Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Dan Scanlon covers X-Men 1





















Original cover by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky; Marvel 1963. Dan Scanlon's website is here.

40 comments:

  1. I've been looking forward to this posting ever since Dan sent it in. It just cracks me up. I picture Burne Hogarth spinning in his grave.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know how I've not given more thought to the fact that the Angel is holding a rocket launcher. Has he ever used anything remotely close to a rocket launcher since the cover of this issue? I understand his wing missles like...20 years later...but the fact that he's just blatantly holding a huge bazooka is hilarious to me.

    Also hilarious that Jean Grey is the only character who appears to be doing just as little in the original cover as Iceman and Beast are doing in Mr. Scanlon's version.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was just thinking about the same things, Mike. Kirby's original is really weird the more you look at it. Is Marvel Girl air-surfing? Why can't Iceman hit Magneto from a foot away? What's with the Beast's trapeze? Did he always take that into battle or was there just one there? I love that Dan attached it to the caption.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Think about what's going to take place one second after the events depicted on the original cover...Beast is going to bounce right off of that force field and into Cyclops' eye beam. ZZRRT!

    Scanlon's cover is one of the funniest I've seen on the site so far.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Marvel Girl is clearly attacking Magneto using the power of dance!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is there really a "no parody" rule? I don't believe it.

    Funny stuff, regardless.

    (Iceman is missing from a foot away because the magno-shield deflected his snowballs)

    ReplyDelete
  7. A marked improvement in all aspects, and a great use of purple.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love this one.
    I never knew if Angel is carying a bazooka, or some kind of weird kirby club/bo staff. that, much like most kirby designed weapons, looks like it was made out of industrial odds and ends found in scrap yard.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'd love to read the comic that follows Dan's cover. Even Magneto is standing with his arm at his sides. In this must read issue: Incompetent heros squabble with apathetic villain.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hilarious! Cover and comments. Thank you, Dan Scanlon, for bring such happiness to my day.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous - I can see your point about parody and I think that this does enter that gray area a bit, but I don't feel it goes to far in (less so then Jon's did). Dan changed the staging and the bulkiness of the characters, but for the most part, all the elements are the same. For all I know, this is just how Dan sees the world and he's upset that so many people have misinterpreted his cover. I can think of a few cartoonists who do have this kind of approach. One example (if memory serves correctly) is how Chester Brown staged battles in Louis Reil. They were often seen from above, as if the viewer is God watching these tiny events take place below him. I've always wondered if this was intentional on Brown's part. The effect, I think, is similar here. It's the antithesis to how Kirby would do it, obviously. It can be tricky though, when something is or is not a parody and I can accept that not everyone will agree when something has gone too far. At any rate, I'm glad that you and so many other people have enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I LOVE Magento's reaction!
    He's just standing there, with a "yeah...so" attitude.

    ReplyDelete
  13. When I first looked at Dan's cover I thought he had just taken it from a different angle. But upon closer inspection I realized that the angle he had taken was one of exaggeration. Not so much parody as magnifying certain aspects of the original. The more I looked the more I enjoyed. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  14. So some people complain that some of the artists featured on this blog interpret the covers too much like the original. Other people complain that some artists create parodies of the covers. Jeez! There's just no pleasing some people. I think this recover is brilliant, it made me laugh out loud and laughing always makes a day better. Congrats Dan I really look forward to seeing more of your work.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Amazing! Made me laugh out loud. Love the way the Beast is just hanging there.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Scanlon is a genius!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I also want to know why Iceman is missing from two feet away, yet Magnetto has snow on his back for some reason? Maybe they're boomerang snowballs.

    Awesome cover by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  18. The only thing I can think of to explain all the craziness is that this was their first mission and they hadn't yet gelled as a team.

    ReplyDelete
  19. this doesn't really strike me as a parody. Both covers show Magneto effortlessly warding off an attack by the X-Men. Nothing has been added and nothing has really been changed except for the intensity of the poses and the camera has been pulled back.

    I really like it.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for the nice comments! I love Robert's site, and had so much fun finally drawing a cover myself. I highly recommend you do the same! I am also not a fan of parody, but I suppose it's a fine line. I like when artist poke loving fun at something about the original covers, but I agree it would lame to due "Breast Men number 1" and draw all the x men with boob faces. I think that's the difference for me anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I just wanted to add my two cents:
    I love this cover...it also made me laugh out loud.
    Dan's version somehow brings out the ludicrous poses on my Kirby covers. And I adore Jack Kirby art.

    ReplyDelete
  22. and I agree with Goodin's comments about Chester Brown's Louis Riel.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I love this, especially Iceman's ineffective snowballs and Magneto's apathetic pose!

    And to weigh in on the parody debate, Dan has actually copied Kirby's poses pretty accurately, but by zooming out the view-point, it just highlights how ludicrous the original is: Iceman's aforementioned snowball lobs, Marvel Girl's impromptued dance-off, the fact that Beast is swinging with no real chance of a contact hit, and my favourite observation: Angel's rocket launcher is being held wildly off-target! Great cover! Really inspirational!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Man...the more I look at it, the more I noticed strange things about the original...

    As Jimmy mentioned, how DOES Magneto have snow on his back? It either means Iceman's snow made it through Magneto's magnetic field from behind or that somehow the magnetic field holds ice/snow in place behind Magneto.

    Furthermore how is Cyclops's optic blast somehow just barely bending the magnetic field? It's not an immediate reflection and it's not breaking through. It's just...bending it a bit. I'm afraid if I keep looking at this cover, I'll find 11 more things that don't make sense. And, as a sucker for old school comic books, I still love it anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I agree Mike. I don't love Kirby despite the weird things he does, but because of them. It's amazing how many times I've looked at this cover and not thought anything was strange about it.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Here's how it went down....
    Iceman got there first. He snuck of close to Maggie and nailed him in the back. Maggie whirled around and turned on his force-field. Iceman was already throwing the balls and thus they are shown missing.
    Cyclops optic-pressure blasts are doing just that....putting pressure on maggie's bubble. Angel is having a hard time carrying that beam...too heavy. Since it's their first battle with maggie...Angel doesn't yet realize how inneffective metal is against Mags. Telekinetic lines are probably supposed to be shown emanating from marvel Girl...thus her goofy pose....the inker probably left 'em off.

    Beast...i can't explain Beast.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I love this.
    I have a feeling this is what most people see when they pick up a superhero comic: a bunch of sad people in goofy outfits having a contextless and uninteresting fight.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Aha! The snow is on Magneto's forcefield! Which still makes no sense at all. I think Dan really captured the moroseness of Cyclops in those early years

    ReplyDelete
  29. Oh my God, this is amazing. There are so many covers I want... covered... like this one. Oh, how I chortle.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Wow, this is the funniest cover I've seen here. It literally made me lol.

    ReplyDelete
  31. "I have a feeling this is what most people see when they pick up a superhero comic: a bunch of sad people in goofy outfits having a contextless and uninteresting fight."

    Hahaha...I really, really wish you weren't right on that, Mladen, but it seems like a pretty accurate (and hilarious) summary. Definitely made me laugh out loud.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Perfection! Dan Scanlon nailed the absurdity with a simple camera shift. Great cover.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I laughed out loud at this for a solid 5 minutes. This is probably the best thing i've ever seen. It'd be brilliant to see a whole comic like this?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Holy crap. This is totally NOT the "Marvel Way" to draw. Obviously it's all about perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I would say I LOVE about 2 dozen of these...some done by friends of mine. I don't know Dan...but this is the BEST. Everyone including me should give up even trying.

    ReplyDelete
  36. If you sold a print of this I would buy one for every room in my house.

    ReplyDelete