Brad Clayton - Storm

2016.11.19 New Jersey Comic Expo, Edison, NJ

Brad Clayton is a student at Joe Kubert's School of Cartooning and Graphic Design.
Using the Love stamp first day cover, Brad drew Storm of the X-Men holding a lightning heart in her hands...

You can view Brad's work on instagram @Bradleyclayton

Mark Morales - Iceman

2013.03.30 Asbury Park Comic Con, Asbury Park, NJ

Mark Morales has provided cover art for Marvel Comics titles: The New Avengers - Transformers, Marvel Kinghts: Spider-Man, Avenging Spider-Man, Fear Itself, Deadpool, Seige, Thor, Captain America, Avengers vs X-Men, Exiles, Alpha-Flight, X-Men, X-Force and others....

Morales has served as inker on X-Men, Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fear Itself, Iron Man, Thor, Siege, Secret Invasion, Marvel Comics Presents, Young Avengers and many others...

As a long time fan of the X-Men I had requested an image of Iceman, in my mind the original snowboarder...

Bob McLeod - The Phantom

2012.03.31 NYComic Book Marketplace, NYC

Bob McLeod is the co-creator and illustrator of Marvel Comics' New Mutants. He began his career with Crazy Magazine, penciling and inking movie and TV satires and the Teen Hulk strip. He would become one of the industries top inkers, working on such titles as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, GI joe, Star Wars, Moon Knight, Conan the Barbarian...

McLeod also was ghost artist for Brenda Starr comic strip, and Swedish publisher Egmont's The Phantom...

The Phantom was created by Lee Falk in 1936, a costumed crime-fighter operating in the fictional African country Bangalla. The Phantom is similar to Batman, relying on his strength, intelligence and fearsome reputation of being an immortal ghost...The Phantom lives in the Skull Cave, his companions are a trained wolf, Devil, and his horse, Hero...

Besides comic strips, the Phantom was been featured in comic books, a 1943 movie serial, 1996 film, an unaired TV pilot in 1961, video games......

McLeod is currently an adjunct instructor at Pennsylvania College of art and Design, Lancaster, Pa. He has also written and illustrated Superhero ABC, featuring A for Astro-Man, B for Bubble Man, C for Captain Cloud, and so on...Teaching kids their alphabet superhero style...

The uncanny X-Men #152 signed by Bob McLeod

J.K. Woodward - Angel

2011.04.03 Wild Pig Comic Con, Somerset, NJ

J.K. Woodward born in an undisclosed locatio somewhere in the Northeast US, J.K. wasted little time in becoming the kid your mother warned you about.....

With a move to Germany, J.K. self-published a comic of his expressionist paintings called Flesh Angels and These Things Happen (a comedic comic).

Relocating back to the US, Woodward collaborated with A. David Lewis on Mortal Coils, and with Michael Colbert on Crazy Mary. His work caught the attention of Marvel Comics editor Mike Marts, who brought Woodward in to illustrate X-Men Origins: The Beast, 2008. Wikipedia

I had my son Matt ask Woodward to draw any one of the X-Men, he chose The Angel, his favorite and fortunately mine...he chose the original "old-school" version....cool!

Fallen Angel, created by Peter David and David Lopez in 2003.

The first 5-issue arc of the second series was painted by J. K. Woodward. - Hand drawn comic cover by J.K. Woodward...

Matt also had J.K. draw an excellent Professor X in his sketch book, see Matt's page...

Dave Cockrum - Angel

I had the pleasure to meet Dave Cockrum around 1975 at a comic show, where I obtained my first comic sketch, Angel (image cropped from the 11x14 size). Angel was always my favorite character, the idea of being able to fly, not just like superman, but with wings! The Wings make the difference! (I know he is not the only character with wings.....)

Since I was a early reader of the X-men I liked the idea of the school uniform, which kept them a team. The original uniform was blue and yellow, and was created by Stan Lee (writer) and Jack Kirby (penciller) in 1963. In 1967 the uniforms changed with issue 39, written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Don Heck. I did not appreciate the change. When Dave Cockrum took over the pencilling duties with writers Chris Clermont and Len Wein, they brought in a whole new team, with the exception of Cyclops. I still read the comic but longed for the original team.

Therefore when I asked Cockrum for a sketch, it had to be Angel, even though he had left the team. I had also asked why all the changes, I was not aware of the need for a revamp to attract new customers. His reply was, often a new artist likes to put his signature on a character and will make changes with the writers so they can take ownership. The fact that Angel, Beast, Marvel Girl and Iceman were leaving the team did not make me happy, but did not turn me away from the comic.

Dave Cockrum (1943-2006) also provided his art for Spiderman, Avengers, Captain Marvel Star Trek at Marvel. For DC he worked on Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Blackhawk, Superman, Batman and a host of others. According to the Wikipedia biography they noted that Cockrum was a prolific and inventive costume designer, who updated the Legion of Super-Heroes as well as they X-Men...