Comics by Ryan Brunsvold on Flickr.
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So a guy I know asked if I wanted his old comics that he bought growing up in London.
I am floored at how wonderful these comics are. This is just a very, very small sample of what I’ve found so far.
Marvel Comics - Generation X #63 - alternate cover - original artwork by Adam Pollina - 2000 by JasonLiebig on Flickr.
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I first met Adam Pollina when I was the assistant editor on the core X-Men line of comic books. At the time, Adam was on a successful run of penciling X-Force.
Adam Pollina was quite a guy, and from where I was sitting, not quite the normal comic artist; He lived in the East Village, went to yoga and occasionally modeled - had blue hair for the better part of a year, and always seemed to have beautiful women around him. He would often come into our office and regale us stories of some run-in with Madonna or some club outing. In the X-Office we found it entertaining, but for some reason I think it annoyed some of the other editors when they would drop in. Adam also helped bring in writer Joe Harris, who became a good friend.
Adam was and is a great artist and a fantastic storyteller. In addition to that, he was also a hip young New Yorker, so when I had the chance to get an alternate cover created for my Counter-X relaunch of Generation X, I thought he’d be perfect. Since it was an alternate cover, we figured we’d have some fun with it, and rather than doing a pencil and ink cover, we had Adam do rendered pencils, and the colorist worked over those.
After it was all over, he gave me the piece. It is one of only two pieces I have from the many books I helped out the door during my years at Marvel, and it is a treasured artifact from my time at the House of Ideas.
Iron Man - LEGO Super Heroes Minifigs - Marvel Comics by fbtb on Flickr.
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The Minifigs of DC Comics and Marvel Comics
Ad for Marvel’s line of Star Comics featuring Thundercats and Care Bears (1986) by Paxton Holley on Flickr.
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Clever marketing for Marvel’s Star Comics imprint featuring Thundercats, Care Bears and Meet Misty. Star also included titles like Star Wars Droids and Masters of the Universe.
Marvel Comics - Generation X Underground Special - Inside back cover Twinkie ad - original artwork by Jim Mahfood - 1997 (published 1998) by JasonLiebig on Flickr.
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I only own two pieces of artwork from the books I worked on, during my years at Marvel. My boss, Bob Harras, thought an editor asking for artwork put an artist in a bad position, in that they’d be pressured to give it to us (since we do the hiring and firing) and that wasn’t fair - as it took food out of their kids’ mouths. I did make an exception to that rule, in two cases.
The Generation X Underground Special was a pretty unusual book at the time it was released, and I’m really proud that I helped bring it to life, and while doing so, expose the comic book world at large to the talents and voice of creator, Jim Mahfood.
Jim wrote and drew the 32 page one-shot over a period of a year, his last year in art school, actually. I’d often call him from my office at Marvel Comics, at 6pm, and we’d chat about the book, and kibitz ideas for an hour or more. On one of those nights, I was going on about how I loved the old 1970’s comic book Hostess ads, that incorporated the superheroes from the books. I loved how the villains never were quite villainous, because their plans were so easily bought off with cake and filling. I don’t recall if Jim was familiar (he was only 20 or 21 at the time, and perhaps not old enough to recall them).
This one-shot was a collection of shorter stories and a few mini-features. I pitched Jim on the idea of doing one of these Twinkie ads, featuring his incarnation of Marvel’s young mutant team, and he was game.
At first, I was told that we’d have to change the name of the treat to “Winkies” or something similar, but I did my own research on parody law and lobbied the VP of Legal at Marvel to let us use real Twinkies. She was nice enough to let it go through, though we did add the disclaimer at the top of the page.
I should note that the art school Jim attended was in Lawrence, Kansas, then the home of William S. Burroughs. He explained how fellow art students would occasionally be able to spot the Beat Generation legend at a diner, and share the tale with friends. Burroughs passed away that year, and it might have been that fact as well, that got us talking.
Somehow out of all of that, Jim came up with the inspired idea to pit Generation X against The Beat Generation (looking at it now, I kind of want to do a comic book with the Beat Generation writers as some kind of anti-establishment superheroes - unless someone already has).
I thought it came out perfect, and the day was saved by Twinkies… not “Winkies”. You’re welcome.
