Thursday, September 02, 2010

I Love(ed) the X-Men

I started reading comics in the mid 80's. I would pick up random issues of Spider-Man and other Marvel titles to start out with. I wasn't picky with what Marvel book it was, but early on I only read Marvel. The first title I started following regularly was Uncanny X-Men sometime around issue #214. I later went back and started buying back issues like a fiend. The artists who rotated in and out of the X-Men is an all-star team. Barry Windsor-Smith, Art Adams, John Romita Jr., Paul Smith, Alan Davis. I was in love, I think I even bought an X-Men shirt. But my favorite X-artist of all time was Marc Silvestri. When combined with Dan Green on inks, that team was dynamic and amazing. They had great action, sexy girls and powerful heroes and villains, everything an 11-year old boy wants out of his comics. I still think Marc's stuff then is better than his newer work, just a personal opinion as I'm sure others would disagree. I had a chance a year or two back to have dinner with two of my artistic idols, Silvestri and Jim Lee but I didn't really talk to either of them, but 16 year old me was in heaven at the time. I stopped reading X-Men after Joe Mad's run but the book had already been going downhill for years at that time.

Here are two of my favorite Silvesti covers from his run and a recent Colossus vs. Juggernaut commission I did. I threw a little Shadowcat and Wolverine in there for fun. Click for full size. (I'm still very much open for commissions if anyone is interested.)




3 comments:

mattcrap said...

i really enjoyed Silvestri's old stuff, especially when he was doing Wolverine's solo title. I'll be honest and say I liked when Cyberforce first started too, but that didn't last long.

Unknown said...

I saw your Colossus vs. Juggernaut commission posted on the comic art community website. I had to see some more of your work. Great stuff!

Marc Silvestri's run on The Uncanny X-Men is classic.

Ryan Cody said...

Matt, Cyberforce was still fun to look at.

Rick - thanks for stopping by.