X-Men Sketchafex Gallery

I grew-up with the original, five X-Men (slots 1 & 3), as assembled by Professor Xavier (slot 2):

• Cyclops - Scott Summers
• Marvel Girl - Jean Grey
• Angel - Warren Worthington III
• Iceman - Bobby Drake
• Beast - Hank McCoy

They are in their classic black and yellow costumes, as per Uncanny X-Men #'s 1 - 38.

Note that in issue #1, Iceman (slot 7) was more like a "Snowman" . By issue #8, he learned to take his now more well-known sleek icy form.

To change with the times, during the "psychedelic" late-60's, in Uncanny X-Men #39, the original five were given very colorful, and what I refer to as "mod" costumes (slots 1 - 6). They wore these costumes until new stories were discontinued after issue #66.

During this run of Uncanny X-Men, Lorna Dane as Polaris (slot 7), was introduced in #49, and was present throughout the series through #66.

Soon afterwards, Havok as Scott's "long-lost" brother was introduced in #54. Havok would go on to have a romatic relationship with Polaris.

I completed this page with a cool sketch of Marvel Girl holding-off Juggernaut. I presume this is a scene from #46.

After having reprinted stories in issues #67 - 93, the X-men franchise was revised when in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), and subsequently Uncanny #94, the 'All New All-Different' X-Men was created, replacing all of the original five, except for Cyclops (which was still wearing his "mod" costume). The new members were

• Storm
• Colossus
• Wolverine
• Banshee (actually started-out as a villain in Uncanny #28)
• Nightcrawler
• Thunderbird I (killed-off in Uncanny #95)
• Sunfire (who decided not to be part of the team)

In 1991, the roster of active X-men grew so large, that team was split into two teams, a Blue team, and a Gold team. The then very-popular Jim Lee was given a new title, simply 'X-Men' (aka Vol. 2), and with issue #1 featured the Blue team.

It could be argued that the Blue team had the "more popular" of the X-Men, with a roster of:

• Cyclops (now in new uniform with "open head gear")
• Wolverine (in his brown-yellow costume per issue #1)
• Jubilee
• Beast (now in his feral blue form)
• Gambit
• Rogue
• Psylocke

To complete this page, I thought this would be a good spot for Professor Xavier, wearing Cerebro (slot 8) and his cross-galaxy love, Lilandra (slot 9).

While the Blue team was featured in 'X-Men', the Gold team was featured in Uncanny starting with issue #281, with a roster of:

• Storm
• Jean Grey (now in blue-orange costume)
• Iceman
• Colossus
• Archangel
• Bishop (first appeared in #282 and joined the team shortly afterwards)

To complete the page, I wanted to add three "supporting" characters from that era, Banshee (slot 7), Forge (slot 9), and Moira MacTaggert. Since I can't find a sketch of Moira yet, I put a sketch of Kitty Pryde as Shadowcat, in her place (slot 8).

I think that part of the reason that Uncanny X-Men was essentially "canceled" with issue #66 was that they fought some "lame" villains ? But early-on, Kirby did create some "classic" villains !!

• Magneto (Uncanny #1), and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Uncanny #4)
• Mastermind (actually sort of a lame villain)
• Toad (also actually sort of a lame villain)
• Quicksilver (in his original green costume)
• Scarlet Witch
• The Blob (Uncanny #3)
• Juggernaut (Uncanny #12)
• Sentinels (Uncanny #14)
• The Mimic (Uncanny #19)

Note: Back then it was not yet revealed that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were the children of Magneto.

The villains on this page were not known to me until a few years ago, most of them being post-Silver Age, but they are well known "now-classic" villains.

• Sauron is actually introduced in the Silver-Age (Uncanny #60)
• Mr. Sinister (Uncanny #221)
• Sabretooth (Uncanny #219 as a member of Mr. Sinister's Marauders)
• Mystique (Ms. Marvel #16)
• Callisto and the Morlocks (Uncanny #169)
• Goblyn Queen (Uncanny #234)
• Acolyte Nance Winters (?) (X-Men #2)
• Apocalypse (X-Factor #6)
• Omega Red (X-Men #4)

I decided to make a page for the Hellfire Club, since they were an important entity in X-Men lore, both by contributing individual characters or as one of the team of villains that the X-Men had to deal with.

• Magneto (albeit in his benign-persona costume)
• Deadpool
• Onslaught
• Hellfire Club's Inner Circle (Uncanny #129)
• Sebastian Shaw, Hellfire Club's Black King
• Emma Frost, Hellfire Club's White Queen
• Hellfire Club Guard (generic character)
• Black Queen (Jean Grey)
• Dark Phoenix, as corrupted by the HC

I like to collect sketches of various teams but many of them got used as the first sketch in Pages 1 - 3. So the remainder I put on this and the next page, filling the page with some individual members of those teams.

Notice how similar the Ferreira sketch in slot 2 is to the Ferreira classic team one in slot 1 . When I got the sketch in slot 2, I recognized the original five members but had no clue why they were wearing those costumes. A fellow collector informed me that in 1986, the original five were brought back as a new team named X-Factor. When I learned this, I actually went out and bought the first dozen issues of X-Factor so I could read about "the reunion" !! I learned that the team sketch in slot 2, represents the team some time after issue #33, when Beast reverts back to his bestial form, and after Angel has been converted to Archangel.

The sketches in slots 3 - 6 show how the X-Factor costumes had a big X as part of their design. The Marvel Girl (slot 3) was the original green-yellow costume she wore for issue #'s 1 - 25, before changing to the red-yellow one as per the sketch in slot 5. Angel before he was changed to Archangel wore various colorful costumes, all highlighted by the big X.

Slot 7 shows part of the new X-Factor. By issue #70, the five original X-Factor members rejoined the X-Men, so a new X-Factor team was created for issue #71. Four of these new members are shown ... Multiple Man, Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, and Havok (slot 8). Val Cooper (slot 9) acted as the team's government liaison.

This page has three teams I am really not that familiar with, but I liked the Wilson X-Force sketch (slot 1), and I wanted to use the two WoM sketches I had representing Excalibur.

X-Force: This team was a spin-off from the 'New Mutants' series, and the sketch in slot 1 represents the team as of issue #1. Cable and Warpath were the among the primary members in the early issues.

X-Men, 1980's version.

Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) (slot 5): This X-Men series started in 2004, with an initial team of Cyclops and Emma Frost (as co-team leaders), Beast, Shadowcat and Lockheed, Colossus, and Wolverine. I used a sketch of the Beast (slot 6) as drawn for that series, wearing a costume and with a "cat-like" face.

Excalibur babes (row 3): I just wanted to keep the sketches of Phoenix, Meggan and Shadowcat (slot 7); and Roma (slot 9). Roma helped to form Excalibur. A nice Buddy Prince Rachel Summers Phoenix (slot 8) rounds-out the page.

Love is in the air !!

Back in the Silver-Age, and perhaps even today (?), one thing that set Marvel apart from DC, was their ability to create interesting and complex relationships among their characters, whether the dysfunctional "family" of the Fantastic Four; Peter Parker's wacky teen-age "love-life"; or the many "soap-opera-style" romances between the X-Men's men and women. This page highlights the latter.

• Jean and Scott - the original lovebirds since Uncanny #1
• Scott torn between Emma and Jean ?
• Scott and Emma (as per Astonishing X-Men)
• Rogue and Gambit - too complicated to even try to summarize
• Piotr and Kitty - controversial romance because she was a "minor" at that time
• Xavier and Lilandra - a romance that spans the Galaxy !!
• Mystique and Destiny - the first lesbian relationship in a major comic !!
• Storm and Bishop - a rocky short-lived relationship ?
• Storm and Black Panther - a pairing of the two African super-heroes

I wasn't planning to highlight any single X-Men, but Wolverine has become such an important character in the Marvel Universe that I figured he deserved his own page !!

Basically I covered Wolvie from his first appearance in Hulk #181 (slot 1); to his feral / Weapon-X phase (slots 2 & 4); to his involvement with the Canadian team, Alpha Flight (slot 3); to his various costumes with the X-Men (slots 5 - 7).

The page is completed with the addition of his two key arch-enemies, Sabretooth (slot 8) and Lady Deathstryke (slot 9).

For me, much as with John Czop in the first sketch card sets (in 1998), Buddy is the Prince among all of the X-Men Archives artists !!

It's not so much that his sketches are "better" than many of the other artists, but it's just that his style, dynamic full-body poses, and vivid coloring really appeals to me. His sketches look like "solid" comic book art. Also, unlike what I call the 10 "hot artists" for this series, his sketches are "very affordable" so I was able to build a nice collection of them. Of course now that other collectors, and esp. dealers read this, they will double their asking prices for them in the future .

Thanks to my fellow collectors, I was able to put together this page of Buddy's Original X-Men. He did two versions for each character, one in the static green background, and one with a Danger Room background. I mixed and matched them for the montage in slots 1-6. I completed the page with Professor X; the key SA-era villain Magneto; and Professor X wearing Cerebro.

Unfortunately I was not quick enough in buying one of Buddy's Danger-Room scene sketches with members of the "mod costume" team in it .

This page is just more of Buddy's sketches of "babes" that I liked. Some of them are heroes, or versions of them, that I am not really familiar with. There is no real ordering of the characters.

This page is just more of Buddy's sketches of villains that I liked. Some of them, or versions of them, I am not really familiar with. Though, there are some key villains here, there is no real ordering of the characters.

Note that the Silver Samurai is one that I pulled. At first I wasn't thrilled because It wasn't a character I needed for my pages, but having it in-hand, I could see how vivid his colors were, and that started me on my "Prince-addiction"

This page is a "catch-all" page, consisting of more of Buddy's sketches, that overflowed from prior pages, as well as my two panel Brian Kong 'Fastball Special'.