DREADSTAR 60 COVER BY ANGEL MEDINA

It’s been some time since I added anything from Angel Medina so here is a great cover to Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar 60.

I discovered Medina’s work on Warlock and the Infinity Watch 1 and it blew my mind/was love at first sight. An artist I had never heard of before whose style was exciting, storytelling great and his art was quite versatile (he is a great caricaturist and can do cosmic, horror and humor effortlessly it seems).

Then I happened on some of his Dreadstar issues by going through a sitting pile of First comics at a friends’ house. So, I went backwards but it was clear based on the quality of his work that Medina’s Dreadstar work had him pop on Marvel editorial’s radar and landed him the Warlock job.

And it is easy to see why. As I mentioned, Medina has demonstrated that he has been perfectly suited to the cosmic type of stories (Dreadstar, Warlock, Blackwulf, Kiss or Spawn to a lesser extent) and this is a great example of those abilities.

I confess I have yet to read Dreadstar. I’ve read some bits in Epic illustrated but it has been a combination of not being the biggest Starlin fan (I love his art, his writing sometime a bit less and find most of his character designs to be not the most imaginative) and something more recommended or recommendable coming first. But I plan to :)

So, I had to look the characters up. Vanth Dreadstar I knew but not his adversary, called Junior apparently. They could as well be leaner versions of He-Man and Skeletor in space (given the shape of their swords).

There is a LOT to appreciate on this one. The composition is pretty simple as both characters fit in a circle, locked into battle. As often with Medina, their acting is very theatrical and consequently extremely dynamic. For instance, I absolutely love the fact that their arm that is not holding the sword is over extended, like they are grasping for extra strength for the fight. The black and white swords are a bit obvious (dark vs light/good vs evil) but it provides an immediate understanding of who is who within the fight. And the intensity of their facial expressions and body languages is just fantastic. The figure work is also quite strong.

But what also plays into that overall intensity is those insane backgrounds which are basically composed of raging radiating energy. I mean how do you even begin and even more end with those? When is it enough? :D

Stylistically, Medina is approaching the end of the series/his run and his art is on par with what he would produce on Warlock.

Visually and editorially, I’d say that this cover is a great success in the sense that I cannot imagine someone seeing this one on the rack and not picking it up to flip through it to see what it’s about.

It’s work like this that has made Medina one of my favourite artists.

This is part 4 of my 2025 CAF birthday party, incidentally also my 20th year on CAF.