable
~You must vote if you enter an icon, if you do not vote your icon will be disqualified. :(
~Icons for this challenge are due December 10 at 10:00 CST, enter by posting your icons as a reply to this entry.
This week we are celebrating the life and work of Dave Cockrum, who died last week. He is known as the illustrator for the landmark 1970s overhauling of the X-Men that turned a relatively obscure Marvel Comics title into a 1980s publishing sensation and eventually a major film franchise, died Sunday, November 26. He was 63. Mr. Cockrum died after a long battle with diabetes and related complications.
Mr. Cockrum designed or co-created many signature characters for the wildly popular comic book series, such as Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus.
"We did that so well that 25 years later it's still the best-selling comic in the business and has become the basis of an entire financial empire based on toys, cartoons, action figures, video games and, recently, the big-budget film," Mr. Cockrum wrote in an undated recollection posted on his Web site.
The son of an Air Force officer, Mr. Cockrum was born in Oregon in 1943 but moved around as a youngster. His interest in art was set aside during a stint in the Navy. He later went to New York and eventually got his big break drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics in the early 1970s.
He moved over to Marvel, DC's major rival, and, along with writer Len Wein was handed a group of moribund characters. The X-Men had been created in 1963 by comics pioneers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but the premise--a group of young outcasts enrolled in an academy for mutants--failed to capture fans the way Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four had done. Wein and Cockrum took the existing team's mythology, added their own heroes and delivered "Giant-Size X-Men No. 1," published in 1975, which became one of the most important collector issues of the decade.
So to honor his work, I give you a challenge of Dave Cockrum art. And to make it somewhat different, I chose a variety of inked, but not colored works from the fansite http://www.davecockrum.net/. You can use or not use color however you would like in this challenge.
~You may make three icons for this challenge
~You may use only the images provided, but feel free to blend more than one image in an icon.
~All text must be readable
~You must vote if you enter an icon, if you do not vote your icon will be disqualified. :(
~Icons for this challenge are due December 10 at 10:00 CST, enter by posting your icons as a reply to this entry.
