Jim Steranko

Art-wise, it reminded me of Neil Adams for a bit.

And then I realized that it was Steranko, that it was really just the design, the trippy... you know, just collages almost of photos and the layouts.

So I thought about Steranko a lot and his Nick Fury, which was probably another big interest.

And the people, women, you know, obviously, you know, like you said, it's like those, you know, Mac Bolin paperback, you know, like a Robert McGinnis, you know, painting.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, I think I never really thought about the Steranko thing before you just said that, but it is true.

I mean, like he's, you know, like Grell is in that class of artists that came right after Adams that were like, okay, yeah, we can draw things realistically.

But one of the things that I always notice about Grell's work is I always feel like his figures are a little elongated.

Those were the only two that got done.

This is, this is a, this is why Jim Steranko is, I put him in that league with like epic, epic, filmmakers and people like Orson Welles, who did all this great work and then never finished it.

Absolutely.

Brian Bendis says that all the time, that Storenko is the Orson Welles of comics.

And he said, oh, yeah, Dark City, Lost World of Film Noir, Grindhouse.

I have Grindhouse.

So being recognized by Jim Steranko and knowing that he had my work was pretty extraordinary.

I would say that my youthful fantasies, if you want to call them that, have certainly been realized because meeting Steranko and I met Jack Kirby – And I met Leonard Gardner, who wrote my favorite novel, Fat City.

Uh, yeah, he did that.

It's kind of an homage to a Steranko Nick Fury cover.

Uh-

Yeah, I clocked that immediately.

So, we're very excited to welcome to this show for the first time a friend we made at San Diego Comic-Con, Carolina Ravassa, who people don't recognize you without the green hair, but I do have this image just to remind people of...

This is Polaris' first appearance in X-Men number 50, a beautiful cover by Jim Steranko.

I can't afford to purchase that.

But what happens a lot of times, Carolina, is that people like to have voice actors or on-screen actors sign comic books for their characters.

The amount of detail that Danny put into it was astounding.

Some of the architecture kind of reminds me of Kirby, But the figures kind of remind me of almost Neil Adams, Jim Steranko in that there's a realism there, but then there's a bit of dynamism that hearkens to Kirby.

It's really great stuff.

So what's next for the project? You mentioned how you found a printer.

'Cause, you know, television of course was a moving image, but there was nothing near as fantastical as what was in Marvel Comics in the early mid-'60s, you know? So yeah, I grew up reading comic books very intensely, being a fan of particular comic book artists.

You know, I was very aware of who Jack Kirby was, and then Jim Steranko and people like that, you know, in the early '70s.

And that kind of trans-

That's the psychedelic stuff, yeah.

Oh, yes

... and Steranko, and Wrightson-

Yep

...

Now, maybe George is gonna roll out the others, but right now the only Steranko, uh, these were the concept drawings that Steranko did for, uh, these are the concept drawings that Steranko did for Spielberg and Lucas, and he only did four of them.

And if you listen to my podcast on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones, Jim Steranko, search those words, get that podcast.

I will take you through the interviews, the comments that all parties made.

Uh, yes, Jim Steranko of Captain America, of Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel fame, was contacted in 1980, uh, by George and by, uh, by, by Steven about doing this and, and, uh, y- you'll find out why there's only four, why he only did four.

Come on, thing.

There you go.

You also get the designs of the Lucas...

I didn't take pictures of them, foolishly.