F.M. :: RANEY TOM

TEAM ONE WILDCATS 2 & TEAM ONE STORMWATCH 2 COVERS BY TOM RANEY

Artist: Tom Raney (All)

6 Comments - 274 Views - 9 Likes

TEAM ONE WILDCATS 2 & TEAM ONE STORMWATCH 2 COVERS BY TOM RANEY Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	TEAM ONE WILDCATS 2 & TEAM ONE STORMWATCH 2 COVERS BY TOM RANEY
Artist:	Tom Raney (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Cover
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	274
Likes on CAF:	9 10
Comments:	6
Added to Site:	2/7/2025
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Here we have a very nice two covers set to the Team one series, one dedicated to Wildcats and the other to Stormwatch.

In 1995, looking to flesh out its line of characters and titles, Wildstorm released two �Year One� type of stories depicting their top characters as younger versions and sometime before they got their powers. Written by James Robinson (of Starman and Wildcats) fame and Steven T. Seagle (of Sandman Mystery Theatre and House of Mystery fame) wrote each of those miniseries, which to be frank, felt a bit forced in their approach.

A young Tom Raney drew the one dedicated to Stormwatch and the connecting covers to the second issues.

Wildstorm was my preferred Image sub-universe/line at the time and it remains so to this day, simply for the quality it provided as compared to the other Image stables (Extreme or Top Cow). Names like Alan Moore, James Robinson, Warren Ellis, Joe Casey certainly played a lot into that appreciation on top of the great artistic talents nurtured by Jim Lee.

Here you have basically all the first generation of important characters in the line (most of which were later called Gen12) and who would play big parts in shaping the line and stories: Mr Majestic (a personal fav� due to his fantastic solo series), John Colt the man who would become Spartan, Zealot/Lucy Blaise (with brown hair), Emp/Saul Baxter, Mason, Regiment, Isaiah King who would become the evil Despot, Marc Slayton who would become Backlash (another fav� due to his own great solo book) and Think Tank aka Henry Bendix (and yes, I had to look up basically all of them).

Part of the appeal is the obvious number of characters here. My favourites are Mr Majestic, floating around like a haughty badass, sure of his power set while the other don�t have any (or any in his god like category) and Zealot who just looks deadly with that sword.

To be frank, you can tell Raney was at the beginning of his career as the composition is a bit all over the place with characters who sometime look like stickers that have been pasted on the page by a child without spatial relation to each other and/or awkward poses with them going in different directions while facing an outside the camera enemy (one could argue that several enemies could be coming from different directions and yet�). The US flag and mountain top feel also bit generic for backgrounds. And yet the many characters, the importance of that series in the history of line and the nice figure work overcame its defaults for me.

Plus connecting covers are always fun, especially if they drawn on two boards (instead of one, divided during the production stage).

Another factor that prompted me getting this piece is that it was (dirt) cheap to be honest. Cheap you think? Surely, he jests in our current market because there is no way a two covers set would be cheap even if it�s not a Big 2 piece (well technically, it�s now DC but it wasn�t then). Well, the amusing fact is that the auction house I bought it from did not do the proper research (how surprising!) and advertised this as wraparound cover to issue 2 of one of the series rather than 2 covers for issues 2 of each. Which is more astounding in that it is basically WRITTEN on the board that this is a 2 covers set with each cover properly identified (and signed twice by Tom like one would on any single cover). Even more amusing, it seems like the consignor, who, one could assume, would have had to know about it, did not seem to mind either. So there you go, I paid less for these 2 covers than any regular splashy page available this week (it�s so fresh, baby) at your fav� art dealer. And that was during the pandemic lockdown.

This is part 1 of my 2025 CAF birthday party, incidentally also my 20th year on CAF.

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Joined:	May 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	BELGIUM
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Comments on this Artwork

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Kavi H
Member Since 2018

1 - Posted on 2/7/2025

congrats on the cover set and happy birthday (part 1)!

Ruben DaCollector
Member Since 2008

1 - Posted on 2/7/2025

This reminds me of a G.I. Joe cover I once owned. Early career Tom Raney, so not his best, as you've already noted. But still fun, especially for anyone having read these titles back when they were being released.

Andr� .
Member Since 2015

1 - Posted on 2/7/2025

Raney's craft has definitely advanced over the years, but it's still distinctively his on this early piece. Congrats!

Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 2/7/2025

Pretty cool as they each work alone and for extra pop when put together in this rare cross title connection! It's like a GI Joe Order of Battle wraparound cover with old glory!

Filmore W. Bedwick
Member Since 2003

1 - Posted on 2/8/2025

Raney on Stormwatch can do No Wrong, Birthday Boy🙏🏼

E DLS
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 2/8/2025

Really need to find myself a nice Raney piece. This is a great one.

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