Tuesday, February 1, 2011

1998 Unused Martian Manhunter Cover Art by Christopher Moeller

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After the post on the 1998 DC Direct Martian Manhunter Poster by Christopher Moeller was published, I received the following email...

Hail Diabolu!

Saw you yakking about the old DC poster I did of MM and thought I'd send along a couple scans. The one you have on your blog was one of a proposed pair of covers that never got used. The one you've got was #2, and was made into a poster. #1 was never used for anything, but I've always liked it.

best,

Chris

As you can see, the art above is beautiful, and the editors responsible for its going unpublished for thirteen years should be brought to justice for their crime against good taste. Presumably, this was intended for the Martian Manhunter ongoing series which launched that same year. I would have much fonder memories of that series had Christopher Moeller been the cover artist, as evidenced by his glorious two year run on Lucifer. It would be like how I thumb through my collection of hundreds of Wonder Woman comics with covers by George Perez, Brian Bolland, José Luis García-López, Adam Hughes and J.G. Jones, of which I liked reading maybe fifty. I also haven't exactly been looking forward to a possible Martian Manhunter comic spun-off from Brightest Day, but it would be completely validated as an enterprise with Moeller as cover artist. Do check out his illustration site, won't you?

Finally, I was a good boy and asked permission to post the art...

"Of course you may post the scans I sent you. Where but on your MM blog SHOULD they live?"

Huzzah!

Update: 1998 Martian Manhunter Project by Marz, Hitch & Moeller

8 comments:

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said...

nice! this guys style kinda reminds me of Simon Bisley. a damn shame this would have made a nice cover. that was cool of him to contact your directly.

Tom Hartley said...

I liked Tom Mandrake's covers just fine, but this... WOW!

mathematicscore said...

THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.

Martian Manhunter: Super-powered Alien warrior. Why wasn't he hanging out with the Satellite League post Crisis? He was busy bring peace to a galaxy far far away BY PUNCHING ARMIES IN THE FACE.

Sorry, nergasm.

mathematicscore said...

Also, would this not have FLOWN off the shelves with him as a cover artist? FUDGE.

Diabolu Frank said...

M.C., I knew you would dig it the most. One minute you're talking about wanting more "barbarian" Martian Manhunter over the introspective variety, the next this in in my mailbox. Synchronicity.

Man, I too want more stories of the "lost years" that don't involve J'onn cowering/being dumb while Superman does all the work.

Anonymous said...

I have an idea for the blog. Its fine if you don’t use it, it was just an idea. Since it is the start of February it means that March Madness is right around the corner. What if you do a bracket of MM villains and have them battle and give like a one sentence on the reason they won? I just think it would be a fun and creative idea even though it may sound lame.

Diabolu Frank said...

Actually, I think that's an interesting idea. I spent so much of last year analyzing and discussing villains that I'm kind of burnt out on it, but if you and/or other commentators want to put something together, I'll post it. That, or maybe I could do it in poll form, and let readers decide for themselves who advances. Anyone else think this is worth doing?

mathematicscore said...

I love a good tournament. Vile menagerie open-weight grand prix any one?

I think the polling idea is a good one.