Comic Cover Version an Interesting Experiment
By Dan Brown We all know what covers of songs are. Well, this summer I read my first cover version of a comic. It’s an interesting idea, with obvious nostalgia appeal for old-school superhero fans like yours truly. The issue that was covered was Giant Size X-Men No.1 from 1975, which was the first Marvel comic to feature Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus as a team. (Wolverine had made his first-ever appearance the previous year in the pages of the Hulk’s monthly title.) The cover version is billed as a tribute to the work done 50 years ago by creators Dave Cockrum and Len Wein, who were given the assignment of rebooting the X-Men series, which in the mid-1970s had been dormant for some time. The pair were told to come up with a new team, one which hopefully revive interest in mutants, and also sell into foreign markets – that’s why the new characters were a mix of nationalities. It features the work of such artists as Mike del Mundo, Alex Ross and Takeshi Miyazawa. If for nothing else, older readers can appreciate it as a one-stop introduction to the hottest modern-day pencillers and painters. Each artist covers one page from the original. For example, Ross did the opening splash page featuring the then-new class of mutants to be tutored by Charles Xavier in how to control their abilities and use them for the benefit of both mutants and humankind. So Ross brings his painterly realism to a group pose that was rendered by Cockrum back in the day. For the most part, the artists keep the panels as they were – many of them tipping their hats to Cockrum by showing how his original compositions were perfect in the first place. Few of them deviate from the original pages because the assignment was to tip their hats to Cockrum and Wein. There are some exceptions, such as the pages by Stephen Segovia and Joshua Cassara featuring Wolverine. The Canuck brawler looks a little more like the character he would eventually develop into. The book also includes the original 36-page story, so readers can compare the two versions, as well as other bonus material including comments from each of the individuals who were invited to participate in the project. Giant Size X-Men No. 1 is famous because it brought the X-Men back to life. The cover is also famous because Gil Kane mis-drew Wolverine’s mask, mistakenly giving him the headgear we are all familiar with today. It also featured the mutant island of Krakoa, which would decades later become an integral player in the history of the X-Men as their tropical sanctuary. Wein’s script is mostly intact. A "minor rewrite" was done “to address contemporary concerns about language.” I don’t approve of sanitizing stories from the past as a rule, however, the fact is I didn’t even notice the changes. As far as cover versions of songs go, I am of two minds. Some of them I appreciate for what the cover musicians bring to the old tunes. Other times, I can only hope young listeners will be turned on enough to trace the song back to its origins and come to appreciate musicians from yesteryear. Giant Size X-Men No.1 is the first cover version of a comic I have read, so I will wait to see if Marvel (or DC) publish any others before I make up my mind entirely on how I feel about them as a genre. It’s just awesome to know creators such as Cockrum and Wein were influential enough to inspire the current crop of artists and writers to take comic books seriously as an artform, moving the industry forward into the present day. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
