First it was “The Block”: a long-forgotten comic collaboration between book packager Byron Preiss and comic-art legend Jim Steranko that I stumbled across in my Internet travels. Now here’s another pleasant discovery.
For years the site Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues (formerly Brave and the Bold: The Lost Issues) has presented—through the magic of Photoshop—covers of comic book superhero mash-ups that never were, and in all likelihood never will be, by combining the works of artists whose styles complement each other. Case in point: on a recent visit to the site I came across these two entries featuring pulp-action hero Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze—taken from book covers painted by SWC’s own Bob Larkin! Bob is considered to be one of the greatest Doc Savage cover painters of all time, right behind his mentor, James Bama, who developed Doc’s signature look for Bantam Books.
Matched up with Bob for these covers are Captain America by John Cassaday (Star Wars, Planetary, Astonishing X-Men) and Hawkman by…I don’t know; I don’t recognize the image, and the site doesn’t list the artist. (Then again, they don’t list Bob’s name for any of his work on the site; they seem to think it’s by Joe Jusko. Bob was one of Jusko’s mentors/inspirations.) There are other entries featuring Bob’s paintings—for example, one of his Planet of the Apes covers combined with a Jusko Hulk, and a Nick Fury image matched with James Bond (by Robert McGinnis?), Doc Savage, Indiana Jones (by Dave Dorman?), and Batman—so visit Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues for all the comic book team-ups you’ve dreamed about seeing. Since the site’s constantly being updated, if the team-ups you’re looking for aren’t there, it’s probably only a matter of time before they show up!
By the way, Doc Savage fans, StarWarp Concepts is the publisher of The Bob Larkin Sketchbook: 24 pages of spectacular pencil drawings of Doc Savage, Pat Savage, the Shadow, and a host of other subjects by the talented Mr. Larkin. The sketchbook is available exclusively from the StarWarp Concepts webstore, so order one today and prepare to be superamalgamated! Visit the Bob Larkin Sketchbook product page for all the ordering information, as well as sample pages.
