Orion of the New Gods, the son of Darkseid. Here is a wonderful look at the original concept artwork found here. Frank Giacoia is credited with the inks. The detail is outstanding!
Here's the back of that orignal sheet. Note the date.
Here we see the development of the cover art for the New Gods debut. Note the three exclamation points after "Orion" and the two sun symbols on his helmet.
The cover art comes along. Down to two exclamation points and one sun symbol.
A "what if" scenario of sorts. For a brief time, the New Gods were to debut in Showcase. It doesn't seem to be a 100% certainty, but folks concur that Gaspar Saladino likely supplied the awesome logo for New Gods. But the Showcase idea was squelched and the series was launched properly with a full-fledged number one, actually taking the over for the venerable try-out comic on DC's schedule.
The rest is Fourth World history.
Rip Off
I never ever get tired of all the variations on that character design and cover layout.
ReplyDeleteRip, is there an e-mail address you share with the public for blog-related stuff? If there's one posted on the blog, I can't find it. Something I wanted to ask you, but not major.
I've gotta tell ya, Rip! Jack Kirby's artwork is REALLY growing on me by leaps and bounds!
ReplyDeleteIt's kind'a like how I've grown to appreciate Jim Aparo and Wayne Boring much more so over the last several years, when as a young boy, I couldn't BEAR their artwork! I like all THREE artists MUCH more now. :)
That ends the debate. Kirby really was sitting on ideas while at Marvel
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