Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Blast from the Past #233: "A World Beyond: A Happening" poster

Back in 1981, I did this drawing which ended up being used on the poster for a science fiction event -- or "happening", in the parlance of the day -- at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. My memory is a bit fuzzy about some of the details, but I think there was some kind of contest to see what art would be used for the poster, and my entry was picked. I can't recall if there was any prize for this, but it was cool to have my drawing on the posters. I also got to meet the author Joan Vinge at this event, and she was very cool (and a really good writer, as I was later to find out by reading most -- if not all -- of her published work).

Unfortunately, I didn't save a good copy of the drawing, and the original seems to have disappeared, so this image is from a photo of one of the posters.



And while going through some old files tonight, I found this piece -- the rough sketch for the finished poster art. -- PL

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Any chance of a forever war news update?

~ tOkKa said...

-->> I really like like those roughs allot !! !! !!

O damm !!

Tyr Germanic said...

i agree with tokka.
the rough looks badass.
i always think that though.

youve never specifically said(that i remember)what jack kirby material you actually like.


is jack kirbys thor an influence
to you?

PL said...

" Tyrgermanic said...

youve never specifically said(that i remember)what jack kirby material you actually like.

is jack kirbys thor an influence
to you?"

I like pretty much all of Jack Kirby's work, though the stuff before he came to Marvel Comics doesn't thrill me as much as what he did after. My absolute favorite period is when he left Marvel to go to DC and did his "Fourth World" series -- "New Gods", "Forever People", "Mister Miracle", and "Jimmy Olsen". And after those were cancelled, I loved "Kamandi" and "OMAC", but REALLY loved "The Demon".

The "Thor" comics he did while at Marvel were also a high point. Even though Vince Colletta's inks were disappointing (especially when compared to Joe Sinnot and later Mike Royer), Kirby's pencil work was too powerful to ruin. And I still think his version of Thor was the best one produced by Marvel. I haven't read any of the latest "Thor" comics, but part of the reason for that is that (a) his new costume looks ridiculous", and (b) Thor looks like a brutish thug instead of a noble Asgardian warrior. But that's just my opinion. -- PL