Polaris
One of my favorite comic book covers of all time is X-Men #50 the introduction of Lorna Dane, the girl with green hair & magnetic powers who would eventually become the X-Man Polaris by Jim Steranko.
I’ve never actually been a big Kirby fan (although he has grown on me over the years) my guy was Steranko: his work stood out more from the school of fine art than cartooning and he was a little hipper, a little darker than the squares you usually find in the early days of comics. Kirby & Ditko are like Lennon & McCartney, sure they’re greats but Steranko’s the George, taking you on wild trips like Within You Without You but still delivering a Something & Here Comes the Sun when you need it.
(Also I’m a Lorna stan – I love all the magnetic power girls, her DC counterpart Frances Kane and Doom Patrol’s Rhea Jones)
This cover is just so striking, you didn’t see a lot of books in monochromatics on spinner racks back then and the mood is more spooky than superheroics, is she a mutant or is she possessed?
Anyway, I wanted to do my own cover version (har). One day I’d like to do a book just of all my favorite covers through comics, kind of like a punk album.
Normal pen & ink and then printed on watercolor paper. I experimented with green metallic paint cos I wanted her costume to have a cool, liquid metal finish.
