The Thing by Kevin Nowlan

Fantastic depiction of Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew!

Maybe the only time I've seen Kevin draw the Thing and it doesn't disappoint! I was lucky enough to get a commission from him in a rare West Coast appearance and he absolutely is the nicest guy ever. 

It is simply impossible to ink anyThing more perfectly than this! AS perfectly; maybe. . . (I'm leaving room in the conversation for Art Adams, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Mike Mignola, John Buscema, Steve Epting, etc)

Fantastic Thing in Nowlan's simple, but deceptively not so simple, style.   Cool!

I don't know how I haven't commented on this piece before! Kevin Nowlan is a phenomenal artist and he really captures the Thing here beautifully (If you can say "beautifully" and "the Thing" in the same sentence). I really love the rocky texture he gave Ben Grimm here with this body broken up into clearly defined blocks. And I love that he defined the shadows in those blocks--that's very cool. Great Christmas present, BTW.

Thanks, Bill! Yeah this should be a t-shirt or something because it's so graphic.

Wooooow - this is absolutely spectacular, Chris!  Look at those INKS!!  So exact and precise, and those blackened-in rocks give an enormous sense of weight, mass, and awesomeness.  Ben's expression is fantastic, and even without my Timex, I have a pretty good hunch where the big hand and little hands might be pointing...  A sublime piece full of character, attitude, swagger, and style.  What an AMAZING Christmas gift, and all this time later, would you ever have imagined the journey you would have taken after your first posting on CAF?  Beautiful piece, Chris.  HUGE congrats.

(but in spite of all that good stuff, I hear that Kevin really considers this one kind of a "second printing cover version" of his wicked prelim sketch.  Just what I heard. 😜 )