Rankins, Michael :: "Common Elements" Commissions : Volume 07

"Through Being Cool" : Steven E. Gordon

Artist: Steven E. Gordon (All)

5 Comments - 3,533 Views - 0 Like

Through Being Cool : Steven E. Gordon Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	"Through Being Cool" : Steven E. Gordon
Artist:	Steven E. Gordon (All)
Media Type:	Mixed Media
Art Type:	Commission
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	3,533
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Favorited on CAF:	1
Comments:	5
Added to Site:	5/31/2013
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Steven E. Gordon possesses one of the most extensive and impressive resumes in the animation business. In film, he’s worked as an animator, designer, and animation director on numerous projects, ranging from Disney classics (The Black Cauldron; The Great Mouse Detective; Oliver and Company) to several directed by the legendary Ralph Bakshi (Lord of the Rings; American Pop; Cool World). In television, Steve has contributed his talents to a host of series, from Mighty Mouse to The Avengers.

Most significantly (to me, anyway), Steve served as animation director on one of my all-time favorite animated features: Ralph Bakshi’s sword-and-sorcery epic, Fire and Ice, the product of Bakshi’s collaboration with the dean of fantasy illustrators, the late, lamented Frank Frazetta.

It's appropriate, then, that Steve’s Common Elements assignment would unite two characters who would fit perfectly into Bakshi and Frazetta’s world of swordplay and mystical mayhem: Marvel’s Viking vixen, Valkyrie, and Taarna, the iconic heroine from my beloved Heavy Metal: The Animated Film. Steve’s sensibility as an animation designer fits these heroines like an armored gauntlet.

Aside from the obvious “blade-slinging beauty” angle, Val and Taarna share two other, more subtle commonalities. Both have real monomymic real names — Valkyrie’s true identity is simply called Brunnhilde — and both are seen to be reincarnated in multiple persons. Over her career in comics, the spirit of Brunnhilde has been reborn in several women, most notably Barbara Norriss and Samantha Parrington. At the conclusion of Heavy Metal, we find Taarna’s spirit alive new in the young girl seen previously in the linking segments (titled “Grimaldi”) throughout the film.

Commissioned at Big Wow 2013, and completed within a week following.

This is Common Elements #112.

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About the Owner

	Michael Rankins Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	September 2004
Last Login:	August 2025
Ebay Id:	swanshadow1
Website:	http://swanshadowblog.com/
Country:	UNITED STATES
On CAF:	Michael's Classifieds Michael's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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Dax Stryker Torres
Member Since 2004

Posted on 5/31/2013

Very cool image! Congrats!!!

Damon Owens
Member Since 2005

Posted on 5/31/2013

Possibly the coolest color comic art commission I ever seen.

Fred Bronaugh
Member Since 2005

Posted on 6/1/2013

Really like these two amazons together in one piece.

Will K
Member Since 2006

Posted on 6/13/2013

An amazing "get" !!!

Timothy Finney
Member Since 2006

Posted on 1/25/2014

I feel relatively confident that these two will eliminate the ninnies and the twits, bang some heads, beat some butts and, in general, show those evil spuds what's what.

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