Friday, October 26, 2012

2005 Justice League pinup art by Will Conrad

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"This is an old sample I did a few years ago for DC. Done in pencils."


Really sweet Hitch-y piece with Wonder Woman the sole foreground full figure. Attack of the floating movie poster heads strike Martian Manhunter and Aquaman. Superman gets an inspirational bust, while Batman, the Flash, and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's figures have varied prominence. I really miss this Magnificent Seven, exempting Erik Larsen's Seashell Sea King.

4 comments:

will_in_chicago said...

Very good artwork.

Ryan Daly said...

I was about to say it reminded me of some of Bryan Hitch's JLA work before I saw you make the same comparison.

And I, too, miss J'onn being part of the Big 7 Justice League. It's nice knowing he'll be featured in the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, and I have a feeling Johns will make him a very prominent figure on the team, but you can't help but look at the lineups and see Martian Manhunter as looking like something "less than" the other mainstays of the League.

Diabolu Frank said...

Ryan, that's exactly my problem. As much as I dug the Magnificent Seven, it was always going to be six icons and J'Onn J'Onzz. It was fine when it was the founding members with the weight of history/legacy behind them, and might have been okay with an early joiner swapped in like Ollie, Ray or Carter. Even Dinah or Zee, since that would addressed the gender imbalance and offered romantic opportunities. Once you get into Bronze Age nobodies like Cyborg though, you ruin the pantheon feel and it becomes a distraction having them around.

On the other hand, I'm happier to read Martian Manhunter as a primary powerhouse on a b-team, but it's still degrading for him to be dumped into a satellite line-up. There's a world of difference between splintering the core JLA into several line-ups and casting off one founder to roll with also-rans. That's pretty harsh.

will_in_chicago said...

Frank, I had hoped that Stormwatch -- which brought in a Batman and Superman analog in Midnighter and Apollo would hav ebeent he team for J'Onn. My hope is that the JLA will be well written and we will see some power houses join the team. Too often, J'Onn has been the jobber of the old JLA too often.

This is one of the reasons I suggested a new JLA needs powerful characters such as Firestorm or Captain Atom, who would give the current Justice League pause in attacking this new team. Apart from J'Onn and the new Green Lanteon, most of the members of the new JLA seem to have weak or non-existent powers. (Hawkman can fly, I am not too familiar with Stargirl and everyone else after the characters I named here seems to be a martial artist of some type.) Mind you, J'Onn bested the current JL -- and I think a lot of us enjoyed seeing the team getting its collective rear ends handed to them by the Martian Manhunter. It is a pity that the same wasn't shown happening to DC's editorial leadership.