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How long does the Marvel Universe stay All-New and All-Different? How long does the Marvel Rundown (in it’s current incarnation) stay viable? The answer lies in the first column of the Marvel Rundown: The publisher’s landmark Secret Wars event has been delayed repeatedly, but Marvel is moving ahead as scheduled with their full line relaunch, […]

Marvel has finally lifted the curtain on the upcoming X-Men event, entitled The Apocalypse Wars. The publisher provided more details about the story after cryptically announcing it at Comic Con Experience 2015 with nothing to show but a logo. Thankfully, we now have confirmation that the story will spring from Cullen Bunn’s upcoming Uncanny X-Men. The news didn’t stop there, as […]

Marvel reportedly announced X-Men: Apocalypse Wars, a brand new crossover event, at Comic Con Experience 2015 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Newsarama originally ran the story and attendees at the show got a first glimpse of the logo for the upcoming 2016 X-Men event. Sources from Newsarama say that Marvel talent manager Ricky Purdin was on the scene.  According to […]

This week we celebrate the artwork of comics legend Paul Smith! The 600th issue of Uncanny X-Men hit the stands this week and I was very pleased to see that Smith contributed one of the variant covers for this landmark issue. X-Men was really the reason I got into comics as a kid. In fact the very first comic I picked up and read(besides the Bob’s Big Boy comics they used to give away when you ordered a kid’s meal..) was Uncanny X-Men #166 with that glorious Paul Smith cover of The X-Men battling the Brood!

A good friend of mine at the time(probably ’83/’84) had an older brother who collected comics and he had an big, old chest full of them(no bags ‘n boards, mind you..). So, when I’d go over there for a sleep-over, I’d get to rummage through his treasure trove of funny-books and then pull a few out for some late-night sleeping bag reading! Those Paul Smith issues of X-Men were truly magical, and always will be to me. There have been many great artists to work with Chris Claremont on his classic X-Men run, including legends like Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek, John Romita Jr, Barry Windsor Smith, Arthur Adams, Alan Davis, Jim Lee, etc. etc, but for me, my favorite X-Men artist will always be Paul Smith. 

Smith is mostly a self-taught artist. He worked as an animator on Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings and American Pop before working at Marvel Comics in the early 1980’s. After establishing himself on titles like X-Men, Doctor Strange, and Marvel Fanfare, Smith would go on to do more independent, critically acclaimed series like Leave It To Chance and The Golden Age, both with writer James Robinson. He continues to work in mainstream comics for special projects, and cover illustrations, while also staying very busy with private commission work.

The best place to get updates on what Paul Martin Smith(PMS) is up to and to see more art is on his website here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

Even without an issue of Secret Wars proper this week, the news coming out of Marvel regarding the event has been overwhelming. Get a snack and relax as we inform you on all the big new coming from the publisher about the event from the last two days — it’s kind of a lot!

1. Get ready for the ‘THE FINAL WAR.’

This morning CBR debuted the brand new new solicits for the publisher where Thanos stands in what seems to be the pit introduced in Secret Wars #2 with a solicit reading reading: THE FINAL WAR! I think this Alex Ross cover has my attention…

2. Something is happening…8 Months Later?

AS IF that wasn’t enough for you, Marvel also announced on Newsarama yesterday that their books after Secret Wars are picking up a full 8 months after the big event! It’s interesting to hear that Marvel is billing 8 months as their mysterious number. Fans already got a taste of the Marvel Universe 8 Months Later with the Free Comic Book Day Avengers story. Sneaky! The House of Ideas went onto to state that A-Force and Weirdworld are continuing after the event (AWESOME!) Maestro, Mrs. Deadpool & The Howling Commandos, and Uncanny Inhumans will all be part of the new Marvel Universe (reboot?) So let’s look for the reboot publishing initiative in Fall 2015.

3. Uncanny X-Men #600 Delayed!

Uncanny X-Men #600 has been delayed until AFTER Secret Wars. That’s huge news as Marvel has been seeding some massive plot developments for Cyclops in Secret Wars that need to be addressed in Bendis-written titles eventually! Uncanny X-Men #600 has been delayed into October, and it is the last X-Men title written by Bendis.

The author commented on the story through Tumblr: the Internet is half lying to you. It is not shipping in October because I am a massive spastic fuck up. it was bumped until after secret wars for editorial and commercial reasons. not my call. this was marvel. but they have their reasons.

4. Mike Zeck is getting an Artist’s Edition with a Secret Wars reprint.

Finally, the extremely important 80’s Marvel artist Mike Zeck known for a little story entitled Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt, and an obscure comic called Secret Wars first published in 1984 is getting an Artist’s Edition featuring his Marvel work called: Mike Zeck’s Classic Marvel Stories: Artist’s Edition.

The author said the following about working on the original Secret Wars with Jim Shooter via this comment with CBR: I didn’t think much about that at the outset, but when issues started hitting comics outlets, it became evident that it was “a big deal with a lot of attention!” Deadline pressures and other elements made the work less enjoyable than some other projects but [it was] definitely worthwhile in the end. “Secret Wars” totally succeeded in bringing attention to Marvel comics via the series and the toy tie-ins. I always hear from fans at conventions that it was “Secret Wars” that prompted them to start reading comics. Very gratifying.

Two issues of Uncanny X-Men will tie into the big Original Sin event at Marvel this year – issues #23 and #24. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Chris Bachalo will be the creative team for the two-part story, which will reveal the last will and testament of poor old dead Charlie X.

With everything being revealed, it may as well be time to take a look at who’ll be getting what from Xavier – who’ll be inheriting his floating wheelchair? Who gets to keep Muir Island? Does he have any more sentient robots chained up somewhere, being tortured?

I doubt any of those questions will be answered. But the solicitation does suggest that as the will is read out, an old enemy will show up to cause some trouble for the X-Men, as a result. Uncanny X-Men has long been the book which is honest about the Xavier character – who was no martyr for mutantkind, let’s be fair – and it looks as though more secrets about how rotten he is may be coming to light during this arc. Fun!

Marvel Now! was always going to claim some victims before relaunching, and now it’s made revealed (through that most sneaky of revealers, the solicitations listing) that nine of their current books will die in order for Marvel Now! to live.

Those nine titles are: Captain America, Fantastic Four, FF, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, New Mutants, The Mighty Thor, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men Legacy.

This isn’t completely surprising in every case, because Brian Michael Bendis already said that Uncanny would end and several of the other books were winding up long-standing runs with big name creators. Matt Fraction was already set to leave Invincible Iron Man, while Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brubaker were both already known to be leaving the Fantastic Four titles and Captain America, respectively.

What does this mean for the characters? Well, Captain America, Thor and X-Men Legacy’s Rogue are all in a team together anyway, while Iron Man will surely find a place in one of the Avengers titles. But what of the Fantastic Four? They’ve completely dropped off the map, apparently, and the World’s Greatest Superhero Family look set to pack up their bags for a one-way trip to the one place they’ve never been before: comic-book limbo.

It’s interesting to note that most of these books were handled by the ‘Architects’ of Marvel, and that some low-selling titles like the beloved Journey Into Mystery have survived this new purge. Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man also escapes the destruction, so that much-teased ‘big change’ in issue #700 isn’t going to see the book cancelled, thankfully.

Three X-Men books are chopped, including flagship Uncanny X-Men. Which is a massive surprise, because most were predicting that the pointless titles – adjectiveless X-Men and Astonishing X-Men – would be the two to go. New Mutants was expected to go, and does. But it’s still surprising to see just how big a change Marvel seem to be making. What new books are going to replace these ones, which surely were the backbone of the Marvel Universe?