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Cavalcade Comics #8 – Kool-Aid Man gets some NAHTZEE scalps!

Posted in comic books, Kool Aid, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic covers, Kool Aid, vintage, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on May 26, 2015 by Paxton

I mentioned last issue that I had a few holiday issues coming up. This was the first one. This is the Memorial Day issue of Cavalcade Comics Vintage Comic Throwdown! And in honor of all the men fighting in our armed forces, I have created this cover featuring Kool-Aid Man doing all he can for the war effort by conquering all those damn NAH-tzees.

Back in the Golden Age, it seemed like EVERY super hero got into scraps with the bad guys. It’s time Kool-Aid Man got in a few shots of his own. Last issue with Magnus, I went for a more serious, hard sci-fi cover. This is a little bit more of a goofy, Golden Age cover. And I love it because of that.

Again, like my double Ghost Rider issue, I have a variant cover for you.

This was the original cover concept when I began. Kool-Aid Man jumping out of a time machine ready to kick some ass. And I do love this cover, but I decided to use more of the original Nazi cover from The Victor 1971 Summer Special. Going that route though was a lot more work because I had to take out the soldier from the window and recreate all the breaking window glass. I also had to recreate several sections of the wall due to logo coverage. But honestly, I think it was worth it.

Below are the covers I mashed up. On the left is the aforementioned The Victor Summer Special. On the right is The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man #2. You can see the time machine concept and Kool-Aid’s body came from the latter issue. Surprisingly, I didn’t create Kool-Aid’s frown in my Nazi cover. That actually comes from The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man #4 where he’s scowling at the villain, Scorch.

Victor Summer Special - 1971-0001 [RobotArchie] kool_aid_man_002-001

I do have one other “holiday issue”. It’ll be for the 4th of July. So that’s when you can expect the next issue. Happy Memorial Day week everyone!

Cavalcade Comics #7 – Magnus Robot Fighter on Skull Island

Posted in comic books, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, comic covers, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on April 6, 2015 by Paxton

Here we are at issue #7 of Cavalcade Comics’ Vintage Comic Throwdown! This month I’m taking on a different type of comic cover…the painted cover. These types of covers were very prominent in the 60s and 70s. Plus, I used this opportunity to give the logo and the corner box a bit of an overhaul. I may go back to the older version, but I like this new one too.

For the actual cover battle, I decided to use one of my favorite absurd characters from back in the day. He’s just one of those kooky, high concept characters that could have only been created in the 60s. So, without further ado, here’s Magnus Robot Fighter. And he’s trapped on the infamous Skull Island.

In case you didn’t know, Magnus is from the future. He’s from a future where robots have enslaved humanity. He is taught by a robot how to fight other robots and also how to harden his hands to punch and slice through metal. So, Magnus goes on a robot killing rampage to free the future human race. I thought it would be interesting to take this character that’s so identified with fighting robots and place him in a place where there are NO robots. Hello, Magnus, have you met…Skull Island?

Magnus Robot Fighter vs Dinosaurs seemed like a winning concept to me. Plus, I love the tagline I created at the bottom, “Trapped!…In a Land Without Robots!” It was one of the first things that popped into my head and I couldn’t get it out until I finished this cover.

Behind the scenes…I used several different covers to bring this masterpiece to life. Magnus himself comes from Russ Manning’s Magnus Robot Fighter #7 (1963).

As you can see I took pretty much only Magnus from this cover and the laser blast on his back I converted to the fist burst for his punch. The rest of the comic was pieced together from several different issues of Turok Son of Stone with most of the elements coming from issues #35 and #90.

turoksonofstone90 turoksonofstone35

I may have also taken a stray Pterodactyl and a volcano from some other nameless Turok issues. I can’t remember, it all sort of blended together at the end there.

I still have at least three of these covers stashed away for future use. One of those covers is a very special holiday issue. Either Memorial Day or July 4th. I haven’t decided which just yet.

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Cavalcade Comics #4 – Ghost Rider vs Ghost Rider Halloween showdown!

Posted in comic books, pop culture with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, comic covers, Ghost Rider, Marvel Comics, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on September 24, 2014 by Paxton

Welcome to issue #4 of my Vintage Comic Throwdown series where I pit character vs character in a vintage comic book cover showdown.

This time, since we are only DAYS away from the start of AWESOME-tober-fest 2014, I thought I would do a somewhat Halloween-type throwdown featuring two “supernatural” characters. And I chose two incarnations of the Ghost Rider character. Check out my cover for Cavalcade Comics #4 – Ghost Rider vs Ghost Rider.

Many people may not realize that Ghost Rider actually started out as a Golden Age gunfighter character that debuted in 1949’s Tim Holt Western Comics #11. The character was originally owned by Magazine Enterprises but was bought out by Marvel and revamped in the 70s into a motorcycle riding demon. And now I have them battling each other on the city streets.

For those that like to know, this cover is primarily based on Marvel’s Ghost Rider #31 from 1978 (left) and I took the original Ghost Rider from Ghost Rider #2 from 1950 (right).

Ghost Rider 31 Ghost Rider 02

Because this is a special Halloween issue, I decided to make an alternate cover. This second cover is based instead on an old Golden Age Ghost Rider cover instead of the newer Marvel cover.

Imagine that this is the direct cover and the previous one is the newsstand cover.

Continue reading →

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In honor of Memorial Day, 16 vintage comic covers featuring wartime superheroes

Posted in Americana, comic books, holiday, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, comic covers, DC Comics, holiday, Marvel Comics, Memorial Day, Superman on May 28, 2012 by Paxton

It’s Memorial Day. Hope everyone has had a great holiday weekend. In honor of this day that honors our armed forces, here are some awesomely vintage, patriotic comic book covers featuring our favorite heroes during wartime. See our heroes doing their part to give Hitler a sock in the jaw!

I found many of these covers on Comic Browser.