Many of you who know me well, knows that my main passion within the Marvel Comics Universe comes from the fact that I grew-up in the Silver-Age (SA). So over the last few years, I have seriously decided to go after these sketchagraphs from true legends of the Comic Book Industry.
For this web site, I have found it better to scan the entire 9-pocket (a.k.a. page), rather than to put each sketch up as an individual scan. Besides for those of you who know me, I am very obsessive about how my pages are arranged
Currently I have 32 "full" pages of sketchagraphs in this Gallery. Below, I give a brief summary of what is in each page, just to the right of the thumbnail for that page.
|
Page 1: The Stan Lee and Tom Palmer ones are truly RARE and "pricey" ... I believe 100 or less sketchagraphs were drawn by each of these two. To his credit (?) Stan at least learned to draw the same 100 half-face Spidey sketches.
Roy Thomas was a writer-only, but seemed to take over a lot of the writing for Stan in the mid to late 60's; even later becoming Editor-in-Chief. So it is fitting he is next to Stan on this page. Unlike Stan, Roy did not draw any sketchagraphs. When I pulled the Tom Palmer auto in 1998, I couldn't think of any comics he did that I had read as a kid. Well, in March 2001, I had a reason to look for some of my Doctor Strange comics, and lo and behold, I noticed that the #171 and #172 I had, were drawn and/or inked by him ... so I do have some comics done by Tom Palmer !!
Palmer's sketchagraphs supposedly never made it into the packs, so there is an ongoing debate as to whether they are "true" MSA sketchagraphs or not. I believe I now have all 5 characters that he drew for MSA. |
|
Page 2: John Romita Sr. was the second Spider-Man artist, taking over for the famed Steve Ditko, with Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) #39, and running through issue #73. He also drew earlier issues of Daredevil (#12 - 19), before Gene Colan settled in for a long run on that title. To me, Romita's penciled stuff is some of the best sketchagraphs in the MSA packs ... maybe because he drew only the characters he drew back in the ASM comics. Some of these images I can picture directly from the comics I read back then ... esp. the "half-Peter / half-Spidey" with Spider-sense tingling.
This page show all 8 variations of Spidey and/or Peter head-shots, that I know of for the MSA set. |
|
Page 3: This second Romita page contains some of the rarest of the MSA Romita's !!
row 1 - Spidey's "babes";
row 2 - allies, though some would disagree with JJJ being categorized as such ? row 3 - Rogues Gallery. |
|
Page 4: This third Romita page continues the Rogues Gallery. This page contains sketches for Green Goblin, Kingpin and Rhino. These three villains are not as rare as the ones on the previous page, and the sketches in slots 1, 4, and 7 are "relatively common". However, the variations of the Kingpin (slot 5), and Rhino (slot 8) are the only ones like that I ever recall seeing of those two villains. Since I only have 7 MSA Romita's for this 9-pocket, I included two other Romita's, one of the rare (Level 2) one from the 2001 Marvel Legends (slot 6), and an even rarer one from the Topps 2003 Incredible Hulk (slot 9). |
|
Page 5: Dick Ayers is best known for his Sgt. Fury, and earlier Westerns. He did a LOT of sketchagraphs and most are fairly "common". Some of the same characters are drawn with different quality. I believe I have the MSA Ayers "set" since I have sketches for all 18 characters that he drew for this card series. This page has his "blue ones" of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. I filled the page with Captain Savage because in the late 60's, Marvel created a Marine version of SF&HHC, called Capt. Savage and His Leather-Neck Raiders. They even had crossover issues. |
|
Page 6: This Ayers' page shows the wide variety of characters he has done, super-heroes, as well as Westerns. I start with one of his many variations of Sgt Fury (black ink)and his nemesis Baron Strucker. The Super-hero ones he drew, I think he actually drew in the comics at one time. The Dr. Doom is sort of "comical" but everyone loves Dr. Doom, right ? I initially got the Western Ghost Rider because I actually have some of those comics. |
|
Page 7: This page contains the last of the three characters Ayers drew for MSA. These are three of his Westerns' characters. The rest of the page are the MSA Spidey-related sketches from Sal Buscema who is the younger brother of John Buscema. I am not sure if I have any of comics with Sal's work in it or not, since I think he started in the 70's, after I stopped collecting comics. I believe I have the Sal MSA "set" since I have all 11 sketches that he drew for this card series. Sal did numerous head shots with the exception being the one RARE full-body Spidey. |
|
Page 8: This page contains the last of the six sketchagraphs that Sal drew for MSA. John Buscema passed-away in 2002. He penciled notable runs of SA titles such as Avengers (#41- 62), FF (#107-141), and Thor (#182-259). Probably his most famous run was for all 18 issues of Silver Surfer. This might explain why he only drew "head and shoulder" Silver Surfer sketchagraphs. I have the two "variations" of them. |
|
Page 9: Joe Sinnott is renowned for his inking of virtually every major SA Marvel title, with notable runs on The Fantastic Four (from 1965 to 1981), The Avengers, The Defenders and The Mighty Thor, many of these over the pencils of Marvel legend Jack Kirby. My favorite SA comic book was FF, as drawn by Kirby ! Sinnott's inking work seems to have give Joe the ability to draw many of Kirby's characters, as Kirby drew them.
I have been able to obtain pack-pulled ones of the three FF males, but I always hoped to get his Invisible Girl/Woman someday to finish the sketchagraph set of his FF team members ... probably a pipe dream. What bothers me with my pipe-dream is none of the collectors that I know, has a pack-pulled Sinnott Invisible Woman either, so I wonder if Sinnott ever did one ... hard to believe he wouldn't have ?
So in the 2004, I decided to contact Sinnott and have him do me a commissioned one of her !! I was hoping he would do her's in the same SA style that he used back in 1998, but to my "slight disappointment", he seemed to have done hers in the style of the current project that he was working on in 2004, comic strips. The sketch he did of her looks different (harder pencils, etc.) than the ones of the guys he did in 1998, and it's upside down too ... oh well ... you can't have everything "perfect" in life.
Anyway, this is a really nice page filled-out with FF foes/villains in the last row. |
|
Page 10: This second Sinnott page has 8 pack-pulled sketchagraphs.
In Row 1, I used side-profile variations of his Reed, Thing and Torch sketches.
In Row 2, I commissioned Sinnott to draw Medusa (slot 5), one of the two main Inhumans ... to me, The Inhumans is one of Kirby's other great creations during the SA ... a precursor of the teams and worlds he would go on to create after his Marvel days, at DC, etc. As with the commissioned Sue on the prior page, the drawing style isn't the same as Sinnott did in 1998, compare to the Crystal sketch (slot 6), but the Medusa does have her Silver Age look.
In slots 4, 8 and 9 are more rare, possibly even one-of-a-kind sketches for FF allies, with the Black Panther, the Watcher and the trench-coated Silver Surfer. |
|
Page 11: This third Sinnott page has non-FF characters. I filled this page with non-FF characters. All 9 are basically of rare/rarer characters that Sinnott drew for MSA. The first six are essentially Avengers, with Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Cap, Falcon and Vision. The third row has Daredevil, Spidey, and Dr. Strange.
If anyone else knows of other Sinnott characters, I would be interested to see them |
|
Page 12: Gene Colan is another Legend from the Marvel SA, drawing long runs on numerous SA titles. He is perhaps best known for his work on Daredevil (issues #20 - 100). He also had a run of drawing the Sub-Mariner (Tales to Astonish #70 - 85), and a longer run of drawing Iron Man (Tales of Suspense #73 - 99). So in Slots 2 and 3, I have two of his Sub-Mariner sketches ... full body and close-up. Slots 4 - 6 are three "nice" Daredevils from the wide variety of his DD sketches that I have seen. In slots 7 - 9 are three of the "nicer" Iron Man's I have had, including Tony Stark with the curly hairstyle, that Colan seems likes to draw. |
|
Page 13: For this second Gene Colan page, slots 1 - 7 are MSA sketchagraphs. Colan also had short runs for Dr. Strange (issues #172 - 183), and Captain America, taking over for Kirby with issue #116. The first two are of Captain America. In slot 3 is one of the rarer Colan's for this MSA set, Spider-Man ... though I can find no reference to Colan drawing Spidey for the comics. In Row 2 are three of the nicer Dr. Strange's I have found. In slot 7 is a close-up of Shell-head.
To round-out the page, in slots 8 and 9, I added two of Colan's Fleer Ultra Spider-Man '97 sketches ... a nice Iron Man, and a Daredevil side profile. Colan inked his sketches for FUSM, probably because he didn't have to do as many for FUSM as he did for MSA. |
|
Page 14: For this third Gene Colan page, I included two characters he drew a lot of in the 70's .. Dracula and Howard the Duck.
Colan drew the entire long run of the renowned Horror comic, The Tomb of Dracula (issues #1 - 70). So for slots 1- 6, I have six of the "nicer" portrait-oriented Dracula's that he drew for MSA, and he drew a lot of them !! In slots 7 - 9, I have three of his portrait-oriented Howard the Duck's, a comic I know nothing about, but I assume it was humorous |
|
Page 15: Marie Severin I admired back in the 60's, since she was the only woman artist (that I knew of anyway) in Comics. At Marvel she did penciling, inking, and occasionally lettering work on various books, including Dr. Strange (Strange Tales #153 - 160), The Sub-Mariner (issues #12 - 19), and The Incredible Hulk (Tales to Astonish #92 - 100). Other Marvel comics to which she contributed covers and/or interiors include Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Conan the Barbarian, Kull the Conqueror, Human Torch, The Cat, and Daredevil. Additionally, she worked on Marvel's self-lampooning comic book Not Brand Echh. She (along with Sinnott) also occasionally redrew the faces on some of Kirby's characters, since Kirby was "not strong" on drawing faces.
This page starts-out with two non-typical MSA sketchagraphs:
- a sketch of her boss, Stan Lee, as he looked in the 60's ?
- a sketch I was very happy to find which pays tribute to her humorous work on 'Not Brand Echh'. This shows 'Ironed-Man' bumping into the 'Silver Burper'.... NO, those are not typo's !! If you guys can find reading copies or a TPB compilation of NBE, get it !!
The remainder of the page is for Dr. Strange. In slot 4 is the good Doctor himself, his mentor, the Ancient One (slot 6). In slot 5 is Clea who was Dr. Strange's "love interest" during the SA. Marie drew this pose just like I remember poor Clea, when she was held hostage, trapped in some sort of Mystical field !! The two main villains from the SA days are Dormammu (slot 7) and Mordo (slot 8). To round-out the page, I include this really nice Dr. Strange invoking the power of the Amulet of Agamotto. |
|
Page 16: This second Severin page has a "classic" Avengers theme.
I think her best sketches are the head or head/shoulder view, as exemplified by the three is Row 3, esp. the Thor and Hulk ones. When she does a full length sketchagraph, I think some of the details is lost. However, I think the ones that I have in slots 1, 2, 3 & 6 are some of her better ones. They show the shape and proper proportions of the characters. Look at the poses of Thor and Hulk, and the action of the Iron Man and Captain America ones.
Slots 1 - 5 show the "original" Avengers; Hulk left in issue #3, and Cap joined in issue #4. Since I didn't have a Wasp by Severin, I commissioned her to draw me a Wasp to complete the "classic team" members
In row 3, I added nice head-shot versions of the three characters in Row 1. |
|
Page 17: This third Severin page is for the "second" team of Avengers. When the original Avengers (see previous page), except Cap, left in Avengers #16, new members were added to replace them ... (row 1) Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Later, to give the team a bit more "strength", Goliath (slot 5) (formerly Ant-Man and Giant-Man) and the Vision (slot 6), were added.
Row 3 has a couple of classics Avengers villains, Kang (slot 7) and the Swordsman (slot 9). In slot 8 is one of the SA's "more lame" villains, Batroc the Leaper. He was mainly a Cap foe, but was also part of the revamped Masters of Evil. |
|
Page 18: This fourth Severin page is Thor and "mythology-based" themed.
As I said in Page 15 above, during the SA, Marie occasionally redrew the faces on some of Kirby's characters, including Thor characters. So I started this page for Thor-related characters, but have only found 8 of them so far.
Row 1 is Thor, his evil half-brother Loki, and their father and King of the Norse Gods, Odin. Row 2 are Thor villains: Executioner, Enchantress and Grey Gargoyle. Row 3 has two of Thor's Asgardian allies, Fandral (The Dashing) and (The Voluminous) Volstagg.
To round-out the page, I added another "mythology-based" character: King Kull. |
|
Page 19: This fifth Severin page is FF themed.
As I said in Page 15 above, during the SA, Marie occasionally redrew the faces on some of Kirby's characters, particularly the FF ones. So I looked forward to doing a page of her FF characters
I found head shot sketches for Reed, Sue and the Thing, as well as one of Ben Grimm (Thing's human form). However, all of her Torch sketches seems to be full body (slot 3).
In slot 6 is the "first" FF villain (per FF #1), the Moleman. In slot 7, is the Submariner/Namor which was brought back into the Silver-Age in FF #4. I thought slot 8 would be a nice place to put Namor's Atlantean "love interest", Lady Dorma (after Namor got tired of trying to woo Sue Storm) . In slot 9 is the main FF villain, Dr. Doom, who first appeared in FF #5. |
|
Page 20: This sixth Severin page continues the FF theme, showing various FF-related characters.
The first six sketches are of the Inhumans, to me, an under-appreciated creation of Lee and Kirby !! Row 1 is of the Inhumans Royal Family: Black Bolt (the King); Medusa (the Queen); and Crystal (Medusa's sister). Row 2 has Maximus (the Mad), Black Bolt's "evil" brother; Triton, the amphibious Inhuman (and cousin to Black Bolt); and Lockjaw (the Family dog).
Row 3 has early FF "villains", a Skrull (FF #2); The Wizard, who created the Frightful Four (FF #36); and Diablo (FF #31).
|
|
Page 21: This seventh Severin page is Spider-Man themed.
Though I do not associate Marie with Spider-Man comics during the SA, these are beautifully done, so I did two whole pages of them. This page is essentially "Spidey and his friends".
In row 1 is a nice Spidey sketch, and two nice "expressive" sketches: a frightened Aunt May, and an always-grumpy Jonah. Marie has a great way of showing emotions on faces, as per her caricatures for her humorous work.
In row 2 are two of Spidey's occasional SA allies, Daredevil (ASM #16) and Kazar (ASM #57 & #58). Oh, someone questioned why DD was on this Spidey-themed page. Well, as "loner" heroes, Spidey was often paired with DD in crossover stories, esp. ASM #16, etc. In fact, Kazar's second appearance was in DD #14, so I thought this was a good place to put the Kazar sketch
Row 3 is my "sock" row The first two are Spidey and Daredevil socking bad guys. Slot 9 looks like Spidery-Man's fist socking Moldy-man. . This looks like something from 'Not Brand Echh' to me ... see my comments for Page 15 for more on Marie's 'NBE' comics. |
|
Page 22: This eighth Severin page is a Spider-Man Rogue's Gallery.
As I said in the Spidey page above, though I never knew of Marie doing any Spidey comics, she seems to love the characters from Spidey's comics, because she sure did draw a lot of sketches of Spidey's villains !!
The nine villains are presented in the chronological order they first appeared in ASM comics:
- Row 1 = Vulture (#2), Doctor Octopus (#3), Sandman (#4)
- Row 2 = Lizard (#6), Electro (#9), Green Goblin (#14)
- Row 3 = Kraven the Hunter (#15), Ringmaster (#16), Molten Man (#28)
|
|
Page 23: This ninth Severin page is the "classic" X-Men.
As with the Spidey pages above, though I do not associate her with X-Men comics during the SA, a lot of her X-Men related sketches are beautifully done, so I got some of them.
I have sketches for five of the six original X-Men. I am missing Angel. I have a commissioned Beast in slot 5. The Sentinel (who first hunted the X-Men in issue #12, and later throughout the SA and beyond) is in slot 6. Row 3 is the earliest X-Men villains, Magneto, the Scarlet Witch, and her brother Quicksilver. They were the core of the first 'Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' (X-Men #'s 4&5). |
|
Page 24: This tenth Severin page is "post-SA" X-Men. I am not sure if Marie forgot this was a Silver-Age themed set or not, but she did a lot of sketches of X-Men characters that appeared AFTER the SA !! But just as well, more cool sketches and characters for me to collect Cyclops (new headgear) and Beast (now blue and furry) are hold-overs from the SA. Colossus (slot 3), Storm (slot 4), Gambit (slot 5), Rogue (slot 6) and Wolverine (slot 8 as Logan, and slot 9) are "new" X-Men. I believe the Ororo with Mohawk (slot 7) is from Age of Apocalypse ? |
|
Page 25: This eleventh Severin page is Miscellaneous characters.
For the most part, these nine sketches didn't really fit into the other 10 themed pages, so I display them here on this page. Row 1 has classic SA characters ... Ancient One (much different drawing style by Marie on this one, than the one I have of him on Page 15); Red Skull, and Mandarin. Slots 4 and 5 have two Nick Fury's, one as Sgt. Fury (in a nice action pose), and the other as the Head of S.H.I.E.L.D. (note the eye-patch).
Slot's 6 - 9 have characters that are the only ones I have seen from Severin for MSA ... Ghost Rider, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Shang-Chi. |
|
Page 26: This twelth Severin page is more Miscellaneous characters.
Slots 1 - 4 has four "overflow" characters: Conan (the Barbarian); Red Sonja (a Marvel adaptation of Red Sonya); The Impossible Man (FF #11); and Adam Warlock is known more as a cosmic hero in Marveldom, but he was first introduced as 'HIM' in FF#66/67.
When I bought the late Tom Carter's MSA collection in July 2007, I had intended to trade or sell the other five sketches on this page, mainly because I already had these five characters by Severin. But for various reasons, I have decided to put them into another page so you can see more of her great sketches
Note: For the right offer, I would be willing to trade any of these sketches, but I won't be posting these on my Trade/Sell page. |
|
Page 27: George Tuska actually started-out during the Golden Age of Comics (the 1940's). His most well-known work then was on Captain Marvel. During the Silver Age, Tuska freelanced primarily for Marvel, penciling and occasionally inking other artists on series including Ghost Rider, Luke Cage, Power Man, Black Goliath, Sub-Mariner and the X-Men. But his greatest fame was for his very long run on Iron Man from issues #5 to #106.
So understandably he seems to have drawn more Iron Man sketches than any other characters. So this page is all Iron Man.
Row 1 = Tony Stark; I assume that is Pepper Potts with him (slot 3), and not one of his super-model girl friends (since I see the IM helmet in background) ?
Row 2 = two of Tuska's nicer Shell-head sketches, and the ultimate Iron man villain, the Mandarin (slot 5)
Row 3 = Iron Man and villains. The guess is that it is the Red Skull shooting at IM in slot 7, though I don't recall seeing teeth like that on the Red Skull ? Slot 8 is Shellhead with Madam Masque, whom he is kissing in slot 9 ... don't ponder if they can French kiss through their masks or not !! |
|
Page 28: This second Tuska page has an Avengers theme.
Though I personally cannot recall Tuska penciling comics other than X-men and Iron Man, he seems to be very versatile with the Marvel characters that he can draw well. This page shows nine different Avengers, from original members such as Iron Man, Hulk and Thor, to later add-on members such as Captain America, Hawkeye, Yellow Jacket, Black Panther, Black Knight and Hercules.
Note: Tuska did not write the name of the characters or put his signature on his MSA sketchagraphs !! In most cases he initialed the back with a blue GT ... but not always !! I think he initialed the backs of a whole bunch of blanks before he would start working on the fronts. It looks like occasionally he forgot. Also a few Severin sketches has been found to have the GT initials on the back. I assume that is because Marie used-up her blanks and she got some from her good friend George (that he had already "pre-initialed"), who lived nearby . |
|
Page 29: This third Tuska page has Thor and Captain America
Since I found so many nice Tuska sketches of Thor and Captain America to choose from, I decided to keep a bunch of them and make a page for these two stalwart Avengers !!
In slot 8, I assume Cap is kissing Sharon Carter ? She looks a lot like Pepper Potts two pages earlier ? . |
|
Page 30: This fourth Tuska page has Spider-Man and Daredevil.
As with the Thor and Cap page above, I found so many nice Tuska sketches of Spidey and Daredevil, that I decided to make a page for these two "loner" heroes, who occasionally has teamed-up. I added the Dr. Doom in slot 7, as a "filler", since Dr. Doom has battled both of these two heroes early in the SA.
In slot 4, I assume that is Karen Page with DD ? Hmm, looks a lot like Pepper Potts from three pages earlier, and Sharon Carter from the previous page ? I guess Tuska likes to use a "generic" blonde in these sketches ? |
|
Page 31: This fifth Tuska page has Miscellaneous characters.
This page further shows Tuska's versatility in drawing a variety of Marvel characters.
Row 1 is Iron Man related. Firebrand and Marianne (slot 1) and Dreadknight (slot 3) are characters from Tuska's Iron man run. Of course, slot 2 is Tony Stark.
Row 2 has popular characters Dr. Doom, Thing and Magneto.
Row 3 has what I think is He-Man (slot 7) and He-Man facing Skeletor (slot 8). Tuska actually drew He-man for DC Comics' three-issue 'Masters of the Universe' mini-series in late 1982 ... George ... blasphemy for including DC characters in this Marvel sketch set !!
Luke Cage (slot 9) was another of the comics that Tuska drew during the latter part of the SA. |
|
Page 32: This sixth Tuska page has more Miscellaneous characters.
As with the Severin's on page 26, when I bought the late Tom Carter's MSA collection in July 2007, I had intended to trade or sell eight of the sketches on this page, mainly because I already had these eight characters by Tuska. But recently when I acquired the Beast (slot 1), I have decided to put them into another page so you can see more of his great sketches
Note: For the right offer, I would be willing to trade any of these sketches, except the Beast, but I won't be posting these on my Trade/Sell page.
|