MY FIRST COVER RECREATION...

Captain America #193 was the issue Jack Kirby returned not only to Marvel, but to writing and drawing the hero he created along with Joe Simon.  The cover, inked by John Romita, was an experiment in creating a 3D effect.  The gimmick didn't work out as planned, according to what I've read, but we were still presented with one of the most dynamic comic book covers ever created.  It's definitely my favorite cover of all time.

I managed to get a copy of the book several years ago at Anime Weekend Atlanta, and always had it hanging on the wall.  The cover is just so inspiring to me.  In early 2012 I decided to try remaking the cover with Megaman.  If you know me at all, you know I love drawing Megaman!  Shortly after I penciled it, my computer crashed and was unable to be repaired.  At the time, the funds to get a new one just weren't available to me until December.

By the time I got new system, I had amassed quite a collection of unfinished pencil artwork I'd done during those lonely 8 months without a computer.  I figured if I wanted to do this recreation the way I imagined, I would need one.

With everything back in order, I went straight for the pencils I made and began inking away.  By the time I was done, I really liked the way it came out.  The colors were done with a mouse, but I didn't use my normal color mapping technique, so the inks were preserved.  I don't currently use a tablet, which is why I usually map my colors out with a pen.  The results of my color mapping often render the original art useless, unless I do them from a photocopy.  This cover has been in my Deviant Art gallery for a little while now, but I really wanted to tell the story about it here.  I hope you enjoy seeing the stages and the finished product!  Here are the pencil, ink and color stages with a few notes:

The original pencils were done on 8 1/2 X 11 typing paper.  Here is a photo of the pencils alongside the actual comic book.

Here are the inks!  I traded Falcon for Protoman, and replaced all of the angry mob with Robot Masters.  Can you name all of them?  The little Megaman in the upper left was eventually redrawn and digitally resized to fit with the other text and images.

Here is the finished product!  I used Photoshop Elements 9 and Photo Impression 4 quite a bit in this stage.  I digitally transferred the "Madbomb" text and all of the rest from a scan of the original cover, also digitally adding the Megaman logo at the top.  I changed the text in the blurb where it normally said "King Kirby is back!", to "Inafking is back!", referring to Keiji Inafune, the "father" of Megaman, who recently left Capcom.  I digitally signed it as "GMF" in the upper left where the month of release was previously, and added a dedication at the bottom where Kirby and Romita's signatures were.  Now that this one is complete, I've set my sites on recreating Liefeld and McFarlane's classic New Mutants #87 cover with Megaman! Later!!