Friday, January 03, 2020

Original Art Friday! 1/3/20 Gil Kane & John Severin

Maybe my playlist of The Doors "The End," Springsteen's cover of Edwin Starr's "War" and Country Joe's "Fixin' To Die Rag" wasn't the best audio choice this morning, but all those dark feelings shall abate as we do a deep dive into ORIGINAL ART FRIDAY! That magical moment when I share yet another piece of art from the MV library...

Today it's a cool cover drawn by the inimitable Gil Kane (I know, I've tried to imitable him!) and inked by the equally awesome John Severin. Two legends of comics, together on the same page! Sadly the art page itself has seen somewhat better days, but the genius of design and figure drawing is still wildly evident. I especially like the sense of action we get from Two Gun (he's the guy in the dust) as he rolls over to surprise those two owlhoots with his blazing six guns.

But a moment, if you will, to consider the fates of those two clearly bad gents. Was their destiny written early in their lives, or was it some tragic turn that led them to a life of crime and the attempted murder of a Western hero wearing a Lone Ranger mask? These two woke up that morning, pulled up their pants, tossed back coffee (or maybe whisky), then strapped on their gunbelts never anticipating the grim fate in store for them. So yes, take just a moment to remember these long dead hombres, whose names I don't have since I don't own this book... okay, that's long enough.

Two Gun Kid was one of several Marvel Western "kid" comics (alongside Kid Colt Outlaw, Rawhide Kid, Outlaw Kid and Kid Kid the Kid -- sorry, on that last one I kid!) that survived well into the 70's and off and on since. I had not kept up on recent (i.e., the last 25 years) events in Mr. Kid's life so I was perplexed to read in the ever-accurate Wikipedia that in 1995 Two Gun fought a battle with weapons he brought back from the future (!), was rescued from time travel limbo by She-Hulk (!!), then joined the Avengers! 😳

Well, sorry, but he'll always be simply Two Gun to me, blasting "too slow hombres" from the dirt and wishing he had a TV show like that dumb Long Ranger guy...

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