Tuesday 23 April 2013

Cover Tributes #6

Original: Wolverine #1 (September 1982) by Frank Miller
Tribute: Cerebus #54 (September 1983) by Dave Sim
(Click Image To Enlarge)
Original: Wolverine #4 (December 1982) by Frank Miller
Tribute: Cerebus #55 (October 1983) by Dave Sim
(Click Image To Enlarge)
Original: Daredevil #189 (December 1982) by Frank Miller
Tribute: Cerebus #56 (November 1983) by Dave Sim
(Click Image To Enlarge)
DAVE SIM:
(from Following Cerebus #3, 2005)
...That was what I had done with the Wolverroach covers. I did better covers. Wolverine was a lucrative property, but Frank Miller and Joe Rubinstein were a bad pairing on the art for that mini-series, and the covers turned out particularly bad. I was no Neal Adams, but I figured I could do much better Wolverine covers than Frank and Joe has done.

DAVE SIM:
(from 'Note From The President', Cerebus #77, August 1985)
...I'd like to thank Marvel Comics and Peter David for treating me and a table-full of fans in Dallas to dinner. Just to be provocative, we began talking about Marvel's Legal Dept's cease-and-desist order on my parody of Wolverine in issues 54-56. Basically I asked him "What would Marvel do if I were to take out a full page ad in the Buyer's Guide saying, in effect, 'Dear Marvel, The extensive usage of the character Sy'm in the X-Men and New Mutants, including as it does the distinctive likeness and personality of my character, Cerebus The Aardvark, being on the part of the writer of these series a conscious and self-admitted parody of my character, constitutes a violation of my and Aardvark-Vanaheim's joint ownership of the trademark and copyright of said character, and, in view of the legal principle of 'easement' by which if I and A-V, Inc., fail to prosecute Marvel Comics, it's agents and licensees for said violation of my trademark and copyright that I am then in danger of losing ownership of my character to the public domain. Consequently, it is with full awareness of the aforementioned legal pitfalls that I and A-V Inc., have decided it's time someone wasn't such a total asshole about copyright and took the fucking risk.'" Go nuts, Chris. Put Sy'm wherever you want to. I love it!...

(Thanks to I Love Comic Covers) 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed Dave's parodies are FAR superior to the originals?

adampasz said...

I like that he subtly changed the poses so it's not a straight knock-off. And, yes, he does succeed in making them even more dramatic than the originals.

Jim Sheridan said...

Oddly enough, the current issue of "Wolverine and the X-Men" (# 28) has a cover whose depiction of Wolverine looks a LOT like the Wolveroach cover on Cerebus 54!!! I would paste the image if I knew how, but check it out.