Wonder Woman Wednesday

Our favorite Amazon is aspiring to soar to new heights in the new year. She hopes all her fans and all the visitors to Shades of Gray will be successful right along with her!

 

 
 

It's a Fantastic Friday with She-Hulk

During John Byrne's excellent run on "Fantastic Four" during the 1980s and 1990s, She-Hulk joined the team (covering first for the Invisible Woman's leave of absence, than the Thing's). Today, we bring you few illustrations in memory of those days (and in celebration of the new show on Disney Plus, "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law").

 

 

Batgirl will always be here...

 Last year, we celebrated the announcement of a new Batgirl movie entering production, with Leslie Grace playing the title character. Today, we announce that the movie has been unceremoniously shelved, with the reason given that it's not high-budget and glitzy enough.

That's one of the dumbest reasons we've ever heard given for a movie not being released, and we share the sorrow of those who were looking forward to seeing this film (as well as the hundreds of people whose hard work may never seen by audiences).

BUT!

Batgirl will always be here at Shades of Gray, whether in the form of the lovely Yvonne Craig, or in drawings from artists famous and obscure! And we hope heartbroken Batgirl fans will be able to find some solace in this small gallery of art!

We also think you'll find some Batgirl joy in the absolutely, long-running gag strip by Mike Maihack starring Babs and her bestie, Supergirl. Click here to visit Mr. Maihack's website and be ready to smile.
 

Happy Batman Day!

Some say it's on the third Saturday in September. Others say it's on September 21. Whatever the case, Batman Day is as mysterious as the Caped Crusader it is named after! And we're celebrating it with this gallery of fine art portraying Batman along with his friends and foes!

Wonder Woman Wednesday

We're counting the days until Wonder Woman swoops across the Big Screen again... and we're making the time go by faster by posting great portraits of her, by great artists. Look for a post like this every other Wednesday until June 4 is here!

This week, we have portraits of Wonder Woman with her fellow DC Comics Superstars, Batman and Superman!

By Stjepan Sejic

By John Byrne

By Kevin Nowlan

By Ivan Reis

Wonder Woman Wednesday

Wonder Woman is spending this Picture Perfect Wednesday with friends and frienemies.

By Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

By George Perez

By John Byrne

By Ben Dunn

Fantastic Friday!

Next week, the new "Fantastic Four" #1 arrives in comics shops. I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am! As I have on the past few Fridays, here's are some glances back at the Fantastic Four that has been...

By John Byrne

By Art Adams

By Dean Kotz

By George Perez

By Art Adams

By Brian Ching

And, finally, a brief look at the Fantastic Four, brought to us by the first artist of their new series, Sara Pichelli.

By Sara Pichelli

Fantastic Friday!

The first Fantastic Four incarnation I encountered was that drawn by the team of John Buscema (pencils) and Joe Sinnott (inks). Sinnott is perhaps the artist whose work has graced more pages than anyone one else since he inked the the title steadily from 1965 through 1981. In addition to being teamed with Buscema, Sinnott inked Jack Kirby, George Perez, John Romita, Rich Buckler and more.

While, as a whole, the John Byrne era of the Fantastic Four is my favorite, visually it's the John Buscema/ Joe Sinnott team that will always be the definitive Fantastic Four for me, because they are the art team that brought their adventures to life when I first fell in love with Reed, Sue. Ben, and Johnny.

There's a new chapter in the long history of the First Family of Comics starting next month. August 2018. Will it come close to matching my favorite periods in FF history? I hope so. Meanwhile, here's a look back with portraits of the Fantastic Four by the four fantastic artists who made them look their best.

By Joe Sinnott

By John Buscema

By John Byrne

By Jack Kirby (who started it all)

Happy Birthday, Superman!

April 18, 2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the very first appearance of Superman! In celebration, I am posting some drawings of the Man of Steel by my favorite Superman artists, in the order they come to mind.

First, there's Curt Swan, who drew Superman during 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. I don't think he'll ever be topped. His art was especially good when inked by Murphy Anderson.

Next, there's John Byrne, as a close second. He didn't have anywhere near Swan's track record on the character, but his breif tenure during the mid-1980s was very impactful and carried the character through the 1990s.

Gil Kane didn't do a lot of work on Superman, but the stories he did draw (in Action Comics and a couple Specials in the 1980s) were spectacular!

Finally, there's Jose Luis Garcia Lopez who, sadly, spent most of his career in DC Comics' licensing arm drawing style sheets and merchandising artwork, but he drew some spectacular Superman team-up stories in early issues of DC Comics Presents. I'm ending this survey of the Man of Tomorrow's yesterdays with a drawing from his that shows Superman's changing looks from his debut in 1938 through to the 1990s.



Wonder Woman Wednesday!

In anticipation of the forthcoming Wonder Woman film, here are some portraits of everyone's favorite Amazon Princess!

By John Byrne

By Sergio Xantos

By Oliver Nome

By Alex Ogle

By H.G. Peter, the first artist to draw Wonder Woman