Art For Art’s Sake #227: More Than A Bit Of Bret Blevins
by Richard Bruton
Art For Art’s Sake, taking you on a trip around the sequential arts world, just without the need for passports and a nightmare 6hr+ flight…
Warwick Johnson Cadwell – brilliant work from a great artist…
Some of Gigi Cavenago‘s magnificent artwork from The Magic Order (via David Roach)
John McCrea – Batman and Hitman; art by McCrea and Glen Murakami from The Batman Chronicles #4 (1996), story by Garth Ennis
Bernie Wrightson – classic bit of Shadow artwork…
“My cover art for the Overstreet Price Guide 2016 Free Comic Book Day comic. Based on an existing sketch by the creator of The Spirit himself, Will Eisner.”
“This image is a recreation of the cover of issue #14 from Matt Wagner’s Grendel series. The original was penciled by me and then gorgeously painted by fellow Canuck, Ken Steacy. Getting to collaborate with him was a peak experience!”
And the original…
Bill Sienkiewicz – Shaft…
Bill Sienkiewicz – Fury #1 (2001)
The unmistakable Don Martin…
“A page from a strip I’m occasionally working on, which at the moment is called John of the Night and the Golden Bullet.”
Paul Rainey‘s Peter The Slow Drinker from Viz… just perfectly done…
Kevin Maguire – Watchmen adopting a familiar Justice League cover pose…
Tiernen Trevalion – a little Joe Dredd…
And a bit of Judge Mortis…
“A wraparound DREDD cover I did for ZARJAZ magazine a few years ago? (With a bike homage to McMahon..) ..also, the original inked art…”
And more from Kev Crossley, this time one of his cover recreations:
“Here’s another variation of a Gibbons recreation I did in early lockdown. It blends elements of two of his Rogue Trooper covers. Great fun. I enjoyed adding stubble to Rogue the most.”
Greg Smallwood‘s incredible artwork from The Human Target…
A bit of Bret Blevins… (some of these thanks to Richard Starkings)
Luckily for me as a young Marvel fan in the early ’80s, Bret Blevins’ art was across three books I picked up and it was those that made me a lifelong fan. I first saw his art on 1985’s Bozz Chronicles, co-created by Blevins and David Michelinie for Epic Comics – now reprinted and collected by Dover Books). After that, I followed him onto Strange Tales in 1987, which not only had Blevins on Cloak and Dagger but also the draw of Kevin Nowlan’s Doctor Strange. Same year, Blevins moved to New Mutants (1987-1990).
After that, we had Sleepwalker in 1991–1992, followed by a move across to DC, where he’d grace the pages on Batman: Shadow of the Bat and other Batman projects.
Sadly, after 1996 Blevins went from comics to animation – our medium’s loss, animation’s gain – with work on Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond, and Justice League.
Thankfully, Blevins returned to comics in recent years with the 2018 Stellar limited series written by Joe Keatinge. And, something new that I didn’t know before having a look for more of his art to do this, he stepped in to ghost for Mike Manley on the Phantom daily comic strip from 13 July 2022.
Anyway, a fabulous artist, criminally underrated… enjoy!
