NEW ART DAY - VAMPI #12 COVER & WATERLOO SUNSET PINUP
Posted April 18, 2005 by MAK, Soul-Saga.com Editor-in-Chief
VAMPI #12 COVER
It's not often that one gets the opportunity to own an original art piece that transcends the boundaries of collecting preferences. There are pieces that go beyond being known for portraying specific characters or being illustrated by specific fan-favorite artists. Anarchy's variant to the Vampi #12 comic book is one such art piece.
Lushly illustrated by Stephen Platt, this cover bears his signature detail and portrays an incredible female warrior form that is reminiscent of the mid-90s "bad girl" era. Joe Weems V, Stephen's favorite inker, does a superb job highlighting the futuristic cyborg enhanced background while concentrating on making certain detail areas, such as the arm swords, pop out of the page. The piece is finished off with Steve Firchow's out-of-this-world coloring. Using fog hazing effects and a cold red-blue coloring scheme, Steve forgoes the unnecessary ubiquitous highlights to create a startling grim image.
Having originally been published as a limited 1500 copy variant to a relatively small-print run title, this image largely fell by the wayside and is always a pleasant surprise to any Platt fan discovering it for the first time. The original b/w art is shown below alongside Steve's final color copy and the published holochrome comic variant.
|
Click picture for close up view
|
|
Original b/w art
|
|
Final color art
|
|
Published comic cover
|
WATERLOO SUNSET PINUP
Very few of Stephen's pieces have been published as a pencil-only version, yet each one is a sight to behold in its own right. In one of his last published pieces, Stephen tackled the chores of creating a possible variant cover/pinup to Trevor Goring's Waterloo Sunset. Set in late 20th century London, this black and white series follows Hunter Esau through a strage future in which people are reverting to a medievil state. The challenge was to illustrate a character unlike any Stephen had tackled previously. While Stephen's art differs from the final version of the published character, I found the detailed outfit to be quite reminiscent of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell ® character, a favorite character genre for me.
Waterloo Sunset, written by Andrew Stephenson and illustrated by Trevor Goring, is published by Electric Spaghetti Comics. "I have been a fan of Steve's work since Moon Knight," says Trevor, and "when I met him in Meltdown, a comic book store on Sunset Blvd. in L.A., I was surprised to find out he knew of my storyboard work and was trying to break into the field. In return Steve gave me a lot of advice on how to promote WS." And for those wondering how this piece came to be, Trevor replies that "it was a kind of trade off between us." The original preview for this book, pictured below, came out in 2002 and is available at the Electric Spaghetti website. The miniseries debuted earlier this year with Issue #3 due to be on the comic stands in the upcoming month. Please check out this unique futuristic publication and enjoy the original by Stephen below.
|
|
Click picture for close up view
|
|
Waterloo Sunset Preview
|
|
Original pinup pencils
|
|
Published pinup version
|
|
|
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
