Sunday, January 25, 2015

Double take!

Above is the back cover to Valiant No.1, dated 6th October 1962. A fantastic piece of artwork that I believe is by Geoff Campion. 

 The main figure was considered so striking that it was used as the inspiration for the cover to Smash! Holiday Special 1969, also by Geoff Campion...

And why not? It's a powerful image and made a very eye-catching cover to that special. Same artist, same publisher, two versions. The second version simplifies things a little by streamlining the head-dress and doesn't include the shield but it's clearly inspired by the Valiant art from seven years earlier.
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2 comments:

  1. IrmantasMonday 26 January 2015 at 07:29:00 GMT

    They used many of those early VALIANT Famous Fighters covers as inspiration for the Warriors of the World series of SMASH! covers when Fleetway took over from Odhams. I showed a few examples side-by-side in this thread on Comics UK: http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6254

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  2. Lew StringerMonday 26 January 2015 at 11:01:00 GMT

    Good point, Irmantas. Although the poses were considerably different in some of those. Another instance of ideas being recycled was when they had Geoff Campion redraw the 'What Would You Do?' cover features from Boy's World for the covers of Lion in 1969.

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