Monday, February 14, 2011

Gil Kane Cover of the Month: X-Men #33

Most people are probably quite familiar with Gil Kane's work as a cover artist for Marvel during the 1970s. Kane also contributed quite a few covers to Marvel during the late 60s in titles ranging from Tales of Suspense to Sgt. Fury. While many of these are quite solid, I really think they pale in comparison to his DC work on Green Lantern, The Atom and the various Science Fiction titles. Something just didn't add up at Marvel, and I think much of it has to do with the production department. Take this cover to X-Men #33. I think it is certainly one of Kane's strongest covers for Marvel during this period, but it still manages to fall short of greatness. I like the lay out, and the smaller mutants juxtaposed against the giant Juggernaut. The colour choices, however, really diminish the cover's potential impact as everything seems muddy. If this were an Atom cover, the images would pop right out at you. Anyone else see a real distinction between his DC and Marvel covers during the 60s?

2 comments:

Nick Caputo said...

This cover is actually a patchwork, with a Werner Roth Juggernaut head attached, and Iceman redrawn by another artist, possibly John Verpoorten. The Comics Code rejected the original, which featured the Outcast, who was changed to the Juggernaut.

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