As a final post related to Marvel Spotlight no. 5, I thought I would post a handful of my favorite panels. No particular reason for me liking these ~ in most cases it's just purely subjective enjoyment of the composition or tone or story moment/snatch of dialogue, etc.
The first (top, center) is just a classy Ploog Ghost Rider pose from page 8. Ploog wasn't my favorite artist for Ghost Rider back in the day that I was collecting this series, but I've grown to appreciate the work he did for the book. He made a moody, austere-looking character that often clashed with Friedrich's campy cycle-jock dialogue, but as Ghost Rider comes to develop his own persona and Johnny matures, looking back the style just seems to fit much better.
Ghost Rider had some great artists and some not so great artists. Ploog rates no. 3 from the top with me these days.
Followed (at right) by an iconic moment in which Johnny summons the devil from page 14. Note the silly pentagram painted in what appears to be blood (though I'm guessing Marvel didn't want to push the censors by actually showing it as such).
The first (top, center) is just a classy Ploog Ghost Rider pose from page 8. Ploog wasn't my favorite artist for Ghost Rider back in the day that I was collecting this series, but I've grown to appreciate the work he did for the book. He made a moody, austere-looking character that often clashed with Friedrich's campy cycle-jock dialogue, but as Ghost Rider comes to develop his own persona and Johnny matures, looking back the style just seems to fit much better.
Ghost Rider had some great artists and some not so great artists. Ploog rates no. 3 from the top with me these days.
Followed (at right) by an iconic moment in which Johnny summons the devil from page 14. Note the silly pentagram painted in what appears to be blood (though I'm guessing Marvel didn't want to push the censors by actually showing it as such).
Next we see Johnny in an interesting light on page 19 (at left) when he realizes that the devil has double-crossed him and he's lost his soul forever. For whatever reason this panel always stayed with me ~ something about the palpable anguish on Johnny's face and the bizarre lighting bathing him green with what always felt to me like a weird cellular pattern in red going on in the background.
Ploog's design for the character of Johnny Blaze is not my favorite. He's got a blocky head, long sideburns, and a strangely shaped nose. He always struck me as more of a thug in Ploog's design and this is especially true when compared to the character as drawn by Don Perlin and Bob Budiansky (showing a much younger, boyish Johnny ~ someone you can empathize with). Ploog's Johnny suits the more self-absorbed dumb jock aspects of the character, which is maybe why this particular panel always fascinated me: it's a small chink in Johnny's otherwise constantly smug armor.
Ploog's design for the character of Johnny Blaze is not my favorite. He's got a blocky head, long sideburns, and a strangely shaped nose. He always struck me as more of a thug in Ploog's design and this is especially true when compared to the character as drawn by Don Perlin and Bob Budiansky (showing a much younger, boyish Johnny ~ someone you can empathize with). Ploog's Johnny suits the more self-absorbed dumb jock aspects of the character, which is maybe why this particular panel always fascinated me: it's a small chink in Johnny's otherwise constantly smug armor.
The last two are transformation pictures. The first one showing Johnny immediately after being cursed by the devil on page 20 (to the right), and the second one (in which he looks suspiciously like frosty the snowman, I think), during his first transformation into the Ghost Rider after Crash Simpson's death (below, center).
I might create a separate post in the future with its own tag for the transformations alone ~ some of them are hilariously weird and it's also fun to see how different artists put their own stamp on Johnny's curse.
If there's ever something you would like to see (either a costume I've reproduced or a plot moment I've described in my ramblings, feel free to request an image. For copyright reasons I obviously can't reproduce whole pages, but it's my joy to share my enthusiasm for the artwork in this series.
And just FYI, I'll also be posting flubs and other boffo moments ~ because this series has plenty of those as well!
Tomorrow we kick off with Marvel Spotlight no. 6 (and this time I promise!)
I might create a separate post in the future with its own tag for the transformations alone ~ some of them are hilariously weird and it's also fun to see how different artists put their own stamp on Johnny's curse.
If there's ever something you would like to see (either a costume I've reproduced or a plot moment I've described in my ramblings, feel free to request an image. For copyright reasons I obviously can't reproduce whole pages, but it's my joy to share my enthusiasm for the artwork in this series.
And just FYI, I'll also be posting flubs and other boffo moments ~ because this series has plenty of those as well!
Tomorrow we kick off with Marvel Spotlight no. 6 (and this time I promise!)