Growing up as a kid in the 80's, it was a golden era of toys, cartoons and marketing. I would have to say my three favorites were G.I. Joe, Transformers and Masters of the Universe. However, I remember renting a VCR for the first time (yep, renting a VCR) in 1985 and my Mom told me to pick out something and I remember it was the Thundercats cartoon, I believe the title was "Spitting Images", something to do with a Lion-O clone I think, so I've always had a soft spot for the Cats.
So, when I saw Ed Benes pencil prelim piece come up for sale, I thought it would be great to grab it up and have someone ink it. That someone was Atula Siriwardane, a great artist and a great friend. Atula surprised me by going with a cleaner approach than I thought he would, but I love the simplicity of the piece. Now I just need some cool pieces of 80's soldiers, barbarians and robots to go with it.
This piece is from Thundercats: The Return and features Mumm-Ra holding Cheetara hostage, and his band of mutants, Vultureman, Monkian, Jackalman and Slithe. If you can tell who is who, well, you have more problems than I can help you with ;)
Ed is currently the artist on Justice League of America, you can check out more at his Official Site.
Atula Siriwardane's Official Site
