At 2½ years in waiting, this piece's presentation is far from my worst patron offense. I bought a
Martian Manhunter figure sketch off eBay a good quarter-century ago, maybe more. I got it cheap and was never 100% sure of its legitimacy, but to quote Sean Connery's character in
The Untouchables, "Who would claim to be that who was not?" If you were going to forge a Kevin Maguire drawing, surely you'd pick a more commercial character than J'Onn J'Onzz? Anyway, when I got a
Professor Arnold Hugo head sketch from Maguire at Comicpalooza 2014, I asked him about it. He barely looked up from his current drawing to dismissively note words to the effect of "looks like me." Good enough, I figure.
Anyway, I pumped up the contrast on the drawing at a Xerox machine located in a gas station across the street from the comic shop I ran at the time, and used those copies as templates for dozens of Martian Manhunter redesign attempts, none as good as
Jim Lee's. Yeah, I don't think that phrasing gets used much, either.
The drawing was so faint, not helped by the cheap acidic paper that it was draw on steadily browning, that I was always afraid of "losing" the image to the elements. Inking in comics is a lost art, and I have much respect for it. That said, I've had some... let's say "misadventures" in my previous inking attempts. One specific piece has been referred to as my personal
"Monkey Christ". I've had lousy experiences with seasoned veterans, awesome ones with unknowns, and vice versa. I was precious with my Maguire Manhunter, but I've had opportunities to get the image immortalized by folks who had inked Maguire on
Justice League International. For various reasons, I never pulled the trigger.
Finally, I tumbled upon Tony Kordos in NOLA, and I really liked his stuff. Unbeknownst to me, he's a pro who did a fair amount of work at DC during the New 52. He seems to be Paul Pelletier's inker of choice, working over him on such titles as
Batman & Robin Eternal, Cyborg, and the Skybound continuation of
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. I told Kordos that he was free to embellish, rather than slavishly reproduced, and I truly loved the modern flourishes that he added to the '80s style original linework. It gives the piece a pop that it didn't have before, and I'd hope Maguire would be as happy with the collaboration as I was. I haven't caught Kordos at any other shows, but I picked up a real inker's showcase since that I hope he'll take a hand in...
Tony Kordos
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