Old Tryout Pages (Never Sent): The Metal Men/Mister Miracle

I wasn't a DC reader as a child, and didn't really start following any DC books until high school. In-between, there were a few DC comics that did catch my eye. One was the Walt Simonson-drawn issues of the 70's Metal Men reboot, another was the Marshall Rogers-drawn 70's Mister Miracle reboot. Both looked weird, different and had oddball characters. I can't remember how I came across these, I may have borrowed them from friends who were DC fans. I didn't become familiar with the original Metal Men or Kirby's Fourth World until years later. 

I don't recall what moved me to do these pages, I know I had considered using them to try and get work at DC way back in the day. I picked characters I thought would be fun to draw, which boiled down to B-list oddballs all tossed together with a few Apokolips villains to boot. As with most of my tryout pages, I never showed these to anyone . I did a few Who's Who-style drawings of Hourman (and another character, which my memory fails to bring to mind) but those remained hidden, as well. I think I tore those up years afterward. I'm guessing around this period of time I penciled a story for DC's New-Talent Showcase that Alan Rowlands wrote (the writer on Phigments, my first published comic work, and more pages that I later tore up). It was accepted and paid for but the title was canceled before it could be inked and published (thank Zod). 

You can see a little bit of my John Byrne influence in these pages, some Buscema, John and Sal, as well. A touch of Kirby, maybe. I'm surprised I didn't have more George Perez in my superhero stuff because he was my favorite "new" artist back when, but maybe the intense detail and filling space is where my inner Perez lies (Kirby and Will Elder fill out the detailing trifecta in my blood). I was heavily influenced by Bronze Age Marvel artists growing up, an influence I haven't completely shaken no matter how hard I've tried to lose it (or at least absorb it in a more effective manner). When I fall back on bad. lazy habits I find I'm doing my 70's Marvel stuff, it might not be evident to readers or viewers but I know what's going on when the mind wanders and the pencil keeps going. It's in the DNA. 

But I wasn't influenced by actual drawing lessons, so there's a lot of amateurish work on display. Decent ideas, rough execution, a hallmark of my career. If I attacked these pages today you'd see me referencing actual backgrounds (check out those trees!), working harder on the anatomy and loosening up in the action bits a bit to give that some more visual impact and a better sense of movement/fluidity on the robots. 

It's funny that this early attempt features characters I would later write, although the Fourth World material in World's Funnest and Supergirl Adventures didn't really involve these particular villains (or Mister Miracle, who only appears as an effigy that Granny Goodness is tearing apart in our first Supergirl comic).