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Stormwatch 44 Watchmen homage variant cover by Mark Irwin

Artist: Mark Irwin (All)

8 Comments - 257 Views - 6 Likes

Stormwatch 44 Watchmen homage variant cover by Mark Irwin Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	Stormwatch 44 Watchmen homage variant cover by Mark Irwin
Artist:	Mark Irwin (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Cover
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	257
Likes on CAF:	6 7
Comments:	8
Added to Site:	6/25/2024
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Stormwatch by Warren Ellis was huge for me (and still is). I�m a firm believer that the Authority was a game changer in comics at the time, one of the best and most significant series of its decade, as everybody was doing their version of it afterwards (inclucing the Ultimates) but some may forget that it all began with Stormwatch (which was less�advertised). I personally perceive Stormwatch volume 1, 2 and the Authority as a whole (or a trilogy if you will). Super Heroes high concept at their best! To those who consider that the 90s were horrible, just go read that series!

So that that the series produced a Watchmen homage variant cover seemed fitting in the sense that it could very well be argued that it was the Watchmen of the 90s (with Planetary?) but it also shows how ambitious the creators and series were. Every reader will decide for himself how successful their effort was but before some may go all snobish over it, let's remember that Watchmen too remains a (high quality) super-hero title at its core.

I'll be the first to recognize that the art is not the greatest here and that the appeal for me was mostly owning another cover of that series (after owning the cover to issue 43 seen in my Raney gallery). Mark Irwin has always been a great inker, not necessarilly known for his pencil work, but also known for his great artistic tastes (as exemplified by his CV in being art director of the various card games of the 90s/00s).

And yet due to both the simplicity of it all, the overall design of the piece (the running blood, the dramatic tilted angle, the litle suns on her dress with the different clock positions, the color scheme...), the homage is directly obvious and works well IMHO (especially with the trade dress).

There are two references to Tom Raney seemingly having been tapped with drawing this one (on top of the board and above Mark's signature) so I'd be curious if the parties involved remember what was planned initially.

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	F M Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	May 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	BELGIUM
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John C
Member Since 2014

1 - Posted on 6/25/2024

Bouncy bouncy bally

I tore the leg off my dolly

my mother came out

gave me a clout

And turned my petticoat inside out!

Kavi H
Member Since 2018

1 - Posted on 6/25/2024

Cool homage cover and thanks for sharing your love for the series and it's predecessors in the description, I never read this so it's nice to learn about and I'll definately be adding it to my future reading list

Ruben DaCollector
Member Since 2008

1 - Posted on 6/25/2024

Watchmen cover designs are classic, so it's hard to NOT like homages to them. It's interesting, as you note, that they gave the cover assignment to a guy who was known as an inker, but it's also not a rarity. As I understand it, Irwin is doing an homage of an homage. He is homaging a cover that Tom Raney drew, which itself was an homage to a Watchmen cover. Either way, this is a fun piece.

By the way, when I returned to comics early i nthe new millenium, I read a Wizard article on series that were must reads and I ended up reading The Authority because of it, but as you say, other readers have mentioned that Stormwatch was also really good even though it wasn't pushed to the same degree. I never read it, but that was primarily because after reading The Authority from start to finish, I was disappointed that it started off really strong but then seemed to fall apart in the second half, so trying out the series from which The Authority was spawned and was considered to not be as good, just didn't appeal to me.

F M
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 6/25/2024

Ruben DaCollector wrote:

Watchmen cover designs are classic, so it's hard to NOT like homages to them. It's interesting, as you note, that they gave the cover assignment to a guy who was known as an inker, but it's also not a rarity. As I understand it, Irwin is doing an homage of an homage. He is homaging a cover that Tom Raney drew, which itself was an homage to a Watchmen cover.� Either way, this is a fun piece.

By the way, when I returned to comics early i nthe new millenium, I read a Wizard article on series that were must reads and I ended up reading The Authority because of it, but as you say, other readers have mentioned that Stormwatch was also really good even though it wasn't pushed to the same degree. I never read it, but that was primarily because after reading The Authority from start to finish, I was disappointed that it started off really strong but then seemed to fall apart in the second half, so trying out the series from which The Authority was spawned and was considered to not be as good, just didn't appeal to me.

When/if you read Stormwatch (vol.1) 37 to 50, you feel like you have read something cleverly built/closed and quite intense. In that sense it felt more structured than the Authority which was more "open" in scope as it was about facing bigger cinematic threats in every arc.

James S
Member Since 2017

1 - Posted on 6/25/2024

Rule to live by: all creepy little dolls are planning to kill you

Ruben DaCollector
Member Since 2008

1 - Posted on 6/25/2024

That's interesting, because if it is only the final 14 issues that are the best, then I might actually find myself willing to try it out someday.

Christopher Crowther
Member Since 2018

1 - Posted on 6/25/2024

Great pick up! All I could do was watch from the sidelines.

Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 6/26/2024

If it's also the first panel of the story, then it's a successful homage. This could also be a Breaking Bad homage if you watched the episode with the Jane's dad as the air traffic controller.

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