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This was commission that I received a ways back and only recently finished. The rough is pretty "comprehensive", as they say but I changed the spacing of the elements and decluttered things a bit. Those sci-fi pillars are there for design purposes mainly: The Vision is looking upward (maybe having a vision of the SW) and I wanted to have something moving the viewer's eye up... an upward thrusting. And I wanted to have a dream like quality to the environment, and hence, keep things vague. So instead of trying to draw a lab or something like that, I opted for free-floating pieces of machinery that might suggest the Vision's android nature. [Quick marker rough below, followed by final piece]    Way back when (early 70s) I was talking to renowned comics writer/artist Howard Chaykin in his upstart studio about my inability to increase my work speed. He suggested that I pick up some cover assignments at Marvel because covers paid rate and a half, as well as having high visibility. Seemed like a pretty persuasive argument for digging up some cover assignments.
By coincidence, the next time I dropped by editor Carl Potts' office, he was struggling with the layout for a Defenders cover. I causally asked if he would be interested in having me take a crack at it. He had me look the script over and, sitting on his office couch, doodled out a rough for the cover above. (I wish things always worked so smoothly in the comics world.) He had Bill Sienkievicz do the inking. I was a bit skeptical of the decision since Bill's approach is/was radically different than mine but really liked the result. See the printed cover  Posted by Sandy on Facebook on July 13:
"It's been a while since I left the multiplex with a spring in my step after seeing a super hero movie, but "Spider-man: Homecoming" was a complete delight. Who would have thought corporations the size of Sony and Marvel Entertainment could produce a movie with a real heart?"  Jim asked Sandy about the above artwork. Sandy: Carl Potts was the editor on this six-issue Solomon Kane mini series. This was another character dreamed up by the prolific author who created Conan, Robert E. Howard. Carl asked me to adapt "The Homecoming", one of REH's best pieces of writing, as a back-up feature. "Great," I thought, "love that poem — full of melancholy and the sorrow of a restless heart." Only problem is that Carl wanted the entire adaption crammed into two pages. I protested, but to no avail. Well, the job was a complete disaster. Bad penciling, inking, coloring, lettering and reproduction. A real embarrassment. A few years later I got it into my head to adapt the poem again and this time do it justice. Think I was planning on five pages but never got passed the first (below). So it goes.  Page 1 of a not-completed redo of Solomon Kane's Homecoming by Sandy Plunkett  Jim asked Sandy about the above artwork. Sandy: Actually, this is one of the few images posted on this blog that doesn't have a story attached to it. I believe it was the second Defenders cover I did for Marvel. Pretty straight ahead assignment. Though no one ever mentioned a similarity, I got the inspiration for the scene from a Michael Golden Dr. Strange cover that had come out a few months earlier. Not a case of swiping really, but bringing my toe dangerously close to the line. My coloring, and another strong inking job by Alan Weiss.  Another view of this New Defenders cover  The Dr. Strange cover Sandy mentions above |
BLOGaboutPlunkett-fan Jim Harris interviewing Sandy about past and present projects. Archives
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