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Monday, February 19, 2007

DC Stock Art Week, Part 1: The DCU

sgI recently received some wonderful submissions for the Shrine--a number of gorgeous Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez illustrations used as pre-approved DC "stock art" for merchandising and marketing.

Sadly, I cannot reveal who sent these to me--let's just call them "Scooter"--but rest assured it is with great thanks these were sent. We'll be highlighting some of these pieces all week--some of them you've no doubt seen before; some of them I'm pretty sure you haven't!

We start here with a great group shot of the biggest stars of the DCU--interesting how prominent Green Arrow is, considering he is probably, along with Hawkman, the least merchandised of all of these characters (unless there's a Green Arrow Shrine around somewhere).

Man, can that Garcia-Lopez draw!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suh-weet Rob. Love the Garcia Lopez style guides. Even though they came two years before the toy line, I will always associate this art with the Super Powers Collection. Can't wait to see more.

Oh and by the way, there IS a Green Arrow shrine. My comic-collaborating pal Scott McCullar runs it. It's closed for reconstruction right now, but it had a wing much like the Aquaman Shrine covering GA's merchandise. Scott is the foremost expert on GA. Even DC calls on him for info and research!

http://www.greenarrowfansite.com/

Chris

rob! said...

>>Even DC calls on him for info and research!<<

that's my dream. Mr. Levitz, i'm home during the day!

i checked out that link... i always loved GA and hopefully theyll be open for business again soon!

Doug Slack said...

Garcia-Lopez is one of my all time faves. I realize he is following the Neal Adams style, but he's just so damned GOOD at it. I'm almost tempted to say better, but I'm pretty sure that's considered heresy.

Scurvy said...

Truly a talented artist. My first thought was this was probably for the first wave of Super Powers figures. IIRC this is the same group that was in wave 1 for the heroes.

Funny how Aquaman is in the same pose as he is in your banner.

rob! said...

>>Garcia-Lopez is one of my all time faves. I realize he is following the Neal Adams style, but he's just so damned GOOD at it. I'm almost tempted to say better, but I'm pretty sure that's considered heresy.<<

doug, i think youre onto something.

i would say Garcia-Lopez was better at panel-to-panel draftsmanship. his figue drawing is SECOND TO NONE. every person or thing in every panel is just exquisitely rendered.

adams i think was better at drama--at pacing, layout, and the gut-revel realism he brought to comics.

the ideal comic would be layed out and make have breakdowns by adams, pencils by Garcia-Lopez!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I think Garcia-Lopez is the abosolute master of clean, consistent figure drawing. A flashy Curt Swan if you will. The sensibilites of Swan with the added dynamism and touch of gritiness of Adams.

It's a shame Lopez hasn't done more interior comic work. When he does it's always outstanding. His run on Teen Titans made me barely miss Perez, and that' saying something!!!

Chris

J.P. said...

Wow!

Simply amazing! I've been a fan of DC stock art for such a long time. I drooled over the other kids' DC Superhero lunch-boxes. I colored in tons of DC coloring books. I thought the Super Powers packaging was nifty. I had a Superman beach towel obviously designed by Garcia-Lopez. Thanks for sharing, Rob!

PS: I feel crummy asking, but is there a way to get some of the images larger? My eyesight seems to be not what it used to.

Thanks again!