Friday, July 23, 2010

Marie Severin - A Preliminary Study!


"Mirthful" Marie Severin is the subject of the day. In this post I featured one of her sketches designing a classic Marvel Comics cover. She did a lot of that it seems and a bunch of her sketches have survived and thrive on the fan market.

Below are a gaggle of them alongside the covers they inspired. Some are close, some are not, but all show the very vivid line that Severin always brought to her work.


Sal Buscema


Berni Wrightson


Marie Severin


John Buscema


Neal Adams


John Severin


John Buscema


Marie Severin, Herb Trimpe & Joe Sinnott


Marie Severin & Joe Sinnott



Sal Buscema


John Buscema & Tom Palmer


And here are some which feature mulitple sketches for the same cover.


Marie Severin & Joe Sinnott



Marie Severin & Bill Everett


That last trio in fact features a preliminary sketch for two different stories in the issue. One for the Kirby story that was eventually used and the other for "Starr the Slayer", a Conan prototype story by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith.

These sketches show that behind the scenes, much of the vintage Marvel work we all admire for the most part was a collaborative effort. That's what I find most appealing about comics sometimes. The auteur has become fashionable in the comics of today, but like movies and such, comics really at their best can be the fusion of many talents. Marie Severin was certainly one of those talents.

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1 comment:

  1. Wow! That first layout for Captain America is more interesting than the one they used. Never knew about this before!

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