Remembering Artist Will Eisner

Remembering comic pioneer and artist Will Eisner on his birthday (March 6, 1917 - January 3, 2003) with a couple of his covers to the Spirit, featuring femme fatales...including P'Gel of Paris!

From The Spirit #20 and #21 (April and June, 1950).

Celebrating Artist Simon Bisley

Celebrating the birthday of artist Simon Bisley (March 4, 1962) with four of his covers to Lobo's Back, the 1992 mini-series, featuring Lobo....and his back (and something else as well, but it needs not be discussed here).

The first issue had 1 regular and 2 variant covers, but they were all in the first issue!  Simon only did the cover for the second as well (without any variants), though it was a four issue mini-series.

Lobo's Back #1 and #1a (May, 1992)

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Lobo's Back #1b and #2 (May and June, 1992)

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The Early Crimson Dynamo

Iron Man was a true hero (secretly industrialist Tony Stark), but he did inspire some incredible menaces in his time.  One of those was the Crimson Dynamo, who was the Russian counterpart to America's armored Avenger.

Here are the first two men to wear the Crimson Dynamo armor.

Anton Vanko

Anton Vanko debuted in Tales of Suspense #46 (October, 1963), becoming "The Crimson Dynamo!" in a tale by Stan Lee and Don Heck, under a cover by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.  Here, under orders from the Soviet Premier, Vanko was sent to the United States to ruin Tony Stark and take care of Iron Man.  Khrushchev was also planning on eliminating Vanko after taking care of Iron Man. 

While in battle with Iron Man, Tony found the frequency that Khrushchv was communicating with his other agents with, and shared the fact that the Soviet Premier was planning on eliminating Anton after he took care of Iron Man.  

Thus, Iron Man convinced Vanko to defect.

Boris Turgenev

Boris Turgenev fell into the role of Crimson Dynamo via manipulations not his own, in Tales Of Suspense #52 (April, 1964) in the "The Crimson Dynamo Strikes Again!" by Stan Lee and Don Heck (with a cover by Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman).  Furious that Vanko defected, Khrushchv sent his agents, the Black Widow and Boris Turgenev to eliminate Vanko, as well as Tony Stark and Iron Man.  Vanko, working at Stark Industries, was set upon by Boris, who took on the armor to ruin Vanko's work for Stark.  

This led to a battle between the new Crimson Dynamo and Iron Man (who had upgraded from his gold to his red and gold armor).  Boris knocked Iron Man unconscious, and he, along with Natasha, were taking Vanko and Iron Man back to Russia.  But, Iron Man revived, and, with the sacrifice of Anton Vanko, defeated Boris, leaving Natasha an agent alone in the United States.

The Crimson Dynamo would return, with improved armor, with other people under the armor, to face off against Iron Man, Black Widow and more, usually in conjunction with the Titanium Man and other Soviet agents!

Celebrating Artist Ed McGuinness

Celebrating the birthday of artist Ed McGuinness (March 1, 1974) with his variant covers to the Agents of Atlas mini-series, from 2009 during the Dark Reign, featuring Gorilla Man (Ken Hale), Namora, Marvel Boy, Venus, Jimmy Woo and the Human Robot (M-11)...

...Marvel's heroes from the 1950s in the here and now....

Agents Of Atlas #1 and #2 (April and May, 2009)

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Agents Of Atlas #3 and #4 (June and July, 2009)

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Agents Of Atlas #5 (July, 2009)

Celebrating Artist Andy Kubert

Celebrating the birthday of artist Andy Kubert (February 27, 1962) with this wraparound cover for X-Men #30 (March, 1994) celebrating the wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, also known as Cyclops and Marvel Girl.

A good portion of their fellow X-Men attended as well, making his a whole school function...

Celebrating Artist Jeff Butler

Celebrating the birthday of artist Jeff Butler (February 26, 1958) with his covers to the 1993 3 issue mini-series for Green Hornet: Dark Tomorrow.

Now Comics had the rights to Green Hornet, linking the radio and TV versions, as well as having a modern version, and this version, set in a dystopian future where this Green Hornet, a Clayton Reid, is really a bad guy, facing off against a heroic Luke Kato.

Green Hornet: Dark Tomorrow #1 and #2 (June and July, 1993)

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Green Hornet: Dark Tomorrow #3  (August, 1993)

Celebrating Artist Greg LaRocque

Celebrating the birthday of artist Greg LaRocque (February 24, 1954), with a couple of his covers for the Legion of Super-Heroes...#17, December, 1985, sort of a last normal day for the kids of the 30th Century, to be followed by #18, January, 1986, where freeing the time traveling villain, the Infinite Man, allowed the effects of the Crisis On Infinite Earths to start to seep into the Legion's time.