Friday, November 11, 2016
Making a Splash: Dave Cockrum's Legion
Check it out, Groove-ophiles! Today would have been Dave Cockrum's seventy-third birthday, so it seemed like a great time to remember that highly-regarded master of the comicbook arts. His career began its rocket-ride into the super-hero stratosphere in 1972 when he got to draw the Legion of Super-Heroes back-up in Superboy #184 (February 1972). He re-designed most of the Legion (as well as their mode of travel and club-house), then left for Marvel where he helped launch the All-New, All-Different X-Men, re-design the Guardians of the Galaxy and Ms. Marvel, and draw tons-o-covers. Today we're focusing on his LSH work: Superboy issues 184, 188, 190, 191, 193, 195, and 197-202. Watch a great artist grow, and the Legion get cooler issue by issue...
This post is dedicated to my pal, Jim Sanders III!
thanks for this groove! to be included in a post that honors cockrums birthday AND his legion work is a humbling honor-you're the best! and all these pages rock! the fatal five who twisted time was one of my favorite stories!
ReplyDeleteGlad you dug it, pal! The Fatal Five story made me a Legion fan for life!
DeleteCreamy Cockrum goodness! Yum. The sometimes oddball but always elegant designs of Cockrum revived this team which had grown moribund. And then he went and did it with the X-Men too. He's the Theo Epstein of comics.
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Cockrum's Legion stuff blew my mind way back then, and it hasn't diminished one iota. Just completely beautiful art.
ReplyDeleteCurt Swan is one of the All-Time greats, and Grell's art was amazing, but Cockrum is my #1 Legion guy.
ReplyDeleteTo my mind, this was Cockrum's best work because you could sense in every panel that he was having a ball. You could see influences of different artists like Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Mac Raboy and many others. The figures he drew had grace and beauty. His future was well designed. His females were sexy beyond all get out. This is the stuff!
ReplyDeleteI remember the excitement I felt when I purchased Superboy # 191 and read the Legion backup story, "Attack of the Sun-Scavanger". Bowled over by the artwork, I checked the credits and saw a new name: Dave Cockrum. That began a love affair with the artwork of a man who gave me years of pleasure with Legion and X-Men stories as well as inking and cover assignments (his Captain Marvel, Jr. backup in Shazam # 9 was stunning in its beauty). Dave left us way too soon 10 years ago, but this all-around nice guy left behind a legacy of work that still resonates decades later.
ReplyDeleteOne of my very favorite "It really happened!" stories ... Early '80s, big comics convention in Boston. Eventual-big-name-artist Lee Weeks, eventual-Gene-Colan-biographer Tom Field and me, in our very early 20s, leave our rural home for this, our first big, two-day show. The pro guests end up in a hard-to-find room: Al Williamson, Howard Chaykin, Keith Giffen -- Dave Cockrum. We found the room, we monopolized Cockrum's time, and we convinced him to come out to dinner with us that night. A terrific guy, an unbeatable first-big-show experience for us. Dave was developing FUTURIANS at the time; I bought a Silver Shadow sketch from him on Sunday as a "thank you" ...
ReplyDeleteGood for you. Sounds like great con experience.
DeleteDAVE COCKRUM DEFINITIVAMENTE REDISEÑO A LA LEGION DE SUPERHEROES EN UN TRABAJO QUE HASTA EL MOMENTO CAUSA GRAN ADMIRACIÓN Y OJALA PUDIERAN COLGAR TODOS LOS COMICS DE ESTE GRAN ARTISTA EN SU PASO POR LA LEGION
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