Daily Scans - Walt Simonson Master Post
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Walt Simonson Master Post
Walt Simonson has just about drawn every major character for every major publisher throughout the last thirty-odd years. Best known for his work on Thor, Starslammers, Fantastic Four, Battlestar Galactica and Orion, Simonson’s style has always been lauded as having the energy to rival Jack Kirby’s. But just as his legendary predecessor’s work was seen, all of the subtlety in Simonson’s work is often overlooked. Even in the most frantic piece, Simonson manages give it a quiet sense of characterization.
Hell, he just draws purty, OK?
Since I can easily make thirty different posts based on his covers alone, I’ve posted some of my personal favorite comics and covers by Simonson.
[Archived and cross posted at: http://master-post.livejournal.com/ ]
“Cyrano's Army”, written by Len Wein, originally appeared in Weird War Tales #10, January ’73 (reprinted in Sgt. Rock Special #2, ‘88). This story shows a slight Underground leaning… both times printed alongside an Alex Toth story. Not a bad place to start a career in comic books.
This is the back cover for Astral Comics #1, a sci-fi fanzine featuring Astron, the Star-Soldier, published in the summer of ’77.
Metal Men #52, June-July, 1977. Remember when comics used to get up to this many issues? Good thing they did, too. Simonson continued hitting his creative stride during this MM run which came immediately after the critically acclaimed “Manhunter” material with Archie Goodwin.
From the Rampaging Hulk #3, June ’77, “The Monster and the Metal Master” was written by Doug Moench with ink/grays by Alfredo Alcala. I’ve always liked Alcala fine, except when his imposing style hides all trace of the penciler’s work (well, his work over John Buscema is the exception). Simonson is one of the few artists to have survived Alcala’s unforgiving approach. These stories were recently reprinted in the black & white Essentials format, but the original magazine’s quality is a little better for art’s sake.
Written by Roy Thomas, “The Hyborian Age” was serialized throughout Savage Sword of Conan. This last chapter appeared in #17, February ’77.
From the 1978 DC Comics Calendar. More Metal Men action.
Fantastic Four #212, November ‘79, a good ten years before his AKIRA-inspired run on the very same title. This is one of my favorite Simonson covers of all time simply due to the older version of Reed Richards and the Thing. How else would you age a man made of orange rocks? Give him eye warts and make his mouth out of a crusty ring of donuts. I can hear fandom howl: “That’s not MY Ben Grimm!”
Detective Comics #500, March ’81, had an all-star line up in characters and especially creators. That’s Simonson’s Batman down there…
… and the following 2 page Batman tale, written by Len Wein, is beautiful, if not odd.
“Lawnmower Man” was written by Stephen King and appeared in the book Nightshift. This adaptation by Simonson, and King himself, appeared in Marvel’s Bizarre Adventures Magazine #29, December ’81. Simonson did a number of interesting things with layouts and narrative flow, but the actual rendering predates Bill Sienkiewicz’ own Steadman-influenced approach to ink. It’s not so evident all the way through, but this is considerably different from what Simonson had done up to that point.
You try and tell me that this ISN’T the coolest Conan cover ever, circa June ‘82.
The Marvel Guide to Collecting Comics (1982) was possibly a freebie given out at retail stores back in the day. There’s an article in there, “It’s Better Than Money in the Bank” that attempts to persuade the reader into thinking that Captain Marvel (Shazam) and Kaluta’s the Shadow are lame and thus, their comics’ value are sure to plummet. Such cutthroat tactics, Marvel!
Here’s a mightily optimistic and celebratory pin-up from Superman #400, October ‘84.
Cover for Comics Interview #9, 1984. This marks Simonson’s classic Thor era.
Tales of Asgard #1, February ’84, reprinted a few of the Lee/Kirby/Colletta material.
Ulik the Invincible punches the crap outta Thor’s arm in this Thor Annual #13, December ‘85. Also, Simonson didn’t draw Mephisto enough; he looks awesome.
From Marvel Age Annual #1, 1985, Loki stars in this Thor preview.
From the second Marvel Age Annual, ’86, another preview.
National Lampoon’s Very Large Book of Comical Funnies, August 28, 1986. This special edition had a number of top industry talents spoofing every era of comix history imaginable. This one pager was Simonson’s contribution.
Pin-up from Swamp Thing #61, June ’87.
Monster Masterworks, 1989, a solid reprint collection of Kirby/Ditko monster yarns.
Death's Head on the cover of Strip # 20, November 10th, 1990. Strip was Marvel UK’s oddball magazine sized anthology. It was fun, but it had no clear thematic unity. It ran Marshal Law, indy cartooning, Heavy Metal-type Fantasy, old Punisher reprints… I’m happy it ran that long. It wouldn’t make it in today’s market.
Cosmic Odyssey profile from the binder edition of Who’s Who (DC Comics, ’91-’92). Doing his best Mignola mime, Simonson’s style remains true.
She-Hulk #50, March ’93, had a bunch of guest artists send John Byrne off from his run on the title. Although they printed these Simonson pages in the wrong order (posted in order, natch), you still get the idea: Shulkie, Goddess of Thunder.
"The Temple of the Spider" appeared in Thrilling Adventure Stories #2, published by Seaboard Periodicals, Inc, which closed its doors a year after its inception by its publisher Martin Goodman. I stumbled upon this story a couple of years ago and couldn’t believe my eyes… an uncovered Simonson gem with Archie Goodwin providing the script! I’m a complete sucker for this particular collaborative team, so I was delighted to discover this story. Looking through it, it’s easy to see how this may have influenced Frank Miller’s Ronin in later years. They were studiomates, after all; shared tastes seem perfectly natural.
Simonson was kind enough to give me his blessing to post "The Temple of the Spider" in its entirety. He was also generous in sharing this bit about working on the story…
“In the middle of working on it, I got mono and was totally wiped out. Had the worst sore throat I've ever had. My roommate was visiting back home at the time, and didn't come back till I was better. And my Mom came up from Maryland (I was living in Queens at the time) and stayed in the apartment to nurse me back to health. All in all, I was pretty much out of it for about six weeks. Towards the end of that time when I began going back to work, I'd stagger out of bed to the drawing board, manage to finish a panel, and then collapse back into bed, completely exhausted. However, I recovered eventually, and did complete the job.”
Walt Simonson has always been a pleasure to speak with at conventions. I recently had the opportunity to buy one of his sketchbooks, and he was gracious enough to personalize it for me. Needless to say, it made my day.
There you have it, folks. Maybe you’ve just seen these works for the first time or remembered them from way back when. Either way, Walt Simonson is the exception to the industry rule in that his style has appealed to different generations and has transcended all sorts of stylistic eras. Also, he’s got a really cool signature.
xoFIFFE
Tags: char: batman/bruce wayne, char: conan the barbarian, char: hulk/bruce banner, char: loki, char: mephisto, char: she-hulk/jennifer walters, char: superman/clark kent, char: swamp thing/alec holland, char: thor, creator: walt simonson, group: fantastic four, group: metal men, in-joke: tl;dr
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Rock on. Simonson is one of my all time faves. I love his art style.
| | From: | ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:25 pm (UTC) |
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Agreed! His art style never ever gets old... only better!
Great retrospective. In a word versatility. He could work on many different types of themes and character ( Thor and The Metalmen worlds apart) yet you still see the man and his methods( his love of graphic sound effects). I never realized he did that FF issue ,Galactus vs. The Sphinx.
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 02:16 pm (UTC) |
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Unfortunately, he only did the cover. John Byrne penciled it (during HIS first run on the title, inked by Joe Sinnott).
Oh, yes... Walt's SFX are some of the undisputed BEST lettering in comix. You'd be hard pressed to find a more complete artist.
At least some of that is the work of Walt's preferred letterer, John Workman.
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:29 pm (UTC) |
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Oh, absolutely. They are perfect for each other (kinda like Bruzenak and Chaykin). But Simonson is perfectly capable of creating innovative and fun lettering... and he paints... I mean, what can't he do?
![[User Picture]](http://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/8902121/432926) | | From: | nezchan |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 02:34 pm (UTC) |
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LOL!!
For those who don't recognize it, the narration of that Batman two-pager was the novel that Snoopy was perpetually trying to write in Peanuts. He would constantly start with the same few lines, and the version up there is the most complete I ever saw it. Brilliant!
![[User Picture]](http://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/10259923/379542) | | From: | icon_uk |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 04:31 pm (UTC) |
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It IS wonderful isn't it! :) I'm now picturing Snoopy in the Batcowl and Woodstock in the Robin outfit! :)
![[User Picture]](http://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/9016849/432926) | | From: | nezchan |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 04:35 pm (UTC) |
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I could swear I've seen that somewhere. But I can't find it now.
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | September 1st, 2009 12:58 pm (UTC) |
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You're totally right! I didn't even pick up on that!
![[User Picture]](http://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/8857027/432926) | | From: | nezchan |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 02:40 pm (UTC) |
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Oh, while I'm at it, isn't that She-Hulk bit with the "DOOM DOOM" sound effects in itself a parody of the opening of Simonson's Beta Ray Bill intro? Which of course was later ripped off used to much lesser effect by McFarlane for his own Spider-Man run.
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:15 pm (UTC) |
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Yeah, he's spoofing himself, pretty much. Later in the story She-HUlk (i.e. Byrne) teases that Simonson swiped it from Todd's Spidey, knowing full well who came first.
Ha! Industry jokes!
Where Simonson really impressed me was his re-imagining of Manhunter with Archie Goodwin, and his one-issue DOCTOR FATE story that really set the Nabu/Kent Nelson difference off, with I believe Marty Pasko's strip. Both had huge influences on how those characters were portrayed from then on, and Manhunter had influence on action-themed superheroics for years afterward.
One of our best artists, and the one who often took the most original takes on established characters. (His Orion comes to mind.)
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:24 pm (UTC) |
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Nicely stated... he definitely pushed the boundaries while remaining true to the characters. Thor is a great example, as is the under appreciated Orion. Something tells me if anyone could've killed the New Gods with grandeur and respect, it would've been him... but I don't think he'd even want to be involved in such an undertaking.
Nice retrospective, but I'd also suggest throwing in a scan or two from the X-Men/Teen Titans crossover that he did; IIRC, it had been the first DC/Marvel crossover in many years, and was really surprising that it happened at all, given how Jim Shooter had screwed over the first attempt at a JLA/Avengers crossover book.
| | From: | icon_uk |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 04:32 pm (UTC) |
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And sadly we never got the follow up which would have had Brother Blood and the Hellfire Club teaming up.
Yes, THIS PLEASE, thank you for beating me to it. The splash page - possibly a two-page splash IIRC - of them pouring it all onto Dark Phoenix over Darkseid's infernal engine was really, really something. Far too long since I've seen that.
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:18 pm (UTC) |
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While I narrowed it down to my personal favorites, I narrowed it down even further to lesser known pieces (the Thor images haven't been reprinted anywhere, to my knowledge and aren't commonly discussed). I absolutely LOVE the X-men/Titans book, but that'll probably end up in a following retrospective sometime down the line.
| | From: | nezchan |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:44 pm (UTC) |
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I actually used to have that issue, back in the day (I've had to ditch my collection twice since then), and was pretty impressed with it. They managed to juggle a huge number of characters in a one-issue story and somehow managed to pull it off.
| | From: | icon_uk |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 04:33 pm (UTC) |
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I'd recommend checking him out on Facebook, where he regularly posts old and new artwork as he unearths it, with commentary. Everything from his VERY early stuff, to his portraits for the OHOTMU.
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:19 pm (UTC) |
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Oh, yeah... his profile is a treasure trove of rarities beyond belief! I was surprised to find so many creators on Facebook, but Walt's daily posts are a real treat.
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 08:41 pm (UTC) |
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The middle section of page 3 of the Spider-God story is AMAZING. Thanks for posting!
-11
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:22 pm (UTC) |
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Glad you liked it! I'm happy that Walt let it run here for all to enjoy.
| | From: | nezchan |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 11:31 pm (UTC) |
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Isn't that a joy? As I recall, he and Wendy Pini were (are?) friends, and she used similarly cinematic tactics with her stuff.
Mind you, that's probably one reason why that troll on the She-Hulk page looks veerrrrrry familiar indeed.
I met Walter and Louise Simonson at the 2006 Chicago Comicon. They're nice folks.
I find it sort of odd that they're currently writing the World of Warcraft comic, which I wouldn't know if I didn't read the credits, but everyone's got to pay the rent.
| | From: | zegas |
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| Date: | August 31st, 2009 10:31 pm (UTC) |
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Walt is working on a big project for DC which he's writing and drawing. I believe he's waiting to get enough of it done to start mentioning it. For now, though, I guess the Simonsons are writing WoW.
Louise is writing Batman novels, I think. I could be wrong. She's not doing much comic work these days.
He does draw purty.
I loved his Conan work. (REH Freak checking in!)
Great stuff.
I always saw the influence on Larsen. But never noticed how much Miller ripped Walt off.
She-Hulk, Goddess of Thunder?
Makes me wanna switch religions. |
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