My Heroine Addiction: Original Artwork

Some years ago, I wrote a series of posts here at DN, which I called “My Heroine Addition”. In those blogs I would discuss and provide examples of the costumed, lady crimefighters of the Golden Age of comics. The series stopped when I eventually succumbed to writers block. However my fascination with superheroines continues unabated to this day.
I retired from my job in 2016 and since then I’ve heavily indulged in my passion for collecting original comic art. A significant portion of these acquisitions have been works depicting such characters. I didn’t limit myself to the GA but included all eras. So I would like to share with you some pieces that reside within my archives.
I feel compelled to begin with the character who most consider the most iconic of the genre. I speak of course of Wonder Woman.

This version of the Amazon princess was executed by June Brigman. June has been a professional cartoonist since the early 1980’s. She was co-creator with Louise Simonson of the Marvel series POWER PACK and today draws the syndicated newspaper strip, MARY WORTH.
Robert Hack is the artist for the Gothic-Horror series CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA, as well as a cover artist for a multitude of publishers that include Archie, Boom, Dynamite, IDW and DC. I first met him at a convention in 2013 and over time we’ve developed a nice friendship. I have several pieces by him the exhibit Wonder Woman, but this one is special to me as he gifted it to me for my birthday.

 

This depiction of her was based on the 1940’s iteration of the character and is handsomely drawn by Don Simpson, creator of MEGATONMAN.

I bought this model sheet done by Steve Rude back in 1998. For the longest time I was unsure of what it was created for, but eventually found out that it was for a commercially produced sculpture.

When DC introduced American artists to a rash of Philippine artists in the 70’s, one of the first to grab my attention was Alex Nino. Primarily he worked in the supernatural and sci-fi genres and seemed to eschew superhero work. I had long been curious how he might have handled Dianna and in 2016, I commissioned this to find out.

 

During the Golden Age there was another lady hero whose popularity rivaled Wonder Woman’s. I refer to Mary Marvel who was featured in WOW COMICS, THE MARVEL FAMILY and in her own title. I commissioned Canadian artist, Gisele Lagace for a version of the character. Gisele has no problem with doing bombshell and cheesecake art, but here I specifically requested a modest and innocent take. Ms. Lagace has worked on ARCHIE, KITTY MUST DIE, BETTER BOOP and her web-comic MANAGE A 3. This fall Image will be publishing her new series called EXORSISTERS.

I asked Mike Hoffman for his interpretation of the Silver Age Hawkgirl and the result did not disappoint me!

The name Captain Marvel has been used by a number of publishers and characters over the years. Here are two based on the current Marvel Comics incarnation. The first is by Fred Hembeck and is of course done in his signature and idiosyncratic style. The second is by the Brazilian artist named Rodrigo Cardoso. Before seeing this image, I had never before encountered his art. But upon seeing it I fell in love with it and had to make it mine.

Fantomeh was an obscure GA heroine that was created by the cult cartoonist, Fletcher Hanks for Fiction House’s JUNGLE COMICS.  This year I arranged for Francesco Francavilla to provide me his take on her.

The Phantom Lady had a weird history of publication. Initially she was found in the pages of the Quality series POLICE COMICS, where she served as a back up feature in the first 23 issues. Later the character came to Fox and was featured in her own series and in ALL-TOP COMICS. Finally, in the 50’s she wound up at Ajax-Ferrell. Here are two versions. First is a cheesecake type done by Steve Mannion and it’s based of the design created by Matt Baker at Fox. The second is by Gisele Lagace who used a masked design that was created by Joe Kubert at Quality.

Next up are a pair of DC heroines, Powergirl and the Huntress, which are done by Ramona Fradon. At age 91, Ramona has lost not a whit of her drawing ability. This is followed by a buxom Powergirl by Hack.

I have a great fascination with the comics and artists who come from the Philippines. In the Golden Age artist Nestor Redondo co-created the character Darna. I think that it’s fair to say that she is that nation’s equivalent to Wonder Woman and is enormously popular there, appearing in comics, films and on television. I asked two very different artists for their version of her. The first, B&W one is by Mike Hoffman and the second and color one by Rudy Nebres.

I would call Dan Parent the dean of the current “Classic Archie” cartoonists. In June I asked him for this iteration of Flygirl.

 
I’ll finish things up with this lovely, cheesecake version of Black Canary by Steve Mannion. Steve is one of my very favorite artists working in comics today. In this version you could almost imagine her as Marilyn Monroe doing a cosply off BC!

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