Rai #0's rarely mentioned cover secret...
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- greg
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Rai #0's rarely mentioned cover secret...
Most of us "marvel" at the simplicity of Rai #0's cover...
three colors, very striking Bloodshot silhouette on the red circle
(without the silhouette, the cover would resemble Japan's flag)... but...
...did you know that Rai #0 cover artist Dave Lapham may have "borrowed"
the silhouette for Bloodshot from a Mike Zeck pin-up of Punisher?
[Edit: Rai #0 cover artist Jim Shooter definitely "borrowed" this image... see below.]
This pin-up of the Punisher appeared in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
Deluxe Edition #10 (1986).
(Silhouette on the right created from the Punisher pin-up.)
three colors, very striking Bloodshot silhouette on the red circle
(without the silhouette, the cover would resemble Japan's flag)... but...
...did you know that Rai #0 cover artist Dave Lapham may have "borrowed"
the silhouette for Bloodshot from a Mike Zeck pin-up of Punisher?
[Edit: Rai #0 cover artist Jim Shooter definitely "borrowed" this image... see below.]
This pin-up of the Punisher appeared in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
Deluxe Edition #10 (1986).
(Silhouette on the right created from the Punisher pin-up.)
Last edited by greg on Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:27:24 pm, edited 3 times in total.
- greg
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What are you talking about?Todd Luck wrote:Well, the red dot resembles one of Japan's flags anyway. Thats why I always thought the need to explain the markings on Rai was a little silly. He's the patrotic hero of Japan, so of course he resembles one of their flags. What's next? A story to explain why Captian America wears stars and strips ?
This topic isn't about the red circle...
it's about the "swipe" of the Punisher!
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Shrug.greg wrote:What are you talking about?Todd Luck wrote:Well, the red dot resembles one of Japan's flags anyway. Thats why I always thought the need to explain the markings on Rai was a little silly. He's the patrotic hero of Japan, so of course he resembles one of their flags. What's next? A story to explain why Captian America wears stars and strips ?
This topic isn't about the red circle...
it's about the "swipe" of the Punisher!
I was responding to your first paragraph.
- Todd Luck
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Actually I was waiting to respond to the rest until I looked up this. I'm not really surprised at the swipe since I read about it years ago. Are you sure it was Lapham who did it though?
From a Shooter interview from Blood of Heroes website...
And the whole red circle, that was tying into the Japanese flag, the rising sun, and Rai's legacy?
Yes. Here's a little-known fact: I actually drew the cover to Rai #0. It was just a silhouette, so someone had to fill it in and ink the dot. We had obviously planned the look of the character by that point. And I should admit this, in the interest of fairness: I was looking at a drawing that Mike Zeck did. I mean, I'm not that good an artist and the only reason I did it was that we didn't have anybody with a free pair of hands who could do it. If we'd had a real artist available, somebody else could have done it, but I ended up doing this because it was a silhouette. I figured, You know, I could do this. So I did just to save time for Bob and for Don and the other guys. I don' t think anybody could tell it was done by an amateur.
http://www.geocities.com/angelo_mortall ... ooter.html
From a Shooter interview from Blood of Heroes website...
And the whole red circle, that was tying into the Japanese flag, the rising sun, and Rai's legacy?
Yes. Here's a little-known fact: I actually drew the cover to Rai #0. It was just a silhouette, so someone had to fill it in and ink the dot. We had obviously planned the look of the character by that point. And I should admit this, in the interest of fairness: I was looking at a drawing that Mike Zeck did. I mean, I'm not that good an artist and the only reason I did it was that we didn't have anybody with a free pair of hands who could do it. If we'd had a real artist available, somebody else could have done it, but I ended up doing this because it was a silhouette. I figured, You know, I could do this. So I did just to save time for Bob and for Don and the other guys. I don' t think anybody could tell it was done by an amateur.
http://www.geocities.com/angelo_mortall ... ooter.html
- greg
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Great quote...Todd Luck wrote:Actually I was waiting to respond to the rest until I looked up this. I'm not really surprised at the swipe since I read about it years ago. Are you sure it was Lapham who did it though?
From a Shooter interview from Blood of Heroes website...
And the whole red circle, that was tying into the Japanese flag, the rising sun, and Rai's legacy?
Yes. Here's a little-known fact: I actually drew the cover to Rai #0. It was just a silhouette, so someone had to fill it in and ink the dot. We had obviously planned the look of the character by that point. And I should admit this, in the interest of fairness: I was looking at a drawing that Mike Zeck did. I mean, I'm not that good an artist and the only reason I did it was that we didn't have anybody with a free pair of hands who could do it. If we'd had a real artist available, somebody else could have done it, but I ended up doing this because it was a silhouette. I figured, You know, I could do this. So I did just to save time for Bob and for Don and the other guys. I don' t think anybody could tell it was done by an amateur.
http://www.geocities.com/angelo_mortall ... ooter.html
Lapham usually gets credit for Rai #0 since he pencilled the book.
Nice work!
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It's hard to hassle someone if you don't know you've been borrowed from (it's not like he the cover to Amazing Fantasy 15 or something). Finding the specific Mike Zeck drawing was actually a very good find on Greg's part.Daniel Jackson wrote:You would think that as many times as Marvel hassled Valiant about various things they would have noticed this bit of "borrowing".
What hassling are you referring to? The bit about Marveling hassling Valiant over X-O? I actually hadn't heard that before I saw the Englehart quote on the Layton chat thread. I'm sure that it was legal notices about trademark infringement, which doesn't surprise me considered how active Marvel's lawyers were at the time. But it's a bit different than someone swiping a cover (I've never actually heard of anyone sueing over something like that).
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We had Gene Colan, Bart Sears, Bob Layton and Jim Starlin re-pencil/imagine some of thier most popular covers. In our case, the artist homage is to his own work.IMJ wrote:That's a cool observation. Sometimes cover swipes are a lot of fun. The Superverse is doing that with Zoom Suit with an X-O Cover swipe, several Ironman cover swipes and a Superman swipe.
Bob did IM #117 and #126, Gene did his classic IM#1, Jim #100 and Bart X-O 14 (of course). You can see them all at www.superverse.com
Greg and I are working on getting every board member an exclusive version of the Bart cover. We're trying to figure it out with the printer. It will be limited to the number of board members at the time of printing.
JT
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Original credit goes to Randall Glass, February 9, 1998.Todd Luck wrote:Finding the specific Mike Zeck drawing was actually a very good find on Greg's part.
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That sounds really cool John and Greg! Thanks!John Taddeo wrote:
Greg and I are working on getting every board member an exclusive version of the Bart cover. We're trying to figure it out with the printer. It will be limited to the number of board members at the time of printing.
JT
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JT,John Taddeo wrote:
Greg and I are working on getting every board member an exclusive version of the Bart cover. We're trying to figure it out with the printer. It will be limited to the number of board members at the time of printing.
JT
I know I have said this before, but you are a real class act!
Thanks for doing this for us - I very much appreciate it!!!
Chris
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The two of you love us... you really, really love us!John Taddeo wrote:Greg and I are working on getting every board member an exclusive version of the Bart cover. We're trying to figure it out with the printer. It will be limited to the number of board members at the time of printing.
Er... in a platonic sense, of course...
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