adamwarren
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COMICS RIFFS I LOVE: The Keith Pollard BLACK GOLIATH "skintight alien supersuit" riff!
🕑 Added 2020-02-14 14:01:01 +0000 UTCI recently unearthed the tattered remnants of my comic collection from early childhood, and stumbled across a 1976(!) issue of Marvel's Black Goliath that might well have been an indirect influence on Emp's supersuit from Empowered. (I say "indirect" because I haven't laid eyes on this issue in forty-odd years.)
A few words of introduction:
"After being attacked by Stilt-Man with his Z-Ray, Black Goliath, Celia and her nephew find themselves spirited away to the distant planet of Kirgar."
Given that I don't remember buying any other issues of Black Goliath, I must've picked up this up solely because I found the art by distinctive stylist Keith Pollard to be striking as heck.
Note, by the way, that this issue's story is only 17 pages long—scattered through a breathtaking 15 pages of ads and lettercol!—but writer Chris Claremont unsurprisingly crams a heap o' dialogue into that measly pagecount.
Ah, but check out this page:
Why, it's a "molecule-thick skinsuit" derived from alien technology! Pollard's stipple-based rendering scheme is very different from the pencil-based system I would use decades later for Emp's supersuit, but some degree of similarity definitely exists.
Ah, but behold this far eerier coincidence, which came as a shock to me when I glanced through the issue—why, it's an alien tiger attacking!
Not to be confused with this Empowered vol.12 page featuring an anachronistic smilodon (seemingly) attacking:
I swear that really is a coincidence, as I had no memory of the alien tiger attack until I started scanning the Black Goliath issue a few days ago. No, seriously!
Ah, but I'm pretty sure that Pollard's distinctive alien skinsuit did make an impression on impressionable Age 9 or 10 Me, as most of the comics I read as a wee lad in the 70s were not big on the sexiness.
Other Marvel artists I was perusing at the time—Don Heck or George Tuska, say—were definitely not drawing very many "butt shots" like these, gotta say:
A direct line to Emp's skintight supersuit? No, not really, but the idea of such a visual riff as a generic superheroine costume might well have lingered in my mind afterward. I abandoned cape comics only a few years later, and wouldn't read any again until the mid-80s renaissance of Swamp Thing, The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil: Born Again and the like; I didn't even think about writing or drawing a superhero comic until I was approached about Gen13 and Titans circa 1996.
Whew! Just blew a g-d hour and a half outta my all-important morning work shift on this post, folks; hope you enjoyed it!
Next week on this here Patreon: We kick off the week with another double dose of life drawings, as usual.
Comments
Adam Warren
Alas, yes, the poor fella did indeed buy the proverbial farm.
J Chen
Oh no! I want to know what happened to Derath? Did he heroically kick the bucket?!?!?!?
Joe Crawford
I’m fascinated by the way things from childhood echo across our lives. As for Black Goliath—looks like there were 5 issues of eponymous Black Goliath comics, though the character does appear across Marveldom and was even played by Lawrence Fishburne in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Eric
I like hearing/reading your thoughts on art, Adam. Hopefully your work goes well!
