Masters of the Universe (B)
Post date: Jul 21, 2011 9:18:5 PM
At last! After what seems like a life-time picking at the scraps of your puny, Earth Prime Grant Morrison comics, along roll two unique minds tuned in to the vibrations of a half-formed and hot Tarmac hazy Counter-Earth, spinning on the far side of the Sun. A world where Mark Millar and Morrison massacred the Marvel universe with the help of oddly-lipped FF foe The Puppet Master; where the ever-prescient Morrison foretold the rise and fall of Britpop some 5 years before anyone even coined the term in the seminal Forever England; and where the Superman books were rescued like a kitten in a tree from their late-nineties doldrums and thrust into the world of Superman Plus
Finally!! Some long-promised Alter-Earth artwork for Grant Morrison projects that never were! The Universe B Art Challenge is begun!
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First up, all the way from Argentina, and with a mastery of English as a second language that puts us native speakers to shame, its Gostro Sudaca who, by his own admission, got so excited about drawing an imaginary Grant Morrison project he forgot to choose one from the Universe B pages, instead just thinking of one and rolling with it... Ladies and gents... Grant Morrison's Adam Strange!
Click the pic for the super-massive version...
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Digging that whole Flex Mentallo vibe he's got going on there. Care to elucidate Gostro?
"...well when I read about your proposal first in Mindless Ones blog, and then on your own site, I quickly thought of how Morrison would tackle such a pulpish, and these days comically anachronistic Flash Gordon type of character like Adam Stange (I personally believe most of the modern attempts to adapt such an era-themed character to current tastes and fashions have failed comedically).
As back in the 90's GM had quite the reputation of doing all kinds of drugs and was as bent as ever on the whole metaphysical trip thing, a "man of two worlds" would provide him a perfect scenario! To set up a drug addict's journey into other worlds as a question of whether they were simple hallucinations or a true escape to parallel realities (incidentally the planet's name "rann" sounds like "ran"->"run"->"escape" (!).
As in DC comics, for some reason or other an event that is often rehashed is the planetary war between the Hawkman world of Thanagar and technocratic Rann. I thought it would be a neat idea to turn the former into a single enthropic astral entity (and because I totally digged that crazy anthropomorphic, extremist Hawkman from the 90's, shh!) beckoning our druggie boy to stop escaping into fantasy and face truth or reality.
At least I could see Morrison establishing such a limboesque multi limbed stage to unfold a story on!"
You can check out more of Gostro's work at his blog and at his DeviantArt page. I wish my response in Spanish could be so effortlessly verbose. Magnifico!
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Next up is Aquarian, and fellow Brit, Steve Holder. Steve, in what amounts to exceptional news for me, has decided to work his way through the Universe B pages, putting pencil to paper on any and all that inspire him. The first three fruits of his labours can be seen below, taking in (from left to right), Sick Buildings, W, and the Bizarre Boys, with lots more to come...
Click for bigger pics...
Keep up the good work Steve! For more of his work, past and present, you owe it to yourself to check out Steve's Sketchbook Shenanigans.
And that's it so far. Any more takers out there? Get in touch and let me know!