Celebrating Artist Mike Grell

Celebrating artist Mike Grell on his birthday (September 13, 1947) with the first twelve covers for the 2009 Warlord series...

...with Travis Morgan as the Warlord, and a cast of characters from the lost world of Skartaris.

Warlord #1 and #2 (June and July, 2009)

.

Warlord #3 and #4 (August and September, 2009)

.

Warlord #5 and #6 (October and November, 2009)

.

Warlord #7 and #8 (December, 2009 and January, 2010)

.

Warlord #9 and #10 (February and March, 2010)

.

Warlord #11 and #12 (April and May, 2010)

.

Celebrating Artist Mike Grell

Celebrating artist Mike Grell on his birthday (September 13, 1947), with his covers of Vigilante, featuring Peacemaker.

Peacemaker, who was willing to kill for peace, came out of the Crisis On Infinite Earths a little raddled with a head injury, making him more violent than usual.  He confronted the new Vigilante (Dave Winston), and killed him, forcing Dave's predecessor, Adrian Chase, to put back on the mantle of the Vigilante.

Vigilante #36 and #37 (December, 1986 and January, 1987)

.

Vigilante #38 (February, 1987)

.

Celebrating Super-Heroic Artist Mike Grell

Celebrating the birthday of writer/artist Mike Grell (September, 13, 1947).

Mike was a big talent, especially in the 1970s, making a name for himself drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes (as the LSH was taking over the Superboy title)...

...but two of his most iconic covers did not appear there.

Below, are the full covers and a little on what was inside these oversized treasury editions!

Limited Collectors' Edition #C-49 (October-November, 1976)

With this iconic cover, Mike Grell made sure he'd be remembered by Legion fans for decades to come.

But, Mike was only represented sporadically on the inside of book...

...with the main part of the issue containing reprints of debut of Mordru from Adventure Comics #369 and #370 (June and July, 1968), some fact pages about the Legion Headquarters, and the great Dave Cockrum had his two page diagram of the wedding of Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy provided (with a guide to the characters in back!).

All-New Collectors' Edition #C-55 (March, 1978)

Here, Mike did the illustrations for the main story, where Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl finally get married (and he and writer Paul Levitz made it to the wedding as well, Paul on the far left, Mike on the far right), in an odd story influenced by the Time Trapper, who changed the past...and, there are some wonderful fact files on the Legion in the back (though they were drawn by Jim Sherman and Jack Abel).

Bits of wonderful Legion history, cementing Mike Grell's place as an artist in it!

Celebrating Artist Mike Grell

Celebrating the birthday of artist Mike Grell (September 13, 1947), with a look at his Batman covers from the 1970s.

Better known for his work with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Green Lantern and Green Arrow, "Iron Mike" did do a small batch of work on Batman at the time with two 2 issues battles (one facing the Penguin, the other against Skull Dugger)...but, his commitment to his new series, the Warlord, stopped Grell from having a longer run on the series.

Batman #287 and #288, (May and June, 1977)

.

Batman #289 and #290, (July and August, 1977)

.

Bonus!  Extra Grell!  

Detective Comics #455 (January, 1976) and Batman Family #1 (September-October, 1975)

.

Batman vs the vampire was covered here, and that Batgirl/Robin team up should get some love as well!

A Little On Mike Grell's Warlord

 

Just wanted to give a little coverage to Mike Grell's Warlord, and the best way to do that is to cover DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #10 (June, 1981), that has this spectacular wraparound cover by Grell!

Though the digest doesn't include these issues, readers are introduced to USAF pilot Travis Morgan, who crashes in the lost world of Skartaris (a world inside a world), where he meets the lovely queen Tara and evil sorceror Deimos, with more info here.  This starts a battle between Travis and Deimos that spans many issues of Warlord, which the major parts are reprinted in the digest (and coverage of issues #3, #4 and #5 have been done, with more to come!).  

The issues that have parts reprinted are:

Warlord #3 and #4 (October-November, 1976 and December-January 1976/1977)

.

Warlord #5 and #6 (February-March, 1977 and April-May, 1977)

.

Warlord #7 and #10 (June-July, 1977 and December-January, 1977/1978)

.

Warlord #15 and #19 (October-November, 1978 and March 1979)

.

Warlord #20 and #21 (April, 1979 and May, 1979)

.

A truly entertaining read of a modern man in a wonderous fantasy world, and presented to celebrate the birthday of Mike Grell, creator of the Warlord, who was born September, 13, 1947, but DC needs to collect more of the Warlord saga!

Arrow Artist: More on Mike Grell

Mike Grell was quite the busy artist for a time...after his last work on Green Arrow (the cover of Green Lantern #112), working on his own creation, the Warlord, at DC, and then creating his own character, Jon Sable, Freelance, for First Comics....could this busy man find time for the Emerald Archer?

Back to Basics

That's what Mike Grell did for Oliver Queen...

...continuing an idea from DC Super-Stars #17  (cover date of Nov/December, 1977),  wherein Denny O'Neil and Grell redid the Arrow origin, basing it on a little more reality (though keeping the basic idea from the origin as retold by writer Ed Herron and artist Jack Kirby in Adventure Comics #256, in January, 1959, wherein rich man Queen gets trapped on Starfish Island and learns archery to survive).

With the 3-issue mini-series Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (1987) writer/artist Mike Grell took Green Arrow back to being an urban hunter, getting rid of the trick arrows, the super-villains and almost everything else around Ollie (even injuring Black Canary to take her away from him for a bit).


But, Ollie didn't just lose things in this series.

This series also introduced female archer Shado, as well as mercenary Eddie Fyers...

...both of whom became very important in the life of Oliver Queen as time went on....

...and Ollie had quite a time in his own ongoing title!

A Long Run

For eighty issues (from February, 1988 to November, 1993), Mike Grell guided Green Arrow through his new city (Seattle, instead of the fictional Star City), having the hooded vigilante deal with criminals, government agents and some of the worst of his own problems...

...and though Iron Mike didn't provide all the art for this series, he did draw more than a few covers...

...lots of covers, not always featuring Green Arrow...

...celebrating Green Arrow's 50th Anniversary...

...slowly returning to the DC Universe, at least by bringing Black Canary back...

...as well as teaming up with the Butcher and the Question...

...and meeting Shado again...

...seeing Roy Harper (now Arsenal instead of Speedy), and having too many women...

...until the last of Grell's work on the title (though the title continued on)...

Still, Iron Mike was busy, just before leaving the series going back to cover Green Arrow's early years in Green Arrow: the Wonder Year...

...and creating Shaman's Tears for Image Comics, the archer called back to Mike Grell...

....and he listened, (after brief stops back with the Warlord and Iron Man as well)...

...not to mention a Green Arrow variant cover for Blackest Night...


...this time thanks to the Arrow TV show on CW!

It's appropriate for Mike Grell to work on that series...having provided the sketch of "the Hood"...and being referred to on the series ("Judge Grell").

The Arrow CW show has mentioned a few other artists and writers over time, and we'll cover more of them here!  

Remember to check out Mike's website as well for info on how to meet him!

Arrow Artist: Mike Grell

If you've been watching the CW's Arrow, you might have seen this drawing of "the Hood" (especially in the first season...).

Knowing that the series is based on the comics, you might even know that artist...a fellow by the name of Mike Grell!

Early Green Arrow

Some of Mike Grell's earliest art was on the Green Arrow back-up feature for Action Comics, starting with Action Comics #440 (October, 1974)....wherein Ollie faces his foe, Professor Steelgraves (introduced here)...and he and Dinah also meet an odd dog in "Little Dog Lost!" written by Elliot S! Maggin (and the story concludes in Action Comics #441).   

"Iron" Mike also did Aquaman back ups in Adventure Comics, and did the ad for a run of Seven Soliders of Victory stories set to run in the back of Adventure Comics (from #438 to #443, doing the Crimson Avenger chapter in #440 as Lee Elias did Green Arrow & Speedy's in Adventure Comics #439).

Mike Grell also drew Green Arrow (usually with Black Canary) in Action Comics #442, 444-446, 450-452 and 456-458, using his wits a little more in these issues, and fighting against the establishment...and more.

DC Comics really needs to collect all these great back-up stories from Action Comics!

Mike Grell even got a rare shot at drawing Wonder Woman thanks to Green Arrow...

....at least the cover...

...in Wonder Woman #217 (April-May, 1975) as part of her twelve trials to rejoin the JLA...

...(though Dick Dillin provided the interior art on the story....Dick Dillin also provided art for many of Green Arrow's Action Comics back-ups not drawn by Mike Grell).

Hopefully, Black Canary didn't get a chance to ask Ollie any questions under a lie detector about his watching the amazing amazon!

A Bigger Target

Mike Grell also was working on fan favorite Legion of the Super-Heroes over in the Superboy title, while Green Lantern (who had lost his title) was getting more popular...

...and thus ended up working with Denny O'Neil as DC revived Green Lantern's title with #90 (August-September, 1976).

The O'Neil/Grell combination didn't last as long as the O'Neil/Adams (which covered Green Lantern #76-89), but still produced a few great issues....and some wonderful covers by Iron Mike!

So many wonderful covers of our Emerald Archer and friends though it wasn't always clear Green Arrow and Green Lantern were friends on these covers!

Mike Grell did the covers from Green Lantern #92-100, partial on #101, and #102-106 and #108-112, and interiors on Green Lantern #90-100, #106, and #108-110.

All in all, a great run!   

Mike's time was being taken up by his creation of the Warlord, a science and sorcery series for DC...
...but after that series, Mike Grell would return to Green Arrow (as you should return next week to read about it!).