Alex Ross is one of those artists who transformed the look of comics. The artist who comes to mind immediately as having done something similar is Neal Adams. Adams took the rules of illustration and incorporated them into comic book storytelling. Ross did the same thing with painted works. One of his favorite subjects has always been Captain Marvel - The Big Red Cheese. He did the cover above for the third issue of Alter Ego, the fanboy magazine edited by Roy Thomas.
In the most recent issue of Alter Ego, the one hundredth and sixty-sixth, he doesn't do the cover. That image of Captain Marvel is by Kurt Schaffenberger who is the main focus of the issue.
But deep inside the issue Ross takes on the immense task of identifying as many comic book characters (and otherwise) who have or might have been inspired in some way the great Captain Marvel - Billy Batson heroics from the Golden Age. I think Ross himself fell in love with the character during the Bronze Age revival which saw the character bereft of his own name and required to operate under the title of Shazam. One of the real gems is the two-page poster above by Ross featuring all of those characters from as a diverse landscape. That art is only part of a detailed article title "Echoes of Shazam" identifying and discussing each one. It makes for an especially good issue of Alter Ego and one I highly recommend. Get a closer look at this link.
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I don't see Tod Holton, Super Green Beret, whose beret was passed on by a Shazam-like wizard, and transformed a kid into a full-grown imperialist Yankee soldier when he saluted. I see Gomer Pyle made the cut, though.
ReplyDeleteGood catch Russ. Given Ross's broad parameters Super Green Beret well deserves to be on the list. It's strange he's not given that Lightning Comic's other hero Fatman the Living Flying Saucer is there. He was even created by Binder and Beck too.
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