WolfieToons by Dave Wolfe

WolfieToons by Dave Wolfe

Friday, May 13, 2011

Who's Hughes



Thought I'd share some of the humor and remarkable illustration of Adam Hughes.




"That's nice, Wolfie.  Who?"  Ah!  (Which is how he signs his work, AH!)  You've seen one of the first things he did in 1990:




I've always thought that what made that cover, besides blonde Julie's adorable pout, is the reaction from her crew mates.  The space dragons are interested, too, but it's always hard to read dragon expressions.  There are nice artistic touches, too, like positioning the woman's pointing thumb on the fold so that you want to turn the thing over to see the rest of the wrap-around cover, and the copy on the back as well.   


Since then, both Adam's skill and the printing processes for comic book covers have improved exponentially.




Pretty cool, eh?  I love Adam's sense of humor, which ranges from gentle and warm to downright wicked.  The kids Wonder Woman is entertaining crack me up!




When young Billy Batson says the magic word "Shazam!" he becomes the world's mightiest mortal, Captain Marvel.  His sister Mary also undergoes a spectacular transformation.




And this... well, this is kind of a sad story.




As you see, Mr. Hughes excels at characterization.  Even if you don't know who these people are supposed to be, their expressions, postures and the myriad other details tell you lots about them.





Now, even I don't know who two of those women are.  But everyone will recognize these:









Adam does a lot of drawings for fans.  Here's the scene we didn't get to see:




A take on Tinker Bell:




Susan Richards, the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four, and her two offspring:  






Captain America, as he appeared in his first 1941 comic:




Don't mess with the Black Canary.




Really.  Don't.  




Transformations are hard on clothes.  The sensational She-Hulk:




Speaking of tough women, there was a Marvel Comics character meant to epitomize the Women's Liberation Movement of the early 70's.  Sometimes you have to be a little extreme to make a point:




And, touching on things mythological, here's the... er,  face that launched a thousand ships:




Gamers will recognize Lara Croft:




Adam has designed some statuettes, too.  Here's the plan for Donna Troy, AKA Wonder Girl:




And this one of Peter Parker's wife Mary Jane doing the family laundry raised a fuss with some folks.  I have no idea why. 






And, to wrap it up for now, here is my favorite Adam Hughes Wonder Woman drawing, done to raise money for charity.






More about Adam Hughes and his art is on line, natch!

5 comments:

  1. Who's Hughes! Sounds like the punchline in an Abbott and Costello routine, and that is a good thing.

    DW, thanks so much for this presentation of the tremendously talented Adam Hughes. I have seen some of his work but wasn't familiar with the artist himself. I must confess that before I met you, Dave, I was not too aware of the talent behind the canvass But now that I have an inkling of all the hard work entailed in creating the drawing I have a much greater appreciation for not only the art but the artist.




    i

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  2. I had seen the Mary Jane washing statue on the newssites a long time ago, and the spanking cover, but didn't know it was the same guy! Now I've Googled a lot more of his pinups! Thanks for the name and the show!

    EH

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  3. Thanks, Guys!

    Yeah, Mike, if we were bakers instead of bloggers, we could get paid for loafing! I think the storytellers are often as interesting as the stories!

    Thanks, EH-- no doubt you've seen the parody of that "Legends of the Stargrazers" cover that someone did with the the "Futurama" characters! His work is everywhere-- Hughes is huge!

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  4. Glad you enjoyed it, Wordsmith!

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